Quinn Shalom...

When we got out at our destination, we could smell frozen blood and bodies under the snow. The town and ski resort were in ruins, most of the buildings had burned. Everyone was dead. The pack territory fared no better. Saul directed me to a house near the center of the community. We stopped in front of his grandmother's cottage, it was a charred shell. His cousin's house next door only had a few broken windows. His family was under the snow. It looked like they tried to escape and were torn into pieces, like Miles. He said he could smell his nieces' ashes in the ruins.

We decided to put Saul's cousin in their grandmother's house and a few pack members, there was enough of the structure left for a small funeral pyre. It was the only time he broke down completely. Holding the mauled body of his cousin Julia, Saul sat on his knees, clutching her to his chest and howled the way I had months ago when I was standing in my backyard looking at my family's blood.

Every few feet were more bodies, revealing the gruesome truth of that night. The drifts that remained were the worst, each held a layer of blood and ash tainted snow between pristine white, marking before and after the Revelation Night, like tree rings. Another testament to the fact that something made the werewolves go against everything they believed and lived for. They murdered their own mates, children, and families, they destroyed their own pack. They painted the snow scarlet, just like in my backyard. It was worse than I had seen anywhere else. It was almost as if this place was ground zero for the violence of that night.

We only ate and drank what we brought with us, too afraid of the cause to risk consuming anything from there. Bathing each time we finished for the day and sleeping only on bedding we brought. Once I thought I felt someone watching us, but when I turned to look, there was nothing but trees and snow and shadows. My wolf grieved as much as Saul did.

I tried to document it discreetly with my phone, then Saul brought me a very expensive digital camera from a house near the grotto and said not to bother pretending I wasn't recording it. He knew Lance and Greyson needed the evidence. While Saul was busy digging out bodies, I took liver or lung tissue samples from a dozen males, Greyson showed me how before we left. There were also some whose heads which were cracked open, so I took straws of brain tissue like I did with the livers. Many had been partially eaten by scavengers, so Saul didn't notice. After he left a nearly decapitated Raver on a pyre, I took a whole frozen brain from the body. Greyson had wanted some of the bodies brought back to Westcliff for proper autopsies, but Saul had so vehemently refused that I was a little afraid of what he would do if he found me sampling the dead.

From the smallest child to the oldest female and all of the lesser males, they had been torn apart. Then it looked like the strongest males battled to the death or ripped their own hearts or throats out. Some even threw themselves into the burning houses. We knew this is what happened because several males with survivable wounds were dead in the charred remains of their own homes with their families, almost as if they built a pyre for their family then jumped in them. Saul said that he had heard there were suicides among the Revelation Night survivors. It took us five days to burn all the dead and place their ashes in the sacred grotto that had held their dead since the late 1700s.

On the last day, Saul helped me take water and soil samples for Lance and Greyson, grumbling that he hoped they could find an answer. We bathed and changed one last time then drove away, leaving a ghost pack behind. I doubted that any werewolf would ever live on Monarch Mountain again.

As we drove to the lab on the university grounds at the base of the Flatirons, Saul was his usual quiet. I let him grieve. Everyone he had known that lived in the pack lands near Monarch Mountain died horribly.

The lab at the university was a bust; the building was burned to the ground. I walked over to the library building and found their generator was still fueled. After some tinkering and a few tries, Saul got it fired up. We accessed the school's mainframe and discovered something interesting. The lab in question had been moved off-campus because of a water main leak only a week before the Revelation Night.

We drove to a glass building on the south side of the city. The building still had power. Kenneth's access card and security code opened the doors, and inside there was nothing but a single corner office. We took the computer but found nothing else equipment wise. There were paper file boxes filled with receipts and maps, like they were moving the research but had only gotten part of it. It didn't make sense. On the third trip back from the truck, we heard the telltale howl of Ravers. We grabbed one more set of boxes each and rushed out. Saul wanted to search the rest of the building for more, but I ordered him to drive. Whatever other secrets the building held were left behind as we fled for our lives. Once we were sure they weren't following, we relaxed.

"Well, at least we found something." Saul sighed.

"I was worried when we found the lab burned, but now, we can tell Greyson it's not all bad news. We just have to figure out what and how it fits with Ken's research." I was already wondering if we could sneak back and get the last of the boxes and search for more clues.

"You're thinking about going back for those boxes too, aren't you?" He taunted, then Saul said something that caught me off guard. "Shalom, let me teach you how to be a wolf, a real one. You should be an alpha female or Luna as your books call them. The way you take care of us all and search for justice and truth, you already act like one. Since your mate is an Alpha, it is only fitting. I would be honored if you would let me be your protector and Beta."

"Saul, I don't know what any of those things mean, not really. Those books are just stories," I answered.

Saul chuckled. "Some of those stories are written by wolves, Luna Shalom. The Revelation Plan books and movies changed wolf culture as much as they changed human culture. A century ago, wolves ranked themselves like human royalty, Lord, Duke, and Lady; now we use terms like Alpha, Beta, and Luna."

"Don't call me Luna, it sounds too much like looney. And I'm not a leader."

He flashed me a toothy smile, "Trust me, Shalom, you are."

VvvvvV

Jake...

My nightmares stalked me like prey. Disjointed images of fighting, killing, feeding.

I am pushing as hard as I can. Everything in overdrive. I starve with a hunger that can't be satisfied; I tremble with a need that can't be sated. The Rage at my inability to find that which will fulfill me is making me insane. Gunshots ring out over the howling wind, people are screaming, shouting, dying in every direction. I am only interested in one thing. THE SCENT. Will has my left as one of my brothers always does. We go over a fence, into a very suburban yard... into an attack.

Two wolves lay dead as three figures are digging in a snow drift. Will pins the smallest one of them as two shots hit me, one stabs me with a sword. I tear him in half. Blood splatters crimson on the white snow and cream walls. The one who shot me, picks up the sword and slices Will's face as she screams at the small one to run. She stands between me and the small one courageously, but I can't see her face. I only remember the smell of blood and something tantalizing.

She has something that I need. I lunge knocking her down and drag her toward me by the ankle. My warform's paw reaches for her and she slashes, cutting my hand in half as the sword breaks. She struggles to stand on one leg, her foot and ankle useless. My bloody backhand knocks her to the ground as Will drags the other away. They don't matter, only this defiant female matters. I want to hurt her for resisting me. She rolls away, grabbing for something laying in the snow. The female lifts the gun and shoots once as I jump onto her, biting into her shoulder. Her screams echo off the fences as I take what's mine in the strange swirling world of icy white and warm crimson, filling my hunger, sating my needs...

I sat up to the sound of my phone vibrating, covered in sweat. I gasped for breath while it felt like my soul was burning. My sheets and mattress were in rags for the third time this week. I no longer bothered to buy new mattresses; I just wrap the torn ones in canvas sheeting until they were too far gone to salvage. There was no point in wasting resources. My nightmares were too much to contain, even the silver chain I wore to sleep, if I slept, wouldn't stop the partial shifting. I looked at the phone before staggering to the shower. I have a meeting with my brother, the Monarch, ASAP.

Music helped to sooth my grieving wolf. I listened to it constantly now. This song had a strange ring of truth to it, so I let it play out before I shut off the engine of my Hummer. For You Only by a band called Trading Yesterday, this song could be my mantra.

"Blinding darkness surrounds me

And I am reaching for you, only you

This hopelessness that drowns all that I believe...

Keep on running farther, faster

And keep on searching

for this haunting has an answer

And I know you will find me in orbit

For I am breathing only for this

For you, only..."

Wondering what could be so important that my brother summoned our family to a private meeting at 1AM, I stalked toward the building. I saw Will getting off his motorcycle. He looked as rough as I felt. The nightmares and mate-loss were driving us both slowly insane, but we were holding it together to do our jobs. Silently, we walked into the building housing the Monarchy's private offices. The doors to the elevator opened and closed with a slight whoosh, only to open again before we reach the top floor. The head of Lupine Intelligence stepped in.

Paul and I haven't talked in two months, since I went over a table at him and pinned him to the floor, demanding to know why we weren't warned about the attack that turned us into monsters. He could only say his source inside the Human Purity Movement found out too late and by too late, he meant the day of while it was happening. Millions died because he only had one human inside an organization that wanted us all dead. The man who was now blamed for what happened. His source turned into a scapegoat because nobody really understood what happened.

The latest report he gave my brother on his agency's progress, was that his brother was still looking for the changed shewolf that went missing from the hospital in Oklahoma City believed to be the wife of his human double agent, and that a Human Purity researcher was captured, but no real advancement had been made in tracking the terrorists or discerning what the chemical weapon had been. He was useless.

"Jacob, William," Paul said in an almost mocking tone. He was a tall, dark haired and beady eyed wolf, but sly like a coyote. My wolf hated him, even though we were family.

"Hey Paul, how are you holding up? Any word from your brother Saul? Or truth out of the bastard doctor?" Will asked. My youngest brother was much more forgiving and trusting than I.

He'll learn in a decade or two, just like you did, my wolf reminded me.

"Of course not, Coylier is just out to save his own ass, and not go in front of a firing squad for crimes against humanity and nonhumanity. And yes, I did hear from my brother, that is why you're both here tonight and no one else." Paul sounded smug as the elevator finally opened again.

He was my flesh and blood; our father and his mother were siblings, but that was where any familiarity ended. He looked like his father's family, they were part of the Southern Europe Monarch Council, and acted just as arrogant, especially since his brother was accused of killing his mate. Eventually, it was ruled an unsolved death, not enough evidence to prove who killed her, but no one in the family ever believed Saul did it.

Our elder brother James was standing by the window, looking out at the city as I had seen him do too many times. He was holding a glass of Spirytus vodka, one of the few distilled spirits that would get a werewolf drunk quick.

"Monarch," we all said as we bowed our heads in respect.

"Jacob, Paul, William, please sit down. Paul, tell us what your big problem is." James didn't sound happy. He hadn't since we lost the majority of our family on the Revelation Night, including our sister and her unborn son, the heir to the monarchy.

Paul smirked at him, "Can a cousin get a drink? And it is not all bad news, James, I actually have a bit of good news too."

James just growled at him as Paul poured three drinks. He handed one to Will, then offered me one. I glared at him as he intoned smoothly, "Have a drink, cousin, you're going to need it."

He inhaled and exhaled with such exaggeration that I wanted to punch him.

"There is a pack of mixed survivors living in the quarantine zone. A group of werewolves, vampires, a fae, and humans. All living and working together in peace and harmony toward a common goal."

"That's good news, that means it's safe to go back," Will said excitedly. I knew it was his desire to return to his mate's home and collect a few mementos.

"No, little cousin, it's not time for good news yet. This is very bad news. Their goal is to prove the A.S.H. was not responsible for that night and that it was an act of war by the werewolf and vampire elite that got out of hand," Paul declared ominously.

"Bring me their alpha," James snarled.

"Luna," Paul interrupted, still smirking.

"What?" James demanded.

"They don't have an Alpha, they only have a Luna," he clicked the wall flat screen to sync with his smartphone, "Quinn Shalom Phillips, widow of the late Dr. Troy Phillips, our source inside the Human Purity Movement. She has his research and knows all of the media coverage is a lie. They are preparing to go public and demand to know what really caused the Revelation Night."

"It'll cause a war," James snarled.

I looked at the family pictures from Facebook and I recognized her instantly, as I swallowed to keep from choking while carefully setting my drink down. "What do we know about her?"

The image switched to four grainy security camera images, as Paul revealed, "Almost... Nothing."

"What? How can you know nothing about any female in this age?" James snapped.

"We know she lost her husband and two children. We know she was not a werewolf before that night. We know she was bitten by an Alpha who got his blood in her mouth, how doesn't matter. It only matters that she was changed, marked and mated, and resents it greatly."

Four separate feeds appeared, images of her shifting into a magnificent brown wolf and then warform, fighting against security wolves. One of her lying in bed staring at a window. Another of her dressed in scrubs talking to nurses, and then of her walking out of the hospital front door. And the fourth was her sitting on a transit bus talking to the driver.

Paul elaborated, "We know she escaped the hospital by impersonating a nurse after learning she was pregnant by the same alpha and couldn't have an abortion. She got on a bus and disappeared."

"I want to talk to that driver, she may have said something to him." I demanded. My mate was alive, and I needed to find her.

"That would be difficult, the human in question had a heart attack while ice fishing a week later." Paul answered, then quickly added, "Oh and we know she wants to kill the alpha who changed her to avenge her family."

"Well, so do I," I snarled.

Paul snorted and started laughing. James growled while Will and I stared at his bizarre reaction.

"Paul..." James' voice carried a warning tone.

Managing to compose himself, Paul continued, "Sorry, cousin. We know that everything about her before she married Dr. Phillips is a lie. The digital trail exists, but there are no paper copies of anything. It is like she just appears a few months before their marriage," Paul finished.

"How is that possible? Humans document everything. Health, schooling, travel, jobs..." I demanded as I studied her face.

Paul ignored my question. "Her birth certificate and social security number belongs to a child named Quinn Leon that died at the age of four in a flash flood in Texas with the rest of her family, and that is it. We do not know how or when she acquired the identity except there is a passport in that name which has not been used in fifteen years. It is possible that Shalom is part of her real name."

"That's not much," Will observed.

"There's one more... little thing. My brother sent me a recording I think you will find interesting since Quinn Shalom Phillips is your mate, and her late daughter Molly was William's mate," Paul announced in a most condescending tone.

He tapped his phone playing an audio file through the television. I heard a diesel engine, and my cousin was talking, only to be answered by the sweetest voice I had ever heard. My wolf was practically doing backflips in my head because our mate was alive.

"We thought it was a hoax, a Halloween hoax." She said slowly.

"What was a hoax?" Saul sounded confused.

"The afternoon of the Revelation Night, there was a storm coming in, we started getting all kinds of crazy text messages and calls from the 911 alert system. We thought it was a hoax, that someone hacked the emergency alert messages... Vampires, werewolves, those weren't real things. We didn't know the threat was real, until after it began..."

Two hours later, there were three empty bottles of Spirytus vodka on James' desk, and one in my hand. I couldn't seem to make myself breathe properly. William was puking in a bin again. I looked at my hand and its two missing fingers. I now know what happened during my missing hours.

Goddess have mercy, the nightmares are real. I did that to her. I killed her son, tore him in half in front of her, attacked her while Will... She shot her own child to spare her suffering. The pool of her blood that I found after I recovered, I made that as I...

I crushed the heavy glass bottle in my hand. My wolf was howling in grief. Everything I ever believed myself to be was a lie, a fact I would never be able to deny to myself or anyone else. I belonged in a cage; I was a monster.

Saul's voice caught my attention when he said my name. A tag was added to the recording later.

"Jake, I know you're listening, and I swear if you come near her or her pup, I will end you personally. I know it was you, she has your signet ring. Her life means more to me than yours now."

The recording stopped.

Paul clapped his hands, and announced in an almost cheerful, patronizing tone, "Well, that was traumatic, but not all bad news. Like I said, there is good news too. Jacob is going to be a father and the monarchy still has an heir."

My wolf almost reached his throat before James' wolf tackled and restrained me.