Chapter Text
The air that brushed Washington’s face was brisk, but it being September in California it was a welcome feeling. Washington had just arrived in the small town of Blood Gulch and was gazing over it from an overlook just outside the town. So far his investigation had led him to many dead ends and even more dead bodies for it wasn’t easy work what he had to do.
His quiet contemplation was interrupted by the ringing of his cellphone.
“Hello,” Washington answered.
“Good morning, Agent Washington,” the cool voice of a woman said over the line. “We have been informed that you have made it to Blood Gulch, is that correct?”
“Yes, I arrived not too long ago.”
“Okay, then we would like to remind you to proceed with caution, there is no telling how much power has already been accumulated and the local pack is not to be given any more information than absolutely necessary. Do you understand?”
Washington rolled his eyes. This was not the first time he was hearing this warning. Obviously, he was well aware of the severity of his current mission, but he had no reason to be anything more than obedient. For now.
“I understand. I will be making my way into the town and locating the local pack now.”
“Good luck,” The voice on the phone said before the line went dead.
Washington let out a slow breath, trying to acclimate himself to the feeling of this place. There was certainly something in the air that held the promise of magic and he was sure this would be the place he finally found some answers. Unfortunately, he knew a lot of what he could find was dependent on the local pack and he wasn’t looking forward to having to wrestle answers out of them. But whatever may come he would deal with it.
Washington blinked up at the large house. Beyond even the size, which definitely made it fall into the category of ‘small mansion’, Washington couldn’t really believe this was where the local pack lived. Sure it was big enough for a group of werewolves, but that didn’t really change the fact that it was kind of falling apart and had clear burn marks along the sides. There had been a fire long ago, but still the packed lived there without having completely fixed the house back up.
Washington shook off his confusion and made his way to the doorbell, but was stopped by the feeling of a trip wire pulling at his ankle. Washington could have smacked himself, unsure why he had let his guard down for even a second and not checked for traps. However, as he readied himself to either dodge or defend from whatever attacked him he was once again struck by surprise as a cardboard cutout flipped out from behind the tree to his right.
The cutout was shaped like a fairly unrealistic werewolf, just like the ones from fairytales and kids' books, nothing like the true monsters Washington knew too well.
“Stop right there, no good trespasser,” a recorded voice said from behind the cutout and Washington felt his jaw drop open.
“Seriously?” He asked no one.
He looked around for whatever trap must be coming after the cutout had jumped out as a distraction. But when nothing happened Washington felt his shoulders sag in relief and disbelief. His next steps were made with more care than his first and he managed to make his way to the door without triggering anymore, but his confidence in actually gathering any information was suddenly feeling much less hopeful.
Pushing down those unhelpful thoughts, Washington knocked firmly on the door and braced himself for another strange happenstance. Instead, all that happened was some grumbling that could be heard inside and then a few seconds later the door swung open.
“Oh, you’re not pizza,” the red-haired, tall, and lanky man who opened the door said.
Washington looked down at himself, “No, I’m afraid I’m not.”
“What do you want then?” The man asked, looking more bored than anything.
Washington examined the man again, taking in his baggy sweatpants and the easy way he leaned against the doorframe. If this was a werewolf he didn’t seem to care much about his instincts, or maybe he didn’t think Washington was a threat. Someone in the house had to be aware of the potential danger because they did have the cardboard trap at the edge of the property. Weak as it was, it showed preparation for something.
“I wanted to speak with your alpha,” Washington said.
That got the man’s attention, as he straightened immediately and his gaze sharpened, looking Washington up and down with more hostility than before.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man lied and Washington wanted to roll his eyes.
“If you’re going to lie then you should probably try to hide that fact before you do,” Washington said, which caused the man to glower even more. “Listen,” Washington continued before the man could interrupt, “I just want a little information and then I won’t bother you again.”
Washington could see that the man didn’t seem to believe that, but for some reason, he did turn his body partially to call into the house, “Sarge, someone is here to speak with you, sir.”
The use of ‘sir’ caught Washington’s attention as most packs had some form of ranking, just due to the fact that they had an alpha, but usually, the attitudes between packmates were kept more casual. If their alpha was making them call him sir then Washington worried about how difficult this werewolf would be. And nothing he had run into up until this point made him feel any more optimistic.
A man who was much older than the first, if Washington could go by his greying hair and the few wrinkles lining his face, appeared in the doorway.
“Who the hell are you?” the question revealed a gruff southern accent and an instant dislike of Washington himself, though that wasn’t surprising.
Weighing his options, Washington decided on the thing closest to the truth, “I’m Agent Washington and I’ve been sent by the government to investigate some of the recent deaths in the area.”
Sarge narrowed his eyes and, without looking away from Washington, addressed the first man, “Simmons head upstairs and let the others know about our new arrival.”
Simmons left without a word and Washington knew it was a message to him as well, there were other werewolves in the building and Washington wouldn’t be able to do anything without them being aware of it as well. That was fine with Washington, he hoped that whatever happened it wouldn’t lead to a fight of any kind, for all their sakes.
Once the sound of footsteps faded up the rickety stairs, Sarge turned back to Washington, “an agent, huh? With a state name and all that?”
Washington felt his heart sink. If these weres knew another state named agent then he was unlikely to be able to get away with his ‘government agent’ stick. But Washington refused to give anything away on his end and could only hope he would get lucky with these people.
“Is there something significant about that?” Washington asked, keeping his face impassive.
Sarge ignored his question, “so you say you’re investigating these recent murders. And you think that we had something to do with that? That why you here Agent?”
“No,” Washington said calmly, “I merely wanted to speak to the local pack before I began investigating further. I have a good idea of what the actual cause is and I don’t have any reason to believe you are at fault. If you just answer my questions I’ll leave and you won’t see me again.”
That only being the case if Washington didn’t find anything to make him think these wolves were involved, but he wasn’t going to mention that.
Sarge grumbled, “I don’t believe you Mr. Agent man if that is your real name.”
“Um, it’s not–”
“And I don’t see any reason to trust you with anything let alone my information.”
“If you would just listen to my questions–”
“So, I think it would be best if you mosied off my land right quick.”
Washington was not a fan of being interrupted and he could feel the vein in his head twitching, but he hadn’t expected this to be easy.
“Do you know the location of the Nemeton?” Washington asked quickly.
That seemed to give the man pause as his jaw snapped shut, but the question didn’t seem to earn any favors for Washington because the look Sarge gave him was filled with malice.
“What in the hell do you know about that?”
Washington wasn’t happy to have to show part of his hand so early, but at least it was getting him results of some kind.
“Not much, which is why I’m here,” Washington said crossing his arms.
“You’re working with those dirty blues aren’t you?”
“Excuse me?” Washington asked, completely taken aback.
“Those dirty blues of course! The other pack! They’re the ones who are all involved in that Neme–whatsa–thingy. I can’t believe you would come to my pack asking impertinent questions when you are already working with the enemy!”
“There’s another pack of werewolves in Blood Gulch?” Washington asked, there had been absolutely no information on them in the Mother of Invention’s archives. “Where are they? Why is there no log of them?”
“Ah,” Sarge said as he cleared his throat with an awkward cough. Clearly, he hadn’t meant to give Washington that information, which cemented it as the truth in his head. “Well, they aren’t really a pack per se, just a group of traitors who refused to join me in my pack here. There’s really no reason to be notifying the government about some pathetic blues.”
Washington gaped at him, “You’re saying there are packless werewolves wandering around your town?” This just kept getting more and more unbelievable. “And you think the government doesn’t need to know about the most volatile form of werewolf?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, they usually stay pretty low radar until one of you nasty agents starts poking around.”
“Which agent has been here before?” Washington asked, dropping all pretense.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Sarge exclaimed, “but you won’t be able to buddy up with your pal Tex, she’s long gone.”
“Agent Texas? ” Washington asked in disbelief. He hadn’t known Agent Texas well himself, but from what he had heard about her, she was one of the most dangerous and lethal of his group and he couldn’t understand how there were any werewolves left in Blood Gulch at all if Agent Texas had been here.
“Uh-oh,” Sarge looked properly chided. But the self-flagellation didn’t last long and his face turned back to the dislike he had been wearing for a while, “I think it’s time you left blue.”
And before Washington could say another word the door slammed in his face. He had half a mind to just break down the door and intimidate these werewolves into telling him what he wanted to know. But he knew that wouldn’t go the way he wanted it to, being unsure how many werewolves were currently inside, and that it would make any future information he hoped to gain from them a lot harder to retrieve.
Instead, Washington turned around and made his way off the property and out of the woods that held the house. Perhaps the encounter didn’t go the way he wished it would, but he had gained some unexpected information.
All he needed to do now was find these supposed ‘blues.’
This proved harder than Washington had thought without access to any information on these werewolves, but he wasn’t an accomplished Hunter for nothing.
The first thing to do when tracking supernatural creatures was always to find the places in an area where inexplicable things happened. When dealing with werewolves the super strength and reflexes usually meant that they were attracted to sports and anywhere they could excel physically. But only a little research told Washington that there was very little chance that these werewolves were taking part in the local sports teams because none of the local sports teams were known for doing any better than not losing every match they took part in.
Washington figured that they must be keeping themselves more hidden than that, or at least he hoped that was the reason. After his encounter with Sarge, Washington couldn’t assume anything these people did made any sense at all.
Whether it was from laying low or some other motivation, Washington didn’t have any other leads to follow. He decided to walk around the town and get a feel for the place and simply hope that he found something. He was luckier than expected.
The town was smaller than he expected, especially for a place that once had a family of born werewolves and apparently one and a half packs. There was a large grocery store, a small movie theater, three schools one for elementary, junior high, and high school, a fairly rundown motel, and a main street with some restaurants and local mom and pop shops. Other than that though there wasn’t much else besides the required government businesses of hospital, police station, fire station, and library. As far as things to do in the town Washington wasn’t able to find much and couldn’t think where these wolves would be gathered and Washington wasn’t going to investigate every house surrounding the town.
Just as Washington was thinking of calling it for the day and checking into the motel after getting dinner he ran into one of those strange occurrences he had been looking for before.
A large man was knelt down by the side of a car, reaching his arm under and calling for what Washington could only assume was a cat or dog. It was innocuous enough that the man was nearly out of sight before Washington stopped in his tracks and did a double-take.
The man was holding half of the car off the ground with one hand and picking the cat up with the other.
Washington’s mouth fell open.
Looks like he found a werewolf.
It was hard to fathom that the werewolf would be so stupid to use his clearly inhuman powers in the middle of the street, but Washington supposed he was the only person there and it may be hard for the guy to see him from where he was standing. Washington wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, however, and would just take it that luck was on his side for once.
Not sure of the best way to approach this person, Washington decided to follow the guy as far as he could without getting caught.
Apparently, that was very far because the man never seemed to become aware of Washington’s presence or that he was even being followed, which was unusual for a werewolf, even a bad one. The man took him right up to a house that was just a ways out of town, but not as surrounded by forest as the local pack’s home was. It was much smaller and looked to be more like a regular 3-bedroom than the almost mansion of the other home. The outside was painted a light blue and Washington considered vaguely if this was why Sarge had called them ‘blues.’
The man seemed confused by his own front door when it didn’t open when he twisted the doorknob. Instead of pulling out keys, he started banging on the door calling to someone inside.
“Church! Church, I think the door’s broken again, it’s not letting me in.”
Washington moved closer, staying just off the edge of the property so he could hear what the person inside called back.
“It’s not fucking broken you moron, it’s locked!”
“Um, then could you make it not… that?”
“Oh my God,” the one inside exclaimed and followed by an exasperated sigh, “Why do you even have a key if you don’t know how to use it.”
The door opened a minute later and a pale man with short black hair, a small amount of stubble, and rectangular glasses perched on his nose. Washington moved up the path as quietly as he could while the man inside was distracted by scolding the bigger man.
“What the fuck is that? You did not bring home another goddamn stray, did you? Caboose I told you we can’t keep any pets here, especially not cats.”
That caught Washington’s attention and took that to mean he had found the right place.
“Just get inside,” Church said, interrupting Caboose’s pleading. “We’ll take it to the shelter later.”
Before the door could close Washington stepped up in front of the two men and made his presence known.
“Excuse me,” he called.
“Who the fuck is this guy?” Church asked when he turned back to look at Washington with a sneer.
“I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.”
“Excuse me? Whatever you’re selling we’re not interested,” Church said, starting to close the door again.
“No, I’m not selling anything. I saw Caboose here pick up that cat and I just had a few questions,” Washington said. He was trying to keep his intentions as vague as he could before they slammed the door in his face, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last.
“Uh-oh,” Caboose said. The look on his face made it clear he was at least slightly aware of the fact that he shouldn’t use his supernatural abilities where other people could see him. Washington guessed that Church had probably told him this more than once.
Church turned back to Caboose and looked at him sharply, “What did you do?”
“She wouldn’t come to me Church! Even though I called really nice and soft, just like Doc told me. So, I just helped her out a bit,” Caboose said, he was worrying his hands together.
“What the fuck did you do?” Church asked again.
“He lifted a car with one hand,” Washington interrupted. “It was very impressive.”
Church whirled on him, “So what you thought you could come here and get some money for your fucking silence? Well too bad, bitch, we don’t have any money.”
Washington was getting real tired of people assuming things about him, “I don’t care about your money, all I want is a little information.”
Church raised an eyebrow, “What the hell makes you think I would tell you anything? You trying to blackmail us?”
Washington let out a long sigh, “No. My name is Agent Washington and I’m here to investigate the recent murders.”
If Washington had been hoping to ease the man’s tension he was sorely mistaken as Church stiffened and his face became mutinous.
“What the fuck makes you think we would say anything to a hunter?”
And there it was, proof that these local werewolves knew about his organization and what they did. Any hope he had of actually getting these weres to cooperate went sailing down the drain.
“What made you work with Agent Texas?” Washington said. He figured mentioning Agent Texas had a 50/50 chance of getting him any other information.
Church’s eyes widened a fraction, “what do you know about Tex?”
“We worked together for a short period in the program,” not quite a lie, they had both been on the same mission once, but it was definitely a stretch to say they worked together, “and I figure any werewolf that can trust Agent Texas is someone who can at least hear me out.”
Church’s eyes narrowed at Washington, but he seemed to have hit the right pressure point as he looked like he was finally starting to begrudgingly relax a fraction.
However, before either of them could say any more a voice called out from behind Washington, “This is private property.”
Washington whirled at the voice and took in the man who spoke. He was dark-skinned and had dreads pulled into a ponytail at the back of his head, though the sides were shaved close. What stood out the most though were the intricate tattoos that worked their way down his arms and neck and Washington could only assume they continued past where his clothes covered them. Washington had heard of werewolves getting tattoos but the process was so painful they only ever got a few small ones. So, either this man was capable of sitting through immense pain or he wasn’t a werewolf.
“Excuse me?” Washington asked.
“You heard me. This is private property and we’re not interested in whatever religious bullshit you’re trying to sell to us.” The man crossed his arms in defiance, which seemed a little difficult since he was carrying two large bags of groceries.
“I’m not selling anything, religious or otherwise. I just want to talk to the blue pack. Sarge said they could help me with my investigation.” Once again a small lie as Sarge had certainly not meant to tell Washington about the blues, but he wasn’t going to tell them that.
“Sarge sent you?” the man asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.
“He said you knew more about the Nemeton than their pack.”
At the mention of the Nemeton, the new man stiffened and looked past Washington to Church still standing in the doorway. The two exchanged some wordless communication that Washington couldn’t read and eventually Church addressed Washington again.
“You might as well come inside if you’re going to be dropping names like that so casually out in public.”
Church turned around and headed inside, leaving the door open as an invitation for Washington to follow. Part of Washington wanted to point out how Caboose was the one who had been showing off werewolf strength on a very public street where anyone could have seen him but knew better than to antagonize them.
Washington followed Church inside and knew the other man was behind him when he heard the door close. He hoped he didn’t regret walking directly into a werewolf’s den.
“Sit,” Church said once they got to the living room where three mismatched couches were surrounding a fair-sized T.V. that seemed to have every kind of gaming system plugged into it. The space had a genuine feeling of lived-in-ness and nothing that outwardly showed that this was a house filled with werewolves.
Washington sat on the smallest of the couches but didn’t say anything when Church and the other man didn’t sit as well. He figured it was better to let them think they had the upper hand for now.
“Now, you are going to fucking explain what you know about the Nemeton, werewolves, and Agent Texas,” Church said, crossing his arms.
“Seriously dude?” The other guy asked. “Are you still obsessing over her?”
“Shut up Tucker,” Church hissed. “We need to know everything we can about these agents and what side this guy is on.”
Washington narrowed his eyes at that. He wasn’t sure he liked the prospect of having to prove his loyalty to these people if that was what they were implying.
“Well, I already told you, my name is Agent Washington and I was sent here to investigate the recent murders. I have been told that the Nemeton that has been dormant in this town for eons has recently been activated and that that is attracting different kinds of supernatural creatures to your town.”
“Who told you about the Nemeton?” the one called Tucker asked, sounding defensive.
Washington scowled. He knew at this point admitting to anything that showed he was a hunter would probably be the end of the line of questioning these two, but he also felt anything inaccurate would be caught too quickly and lead to the same results. So, he tried for a middle ground.
“My organization has many records of supernatural activity, especially when something this powerful is reawakened. You do understand that the activation of the Nemeton will lead to more creatures of all kinds being attracted to this area and has already shown an increase in threat to your town,” Washington was trying to keep his voice reasonable, but the other two still flinched at the information. “Did you know the victim?”
“No!” Church exclaimed, “and we’re the ones asking the questions here.”
“But why do you want to know about the Nemeton?” Tucker pressed, “that old dumb tree didn’t kill that hiker.”
“No, but whatever killed that hiker was most likely brought to this town because of the Nemeton and there’s no telling what’s next,” Washington said, looking hard at Tucker, who fidgeted a little nervously.
“Thanks for the info, but we’ll handle it,” Church said, his eyes hard.
“Oh, so you know what attacked the hiker?” Washington asked with a raised eyebrow.
That made Church scowl at him and cross his arms, “no, not exactly. Are you saying you do?”
Washington nodded slowly, “I believe I know exactly what’s here and that you don’t really have any hope of stopping it from what I’ve seen.”
Church scoffed, “What the hell do you know?”
“I know that this thing has killed many agents like myself so far, better agents even. I know that even Agent Texas would have trouble with this because I know that it’s not alone.”
That made both of them go still. Concern and suspicion radiated off of Church when he said Tex’s name and Tucker looked like he was on the verge of believing Washington, but something was keeping him guarded.
“How do you know all of this?” Tucker asked.
That was a dangerous question. The two already guessed that he was a hunter, probably from meeting Tex even once, but Washington worried that the two would shut down if they knew just how deep in this he was. Washington examined Tucker, trying to figure out just how much information the man would need before he started to give things away himself.
“I’ve seen what they’re capable of,” Washington said. “I was in charge of clean up if you want to call it that. These things have killed more than one very capable hunter already and if they’re following the signal of the Nemeton then they are probably looking for power. There’s no telling what they could do if they could harness the power of the Nemeton.”
Tucker narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t look skeptical. In fact, Washington couldn’t make much out on his face, but he had a feeling that this guy was specifically protective of the Nemeton for whatever reason. The unknown information made his skin itch with the need to ask more, but he knew better than to start prying too early. But if there was some information that would help Washington complete his mission he was planning on figuring it out one way or another.
After a long pause and some glances between Church and Tucker, Church finally said, “Let’s say everything you’re saying is true and we believe you, what do you actually want from us? Clearly, you don’t think we can take on this big bad of yours. So, what exactly do you want us to do?”
“I told you I just want some information. Have you seen or heard of anything suspicious that might give me a clue about where these things are? Do you know the location of the Nemeton? Are there any hunters in this town that you know of? Like is Agent Texas still here?” Washington asked, trying to stick to the most vital of his questions, but so many more bubbled to the surface in hopes of learning more about these two very strange packs.
“What you don’t have trackers on all your fellow agents or something?” Church asked voice hard.
“And there’s no way we’re telling you where the Nemeton is,” Tucker said. “That shit is way more important than a hunter could ever understand, you’d probably just try and break it or something.”
“But you do know where it is?” Washington asked quickly and Tucker’s face pulled back in surprise then he cursed under his breath.
But whatever Tucker thought Washington was going to do with that information it wasn’t actually malicious. If one of these wolves knew where the Nemeton was then they were probably in a lot of danger, at least if that fact leaked to anyone else. Washington was pretty sure he could complete his actual mission without needing to know where the Nemeton was, but he didn’t want to leave the town until he was sure it was under proper protection.
“And no I don’t have any access or tracking of Agent Texas, she is entirely her own person now,” Washington added to the raised hackles of Church. “I just know how strong a fighter she is and would welcome her help if it came to a full-scale fight. Any other hunters could be of help as well unless you all are hiding from them, then they could be a danger to my mission overall.”
Both men looked at Washington skeptically, clearly not accepting his explanation.
Church spoke up first, “I’m surprised at the balls on you, Washington, coming into a fucking werewolf’s home to ask about hunters. Like I would actually tell you about local hunters that you could team up with to attack us.”
“I have no interest in you, as long as you aren’t killing anyone then I see no reason to interfere with whatever it is you have going on,” Washington said, looking between the two men with slight confusion. He still didn’t know anything about this pack. Because of his intelligence information he knew the other pack had three betas and an alpha, the alpha had been born a werewolf and had gone a very long time without causing any problems. The betas had been turned recently, but had joined Sarge’s pack without fuss and were also keeping a low profile within the bounds of hunter information. Suddenly, Washington realized something.
“Wait a minute, were you turned at the same time as the other betas?” Washington asked and Church bristled. “Why didn’t you register like they did? Or join their pack as well?”
Surprisingly, Tucker snorted, “That last one is easy, Tex wouldn’t keep dating him if he joined their pack, but look how well that worked out.”
Washington blinked rapidly, surely he had misheard.
“You dated Agent Texas?”
Church glared, “I don’t see how that’s your fucking business.”
“I just can’t believe it,” Washington said, and then he realized how that sounded, “that Agent Texas would ever date a werewolf. She never seemed too fond of them.”
“Well, he wasn’t a werewolf when they started dating,” Tucker added helpfully.
“So, you were turned recently,” Washington said, snapping his fingers as he slowly put the pieces of the puzzle together.
“Stop giving him information Tucker,” Church hissed. “What are you going to do, add me to your stupid database?”
Before Washington could answer the front door slammed open, and he flinched. Not sure what he was expecting, but whatever it was it was not a short, round, tan-skinned girl with long brown hair that had bright blond streaks through it. The energy she entered the room with was loud and strong, Washington almost felt like he was going to get pushed backward.
“Sup sluts!” The woman yelled, and both of the men jumped even though they must have known her if she entered their house so easily.
“Jesus Christ Kai,” Tucker said. “You know you could open the door like a normal person right?”
“I know, but I like my way better,” Kai said grinning. “Who the fuck is this?” She asked once she looked over and saw Washington sitting on the couch.
“Agent Washington,” Church said and the malice was evident in his voice.
“What is he a cop?” She asked, leaning into Washington’s personal space.
“No, he’s a hunter,” Church said.
“Actually–” Washington started, but was interrupted by Kai.
“A hunter? That’s worse than a cop!”
“I’m not–”
“Why the fuck did you let a hunter in here?” Kai continued. “Does Dex know?”
“Well, apparently Sarge told him to come here so I’m guessing Grif knows,” Tucker answered.
“What the fuck? So much for protecting me, asshole.”
“Well, technically he was trying to protect you from werewolves not from hunters cause they’re human.”
“Wait, aren’t you all werewolves?” Washington asked, but no one heard him over the din of everyone else speaking.
“Still, that bastard, what the fuck.”
“Oh my god quiet!” Church yelled and that seemed to work, except for Caboose.
“I want to be included so I am also yelling! Oh, we stopped,” Caboose shouted. Washington hadn’t seen when he had come into the room.
“Kai listen, we only let this guy in because he already had too much information and we wanted to see what else he knew.”
Tucker snorted, “yeah and he said the magic word.”
“Thank you? Wait I mean please!” Caboose said.
“No, ‘Tex’.”
“Shut up Tucker,” Church growled.
“So he’s like your badass ex-girlfriend? She was hot,” Kai then turned to examine Washington, “I guess you’re pretty hot too, for a cop!”
“I’m not a cop!” Washington exclaimed.
“That’s just what she calls hunters really,” Tucker said with a wave of his hand.
“Well, I’m not really a hunter either.”
“You’re not?” Tucker asked.
“But you were part of Project Freelancer,” Church accused.
“Yes, but I don’t… do that, anymore,” Washington said, fidgeting under all of their gazes. He didn’t like being the only one sitting now that two more people had entered the room.
“Then what are you doing here?” Tucker asked skeptically. “Aren’t you here to fight those big bads who are killing people?”
“Yes,” Washington said, but he didn’t know how to explain and he wasn’t even sure why he brought this up to these small-time werewolves, who maybe weren’t werewolves at all when he hadn’t even properly defined it for himself yet.
“So, what the hell would you call this?” Tucker asked.
Washington looked up and made eye contact with the man when he answered, “Tying up loose ends.”
Tucker didn’t say anything, but Washington thought he saw something close to understanding in his eyes. He may have been ordered to come here, but it was more personal than his bosses would ever really understand.
“Well, we don’t have any more information for you, asshole, so if you could see yourself out and please, let the door hit you on your way out,” Church said.
Washington sighed, he couldn’t see any reason to keep pushing it. This pack didn’t seem to have any helpful information for him. Overall they were an enigma and he felt like he understood even less now than when he arrived so it was probably for the best that he try to figure out the information on his own.
Washington made his way to the front door, thinking that he still needed to check into the local motel before it got dark when Tucker stopped him in the doorway.
“Hey,” Washington turned to face him, “what are you planning on doing after this?”
Washington looked at him in confusion, “I’m going to check into a motel room.”
Tucker rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone, “what’s your number? I’ll give you mine and you can call me if you need some more information, okay?”
Now Washington was even more confused. He hadn’t expected any of the blues to actually want to help him and hadn’t planned on asking them for anything more. But still, he pulled out his phone and handed it over, taking Tucker’s phone as well and entering his number.
“Why are you offering to help me?” Washington couldn’t help but ask.
“Because believe it or not I don’t want some super powerful big bad to be in our town killing people and if what you said about Tex not being able to take them on, then I doubt you can do it alone.”
Washington wanted to protest, but he knew that Agent Texas was much stronger than he had ever been and he hadn’t been lying when he said she wouldn’t have an easy time of it. He didn’t know how much these strange wolves could help him and he definitely didn’t trust them, but they may come in handy at some point and gave his number without protest.
“Thank you,” Washington said.
Tucker only nodded and took his phone back.
Washington stepped outside and let the door close behind him. It had been a more eventful day than he had expected and he hadn’t really gotten any leads, but he may have ended up with more than he ever bargained for.