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“Shutting up.” She mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.
“Forget Rylan, okay? We have bigger problems than him.” I whipped off the hood, followed by the beanie. Moon-white hair cascaded around my shoulders, the fluorescent lights making it glow brighter. “It’s not just my hair either.” I pulled my arm out and showed her the glittering markings. “Some lady showed up at the pond near my house. She was hurt, so I tried to help, and instead, she did this! Bestowed some sort of voodoo on me, and now my hair is white, I’ve got these markings that are super freaky, and Rylanisback, and I had a reaction when I saw him.”
Arden sat on the table, gapping at me while I did my best to explain everything that happened leading up to this point.
“What sort of reaction?” she asked, and I wanted to pull my hair out.Is that all she heard?
“I’d describe it as visceral,” I answered, running my hand through my hair in agitation.
“That’s…” She trailed off, obviously thinking about the messed-up situation I found myself in.
“Cruel?” I suggested, sitting down in a chair next to her, exhaling a deep sigh.
“Possibly,” she agreed then reached forward and touched my hair. “This is some next-level, main-character shit.”
I rolled my eyes again, marveling at how well she was taking all of this.
“What else did the crazy lady say?” Arden asked, running her finger over the markings on my arm.
“She called herself the Alpha Seeker, then all this weird stuff happened. Before she keeled over dead, she said I was the Seeker now.” I gulped, fighting the panic that rose in my throat, having forgotten that little detail.
“What the hell is an Alpha Seeker?” Arden wondered aloud, tilting her head, as if expecting me to know.
“I have no idea. She said to find my mate and he’d be the one to unite the packs,” I recalled her ominous words, the memory making goosebumps appear on my arms.
“You had a reaction when you saw Rylan,” she pointed out, a frown pulling down her lips as she considered the possibility.
I wasn’t too surprised that she came to the same conclusion. This isn’t the first time I had a reaction to him, but the others were fueled by hatred while this one had been different. My body had reacted while part of me had reached for him, like he was the answer to everything. I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to him. I mean, the thought of being near him or touching him was enough to make me salivate. I craved him, and that realization scared me more than anything else did.
“Where did crazy grandma come from anyway?”
“I’m not sure, but she was dirty and weak. I saw signs that she’d been restrained.”
“That’s concerning,” Arden mumbled, propping her chin in her hand.
“I came here as fast as I could.” I looked down at the shimmery marks.
“This would be the place to find answers,” she agreed, checking the time on her watch. “We need to get to work. Cover up again and stay out of sight as much as you can. Start looking into the Alpha Seeker, and I’ll try to figure out who the old woman was.”
I nodded then shoved the beanie down on my head, tucking my hair back and pulling my hood up. My arm disappeared into my sleeve again as I hastily tried to hide everything.
“I’ll tell Marcus you were asked to research a specific topic,” Arden continued, hopping off the table and looking me over. “We’ll figure this out, okay?”
Swallowing, I nodded, thankful that she had taken everything so well. I’d run through so many scenarios where she ran away screaming. It was a testament to our friendship that she stood by me. She was my only friend, and I couldn’t imagine life without her.
Before she could walk away, I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. Tears pricked my eyes, and I struggled to find the words to thank her, so I showed her with my embrace. She hugged me back, like she knew what I was trying to convey.
“Let’s get to work,” she said, patting my back in a comforting gesture.
“Okay.” I felt less anxious now that I’d told someone and had a plan.
“Come on,” she encouraged, striding toward the door and turning the knob, breaking the silence of the room.
I followed her down a couple hallways before we split up, each heading in a different direction toward the sections we had been assigned.
The archives were available to each pack, but the sections were specific to each. I’d been assigned to the Aruna section, cataloging the journals and other documents that couldn’t be filed in the regular system. Marcus, the curator, was trying to persuade the Alphas that it was time to bring in technology to help organize individual histories. It was a slow process because wolves were long-lived and tended to reject change. If-it-wasn’t-broken-why-fix-it sort of mentality.
Bringing the archives into the digital age would make research so much easier, but I couldn’t blame the Alphas for wanting to stick with the old ways. Digital manuscripts didn’t have the same smell as old books did, nor the joy of hunting down whatever topic one wanted to learn more about. It was a challenge that appealed to both my wolf and me.
