Chapter 3 #2
I bolt to my feet. “You can’t do that!”
“Last I checked, I’m alpha here.”
“And when you were going feral—”
“What? You came racing down from the border to help me?”
“That’s not fair. I didn’t know what was going on. You pushed Jake and me away.”
“Where you’d be safe.” Ever since he mated and Tess settled his wolf, Damien’s been calmer, harder to rile. Which is why he thinks I need to find a female to blood-bond.
“We’ve lost enough shifters to the humans. Which is why I know better than to let someone in your state of mind go on an op. Face it, Gare, you’d be a danger to yourself and everyone else I send.”
“I’ll go alone.”
“And that confirms it,” Hayden adds. “You’re not thinking straight.”
“I’m better at infiltrating than anyone else we have.”
“What happens if you screw it up? Or even if you do everything right but still find yourself trapped, without backup no less. You’re risking more than yourself. Those captured shifters need our help.”
“You’re counting her, too, aren’t you?”
“The bait,” Hayden explains to Damien. “She called herself Angelina, but we don’t have a last name. Pryce said there’s no Angelina on the list of missing shifters. No females at all.”
“That means nothing,” I argue.
“We would have heard about a pack missing a female.”
“Not if she were a lone wolf. Damien, you can’t assume she’s bait. She didn’t try to lure me. Quite the opposite.”
“Because she knew you weren’t alone. She was downwind of us, Garrett. She knew we were coming. If having four males nearby scared her, she had plenty of time to flee, but she didn’t.”
Everything he’s saying makes sense, except this gnawing feeling inside that I’m right about her.
But if I’m not, anything I do could risk my packmates.
My instincts could be way off. Damien and Hayden are right.
I shouldn’t go on any op where I’d endanger anyone, including the female I can’t stop thinking about.
Just as I sink back to the sofa, a cool breeze drifts over me. Frank steps through the door, followed by Pryce, Blade, and Callen. I’m family, but they’re his top shifters, the ones he trusts the most.
“Damien, I’m still your best retrieval specialist,” I remind him.
No one says a word. I don’t need to look up to see the looks passing through them. They’ve lost faith in me.
A hand rests on my back. “No one’s questioning your skills, Garrett, but you need rest, time to heal emotionally. Why don’t you stay with Tess and me for a bit? We have plenty of room upstairs. You can hang out, help with the Christmas decorations in camp, or maybe help Sadie Lynn.”
“Sadie Lynn?” He knows I had a thing for her a while back after I’d asked Marla to blood-bond me and got shot down.
“She’s taking over training the teens while Tanner finishes healing.”
“Tanner’s wolf has been slow in healing him,” Pryce speaks up. “So I ordered him to rest. No activity at all. Nothing more than walking to and from the cookhouse for meals.”
“See, Gare, you’re not the only one who gets sidelined. It’s temporary. We need you at your strongest.”
Glaring at Frank gets me nowhere. Never has.
So I rise and walk up to the massive guard who could probably crush me with one hand.
“You and everyone here condemned your mate before you knew the truth behind why she was in prison.” His playful smile quickly dissolves.
He’s very protective of his mate, as a shifter should be.
“Careful, Garrett,” Blade warns, as if I can’t read Frank’s darkening expression.
“I’m not condemning Delilah, I’m just making a point.
You of all people should understand there may be more going on here.
That female we saw today—Angelina—held fear in her eyes, but not because of us.
Something else. Not once did she try to lure me in, even before you guys showed up.
She was warning us off, and the entire fucking time my wolf was nipping at me, telling me something was wrong about the situation.
I ignored him, because I don’t fucking trust myself anymore, not after Marla.
But I’m sure about this, Frank. Angelina would have left with us if she could have. ”
“You think the WSSO’s forcing her,” Callen says. “I didn’t see a collar or chain on her or scent anyone nearby.”
That’s the part I can’t figure out either. “I don’t know. But every instinct I have tells me she wasn’t there because she wanted to be. If they’re using her to bait shifters, it’s against her will, which means she’s a victim like all the others. We have to go after her.”
“Agreed,” Damien says. “But you’re staying here. You’re too invested and not… in peak form. I can’t ignore it any longer.”
I don’t agree or argue with him. It wouldn’t do any good. Damien’s the alpha. He decides our course. And he’s agreed to send in a team to rescue Angelina. I can’t contradict him.
“I’m heading home.” With a simple nod I make my way out before Damien becomes suspicious.
He thinks I’m satisfied because he agreed to rescue Angelina, but I know him as well as he knows me.
If Blade can pick up Angelina’s trail, Damien will send a team in to follow, surround, assess.
All that takes time. Time she may not have.
Angelina’s as exposed and vulnerable as Marla was. And I can’t let history repeat itself.
“Hi, Garrett?” Sadie Lynn waves from where she and three teens are sorting through the Christmas ornaments at the base of the tree.
The branches shake, and several higher branches teeter to the right.
My eyes scan to see how many teens are climbing, then lower to focus on Sadie Lynn. Her smile widens.
“Did you lose a teen? Or four?” I point to the upper branches where red, white, blue, and orange peak through.
She glances up and her hands go to her hips. “Matthew, Cole, Heather, Katarina… You’re not supposed to be climbing trees, not until you’ve mastered control of your shifts. If you shift while you’re up there…” Sadie Lynn’s voice trails off. She’s standing there, frantic and unsure what to do.
“There’s a nest up here. I want to reach it before it falls,” one of the boys answers.
“Seeking places for decorations,” one of the girls calls out.
“Finding a good path to put the angel up,” the second boy says.
“Cole’s racing Matthew to the top to show off to Katarina,” the second girl shouts as she drops down to the ground. Finally, some honesty, but it doesn’t change the facts. Sadie Lynn’s right. They don’t belong up there until they master their shifts.
“Get your asses down here before I come up there and show you kids precisely what it means to fall,” I shout up at them.
“Are you threatening a bunch of kids?” Sadie Lynn asks, the disbelief in her voice like a slap in the face.
Am I threatening them? My wolf bites me, making it clear I am. This is why I don’t belong where other shifters are. I’m toxic, which is what Damien was trying not to say.
“Sorry.”
“You’ve been saying’ a lot of that lately,” Frank says behind me. I didn’t even notice him approaching. Let my guard down because I’m back in pack territory, which is a huge reason Marla died. I got comfortable, didn’t question what was going on until it was too late.
“What do you want, Frank?”
“I’m here to escort you home.”
“Fucking fabulous.” Looks like Damien’s not as easy to fool as when we were kids. “Call it what it is. House arrest.”
“Hardly. You can go anywhere you want, as long as you stay on pack territory.” He puts a hand on my shoulder, and points to the kids climbing down from the tree.
“You’re out of sorts, Garrett, like those teens.
They’re trying to figure out their wolves, shifting, everything.
Until they do, they need guidance, so they don’t do something stupid. ”
I shove his hand off as I march away from Sadie Lynn and the kids, without taking the time to apologize in earnest. Frank falls into step behind me.
My own personal guard. And not any guard. The head guard. Damien assigned him to babysit me personally.
“You need to relax. I have some good mystery books in my cabin. I could lend you a few.”
I keep walking without answering. The more I think about that farce of a meeting in Damien’s house, I’m convinced he and his team had a much more honest, deeper conversation once I left... and they’ve concluded that Angelina is as guilty as the WSSO.
They’re not going to rescue her. In fact, she’ll be in danger if they find her.
And Frank’s the guard making sure I stay out of their way…