Fate Mountain - Complete

by Scarlett Grove

  "That's horrible," Gauge said.

  "The worst part is, a year ago, this woman was on the school board. She coached a soccer team. Now she weighs a hundred pounds and had her children taken away from her," Rollo said. "These drugs are ruining the community. The dealers are selling crystal as some kind of solution to what they call the ‘shifter problem’. This is out of control. We're going to lose our town and our community. We can’t let that happen.”

  Gauge knew that Rollo's wife Zoe was two months pregnant. They hadn't really told anyone, but Rollo had let it slip to Damien, and Damien had told Gauge during their last internet research session.

  "Don't worry, Rollo," Gauge said. "I will do absolutely everything I can with the last bit of my strength to bring down these psychos."

  They got off the phone, and Gauge continued to prepare himself for his entrance into the group led by Stonewall666.

  He went into his bathroom and looked in the mirror. Gauge had grown his blond hair and his beard until it was full on his chin. It was time to complete the disguise.

  Gauge mixed the hair dye and rubbed it into his hair and beard, darkening it to a shade of warm brown. With a full beard and dark hair, he looked like a completely different man. When he put in brown contacts over his bright blue eyes. It completed the look. Now his blond, blue-eyed, polar bear looks were nowhere to be seen.

  Gauge had also wiped clean his social media, and any picture of him on the internet. Damien had made sure of that. And because Gauge spent so much time on private investigations for the police department, his public presence was very low. There was a minute chance that any of these men would ever recognize him.

  He went to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of Fate Mountain lager from the fridge. He popped off the cap with a bottle opener and went into the living room, his phone in his back pocket.

  Gauge sat down and waited for Rollo to call him back about the cold medicine, placing his phone on the coffee table in front of him.

  He put up his feet and turned on the TV, clicking over to his favorite sports channel, where he watched a game of hockey by his favorite team, the Alaskan Polars who were from his home town.

  He watched the Alaskan Polars dominate to the Minnesota Blacks on the ice with a score of 10 to 0. He was smiling and tilting his third Fate Mountain lager to his lips when his phone rang.

  It was Rollo.

  "Tell me you have good news for me, Rollo," Gauge said.

  "I definitely have good news. I talked to a contact in the Portland PD, and they have agreed to release to me a fifty-pound bag of cold medicine they confiscated from a recent drug bust in town."

  "That is excellent news, Commander," Gauge said.

  Rollo had really come through for him once again, and it was part of the reason that Gauge trusted the man with his life.

  Gauge had been a part of Rollo's crew since their first days as special forces officers in the Marines. Rollo had been the Commander of all the men on the Bear Patrol, and he continued to be their Commander today.

  Rollo was a wise and effective leader who knew how to make decisions for the best possible outcomes for everyone. Gauge had nothing but respect for his alpha and prided himself on being just as good a man.

  “They'll have the cold medicine to Fate Mountain by morning," Rollo said.

  As Gauge put his phone in his pocket and started toward his bedroom, he felt it ping. He drew it out and looked at the screen. To his complete and utter astonishment, he had been matched with a human woman on Mate.com.

  He stood in the hallway with his feet grounded in place. He stared at the screen, seeing a beautiful young woman with curly black hair and dark copper skin.

  She was wearing a camo headband, had a crossbow slung over her shoulder and a pheasant in her hand. She had a spunky gleam in her eye and a warm, friendly smile. Her shapely legs were hot as hell in the cut off jean shorts she wore under her form-fitting black tank top.

  Holy hell. How had he been mated with a woman like her? Being from rural Alaska himself, Gauge had a sweet spot for country girls. Her name was Lola, and she was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen in his life.

  Finally, uprooting his feet from the floor, he made his way into the bedroom and sat on the side of the bed, still dumbfounded.

  Why did he suddenly have a mate now? He'd signed up for Mate.com two years ago when the website had first come out. Now, when he was about to engage in his most important case ever, she just appeared out of nowhere.

  He growled angrily and set his phone down on his nightstand, already feeling too distracted by the knowledge of her existence. Lola Lockheart was everything he'd ever wanted in a woman. Strong and warm and beautiful.

  His bear roared inside his mind, insisting that he text her right now. How could he possibly start a romance? He had to meet Stonewall666 in the morning with fifty pounds of cold medicine slated for crystal production.

  Now was not a good time. He flipped off the light next to his bed and lay down, groaning loudly. His polar bear reared up on its back legs inside his mind, letting out a tortured roar.

  Gauge pressed his palms into his closed eyelids and gritted his teeth. His investigation was going to be compromised if his bear was acting crazy. Gauge had to concentrate on the case.

  The next morning, Gauge picked up his phone while his head was still on the pillow. He opened the photograph of Lola on the Mate.com app, and gazed into her lovely cocoa colored eyes. His bear moaned at the back of his mind. He had to text her.

  “Lola, please wait for me,” was all he typed.

  He pressed send and got up to start his day. After showering and dressing in hiking gear, he answered a call from Rollo. He told Gauge the Portland's PD detective dropped off the cold medicine in a garbage can in a rarely used local park.

  Gauge left the house and found the bag of cold medicine without any problems. Once he had it he went home and contacted Stonewall666 on the deep web.

  "I have the cold medicine," Gauge typed out. In a private message to Stonewall666.

  "Good. Come to the Cedar Crest Trail at noon and be prepared for a long hike."

  Gauge agreed to meet Stonewall666 at noon and closed his deep web browser. He already had a feeling that the gang’s camp was somewhere way out in the furthest reaches of the Fate Mountain wilderness.

  He already had a pack prepared and waiting. Gauge dressed in hiking gear, slung his pack over his shoulder, and hurried out the front door.

  He couldn't drive his own car up the mountain. Instead, he walked out to the highway and put out his thumb. Considering he was a shaggy looking bearded man with a backpack, he had a bit of a hard time finding a ride.

  After about half an hour of walking up the highway, a bunch of locals in a truck stopped in front of him, just as the heat of the noon day sun was starting to get to him.

  "Where are you headed?" the man on the passenger side asked.

  "I'm headed up to the Cedar Crest Trail," Gauge said.

  "Hop in the back and we’ll give you a ride," the man said.

  "Thank you," Gauge said.

  Gauge climbed into the back of the truck and took a seat next to the wheel hub. The guys in the pickup dropped him off at the Cedar Crest Trail, and Gauge thanked them one more time before they drove away.

  Gauge hefted his backpack onto his back and lifted his bag of cold medicine tablets with his other hand. He made his way into the parking lot in front of the Cedar Crest Trail and waited.

  He glanced at his watch to check the time; he'd left his phone at home. It was almost time for Stonewall666’s men to arrive. Gauge had been in hairier situations than this, but he couldn't help feeling a tight lump in his throat as he waited. How he handled the situation could play a huge role in the future of Fate Mountain and the people who lived there.

  He had an important mission to do and he could not fail.

  Just when he was becoming genuinely worried, about forty-five minutes later, an old pickup truck rattled into the parking lot
and stopped in front of him. A man in full camo gear with an obvious bulletproof vest underneath his jacket hopped out of the truck.

  "You are Anarchy161?" the man asked.

  He and his partner had pulled shotguns out of the cab of their pickup and were staring intently at Gauge as they held them. Gauge stood from his rock and nodded at both men as a sign of respect.

  "Yes, I am Anarchy161. I presume you are Stonewall666’s men?"

  "Did you get the pills?"

  "I did. They’re in the bag," Gauge said, handing the bag to the man who had driven the pickup.

  They yanked open the bag and looked inside. When he saw the hundreds of boxes of tablets, a slow smile crept over his face.

  "I have to admit, I doubted you'd come through. But you've done better than expected," the driver said.

  The second man took the bag and threw it in the back of the old truck.

  "We don't allow any electronics up at the camp," the driver said. “Take off your pack. We’re going to look through your things, to make sure that you aren't bringing in any illegal equipment."

  The driver took Gauge’s pack and pulled it open, going through all his things. The second man patted him down from head to toe, making sure that he didn't have anything hidden on his body.

  Once they were satisfied, they invited him into the truck.

  "So what's your name, Anarchy161?" the driver asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

  "Y'all can call me Cody North."

  Chapter 4

  Lola washed her face in a basin of tepid water, wondering if she should wash her hair. She hadn't even put a comb through it in two days. She looked at herself in the cracked mirror and saw the frightening reflection staring back at her.

  Gone was the girl who had played soccer as a little girl. Gone was the confident outdoors woman. She'd been replaced by something else entirely. A woman with sunken eyes and ashen skin. It scared her.

  Lola decided that the least she could do was wash her hair and body and use her one last razor to shave her arms and legs. Over the last year, she’d almost gotten used to the lack of hygiene at the camp, almost.

  As she poured water over her hair into the basin, she tried to remember who she used to be. Lola lathered shampoo into her hair and imagined that she was at a fancy hotel room at Fate Mountain Lodge. She’d been to Fate Mountain Lodge once during a summer field trip back when she used to be in school.

  She rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, patted it dry with a thin towel, and then combed it out.

  Then she thought about the shifter she'd been mated with on Mate.com. He was a real man out there somewhere.

  This website was supposed to be able to predict a shifter fated mate with hundred percent accuracy. There was some fancy algorithm that sorted the answers in the questionnaire and matched people at an incredibly high rate.

  She had never expected to actually be matched with anyone when she'd signed up. She wondered what he was like, and what he was doing right now.

  Justin had scared off every boy and man who ever could have taken what he called her “flower”. Now she was twenty-two years old and had never been touched. Except by Justin.

  She recoiled in revulsion, thinking about every time he had done something to her. Right then, he burst into her tent with a frown on his face.

  "What are you doing, Lola?" Justin yelled.

  "I'm just getting ready," she said, patting the last of the moisture out of her hair.

  "You aren't even dressed yet. If we can’t run this operation efficiently, then we’re wasting our time," he said.

  Lola grumbled under her breath and pulled thermal underwear over her damp t-shirt.

  Justin walked toward her as if he was going to grab her. Out of nowhere came the sound of digital pinging. Both of them stood stock still in their steps. Justin glared at her. She gasped, pressing her hands to her heart.

  "What is that?" Justin demanded. "Do you have a cell phone in here?"

  "Of course not!"

  Her heart was beating a million miles a minute. He stormed past her, toward her cot, and lifted the thin mattress off the base. She'd hidden it in a dugout spot in the frame, but he felt around and found it easily. He pulled it out and shoved it into her face.

  "This is a cell phone!" he yelled.

  Justin flicked his hand across the screen and looked at what had made the pinging.

  "What is this? ‘Lola, please wait for me’, from Mate.com?" he roared.

  "It's a game," she said.

  She couldn't believe he’d found her phone. How had it suddenly pinged in her tent? She could never get cell reception in camp.

  "I knew that carrying this Wi-Fi hotspot would come in handy," Justin said, taking a black device out of his pocket. "I'm using it to find spies, but I never expected one to be you."

  "I was just bored."

  "Don't think I don't know what Mate.com is. That website is exactly what we're fighting against. Those monsters can't be allowed to mate with human women. It's unnatural and disgusting. It must be stopped," Justin screamed. "I can't believe that you would subject yourself to this. Who is this shifter?"

  "I don't know," she said, wondering what the text meant. He'd said “wait for me”.

  "How could you do this, Lola?" Justin demanded. “I thought you supported the movement. Why are you here, little sister?" Justin said moving dangerously close to her.

  He was standing over her with his hands on his hips, her cell phone crushed in his fist. He reached out and grasped her neck with his empty hand, squeezing slowly until she couldn't breathe.

  He stared into her eyes. "You are on thin ice, little sister," he said. "I would watch myself if I were you."

  He looked down at her, staring at the outline of her breasts under her thermal underwear. He reached up and squeezed her breast. She tried to back away but he wrapped his other arm around her and leaned down to kiss her cheek.

  "You know," he said. "Today is the anniversary of our father's death. He always told me to protect you. That you are my sister. But a real sister would never betray her brother, so I guess you aren't really my sister. Are you?"

  "I am your sister.”

  "The way I see it, if you betray me, Lola. You aren’t my sister. And if you aren't my sister, then you're just the camp whore," Justin sneered, slowly stepping away from her and letting go of her breast.

  She let out a breath she was holding and backed away.

  "It was just a game," she said. "I was curious and bored, please forgive me, brother."

  "I forgive you, for now," Justin said.

  He turned and stormed out of her tent, her cell phone in his hand.

  Lola continued getting ready for a day in the lab. She put on her thin jacket and grabbed her facemask, irritated that she had lost her cell phone. The shifter had said “wait for me”. What did that mean? Where was he going? How long would it take for him to come back?

  She couldn't ask him any of those questions because Justin had taken her cell phone. He had a gun case full of electronics he’d taken from people over the last year.

  He'd actually shot a man for bringing in an iPad mini into camp. Lola didn't know if the man had survived or not. All she knew was that the next day, he was gone.

  Justin had suspected him of being an undercover agent, spying for the police or the FBI. Justin was paranoid, but he should be, what he was doing to the people of Fate Mountain was horribly wrong.

  Chapter 5

  Gauge grabbed his pack and slung it over his back, following the two men up the mountain. He’d come to learn the driver’s name was Harley. The younger passenger’s name was Chris.

  They drove far into the most rural parts of the mountain and parked the truck in a secluded barn at the edge of the wilderness. They went on foot from there, trudging up rough terrain, into the most remote parts of Fate Mountain.

  The rocky landscape was still cold in the summer time. The pine trees grew sparse at the higher elevations and the air
was thin. They continued walking through the forest, patches of frost still lay on the ground. Gauge followed the other men, walking confidently over the rough trail.

  They went on for two hours before stopping in a clearing. There were three horses tethered to trees, waiting for them. They transferred their packs to the horses and climbed onto the saddles. Continuing up the mountain, at times even the horses struggled to climb. Night fell and Chris and Harley decided it was time to make camp.

  They laid out a tarp and had a second to sleep under for warmth. They didn't light a fire so Harley pulled out his kerosene stove and heated a few cans of baked beans for their evening meal.

  Gauge was glad to have warm food in his belly, he needed stamina for what lay ahead. He thought briefly of what he would do when he got home. Maybe he would take Lola Lockheart out to dinner at the Lodge when he returned.

  He thought she would probably like that. He knew that he would definitely like that. Gauge’s bear rumbled just thinking about it. He shook his head and finished up his baked beans. He cleaned up his things, climbed in his sleeping bag under the tarp and went to sleep.

  Harley and Chris only slept for a few hours before waking up again. Gauge rolled out of bed, wishing for a few more hours of sleep. He liked to get his rest, like any bear. But these guys were raring to go so he went along with them.

  They packed up the camp and saddled up the horses before hitting the trail again. It was another half a day's ride before they came to the first sentry lookout on the way to the compound.

  They brought the horses up the trail and into the compound. At the center of the compound was the gaping mouth of the cave. Gauge dismounted his horse and handed it off to a man who'd come to take the horses.

  Inside the cave Gauge could see the laboratory equipment and massive barrels of chemicals. Everything had been packed in by horse or by foot. Unless there were some other trails that Gauge didn't know about. He was already begrudgingly impressed with the operation.