The Unsuspecting

Chapter 14

*Annabelle's POV*

    I just got out of that awful town and was hoping to not go back there until I had to. I moved as far away as I was financially able to. Many of the smaller colleges will provide in-state tuition to their neighboring states as a way to acquire more students, which meant I only moved one state over. So the drive back is only 5 hours, but it's far enough that no others students in my high school would want to go to college here and none of my relatives would even consider a surprise visit. Not that any of my relatives would ever consider it besides my grandma on the dad's side. 

    My family has always been a little different compared to everyone else's. We didn't hug very much and mostly just did everything in our power to make sure our parents stayed happy. With 6 kids in the house, tempers had a habit of rising quickly especially when it came to me. All throughout high school, I joined nearly every club I possibly could and worked around 28 hours a week at the local restaurant. There were times when I wouldn't see my parents for a full week, which is exactly what I wanted. During the summers I always worked two jobs so I was out of the house at 6 am and wasn't coming back until around 11 pm. 

    It's not that my family is abusive, they just aren't supportive and have a tendency to bring up all of your past mistakes anytime they're angry. They're always very cordial when non family members are nearby though, so maybe having Sean come along will help out. I don't think they changed my room at all, so at least we won't have to sleep in the living room. They're also really relaxed about boyfriends spending the night. They let my younger sister have her boyfriend spend entire weekends at the house.

    The group had continued speaking about the people who had almost kidnapped me while I was thinking about my trip back home.

    "... it's written in Enochian so it's going to take time to translate, but I'm sure whatever prophecy they're trying to stop is probably mentioned somewhere in here. Though that is just a guess, but it looks like the witch's version of her magical journal. Similar to how scientists keep track of all their thoughts and experiments, witches keep track of possible spells and antidotes, so if she really is trying to stop something, then it's probably in here. We'll probably start working on translating the last 10 pages she had written since it's the most recent then work backwards." Nelly says as she flips through an old looking journal with a leather cover. 

    "How long do you think it'll take to translate?" Alpha Derek asks in a commanding tone.

    "Well Enochian is a really old language used among angels and demons, so it might take a while depending on how much the elder witches know. Otherwise we're gonna have to hit the books and look up each individual symbol and speculate from there since they might have multiple meanings. This could honestly take years. It might be best to assume we won't be able to translate it in time and just come up with a plan that doesn't rely on this journal." She says to Alpha Derek like she doesn't care at all about disappointing him. "And if we do translate it in time, then it'll be a happy surprise!" She adds a little jokingly to lift the mood. I really like how she always seems to be so up beat about everything. And since she isn't in the werewolf pack she seems to always act however she wants because she knows how valuable she is to them. It's also an interesting dynamic because she appears to be only slightly younger than I am and has already been able to gain this level of confidence and respect. 

    Alpha Derek grunts in a slightly amused way then says, "It doesn't look like there's much else for us to do here without any additional information. Looks like we need to inform the other races to be on the look out. I'm gonna write some letters explaining everything then we'll send them out to the elves, vampires, fairies, and the children of Bast. Haylee would you mind carrying that letter for us?"

    "Absolutely, I need to go home and talk to my family anyway." Haylee says as she sends a look in Tommy's direction. 

    "What's a child of Bast?" I ask. I was familiar with variations of all the other species that were mentioned but I had never heard of this one.

    "Bastet is a Goddess that was commonly worshipped in Egypt. She gifted all of her children the ability to transform into different variations of cats because they are the most cunning animal. The type of cat depended on the personality traits of the individual, but generally it's the same as your parents. Which makes sense because people often get their personality traits from their parents, but every now and then there is a large variation due to how they grew up." Haylee explained.

    Curiosity got to the better of me and I couldn't stop myself from asking, "What type of cat do you transform into?" 

    Haylee froze a little and looked around the room with a slight hesitation as if she didn't want the werewolf pack to know. I looked around as well and they all seemed just as curious as I had been. Eventually her gaze goes back to me and replies, "I'm a lioness."

    Gasps erupt throughout the room and everything goes completely silent. I'd guess that this is probably pretty rare. Lions are generally considered to be the king of the jungle so that means she's probably considered to be a pretty important person due to this. 

    Alpha Derek clears his throat to get everyone's attention, "I'm going to write these letters then Tommy and Haylee will distribute them. Nelly you will give that book to the elder witches and help them with decoding. Sean and Bell rest up and leave tomorrow morning and learn as much possible about your heritage and try to get your dark hunter side activated. Jax get some of our best trackers to search for any other demons that might also be searching the city with one of those compasses. It's unlikely that these three are the only one's who were searching for Bell. Maybe take Alec with you, he seems to be getting stir crazy with being stuck on our land and could use the experience. And Ben, will you go down to the dungeons and interrogate our prisoners for anymore information." he says the final part to the stoic man who's been standing slightly behind him this entire time. "Meeting adjourned." He says in his commanding tone and everyone stands up and immediately starts to leave the room. 

    Sean ushers me out and we wait for Tommy and Haylee in the hallway. They weren't far behind us, so we didn't have to wait very long. Tommy immediately led went down the hallway to the right with Haylee's hand in his, and we just followed. As long as I was near Sean I didn't really care were we went.

    We did receive a few looks from others as we crossed paths with a few of their pack members. The men seemed to be curious, but the girls looked envious. Haylee seemed to keep her head high and didn't acknowledge any of them. When their gaze went to me though, I always avoided eye contact and walked a little closer to Sean as if he could shield me. 

    Eventually we entered a large kitchen with a crazed middle aged woman mixing something by hand in a large metal bowl and a smaller girl around 14 years old putting away some clean dishes. The middle aged woman looked up as she heard us enter and immediately slammed the bowl onto the flour covered island and rushed over to us with her arms wide open. 

    "My boys! You finally brought your mates!" She yelled in an over zealous way as she grabbed Haylee in a bear-like hug. Haylee kept her hands at her sides as she glared at Tommy. Tommy was grinning at them as the middle aged woman started rocking back and forth from one side to the other. I slipped a little behind Sean as a way to put a bit of distance between us. 

    "Sorry Agnes, they were really busy with classes. We couldn't bring them to meet everyone until the weekend." Tommy says and Agnes finally stops hugging Haylee and holds onto her at arms length. "Haylee and Bell, this is Agnes she cooks for the entire pack and without her we would all be dead from starvation. She's my mom's cousin and over there is Sarah, her daughter who also helps out in the kitchen." Sarah gives us a small wave as she continues to place all the dishes in their designated cupboards. 

    "Well are you all hungry? I didn't see you at dinner. We still have some leftover spaghetti if you want some." Agnes says before she goes over to the industrial sized fridge and starts getting out the leftovers. 

    "I am starving!" Tommy exclaims and the rest of us just nod in agreement. I was honestly barely able to continue standing because I was so hungry. 

    "I'll put it in the microwave and bring it all out to the dining room when it's done." She said and we all went through a couple of swinging doors to the left. It led to a large dining room with four long tables that could probably fit around 30 people at each one. The set up reminded me of the dining halls you would find at camp. There was also plenty of room on the sides so you could move around easily and could also add additional tables if you wanted to add a buffet and you would still have room to walk around. We sat at the end of the closest table so Agnes didn't have to carry the food out too far. Tommy and Haylee sat on one side of the table and Sean and I sat on the other. 

    I unconsciously rested my head onto Sean's shoulder and pulled his hand into my lap so I could play with his fingers. We all just sat there as we worked through everything that just happened. Though I have a feeling that I'm the one with the most to work through. I just learned that my boyfriend and his best friend is a werewolf and my roommate can turn into a lion. Also I'm not even human. I'm supposed to be like supernatural police officer, but I can barely run a hundred meters without being winded. They did say that one of my family members would be able to tell me how to activate my gene so that doesn't happen, but which family member is it? Does that mean my siblings are going to be dark hunters too? I can't image little Cole growing up to kill demons or even Kelsey who's only two years younger than me. I don't know if I want them to know. But if I never told them, then they might find themselves in the same predicament that I'm in right now. I can't worry about them too much right now though. I'm gonna get all the facts first and tell them when it's all over. And honestly if they don't want to be a dark hunter then all they have to do is never activate their gene. Neither of my parents seem to have any overly athletic qualities, so maybe they never activated their genes. Or maybe they're like me and didn't even know it was an option. Maybe I need to look a little closer to my grandparents instead. 

    My focus goes back to Sean's hand in mine and I align our hands so I can compare their sizes. My eyes widen a little as I see how small my hands are compared to his. I hear him chuckle as he's probably thinking the same thing. I turn my head slightly so I can see his face. He's already grinning at me and says, "You have really tiny hands."

    I back up a little and become defensive immediately, "No, you just have the hands of a giant that make mine appear to be small. I am average sized for a girl." I defend, though it's a complete lie because last I checked the average woman is around 5'5" and I'm about two or three inches short of that. Sean raises his other hand in a defensive "you win" kind of way and it makes me so happy that he didn't continue fighting me on it. 

    Across the table Tommy heard our conversation and pipes in, "You know what they say about men with large hands." Haylee immediately sits up straighter and pushes Tommy off the seat and he lands on his stomach on the floor. He groans a little and slowly stands back up. 

    Before he can say anything, Agnes shows up with two large bowls in her hands. As she sets them on the table we can see one has the spaghetti noodles and another had some spaghetti sauce. Then Sarah shows up with the plates, silverware, napkins, and a bowl with garlic bread. "We'll be back with some water."

    Everyone immediately dug into the food. I had been starving and apparently everyone else was just as hungry as I had been. Sean and Tommy had heaping plates that looked like they could feed three people and they ate all of it. I sat there in astonishment as I saw them grab seconds then looked over to Haylee to see if she noticed too. She did and had an amused look on her face.

    After a few jokes about the boy's eating so much, we decided to head to bed because we all had stuff to get done tomorrow.