"Clark," she called out to Sol's friend on the phone. "Wait a moment," she left him hanging as she pulled the phone away from her air, holding it up in the air after she put it on speakerphone.

She wasn't too conscious of the humans overhearing what Clark seemed to be panicking about and neither did Sol or any of the elders in the cabin.

Elder Oscar scowled at a wailing Poppy whom had scratched his arm before he dropped her on the ground unceremoniously without a care in the world of hurting her. He wasn't particularly fond of these sets of humans, especially not if their shared suspicions were correct of these humans being part of the ones that kidnapped pups and experimented on them, Artemis included.

"I've got you on speakerphone." She informed him politely even though her heart beat in fear after having heard his shaky voice as he had scrambled around for the right words earlier. "We've got a couple of elders and humans with us, but you can speak freely."

Sol nodded as he released Harry whom immediately wrapped his arms around a sobbing Poppy. Walking around the elders and the coffee table, he sat down next to Artemis as they all waited for Clark to carry on speaking.

Elder Jackson also joined them on the couch while the other two elders occupied the single sofas as they all stared at Artemis, or rather the phone which she held in front of her.

Clark had gotten all their attention without even asking for it.

"Why do you have some elders and humans with you, especially at this time of night?" He questioned, momentarily confused.

"We'll explain later," Artemis responded quickly and followed it with a roll of the eyes as she caught Darius glaring daggers at her. The male human was irksome, to say the least.

"Right," he coughed before clearing his throat. "Did you notice anything strange over the past few hours?"

All eyes in the room shot towards the humans tied up in the floor, but no one dared comment on it, all wondering what had got Clark, the Beta of Lupine Woodland all flustered and bothered.

Artemis hesitated briefly before she answered him. "Define strange."

Clark sighed and the werewolves could make out some voices but they seemed to fade into the background. He must have moved somewhere more private to speak to them. "Our pack was attacked tonight." He started and rushed to get the words out before Artemis, Sol or the elders with them managed to pipe up or ask any questions. "It happened during the middle of the night. We had no idea."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"There were a few casualties but not too many, thank the Moon Goddess." Clark sighed and there was some rustling that sounded from his end of the phone call. "The humans that attacked us missed one of the guards and he managed to wake up a few of the warriors so I guess you could say that we got lucky."

"Humans?!" Artemis screeched, flinching herself at how high and screechy her voice had suddenly become. Though she could hardly believe her ears. It almost felt like she was stuck in a nightmare that she would never be able to wake up from.

Darius snorted and chortled to himself, his eyes trained on Artemis as he watched her every move and reaction.

Sol growled lowly but the human didn't seem to care. The other two humans didn't dare so much as breathe too loudly in fear of being executed.

"Yeah, humans. There were about three or four dozen of them." He paused briefly, seemingly walking away from the phone to speak to some one for a few moments before he returned. They couldn't really make out what was being said but the elders all whispered amongst themselves, their eyes occasionally flickering over to the humans on the floor.

The attack along with the humans that had broken into the cabin on the same night was too much of a coincidence.

Clark breathed loudly on the phone, seemingly a little out of breath. All attention was back on him, or rather the phone that Artemis was still holding. "We managed to capture most of them, but a few did die. Thankfully, it doesn't seem that any of them escaped. We've got the ones that are still alive in the dungeons." He informed them. "I actually called to ask if you guys heard anything, or noticed anything strange since you're the closest werewolf civilisation to our pack. But I guess you did since you have a bunch of humans in your cabin." The attempt at humour was lost on them under the circumstances.

Artemis sighed and ran a hand down her face, ignoring the sneers that she was receiving from Darius. "There's three of them." She exhaled, her eyes trailing away from the humans, over the elders and to Sol whom was sat next to her, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "We caught them in radioactive suits and gas masks, going through all of your stuff in the middle of the night. We've got them tied up right now but none of them are speaking."

"Then I doubt that the ones we've captured will be very forthcoming with the information either." Clark groaned, seemingly exasperated with everything that was going on around him. "They were wearing radioactive suits and gas masks too. Freaked the hell out of us at first. But it seems that they're from the same organisation."

Artemis hummed in reply as she sat in her thoughts.

"I've just mind linked the Alpha and we both think it's best if you bring these humans over to our pack."

Sol tapped Artemis on the shoulder, indicating that he wanted to speak now. "Clark," he called out to his best friend. "We've got elders Jackson, Henley and Oscar with us right now. They've got a theory about what these humans are actually doing."

"Even better." He noted aloud. "When do you think you can get here?"

Sol spared elder Jackson a brief glance. "We should be there in about an hour."

"Don't forget the humans."

Sol laughed bitterly. "I wish I could forget them," he chuckled, sending a snarl towards Darius that was still sending both him and Artemis evil eyes. The human was really getting on his nerves. "I'll see you in an hour then."

"Can't wait," Clark replied bitterly before he hung up.

Artemis dropped the phone on the sofa next to her and leaned in Sol, lifting the blanket so it covered her shoulders. "How are we going to do this?" She asked, breaking the silence.

All elders stared at her. "It seems like the smartest thing to do would be to head to the Lupine Woodland pack." Elder Jackson sighed and the others agreed with him, voicing their thoughts accordingly.

Elder Oscar chuckled darkly. "I think the real question is how are we to transport these humans with us," he growled at Darius who merely snarled at him back. It was pathetic really how this human thought that he would be able to scare a werewolf. It was absolutely absurd but no one bothered to show him otherwise, not because they didn't want to but because they weren't sure if he had any valuable information. If he did, then they didn't want to risk it by killing him prematurely. "I doubt that we can trust them to sit nice and quietly in the back without trying to escape."

"Darius is going to need someone to sit with him and hold his hand," Artemis offered him a sweet, fake smile. A permanent scowl sat on the human's face but luckily for every wolf in the room, he remained mute. "He'll definitely try something funny as soon as the opportunity arises."

Sol and the elders all nodded in agreement. "Artemis and I will head up in my car." He stood up and stretched. "Which one of the humans shall we take with us?" He asked her as his eyes ran over the three weaklings sat on the floor. They were honestly all talk and no bite.

"We'll take Harry."

Sol nodded and turned to face the elders. "Will you be okay with the other two?"

Elder Henley chuckled darkly. "Yes," he nodded. "I'll have fun sitting at the back with them, making sure they stay in line."

Artemis rolled her eyes when Darius started to voice his protests but she was too tired to care.

Excusing herself momentarily, she made her way upstairs and into the bedroom with Sol following closely behind. Walking into the closest, she pulled out a jumper of Sol's and a pair of comfortable jeans to wear. Pulling them on, she didn't care that he was in the closet with her, getting dressed in a hoodie and jeans himself.

It seemed they had been staying away from home a lot lately, and Artemis wasn't too happy about that not that it could be helped, of course.

Sighing, she grabbed a travel bag from the back of the wardrobe and began to fill it with clothes, both day clothes and attire to wear to bed. She doubted that they would be able to stop by for a few hours and head back whenever they felt like.

Walking out of the closet, she found Sol to be sat on the bed as he pulled on some timberland boots onto his feet, his eyes on her as he tied his shoelaces.

"I think you should drive." Sol voiced his concerns, his words pulling her out of her thoughts.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"I don't trust any of them, especially not with you. They clearly all hate you for reasons which I hope we find out soon but for now, I don't want to risk your safety by making you sit in the back with the human."

Artemis pondered over his words for a brief moment before she nodded and sat down next to him on the bed as she pulled on her own boots. "I think you're right," she agreed. "Does that mean you're going to be sitting in the back with Harry, then?"

He nodded and threw his arm over her shoulders as soon as she had finished with her shoes, reeling her into him. Burying his face in her hair, he allowed himself to indulge in her sweet scent. "I hate this."

Artemis pouted and sighed, leaning into him further, throwing an arm around his waist carelessly. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"I know," Sol placed a kiss against her head, rubbing up and down her arm soothingly. "But we've got each other."

She smiled and placed a kiss on his chin. "Come on." She stood up and grabbed his hand. "Let's get downstairs before Darius gets him killed with that smart mouth of his." She rolled her eyes and waited as Sol grabbed his car keys along with her phone and their travel bag which she had left on the ground before they walked out of the room and down the stairs hand in hand.

The elders were waiting, each of them with a human each as they stood in the middle of the living room.

Darius must have really been a pain as he now had a strip of tape over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything else. Though that didn't stop him from glaring at her as soon as he spotted her.

She didn't care. Curling her lip at him in disgust, she popped into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water before she walked out of the front door, the first to leave the house. The elders followed closely behind her before Sol walked out, his arm gripping Harry roughly.

He made sure the front door was secure before he loaded the human into the back of his truck, following behind him. Pressing the button for the child lock to ensure that Harry didn't attempt to throw himself out of the moving car, she watched in the rear-view mirror as elder Jackson reversed his own truck out of their driveway, driving ahead of them as they all headed to the Lupine Woodland pack.

Hopefully they would find some answers there.

-

Sol grunted in annoyance as he roughly pulled Harry out of the car, not at all happy with the way he was complaining about his restraints were too tight the entire car ride. Artemis was sure that if he had any tape on him, Sol would have surely wrapped the human's entire head with it.

Harry was starting to annoy her too.

Sol had called Clark in advance so they were able to pass the pack borders without any hindrance. He was waiting for outside the pack house. The best friends embraced briefly, happy to see each other but wishing it were under better circumstances, all the while Sol kept his tight grip on Harry's human even when he started to struggle from the pain.

Artemis was sure that there would be a bruise present there in a couple of hours, but she couldn't bring herself to feel pity for any of these humans.

Clark gave Artemis a brief hug, his eyes glancing over her shoulders at the three elders that stood behind them with two humans in their captivity, one male and one female.

He nodded in respect at the three elders, smiling widely when he noticed elder Jackson. He went in for a hug too. "I really wish we were able to meet under better circumstances," he smiled as he pulled away.

The elder chuckled. "Perhaps another time, boy." He patted Clark on the back. "But for now, what do you want us to do with these humans?"

Clark nodded. "The Alpha is keeping the rest of the humans in the dungeons."

"How many are there?"

"Twenty-five."

"Well, I'm sure there should be room for another three then." Sol muttered sarcastically as he lugged Harry behind him, not caring that the human was bashing into walls and doors as they maneuvered down the stairs to the dungeons which were placed underneath the pack house.

He didn't even pretend to be gentle as he tossed Harry into a vacant cell, not bothering to untie him. Elder Henley went to do the same with Darius and Poppy but Clark stopped him. "I think it's best if these three are kept separate."

The elder nodded. "You're right. We can't have them planning a mutiny." He grunted as he threw the other two humans in separate cells.

Once again, Poppy started wailing but no one felt anything but annoyance towards her. They were the enemy and all of them knew it despite how many times she decided to play the act of a defenceless female.

While the three humans that had broken into Sol and Artemis' cabin were all kept in separate cells, the other humans that had attacked the Lupine Woodland pack were all split into two cells. None of the humans dared to speak as they watched the werewolves stand and speak quietly amongst themselves. They knew that whatever they said, the supernatural creatures would be able to hear no matter how quiet they attempted to be.

There was no saving them now that they had gotten themselves caught.

Clark signalled for the werewolves surrounding him to all pay attention, this including Sol, Artemis, the elders and a few guards and warriors that were keeping watch over the prisoners in the cells. "The Alpha is in his office right now," he began explaining. "Since I called you about an hour ago, the Alpha has received multiple calls from packs all over the country. They have all been attacked too."

"By humans?" One of the warriors asked.

"Yes," the Beta nodded. "All of them wearing radioactive suits and gas masks, just like the ones we have here."

"How many packs are we speaking here?"

"About seven so far, including us. We're trying to get in contact with the remaining two but so far, we're having no luck." He shook his head.

"I think it's best if we speak to the Alpha regarding this."

Clark nodded in understanding. He turned to speak to the warriors and guards briefly, instructing them to keep a watchful eye on all of the humans, adding that they would need a few additional warriors to help out.

Turning back to all the expectant eyes, he motioned for them to follow him. "I'll take you to him. Do you have a theory about all of these sudden attacks?" He asked, curiously. Clark was clearly stressed with the current situation.

Elder Oscar confirmed this. "I don't mean to alarm any of your pack members so we'll speak when we'll reach the Alpha."

Clark nodded and led the rest of the way in silence, no one bothering to make small talk under the circumstances.

"This can't be a coincidence," Artemis muttered under her breath as she spared Sol a glance.

Clark must have heard because he smirked over his shoulder. "That's the understatement of the century."

-

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Layla Knight 

21.09.18