Because I'm on a roll, enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
"The wolf on the hill is never as hungry as the wolf climbing the hill."
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Chapter 11

Caleb

Spencer had come in to explain the outcome of the interrogation, revealing that he had, in fact, been the target; Elsa had only been caught in the crosshairs of the attempt on Spencer's life. I feared for my beta's life, but I also wondered what had caused him to be the first one targeted rather than me or Hunter or Lily or Josilyn or the twins. Either Spencer had pissed one of the people off personally or his name had been chosen at random. Regardless of the reason, the attempt at his life had failed, and that meant the person who had targeted him was going to be coming after him again. We were all under fire, but it seemed Spencer was at the top of their list, making me wonder why his price wasn't higher...

Afterward, Hunter, Lily, and I jumped through the portal that had been established in my office and Hunter's to the Academy. Josilyn stayed behind to do more research. When we tried to ask her to join, she chucked another book at Hunter's head. Lily caught it before it struck him.

Only I, Anna, Dom, Spencer, Lily, and Josie knew about it. We would've told Elsa, but we saw no reason for her to need to know while she was dealing with everything else going on in her life. I didn't want to overload her with information. While I had no doubt that she could handle it, I didn't want to risk the slim chance that she couldn't, nor did I want her to have that responsibility so early on.

"Hey kids," Dad greeted, not looking away from the screen he was staring at. Mom stood behind him, hands resting... no, gripping, his shoulders. Shiloh and Loren stood on the other side of the table, looking pale.

"We have good news and bad news," Hunter said. "Good news is the guy told us what was going on."

"Bad news is Spencer was the primary target," I finished.

"What news do you have?" Lily inquired, having sensed that my parents were on edge.

"The hit list has changed," Mom said grimly.

"What do you mean?" Hunter asked sharply.

"Take a look, and tell me what you see."

I did as told, shifting my attention to the screen. All of my parents' pack were listed as 'Capture, Don't Kill', or CDK. It was mine and Hunter's pack that had the price tags on our heads.

Hunter Laroche- 50

Caleb Laroche- 50

Lily Laroche- 50

Josilyn Laroche- 50

Spencer Stark- 50

Dom Stone- 50

Ember Laroche- 50

Noah McKay- 50

Riley Hess-25

Thea Fray- 25

Dmitri LeVox- 25

Gracie Hess- 30

Jake Fray- 20

Akira West- 15

Oliver Fray- 20

Laurel LeVox- 15

Sebastian LeVox- 15

Diana Fray- 25

"The prices increased," Lily stated. She crossed her arms over her chest, but only I could see her nails digging into her shirt. I felt my own fists clenching. Someone wanted to mess with my pack, and I'd be damned if I let anything else happen to them. We'd been through enough. The last war had cost us the lives of our family. I wasn't letting it happen again.

"Anything else?" Dad prodded. I scanned the list again but once more, it was my wife who found it.

"Elsa and Anna aren't on it," she said.

"Why are they not on the list anymore?" I demanded, hoping my parents would have the answer.

"We're not sure. Our source just got this, but they were unable to find any reasons as to why they were taken off the list. So either those in charge of the hit list believe the twins to be dead, or, for some reason, the twins have been given mercy."

"So our enemies have suddenly developed a conscience?" Hunter said, sounding suspicious.

"We're not sure, but keep an eye on them. Both of them. Regardless of the reason, the twins are being singled out. If they leave the compound grounds, they do it with someone by their side. I know you're the alphas of your own pack now, but you're still our children," Mom said.

"Trust me, we were already on the same page. We're not letting them out of our sight."

"How's Spencer doing now that he knows he was the target?"

"He's pissed."

"How is he doing around Elsa?"

"Honestly, I haven't seen him around her much, but she doesn't know that they were dating before her memory loss. He wanted to keep it that way because he didn't want her to feel forced into something with someone she doesn't remember."

"He needs to tell her sooner or later. Elsa doesn't take kindly to things being hidden from her. We learned that from the last war."

"We're going to slowly start telling her things when we feel she's ready. I guess we need to tell her about the hit list..."

"You do. She doesn't remember us, so we can't give her any reason not to trust us, family or not."

"I'll keep that in mind. On that note, we should get back. Let us know if anything else changes," I said.

"We'll keep you updated on Elsa," Hunter added.

"We'll swing by tonight to come see her and everyone else. With the threat of another war looming upon us, I want to keep a close eye on you kids," mom said.

"We're not losing anyone else. We'll see you later." Hunter, Lily, and I left the Academy, slipping back through the portal into the safety of our compound.

"Caleb, Elsa is your beta. It's up to you if you choose to tell her personally or if you want us to help," Hunter offered. "She's my little sister, so of course I want to make sure she's okay, but I also am going to respect what you want to do."

"I'll talk to her privately, but if I need help, then I'll shoot you a message."

"Sounds good. I'm going to go bring Josie something to eat, and try and help with finding a cure."

"I'd help too, but I need to get down to the hotel and oversee some events. Laurel is coming with me," Lily said. "But let me know if you need anything."

"Will do. Love you," I told her, giving her a kiss. Hunter and I did our little secret handshake before separating to go fulfill our mission. I found Elsa in her living room, watching some old videos of when we were kids. The current one she was watching was that of hers and Anna's third birthday party. They were running circles around me and Hunter who were playing along with their antics. I forget what game we'd been playing, but we were obviously all amused. Ember sat on the couch chucking gummy worms at us. Noah sat next to her, watching every move she made. Even then he'd had eyes only for her. Josilyn was sitting atop of Shiloh's soldiers. The rest of the pack was in the background, mingling about with each other. I felt a pang of sadness when I saw Barry, Derek, Nancy, Ethan, and Sabine. Even after all this time, it still hurt to see them. It was easier, but it still hurt...

"Who was I closest to?" Elsa asked. "Besides Anna, I mean."

"You gave equal love to all of us until after Anna died. Then you and I became close. When I left, you became close to Josilyn, but overall, you kind of shut everyone out." I sat down on the couch next to her. "I know you're probably sick of people asking you this, but how are you doing?"

"I'm fine."

I knew that was a lie but I chose not to prod. She would volunteer the information when she was ready. "I wanted to talk to you about something. Not many people in the pack know this. So far the only ones who do are me, Anna, Dom, Spencer, Lily, Hunter, Josilyn, Kit, and the twins. We've been trying to keep it on the down low from the rest of the pack until we know what's going on."

"What's going on?" She looked at me after pausing the video.

"There's a hit list on our packs. Not our parents, just us kids. The price tags... they're pretty hefty. We were all on it, but just recently, and by that, I mean today, that hit list changed. Some names were taken off of it."

"You don't mean-"

"No, no, we're all accounted for. We're not sure why the names were taken off the list, but it's concerning either way because they were both high profile names."

"Who are they?"

"It's you and Anna. I haven't told her yet. I'm telling her next unless she comes across Hunter or Lily before I get to her. I need to tell Spencer and Dom too."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, of course."

"What's going on with Spencer? It's like he can't even stand to be in the same room with me, but I was told we were really close. What's going on with that?"

I sighed. "Ever since your accident, he's shut us all out. None of us can seem to get through to him, not even Lily and they've known each other since childhood. There are some things he needs to talk to you about, but he won't do it until he's ready and until he thinks you're ready to hear it."

"I lost my memories. It's not like I've turned to glass!" Elsa burst. "I know it's a lot take in, but if I can accept the fact that I can shift into a wolf, then I can accept most anything else too! I mean for god's sake, I just heard that my name was on a hit list and now it's off and I barely batted an eye. I mean I knew about the hit list before but that was because someone accidentally let it slip in front of me because they thought I already knew and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who let it slip?"

"I'm not telling. I promised I wouldn't. If you're worried about them having slipped up to anyone else, you don't have to worry because unlike me, the others in the pack would've come directly to you about it."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because from everything I've been told about myself and about my relationship with you alphas, I'm usually in the know. I expected that I would be one of the first to know, but I should've known that wouldn't be the case. You wouldn't trust a girl who can't even remember herself."

Elsa had lost all her energy at the end of her rant, burying her face in her hands. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug.

"It has nothing to do with us not trusting you because we do. We just know you have a lot on your plate already, and we didn't want to give you more by giving you your beta responsibilities back. What else is on your mind? It seems you need to vent."

"I can't sleep, I can hardly function during the day, I can't figure out why I have all these different emotions towards all these different people but having no memories to back up why I feel these things. I just want my memories back." Elsa's voice cracked and in a very rare moment, I saw my baby sister break down. "But I have to be strong for all of you because I know it's not easy on any of you, especially because you're all working your asses off trying to help find a cure. I mean I don't think I've seen Josilyn out of that library since I got here. Anna and Ember are always making sure I'm okay; you, Lily, and Hunter are trying to run the packs while making sure nothing happens to me."

"We're your family. We're here for you in times like these. And yeah, it hurts seeing you like this, but that's because we know you're upset and even though we're doing everything we can to find a cure, it feels like we're not helping you right now. But we'd rather know what's going on in that head of yours because we don't want you bottling this all in."

"Thank you, Caleb," she whispered.

"Any time, Ice Princess. So why can't you sleep?"

"I've been having nightmares. They're terrifying. I'm paralyzed, facing the sky, and I see these black, shifting shapes peering over me. They're faceless, but I can hear them talking. It's garbled though so I can't make out what they're saying."

"Elsa, what else do remember from those dreams?" I asked, an idea forming in my head. It was a long shot, but it was worth it to see if it was worthwhile.

"I don't know. I'm never asleep long enough for me to reach any point after what I've just told you."

"What about before you see the faceless shapes? What happens before you're paralyzed?"

"I-I don't know. I've never really focused on that beginning of the dream, just the part I told you."

"All right, I'm about to ask a lot of you, and you by no means have to do this, but I have an idea."

Elsa narrowed her eyes at me. "What is it?"

"I think your dream might be a memory of the night of the crash. The faceless people might have been us when we found you because we were trying to figure out how to extract you from the wreck without hurting you anymore. But now that certain things have come to light, we know your accident wasn't an accident."

"What kind of things?"

"You were driving Spencer's car because yours was in the shop at the time. The car had been tampered with because the intended person to be injured was Spencer, not you. But now that we know it was planned, we think that the scents we smelled around the area that didn't belong to us belonged to the people who caused the wreck."

"What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking you to fall asleep and live out the entirety of the dream. I know it's a lot because I can see how it terrifies you, and you by no means have to do this if you're not comfortable with it."

I could see the conflict in my sister's blue eyes, which had darkened to a deep sapphire as the turmoil happened within her. "I can't promise it will happen on the first try, but I can promise that I'll continue to try. But I don't get how it will help us with my memories."

"It's possible that before we arrived on the scene, the people who caused your car to go off the road slipped you a memory-inhibiting drug, which, if that's the case, we can narrow our search of where to look for cures. Dad had this happen to him a long time ago, and the recipe and remedy for that is long gone. It died with the Keepers. So whatever they may've slipped you is completely new, but it could still help us to know if these people did this to you via drug."

"I'm willing to try."

"You're not alone. If you need someone in your room when you fall asleep, I will station one of us every night."

"I'm not going to take anyone away from their significant other any more than I already am."

"They would do this for you in a heartbeat. But if it means that much to you, I'll ask Roy or Paul or Kit. But I'm going to ask Spencer, Anna, and Ember first. Hunter and Lily too."

"Don't ask Spencer. He doesn't want to be around me," she said.

"That's actually very far from the case. He's just needing to work through some things before he talks to you about them."

"Just how close were we?"

"You two knew each other better than you knew yourselves because you both went through a lot together in a short amount of time and for a while, he was really the only one you could talk to about everything for a bit. The same goes for him."

"It's driving me crazy that he won't talk to me. He won't even look at me."

"I'll talk to him. I'll have either Hunter or I stay with you tonight. I'm used to helping you when it comes to nightmares."

"You are?"

"After Anna died, you had a lot of bad nights. I helped as best I could."

"Why did you leave?" Elsa asked softly.

"I thought it was for the best at the time, and I was in a dark place of my own. I never should've left you though."

"But if you hadn't, you wouldn't have met Lily or Spencer."

"That's what you told me before. I love you, Ice Princess. I'm going to go talk to Hunter about our plan. And I'm really sorry for keeping things from you. I'll see you later okay?"

"Okay. I love you, Caleb."
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Enjoy :)