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Chapter Quote:
"What are you even doing here? Aren't you just a paper pusher?"
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Chapter 22

Hunter

It'd been two weeks since the Hunters had attacked. We'd found no trace of them on any of our patrols. We'd caught the scent of the two wolves from the new wolf pack but lost it once they got on the road. Spencer came over almost every day to hang out with Elsa. Ember, Elsa, and the girls in general enjoyed his company. Even the boys were warming up to him. Riley had a lot of fun teasing Spencer. Dmitri liked to wrestle with him. For a human, Spencer could hold his own, beating Dmitri more times than Dmitri would care to admit. However, the rest of us were wary of him. It just seemed too suspicious how cool he was with all of this. Sometimes I wondered if he might be a Guardian with the way he acted, the way he carried himself, not to mention the snarl he gave me when I'd shoved him into the wall the night he brought my dad back to the house. I didn't approve of his relationship with my sister. Not one bit. On more than one occasion I'd thought about telling mom and dad about them, but Elsa would never forgive me. I couldn't do that to her. Instead, I sat and watched them with a careful eye.

"Hey you," Josilyn greeted, wrapping her arms around me from behind. She stood up on her tiptoes to kiss me on the cheek.

"Hello gorgeous," I replied. "What are you doing over here?"

"I came to see you. With all the patrols we've been sent on lately, I felt I haven't seen you much."

"You are welcome to me any time you want. Maybe I can talk to mom and dad, see if I can get you on my patrol," I said, twisting around and pulling her into my arms.

"You know you have the largest area to patrol. My heart wouldn't be able to handle it."

"How is your heart?"

"As best as it can be. My medication dosage has stayed the same so that's always good news."

"Good." I kissed her on the head.

"Hello you two," My mom greeted. She held a vase of flowers in her hand.

"Oh those are gorgeous! Interesting combination too: striped carnations and daisies." Josilyn exclaimed. "Did you get them from my garden?"

"No, someone sent them. There was no note or anything," my mom replied. It wasn't the first time she'd received flowers out of the blue. Elsa and Ember had received them too, always on their birthdays and at Christmas. Mom received them on her birthday, Mother's Day, and Christmas. No one really knew where they came from, but we all had an unspoken answer: Caleb.

"Are you sure they're not poisoned or anything?" I asked, walking over to her. I sniffed the flowers for any trace of poison, mainly wolfsbane, but all that happened was that the flowers made me sneeze.

"Hunter, really?" My mom raised her eyebrows at me as she placed the flowers on the table.

"Hey, we're under a major threat here. For all I know the Hunters know about your flower passion and are trying a new method to kill you."

"I appreciate your concern but they're not poisoned. I promise you. Now go get ready. You have patrol duty in a few minutes. Elsa is going with you. So is Spencer."

"Why the hell is he going with us?" I demanded. "He's human. He won't be able to keep up!"

"Because you're investigating the south compound and since he was there the night Ren was attacked, maybe he can help you find things that will help us find out where the Hunters are."

I bit back an angry retort. Spencer had no business being here. He had no business being with our pack. I wasn't able to pinpoint what it was what I didn't like about him, but it was there. There was a reason I should be wary of him. I just needed to find out why.

I went up to my room. Josilyn scurried after me, taking a hold of my hand. Her touch did calm my anger somewhat but not enough to prevent her from asking, "What's wrong?"

"I don't trust Spencer. I was nice to him in the beginning because I didn't think it'd last between him and Elsa but now they seem closer than ever. I don't know what it is, but I don't trust him," I said, grabbing my cellphone and shoving it into my pocket.

"I mean it's kind of strange how cool he is with everything about us, but maybe he's just really open minded!" Josilyn suggested.

"Maybe, but I'm still keeping an eye on him."

"Oh Hunter, you're too suspicious."

"And you're too trusting," I told her with a smile.

"Hey, dad told us we're going on patrol?" Elsa piped up from the doorway. I faced her. Spencer stood behind her.

"Yeah. We leave in a few minutes. Spencer, will you be able to keep up with us?"

"I will."

"We go at a fast pace," I warned.

"I'm fit," he replied.

"You fall behind, I'll kill you myself." I walked past the two of them making sure I bumped shoulders with him on the way. I heard Josilyn, Elsa, and Spencer following me. My girlfriend gave me a kiss and told me to be careful. She gave her brother a hug, telling him the same thing. Our group was Noah, Ember, Thea, Riley, me, Gracie, Elsa, and Spencer.

"Okay, we're going to the south compound. Mom and dad want us to find anything that belongs to the Hunters and anything that belonged to our mystery guy who helped dad out. Noah, Ember, you take the east side. Elsa, Gracie, take the north side. Gracie, Riley, take the west side. Spencer, you're with me. We're taking the south side. We'll drive down to the town and run the rest of the way."

We got in our cars. I led them down to the hotel. It was packed with guests, but then again, it always was during the summer. We walked into the downtown area and crossed over the river. Thankfully the water level was low so we could just walk across some rocks without getting wet. Once out of sight of the tourists, we shifted into wolf form and headed to the south compound. I broke out into a run. I wanted to see Spencer struggle. Although, much to my chagrin, he had no problem keeping up with us. The guy had barely broken a sweat when we reached the south compound. I saw Elsa looking up at him with an undeniable smirk on her face, even in wolf form. He was giving her one in a return. I changed back into human form.

"Okay, break up into your groups. Howl if you find anything," I ordered. My pack did as they were ordered to. Spencer followed behind me. His eyes darted everywhere, taking in his surroundings. For being a human, the guy sure was hyperaware of everything around him.

"So why did your parents build this back up again? Were they planning on separating the pack or something?"

"No," I replied shortly.

"Not even when Caleb was here? Elsa told me you two were vying for alpha position."

"Remind me to tell my sister not to tell you everything. There are some things that don't need to be talked about. But for your information, he left our family. It devastated Elsa and nearly destroyed my mom and dad's marriage. I know he's the one sending my mom those flowers but he can just stay the hell away from us. If he comes back, all he'll do is cause pain. I might've ran him off by the things I said, and I regret what I said, but I'm not upset he hasn't come back. Our family life has been much more peaceful since. End of discussion."

Spencer nodded, seeming lost in thought. We trudged through the forest, scanning the ground for anything that might help us in our search for the Hunters. The most we found was a couple of bullets that hadn't hit their target. After covering over half a mile radius, I told Spencer that we should head back and look at the front of the compound. He listened. As we reached the fountain in the center of the driveway, I heard Gracie howl. Spencer and I rushed over there. The others were soon to follow.

"It's a ring," Riley said, holding it up for us to see. I took it, turning it over in my hand. An inscription on the inside caught my attention.

"Unius Speciei," I said.

"One Kind, or One Species," Gracie translated. When we all stared at her, she added, "I got bored a few years ago and taught myself some Latin."

"What type of boredom did you endure that pushed you to learn Latin?" Riley asked.

"I'd just graduated."

"Right. Well, this is definitely a Hunter's ring. I can smell the wolfsbane on it. But since when did they start calling themselves Unius Speciei?" I inquired.

"I guess they needed a cleverer group name other than 'The Hunters'. We should bring it to mom and dad. Maybe the Searchers can help us figure out who it belongs to," Elsa said. I nodded. We left the southern compound and went back to our cars. Spencer didn't say a thing the entire way so admittedly, it was a rather awkward drive back home. I ignored that though. There were more important matters on hand.

When we entered the house, my mom and dad were talking at the dining room table, looking at a map. They looked up at us when we came in. I tossed the ring to my dad who caught it. His questioning gaze made me say, "This is all we found other than a few bullets. It has an inscription on the inside: Unius Speciei. It means One Kind or One Species according to Gracie."

"A Hunters ring," my mom said.

"It was definitely them that night, although my wounds told us that anyway," Ren added.

"Ren! Arya!" Loren came crashing into house. "You've gotta come see this!"

We all went running out of the house. I had no idea where Loren was leading us. My question was answered when we had run only a mile away from our house. We were at our family cemetery. The rest of the pack was there too, standing around the graves. I couldn't really pin anything out of the ordinary, not even the fact that each grave had a single pink rose on it.

"Josilyn? Elsa? Did one of you come out here and put these here?" Shiloh asked, nodding to the roses. Both girls shook their heads.

"If I had, I would've told someone where I was going," Elsa said.

"And I'm not missing any flowers from my garden so whoever it was must've ordered them," Josilyn noted.

"Do they have any special meaning? Do you think it's the same person who sent mom those carnations and daisies?" Ember remarked.

"These flowers mean 'I Miss You'," Arya explained. "My flowers had meaning too, but I wonder if it's just a coincidence."

"It's plausible that whoever sent mom the flowers put these ones here but if it's who we all think it is, and he is part of that new wolf pack, don't you think we'd recognize his scent?" I pointed out.

"But it is the new wolf pack, or at least one of them. Their scent is over every grave," Carrie said.

"Maybe they came across it and got sentimental. Guardians mourn other Guardians, especially the wolves since we're such pack animals," Laurel said.

"Why would they come out here alone though? If they are a Guardian, they know the Hunters are out there and how dangerous it is to be alone," Gracie chimed in.

"Adults, I want a meeting when we get back," Ren said. We left the graves. Elsa hung back, staring at Anna's grave. Spencer stopped short when he realized she wasn't beside him. He hesitated before walking over to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders and kissing her on the head. My sister leaned into him.

"Hunter, leave her be. He's not going to hurt her," Josilyn whispered.

"How do you know that? We don't know anything about him except that he's rich and owns a hotel," I grumbled.

"Haven't you realized how happy Elsa seems to have been lately? She's been like that ever since he came into her life."

"I know, but I don't trust him. I don't know why, but I don't. Now come on, we have a date tonight."

"Oh?"

"I'm taking you out to dinner. You, me, Ember, and Noah. I think we all deserve a night out."

At that, Josilyn smiled. "I'm not going to argue with that."
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Next chapter is going to be so much fun to write! Review please :)