They could laugh all they wanted, but until I saw the doctor, I was going to worry that something was wrong with the baby. Ryan took me home shortly after that, and my panic attack was the talk of the campground. Danielle was on my side about it all. She didn’t think anything was wrong with the baby, but she understood my worry and apologized for not thinking about my needing a doctor herself.
Abby set my appointment for nine the next morning. I ended up seeing Katelyn, Dimitri’s mom, instead of the doctor because the doctor’s male status sent Ryan’s protectiveness into overdrive and our mating wouldn’t allow the man to examine me. From what I had understood of Abby’s situation was that a man couldn’t touch her in a sexual way. I didn’t think the doctor’s attempt to examine me was in any way sexual, but my body must have because it wouldn’t let him near me. Neither would Ryan. I enjoyed seeing Ryan looking sheepish at his behavior that time but was shocked at how the man had reacted to me. He didn’t show revulsion or anything like that, and he could actually examine me if he tried, but he said his brain kept screaming for him to back away from me every time he tried to get near me.
“We should have known Ryan would react that way,” Katelyn said, as she helped me into position to have my first ultrasound. “Dimitri got that way with Abby, and I ended up being the one to deliver Kayla. We don’t know why the mating with humans is so different from our mating with one another. Daniel thinks it might have something to do with how fragile the human body is, and even though you take on a number of your mate’s abilities, you don’t take them all, so you develop your own defensive mechanisms.”
“Do your men behave the way Ryan had when the doctor tried to give me a breast exam? You know, throw people across the room?”
“They can get very possessive, but I haven’t seen one act that way when they know such physical contact isn’t sexual.”
We both turned to smile at Ryan who was pacing by the door as if daring the doctor to come back. He also looked ashamed of the behavior.
“I’m betting that most of it has to do with the fact that he feels as if you are still under attack. Once you both feel safe and secure, that type of behavior might diminish. Now, let’s have a look at your baby,” Katelyn said and slid the transducer wand over my stomach. The gel wasn’t not comfortable, but the sight of the blob that appeared on the screen pushed aside my discomfort.
“He or she appears to be developing just fine. There’s a nice, strong heartbeat.” She moved the pointer over the heart as a rhythmic sound filled the air.
Ryan stopped pacing and came to the bed. He held my hand as we both stared at the screen. I had been in love with her—I was beginning to agree with Ryan that she was a girl—from the second I understood that I was pregnant, but seeing her made her so much more real than I ever thought possible. I was sure I would think the same thing when I feel her move inside me and on the day I get to hold her in my arms.
“Melissa,” Ryan murmured, pulling my gaze from the screen to him.
“What?” I asked him unsure of to whom he was speaking.
“Her name is Melissa.” This time his words came out a little clearer. “I mean, if you’re okay with that?” he asked. His look was pleading and so genuine that I had to say yes to it.
But first, I asked, “Why Melissa?” I turned back to the monitor, trying to figure out what he saw in the screen that caused him to choose that name.
“I don’t know. It was the first name that came to my mind. It feels right.”
“Melissa,” I said and squeezed his hand.
“Melissa is a beautiful name, but we won’t know what the baby’s sex is for a few more months,” Katelyn said, sounding a little shy about interrupting our private conversation.
“Ryan has been calling her a girl since the first night we found out I was pregnant. For some reason, I think I have to agree with him. Deep in my soul, I know she’s a girl.”
“Dimitri and Abby said the same about Kayla, except Abby is the one who knew her name the instant she saw her. It might be a special ability that comes with your mating, or it might be a coincidence and lucky guesses. I guess we’ll see if there are more matings like yours in the future.”
Katelyn wrapped up my appointment quickly after that and sent us back to our cabin with prenatal vitamins, book recommendations, and photos of our baby, which we promptly showed to everyone. My mother beamed at the photo, and his mother cried. Everyone agreed that the name Melissa fit her but couldn’t figure out why Ryan had chosen it. No one knew anyone named Melissa.
That night at dinner, people passed Melissa’s photos around—though by then I had put them in a small album so that no one would accidentally damage them. We talked happily of her future until my sister Maddie gave a shocked gasp that silenced the room.
“What’s wrong, Maddie?” my mother asked from her position across the table from my youngest sister.
“It’s Rachel and Gretchen. They want us to get them out of Pine Hollow the way we did the Carmichaels,” she said, handing the phone to my mother. Rachel and Gretchen were twins that Maddie went to school with, though the girls were a few years younger than Maddie. I hadn’t known they were such good friends with Maddie, but admittedly, I didn’t know much about Maddie’s social life. I had seen the twins a time or two. They’d never been mean to me, that I was aware of, but their parents hadn’t been that sociable to me.
“Their text says that they heard their parents talking about trying to find a way out of town. The Council’s edict that no one could leave Pine Hollow is hurting their dad’s business, since he has clients all over the world,” Mom said.
“Are we sure the texts are from them?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Their father is a defense attorney that focuses mostly on cases that involve humans. If he limits his business to people inside Pine Hollow, he’ll go under. Their mother writes children’s stories, so they won’t be destitute, but a number of the families working for him will,” she said, looking grim.
“Okay, but are we sure it’s the girls who sent the text? Is there a possibility that the text is a set up? The Council could be using a plausible scenario to lure us to them. The second we set foot on their land, they’ll declare war,” Mom said.
“It has to be real,” Maddie said. “Rachel and Gretchen aren’t close friends of mine. If it was a setup, wouldn’t the Council use someone closer to us?”
“Good question. But doesn’t it make even more sense to use someone like them to make things seem even less like a setup?” Dave said.
“I guess,” Maddie said dejectedly. “But if it isn’t a setup, we can’t just leave them there.”
“No, we can’t,” I said. “What do we do?” I asked Dave.
“Call them, Maddie, and put them on speaker,” he said, motioning for Mom to hand the phone to her.
Apprehensively, Maddie called the number. After two rings, a young female voice answered. “Maddie? Is that you?” she asked
“It’s me. Is this Gretchen or Rachel?” my sister asked, holding the phone out in front of her.
“Gretchen. Can you get us out?” Her words were rushed and a bit muffled.
“I don’t know. I have you on speaker. Dave and Danielle are here, and they’re a bit worried that this might be a set up.” She winced as she said this, probably feeling as if she had done something wrong, but Dave smiled and mouthed that she was doing fine.
“What do you mean, ‘a set up?’” Gretchen asked, sounding angry.
“She means that the Council doesn’t like us very much, Gretchen,” Dave said. “They aren’t happy that we left. They keep promising us that if we come near Pine Hollow they will declare war. How do we know they aren’t using you to get us to come there, so they can do so?”
“No one is using us for anything.” Her tone was fierce and believable.
“I’m sorry, but I need proof or you’ll have to get yourselves far enough away from town that the Council can’t use you to get to us before we wil
l assist you. Can you do either of those things?” he asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said, sounding annoyed and defeated. “Why don’t you fight them?” she asked.
“Because we don’t have the manpower nor do we want to start a war. If Pine Hollow wants to get rid of the Council, they’ll have to do that themselves. We’ll do our best to help those who want out because the Council doesn’t have the right to hold them, but we don’t have the right to make that decision for everyone else. My parents have already reported what’s going on there to the Regent. If the Regent deems it necessary for there to be a change in government, we’ll help them make the change.”
Dave told her that last part, for one to give her hope that if we couldn’t get her out, then the Regent might and two to let the Council—if they were behind this—know that the Regent knew what’s going on and may or may not be planning to move against them.
“At least get my dad out so that he can work,” she begged.
“Gretchen, I’m not entering Pine Hollow for anyone, even your dad. If he can get you guys to the east side of town near Deer Point Road, we’ll meet you and bring you here, but that’s it,” Dave said, making a slight concession to the situation.
“Aren’t you staying with the Sullivan pack? Don’t they have magical powers or something? Can’t they pop in and out and get us?”
“We are and yes on both accounts, but they won’t.”
“Are they too scared?”
“No, but they don’t want to start a war either. The Council has a witch working for them. That witch has probably set up wards to sense them, their magic, and us. She might even have something set up that will catch us or stop us from being able to leave once we’re there.”
“Fine,” she said in a defeated tone. “Rachel went to get Dad. He doesn’t know I called.”
We didn’t completely believe her, but Mr. Rodstrom sounded confused and irritated with his girls when he entered the room.
“What’s your sister talking about, Gretchen? She says you have someone on the phone who is going to help us leave. Who did you call? What have you done? Who knows what you’re doing?”
“Mr. Rodstrom,” Dave said a bit loudly so that the man could hear him. “This is Dave Carmichael.”
“Robert’s boy?” Mr. Rodstrom asked a bit hesitantly.
“Yes sir.”
“Did my girls call you?” the question came through clear as a bell indicating that he had taken the phone from his daughter and brought it to his ear.
“Yes sir. Just so you know, you’re on speakerphone. Ryan, Leigh, Danielle, my parents, and the Alexanders are here.”
“What’s going on? Why do you have my daughters on speaker?”
“Your daughters sent Maddie, my sister-in-law, a text stating that your family needed help getting out of Pine Hollow.”
“She did what?” he all but screamed into the phone before pulling it away, covering the mouthpiece, and yelling at his daughters. Most of his words came through the phone muffled. We could make out a good bit of what he was saying, which boiled down to, “How dare you call someone like this without my permission? Never tell my business,” and so on. We heard Gretchen say something back about him being stubborn and pig-headed, and then there was a loud tiger roar that shut Gretchen up and caused Rachel to burst into tears.
“Dave, are you there?” Mr. Rodstrom asked a second later.
“I am. Is everything all right there?”
“Yes. I should punish these two for what they’ve done, but they aren’t wrong. We need help. I have clients threatening to drop me. The Council has forbidden us to leave or to tell anyone about the order, so I have to make up excuses. I’ve gone to the Council to explain that if I don’t meet with these clients, if I don’t show up to court sessions, I’ll lose the client and the money. They don’t seem to care. Martin has lost his mind and has browbeaten the rest of the members into submission. He isn’t thinking straight and doesn’t seem to care. I don’t know what’s going on, but we have to leave before anything worse happens. Others are talking about leaving as well, but after your parents disappeared, the Council has set up patrols all over town. Rumor has it that we could buy off some of them to look the other way, but no one that I know of has left town. I don’t know every single member of this pack, so I can’t say no one has left. Listen to me, I’m rambling. Gretchen says you can help. Can you?”
“We can help some, but you’ll have to do the hardest part. The Council has threatened to start a war with the Sullivan pack if we step a single toe onto their territory. If you can get to Deer Point Road, we’ll be there to bring you the rest of the way here. You’ll have to leave everything behind. You won’t be able to make a run for it if you are loaded down. We have a place for you to stay with food and anything else you may need if you don’t have anywhere else to go. If we bring you here, you have to agree to obey Daniel Sullivan, the pack’s alpha. You’ll live under his rules and you’ll contribute. Can you do that?”
“If he’ll let me continue with my practice, I’ll do anything.”
“I’m sure he will. Listen, I trust you. When Gretchen first called, I thought you guys were setting us up. I’m still not sure that isn’t the case, but I’m going through with this as if it isn’t. What time of the day do you think all four of you can slip away without being missed?”
Dave spent another twenty minutes or so on the phone making plans with Mr. Rodstrom before calling Daniel to inform him of what was happening. He was also worried that this was a trick and said he wanted to see if Sam would be willing to go with them. She might be able to use magic to see any hidden dangers or throw up wards the other witch couldn’t sense to aid the Rodstroms in their escape.
I busied myself with cleaning up after dinner. A part of me wanted to help, but I knew Ryan would never agree. The other part of me was scared and feared that once people realized that I was more or less the cause of all of this, they would start to hate me all over again.
Chapter 27 ~ Confronting the Enemy
~~~Ryan~~~
Leigh wasn’t as worried about the second rescue mission as she was the first. She understood the supernatural world a little better, knew what we could do, how strong we were, and that unless the Council threatened a person’s life, we were not going onto their land.
Sam agreed to go with us. Since she wasn’t technically a part of Daniel’s pack, she could, in theory, sneak into Pine Hollow and assist anyone who wanted out, but she wouldn’t have any back up, which meant that Daniel said that a stipulation of her going was that she had to stay with us at all times. She rolled her eyes at his command but agreed to Daniel’s terms.
The Rodstroms decided they would come out one at a time with long intervals in between in the hopes that no one would get suspicious of their actions. The twins came first. Originally, Rachel was supposed to come then Gretchen, but Rachel got scared, so the two had to come together. They had walked a friend home from school, all the while talking about how their dad was taking them hiking that afternoon. They played up the father/daughter bonding and tried to show how excited they were to have him home so much and doing stuff with them. Once the girl was home, they cut through her backyard and into the woods. In case someone followed them, they went straight to the entrance to the trail, changed clothes in the bathroom/rest area there then sat at one of the picnic tables for nearly forty-five minutes, every so often complaining that their dad was late. They eventually gave up on him and hit the trail on their own. The back loop brought them close to where we were, so they broke from the trail there in a full out run and didn’t stop until they almost literally ran into us. They were supposed to text us when they got near the patrol line to get the all clear from us, but they hadn’t.
Sam immediately threw a few pinecones with scent blocking spells on them into the path they had come from to mask their smell from the next two guards who came through on patrol. Neither girl thought that anyone had followed them, but to be certain,
Dimitri disappeared with them almost immediately, and we ducked back into the trees we were hiding behind on what we considered our side of the territorial line. Dimitri reappeared a half a second later. I sent a text to their father to let him know that the girls were safe and to remind his wife to text when she got a quarter mile away from the border.
A half-an-hour later, she left the house to go for a run. She followed our instructions to the letter, and we had her back to the Sullivan pack in no time. Mr. Rodstrom was a different story. We waited and waited and waited on him. I sent him a text the second Devan disappeared with Mrs. Rodstrom, and Mr. Rodstrom sent a text back stating that he would leave the house in fifteen to twenty minutes, pretending to fetch his daughters before curfew.
He didn’t send a second message until nearly an hour and a half later, long after we had started to panic. Come to find out, before he could leave the house, two people called—both clients, so no one who suspected anything—then, as he was exiting his backyard, a guard approached him to ask where he was going so close to curfew. He explained that he was supposed to meet his daughters for a hike but had gotten hung up on work calls. He figured that they were still on the trail waiting for him, so he was going to get them.
The two men went back and forth, the guard asking questions that made it sound as if he were suspicious of Mr. Rodstrom. Eventually, Mr. Rodstrom had to get a little annoyed with the man before he backed off. Mr. Rodstrom was afraid his annoyance made him sound guilty of something, but the guard never followed, and the man finally made it out of Pine Hollow.
Overall, the extraction went as planned, but something inside me told me that things wouldn’t continue to go that smoothly, and I was right. The next extraction almost didn’t happen and what came afterwards nearly destroyed both packs.
One of Dave’s cousins called him about a week after we extracted the Rodstroms and asked Dave to get him and his wife out of town. The Council had been trying to get Emanuel, Dave’s cousin, to spy on the rest of the family and aid them in getting to Dave. That fact immediately set off alarm bells in everyone’s head, but Dave insisted that the man would never do that and that his telling us of the Council’s plans was proof. We discussed the logistics of that extraction for nearly two weeks before agreeing on a plan, not that the plan was an elaborate one, but Dave kept trying to worm his way into things, or the Council inadvertently got in the way.
Outcast (Supernaturals Book 2) Page 22