Wolves of Secrets 3: Family Values

The Careers Fair

Cole sighed as he, Jay, and Kai walked around the moon pool late at night, armed with nothing but their heightened senses and a flashlight each to light the way. The only reason they were out here at near midnight on a school night was that Jay had come running to his friends. It had taken Nya and the others a few minutes to calm him down. When they did, however, the ginger-haired teen believed some horrifying news. He claimed that he was walking to school, taking a shortcut through the woods, and swore he saw Dr. Kiken and her lab assistants in their trucks snooping around the moon pool and the surrounding area.

That set everyone on high alert and Cole and Kai volunteered to follow Jay to the spot he thought he saw them.

Ever since Dr. Kiken had almost exposed the werewolf secret and taken Kai, Nya, and Morro away, everyone was rightfully terrified. For weeks, the teens were all scared to travel anywhere alone and either walked in pairs or with their parents. Despite the pack escaping and destroying any form of evidence she possesses, it didn't stop the scientist from going public with her discovery of real-life werewolves in the modern world. Thankfully, she hadn't mentioned any names; probably figuring that she couldn't make statements like that without proof.

That did nothing to save her public image, however.

They had learned from Pixal and Harumi that she lost her job and her reputation for her werewolf theory due to a lack of actual evidence. That didn't stop them from worrying that she might return and continued looking for evidence since their last encounter. Even though they were sure she wouldn't be back to their territory, they had to be certain that it was still safe for them.

"You must have been seeing things." Cole sighed when they found nothing.

"But I definitely saw headlights." Jay insisted, but there were no tracks or scents.

"Well, they haven't come back, so..." Kai trailed off, looking tired and bored.

"They've been gone for two months and Harumi's promised us that her family hasn't heard from Dr. Kiken since she left Ninjago." Cole agreed with his boyfriend, but this flipped the switch in Jay.

"I know that!" He snapped, his eyes burning, and the couple froze. They knew one of Jay's greatest fears was losing his pack, and thanks to that scientist he almost did. Like Morro, the ginger-haired teen had no werewolf relatives and had to rely on his friends and their families for knowledge of his own kind and he couldn't bear to lose any of them. Especially his true love Nya. When they realized that Jay was close to crying, Kai and Cole gave each other a look and hugged the freckled teen.

"Look, Jay, we all understand, I still expect that mad doctor to walk through the door any second and lock us all up too," Cole said softly, remembering the nightmares he would have of Kai in a cage, screaming and crying out for Cole as he was dragged away into the darkness. Where Cole would never see him ever again. "But she's long gone and would be brain dead to come back here and stalk us again."

"Yeah, everyone now knows she's a raving lunatic making up stories and she'll probably be locked up in the loony cage if she comes back." Kai joked and this did get a chuckle out of his boyfriend and Jay.

"I guess so," Jay muttered, though he still looked worried.

"Come on, let's go home." Cole sighed and they all headed back to his truck...

****************

The next morning, the pack were all gathered in their homeroom at school to talking about Jay's concerns. The only one from their group not sitting with them was Harumi. She was still sitting and hanging out with her cheerleading squad and some guys from the soccer team. After two months, she and Morro had made up fully and had begun dating, but Harumi wanted to keep it quiet until after graduation. Morro was a little annoyed by this but respected her decision, and the only ones who knew about their relationship were the pack.