Gabby (Safe Haven Wolves Book 1)

by Sherry Foster

  I think I am going crazy. There is no other explanation. I hear a whimper again. It is not coming from inside the cabin. It did not come from me. Memories from the past start to push their way to the surface, overriding the whimper. I do not remember how young I was, just that I was very young, so young I had forgotten it, but the memory is clear, now. Uncle Josh laughing and tweaking my nose. His voice, deep and soothing, You heard exactly what Nanny said little pup. Your hearing is just as good as the rest of our kind. Now go do what your Nanny said before I feed you to the kitty cats. I whimper again. Little pup, our kind, the words are replaying on a loop in my mind. I don’t understand. I want to scream, and cry, maybe I am going crazy.

  I can’t remember anything being said like that as Trina and I grew older. If we were a certain kind, wouldn’t Nanny and Uncle Josh have told us something?

  More thoughts fill my head. Uncle Josh and Nanny laughing and joking. The word mate, I remember Nanny telling him he was her perfect mate. I remember that. How could I have forgotten all these things? Am I, no, I can not be, they would have said something. They would have, I know they would have. I swallow hard. I want out of this rabbit hole. I don’t like it very much. I want my Nanny, I want my sister. I want to go home. I can not stop the sobs from coming. I am so confused and so lost right now. Nothing makes sense anymore. My head jerks up. I heard a whimper again.

  I slowly ease my way into a sitting position. I gently lay the pillow down and ever so slowly I ease my feet to the floor. I brace my back against the wall and ease out of the bedroom. One, tiny step at a time, as silent as a cat I creep through the living room. Listening, I don’t hear anything or anyone inside. I would have heard them if they were inside. Whoever them might be. There, I heard a whimper again. It sounds like an animal but I do not know what kind. I swallow hard as I slowly inch my hand to the curtain and move it the tiniest amount. I can’t see anything. I move it just a bit more and that is when I get the next shock of the day.

  I feel myself getting light headed. I ease myself backwards toward the bedroom. Changing direction I ease back toward the front door where my go bag is. I stand there, indecisive, I can’t very well run with two wolves laying on my porch. I ease back to the window and ever so slowly I reach for the curtain again. Yep, my eyes were not playing tricks on me. That big black wolf is on my porch and what must be his mate is laying beside him. The black wolf is watching the woods, the road, and all around my cabin. Ears up, listening. The other wolf, smaller and lighter in color is facing the cabin door. I hear the whimper again and realize it is coming from the small, gray wolf. Why is she, I assume it is a she, watching my door and whimpering?

  I decide I do not want to know. I creep back to my bedroom and head for the closet. Reversing direction I ease my way back toward the front door. When I have my go back in my hand I head for the closet again. I close and lock the bedroom door as I go through it then I grab my phone from the bedside table and open my go bag. When my hand closes around my taser I begin to breath easier. I have no idea what a taser will do to a wolf and I hope I do not have to find out. I locate the mace and zip my go bag up and slide my arms through the straps. It has enough clothing in it to be a comfortable pillow when I need it to be. Thinking about that I grab my pillow. I open the closet and gently ease my way in closing the door behind me. Not that the closet will provide much protection but I can not stop myself from needing to hide.

  I adjust the few things in the closet to provide a place to curl up, my sleeping bag was already in the closet. I fix the taser and the mace where I can just point and shoot if someone opens the door. I really hope Stormie was serious about the wolf guarding me. Or maybe it was her mom who said the wolf would protect me if I let it. Well, I am going to let it. I am going to curl up in the closet and I am not coming out. Except, I suddenly realize, my phone is on the bed. I must have put it down when I grabbed the taser, or maybe when I was easing my arms through the straps of my bag. I ease the door back open and dart into the bedroom and grab it. I make it back to the closet in what I am sure is record time and close the door. Maybe if I call Stormie she can reassure me about the two wolves on my porch.

  I look at the time. It is getting a little late to be calling people, especially married people who may be celebrating the fact one of them was able to cook an edible meal. I wiggle around getting comfortable. There is no way I will be taking my go bag off my back, but since it is mostly filled with clothing wrapped around other items I will not be too uncomfortable wearing it to sleep. If I can fall asleep in this closet, which I doubt. But in this I was wrong. The emotional roller coaster I had been on today, coupled with the rabbit hole I could not seem to escape, had worn me out. I was asleep before I realized it.

  Chapter Twelve

  Trey

  I looked at Casey. “I will be back soon, at least, I plan to be back soon. I hope the hotel is comfortable. I should be back as soon as possible. Did you want to grab a bite to eat while I am gone or did you want to wait till I get back?”

  “Yeah, you said that already. You have told me three times now you will be back soon. If I did not know better I would say you were nervous about meeting Gammon.” Before I could say anything she stuck her hand up, “No, really I am not fishing for information. I do not want to know. Lalalala, the less I know the less I can talk if someone kidnaps me and tortures me for information.”

  I could feel my eyes get big when as she spoke. “Is that something you expect to happen? Are you having problems with outsiders? I told you, if you need to, you can move closer to my pack.”

  She laughed, “No, I am just messing with you. Getting kidnapped and tortured for information is not something I live in expectation of happening. People would first have to know or believe your kind exist, then they would have to know I associate with your kind before that would even be a remote danger. Besides, my people can hold their own, trust me.”

  I narrowed my eyes at the comment. She had made similar comments in the past. She had a rather unique smell that I have always wondered about. More than once I have wondered if she is quite human. That is not a question I will ever pose though. If she wants me to know, she will tell me. It is enough for me that she has a plane and, for the right price will charter me around when I need to go somewhere. She does seem to know more than she should about my people though. She should not know anything about Gammon. I will have to ask grandfather if he knows anything when I get back.

  After dropping her off at the motel and making sure she got checked in fine, and dropping my own bag off in my room, I head toward Gammon’s compound. The compound is an hour away from the motel. If Gammon is serious about only giving me two minutes then I will be back in two hours, give or take. Casey told me she would wait for my return to eat. Hopefully she will find a steak place by the time I get back.

  ***

  I took a deep breath before exiting the rental car. I have been in Gammon’s territory since shortly after I left the motel. I was stopped no less than twice by guards before I got more than a few miles from the motel. The last forty-five minutes have been uneventful. I was told at the last stop that I could not stop, it would be best if I did not stop, not even to smell a flower until I pulled up at the compound. I have been here before, twice with pack members who had daughters in the compound they wanted to bring home, so I knew what to expect already. I had come two other times with Sam to bring his niece home for the summer. And bringing her back made twice more, so a total of six times.

  Almost the only way to get a female out of the school once she is placed in the school is for the family of the girl to be escorted with their alpha to the school. Gammon does not give up the females trusted into his care easily. I can not say I blame him. The future of his own pack relies on his females feeling safe. His females can only feel truly safe if he keeps everyone else’s females safe. His job sucks on so many levels I would not even know where to start if I wanted to list them all.

  Having been here before I knew w
here to park the car and when I got out, I grabbed the folder I brought with me and moved to the front of the car and waited. I knew I was under watch by several members of the pack and it made my wolf wary. I hoped I did not have long to wait until someone came to get me. If I tried to approach the door unescorted I would not live long enough to call home and tell anyone goodbye. The parking space was in an open area with nothing around. No other parking spots, no other buildings close, no other cars. The spot was strategically placed so all approaches to the spot were covered. Gammon took no chances, and again, I could not say I blamed him.

  Looking around I saw a few changes had been made. I wondered about the new building going up in the distance. Was his pack growing to the extent he needed more buildings around the compound. The building was going up near the school which made me wonder even more what the purpose of the new building was. I wish I had the relationship with Gammon that allowed me to ask what he was doing. Not that it is any of my business, but the building is next to the school so I could not help but wonder.

  After being left in front of my car for a few minutes I finally see someone approaching. I draw a deep breath when I realize it is Gammon himself. Even when I brought the families to retrieve their daughters it was not Gammon who met us and escorted us to his office. I do not have a good feeling about this situation.

  When he stopped in front of me he did not say anything, just stared at me. Then he turned to look toward the school and when he turned back to me his first words surprised me. “You still have two females in my school. Why?”

  With narrowed eyes I thought about my answer. Finally I just shook my head. I know if I was in charge of the females of the race, if the safety of so many rested on my shoulders I would want total honesty from anyone associated with those females, especially the alphas of the packs they belonged to.

  “One of the females only has an uncle left. Her parents were killed in an accident. Her uncle does not feel he is the best qualified to keep her. We do bring her home during the summers. He lives on the very edge of our territory. Actually, he does not trust her to obey the rules I have in place to keep our pack safe. She has tested us before. Were it up to me I would bring her home. Were her parents alive I believe they would bring her home. But without her uncle Sam’s permission we can not bring her home to stay. But you know that already. You had to give us permission to bring her home twice now and bring her back. The other female, is harder to explain,” I shook my head, “I believe her parents feel safe in my pack. They tell me they feel safe, I can not smell a lie on them when they say that, but they refuse to bring their daughter home. I have asked them, but the only thing they will say is their family has suffered too much loss to risk their daughter. I can not make them bring her home. I wish they would. Our pack is not complete if even one member is somewhere else. It concerns me. I worry the others will worry that the family does not trust our pack to keep her safe. But I can not command them to bring her. I will not command them.”

  Gammon stared at me for a moment before turning and striding away with a curt, “follow me.”

  As we began walking toward a house in the distance he started talking, “You are shaping up to be a decent alpha, for one so young. Too young to be in your position if you ask me. When I found what you had done and your age, I did not think you would last a year. But you have not only held your pack, the females feel safe. Hard to do in this day and age. If you had not called me for a meeting I would have called you. You have a problem you need to know about. And you have a decision to make.”

  I snorted, “I have more than one problem, but dealing with problems is my job. You bout to add another problem to my pile?”

  “You could say that. Have someone you need to meet.” He glanced at me before holding the door open for me to enter the house. I noted the fact there were several guards surrounding the house. When we walked in the first thing I saw was a young boy, late teens early twenties, ankles shackled together with a chain connecting the shackles, sitting on the couch.

  What he said next had me gaping at him in disbelief, “Meet Donny. Donny now belongs to your pack. Make sure you take him with you when you go. I do not want to see him in my territory. And I do mean never again.”

  “Wait wait, I don’t want Donny in my territory either. I don’t know this Donny. Hold up, just no. I may be young and just a little too inexperienced but even I know you don’t just thrust someone willy nilly on a pack and declare they have to take the guy. I am just getting my territory safe enough the females are starting to breed. Families are feeling safe enough to bring their females home. And I have two petitions for families with females wanting to join my pack. I need to check those two with you actually, now that I think about it. You would have the proof that the families do indeed have their females in this school. But none of that is why I came today. You have that one,” I pointed at the young boy on the couch, “shackled for a reason. I don’t need that in my territory.”

  “Oh, he is shackled because he does not belong here. But I could not rip his throat out because he tested positive for being mated. And I could not kill a mate to one of the females just because his dad was an idiot who could not follow directions.”

  “Wait, you have a test for that?” This was the first I heard there was a test, a mating test.

  Gammon looked at me like I had just grown a second head before he snorted, “His dad, an alpha who is no longer with us due to some minor little accident where his head may or may not have fallen off his body.”

  “You killed him, just say it.” The boy’s voice interrupted and I saw Gammon’s eye twitch followed by a growl. When Gammon looked at me I could see the rage simmering just beneath the surface. Determined not to push him over the edge I wisely keep my mouth shut. Apparently the threat Gammon was known for making concerning ripping out someone’s throat was not an idle one. I knew he took care of interlopers but another alpha visiting his territory? I felt myself swallow a little harder than normal before I took a deep breath and reminded myself I was following all directions Gammon had laid out for visiting. I looked back at the scrawny young pup on the sofa and curled my lip before I could stop myself.

  Gammon took a deep breath, “Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, and that mistake will not happen again or I will break your legs you stupid little pup, his father is dead. His father made the mistake of believing it was not very fair for my pack to have the first chance with the females so he brought his son demanding he be allowed to meet the females. He got through the outer guards by insisting he had a female to place in the school. And had this young pup covered up, shivering in fear because of his dad’s stupidity. Long story short, just before I was going to take care of this one he twisted toward where the females were with a look of longing on his face that could not be mistaken for anything but a true mate.”

  “I do not understand. You are telling me he turned toward the school with a look of longing on his face and you decided he had a mate inside?”

  I heard the young pup snort and Gammon turned to glare at him. “One word, say one word and I will rip your legs off.”

  “So what exactly does this have to do with me?”

  Gammon had the most evil grin on his face when he replied, “Your Sam will be wanting to meet his new nephew. Far as I am concerned, he is now your problem. Or he will be when you leave because you will be taking him with you.”

  I was dumbfounded. This was not what I expected and I did not understand in the least what had just happened. But I was not stupid either. “Right, gotcha. Taking him with me. No problem.” I turned to glare at the boy.

  Gammon turned to walk out of the small house and I lost no time following him. I waited while he gave instructions to the guard waiting outside. Looked like the boy would be waiting for me in my car when I left. I had plans to interrogate that boy when we left here. Something was not adding up. Any male, needing or wanting a female, would have looked at the building where the females w
ere housed in longing. I had looked at the building in longing ever time I visited. I could not help myself. Call it nature if you want but there is something about wanting a mate that brings a look of longing to your face.

  When we finally got to Gammon’s office he offered me a seat. I looked around the office, it had not changed much over the last couple of years. He must spend a lot of time in it because it was clearly set up for comfort. With a mini fridge in one corner next to a small stove and sink and the most comfortable looking sofa on the other side of the room a person could spend the day in this office.

  When I heard him grunt I realized he was waiting on me to get to the point of my visit. I did not have any idea how to broach the subject though I had tossed a few ideas around on the way here. I had taken the time to print the photos of Gabby out so slid the folder across the desk to Gammon. I was in no way prepared for his reaction when he opened the folder and saw the photos. I do not think I could have prepared myself for his reaction. He stared at the photos, laying them out one at a time on his desk. He touched a couple of them, just a light touch that had my wolf ready to howl. I could see his jaw muscles clench and unclench. When he finally looked up his eyes were blazing with barely concealed fury. His demand barely understood through his clenched teeth, “Where did you get these pictures?”