A Wolves World
Barbecue

Erica’s POV

The next morning is the last day of school for the week so I decide to head out early since I don’t have to wait for my parents to get up before leaving. I meet up with Brett at the entrance to the school and we walk in side by side. It isn’t long and Connor Approaches us a smile on his face.

“What has you so happy we are at school you shouldn’t be that happy.” He laughs as he can tell I am joking.

“I am just happy you are both here because my family is having a barbecue tomorrow to get to know the neighbors.”

“So what does this have to do with us.” Brett’s somewhat cold tone caught my attention as he never has spoken like that to anyone, not even Jenna.

“I just wanted to invite you guys because you seem to be the only one who will be friends with me.”

“That would be great we’ll be there.”

“Awesome.” he hands me a paper with what I assume is his address before we part ways and head off to our first-hour class. We have a substitute so it is a study hall I take this my opportunity to ask Brett why he was rude with Connor.

“Brett?”

“Yes, Erica.”

“What was with the tone when we were talking to Connor?”

“Something doesn’t seem right, there is something off about him.”

“Well, what is it that you think is off?”

“I am not sure it is just a feeling.”

“You’re not jealous are you.”

“No!” The way he answers I feel like it might not fully be true he just doesn’t realize it.

“Good because you are my boyfriend I like you and nobody else.” We are both quiet for a minute. “So what is this feeling you have about Connor?” my curiosity gets the best of me.

“It is an alpha feeling that we get when someone wolf or human has a secret or something I guess you could say I’m not sure how to explain it.”

“Well then it might be a good idea to go to this barbecue because then we can go to his house and figure out a way to look around, and we can see if anything seems suspicious.”

“I guess we could do that.”

“So it’s a plan.”

“It’s a plan.” The rest of the day goes by normally we sit with Connor at lunch and Brett tries to be nice even with his alpha warning bells going off. We do our usual after school routine ending at my house for a while.

“I should probably head back to the den.” Brett stands up and heads to the door and I follow him.

“You know you don’t have to go you can stay here the night.” Brett stops in his tracks with a hand on the door handle. “My parents aren’t home and what they don’t know won’t hurt them. And I am not saying that you have to stay in my room or anything like that you can stay in the guestroom.” Brett turns around and his eyes are a darker color than normal when they meet mine.

“It is not a good idea I can have nightmares and when I do I shift and lose a little bit of control so I don’t want to damage anything in your house.”

Brett’s POV

She asked me to stay the night and I froze my wolf growling with delight wanting to stay but I knew I shouldn’t. I told her I had nightmares and would sometimes lose control of my wolf. It is not fully a lie I did use to have nightmares like that when I first shifted but it hasn’t happened in years.

“Okay well I guess I will see you tomorrow morning,” she said coming over to me.

“I will see you then.” I gave her a kiss on the cheek and then headed out the door my wolf growling at me for not staying with my mate.

The next morning I get up bright and early and head to the hidden lake to catch a fish for breakfast. After eating a fish I quickly stop at the den to change clothes and then head to Erica’s to get her for the barbecue. I let myself in through the back door as usual and make myself comfortable on the couch. A few minutes later she walks down the stairs wearing just a simple pair of jeans and a nice T-shirt. To some, it may not have been much but to me, she looked beautiful as always.

“We ready to go?” she throws her arms around my shoulders making me realize I had stood up from my position on the couch. I cleared my throat.

“I’m ready if you are.” she took my arm and we headed outside. “So where is his house?” Erica puls her phone out to look at the address he sent her.

“It’s 1357 Westburg Ave.”

“Okay I know generally where that is we can run there, it will be faster.”

“Sounds good to me.” I lead her in the direction of the house and we shift before taking off running. When we are getting closer we shift back and make our way to the road to walk the rest of the way.

Erica’s POV

When we get to the address that Connor sent me there is one car in the driveway and one in the one stall garage. The garage seemed empty for a family that just moved in but maybe everything was in the house. There was a sign pointing to the back gate so we headed through. On the other side, there is a nice green yard with some outdoor furniture and there is a table with an array of food. One other family is already there talking with Connor and his parents but when he sees us he excuses himself and comes over to us.

“You guys made it just in time we just finished unpacking a few minutes ago.”

“Yeah wanted to leave a little early in case we would get lost.”

“Well feel free to grab some food and mingle when more people get here,” Connor says as he walks to greet more people who have just arrived.

“Well, should we eat then snoop,” Brett whispers into my ear.

“Sounds good to me.” We head over to the food table where there is a big plate of grilled chicken for chicken sandwiches along with things like lettuce and tomatoes. Brett and I skip making a sandwich and just get the meat with the extra treats to look a little less weird.

We sit down at an empty table and start to discuss what we should look for when we start investigating.

“Okay, one of the main things to pay attention to is the scent. If they are wolves they can hide it but not on everything something will smell like a wolf, but if they know wolves there would be a faint smell of them.” Brett speaks quietly hoping nobody would overhear.

“What makes you think they could be or know wolves,” I ask.

“Nothing completely makes me think that but it is just a precaution a lot of times Alpha’s don’t get this feeling unless a wolf or multiple wolves are involved.”

“Well, that is slightly disconcerting.”

“Yeah think about how I feel it could involve a member of my old pack.”

“I know I am worried about you if they are with your old pack they could be out to kill.” We sit for a while and eat and talk to a few people who come to us. They typically ask questions like ‘How do you know the family?’ Are you two siblings?′ ‘Are you dating?’ ‘Where are your parents?’ we answer politely but after a while the questions get annoying. We get up to take care of our plates then go to stand away from everybody else.

“Okay, I think the best way to go about this is to just walk in and start quietly looking around.”

“What if we get caught?” I ask voicing my concern.

“Well, then we say we were looking for the bathroom before we had to leave because it is a long walk back.”

“Alright let’s wait till everyone is distracted.” Brett nods in agreement. After a few minutes of waiting around the coast is clear, and we make our way to the back door and sneak through it without a sound.

Upon getting inside I take in the house, It was very empty. Nothing was hung on the walls, and only a single couch sat in the living room with an unusually small TV a few feet away. Brett went down a hallway I assume in the direction of the bedrooms and I moved into the kitchen. I went through the cabinets and the fridge but there wasn’t much to report minimal food in the cupboards and barely any pots or pans. It seemed almost as if nobody actually lived here. Brett came out from the hallway.

“The bedrooms only have beds and some clothes nothing to personalize it the only reason I could tell what room was what was the size of the beds.”

“That is weird there is barely anything in the kitchen as well.” we take a few minutes to quickly and quietly search the rest of the house coming up with nothing as there is nothing personal here and no extra boxes laying around anywhere that would be from unpacking. I was doing one last sweep of the living room and Brett was doing the bedrooms and bathroom. From what we have found I think Brett has a right to be wary of Connor. I was so focused on that was in front of me I didn’t hear someone come in through the back door.

“What are you doing in here?”