Calling Callan: Answers

Anaïs’s POV

"Brian?” I mind linked Brian as I entered the area where he was keeping watch. As I went a little further, crossing the perimeter of our camp, I saw Brian propped up against a tree, sitting cross legged with his back completely straight, on high alert.

Brian turned around to face me as I got closer to him, picking up my footsteps with his advanced werewolf hearing.

“Luna” Brian said as he stood up and bowed slightly.

“You can just call me Anaïs, I've told you that a million times now" I said as I walked uo to him.

"Force of habit" he said with a small smile playing on his face.

"Go and get some rest. I'll take the next watch" I said. Brian nodded. He bowed, bid me a good night and walked back towards his tent. I settled down in the same spot where Brain was sitting. I looked up at the moon as I tried to open all my senses to any kind of movements around me. We were currently in Africa, near Sudan to be exact. The wolf pack here, Blue Eclipse were living in the Semien mountains and were attacked for the first time in 40 years.

It's been 3 months since we left home. We left the States straight for the Council. I can still remember the glares and dissatisfaction of the Lower Council as we demand they help us or I'll rally all the wolves against them, a Council that couldn't even protect it's own.

Of course they were the empty threats of an 18 year old wolf girl, who was consequently thrown in the prison for disrespecting the Lower Council. But after Brian, Adeline and I raised hell in the prisons, the Council had no choice but to give us an audience. We didn't ask for funds because I knew the Council won't fund a bunch of teenagers but I did ask the council to allow me access to all the packs and information on the packs that were attacked.

After seeing the highly censored reports we received which were obviously of no help, I bid goodbye to the Council and decided to collect information as we went from pack to pack. Some Alphas, whom Alpha Kendrik had reached out to prior to my departure, offered transportation, accommodation and gave us their complete cooperation while some packs were closed off.

So shaken were some packs that we were not only met with reluctance but also hostility even violence in the case of Moon's Child pack in Norway. Brian was gravely injured, and it took a lot of convincing to have them take Brian to a pack doctor. We were finally able to convince them to talk with us and tell us everything about the day they were attacked and once they saw we meant no harm, they opened up.

But these small hiccups weren't enough to make us give up. We conducted a thorough investigation. Interviewed the Alphas of all these packs, met with the fighters who fought the rogues one on one and also had our friend Sierra, who was a forensic expert in the Black Fur Rider's pack in Russia and had volunteered to join us when we visited her pack, conduct thorough examinations on the rogues that were captured by these packs.

Of course we found a lot, much more than we expected or imagined. The pack we are trying to reach is the last pack in this part of the world which was attacked. The Blue Eclipse pack in the Simien mountains of Ethiopia was well hidden, closed off with almost no communication with any other packs except the Wolven council.

Not only did we have the hardest time trying to find this strange pack, which disappeared off the maps 40 years ago out of nowhere but also reemerged exactly 3 years ago with a population double than its previous one but also with hybrid wolves which had never been seen before.

No pack in the world currently knows that hybrid wolves still exist and are living in Africa. The secrets we have found on this expedition were nothing we were expecting to find. After a while I understood why the council was so against us investigating these attacks, why it was so secretive about letting out the least amount of information and why it was hell bent on making us sign a confidentiality contract under which our findings would have to go under review by the council and the information we collect can and will be highly censored before being exposed to the Wolven world.

I was scared, it was no secret. All five of us were scared as to what Blue Eclipse had in store for us. Hybrids were scary, not only was it a great feet to create a hybrid but one living past the age of 10 was almost unheard of. But here they were, living as a pack of 482 and multiplying daily.

Hybrids were faster, stronger, more agile. their senses were a hundred times better than that of a normal werewolf. They could almost compare to an Alpha wolf, some could even defeat one. But hybrids were hard to make. they appeared naturally, no one knew how though. The Council had spent years trying to figure out what caused hybrids to be born so they could mass produce them "for the betterment of our race" the council had claimed at that time.

In the beginning, parents brought their hybrid kids to the Council from all around the world, hoping that they could discover the secret behind their creation, find out why hybrids always died so young. The parents hoped the Council could save their kids but over the years we found nothing except that hybrids were better but never given much thought to since they all died young.

But apparently not all since a whole pack of hybrids exists now, the Council knows about them so who knows if the Council also knows how to create hybrids. I didn't know who to trust anymore...

I was scared of the kind of danger I was putting my team in but the attack on this pack was the most unusual which is why I had to talk to the pack of 482 wolf hybrids who survived an attack of 800+ rogue wolves without a single hybrid dying...

I looked up at the moon once again, I could hardly see it. Suddenly my mind wandered off back home.....I wonder what Callan might be doing right now? Was he thinking about me like I am thinking about him?

I pulled out my cell phone from the many pockets in my trekking pants. I turned it on to be met with the same "no signal" flashing on the screen once again.

It's been a long time since I've contacted him, I missed his voice. I longed to see his face, smiling at me.

"What if he finds someone else? Someone better? I was quite ridiculous when I was with him back home. He might just change his mind and look for someone more mature...more like him" I quietly asked Isis who didn't say anything back but just whined painfully.

"You know mate would never do that" Isis said.

"I know... it's silly cause I know Callan loves me...I just can't help but wonder if he'll see how better other she-wolves are compared to....me" I said and sighed. I rested the back of my head against the tree trunk, suddenly feeling too tired thinking about Callan.

"Let's just get done with this and then we'll be back home with mate in no time. You've held on till now...I know you can handle a few more days" Isis replied.

"I don't know about that...we literally have no clue where we are right now. It's like we know the directions but the pack just keeps moving away from us... we've been walking through this forest for days now...soon we'll run out of canned food. I don't know what to do anymore AND I'm supposed to be the leader of our group.." I said. It was true, we didn't know where we were and seemed like we could just go on walking forever and yet not find this mysterious pack.

"Well it's a pack that vanished 40 years ago, re-appeared with a huge population of hybrids and still managed to remain hidden from the rest of the werewolf world...you always knew finding them wouldn't be easy" Isis replied but I knew she wasn't mocking me or being condescending. I could almost sense curiosity in her words, as if she wanted to know why I would set out to find a pack that no one else knew existed.

"I want them to join us" I said, finally revealing why I was so hell bent on finding a pack in the middle of nowhere even after knowing that it would be extremely difficult.

"What? You want the hybrids to join us? As in our pack?" Isis asked shocked that I was thinking of something so stupid and impossible.

"Why would they do that? What's in it for them? What's in it for us?!?" Isis asked clearly confused as to what was going on in the part of my head I keep shut off from her.

"They managed to defeat 800 rogues without a single one of them dying. You and I both know all these attacks aren't just rogues being smart, there's a greater conspiracy behind all of this which means this round of attacks possibly wouldn't be the last...imagine how much safer and stronger our pack will be with hybrids among us?!" I said...my people would be safe..my family...and Callan.

"But why would they reveal themselves to the world and join a pack on the other side of the world for no reason? What would be in it for them?" Isis stated the obvious. That's what I couldn't figure out, a reason for them to leave their safe space and join our pack.

"I don't know that yet...maybe they'll be really empathetic and decide to help us?" I stated the ridiculous. Isis huffed in my head.

"I know I know! But it's better than doing nothing. We can extend the invitation, make a deal give them something they might want or need! Anything...but it's better than fending for ourselves and losing more wolves" I said desperately. I knew Isis thought this was a shitty idea but if the hybrids really did join our pack, no more pack members would have to die.

"It won't work" Isis said blatantly, not even a shred of optimism in her tone.

"I can still hope. If it doesn't work, well then we investigate, go back and prepare our pack for any future attacks" I said and with that shut off my link with Isis.

I couldn't help but wish they'd sympathize with us and help us...I couldn't stand seeing more people die. I know it's selfish to ask them to leave their heaven and come with us and face the harsh, possibly unwelcoming world. But that's what you become when you're a leader; selfish.

And it's not like we won't help them? They'll have us to protect them against the werewolves who don't accept them.. right?

I said a silent prayer to the goddess in my head, wishing for her to guide us and help us fight whatever was waiting ahead for us.

"We're definitely lost" Adeline huffed out. I looked around us, we were surround by thick, deep forest that barely let any sunlight through. We have been walking north for the past 3 days, following the exact coordinates we were given by the Council but we still haven't found Blue Eclipse. Well...not really given. They had used markers to censor important information from the reports they gave us but when you held them up to the light, you could make out the words written under the black marker.

"Are we still on the right path Jeremy?" I asked our driver/the only person who was good with directions out of the five of us.

"Yes Luna, I've checked the compass for the thousandth time now...we're headed in the right direction. The pack should be here...somewhere" Jeremy said. I took a quick look around at everybody, they were all covered in sweat and grime, red in the face and breathing hard.

"Let's take a break guys. Set up a pit, we'll eat