The men were wanting to make the prison a second get-away when they found all the amenities inside. Marcus had nipped that idea in the bud. When they found the phones working the idea had been suggested they use the phones to call back and get someone on researching the prison. Marcus had shut that idea down quickly also. He did not want to take the risk the phones might be bugged. Everyone was surprised to find cell phones did not work at the prison either.
By the time the team had made their way to the last section left to clear, Roberts and Jamie had found the refueling system and taken the opportunity to refuel the birds in case they needed to leave in a hurry.
Doc was still trying to stabilize Craig enough to get him off the ground on onto the stretcher they had brought. He still had little hope they could make it back to the community with Craig in the shape he was in at the moment. They needed to get him to a hospital, but they could not take him to a human one. The longer Craig held on the more the hopes rose in the pack. The shout of triumph and joy rang through the pack bond and across the radios a few minutes later. The team had made it into the last section of the prison, and it was a medical ward. They had not cleared it yet but from the initial findings they thought they had what Doc needed.
Moments later the joy turned to dismay and worry, the scent of death was strong in the air. The smell of terror and blood lingered in the hallway. The same terror and blood from the female side of the prison. One of the team members thought he heard a noise so the team had backed down and were regrouping. Marcus did not believe the rogues would have retreated to the medical ward to make a stand so the team stepped up the search. Various team members came to the conclusion that Craig would have taken at least one shifter down so the noise they heard could be from an injured male who got left behind. The biggest worry was not that they would find an injured male, that would work out well for the team; it would give them someone to question. The worry was, who died in the female wing? They knew it could not be Craig's mate because the golden wolf was still with Craig, and he was still hanging on to life by a thread, however brittle that thread might be at the moment. If his mate had died, he would not have lived this long.
It did not take the team much longer to find the body. The curses began to fly when one of the team recognized the male as Senator Avery's oldest son. The Senator was going to be wanting the body of his son, but he was going to have some serious questions to answer before Marcus would give it up. The rogue rot seemed to go very high indeed if Senator Avery's son was involved. Everyone knew Jonus had been being groomed to follow in his father's footsteps. His father would have to step out of the public eye soon, before the humans started asking questions about his youthful appearance. When he stepped down, it was thought his son would be ready to step up. While the men continued to clear the ward Abbot stayed behind to look over the body, he thought something seemed off about what they could see. The team heard his laughter through the bond moments later. Someone had cut Jonus's throat after knocking him out with some kind of glass object. The position of the large knot on his head, which still had glass shards and had probably bleed profusely, did not line up with the slice in his throat. He had been hit with something on the right side of his head, but the hole in his neck was on the left side. It would have been hard for Jonus to have been hit in the left side of his neck with a flying shard of glass. According to Abbot, the angle was all wrong.
Roberts looked over at Jamie, standing next to him beside the helicopters, and muttered, "And that boys and girls, ladies and gentleman, shifters and witches, is why it pays to have a forensic scientist on the team. They did say we have a witch on the team now right? Cause I thought they said a bitch at first and I was sure that meant they were letting Trina join the team. I was about to turn in my resignation when I heard."
"Yep, they definitely said witch. Craig mated with a witch. Did you know witches were real? Cause I gotta tell ya bro, that was a surprise to me. If we weren't on a mission, and Craig fighting for his life, I would have to call them on that one. No such thing as witches. Think this means dryads exist too? Maybe I can find me one of those to mate. Quit laughing, think about it. They live in a tree, with a tree, one with a tree, stands to reason I wouldn't have to put up with her but part of the time. When she reaches the end of her rope, she can just go hug a tree."
The next words they heard stopped all laughter as they heard the voice come across the radio. Most of the building clearing had happened silently, the men relaying to Marcus what they found so he could relay to the others. But the men had just broken radio silence. At first all the men heard was a female screaming. But finally, whoever had broken radio silence moved away from the screaming female repeating what they had been trying to say.
"I am telling you we found her, and another one. Can't get a word out of the other female, but that damned golden wolf is guarding the unconscious one. What do we do? The building is clear, we need Casey, like right now. Dammit, stop your screaming, we are trying to help. Marcus, we got a problem. She is almost falling off the bed, but that wolf is watching us like a hawk. And holy hell the other one will not stop screaming.
Casey, sputtering with laughter, was the one to answer the radio call, "That golden wolf will not hurt you. She sees what she sees and she saw you helping Craig out here right? So she knows you are family to him. You can put his mate back on the bed."
"No, Casey, she didn't see, that other one saw. This one was inside. I love Craig, he is family, but I am not getting hurt just to push his mate on the bed. The damn thing is watching us."
"It is the same wolf, the golden wolf you saw with Craig, is the same wolf. It is her wolf. She doesn't have two golden wolves, just one. Now be a good boy and take care of Craig's mate just like you would your own."
Laughter echoed through the pack bond. No one had ever thought to ask Casey how old she was, but she had just called a hundred year old shifter a boy. Finding the female had taken a load off the team. They still did not know if Craig would make it or not, but his chances had just increased dramatically.
As soon as the men found the medical ward, Gammon and Trey had worked on cutting the fence nearest Craig. Once Craig was stable enough to move, they were going to head straight for the medical ward. Now they had twice the reason to get him there. If the tales were true, they needed to get him to his mate.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Doc finally announced that Craig was a stable as he could get him without better equipment. The were loading Craig onto the stretcher and racing for the medical ward moments later.
Everyone wanted to see the new female, both new females, even the one who would not stop screaming and crying. When the men finally arrived, and Doc saw the medical ward, he cried. He was good, he had been through medical school and trained as a trauma doctor, but he could not save someone as damaged as Craig without serious medical equipment. The facility was a small hospital.
Marcus and Gammon cursed when they finally saw the set-up, Marcus more than Gammon.
"This kind of set-up is permanent, not some temporary fly-by-night operation. We have been sending men to the cabin for years while the entire time they were operating a set-up like this right under our noses. I am going to get to the bottom, or in this case, the top of this rogue faction and I will bring them all down. They had eleven females here, with an operation that screams money and time. I will kill them all." Marcus shouted.
Gammon, teeth gritted, looked around the prison. "I want to see the one who keeps screaming. Come on, Marcus, we gotta see about getting your new female to her mate anyway. Your guys are still refusing to touch her."
"Yeah, well, not too sure about touching her myself. Those eyes are some kind of freaky. You see those flames?"
"I saw them. I have seen that look before, I just did not remember. Whatever is going on with that, I intend to get to the bottom."
Trey, who was bringing up the rear, spoke up, "I have seen them before, but every time I tried to ask about them, the m
emory kind of faded. Casey has those flames in her eyes when she gets fired up about something. When I picked up Donny, and she found out I had not bonded him to the pack yet, she had those flames in her eyes when she demanded I take his oath or kill him. Or maybe she offered to kill him if I did not take his oath. Either way, she definitely had those flames in her eyes."
With the prison cleared the men had time to look around and really study the layout and search for clues. Marcus called Roberts in to see if he could find some kind of information on the computers that would lead them to the other females, or the leader of the rogues. Roberts was by far the best computer expert they had on the mission today.
Doc was setting Craig up in a trauma unit with all the surgical equipment he could possibly need, Trina, knowing what Craig meant to her mate, had elected to stay with him and help. Though, she did admit she had no training in the medical field. The team was continuing to search for clues throughout the prison, but it was going to take days to go through the entire prison.
Gammon, Marcus, Trey, and the other females continued toward the screaming, followed by the Sentinels guarding them. The door was being guarded by one of the Seekers who gave a deep sigh when he saw the twelve people round the corner and head his way. The look of relief on his face was comical when Marcus told him to go help the team. Seconds later he had rounded the corner at a run and was gone. The screaming from inside the room had not stopped.
Marcus saw Gammon grimace before he reached out to turn the knob. As Gammon pushed open the door the screams increased in volume only slowly beginning to decrease as the females filed into the room behind Gammon. Mia, who had experience over the last two decades with traumatized females being brought to their compound recognized the shattered look in the young girl's face. Darting forward she approached her, whispering comforting words as she got closer. When she was close enough to touch the young one she found herself with an armful as the young girl lunged into her arms, crying.
Looking around the room Mia saw a couch against the far wall and led the girl to it, sitting down with her as she continued to whisper assurances of safety and love.
Meanwhile the men, were warily looking at the female with the golden wolf. Marcus was the first to notice the wolf looked bad. A golden wolf is distraction enough without everything else that had occurred that day, but really looking at what was in front of them, the men could see the golden wolf looked haggard. The flames did not seem to dance as high in the eyes, the head was more bowed than before, the body of the golden wolf, what they could see, seemed to sag somewhat.
Marcus, squaring his shoulders, approached his newest young pack member. Speaking softly he told the golden one, "We have to get her to her mate, he needs her. I am going to pick her up and take her to Craig. Will you let me help her. Would it help if I told you I am your Alpha now. I will take care of you, and your mate, but we need to get this one to him." Marcus reached for the female, as his arms slid under to pick her up the golden wolf faded back into the female. The relief in the room was palpable.
When he turned to go he noticed one of Gammon's Sentinels acting strangely. He had seen that look, those jerky motions once before. He muttered to Gammon as he walked out the door with the female, "Better look to your man, his mate is close, was close, maybe was a prisoner here." Trey, who was walking out with Marcus, turned to looked around the room, his eyes landed on Delany and Gammon heard him mutter, "Yep, he got bit."
As Gammon turned startled eyes toward his men he realized Marcus was right. Delany had that jerky motion he had seen countless times in the past. But, studying him, Gammon realized Delany was not looking at the female Mia was holding, and he had not followed Marcus from the room. Gammon stared hard at his Sentinel, hard enough the others noticed and turned to stare also. It was at least a minute, maybe more, before Delany realized he was the focus of everyone still left in the room. His Alpha and fellow Sentinels were watching him, the only one who was not watching him was Mia. He turned to look behind him, to see what the others were staring at, but saw nothing. He slid to the side a couple of feet and everyone's eyes followed him.
Delany finally gave up, "What are you staring at? Why are all of you acting so strange?"
Gammon gave a snort of laughter, causing the other three Sentinels to laugh. They had heard Marcus when he left the room. In normal times Delany should have heard the comment. That he had not, and did not know why everyone was staring at him, spoke volumes.
"What are you so jumpy about Delany? Is your wolf giving you some problems there man? Do you want to, I don't know, maybe listen to him and see what he has to say about us staring at you?" laughter in his voice Gammon continued, "Where is she?"
Gammon had just gotten the best news of the day. If Delany had a mate, somewhere, and it was not Craig's mate, and not the shattered one in Mia's arms, they could use his man to find the other females. He wanted to shake Delany and slap him on the back in congratulations at the same time. If Delany had not been so involved in everything going on, he would probably have recognized the signs he was giving off himself and they could have had the birds in the air searching for the females already. Gammon watched the blood drain from Delany's face as he listened to his wolf. He saw when the realization hit that somewhere, out there, was a female and that female needed him. Gammon caught him before he reached the door.
"Whoa, man, slow down. Take it easy. The birds are ready to fly. Jamie is still standing by on hold at the heli-pad. We are not going rushing off into danger though. Center yourself and find which direction your little mate went. I will get some of Marcus' team to go with you. He has too few men for a mission like this. We will find her, I promise you that, but it might take awhile. We don't know how big the operation is yet." Gammon could tell he was not getting through, and boosting his Alpha power to make the man obey him would not work, at least, not for long. The magic was too strong. The call to find and protect the true-mate too much to be ignored.
Delany took a deep breath, then another, when he closed his eyes and turned Gammon knew he was finally centering himself with his wolf and working to find the direction of the lost female.
"Ok, south, so she was probably on that bird we saw fly out of here. What we are going to do is get you to the heli-pad. Jamie is going to fly you south and see if you can get a more generalized direction from the air. You are not to try to track your mate to the new location. We will get a team together for that. Do you understand? If you try to get Jamie to fly you all the way I will make sure he ignores you. If you do not listen to me, you could lose your mate for good."
"I understand Gammon, I do, but you know that is going to be the hardest thing I have ever done, right?"
"I know man. Trust me, I fully understand. But if you let the wolf tear at you, we could lose her for good. You just get in the air and find which direction they went after they flew south."
Gammon got on the radio and relayed the message to Jamie and Marcus. Jamie, who had the bird idling let them know he was ready to go as soon as Delany reached the bird. Moments later they lifted off with two of Marcus's Seeker team to try and get a location direction on the lost female.
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Allison and Delany
Allison and Delany
Allison had no idea how long she had been struggling to reach the gates. She had caught movement a few times, but when she tried to focus everything appeared to have a heat shimmer effect. She did not intend to give up though. She had to make it to the prison and help Kate. As she continued to struggle she heard the clear sound of a helicopter firing up. She realized the slight noise she had heard before was the rotor on idle. If she had been able to stand she would have sank to the ground in despair.
It was obvious she had been out longer than she though earlier. The men had returned to the prison and they knew she was out here, somewhere. She lay her face against the sand and began to cry. The men had obviously decided to come looking for her, or her body. Escap
e had been so close. If they had just stayed away she would have eventually made it back inside and found a phone.
She heard the helicopter when it flew over but she kept still. She knew they would find her, they would send their wolves if they could not see her from the air. It might take the wolves longer to find her, since she fell from the air and they had no scent trail to follow, but they would find her. As the helicopter faded into the distance to the south of her she lifted her head. They had to know about where she jumped from the helicopter, they had flown way past her location. Maybe they had just come back for more things and they were not coming back for her after all. Taking a deep breath she began pulling herself toward the prison, again. They may have come back for Julie and Kate, she had to know.
Kate (Safe Haven Wolves Book 3) Page 8
