赤裸裸的滑稽故事

“Alpha, your phone.”

“I will call them back,” Caleb replied, continuing his work.

“It’s the same number that has called three times.”

“Number?” Caleb asked, taking the phone from his newest assistant.

It was strange to see a number on the screen. This was a private line. Only those he was close to had the number and were, therefore, already saved contacts.

“Hello?” he answered the call.

“Finally!” came the exasperated reply.

“Alice?”

“Yes! I have been trying to reach you for twenty minutes!”

“How do you even have this number?” Caleb asked.

“Please… this was nothing,” Alice sighed. “But that doesn’t matter right now.”

Caleb took a deep breath. He would make a note to talk with Axel about Alice’s information gathering techniques.

“Listen, I am out on an assignment right now,” she said.

“I know,” Caleb replied. “Axel already informed me that you are leading the investigation on the rogue wolves and that you might be in my territory. Is that why you are calling?”

“No,” she said. “I’m nowhere near you or Winter. That’s the problem.”

“What is?”

“I have been gone for four days. I check in with Axel three times a day,”

“That seems excessive,” Caleb said quietly.

“Not the point!” Alice growled. “Every day, I have made contact without issue, this morning no issue, but when I made my second call, I couldn’t get through. So I waited a little while and tried again. Nothing.”

“Maybe his phone isn’t working?”

“I tried Corrine, I tried Saul, none of the calls are going through,” she said. “I’m talking to you, so it’s not my phone that’s the issue.”

“You think there is a problem in Winter?”

“If it was some kind of scheduled maintenance of the communications systems, Axel would have told me, and you would know.”

“That’s true.”

“I need you to look into it. I’m at least a three-day trip from home.”

“I will,” Caleb replied. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Thank you,” Alice said before hanging up the phone.

A knock behind her drew her attention.

Alice turned to see a tall, thin man with deep blue hair styled with a faded undercut and tousled side part.

His thin lips curled into a smirk, and he raised a brow over his narrow eyes.

“Everything taken care of?” he asked.

“For now,” Alice smiled. “Let’s get back to work, shall we?”

***

Ashleigh set her towel in the dirty clothes hamper. She stretched her back and arms and tried to push away the tiredness she still felt.

For the past week, she had been on patrols of the outer borders every night. After they had returned home, Ashleigh and Caleb had decided it was best that Fiona continue working the administrative duties of the Luna. At least until Ashleigh was more familiar with the process. But at the moment, she was of more use to them in combat and patrol positions.

She still had another hour before she was meant to join Caleb in a war council meeting. She looked around the room for her phone. It seemed like a good time to check in with her mother on how everyone was doing. That was when she noticed her bag beside the couch.

Ashleigh sat down and pulled it over.

“Did I forget to unpack this?” she asked herself aloud.

Inside were a few clothing items and some of her extra toiletries. Nothing she would have missed since being back home. She was about to close the bag when her fingertips grazed something she didn’t recognize.

She pulled out a leather-bound book she didn’t recognize at first, and she wondered if it had been packed by accident.

Ashleigh suddenly remembered Clara’s impromptu visit to Winter. The day before Wyatt had died.

“This is Alpha Cain’s journal,” she whispered.

With all that had happened, she had completely forgotten about it. She hadn’t even told Caleb yet.

Clara and Nessa were away at Broken Crag when Ashleigh returned to Summer. There had been an attack near the mountain, and Jonas was injured. Nessa wanted to see her father after hearing about the tragic loss of Wyatt.

Ashleigh remembered how worked up Clara had seemed about the journal.

“There must be something pretty important in here,” she said.

She opened it up and began to turn the pages.

There were sketches of plants, rock formations, and animals. Small notes beside each illustration identified what it was, where he had seen it, and a few comments.

Turning a few more pages, she found a short entry that described Cain having been asked by Alpha Gorn to check into an unknown power source discovered near Spring. Looking at the date of the entry, it was roughly ten years ago.

But Ashleigh didn’t know of any power sources near Spring.

She turned the page, hoping to learn more, when the door suddenly opened wide. Ashleigh turned to see Caleb with a look of concern on his face.

Ashleigh got to her feet.

“What is it?”

“We need to return to Winter,” he said.

Ashleigh put the journal down and grabbed her pin from the top of her dresser.

“Let’s go. You can explain in the car,” she said.

Caleb shook his head.

“We’re running,” he said.

Ashleigh stopped and looked at him.

“What?”

“Taking the car, it will take us six hours to get there, as wolves, cutting over the land instead of around it like the road does, we’ll cut the time in half,” he said. “I’ve already sent a team in the trucks with instructions to floor it and run once they reach the halfway point.”

“What’s happening, Caleb? Why the rush? Why are we sending a team to Winter?” Ashleigh asked, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

“We don’t know yet,” he said. “Alice called when she couldn’t get through to anyone–”

“Wait, Alice?” Ashleigh asked. “She’s not there?”

“She was on assignment from Axel to investigate the rogues. But, look, that doesn’t matter right now.”

“You’re right,” Ashleigh nodded. “So, what happened?”

“Communications with Winter have been lost. I checked the logs for the defense systems from before the communications loss. Everything looked fine at first glance but looking closer, there are pockets along the fence that have had the power turned off.”

“Winter is under attack?!” Ashleigh shouted.

“If they aren’t already, they will be soon.”