Crossing Paths With The White Wolf

Gonzalo

POV

**12 years after the end **

"Miguel, get down from there. You're supposed to be sleeping. You have school in the morning." I chastised my 12-year-old.

"But I want to learn to fight like you and mom. How am I supposed to protect my sisters if I don't know how to fight?" he argued.

I sighed, "Buddy, we talked about this. That's not your job yet. Right now, you need to learn at school so you get strong up here" I patted his head, "before you can get strong here," I pointed to his arms.

"But what if the bad wolves come again?" He pouted. I sighed. We had a rare rogue attack from a couple of desperate, starved wolves a couple of weeks ago and Thomas had gotten hurt protecting the kids at the daycare. When Miguel heard about it at school, he thought Ellie had been hurt and ran home. He refused to go to school the next day. After that, he'd been trying to sneak out at night during Kassie's training sessions to learn to defend his sisters.

"We have people to protect them for now. When you get a little bit older, we'll let you train, OK?" I told him a little more softly.

"How much older?" He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"16," I said.

"That's forever!" He yelled, making me raise an eyebrow.

"Sorry," He mumbled.

"That's only 4 years," I assured him.

"Forever" He insisted.

"Tell you what. If you get all As for the next few years, we'll let you train at 15 with your cousin Lucien. How's that? You'll be the youngest little wolf to learn to fight." I bargained. "You promise?" He said, holding out his pinky to me.

I chuckled and hooked my own to his. "I promise. Now go to bed before mommy yells at me for not training."

He gave me a big hug and ran off back inside. I walked back to training.

'Still wanting to train?' Kassie asked.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

'You know it.' I said.

'How did you convince him to go back inside?' She asked curiously.

'I promised him if he got all As in school for the next three years, he could start training at 15. I said.

'Lalo... She began.

'He's going to forget about it sooner or later..!' I argued in my defense.

She laughed in my head, 'Yeah right. He's as stubborn as you'

Gonzalo POV

**12 years after the end **

"Miguel, get down from there. You're supposed to be sleeping. You have school in the morning." I chastised my 12-year-old. Dario laughed at the back of my head. - She's got you there.

'Bet you $50 he forgets by next month. I said stubbornly.

'Hmmm no. How about instead, you take the kids to the zoo by yourself and I get a day to just read a book. She countered. 'Deal!' I said.

*1 Month Later*

"Adrien grab Kaia. Ellie, get back here!" I yelled after my 3-year-old before she could get lost in the middle of the zoo.

"Daddy, that looks like uncle Percy!" Ellie yelled while trying to get the attention of one of the wolves in the enclosure. "But he's tiny. Why is Uncle Percy tiny daddy?"

"Ellie, that's not uncle Percy." I tried to hiss gently so she didn't attract too much attention. Unfortunately, she had also gotten Kassie's violet eyes and my tanned skin and attracted a lot of curious glances as it was. Miguel beat me to her first. "Ellie, those are real wolves. They bite. Come on. Let's go see the monkeys!" "Yes, let's go see the monkeys before dad starts screeching like one," Adrien said as he looked at my face. Sam, her sister Tori, and Kaia were all holding hands at his side. "Very funny." I huffed.

"You shouldn't have bet to take on all three monkeys by yourself," he said in his I-told-you-so voice.

"I thought it was a sure bet." I shrugged.

'It was...for her. All Kassie had to do was mention training young wolves and Miguel ran to his homework.' He laughed at me.

'She played dirty.' I huffed.

'She played to win,' he corrected.

'Thanks for coming with me. I would have lost a child on my own by now!' I said as we reached the monkey enclosure.

'Don't worry about it. I had already told Sam I would bring them with you two weeks ago. He laughed.

I laughed. 'I hate you guys sometimes!

We were halfway through the park before I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Dario's hackles went up and he began growling lowly.

'You feel that?' Adrien asked.

'Yeah. Someone's watching. Just keep going. I'll check to see if we're being followed.' I instructed.

I found the two trackers following us not too long after. They looked Hispanic, like me. Like Theo. I let Dario forward a bit and realized they smelled ancient. Like me. Like Theo. Someone sent these men. These men used to serve Helios, but I could tell they were not wolves like us. Their connection must have been severed long before we turned. We had only had 20 or so warriors desert us over the centuries. I wasn't sure who these guys were but I would be finding out soon enough.

We went to the parking lot as if we hadn't noticed the tail. Adrien got the kids inside the car before I ran up to them using my speed. "Who are you? Why are you following us?" I asked as I grabbed the first by the shirt and Adrien appeared behind the other. Both of them vanished into dark smoke and reappeared farther away from us.

'Guard the kids. I'll be fine. I told Adrien right away.

'But... Adrien hesitated.

'That's an order, Adrien' I said, using both my power as his Beta and as his vampire king.

Adrien disappeared and reappeared again in front of the car, claws at the ready, his wolf front and center. The two men in front of me lifted their hands and smirked. "We're not here to fight you. We're here to deliver a message to our old boss from our new boss." "And who is that," I asked, not backing down from my fighting stance.

"Hmm. He should know. Tell him our boss knows what he's been doing and it won't help. Soon enough, he'll have all the power needed to break through. He will kill all of you for destroying his vessel. She would have brought him into the physical world if your sister hadn't interfered. Now you guys have joined her. You will all pay." With that, they both disappeared in a puff of smoke and I was left standing there making sure they didn't come back.

We drove back in silence. Helios was not going to be happy about this. We knew it was coming and, as far as Kara would tell us, the fight was still a good while away, but now we were looking at living while looking over our shoulders for the next 38 years. Just because the war wouldn't break for 50 years, didn't mean the attacks wouldn't begin before then. I looked in the rearview mirror as Kaia fell asleep on Miguel's shoulder. Miguel was looking serious and pensive out the window. I'm sure he had noticed everything that happened, even if he didn't understand why it happened. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to get him training before 16.