Moon spells for love

The first surprise of course was that werewolves actually existed. Once the initial shock of it all wore off the second surprise was how political it all was. Supernatural populations exist all over the world, nearly every major city has a magical neighborhood filled to the brim with wolves, witches, seers, vampires, faeries and other less known things. Wolves frequently ended up as the muscle, investigators and hunters. Gin didn’t want any of that, she had been an EMT with dreams of becoming a doctor but her pack already had medics and even if she could have been useful there she couldn’t bring herself to spend so much time in the pack. Most wolves at this time in the world are born, but Gin was part of the quarter or so who was changed. Some people chose that, but she hadn’t. It had been a swift and brutal attack, the wolves who found her had been absolutely stunned when she survived. There was no sign of the wolf responsible for the attack and no one in the pack seemed to want to look to hard. When one of the few women in the pack Gin had managed to connect with was killed she couldn’t take it anymore and moved out of the pack housing and into an apartment in the city. The apartment was in the magical community of Aether so it wasn’t like her alpha could really complain too much. She got a job at The Bootstrap, a dive bar owned by a siren, and stayed away from pack events as much as possible. True to form today she was missing a pack meeting. It was the third one she had missed in a row which meant that one of the packs rangers would come to drag her to the next one but the over time shift had been too good to pass up. Maybe no one would notice. ******************************** Sam was still getting used to navigating his new pack, the Sage pack wasn’t particularly well known on the other side of the country. The Pacific Northwest was a definite change of pace compared to the east coast, but that was the whole point. Something as different as possible from the place where his whole world fell apart. “Sam, could you come to my office for a moment?” The Alphas deep voice cut through Sams morose thoughts making him realize the meeting had ended. With a nod he followed down a long hallway to a more private study in the giant house. The alpha sat down with a heavy sigh and motioned for Sam to sit as well. He did and waited patiently for the older wolf to collect his thoughts. Sam had liked Aster almost immediately, even if the man was rather reserved. Wolves weren’t immortal but they lived quite a bit longer than humans, at 60 Aster would probably lead the pack for another 20 years but he seemed strained and tired lately. Finally the alpha leaned forward, “We’ve lost another wolf. No one seems to know exactly when he went missing but his body turned up this morning. Washed clean of any scents or markings just like the others.” Sam nodded “I heard his brother trying to rally a group to investigate, but without anything to go on it’s seems a useless search.” Aster sighed again, after a moment he handed Sam a sheet of paper “This is a list of the wolves who missed today’s meeting. There’s about 7, and they all live in the city. I’d like you to confirm that they are alive and unharmed and then interview them about anything they may have encountered lately.” He paused here, seeming to debate how much more to say. Finally he motioned to the list and said “you’ll notice that one name is starred. That particular wolf misses most meetings, and she can be difficult to get good answers out of. Don’t take it too far.” Sams instincts perked up at that, most wolves especially female, would not be given such clearance. He tilted his head an eyed the name, Ginevra. No last name, and no phone number. He met Asters eyes and raised an eyebrow “anything I should know?” The alpha raised a brow right back until Sam looked away. “She was changed a few years ago and has never fully adjusted. I’m not interested in re traumatizing members. Get what info you can and leave it at that.” Sam nodded and stood “I’ll bring you a full report in the morning.” It was a little after 6pm, with any luck he would have them all tracked down and interviewed by midnight. The first 3 wolves were easy, stuck at work, stuck at work and car trouble in that order. None of them had heard or seen anything unusual lately living in the city. The 4th wolf was a little more difficult, in the end it turned out he was actually at the meeting and mistakenly added to the list. Sam hung up from that call with a frustrated growl and made a mental note to check pack territory first next time. The 5th wolf was a rare find, the kind with a higher level office type job in a human company. He was on a business trip, and also had not noticed a thing. The 6th was dead. Sam had finally tracked down Jerry Turners apartment only to find the old wolfs body just inside the front door. No scent, no marks, looking like he just decided to take a nap on the floor. “Sir, his phone. It’s dinged a few times.” A younger wolf, part of the clean up crew that was just finishing handed Sam a battered phone. A message was waiting ‘hey Jerry, did you make the meeting? coming to the bootstrap tonight? Fill me in -Gin’ Gin? Short for Ginevra maybe? Sam decided to skip the address he had for her and check the bar first. *********************************** Gin stuck her phone back in her pocket after checking the time yet again. Jerry was very late, and she wondered if the meeting had been more serious than she realized. “Gin, a wolf just came in.” Amy murmured at her and then swept past on to the next customer. Her fellow bar tenders weren’t the most social bunch, the bootstrap was never slow and they were all there for the money not friends. The bar was owned by a pirate, cursed with immortality unless he could find a particular gem. Thing was, Bart didn’t really want to die or ever meet that sea witch again. So he ran a bar, open to all kinds, no fighting allowed. It was the best bar gig Gin had ever had, Bart didn’t put up with anyone harassing his employees and the bouncers were strict. Gin wiped up her spot and told Amy she was taking a break. This had to be Jerry and she wanted to know what was going on, but when she rounded the end of the bar the wolf she saw wasn’t anyone she recognized. Her breath caught and she huddled behind a few rather brawny trolls. Who was this? Why was he here? A couple of deep breaths and a pep talk ‘get it together Gin. He’s not going to attack you in the bar’ and she peeked out to get another look, but the wolf was gone. “Do you always hide behind customers?” Gin nearly jumped out of her skin before whipping around to glare at the wolf behind her. How the hell had he ghosted around her like that? He was about a head taller than her and large, most wolves were lean but this guy had wide shoulders and big muscular arms. Green eyes stared down at her, before he sighed and uncrossed his arms. “My name is Sam, Aster sent me to check on you and I need to ask a few questions. You are Ginevra?” She nodded seemingly unable to find her voice through the echos of panic. After a tense moment she motioned for him to follow her and lead the way to a table tucked into a corner in the back. She sat down and waited for him to do the same. He looked around before leaning in “I thought we might leave the bar for somewhere a little more private?” Terror flared and Gin had to take a deep breath before responding “absolutely not. I’ve never met you, here is fine. No one will pay any attention to us. Especially not back here when the music is about to start.” **************************************** Sam didn’t know what to make of the situation, but she was clearly scared and not going to budge so he sat down. “Why did you miss tonight’s meeting?” “I miss a lot of meetings. I took an extra shift.” “When was the last time you were in pack territory?” “I honestly have no idea.” “Did you text Jerry Turner earlier this evening?” She sat back at that with a look of shock, Sam had wanted to get to that a little easier but her answers weren’t giving him anything. A few moments passed before she finally answered. “I did. We usually update each other on the meetings if one of us goes. Where is Jerry?” Sam hesitated but couldn’t think of way to make it any better, especially since he didn’t know how close the two of them might have been. Jerry was a lot older, she couldn’t be more than 25 or 26, no way of knowing what kind of relationship they had had. “Jerry was killed earlier today. I came here because I saw your message on his phone.”