Dawn

by Sherry Foster

  “Hours ago? And you just now thought to mention this to me? You know I am in this escape up to my neck also right? I mean, if something goes wrong I…” Dawn did not get to complete the sentence before Alice interrupted.

  “You did say you are trusting me to get us out of captivity correct? If getting us out of captivity means researching a possible pack down to the lowest individual in the community then that is what I will do, have done in fact. The CEO of the company routinely flies via private aircraft, owned by another individual, to a place in Alaska. The nearest property to that landing strip is owned by a corporation that has nothing to do with robotics. The head of that corporation is a man named Gammon and…”

  “Gammon!” Dawn shouted. “I know that name. Find him.”

  “Perhaps you were not listening. He owns property in Alaska. I don’t know if you noticed by we are in New Mexico. We are several days travel from Alaska even if we could get through the border checks, which we can’t. Now, how do you know the name Gammon. We will go backwards from him to see if we can find safety. I have not been able to find Santiago’s pack, or any trace of what might be his pack.”

  “When the men fled the prison with me they mentioned a name, Gammon. They were terrified of him and he was with the ones who saved my friends. If he was with them, and they described him correctly, I want to flee to him for safety. They said he was a mountain of a man who killed first and asked questions later, or didn’t ask questions at all. If he was the Alpha in charge of getting my friends out then I want to go to his pack with my friends. The men said he never left Alaska but he must have at least the once. Isn’t there any way you can get us through the border check so we can get there?”

  “No. I do not have the resources to get us across the border at this time. If I had a computer and all the paraphernalia needed to create and print new IDs for us, but I don’t. If this Trey Caveno routinely flies to visit Gammon and lives then the assumption can be made he belongs to, probably is the Alpha of an honorable pack. If we push it we could be in his territory tomorrow. Except, I have seen you drive and I don’t have high hopes of making it that quickly.”

  “Hey, I drive good. What is wrong with my driving?”

  “Nothing is precisely wrong with your driving. But you are not the most careful driver on the road. You realize in order to get to Mr. Caveno’s territory we will be going through snow covered passes? How is your winter driving?”

  “My winter driving? In the snow you mean?”

  “Yes Dawn, in the snow.”

  “I may have never driven in the snow before. I am from the south-east, we don’t exactly get lots of snow there. I mean, I have seen snow before, but usually it was followed with a complete shut down of any and all roads so, yeah, no winter driving experience. This will be a problem won’t it?”

  “Probably. But I planned for this eventuality.”

  “How exactly does one plan for the driver to have never driven in snow while making a get-away from captivity to a as yet unknown destination?”

  “We obviously will not be taking the most direct route as that would put us on poorly cared for roads. We will change out cars a few times as that will slow down any pursuit. We will use a combination of back roads to get us to the areas of concern at which time we will change both the vehicle and the route to well maintained roads. Based on the projected weather and your driving skill I estimate the trip will take approximately three days to complete. If we can cut that time to less we stand a better chance of staying ahead of pursuit. I am watching for any alerts to go out on this vehicle. We will have to abandon the vehicle near a rental and have you walk to the next rental and them come back and get me and all the accompanying gear. An alert has been sent out on Tessa’s vehicle but as of yet it has not been found. For this very reason I have arranged for a change of vehicles in the next town.”

  “Why me?”

  “Excuse me? The question was not clear.”

  “I mean, why me? You had been in captivity before I got there so how was it you were ready and seemingly waiting for my arrival? Why hadn’t you left already when I got to the new prison?”

  “Ah, you want to know why I chose you to make the escape. Do you remember the day you got to the compound? Possibly not, you were suffering from what appeared to be shock. I greeted you that day with a question, can you drive, and your reply was to snarl at me of course I can drive, I am not some helpless withering fool. I grew up in the country. Do you remember our short conversation?”

  “I, well, no, not really. I was upset and I don’t have a lot of memories of my arrival there but still, that is not an answer.”

  “Of course it is an answer. You were offended by the question. You were defiant about your skills. I needed someone old enough people would not think we were two run-aways and that person had to have the ability to drive us to our destination. You were not the only female in there who claimed to be able to drive. Samantha could drive but she is so brain-washed by the males she would not have helped me. Tabitha claimed she could drive but we would have looked like two run-aways. Of the twenty-two females in the compound only four had IDs. Of those four you were the only one who had an actual driver’s license, I know, I looked it up in the computer. Of course since the license was from the southern part of Georgia I deemed the chances you could drive in snow to be slim to none. I made my plans accordingly. Of course getting the information about you to begin with was harder than any of the following information. No one wanted to be forthcoming about your identity at first.”

  “How did you know I would have a driver’s license with me? And how are they not using it to track me when we do the rentals? I mean, yes, you were correct about everything so far, but all they have to do is look things up in the computer and they can find out exactly what kind of car we are in and everything.”

  “Oh please. Once I got the others from your former prison to open up it was an easy matter to find out everything I wanted to know. For instance everyone knows you carry your identification in a pouch you never take off because your parents told you to always wear your identification on you. So the likely hood of you suddenly taking it off and being without it when we fled was statistically negligible. As far as the rentals, I press the button to change the rental to your name as you are walking in the agency. When you sign for the car and walk out I change the records in the computer to reflect someone else having rented the car. Although the possibility does exist we may be traced I have taken other steps to ensure we are not. For instance the name which shows up in the computer briefly, while close to yours, does have a few changes. Usually most people do not notice transposed numbers or transposed letters. Your brain sees what you think it should and I use this in our favor. I can not say our escape will be a certainty, but it will be as foolproof as I can make it with the limited resources I have at my disposal.”

  “You know, you are one scary little girl.” Dawn muttered while casting a glance at Alice, “So if we are not stopping at a motel again, where are we going to sleep?”

  As Alice filled Dawn in on what the plans were for the night all Dawn could think of was how happy she would be to turn the so-called guardianship of this little girl over to someone better suited to the task.

  Chapter Eight

  “How in the hell is it all my fault?” Trey looked at Jaden in exasperation. When Jaden called him three days ago to arrange this meeting he had no inclination he would be blamed for Craig’s fuckuppery.

  “Easy, if you had not done that interview with Gabby my wolf would not have gone crazy thinking you had our mate and I would not have attacked Craig who in return would not have taken off to the cabin almost getting himself killed and bringing a witch into our pack. Therefore this whole mess is your fault. You should go talk to Craig.”

  “The fuck? I barely even know the man. Most of my dealings with your pack before Gabby and Trina entered our lives was conducted by David. If you needed someone to talk to Craig you should have asked David
to come visit, not me. If that is the only reason you asked me to come you have wasted my time. Well, I can’t say that since our mates are currently visiting each other and I am going to have a tough time prying Gabby away.” Trey shook his head and turned to walk back to Jaden’s house where his mate was visiting her sister. He had brought Jules with him to visit with the pair also.

  “We got problems. You are going to want to stick around awhile.” Jaden’s voice, not longer joking caused Trey to turn around and take a hard look at his brother-by-mating.

  “What kind of problems and how can I help?” Trey walked back over to where Jaden was standing but Jaden, after looking around motioned Trey to turn back around and walk. Soon the two men were striding towards Jaden’s house.

  “Jules may be able to offer some insight into the situation. I don’t want to scare the females until we know more so we are going to collect Jules and head over toward the cabin Trevor is staying in. Trevor being the Alpha of the territory in Australia where Trina and I visited for our honeymoon. Marcus will meet us there in a bit. Santiago should be here soon and Gammon, William and Edward just landed at the airfield. Jamie went to collect them and bring them to the meeting. We have problems coming and it will take all our collective knowledge to combat what could be headed our way. If we can combat it. If it does come our way.”

  “Would you mind being a little more cryptic? I almost, in another hundred years or so, could have gotten a clue from your statement.”

  “I will explain more, well Trevor will explain when everyone gets here.”

  Trey felt his phone vibrate and after saying hello and listening for a moment he stopped walking, Jaden listened with the same confusion as Trey, “What do you mean two females showed up at the edge of our territory asking for me? Who are they?”

  Trey’s eyebrows shot upwards and he turned toward Jaden who shrugged.

  “Let me get this straight, two females, both underage, showed up and asked for me. Upon being told I was not there one demanded to be taken to Santiago’s pack and one demanded to be taken to Gammon’s pack and neither one will give their name or any other information?”

  Trey listened for a moment longer. “Yeah, I get that. But David, that is not what I asked. I don’t care what they said you can call them, I want to know their real names.”

  Trey heard a faint female voice in the background, “See, he listens to the words said and doesn’t make assumptions like some people. You could learn from a man like him.”

  Trey pulled the phone away from his ear and held it out so Jaden didn’t miss any of the argument which was happening in the background. David, after the first comment from the unknown female had not said another word. Hopefully the two arguing females would let something slip giving them an idea of where they came from and what brought them to his territory.

  As the two unknown girls argued in the back ground Trey and Jaden listened getting more and more confused. Finally Trey jumped back into the conversation. “Tell them Gammon and Santiago are here at Marcus’ and as soon as I see them I will have them call you. If they feel comfortable staying at your house with Stormie let them. If they would prefer to stay at my parents, let them. Make certain they know they have the choice of staying with whoever they feel safest with until I can get Gammon and Santiago on board with whatever new fuckery is going on now. From the argument going on in the background I have to assume neither of them even know the Alphas they are asking about but will they at least tell you why they want those specific men?”

  He listened as David asked the two females a few more questions. Finally after hearing what they had to say Trey just shook his head. “I am heading to where Gammon and Santiago are now, or where they will be in a little while. I will have Gammon call Stormie’s phone and I will have Santiago call your phone and the females can talk to them then and tell them whatever they think those two need to hear. Since the two don’t mind staying at your house for the moment have Stormie make them comfortable and we will get back to them as soon as possible.”

  “Well, I must say that was an interesting development. Two underage females show up days before a planned rescue of more females. Both requesting to be taken to Alphas they admit they don’t know, and the leader of the two seems to be the youngest. Oh, and for some reason neither will give up their name to your Beta. The shifter world is going crazy. Did you hear the accent on the one? She is not from this country so my next question would be how did she get here? I am going to go with escaped from a rogue faction. But what caused her to ask for Santiago? He is our most undercover Alpha in the grand scheme of things. Few people even know he is the go-between for our packs and Gammon’s. Did you know he is the only one who is allowed to set a helicopter down smack dab in the middle of Gammon’s compound? Gammon doesn’t even let someone coming to get him set down in his territory. And if she was going for safety, why not ask to be taken to Gammon’s like the older girl? You left your territory at the wrong time.”

  “The fuck Jaden, you called me to come. How was any of us suppose to know some unknown females would show up? I wouldn’t mind if the females started making a habit of showing up in my territory. Every one we get is one less the rogues can use and one more possible true-mating we can help happen.”

  “Yeah well, technically Marcus asked for you but I am sure if you had told him unknown females would suddenly pop up in your territory he would have given you a pass on coming.” Jaden laughed, “Come on, let’s get Jules and head to the meeting. I can’t wait to see Gammon’s face when we tell him the latest.”

  Chapter Eight

  “So now what? Did you plan for this?”

  “Does this seem like anything I could have planned? I told you from the beginning why I was going to Santiago’s. You are the one who came up with the crazy notion you should go to Gammon’s. I told you to keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking. I also told you we should both go to Santiago’s and then make future plans. You are the one who did not follow the plan. At least I was able to convince you to give a false name. One Alpha to get us to where we needed to go and one Alpha to talk to when we got there. Now you have involved countless other people in the plan and thanks to you I can’t rely on my plans any longer. Now, will you keep your voice down? I don’t know if you are aware shifter’s senses grow stronger with age but even a whisper could be heard by those two in the other room if they listen, and don’t think they are not straining to hear what is said.”

  “So you aren’t worried so much about them hearing you? You gave enough information there to give part of your plan away you know.”

  “No, I am not. If you were to go in there right now and ask them what was said they would be able to repeat your part of the conversation word for word, mine, not so much.”

  Kate snorted, “Oh give me a break, your whisper is just as loud as mine.”

  Alice looked at her for a minute, before giving a deep sigh. “Have I leaned in once to hear anything you said? No, I haven’t. You on the other hand are even now leaning closer to me to hear what I am saying. Why is that do you think?”

  Kate drew back and shifted her eyes side to side while thinking. The three day trip had taught her more than she wanted to know about the little girl in front of her. Alice often asked difficult questions and would not give the answer until Kate had shown real effort in answering. Ten days had passed since she had been separated from Dawn and the other two and she had to admit the last three days with the little psycho in front of her made those three days seem longer than the previous seven. No way was she going to risk going to the same pack as Alice. She wasn’t sure if the shifters had the equivalent of human therapist but if she spent much longer with Alice she was going to need a lifetime of therapy. Maybe David, who she now knew was the Beta of this pack, would be willing to take her to Gammon if he spent some time with Alice. She had to find a way to make that happen.

  “Hey, didn’t you say this pack was not as profitable in their business as they could be? I
f you are so bored with my company maybe you could talk to David and get him to let you speak with the people in charge of marketing and sales and whatever else you said they needed to work on.”

  “As a ploy to keep from answering my question I feel obligated to point out that one is rather obvious.”

  Kate spoke through clenched teeth when she answered, “And maybe one day you will realize how annoying it is when you ask questions you know good and well no one can answer. Do you deliberately try to make the people around you feel stupid and incompetent? Do you get your jollies from making me feel like an idiot?”

  “If I do not challenge you how can you live up to your potential?”

  Kate screamed, “My potential, how would you even know what my potential is, you don’t know me. You know nothing about me. Can’t you just be a friend for once and not try to teach me or educate me? Is that so hard for you to do?”

  Alice, a look of bafflement on her face, spoke without trying to whisper her words, “What kind of friend could I be if I did not challenge you to reach the next level. Should I lie to you?”

  “Yes! Lie like a Persian rug! Let me feel smart and accomplished and educated. Let me feel like I could be someone and quit constantly showing off your intelligence.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would a lie make you feel good about yourself? Why would you want to feel something you are not? Understand I am not saying you can’t one day be someone, but you really must learn to apply yourself if you expect to get anywhere in this world. I am astounded you do not try to better yourself on a daily basis. Even now, when I am trying to educate you, instead of appreciating the lesson you chose to get upset. Do you willfully choose to live in ignorance? I have noticed the last few days you have a distressing tendency to try and change the subject instead of embracing any sort of education. I feel this is a fault you should strive to overcome. Imagine how happy you could be if you only let yourself expand into who you could become. Furthermore I have shown great restraint in not putting my intelligence on display in front of you. If you will recall when you asked me how I made the chemical compound which incapacitated the males I told you I would not explain as you would not understand. I do not see a need to flaunt something in front of you which you are incapable of understanding so your accusation is without merit.”