“A compulsion he would have felt even in his human form. The desire for pack. A compulsion for companionship.”
“So you’re saying the attacks were not about killing the victims?” says Monroe excitedly.
“They were about changing the victims,” says Storm. “Maybe he wanted to create another werewolf. He was hoping the girls would survive the attacks.”
Monroe’s face looks like Storm feels. The team has not considered this possibility before. It feels like a small epiphany, like his entire thinking of the Wolf-Claw case has turned on its head. He is sure it changes everything and yet he cannot see how it changes the facts of the Rachel Garrett case. It means something, but his brain just hasn’t reached it yet.
Something else is still nagging at the back of his head. He is now convinced there is a link between these cases, though it makes no sense. Rachel Garrett had been attacked with a knife. A werewolf would have had to attack her with his teeth and claws if he had wanted to change her into a werewolf. He didn’t do that.
While Storm had been talking with Monroe his eyes had continued scanning Monroe’s list. He has reached its end. He frowns, and scans the list very quickly again. The thing that has been nagging him drops into place.
“Is this all of the known lone werewolves that the Agency is aware of?” he says.
Monroe nods. “It’s everything. I double checked it.”
“Hank Lowry isn’t on this list.”
Monroe frowns. “Hank Lowry? That’s the sergeant who works for Detective Inspector Zael, isn’t it?”
“Werewolf alphas rarely allow pack members to work for the human police. I’d assumed Lowry was a lone werewolf. He should be on this list. Find out why he isn’t.”
Monroe leaves Storm’s office. He returns fifteen minutes later. “There is no record of a Hank Lowry up until four years ago. I’ll see if I can find a record of him before that.” Monroe leaves.
Storm’s heart starts beating faster. Hank Lowry is either someone other than he claims, or he has changed his name. A man only changes his name if he has something to hide. What is Hank hiding?
Storm scans through the list of lone werewolves again. He finds three instances of omega werewolves who left their packs in the last four to six years.
>
One in particular jumps out at Storm. Stephen Manners, an omega werewolf who had left his pack four years ago. There is no reason on his file for why he left his pack, which is a highly unusual act in itself. The pack bond is strong. Werewolves never leave their packs without good reason.
Storm wonders if as an omega werewolf, Stephen Manners had done something that had made his packed drive him away. Omegas are the least important members of packs. A pack is more likely to kill a rogue member than drive him off, especially an omega. So maybe Stephen Manners had run. If so, he would have wanted to change his name.
Storm calls Leo. “How hard is it for a lone werewolf to spend life without a pack? Is it manageable-hard or impossible-hard?”
“Is that a personal question,” says Leo. “Or a professional one?”
“Professional.”
“It’s not easy,” says Leo shortly. “I imagine it varies for each individual werewolf.”
Storm nods, even though Leo can’t see it over the phone. He had suspected this would be the answer, but he’d wanted Leo to verify it.
It is well known that a werewolf’s need to be part of a pack is not just for safety reasons. The pack bond is in a werewolf’s fundamental nature, a core desire that is unshakable. They yearn for it like a hungry creature yearns for food. It takes a pretty strong werewolf to choose to live alone, and even that takes its toll over the years.
“Is it more difficult for an omega wolf than for a dominant wolf?”
“The problems are different,” says Leo. “For an omega, every more dominant werewolf he comes across, which would be most of them, is a threat to him. I imagine it would be a constant burden.”
“Fear as well as loneliness?” says Storm.
“Yep,” says Leo shortly.
“What are the chances,” he asks Leo, “That a lone omega werewolf would be savaging women to try to turn them into werewolves? Is it possible that he might be trying to create his own pack?”
“That’s unlikely,” says Leo. “Even if he did manage to change a female, if he was an omega werewolf then there is a higher chance that the female would be more dominant than him. She would become his pack leader.”
“Do you think India Lawrenson is an omega werewolf?” asks Storm. “There’s no information on it in her file.”