Chapter 7: Answers 2

Awesome! Calvin thought as he made his way into the building that served as the official headquarters of the Pentagon. It was a high rise building and the architectural design was marvelous. The building obviously served as an office complex and using the elevator, Lucille and the others took Calvin to the topmost floor. 

At the entrance of the room they entered, Calvin read the restricted area sign and he could only wonder who these people really were. From what he could see, they had a lot of money and he wondered if they were a secret organization that controlled the economy.

While he was feeding his eyes on the conference room they had just entered, they stumbled on a beautiful young woman who had confusion plastered on her face. Calvin observed how she suddenly smiled at the sight of him. Being who he was, he smiled back, flashing his pearly whites. 

"What happened?" Rufus broke the silence in his usual gruff voice. 

"Before that, we need to make introductions" Lucille interrupted. Rufus rolled his eyes at her and she simply ignored him before turning to face Calvin. 

"Once again, I would like to appreciate you for coming with us" Lucille said to Calvin. "I promise you would get all the answers you seek. But first, I would like you meet The Pentagon."

"The Pentagon?" Calvin repeated in confusion.

"Yes" Lucille said with a nod. She proceeded to introduce the two men that had come with them and lastly, she introduced the young lady who had just joined them. 

Calvin took note of the grumpy man's name. He was Rufus. The quiet, seemingly nice one was Mark and the young lady was Phiri. Calvin winked at her before processing all the questions he had. 

"What happened with Roman's body?" Rufus suddenly asked again and this time his impatience was evident that even Phiri could no longer ignore him. 

Calvin and the others paid rapt attention as Phiri explained that she had gone to apply some embalming fluid on Roman's body when she discovered that it had gone missing. She had immediately called Lucille to report the situation.

"Have you looked through the security cameras?" Mark spoke for the first time. 

"Yes, but there was nothing out of the ordinary" Phiri answered him. 

Calvin didn't know who this Roman was, but the fact that his body was missing seemed to trouble these people. What he didn't understand was why they had been preserving a corpse that should have been buried. He was beginning to wonder if these people were members of some occult group.

"Rufus, Max and I will search the entire building for clues" Lucille said. "Phiri, I'll leave Calvin with you. Explain who we are to him."

Phiri was going to object but the three didn't give her the chance to. She turned to look at the man that she had been left alone with and she sighed at the flirtatious smile on his face. This was going to be hard, she thought.

"So Phiri" Calvin decided to start a conversation. "I guess it's up to you to explain all this to me."

Phiri looked at the young man again, wondering if he was always like this. She was beginning to doubt her own vision. Was the Alpha wolf really inside this man? She could feel that it was but it was just hard to believe. Calvin was nothing like Roman and educating him about the existence of werewolves was going to be exhausting, considering the fact that he was flirting with her like this. 

"You might want to take a seat" she said, leaning on the table. Calvin indulged her as he quickly made himself comfortable on one of the seats available. 

"So who are you people?" He asked with all seriousness. Phiri could see that this young man was tired of fooling around. He was ready to get the answers he came for. 

"We are from different Packs of Lycanthropes" she answered him. 

"Lycanthropes?"

"Werewolves" Phiri put it in a more simpler term and she heard Calvin scoff, but she didn't stop talking. "Yes, humans believe that we are creatures that only exist in myths and in their imaginations."

"Hold on" Calvin had to stop her. "You're telling me that you're a werewolf? As in creatures that have the ability to shape shift into wolves when there's a full moon?"

"Well, something of the sort" Phiri shrugged. "We can actually shift at will but we're more powerful when there's a full moon."

Calvin really wanted to dismiss what he had just heard and call it a joke, but something within convinced him that Phiri was telling the truth. Her eyes were firm and he could see that they held no deceit. 

Calvin knew about werewolves. Like Phiri had said, they were creatures no one believed existed. They only appeared in fantasy movies and children's books. There was no way such creatures existed.

"It's impossible" he muttered in unbelief.

"Yeah, but where did you think your idea of werewolves came from?" Phiri asked. 

"Children's books?" he answered after a moment of silence.

"And you think some human just sat down and imagined werewolves?"

Calvin didn't have an answer to that. His heart was pounding wildly that he could hear it in his ears and there was this sudden excitement he was feeling that couldn't be explained. There was something else he was feeling - Dread.

"Werewolves are all around you" Phiri continued in a whisper while staring deep into his eyes. "In schools, marketplaces, stores, offices... If not that our numbers have been dwindling over the last few decades, you would find one werewolf among ten humans."

"Show me." Calvin didn't believe he had just said that but he couldn't stop himself. "You said you could shift at will, right? I want to see."

Phiri squinted her eyes as she met his determined gaze. She smiled, having searched his blue orbs. She finally found something this man had in common with Roman - Dogged determination. Others preferred to call it stubbornness, but Phiri didn't mind it at all.

"Well, brace yourself then."

She didn't get to shift because they were interrupted by a sudden laughter. They both turned their heads to see that it was Rufus and he was leaning on the door frame. The big man suddenly took two steps forward and jumped. By the time he landed on the floor, he had transformed into the biggest wolf Calvin had ever laid eyes on.

The size, the snarl that bared it's vicious teeth and the murderous look in this creatures eyes were enough to make Calvin stumble backwards at least, but he remained unmoved. The creature before him stood upright, intimidating Calvin with it's volume but the man didn't even flinch.

Calvin was petrified! He really wanted to run out of the room as he was witnessing something impossible. Right before his eyes, the grumpy man had transformed into a big wolf! The most part of him was scared but he found that his feet were rooted to the ground so he couldn't run. Then there was this side of him that was daring. That part was not afraid and Calvin found himself getting angry at Rufus. There seemed to be an internal battle but whoever the angry side was, Calvin was sure it wasn't him. 

"Cut it out Rufus. That's enough" Lucille's voice filtered into his ears and the big wolf took a few steps back before shifting back into his human form. 

As if he had been holding it in, Calvin's breath shook as he exhaled. He felt like he had been possessed in the past minute. He turned to look at Rufus who was staring right back at him and this time, with an interesting gaze. 

"You're... You're a wolf!" Calvin said rather calmly. The others observed that he was more shocked than surprised.

"A werewolf" Phiri corrected him. 

"That's enough" Lucille said. "Leave us." They obeyed without question, leaving Calvin alone with her. 

"That..."

"Is who we are" she completed his statement.

Calvin was still having a hard time believing what he had just seen but he knew that was the truth. 

"So what has all of this got to do with me?" He asked. 

"Truth is, it has everything to do with you" Lucille answered him as she tucked her hands into her pockets.

"What do you mean?"

"You see Calvin, we don't get to choose our own destinies. Fate is a bitch and well, she has brought you to us."

"I need to understand" Calvin almost yelled in impatience. "What are you trying to say?"

"The Pentagon is a group of werewolves who are leaders of different Packs. They call us Alphas. I am one. Rufus is another, so is Mark and Phiri... Well, she's the seer of our time" Lucille began to explain. "Any werewolf not in any of our Packs are referred to as Rogues. The corpse we're looking for - Roman. He was the Grand Alpha. He was the most powerful werewolf and he was the head of The Pentagon. Here's the twist. Roman died weeks ago and by Phiri's vision, we happened to find out that he gave up his wolf. Meaning, his wolf left his body before he died."

Calvin was quiet. While he was scared of Lucille's sudden pause and where all of this was going, the strange excitement mixed with dread in him was bubbling up. 

"And?"

"Well, we looked for that wolf and we found it in you" Lucille said seriously. "That voice you've been hearing in your head... That's the Alpha wolf."