/THREE DAYS LATER/
A woman dressed in a blue dress with pearls at her ears and neck walked up to the podium in front of city hall, both sides of her flanked dozens of police officers and even more watching from strategic places like the roof. Her brown, purple highlighted hair was in a pixie cut. Lavender irises taking in the scene in front of her. Dozens of cameras went off as everyone below the steps waited for her words.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the press and the citizens of Alvas. I regret to inform you all today of the passing of our beloved Mayor, Humphrey Silas Allison. A loving father, caring husband and ever dutiful mayor. He passed after sustaining serious injuries from three days prior in which he was shot five times, three in the stomach, one in his chest and in his leg. In this moment, the Allison family grieves and the city grieves again. We extend our condolences to the Allison family. I will now be taking questions.”
A throng of hands went up. “Ma'am Ma'am.”
The woman pointed at a ginger haired man with glasses in the middle of the center row. “Yes.”
The reporter stood up. “Ma’am what was the late Mayor’s cause of death?”
“According to health personnel, it was a complication with his stomach.” The woman answered.
The man took his seat and scribbled down something on his notepad.
The throng of hands went up again, along with the voices clammering for the woman’s attention. “Ma’am Ma’am.”
She pointed at a brown haired woman in the front. “Go on.”
The journalist stood up. “Thank you Ma’am. Are you certain that this attack was carried out by the extremist group H.Q.E.?” she asked.
The woman nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. The members of the group that carried out the attack were very brazen and they had no qualms leaving their mark I’m afraid.”
The same reporter spoke again. “Ma’am, so to be clear you are saying that H.Q.E does not just go after the supernatural community but also goes out to target members of the human community.”
“Correct but let me explain further. This group not only goes after the supernatural community but they also go after humans they deem impure.” She said and went on. “And that judgement can be passed by just by the barest association with a non-human. A man who went by the name Alex Laurent was tortured and killed seven weeks ago in Chicago by the group because he gave directions to a lost twelve year old warlock who was on his way to a comic book convention.”
The Female reporter gave a curt nod and a thank you ma'am before Taking her seat.
She pointed at a blonde man in the second row. And he got up. “Thank you Ma’am, is Alvas under attack?”
The silence that followed of the unprecedented question was thick as the crowd before her waited for her answer. “No, the city is not under attack and we at city hall are doing our best to qualm those fears and silence such rumors. Next.”
“Can you please elaborate more on that Mrs Malo?” asked a different reporter.
“I will leave that question for the city’s chief of police. Next.”
“Ma’am what is going to happen now that current Mayor is now late?” A standing journalist asked.
“It was a hard decision but the city council has decided that until election day comes I will carry on the mantle in place of Late Mr Allison.” The woman on the podium answered.
Samuel watched the press conference from the comfort of his couch and knew he had made the right choice. Eugenia Malo would make sure the city prospered with or without his presence, added of course that he had to wet her beak but still, she was a much better politician to deal with. Much more…reasonable too.
He had video chatted his family, his beta and gamma three days ago and explained that he would not be home just yet. He was right about his mother flipping out. Thankfully, the family was there to calm her down. Hopefully with Eugenia as Mayor he could be home soon. October had quickly faded into November. The snow would be hitting soon in Astoke and then there was more work to be done to stave the winter.
With his thoughts of home, his mind wondered to Rita and how she was doing. She was still somewhere in Alvas with all this going happening. He wanted to give her some much need space, maybe the next twenty seven days, thirteen hours and fifty eight minutes might be enough to help her heal and enough time for him to forget about her. Get his head straight.
But he could not stop thinking about her. How her smile made the room light up, how enticing her scent was, the cloaked insults she threw at him then and now, the way she flaunted her curves and walked with strength and confidence.
Arsen had ruined that, the attack had ruined it and so had he. He wanted that version of Rita back even if she still hated his guts and wanted nothing to do with him. He wanted her. His wolf had gotten a taste and now she was persistent craving he could not–never satisfy. He told his doctor about his wolf taking control of his body and leaving him with no memory of his actions after. She told him that could happen if he was stressed out, if he had not shifted for a while and if his wolf really wanted something and he was not cooperating over a lengthy period of time. All he needed to do to remember was just calm down and connect.
None of that made his or the wolf’s actions excusable but it was nice to know what caused it in the first place and that he could get to fill in the blanks in his head.
When one of her mother’s boyfriends, which he later learnt was now one of her fiances, told him they would be taking Rita to Condorsprings to recuperate, he had no problem with it. Although he had already worked out something for her. It was less ideal but manageable. Still the less than unexpected turn of events and even looked at it as a blessing. At least when he thought she would not be in the city for a while.
Well, at least one problem was already taken care of. He had destroyed the flash drive, gotten rid of Allison and anywhere else he might have stored the video himself. Mateo had taken care of the rest. He was shaping up to be quite useful.
Samuel did not celebrate, he still had his eyes and ears open. Mateo had said something about Allison talking to Flavio on a few occasions and something they kept on muttering about. Some grand plan. He did not have a clue what that meant. If Allison has been a human, well that would have been somewhat easy to decipher.
But he was not, Allison was a city wolf who had lost his ability to shift several years ago and it was because of a gang of humans similar to H.Q.E. Only a select few people knew Allison was a wolf, Allison just went under the radar as a human with an open mind. The pieces of this puzzle were not getting easier to find. All traces disappearing one after the other like whoever was masterminding this always two fucking steps ahead. He still had to keep his guard up and he could not afford to show whoever was doing this his fear or weakness.
The lockdown was still In place even three days later. With what happened to the Mayor, she was not sure if the lockdown would ever be removed. Wahim, her mother and Dex were shocked was an understatement. Wahim and Dex wanted to leave and take her mother with them. Her mother blatantly refused.
She wondered how Samuel was doing. He was a jerk and an inexcusable asshole but he had saved her and shielded her from the worst of the fall. Goodness knows if he had not done what he did then she would not be here pondering about it.
He had taken one heck of a beating too. Her mind kept flashing back to the violent and horrific images, the cloud of pain that exploded in her back after her attempts at saving him.
Rita shook her head. He was a werewolf. An alpha at that. She bet it took him less than a week to recover from it all. Maybe even less than less than a week. Perhaps it was because she had grown used to being his personal assistant but she wondered what he was doing at the moment.
Dex tried again to make her remember what had happened. Going through cross questions and zigzag interviews but nothing was working. Every time they tried, her memory would come out with nothing and sometimes her head would start hurting again and she would need to lie down. They kept all of it a secret from her mother.
Today, Wahim was taking a turn playing therapist. They both tried their best to make it a lot less awkward. It helped a little. And aside from the absence of any results, it was going well until Wahim tried a different tactic.
It did not bring back the intended memory. It brought back a very bad one instead.
He kept on moving closer to her, then when she had had enough he grabbed her hand and used it to keep her planted on the seat. He ran his claws up her arms and refused to listen to her when she told him to stop. Wahim disappeared and all she could see was…Him. And her. Laughing and smiling deviously at her. Rita panicked and started struggling. All she could see and hear was both of them laughing and holding her down painfully, grinning and calling her vile words. She managed to get out of their hold and she ran. Ran and locked herself in the bathroom of the the second guestroom.
She pressed her back to the tiled wall and slid to the floor and clutched her knees to her chest. She did not come out of the bathroom even when she calmed down. She did not come out when Wahim called her. Even when he found her and apologized from the other side of the door. Not even when he begged her to come out and said he would never do it again and it was time to take her medicine. He had to get Alice to open the door and coax her out of there. The effect of what he did did not wear off for a long time. Dex threw a fit when he found out later in the evening. She hoped that meant no more sessions with Wahim. She was more than okay with that.