Chapter 5
Wolfe
We found Cody tracking not far from the pack hall.
He looked up as we approached. “Where’s everyone gone?” he demanded. “I’ve got a boy missing and hardly anyone cares.”
“We had an incident at the house,” I told him smoothly. “Diesel lost it. I had to take him down. There was an attack on the Grumps—don’t react. Grandfather is fine.”
Cody looked between me and Rowen. “What’s the plan? Sweep and collect?”
“Sweep and search,” I told him. “Collect is coming.” I looked down at the grass. “What have you learned?”
Cody didn’t hesitate. “They have no memory at all of what happened. They were eating with Brand and me in the hall. We left them with some of the women in the kitchen, who said they usually play there so they can keep an eye on them. Then they came out here.” He shook his head.
“I think they were getting underfoot or something. The little one, the girl, was scared by something, so she climbed a tree. Then Thalia found them. The boy was gone.”
“Then we start with the kitchen,” Rowen said, already turning back.
“No.” I walked back to the hall, my steps sure and confident. “Tell me about them,” I asked her as I studied the grass they’d been lying on.
Rowen pulled her hair over her shoulder.
“Um, Billy’s mother was killed in the first attack.
His father was not present in his life. A passing caravan,” she told us, lowering her voice.
“A passing fling, a permanent reminder. He’s a good boy.
Um, Ciara, her family is different. Mother passed in childbirth.
Her father…” Rowen looked away. “We’re not sure.
No one stepped forward to claim her when her mother passed.
She got taken in by a family, but they’ve since… left.”
“Left how?” I asked her.
“You gave the pack an ultimatum when you came; those who didn’t like it had to go. They chose to go. They chose to leave her behind.”
Cody and I shared a look. “And the other boys?” I asked her. “Fitz? Lake?”
“Lake’s parents were killed several years ago; we think he witnessed it, and the trauma cost him his voice.
” She looked around, stepping closer. “He had a grandfather here, and he took him in. He passed two winters ago.” She swallowed past the sadness.
“Fitz. He was found on the edge of the borders. Orphaned, we assumed. Alone. He and Oscar, the oldest, became friends quickly.”
“Oscar shadows Axel,” Cody supplied. “He was with him when Thalia found them. Been with him all day.”
I nodded as I studied the ground again, stooping low, my fingers dug into the earth. I felt the swell of the magic of the Hollow in my fingertips. “Oscar and Fitz have had their first shift. Lake hasn’t. The girl, too young. Billy?” I looked up at my wife.
“Yes, he’s had his first shift, but not his second.”
I stood, wiping my hands on my jeans. “Thalia, pack hall. Bring Axel and the young ones with you.”
“Thalia is coming,” I told them.
“Why?” Cody asked, standing straighter. “What did I miss?”
“Wait,” I murmured. I went to the tree and looked up, then back down at the ground, tracking, sensing, seeing the lie.
Thalia arrived a few minutes later, the golden-haired girl in her arms, Lake looking nervously between Rowen and me. Billy stood close to Thalia. A rustle in the trees, and Axel came through the bushes, the other boy with him. I recognized him.
“Did you find him?” Billy asked. His hands were jammed in his pockets, his eyes searching us all and the trees behind us. “Where’s Fitz?”
“He’s gone. I doubt he’ll be back.” I heard Rowen’s gasp at my bluntness.
“Why don’t you tell me the truth?” I looked at each one of them.
Silence met my question. My head dipped as I forced myself to remain calm, reminding myself they were only children.
“How long have you been helping the enemy?” I asked softly.
Cody, Axel, and Thalia looked surprised at the question, but their posture changed, becoming alert rather than sympathetic.
“Wolfe?” Rowen looked confused.
I pointed to the window high above us. “My wife used to use that very window,” I told them conversationally.
“When the pack hall became too much, when she was supposed to be studying her lessons, either in schooling or how to lead. She’d go into her bathroom, shed her clothes, and shimmy out the window.
” I watched the young shifters’ reactions.
“It looks small, but it’s bigger than it is.
” I turned to the grass, flattened not with the weight of young children, but something much heavier.
“It’s amazing what you can sneak out of that window if you have a system in place. ”
“Sneak out?” Thalia asked me, putting the young girl down, who immediately turned to Billy, his hand gripping hers tightly.
“Supplies. Boxes of food. Clothing.” I considered the children. “Fitz’s family is part of the shifters attacking us, aren’t they?” Silence. “Lake?”
The young boy raised his head, his eyes wet with tears. “Yes, Alpha.”
They were using their children.
“He asked you to help him?” I guessed. “He asked you to keep quiet; he didn’t want to get in trouble. You helped him the first time,” I carried on. “When you refused the second or the third time, he told you what? You were already guilty?”
Billy looked away, his grip on the little girl’s hand steadfast. “He told us they would take Ciara.”
“Why?”
“She’s pretty.”
The words fell heavy between us. Thalia’s hand was over her mouth, while Axel looked sick.
“We couldn’t let them take her, Alpha.” Lake stepped forward. “Fitz wasn’t bad. He just wanted to go home. You taking an interest in us yesterday…”
I scoffed. “Me noticing you all yesterday, after he brought you to my attention, was what? Orchestrated?” I wasn’t sure I believed them.
“He wanted to go home,” Billy spoke up. “His dad made him stay. He decided today was the day he was going.”
“What did he give you?” Thalia asked him, her eyes hard.
Their heads went down.
“Nothing,” I answered. “He offered for them to go, but they said no.” I looked at Lake. “Whose idea was it to pretend to be drugged?”
Oscar stepped forward. “Mine. We didn’t want to go. Rowen and Adair have been kind to us; we don’t want any part of the killing.”
I nodded as I listened. “You stick with Axel so you can learn the routes.” I heard Axel curse. “Every single one of you has betrayed your pack.” My eyes fell on Lake. “You should have left with your friend.” I turned to Cody. “They have information. I want it all.”
Rowen started, “Wolfe—”
I looked at my mate. “It stops today.” She held my stare and then, with a sigh, she dropped her head in a nod. “Cody, you know what to do.”
“Children, Alpha?” His voice was soft, no plea, no objection. Just seeking confirmation.
“These children handed our enemies information that lost us shifters who fought on this land for them,” I spoke to them all. “Don’t be fooled by their age. They knew what they were doing. They’re not as innocent as they look.”
“I’m sorry, Alpha.”
I almost turned back when I heard Lake. But I forced myself to keep moving. The fact that they were children no longer mattered when it came to betrayal.
Or that’s what I tried to tell myself.
I met Killian on the way back. He looked surprised to see us, until he saw whatever was in my eyes, because he let out a huge sigh. “What now?”
“The children were helping our enemy. Fitz is fine; he simply decided to go home.”
Killian’s eyes grew wider as I spoke. “They’re using kids?”
“It seems they are.” We walked in silence.
I opened myself to the pack, not letting them know I was there, just feeling them.
It was a steady hum in my head, easy to block if I needed to, but sometimes, like today, when I was still recoiling from the shock of the betrayal, I just needed the reminder that a minority spoiled it for the majority.
“Am I wrong?” I asked Killian as we walked. “I left them with Cody to question,” I added. “I don’t think Brand would manage to ask the little girl.”
“I don’t know, Alpha. They’re just…kids.” He glanced at me. “I’ve never heard of our children being used. It’s…unfathomable.”
“Yet someone fathomed it.” I sighed loudly. “Grandfather?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Cursing up a storm.” Killian grinned. “Grandmother is demanding heads.”
We exchanged a look. “She’ll probably get them.”
Killian grunted. “She said she should have been more alert. Said Solana smelled wrong.” He watched me, and I waited. I knew there had to be something else. I wasn’t wrong. “She said the same thing to Rowen when she met her.”
I stopped on the path and turned to face my beta. “Killian? What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that when you use the full force of your Will, Alpha. Use it on us all.”
I hesitated. “She’s my mate.”
Killian didn’t blink. “They are children.” He started walking again. “No matter the face they wear, the rot runs deep in these shifters.”
Well, that was just fucking depressing.
By the time I’d walked the perimeter of Blueridge Hollow, Killian had left me, and Axel was waiting for me on the southern ridge. “It’s hard not to think of a child as innocent,” I told him as I approached. “Any one of us would have done the same.”
He didn’t look appeased. “I was lax. I was careless and I was stupid.”
“Firstly, lax and careless, I’m sure, are the same thing. Secondly, you’re not stupid, you’re a shifter. Our young are ours to protect, no matter if they came from our seed or another’s. We are pack. Pack protects. Your instinct is to protect the weak. Oscar let you think he was weak.”
“I sensed no malice in him.”
“I know.” I looked behind me to the trail I’d just followed.
“Their entry points were well hidden, easy to overlook.” My rage battered against my walls, desperate to come out.
“I didn’t see it either, not until today when I realized what they were doing.
We’ve been looking for tracks of adults.
Patrols. Not a group of children carrying a heavy box. ”