always come up with the best plans,” he chuckled lovingly. Then he held up a hand, no wind this time as if he was feeling for something in the air. “Got it.” I watched as he reached out and pulled on a mounted candlestick and one of the bookshelves slid to the side and revealed a hiding panel that moved back with a loud stone grinding sound.
We stepped inside but couldn’t see anything. I pulled Wes back out, not wanting him to go in alone, and called out for Slate.
“We need the flashlight,” I explained as he jogged into the room. “Wesley found something.”
“ Yeah he did,” Levey exclaimed excitedly. “I always wanted to go in a secret passage. Oh my god this is so cool.”
“Anyone else feel like the Scooby gang except we’re all wolves?” Bay drawled as he looked around the doorway.
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” I chuckled as I turned on the flashlight and stepped into the room, holding Wesley back slightly. “Fuck me sideways.”
“Yeah, I second that,” Slate gasped as we took in the room. It was full of gold, jewels, and all kinds of treasures. In the middle was an easel with another note.
The house is open to all wolves in need, to always be run by an Omega to make sure that no one with ill will or harboring evil wishes comes to this safe haven. Use what you want of the house, make it your own, but destroy or throw out nothing because it is our history. Except this room. This room is for my son if he is ever to be found. This is his inheritance. Touch it not unless you are pure of heart and truly want to find him when I could not so that he might be reunited with his history. Touch it or take it for self-gain and my ghost will haunt you always until you go mad.
“I don’t understand,” Wesley whispered as he stepped closer to the easel. “His son was lost? How do you lose a kid?”
“You don’t,” Slate said sadly. “You lose a child when they die or are taken. Since the note seems to imply the son is alive, I’d say this poor guy had his son kidnapped from him.”
“We have to find him,” Wesley gasped as he looked around the room. “There’s got to be a way we can find his son. He needs to know this is where he truly comes from.”
“Wes, we don’t know how long ago this note was even written,” I said gently. “We don’t know if the son is alive or dead. And you already are trying to take over the free world so it truly is free for wolves. How are you going to add this to your plate?”
“We have to try,” he whispered as he stared at me with big eyes. “Brody’s working on leads for more bloodline Omegas and we’ve got one right here now. He can put this to the top of his list. We can make this work.”
“Okay,” Bay sighed after we all shared a look. “You’ve got that pouty determined look. We can look through what the guy left us but we’re not traipsing all over the world on some ghost chase. We’ll see what we can do with the information he left but no more massive missions. You’ve got enough going on, we all do.”
“Deal,” Wesley agreed excitedly. He glanced around the easel and smiled when he pulled out a file folder. “We keep this room secret for now. We don’t know who else is here on the island with us.”
“You felt something?” Bay asked as he glanced around nervously and Slate had the gun back out in a flash.
We filled him in as we left the room, making sure everything was put back just as we’d found it. Levey still looked like he was going to burst at the seams with excitement over the whole thing.
“Now we just need to find a treasure map and go hunting with shovels,” he chuckled as he rubbed his hands together in glee.
“Sorry,” Slate drawled as he held up the folder they’d found under the rug. “All we have here is a map of the house, which rooms are ready for guests, and what needs fixing. Lennox is going to have some fun with this. One of the stoves is out according to this and it says it’s
Darrin Zeer, Cindy Luu (illustrator)