It was only through sheer dumb luck that she stumbled across the video of the man and the wolf howling at each other. She snorted at the ridiculousness of it, a human mimicking a wolf. But she had to give him credit, his howl was pretty impressive. It was missing some of the natural resonance wolves had, the quality that allowed the sound to carry but all in all, it was good. Finding the video allowed her to go snooping around on his mother’s social media, at least as much as she had made public. Amaris snooped enough that she began to find older pictures that contained a man who must be his father. The older man looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t quite put her finger on how.  She pushed the laptop away in frustration and got up from the couch.<br/><br/>Just then her phone buzzed with an incoming text, a message from the Alpha requesting the presence of the pack at a family dinner. His requests were never truly requests, they were more like demands. Given the lack of a time for the gathering, she knew she had to get there as soon as she was able. Amaris grabbed her bag and her keys and headed out.<br/><br/>It took some time for her to reach the secluded mansion on the edge of the same forest she had visited earlier in the day. The car had just been turned off when the door was hauled open by a big, burly man who grabbed her around the waist and yanked her out into a big hug. She laughed and pressed a kiss to the man’s cheek. “Telum! You know I hate it when you do that!” He grumbled something good-natured at her and set her on her feet.<br/><br/>The rest of the pack arrived within half an hour.  It was a loud and rowdy bunch of about twenty or so, slightly more males than females. They piled into the living room and sprawled all over the furniture and each other as they waited to hear what their Alpha, Rex, wanted them for. When the older man entered the room, the pack fell quiet. “My family, my brethren...you know for so long we have hunted the family of our one mortal enemy. I believe we have almost accomplished this task. I have reason to believe there is only one descendant left alive and he or she lives in this area. Whichever one of you discovers who this person is will be richly rewarded. Now eat, fill your bellies!”<br/><br/>The wolves were obedient if nothing else. They fell in the food like ravenous beasts. The amount of calories they burned by simply living was immense and they ate each meal like they were starving. After that, some of the younger ones decided to transform and go for a run. Amaris joined some of the others in a giant people pile on the living room floor, the group of them falling asleep tangled up in each other.<br/><br/>The next morning, she was the first one to wake up. The young ones had returned during the night and joined the pile. But one seemed to be missing. She nudged a young girl awake and questioned her about the missing boy. The sleepy response was that she didn’t know what happened to him.<br/><br/>A sinking feeling developed in the pit of her stomach. She hoped he wasn’t where she thought he might be.  Amaris laced up her sneakers and snuck out of the house, running as fast as she could through the trees, hoping like hell the young werewolf wasn’t stupid enough to inspect free meat and get trapped in a cage. She had to get there first before the wolf researcher. If he tried to open that trap and measure a werewolf, he would be attacked. She just hoped she wasn’t too late.