“What is wrong little unicorn? Where is Stormie? David is going insane because we can feel something wrong with Stormie. Let me talk to my sister, please.”
David was calling Stormie again since she had let the first call go to voice mail but he was watching me and had moved closer to make sure he could hear what was said. We both could hear my sister sobbing in the background.
It did not take long to get the story from Gabby after I finally got her to talk. She seemed upset that I had her number at first, or she could have been upset because of Stormie. I could not be certain. The best she could figure out was Stormie was crying because she put measuring spoons on the table. I looked at David who seemed confused. “What is a measuring spoon” he mouthed.
I shrugged. Now was not time to try to explain to David about measuring ingredients for cooking. I knew he could not cook any more than my sister but I was not going to put my reputation on the line by teaching my beta to cook. They were on their own.
I offered to send David to collect Stormie but apparently Stormie heard what I said because the next thing I knew David’s phone was ringing. I watched his face as I listened to him trying to figure out what exactly was wrong. I could hear my sister trying to explain. If she was not so upset I would have laughed. When he hung up the phone he just gave a deep sigh and headed back to his office muttering, “measuring spoons, what the hell is a tablespoon?”
I realized I still had the phone to my ear and I could hear Gabby on the other end breathing. “I apologize if my sister upset you. She is a little fragile when it comes to certain things. I do appreciate you taking the time to teach her to cook but if anything happens that you feel you can not handle, please little one, call me. This was not exactly how I intended you to get my number but the safety of this community is my first priority. I want you safe both physically and emotionally, it is the only way a community can grow if every member feels safe. And since you live in the cabin you are certainly a member of this community.” I heard her gulp on the other end and, as much as I wanted to just keep her on the phone I felt it would be better if I hung up so with a gentle “be safe and call if you need anything, and put this number in the phone if you will please.” I hung up.
Some hours later I grimaced as I hung up the phone with my mom. I had no idea what I had said that made my grandfather suspicious but it appeared he called his daughter, my mother, to let her know he was coming to visit. Since he did not call me to tell me he was coming I am going to assume he is coming as a high council. They do not have to announce they are coming when they decide to descend upon a pack in the position of high council. Since he did call my mom I am also going to assume he wants me to know he is coming. I sighed heavily as I tried to figure out my next move. It looked like I would be taking my grandfather into my confidence concerning my little mate.
Chapter Nine
Gabriella
By the time we got back to the cabin Stormie had told me all about Sam and the cabin. She said he kept the cabin for his niece but she was in boarding school until she turned twenty-one. I had asked her what kind of boarding school last until a person turns twenty-one but she had turned white and clammed up. I am going to assume the niece got into some type of trouble and was sent away to some sort of reform school. That really sucks for Sam, he seems like such a nice old man.
I remembered the way he eased back off the porch that first day like he was trying not to startle me. He seemed so understanding of my wariness of strangers. Stormie said it will be awhile before the niece can come back unless something changes. She did not seem to think anything would change anytime soon. I am happy at the cabin so this works for me.
With both of us working together it did not take long to get everything in the cabin and put up. Soon we were laughing and singing as I showed her how to bake cookies. It did not take long to figure out cookies were going to be beyond her for some time to come.
“What do you mean you don’t know how much a tablespoon is?” I could not keep the surprise from my voice.
“I told you I can not cook. Why would you think I know what a tablespoon is? We don’t have spoons specifically for table use. Is it different from stove spoons?”
I blinked a couple of times. “What exactly is a stove spoon?”
Stormie looked at me, “I guess it is the spoon you use to stir stuff on the stove? So, since we are mixing the cookies on the table you want a spoon for that?”
I was confused until I realized she really had no idea what a measuring spoon was.
“Ok, no, I just, hold on.” I got all the measuring spoons and measuring cups and put them on the table. “First things, in order to know how much of something we put into a dish we have to measure. These,” I gestured toward the items, “are measuring utensils. We have measuring spoons in different sizes and we have measuring cups in different sizes. Ah, plus you have a measuring cup for liquids. So this,” I picked up the tablespoon, “is a tablespoon. If the recipe calls for a tablespoon we use this one. Unless it calls for a tablespoon of liquid then we use this,” I looked up at Stormie when I heard a strange sound. My eyes got wide when I realized her shoulders were heaving and tears were pouring down her cheeks. Soon deep sobs were racking her body. It was not long before her phone was ringing. Almost immediately my phone was ringing.
She was not even trying to answer her phone. I grabbed mine and did not recognize the number I did notice the area code was the same as the one I called when I talked to Sam. Although, I had Sam’s phone number labeled in my phone so this was not him. Nervously I answered the phone while I watched Stormie wondering if I should pat her on the back or something. I was so out of my element here.
The voice sent shivers down my spine when I heard it. “What is wrong little unicorn? Where is Stormie? David is going insane because we can feel something wrong with Stormie. Let me talk to my sister, please.” I did not know the voice but apparently this was the mysterious brother. And how did they both know something was wrong? As a twin I could not even tell when my sister was just crying. My rabbit hole keeps getting bigger. When I finally let myself down this rabbit hole I am afraid what I am going to find may cause me to copy what Stormie is doing.
“How did you get my number?” I could not keep my voice from breaking. But even I was not sure if it was a bit of fear that some strange man had my number, or because of the shivery warmth the voice caused.
That voice came back across the phone, I could listen to that voice all night, and that scared me. “I asked my sister for your number when she got back last night. I thought it best to have the number in case something went wrong. Please, is Stormie ok. We really need to know what is wrong.”
I had no idea what was wrong with Stormie so telling the mysterious voice was going to be a little hard. I was worried if I did not say something I was going to have people descending upon my cabin though so I told him what I thought was wrong. “I am not sure what is wrong but she is not hurt if that is what you are asking. I was teaching her what a measuring spoon was and she started crying. I don’t know how to get her to stop either,” I almost wailed this last sentence. By now I was wanting to join Stormie in her cry-fest so badly. This day was taking a toll on my emotions.
“If my sister is a bit too much I can send David to come get her. He can calm her down when no one else can.”
Just then Stormie grabbed the phone she had ignored and started punching numbers. In a moment I heard her saying, “No, please, don’t come get me. I just got a little upset because there is so much to learn. I did not know anything about measuring spoons and did you know there are two sets of them? Two sets David, that is even harder than I thought it would be. I did not even know what a tablespoon is. How can I learn to make cookies if I don’t know what a tablespoon is?”
When she got off the phone I realized I was still holding my phone to my ear. Apparently the brother had not hung up cause I could still hear him breathing. Just then his voice startled me as he began to apologize.
His words were a little surprising. It had been so long since I had anyone worry about my safety. And when he told me I was a member of the community I had to swallow hard to keep a sob from escaping. His words made me feel safe. His voice made me feel, I did not know what they made me feel. Safe, maybe, warm and shivery at the same time. He told me I could call anytime I needed something before he hung up. I stared at my phone for a moment debating putting his number in my contacts.
I was thinking so hard that I jumped when Stormie spoke. “You should you know.”
Startled I looked at her. “Should what? I am sorry, did you say something? I was distracted.”
“The number, you should put his number in your phone. He is the best person to call if something happens. I told you my brother would welcome you into the community.”
I was not even upset her brother had my number anymore. I looked at my phone then back at her then back to my phone. I never even questioned the fact she had heard her brother over my phone. Why would I? I had the same kind of hearing and did not know then it was anything unusual. Later such things would begin to filter into my rabbit hole.
“Do you know, I don’t even know your brother’s name?” I realized Stormie had never said anything but ‘my brother’ and her mom had only ever said, ‘my son’.
Stormie’s eyes slowly widened as her mouth formed a small o of surprise. She was still red eyed from crying and she still gave a little sniffle every so often but I was glad to see she was no longer crying. I was almost afraid to ask why she even started. I did not want to set her off again.
“Trey, my brother’s name is Trey.” She gave a big smile before shyly continuing, “I am so sorry, can we still cook the cookies? I just, got a little overwhelmed for a minute. Mom never got far enough in trying to teach me that we got into any spoons. I don’t remember ever seeing her use spoons.”
I giggle, “Some people are such good cooks they do not need to use measuring spoons to cook. Your mom may be one of those people. Is she a very good cook?”
“Mmm, oh yes, she is the best cook ever. Better than the diner even.”
I laughed at her. “Most people who can cook will cook better than a diner because most of that food is cooked in batches for many people. And it sits for awhile also so that makes it not as good.”
“Gabby, do you have to measure things? I mean, you got all the stuff today but since you did not have it before does that mean you don’t need it? Did you just buy that measuring stuff to teach me?” She looked so worried when she started asking questions. Before I could answer she started again, “I mean if you do that would be good right? But if you don’t how are you going to teach me? Unless, maybe if you don’t need them you can teach me not to need them and they I would not have to learn them. But, if I don’t learn them that would be bad cause what if I needed them?”
I held my hands up in an attempt to slow down the questions or stop them all together. I could not keep up with the questions she was asking, much less try to answer every one of them.
“No, I do not need them for everything. But some things do have to be measured if you want it to turn out right. If you buy a box cake at the store the ingredients have to be measured just right or the cake will not turn out right. So if I was making something like chili, or biscuits, no, I would not measure. But for cookies or cakes I do measure. Does that make you feel better?”
Stormie’s eyes narrowed and she tilted her head to the side “Can you teach me to cook chili?”
I smiled, “yes yes, that is easy. Well, once you learn a few things it is easy. I will have you cooking in no time.”
She giggled then and told me, “Chili is one of my favorite meals right after steak.”
I winked at her. “Come on, let’s see what you can learn in a day.”
Several hours later, kitchen still intact, Stormie bounced out of the cabin, container of cookies balanced on top of her container of sauce. Just before she pulled out of the drive she stuck her head out of the window “I will be back day after tomorrow so you can teach me the next thing. I am so very happy you moved to our pa… um community.”
As soon as her car was out of sight I closed the door and started locking all the locks. I was still trying to hold it together. I had a lot of practice but today, well today was a whole nother world of rabbit holes. If I could just hold on a little longer. I looked at my spotless kitchen. The only thing still out was the sauce and noodles Stormie had left behind for my dinner. She had insisted we cook noodles so I could keep some of the sauce and have dinner also. But really I think it was because she really wanted to try the food before she took it home to David. Maybe it was a bit of both.
Walking over to the stove, I knew I could not eat tonight. I was barely hanging on as it was. I was afraid if I ate I would be sick. I carefully put the food in a container and placed it in the fridge. Maybe later I would eat. For now I was going to curl up in a little ball on my bed and try very hard to examine my rabbit hole without falling in.
Chapter Ten
Trey
“What do you mean you will not help me? Isn’t that the entire purpose of the high council? To help the packs when they have problems which originated outside the pack. Or in this case, to figure out what is going on. Grandfather, we have a freaking unicorn sitting in a cabin down the road. From what I have been told she has as many locks as a person could reasonably put on a door. No one knows where she came from. No one knows where she was going when she decided stopping here and moving into my pack territory would be a good idea. She did not even recognize I was a wolf for gods sake. She thought I was a dog, a bloody damn dog. And now you are telling me you will not get involved? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you involved, but it would be nice to know what is going on. Are little she wolves who are not yet mature going to start roaming around on their own? Is anyone missing a daughter? Where did she come from?”
My grandfather watched me pace for awhile. I was agitated, my wolf was agitated and my grandfather had just thrown me for a loop. He had not only said he could not help, he said he would not help. When he finally spoke again what he had to say had me snarling in anger.
“You want my opinion? Send her to the fancy school before she gets in trouble and you lose all progress. Find her a mate in your pack when she turns twenty-one. But get her out of that cabin and to safety. You do not want me to help. Any help I could offer would raise too many questions and the next thing you know she would be captive and your females would be wary again. Send her away.” When he lifted his hand and made a shooing motion I felt another low growl starting deep in my chest. When it erupted I saw my grandfather’s lips twist up but he made no other move.
“I thought so. You won’t send her away because she is your mate.” My grandfather heaved a big sigh before telling me, “I will help you as much as I can. But some help I could have given someone else, I will not give you. The risk to the girl would be too great if any of the high council were to start investigating. I will research records of lost pack members and see if I can come up with anything. But I can not ask any questions of anyone. Those kinds of actions are what brings others sniffing around. Your attempt to find out information brought me sniffing around. Stop asking questions, of anyone. If you must ask questions save them all for the girl. She will be the best one to answer your questions. Now tell me what protections you are putting into place to protect my future granddaughter.”
The relief I felt was enormous. As the alpha I had all the responsibility of protecting my pack. But sometimes, becoming an alpha at such a young age, meant I did not have the experience to protect my pack. My grandfather on the other hand was at least three hundred years old, if not older. If I had to guess I would say he was probably older. I knew in order to even have a chance of being on the high council you had to be two hundred years old. How much older than that my grandfather was I could only guess. I had asked him once or twice when I was younger, maybe more than twice if I was being honest. The only answer
he ever gave me was ‘old enough’ which told me nothing.
My grandfather was one of the reasons we even had that blasted boarding school. When the high council began to realize the problems with the females my grandfather had insisted on the school as a means to help hide and protect the females. Every male guarding the school itself was mated and many had a daughter in the school. Some of the daughters of the guards had left school to mate, when they came of age. The guards who stayed knew the value of what they guarded. Everyone of the guards pledged to guard the school with their lives.
But the sneakiest part of my grandfather’s entire plan was not who he and the other council members found to guard the school. No, the sneakiest part of the plan was where they placed the school. They put their not inconsiderable might to the task of securing an area smack dab in the middle of the largest most secure pack in the world. And if anything ever happened to the girls at the school, well, everyone knew what happened when the females did not feel secure. So Gammon, the alpha of the pack guarding the school, made certain each and every member of his pack helped guard the area around the school. Strangers to the area were given a short invitation to leave. I understand the invitation was something along the lines of leave or die. Many had died before word got around not to visit, not to try to visit and if you accidentally strayed to close to the territory you had mere seconds to turn and leave.
Gabby (Safe Haven Wolves Book 1) Page 7