Jake Vanguard, the Alpha Commander...

I woke from a dead sleep to my phone ringing; it was an unknown caller. I wondered who would be calling me at this time of night and knew it had to be bad news.

"Commander Vanguard," My voice was hoarse with exhaustion, I had been asleep only forty-two minutes.

"Jake, it's Will." Not a voice I expected to hear after reading his letter.

"Where in the hell are you?!" I practically shouted into the phone. The months of worry for my baby brother evaporating into rage at the sound of his voice.

"I'm in Colorado with Saul. Things are crazy, and the town was overrun by those Raver things I told Paul about," he started.

I interrupted, "You've been talking to Paul? He hasn't told us anything. What do you mean the town was overrun by Ravers, what are Ravers?"

I heard a mumble and then Saul's voice, "Listen Jake, you need to bring James and come here now. Only bring warriors from Monarch Mountain with you. I'll show you why when you get here and don't tell Paul anything."

"Saul what is going on? Is Quinn safe?" A knot formed in my stomach.

His silence was like a punch in the gut, finally he said the words I have dreaded since he sent us the recording of her story.

"We lost her, Jake, I'm sorry. Someone took her tonight. They used scent blocking dust. But you need to come anyway, we found survivors, Grandpa Joshua and Richard are alive."

He told me where to come, a place I knew well. Dad and I used to fly-fish for trout near there at the South Colony Basin Lakes.

"Calm your wolf, Jake." James growled at me for the tenth time.

"I hate flying." I tried again to relax in the comfortable chair of one of the Monarchy's private jets. I had spent the whole flight thinking about the call that sent my wolf into a panic.

The small, fast plane would be landing outside a tiny mountain community in Colorado in a few minutes. The pilot banked over the picturesque town and made his approach to the West Silver Airport several miles south of the town. The valley surrounded by mountains was a beautiful place, a place I enjoyed visiting over the years, it was not far from our home pack. I couldn't help my unsettled feelings as the irony of it set in. My mate chose to hide and live less than 100 miles from the place of my birth and childhood.

The Bombardier Learjet landed smoothly and turned to taxi back to the small terminal and hangers. James and I stood as the door opened and Will poked his head in.

"Welcome home, big brothers." He sounded like him, but he looked years older. Mate-loss will do that to a young wolf. After we stepped out onto the tarmac, James hugged him first, then I did.

Saul was leaning against a military issue armored hummer. I was surprised when he didn't get in, just walked toward a large hanger. "Come on, time to show you what Paul hasn't been telling you both."

As we followed, Will looked down, ashamed, "Sorry, I thought he would tell you what I was sending him. I... I didn't know."

James placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay, Will. You're telling us now. I am sure Paul has his reasons for..."

"Whatever they are, they aren't good enough to keep this from you both," Saul gruffly interrupted, pulling open a door.

Inside were a human and a light Fae, and several dozens of different types of display boards filled with printouts, pictures, diagrams, and maps. It filled the hanger. There was a group that caught my eye immediately. The pictures were of the terrifying results of what the A.S.H. did to werewolves and vampires. It was labeled "Ravers". I studied the images and the information on the displays. I resisted the urge to clench my fists. For six hours on the Revelation Night, I was one of those beasts. I smelled the Fae as he silently walked over to me. One image caught my attention; it looked like it came from a cell phone video. I knew those wolves, who they were. Unable to look at it any longer I turned to face the Fae, his kind eyes were sad, and I knew he knew my story, probably from Will and Saul.

"They protected her," he said looking at the image. "When the town was overrun, your grandfather and brother-by-mating protected her. She got away, but she never made it to the next safe point."

We stood silently for a moment looking at Joshua and Richard, then I held out my hand in a very human fashion, "I'm Jake."

He smiled and shook it, I felt the soothing warmth of his soul, something all light fae felt like. "Greyson, my sealed one is Lance, he's speaking to your brother. She stayed behind to fight so we could get the wounded and children out, but only a few made it. Fighting Ravers is an all or nothing situation. If they hadn't protected her, she would have been killed. Will managed to get some of it on video."

"I want to see..." I started to speak, but he held up his hand.

"First, we need to explain to you and your brother what we have learned about the Ravers and how to deal with them. Then about the Revelation Night and how the A.S.H. had nothing to do with what happened. And after dark, if we are lucky, maybe we'll get visitors. Come Commander. Let us begin over here."

Hours later, I was so tired my brain felt like it was sloshing in my skull. It was amazing that they could put all this together, gather all this information, and discern the event in a way none of Paul's analyst even came close to. As I laid in bed, I thought about what I remembered. A knock prompted me to sit up but before I could get up, Will poked his head in and tossed me a bundle of cloth.

"Something to help you sleep, big brother." He closed the door before I could say anything.

It was a bright yellow sleeping shirt that said, "M.O.M. maker of minions!" Only the word minions was crossed out and the word monsters was written underneath in permanent marker. It smelled like her. For the first time in over six months, my wolf and I slept and didn't have nightmares. I never realized how much I needed her until I slept with her scent.

For days, I sat in the hanger reading through the information gathered and organized by Greyson, Lance, and Quinn. Greyson convinced James to fly in several Fae doctor friends of his. Upon arriving, they immediately agreed to begin working on the problem of Ravers and seeking a way to restoring them to normal.

Dr. Nicolea Trinity or Nic as she let Saul and Greyson call her, had done her best to avoid me completely. She was in Oklahoma City during the first weeks after the Revelation Night. She even helped care for Quinn. But when Greyson explained who I was to Quinn, she gave me a look like she wanted to tear my soul from my body in the most painful possible way. Her eyes were dark which was unusual for a light fae, but they had a beautiful gold ring. Her hair was dark brown with golden highlights that complimented her deep olive-toned skin. With full lips and high cheekbones, Dr. Trinity turned every male head in the town and half the female ones. Of all those who came in to work on deciphering what happened on the Revelation Night, she was the most beautiful and angriest.

Nicolea was writing on the medical profile boards, specifically Quinn's board when I came in. When she walked away, I walked over to read what she had written, the name of a clinic and doctor. I couldn't help myself. I devoured every bit of information I could get about Quinn. I asked her, "I'd like to see Quinn Phillips' files."

Her hands trembled as she gave them to me. Instead of the warmth that usually accompanied a Fae's touch, my fingers burned like an electric surge when hers brushed mine. It hurt, and I yanked my hand back.

"Just so you know, Al-pha Com-man-der," she spat out my rank like my existence offended her, "Once a Raver, always a Raver. You may have your mortal form back, but it will never change what you are and what you did."

"I know. I'm sorry." I couldn't hold her eyes, "You met my mate in Oklahoma."

"She is not your mate; she is the female you brutalized to the point of death. I was there when she killed young Rick, because she didn't know how to control her fighting form in the horror of discovering the gift she arranged for her husband was stolen by you."

"I don't understand." My hands trembled slightly, what gift I wondered.

"Mrs. Phillips was undergoing fertility treatments. Her plan, according to the clinic's online records, was to give her husband a positive pregnancy test for Christmas as she had with their first child. Her practitioner wrote it was the most romantic thing she ever heard and thus Mrs. Philips' fertility status the night you assaulted her for almost four hours. Tell me, wolf, was it gratifying to supplement the Raver high of killing with that much sex?"

"Nicolea! Enough," Greyson admonished her, "This is not our way." Another Fae healer named Dalaen McIntyre stood looking on, disappointed in her outburst too, but Nic glared at both.

"You weren't there, you didn't see her soul break!" she snapped, slamming the file into my chest with such force I would bruise before she stormed out.

"Please forgive her, Jacob. She is young and was raised in a family of Dark Fae, she tends to get violently passionate about some things," Greyson's soothing voice would have calmed my wolf if it was angry, but it was upset because her words felt true, a truth that was painfully and vindictively honest. He was curled up with his tail over his eyes, whimpering at the thought of how we broke our beautiful and brave mate.

"It's okay, Greyson. I must get used to people who aren't afraid to tell me the truth after that night. Excuse me," I walked away to one of the many couches placed around the hanger to read Quinn's file.

I spent the afternoon reading more of Dr. Phillips' research, the part about his family. I could tell from his notes, he loved her a great deal just from the way he worded things. She was to him what she should be to me, but I had destroyed any hope of that. Her husband described her childhood in so much detail, it was terrible. She trusted him as completely as she loved him. It made me wonder if she told Saul some of these memories. My younger cousin obviously cared a great deal for Quinn, whom he called by her middle name, Shalom. I smelled him in her room at the school and at her house. I couldn't help the twinge of jealousy that I had no right to feel.

Looking away from her pictures and back to her late husband's notes, I force myself to read on. I wondered why it had taken contact with me to change her. I shuddered at the memory. We destroyed Quinn and everything she loved, even if the research said it wasn't our fault, I couldn't resist the guilt.

Greyson's notes on when we attacked her were as horrifying as the recording Saul made. Dr. Trinity's notes on her condition in the hospital and her reaction to discovering she was pregnant crushed any hope I harbored. Internally, I jealously raged about the Fae who rescued her, who had been there for her as she recovered and shifted for the first time. Her savior shared his blood and his magic with her to keep her alive, and so they would always be bound. Her near-death almost ruptured the bond I formed with her that night. They still had a big question and I had the missing piece from my nightmares.

They didn't know how she consumed my blood, but I did. I vaguely remembered turning her over in the snow, she screamed in pain and I put my mutilated hand over her mouth for a reason I couldn't remember. Saul never asked me about that night, he hardly looked at me or spoke to me. His wolf wanted to hurt us. I didn't blame him; I had done something that was against everything were raised to believe. The good doctor was correct, I was a monster, a Raver hiding under skin.

James walked over and offered me a beer. "Find anything interesting?"

"Quinn's parents were werewolves, killed by other werewolves when she was ten," I answered tiredly, putting the folder down. I took a long pull before tipping my head back and rubbing my eyes.

"What? Then why wasn't she? Why did she need to be changed?" James looked shocked.

"I don't know and evidently neither did her genius husband. But he decided she was part of a group called the 0.8%ers, humans guaranteed to change if bitten by the right species of nonhuman. Both of her children could have been changed too, if they hadn't died. He thought it had something to do with her hospitalization after her aunt's death, but he had not figured out what they did to her. He couldn't get the records because the place called Elmhurst Hospital burned the year after she escaped. The hospital was run through a shell company owned by Abbott Pharmaceuticals, who he suspected of experimenting on Nons. Then she wandered like a nomad for six years. Never staying in anyplace more than a few months, until she met Dr. Phillips. They were married almost fifteen years."

I drained the beer. I envied the dead human and couldn't keep the bitterness out of my tone. "She loved and trusted him in a way she never will love or trust me."

Before James could respond, we heard a jet fly over then turn to make its approach. Walking outside, we saw another Monarch Learjet landing in the fading evening light. We could both feel that Paul was here, and he was upset.

We watched our cousin get out of the jet with a dozen of his agents. They looked oddly unfriendly, but none dared act in any way but respectful toward us. Saul's Hummer pulled up as his brother walked toward us from the jet. Will got out with Greyson but before they could say anything, Saul walked straight up and punched Paul as hard as he could.

"You! Mother! Fu*cker! You lied to them, to us. You. Lied. About. It. All!" Saul roared as his fists rained down on his brother with each word.

Paul was barely blocking a third of the blows. Several of Paul's agents pulled weapons that I knew were loaded with silver shot.

I snarled at them, "Stand down!" My authority rolling over them like a tidal surge.

As we watched the brothers fighting with fang and claw, it looked like they were prepared to go to the death. In the twilight, a howl sounded, followed by more. It was a deeper, more raw sound than made by any werewolf. Everyone froze. Paul's men shifted nervously.

"We need to get inside, the Ravers are coming," Greyson said softly.

Saul dragged his brother by the back of the neck into the hanger. We followed. Will looked over his shoulder at the agents and shook his head.

"Dudes, he wasn't kidding. The Ravers are coming, that means get inside or get eaten alive out here."

Inside, Paul was laying on his back, coughing from broken ribs. Saul tossed a tee-shirt and a pair of sweatpants at him. "Get dressed, brother," he snarled, "then you can explain why your codename is in Dr. Phillips' records weekly as his contact in the Monarchy. And that the last day he contacted you, was to warn of the attack hours before it started then every hour until he was killed."

"What are you talking about? I only heard from him once that day."

Saul looked like he was about to attack him again, "We have Dr. Phillips' laptop and the emails."

James scowled, "You neglected to tell us you had that much contact with Dr. Phillips, cousin."

Outside, we could hear the Ravers, clawing on the building and sniffing around the door. "What the hell is out there?" Paul demanded around his swollen jaw as he dressed.

Greyson pointed to a set of boards, "Those would be Ravers, what is left of the werewolf and vampire population who survived the Revelation Night but didn't recover from the effects of the Elm Street chemical weapon. Usually, we get werewolf Ravers from your pack as visitors."

The agents stared at the boards in horror, then began looking around them. Greyson chided them, "Gentlemen, please feel free to read, but do not touch anything. It has taken months to get all this put together."

"Well, they have to touch it," Paul growled, "It is going back to the capital tonight."

"No, Paul, it isn't." James looked down on him with contempt. "You have to explain why I should leave you as head of Lupine Intelligence, when you kept all this from me."

"I didn't keep anything from you, cousin. I gave you the information you would understand after my analysts evaluated it. And yes, Dr. Phillips was my spy, but he never gave me anything of use. He didn't tell me what was going on until it was too late." Paul lied, and we all smelled it.

"Paul, I have seen the information he was sending you. I could have understood it without your experts or you dumbing it down for me. Do you remember what I minored in when I was taking college classes?" James questioned smoothly, but I could feel my brother's rage like lava beneath his cool facade. When Paul didn't answer, James snapped. "Biology and chemistry. This..." He pointed around the room, "Is something I easily understand. Now, I want to know the real reason you did not tell us about the A.S.H. being given to our kind for nearly two years, and I want to know everything about Operation Elm Street."

The monarch command tone vibrated through the building and every wolf dropped to their knees except me. It was the first time it hadn't affected me, but I didn't have time to wonder why because the door ripped open and two Ravers stalked in.

"Heads down, don't move," Saul snapped as he rose slowly to his feet. Paul jumped up, staring horrified at our grandfather and Richard. James and I met them before, it was an emotional and gut-wrenching night the first time.

"What the hell?" Paul muttered backing away as our grandfather stalked toward him.

"I suggest you start talking, big brother. Grandpa Joshua tolerates even less crap now than he did when we were pups," Saul growled at him. "Elm Street. Talk!"