Chapter 10 - Uncomfortable tension...

Lucy's POV

As we sit at mine and Beck's usual booth in the back of the pub (the best positioned booth in the whole place, as it allows us to keep an eye on the door), I can't help but notice a growing tension between Beck and Justin.

The old dark red booth is situated right in the corner, in the shape of a horse-shoe, and our current seating arrangement is: David and Wayne are sat in the very middle of the booth, with Devon sat next to Wayne and Dean sat opposite him. Then there's Justin who, somehow, has found himself sat next to me, in between both me and Dean. Beck and I sit opposite each other on either end of the booth, waiting for our first possible informant to walk into the pub. I have my back to the door, but from here I have a perfect view of the bar so, as Beck glances at the door every time someone new walks in, I glance at the bar every time someone new goes up. It's the perfect strategy, and one we've been using for years now.

At the minute, however, Beck's eyes aren't on the door, they're locked onto Justin's as they both seemingly have a silent stare-off.

If anyone else at the booth notices the uncomfortable tension between the two, they don't comment on it as they all seem to be having their own hushed conversations between themselves.

I clear my throat and, almost immediately, both sets of eyes focus on me.

What the hell is going on...?

The fact that I'm sat next to Justin doesn't help ease the situation in my head either, as it means I have the constant rich scent of apple and cinnamon overpowering every other smell in the dingy old bar. As a result, my head is slowly starting to spin, my thoughts becoming less coherent as I struggle to think of a decent topic for conversation.

Shouldn't his scent not be affecting me as much anymore...?

"So... is it just Graham and Jeff that I'm looking out for?" I ask, knowing fully well that it always works better if I go after the guys and Beck goes for the girls. The power of flirting can be a wonderful thing.

"That I know of," Beck replies. "If it turns out that they do know something then try and find out who else might be able to help." I nod.

After that, some of the tension seemingly eases, and I spend the next ten minutes just talking and laughing with Beck like usual, like we're not in the middle of an actual mission right now.

Suddenly, Beck straightens up and I immediately recognise the look in his eyes.

"You're up, Shorty," he says, his excitement from earlier resurfacing.

I don't turn around to look at the door, deciding to wait for whoever it is to reach the bar, and watch as none other than Graham Winter walks over to Maggie (the owner of the pub) and orders a pint.

"Wish me luck," I murmur to Beck with a slight grin as I stand.

"Pfft. Like you need it," he replies, his grin mirroring my own. "Oh, and Shorty?"

"Yeah?" I ask, spinning back around to look at him.

"Make me proud," he half whispers with a wink. I chuckle and roll my eyes, giving him a mock salute and throwing the others one last glance before making my way over to Graham.

Graham Winter is a strange character in his own right. He's somewhere in his late thirties, with long dirty blonde hair that is always tied back with an elastic band, a few scars due to random fights he's been in over the years, and an extremely strong country accent.
He's one of the very few humans that actually know about werewolves, and he seems to have made it his mission in life to date one. Although, 'date' is a bit of a strong word if you get my drift, which is why no female werewolf has ever given him the time of day. He's not after anything serious, just a bit of fun, whilst most werewolves want to just find their mate and settle down.
Anyway, let's just say it's safe to say that he's ecstatic whenever Beck brings me around. Despite the fact that he knows it'll never happen, he never gives up.

"Hey, Graham," I say with a smile when I reach him, leaning my back against the bar as I look at him.

"Lucy, my lass," he greets, an instant smirk finding its way to his lips. "Where've you been?"

"Oh, you know, around," I say with a shrug.

Okay, so another thing that should probably be explained is that everyone here (apart from Beck) believes me to be a lone wolf. They don't know I come from a pack and I don't care to tell them. I like the freedom that comes with being around this area; I can be whoever I want to be and don't have to worry about the consequences. I suppose that's part of the appeal this place has for me. Nobody here ever sees me as just the pathetic little Omega and so they treat me pretty decent.

"Well, I sure as hell have missed ya," he informs me. "S'not so fun without you around."

"I bet," I reply with a laugh.

"You after a drink?" he then asks, being one of the only guys in this town that knows I only use him for free drinks and doesn't care.

"You know me so well," I reply with a smirk, deciding that I might as well use the situation to my advantage. Besides, if he thinks that I'm only here for free drinks then he'll have his guard down for when I start my subtle interrogation.

"Hey, Mags!" he calls down to the other end of the bar, where Maggie stands drying a glass with a dishcloth whilst listening in on some random couple's conversation. She looks over at us and smiles when she notices me. "The usual for Lucy," he adds on the end.

In a matter of seconds, Maggie's placing a Vodka coke down on the bar in front of me as Graham hands her the money.
Yeah, another thing about this place... they're not so bothered about legal age requirements.

"There ya go, hun," she says with a wink, knowing mine and Beck's style all too well after the amount of time we've spent here. If I'm being completely honest, I'd say that she's actually quite proud that we've managed to pull the same tricks for so long and still get away with it.

"Thanks, Mags," I reply with a grin, picking up my drink and taking a sip.

I look back over at Graham as she walks off again, ready to serve another customer.

"So," I start, trying to keep my tone slightly bored as to not make him suspicious. "What's new around these parts?"

He shrugs. "Dan and Sal broke up, did Beck tell ya?"

"Yes," I reply, trying not to laugh at that whole situation. "Apparently he needs to learn to keep his mouth shut more often."

"Oh, please," he snorts, taking a sip of his beer before continuing. "This is Beck we're talking about. He needs to learn to keep his mouth shut at all times."

That causes me to laugh in slight agreement. He's kind of got a point; Beck does have a tendency to put his foot in his mouth quite a lot.

We fall silent for a few seconds, which is unusual for Graham, and so I get the distinct feeling that he's not going to let on about the rogues anytime soon. This means that I'm just going to have to take a leap of faith.

"Well, I've heard that there are a bunch of rogues hanging about the area," I say, lowering my voice so no one else can hear and leaning in slightly closer to him. Immediately, his eyes widen in surprise.

"Who the hell told you that?" he asks. "Beck?"

"No," I answer, taking another sip of my drink. "Just people, you know how it is."

"Well, lass, you'd be better off staying out of it if ya know what's good for ya."

"Why's that?" I ask curiously. Just exactly how much does Graham know?

"Because it's none of yer business is why," he replies.

I shrug, trying to think of a better way to go about this.

"Who else knows?" I then ask, causing him to sigh and take another sip of his beer.

He doesn't reply straight away and so I look around, trying to spot Beck to see if he's had any more luck than I have, and see him sat over at the other end of the room as he laughs away with Tiffany Brown.

Tiffany Brown is somewhere in her twenties and has had her eye on Beck for as long as I've known her. She's pretty, I guess, with cropped blonde hair and stormy grey eyes.
Beck's never shown any real interest in her, though, which is quite surprising considering the fact that she has the exact same outgoing attitude as he does. I've asked him about it before, but he was very reluctant to shed any light on the situation and so I decided to just let it go. It's not my business to pry.

"Al," Graham suddenly speaks up, breaking my attention from Beck and Tiff as I look back over to him.

"Al, from the fish and chip shop?" I ask for confirmation. He's the only Al from this town that I know.

"Yeah," he replies. "That's who I heard it from, anyway. He didn't tell me much... just that there're eight of them in total and that they're not planning on leaving anytime soon."

"Eight?" I ask in disbelief. That's a lot of rogue wolves.

"Yeah."

"Do you know what they want?"

"No," he admits with a shrug. "He wouldn't tell."

I frown at that, trying to make sense of the situation. What the hell would eight rogues want to be sniffing around these parts for?

"Yer not gonna mention I told ya, are you?" he asks after a few seconds of silence. "I'd rather just stay out of the way of these rogues. I am only human, after all."

"Of course not," I assure with a smile. "Thanks, Graham."

"No problem. Oh, and Lucy?" he calls after me as I start heading back to the booth. I turn around and give him a questioning look. "Don't be a stranger." He winks.

I roll my eyes and laugh as I make my way back to the others, drink in hand. Once sat down, I wait for Beck to join us before we start discussing.

"Al," I say as soon as Beck's sat opposite me once again.

"Al's fish and chips?" he asks.

"The very one. Graham didn't know much, but he told me that he heard about the rogues from Al, and that there are eight of them altogether."

"Eight rogues?" Wayne asks, looking slightly uneasy.

Although eight may not sound like a lot, especially when compared to our fifty, it's more than any of us seem to be comfortable with. Rogues spend their entire lives dedicated to becoming warriors; they're tough and difficult to take down... or so I've heard, anyway.

"Yeah," I confirm before turning back to Beck. "What did you find?"

"Tiff didn't exactly know much. She found out from Kelly and said I'd be better off talking to her."

"Is she not here tonight?" I ask, looking around.

"Nope. Apparently she's visiting her cousin up North, or something. She won't be back for three more days."

"So, basically, the only lead we have until Kelly gets back is Al," I sigh with a frown.

"Yeah, but we won't be able to talk to him until tomorrow, seeing as he'll be closed for the night by now," Beck informs with a shrug.

"So... what now?" I ask, causing him to shrug again.

"I'll talk to Al tomorrow and do a bit more digging around. If you head over after school then I'll pass along anything I find, which you can then pass along to the others, and then go from there."

It sounds like a fairly sound plan, and I know that it'll put both David and Wendy's minds at ease as they've not exactly been happy about having to pull us out of school so much, so I look over at David for confirmation. Before he can reply, however, Justin speaks up.

"Do you really think that it's safe sending Lucy out on her own with a bunch of rogues running about?" He doesn't exactly sound happy.

"Lucy can take care of herself," Beck replies, sounding about equally as happy.

"Like hell she can!" Justin exclaims in disbelief, no doubt referring to my small Omega-sized wolf.

Yes, that pisses me off... a lot.

"Listen up, asshole," Beck snaps, not caring about the fact that he's speaking to a future Alpha. Oh, shit. "I've known Lucy for three damn years and not once has she given me any reason to believe that she's incapable of looking after herself. She's managed to survive this long, hasn't she? Alone."

As he puts the emphasis on the last word, I'm pretty sure everyone at the table manages to pick up on the accusation. I've told Beck about Justin, about his egotistical betrayal as my best friend, and so it's safe to say he hates the guy. Loyalty is like Beck's middle name, and so it's no wonder that the two don't get along.

But this is definitely not the time or place and so I know I have to put a stop to this little argument.

"Okay," I say, clapping my hands once to get their attention. "Well, it's getting late so..." I trail off as I stand up.

"Right," David says, coming to the rescue. "And we need to be getting back."

Slowly, we all make our way outside, the tension between Beck and Justin still hanging in the air.

"Hey, Shorty," Beck says, bringing my attention to him. "I think I'm going to stay here for a bit longer." He points his thumb over his shoulder quickly at the pub.

"Okay," I say, hoping he won't end up getting too hammered as we still need his help tomorrow. "I'll see you sometime tomorrow?"

"You'd better," he saying with a wink, causing me to roll my eyes.

I notice Justin's back stiffen slightly next to me and try to suppress the frown. What the hell is his problem with Beck anyway?

With one final nod in David's direction, Beck heads back inside, and I turn around to face the others, not really sure what to expect.

"I don't like him," Justin says automatically.

"So I've noticed," I fling back, still annoyed at his little Omega jab from earlier. A look of surprise momentarily crosses his features but he says no further comment. Apparently he'd not been expecting me to answer back to him but I don't really care. He's pissed me off.

"So, you're going to find Beck after school tomorrow?" David asks, deciding to try and get things back on topic.

"Yeah," I reply.

"Okay," he nods. "Then I'll hold a meeting at mine at nine so you can tell us what he finds."

I nod, and that seems to be the end of that. Feeling tired and more than slightly stressed, I lead the others back home after changing back into our wolf forms.

Let's just hope that whatever Beck finds out tomorrow will be of use.

(Hey guys! So, i know that this is definitely not Friday and my update is late, and i'm really sorry about that. It's been a case of i didn't really know how to write this chapter and then i had a friend round on Friday and so i've literally just finished writing this chapter. Anyways, i hope you liked it and would love to know what you think in the comments :) i know it's not the best chapter i've ever written but i hope it was still worth reading. Next chapter will probably be fairly short, it's going to be a Justin's POV chapter and will hopefully be updated on Monday/tomorrow. So, yeah, that's pretty much all i have to say apart from thanks for reading and don't forget to Vote/Comment! Byee!)