by Eva Harper
“Well then, this will be a nice visit.” He bobbed his head. I tucked my hand under his on my knee and fiddled with the stereo until the cd player turned on.
The drive was long. The last time we had driven this far was when Theo first took me from the pack. I never realized how long it was, probably because I was trying not to look up from my muddy shoes.
We stopped a few times along the way, for the bathroom, and for our growing appetites. By the time we reached Caddy’s pack, it was the middle of the night.
Caddy stood at the entrance to the packhouse with Bodhi and his mother behind him. I threw the door open in excitement and tried to stop myself from running over to them.
Caddy’s boyish laughter greeted me, and I launched myself into his open arms. I let go after I heard a soft but palpable growl from Bodhi. I looked down sheepishly and searched for Theo, who was approaching with our bags.
“Good to see you again.” Caddy stuck out his arm. Theo set a bag down and clasped arms with him.
“Likewise,” he said formally.
“Come on in,” Caddy invited us, and we walked into the packhouse I grew up in. “Margo, you remember my mother and Jax; he’s the Beta now.”
I peeked at Jax through the corner of my eye. He was one of the bigger wolves, always glaring at me when I walked around the house. I didn’t know how to talk to him now that I was a wolf, too.
“Margo,” Mrs. Delphine bit out painfully. “Nice to see you, dear. And your mate, as well.” Caddy had mentioned she blamed Theo and me for the death of her brother, Dorian. Apart from that, Mrs. Delphine never held much room in her heart for me.
“Thank you, Mrs. Delphine,” I said with a fond smile.
“We’ll talk more in the morning, but for now, I’ll let you get settled in.” Caddy left us at the door of a guest room, pinching my arm as he walked toward his mate. I grimaced and rubbed where he pinched me.
I opened the door to the large room. It was nothing like my old room, that was another floor up. I set my bag on the bed and fished out some pajamas.
Theo found the bathroom and retrieved our toothbrushes. We both collapsed on the soft bed from exhaustion.
“Do you think Saskia is in any real trouble?” I wondered out loud. I felt Theo shrug.
“She’s been running from pack to pack, no one does that if they’re just looking for their mate. The correct protocol would be to inform all the packs you’re planning on visiting and wait for consent from the Alpha. And what about the supposed women she was traveling with; where are they?”
I nodded and began thinking of dozens of possibilities.
“Theo, what if she already knows who her mate is, but she doesn’t know where he is,” I pondered. “She said she was looking for her mate, not that she hadn’t found him yet. And maybe the other women found their mates and are with them.”
Theo rolled onto his side and settled his hand in the crook of my neck.
“How’d you get to be so smart?” His tone was teasing, but also complimenting me at the same time. I blushed and pursed my lips.
“It’s a natural gift.” I smirked, leaning into the warmth of his hand.
“I guess we’ll see tomorrow. If our calculations are correct, she should be passing through mid-morning.”
“Well then, we better get some sleep,” I concluded. He agreed though we stayed up for a while talking. Each time my eyes closed, he tickled the back of my neck, and my eyes shot open again.
“Go to sleep,” I said through gritted teeth. I had turned away from Theo, scooting to the edge of the bed, trying to fall asleep.
“No, I like bugging you,” he said chuckling. His hands pulled the warm covers off my body. I held onto them and was pulled upward.
“Come on, Theo, please?” I begged, looking at him with sad eyes.
“Fine,” he grumbled and released the covers. I curled up in them once again, and Theo curled around me.
✽✽✽
Caddy knocked on our door promptly at 8 am; he had always been a morning person.
“Wake up, sleepyheads! It’s time for breakfast!” His fist pounded on the door. Theo sat up happily while I remained hidden under the thick quilt.
“Margo,” he laughed, peeling back the sheets.
“No,” I whimpered as the cold hit my skin. I hated being woken up early, even if it was by Theo. The covers were ripped from my body, and I curled into Theo’s warmth to shelter myself. His arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me to him tightly. “Don’t let go.”
“Margo, we have to get ready. Saskia will be here soon. Don’t you want to see if any of your theories are true?” He nudged me. I frowned deeply but nodded.
“You’re right,” I sighed. “You usually are.”
He looked at me surprised and furrowed his eyebrows. “You’re unusually agreeable this morning.”
“I’m an agreeable person,” I whined, mouth gaping in offense.
“Margo, you are many things, but compliant and agreeable are not on that list,” he chortled, grabbing a shirt from his bag. I continued to stare at him with my mouth open, trying to come up with a retort. He walked past me to get to the bathroom but stopped and held my chin for a moment and muttered, “You should close your mouth, or I’ll put it to good use,” before leaving me.
“Theo!” I yelped, banging on the bathroom door that he locked. “Open this door right now!”
“There’s the Margo I know and love,” he said loudly from the other side of the door.
“You’re going to get it one of these days,” I vowed when he finally opened the door.
“I can get it anytime I want, mate.”
I hit him with my hip as he walked past. “Is that all you think about?” I asked. He shrugged, pulling his shirt over his head.
“Most of the time, yeah.”
I chuckled and looked down, shaking my head.
We met Caddy downstairs, seated with Bodhi, Jax, and a few other wolves I remembered vaguely.
“Hey, Margo,” Caddy smiled. I smiled back and then stopped as Bodhi glared at me. “Bodhi quit it.”
His voice wasn’t the same loving tone I remembered him using the first time they met. I froze in confusion but decided to leave it alone until I could talk to Caddy.
“I’m going to eat in my room,” Bodhi grumbled, picking up her plate. “Or would his highness like to protest,” she spat bitterly.
“You can go wherever you like; I’m not keeping you here,” he answered, raising his eyebrows.
Bodhi grumbled and stormed past Theo, barely missing the collision of their arms. No one said anything as the awkward silence in the room resonated.
“Sit down, guys,” Caddy jutted out, smiling nervously.
We sat and spooned some food onto our plates. I kicked Caddy’s foot under the table, and he looked up.
“Later, okay?” I whispered. He nodded, looking down at his food again.
“Alpha,” a Warrior called from the end of the table. “Kendrick just mind-linked me; he said yours was blocked. They caught the scent of a female wolf not far from our borders.”
“There’s our girl. She’s fast,” Caddy noted, pushing his seat away from the table. We all pushed our seats back, breakfast forgotten, and followed Caddy as he walked towards the back of the packhouse.
We filed out the back door and walked quickly to the tree line 500 feet ahead. The packhouse was located along the southern border or the grounds; we weren’t far from the edge.
“Alpha,” the Warrior called again. “They have the girl; they’ve cornered her a quarter-mile south-west.”
We started off in that direction, quickening our steps when we heard the feral growl of a wolf. The backs of the warriors were all we could see as we approached. Caddy touched the shoulder of one, and he stepped back, giving us access to the girl.
She wasn’t a girl though, she was a woman, probably a few years older than Theo. She bared her teeth as she moved around, trying to keep her eyes on all the warriors.
I lifted Theo’s arm over my head and moved under him. The girl had tan, glowing, skin, and straight, brown hair that swished around her waist as she circled.
She noticed us and stood up straight, taking us all in.
“Saskia?” Caddy addressed her firmly. She didn’t even flinch at his voice; her eyes were fixed on me.
A small, meaningless smile can onto her lips, just under her sharp, thin nose. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”
Ransom
Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing to look at me, confusion and suspicion filling their eyes.
“Me?” I asked incredulously.
“Margo, right?” She smiled, tilting her head to the side.
“Yes, and who are you?”
She smiled, mouth open, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. “I’m Saskia Rechovnik,” she said proudly. “You’re a wolf now.”
An unsettling cramp started in my stomach. I leaned back an inch until I felt Theo’s presence, calming me.
“How do you know her?” Theo asked. Saskia lifted her eyes and looked at him, her lip twitching.
“How do I know any of you, Theodore? It’s kind of an urban legend where I’m from. A small human girl is mated to an Enforcer, and they kill hundreds of wolves to save her humanity, only for her to lose it the same day.”
“I don’t appreciate you speaking about my mate like this,” Theo growled, pushing an arm over my chest to move me back.
“Speaking like what?” She smirked. “The truth? Oh, you Weston’s really do have a problem with the truth, don’t you?”
“What is your business with my brother?”
She scoffed, hair falling over her slender shoulders as her body shrugged forward. “He told you, did he? I don’t want anything with your brother, he was simply something to mind my time while I was traveling. Although, he was very curious about my thoughts on him choosing a mate to step in.”
“Why would he do that?” Theo asked through gritted teeth.
“Because he’s never going to find his mate.”
“Oh, and you’re an expert?” Theo asked, smiling in humor.
“You don’t know me, Theodore. You don’t know what I’m capable of.”
“Why don’t you tell me,” Theo offered, gesturing a hand. “You’ve been running onto different pack lands claiming to be looking for your mate or needing refuge, which story is it going to be this time?”
She pouted slightly, looking down like she wasn’t surprised he knew. “I was helping my friends search for their mates,” she paused and gulped. “But I ran into a little trouble along the way.”
“And where are these other friends of yours?”
“I want to talk to her.” Saskia pointed a fragile finger at me and closed her mouth.
“Why do you need to speak to my mate?”
“Because this is a sensitive topic,” she pressed, glaring at Theo. “And in case you haven’t noticed, she is the only other woman here. I’d feel more comfortable talking to her.”
“You aren’t-”
“That’s fine,” I interrupted Theo. He gave me a stern look, but I nodded my head, telling him I could do this.
“Fine,” he bit.
“Let’s go back to the packhouse, and we can discuss this further,” Caddy suggested. Theo nodded in agreement and placed a hand on my shoulder. Caddy led us back to the packhouse and into the only conference room towards the east end of the house. Caddy sat at the head of the table, Theo and I to one side, and Saskia settled on the other.
“What were the names of the other girls you were traveling with?” Theo reached over and pulled a thick pad of paper from the end of the table.
“That’s classified, Theodore,” Saskia said, placing both hands on the table in a folded pile.
“Why is that?”
“Because.” She smiled. “I don’t want to tell you.”
Theo set the pen on top of the pad of paper and stared at Saskia. “Why don’t you want to tell me? We can help them if they are in trouble.”
“You don’t help anyone in trouble.”
Theo’s calm façade shifted into one of offense, and he took three deep breaths before continuing. “That is my job, Saskia, to help people. If you or these girls are in danger or some sort of trouble, I can help you.”
“Just like you helped Reed Porter?”
The name sent shocks of ice into my bones.
“What do you know of Reed Porter?”
Saskia chuckled and unfolded her hands, placing them on her lap. “I know a lot more than you might think. I know that you murder people in cold blood and call it self-defense.”
“Reed Porter declared war and died defending his beliefs,” Theo claimed.
“Reed Porter was fighting for what he believed in, and his Enforcer did not facilitate a safe compromise. He contacted you in hopes you could help him, and you denied him that right.”
“If that’s what you think, then so be it.” Theo nodded noncommittally. “Now, what are the names of the women you were traveling with?”
“I won’t tell you.”
“Then you won’t leave.”
“I won’t tell you,” she repeated. “I’ll tell her.”
Theo and Caddy’s heads snapped to me as my eyes grew wider, and my mouth parted, ready to decline the offer.
“Fine,” Caddy spoke quickly. Theo angrily glared at him. “We will be right outside the door. If you need anything, just say so.” Caddy stood up and waited for Theo to do the same. Theo rose uneasily in his chair and touched my shoulder before walking out of the room.
Saskia released a nervous laugh and tucked some hair behind her ear.
“So, what are the names?” I asked, trying to have the same confidence as Theo.
She smiled at my attempt and shook her head. “You don’t have to be like them, you know?”
“Like what?”
“Ridiculously masculine and straight to the point.” Her head tilted right. “I like that you’re softer.”
“I’m not soft.”
Her eyes didn’t believe the words I said, but she nodded, nevertheless. “You remind me of me many years ago.”
“In what way?” I was curious to see if she would open up to me now that Theo and Caddy were on the other side of the door.
“Skittish,” she said, pursing her lips to one side. “Skittish and looking to man to guide you.”
“What makes you think I’m skittish?”
“You flinch every time I move my hands.” She laughed under her breath. “You’re scared. Of me. Of Reed Porter; when I mentioned his name, the blood drained from your face. But you’re trying to put on some persona of cockiness, and it just doesn’t suit you.”
“I can’t imagine you’d ever be skittish,” I told her.
Her eyebrow lifted, and her eyes melted away to another time and place. “I was quiet when I was younger,” she said nodding, recalling some memory. “My parents, they didn’t give me much room to speak. They were so tough on my brother and I. They would make us train for eight hours a day and then we’d be sent to our rooms for the rest of the night. They wanted my brother to become a pack warrior when he got older, and they wanted me to be strong enough for an Alpha to mate me.”
“They didn’t want you to find your mate?” The notion was foreign to me. All the wolves I’d ever met held mates sacred above all else; I couldn’t imagine parents trying to ignore that sanctity.
“My parents were Betas before my brother and I were born. My father made some mistakes, but they were trying to make up for it. They hoped with my brother in a warrior position and me mated to an Alpha or Beta, it would put them in a better position in our pack.” She allowed a false grin to cover the wobble of her lips. “But I met my mate before they could find an unmated Alpha and I was marked the same day. He wasn’t an Alpha, he was a Warrior in our pack, which they were sated with. They pushed my brother to become a Warrior as well, telling him to be like my mate.
“He died the week he became a Warrior. They both did. An Alpha ordered the kill, and they were gone,” she grimaced, gritting her jaw. “It wasn’t their fault, and the Alpha just killed them without asking him any questions. They were both innocent.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. My chest became heavy as I watched her eyes well with tears.
“It took a while for me to get over it.” Her falsetto grin flashed on her lips once again, and all the negative emotion filtered out of her façade. “And I wanted to do something with my pain and my anger, so I helped some women find their mates.”
“They why were you running?”
“Because right as another girl joined us, we were attacked.”
“By who?” she sighed at my question.
“Some men I owe money to.”
“Who are they?” I was hoping if I spoke loud enough, Theo and Caddy would be able to hear on the other side of the door.
“Men I hired to look into the death of my mate and my brother.” She placed her elbows on the table and let her forehead fall into her hands. “I didn’t have the finances to pay them at the time, and I told them I would pay them back when I had the money. As you can imagine, they didn’t like that answer very much. So, they took the girls. And they’re holding them until I can come up with the money.”
“Do you have the money?”
She laughed. “Do I look like I have the money, Margo?”
“So, what do you plan to do?”
“That’s where I need your help,” she said seriously. I flinched back slightly in my seat. “I need you to find those girls and bring them to me.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the one that got them into this mess, and I need to make sure their plans come to fruition. I know what it’s like to love a mate, and I just want these girls and their mates to experience that, too. I promised them.”
“Why didn’t you want to tell Theo about this?”
Her eyes turned darker at the sound of his name. “Because I don’t trust him. But I trust you. You’re like me, I can see that in you, you’ll do the right thing.”
“I’ll need Theo’s help to find them. I can’t do it on my own,” I warned her.