De Facto Leader

Chapter 1 - Lost Girl

    Evie made her way to the four top to join the group who sat there. Seeing her, the three girls waved her over. An array of food and notebooks were in front of them, scattered across on the table. In the middle was a sole textbook. The textbook was from the one class they all shared and this hour between classes was the only time in the whole week they were able to gather all together. They had made it their own tradition. Although the girls represented three distinct groups, they all had one commonality between them. 

    They were werewolves. 

    The university was one of the few places where one would find the different packs engaging so casually and in such numbers. With its proximity to Demorial city, the Northern packs tended to send their youth there for their education. It was close enough to keep an eye on them while still giving off the illusion of independence. Those who desperately sought their freedom and autonomy could choose to stay at the Night Dorms. A boarding house owned by several of the packs that housed exclusively werewolf students. Some girls were made to stay at the House of Night to be further watched by the careful eye of the clergy, but many chose, or were made, to stay at home within their pack’s territory, having to commute every day. Such was Evie’s life. Although she would not have cared to live in the dorms with its ever flowing stream of students coming and going at all hours. 

    “Atmospheric anomaly”, Rory said as she stuffed more fires into her mouth.

    “What’s that?” Asked Evie, joining their conversation as she slid into the opposite booth beside Sarah.

    Smiling at her as she settled, Sarah replied, “The eclipse yesterday! It's all anyone is talking about! It even made the news”, she gushed.

    Sarah was a second year just the same as Evie, but she studied art. Although she worked in all mediums, painting was her true passion. The evidence of this took form in the paint that constantly coated her hands and clothes and dotted her short strawberry-blonde hair. Today she had been dabbling with purples. Sarah came from the Silver Blood pack whose territory was far from the university and was one of many who called the Night Dorms home. After meeting during their first year orientation and after hitting it off, Sarah and Evie became close friends and had remained so ever since. Evie had never met someone who could talk as long or quite as fast as she could. The words would just come tumbling out of her, often unfiltered. Luckily she was also one of the friendliest people Evie knew which made her candor more charming than anything else.

    Rory on the other hand was from the same pack as Evie, or at least the pack Evie lived with. Their pack was the White River, the most Northern in the region. The name came from the glacier fed river that ran through the territory, the minerals turning it a pale, almost opalescent colour. Although relatively small in number, they were well renowned as having some of the strongest warriors and being of old blood. 

    Rory was young, she was still in her first year and had yet to claim a major. If she could make it that far, she would do so at the start of her second year. It was no secret to the others of the group that she was struggling in her studies. Even if she had not complained about it almost everyday, the amount of classes she skipped and her complete lack of studying would point to the obvious. Her interests lied more in the realm of boys, fashion, and makeup. Her sleek brow hair was cut into a long bob with straight bangs framing her face. Today, her light brown eyes were rimmed heavily with black eyeliner, her attempt to emulate cleopatra. 

    Evie and Rory both lived in their pack house, a large mansion on their territory that was made up of many wings which included accommodations, kitchens and mess halls, common areas, the library, and much more. Evie had lived there ever since she came to stay with the White Rivers when she was three. Rory had moved in, as many young wolves of their pack did, when she started school. Their territory was much too close to the university to warrant living in the Night Dorms, only about a half hour out, so it was common for young adult wolves to move from their family homes to the pack house until they were mated and started their own families.

    “No no, not an eclipse! An atmospheric anomaly. That’s what my astrology prof said”, Rory retorted, pushing her fires toward Evie who gratefully took them.

    “Astronomy, not astrology! That’s it, you just lost all credibility girl”, Gwen said as she pulled the notebook Rory held from her hands.

    Looking down, she scoffed. Gwen turned the book to face the table revealing a fully highlighted page, settling her stare on Rory with a shocked look on her face.

    “What!? It’s all important”, Rory cried as she took back her book.

    Gwen was Sarah’s roommate at the Dorms. She was a third year chemistry major studying to be a doctor and was the complete opposite of Sarah with her long black hair and much more solemn demeanor. Their room was a mess of canvases, clay, paints, and partially completed projects on the one side and painstakingly organized beakers, books, and models on the other. Gwen came from the Shadowfur pack, known for their midnight coloured coats and black eyes. Her territory too was far from the campus. Although the roommates were opposites both physically and in personality, they got along very well. Gwen did not mind listening to Sarah’s endless ramblings as long as she could tinker with her experiments or models at the same time and Sarah could sit and watch Gwen study for hours while she worked on her art. She especially loved to draw the rose tattoos that covered both of Gwen’s arms, the deep red contrasting with her pale skin and long dark locks.

    “Well it sure as s**t felt like a solar eclipse, my wolf was going crazy! And, the pack elders are way freaked out. They’re not saying it, but you can tell”, said Sarah.

    The table fell silent as the girls ate and thought to themselves. The moon was no more capable of changing her course than the rain was of not falling. Yet, every wolf, whether or not they had seen the actual event, had felt the eclipse. Solar eclipses had always had a rather strange effect on werewolves, causing disorientation, confusion, or a flight of thoughts to name a few. But, as Rory had said, it was not an eclipse, not a real one at least. The human scientists were in a frenzy and many had come to the area to set up observations, hoping the event would occur again.

    “Do you want to join me in the library after? I need to go over my renaissance notes before my quiz tomorrow” Sarah asked Evie.

    “Sorry, can’t. I have to get to the office so I actually have to head out now. Just wanted to stop and say hey before I left”, Evie replied, stuffing another handful of fries in her mouth.

    “Yeah, and to eat all of my lunch”, Rory said, pulling the fires back towards herself. “Well, I'm going to skip my next class. I am in no mood to listen to Dr. Andrews drone on about post colonial lit. Wait for me to use the washroom, I’ll walk out with you”, she said getting up and giving Evie back the fries.

    “That girl is going to fail her classes”, Gwen said watching Rory leave. She shook her head, knowing all too well how easy it was to fall behind in your first year.

    As she strolled through the campus headed towards the parking lot with Rory, Evie noticed two police officers as they made their way towards the security office. Police were not all too uncommon on the campus, and she assumed there had been yet another party that had gotten out of hand the night before. The girls said their goodbyes and headed off in their respective vehicles. Rory climbed into her cherry red civic and left for the pack house and Evie got into her black sonoma. Pulling down the truck’s driver side sunvisor to grab her sunglasses, Evie looked back at her reflection. Her dark brown hair fell in waves around her, down past her shoulders, and her eyes were a pale, icy blue. Her eye colour was the one feature that truly set her apart from the rest of the White River pack, for they mostly had the same brown or hazel eyes.

    Evie’s family had been killed during the destructive territory wars that had been waged only fifteen years before. They began in the south where many of the large packs had begun to outgrow their territories and started to encroach on those around them. The echoes of the tragedy could still be heard. Evie’s father had been a member of the White River pack, not family, but pack all the same. He had been born without a pack, something more common to those wolves who lived in the large cities of the south. When the wars broke, many of the packless had to align themselves for protection. 

    Evie’s father had done just that, fleeing as far North as possible. Since the Northern packs were often smaller in size than their Southern counterparts, most accepted the packless easily knowing it would not be long until the wars made their way North. Not too long after he joined however, Evie’s father had left the White Rivers. He left to be with her mother. No one knew much about her, only that they had fallen for each other quickly and that she was from a pack called the Storm Fangs. A small pack that had been killed off in the wars. The Beta of the White Rivers had been close to her father and when the war claimed her parents as victims, he had brought Evie back to her father’s old pack. The Beta, Easton, had raised her as his own daughter and she cared for him greatly.

    An hour later, Evie pulled up at her office. She had recently begun working for Eagle Eye, a private investigation firm. Two other pack members worked there as well. Wolves could often be found working regular jobs alongside humans, as long as it benefited their pack. Although most of the jobs that came through the agency were the usual suspected cheating spouse, background check, or missing person, every now and then a job would come in that was, unknown to their human coworkers, entangled in werewolf affairs. Such was the case when Evie arrived. 

    As she walked in June, the receptionist greeted her and said, “Rick and Theron are in their office, said to send you in when you arrive”.

    “Thanks,” Evie replied as she headed in.

    Rick and Theron were the other pack members. The brothers were in their thirties and looked so alike that they were often mistaken for twins despite their three year age difference. So far they had only trusted her to do their paperwork and some research here and there. She entered the office expectantly. 

    Looking up from his desk as she came in, Theron said, “Evie, finally!” 

    “What do you mean finally? I’m early,” she replied.

    “Take these,” Rick said as he absentmindedly handed her a folder.

    “It is your lucky day”, Theron told her, “You are actually going to get some field work.”

    “Are you serious?”, Evie asked excitedly, taking the file from Rick and beginning to leaf through it. 

    She pulled out a photo of a girl not much older than herself. The girl in the photo had long honey coloured hair and grey eyes. Evie knew this face, she had seen her around campus before. She was another werewolf, one who lived at the House of Night. Beyond that she didn’t know too much about her.

    Ignoring her question, Theron continued, “Alexis Liddel, nineteen, from the Frost Tail pack, last seen yesterday morning”.

    Evie looked up at him in surprise.The Frost Tails were a very traditional pack from the jagged mountains to the east. They adhered to very strict rules and did not often associate with any other packs, especially those who they saw as being “lost”. She had never heard of one of them being allowed to attend the university before, although her living at the House of Night made a lot more sense now.

    “She hasn’t been gone all that long”, Evie mused, taking a seat, “why assume she is missing?”

    “An Elder at the House called it in, said that it’s completely out of character for her not to come home”, Theron said. “Plus, this is the first time the Frost Tails have let one of their pups out this far. The House said they’d watch over her and with her being missing and all, well you know. It’s just bad optics.”

    “Sure thing”, Evie said, “what can I do?”

    “Do some poking around at the school, talk to the other House of Night kids, but try not to draw too much attention to yourself,” Rick answered. 

    “Oh, and go through and enter these reports would you?” He continued, waving his hand at a stack of papers on the side of his desk.

    She sighed silently to herself and took the stack back to her own desk. The tedious work was never done.