I watched him glance at the members of our pack scattered around the room giving them the instructions to clear the room. Gammon and the others not linked to our pack could not hear the instructions but they figured it out pretty quickly when Trey motioned toward the door with his head as he headed that direction after reaching out and gently stroking his mate’s cheek. I noticed even my alpha’s eyes looked a little moist. Good, he really did care, she really was his mate. My shoulder’s drooped as he walked out the door and gently closed it behind him. I had no clue what to say to the little pup I held so tightly in my arms.
What do you say to a grandchild you haven’t seen in years. One who thinks you are dead and therefore she must be also. I guess I needed to start at the beginning and get her story and then maybe I could tell her mine. Pushing open the pack bond to my alpha I invited him in. What I was doing, offering to do, was incredibly hard. By opening the bond the way I had I was inviting my alpha to see what I was seeing and hear what I was hearing. It was a little disorienting to maintain that link but I was determined to do it anyway. I just hope he is strong enough to hold his end. I really hope he is strong enough to not only hold it but to communicate what he hears to the ones around him who need to know.
“Ella Bea, sweetheart, tell Poppy what happened. Tell me about the dreams. Where is your Uncle Josh and Trina Bell and your Aunt Cherise? How did you get here little one, and all alone?”
I feel the surprise from my alpha when I call the pup Ella Bea but he doesn’t say a word as the story begins to unfold. I can not keep the relief from flooding me when I find out Ella Bea, no Gabby, must remember that, tells me she can still feel her twin. I have hope once again when she tells of that day in the clearing when the men were searching for the others. I finally have hope Josh got the others to safety. But if they are safe I dare not look for them.
I feel my alpha’s sorrow as he mutters “too late” through the bond. I have no time to investigate though, I have a pup to educate.
When Gabby is done I begin my tale. Her shock as she realizes the others were not lying, her Poppy is alive and everything she knew about her life is a lie was not something I could shield her from as much as I wished I could. I can feel her fear but I can also feel relief from her. I asked her about it, had to ask, and her response that everything finally made sense was a bit heartbreaking. Alone for years and clueless, constantly looking over your shoulder and not even knowing why, no wonder the pup is a bit emotionally damaged. The only things that can heal her is to find the rest of our family, and get her mated to Trey in a few months. Oh, and keep her safe till then.
When she seems to have calmed down I explain more to her, specifically why she feels safe with Trey and why she gravitates to him. Again I feel surprise from my alpha, I don’t think he thought I was going to go all out with my talk with Gabby but hiding things from the pups is what led to this mess in the first place. That was her daddy’s decision and Josh and I agreed to it all those years ago. We shouldn’t have but we thought it best they did not grow up scared. We just wanted them to feel safe until they were old enough to make real decisions. We were foolish, stupid even, we thought we could keep them hid. And maybe we could have if this one had not wanted to explore the world so much, or as she said, go to a real school.
She had more questions for me and I certainly had more for her and thankfully my alpha let us have all the time we needed. Right up until he started getting reports from the plant. I did not know what those reports were yet but he let me know Gabby and I were out of time. She seemed calm so I agreed to him and the others returning. Time to get some more answers, or open a whole bag of more questions.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Gabriella
I am not crazy. That is all I can think. Everything makes sense now. Everything. I don’t understand a lot, I still have questions, but at least I understand why I have had to run. Why I was being chased all those years finally makes sense. I can not believe Poppy thought it best to let us believe he was dead. He could have hid with us. All of this is my fault. All of it, and even though Poppy said it is not, he said if they were that close it would have only been a matter of time till they found us I don’t believe it. The guys that found me that first day are not the same ones chasing me. Oh, some of them are, but there are more, they change up sometimes.
Poppy said he thinks some of our own, that seems strange to think of wolves as being some of our own, turned against us using their power and influence in the government to find us, to track us. Poppy said all the money I have been using was money he put away specifically for us to use to keep from getting caught. He just never imagined we would get separated like we did.
We all had go bags and every go bag contained not only money but access to hidden accounts. Each one had different account access information. He said if we had stayed together we could have gone from account to account. But apparently I messed that up also. He tried to reassure me that Uncle Josh had loads of cash in his bag and the knowledge of all of the hiding places around the country. But he isn’t fooling me, if Uncle Josh was still safe why hasn’t he contacted Poppy? And I don’t really understand why Poppy did not just start checking the various hiding places.
He just told me Trey and the others were coming back in the room. Something did happen at the plant and Trey is suppose to tell us what that is and what happens next. All I can think about is how I am not crazy and Poppy knows all the hiding places to look for my sister. I am scared, I am excited, I am worried, I am, I don’t know all the feelings going on inside of me right now. I do know Poppy is not getting out of my sight again. I will take care of him, somehow.
When Trey and the others come back in the room I can finally see what it is Poppy explained about being drawn to a mate. I am drawn to Trey. I do feel safe with him. I don’t understand this mate thing but Poppy said it means I will be just as happy with Trey as daddy and mommy were and Uncle Josh was with Nanny. I dreamed of that kind of happiness with someone when I was little. I don’t believe in happily ever after so much anymore. Too much fear, too much running for too long I guess. Poppy explained that having a mate was like having the other half of you when you did not even know half was missing. But he cautioned me that having a mate did not mean all sunshine and roses cause even as one whole you are still two halves and sometimes you would just not get along. But he said the magic of the mating would conquer all. Don’t know if I can believe that yet.
As Trey explains what Donny and the others have found out I feel my eyes widen in disbelief. I may have ruined everything by having them look for Trina. Trey said they don’t know how much the hacker on the other end got from us before Donny shut the system down but they can’t take any chances. We have to find Trina and Josh before this other group does.
Fortunately Trey’s pack is not poor and Gammon’s pack is even richer so they have the money to search. They also have some good resources of their own when it comes to people. Before they can really start to hash out any details Poppy interrupts them to tell them he could buy and sell both their packs. I really liked seeing the looks on shock on everyone’s face. It feels good to be the one in the know for once. I knew I was rich, and I knew I came from money. But the ones in the room had no clue how much money I had and no clue how much money Poppy had. I took the time to ask Poppy why he never set off to find the others. I felt bad when he motioned to the chair and shrugged.
I guess it would be hard to look when confined to a wheelchair and trying to stay hidden. With his money looking would not have been hard, staying hidden and blending in, not so easy. But now we have help, and I will do anything in my power to find my sister. I am not so happy when I find out what they have in mind for me though. No, I am not happy at all.
I know Mia wanted me to come visit them at their compound in Alaska. I laugh a little at myself when I remember all the times I wondered if he was a drug lord. What I did not know is that Gammon is the end of the line, the final bastion for protecting the
few females the shifters have left underage or not yet mated. But even compounds can fail when governments get involved. And Poppy is certain, and now the others are also, someone in the government is involved and that someone is a shifter. A very powerful shifter, and they have to find him before he finds us. But if what Poppy has told me is correct, even being mated won’t save me or Trina. Until we have a baby with our mate others will still see us a fair game. Not everyone believes the theories about females needing to feel safe to produce females. If they do believe that, they don’t care as long as they get a mate of their own. I think our species is doomed if that is the attitude of so many out there.
Trey believes his grandfather can help. I don’t understand why he believes that but when he mentioned it his grandmother agreed. So I asked and found his grandfather is high, I mean really high up in the shifter community. His grandfather was not in this meeting and neither was his dad but they asked me if I minded more people coming over and I had to say no. What else could I say, this is all to keep me safe and find Trina and I will do anything to find her. Even if it means being surrounded by strangers. At least now I understand more than I did before and that helps me emotionally deal with everything going on around me. I have my Poppy back, I gained and aunt and uncle, and apparently I have a mate to be who would give his life to keep me safe.
When Poppy had told me that I had scoffed at him, but he assured me it was completely true. A mate would give his life to keep his female safe. He said losing a mate can cause you to go insane. He said he stayed one step ahead of insanity for all these decades without his mate because he had a son to raise and then he had granddaughters to keep safe. But his wolf tore at him inside, I did not understand that but he said, one day, in the very near future, I would understand. One day my wolf will wake up and she will be a demanding little creature. Just because they are and apparently I will not mind a bit because she will be me and I will be her. Yet another thing I just have to wait to see.
Turning my head I see more people entering the room. I would say the room is getting kind of full but it is a fairly large room and I would guess made for meetings. I try to follow everything being said but much of it is beyond my understanding. Not because I am stupid, but I don’t know pack politics or pack culture. Heck I don’t even know pack hierarchy. I am picking up what I can as they talk though. I need to know anyway because my mate to be is the alpha of this pack. That means he is the most important person to the pack and as his mate I guess that makes me pretty important also. But I don’t know this for a fact, just speculation on my part. Speculation is all I have for most of what is going on around me.
In the end, when all was said and done they decided and by they I really mean Poppy, the best place for me to hide would be Alaska. Poppy made a formal request to go with me and after some discussion between Gammon and Trey it was decided he could go. Maybe they guessed I would not go if he couldn’t go. It helped a little when I found out Trey would be in and out of the place, some kind of training.
But that was going to have to wait until Poppy could get them all the information he had on all the land he owned and all the places they needed to look. And Trey was determined to implement a whole new level of security for his pack and even something he called the Hail Mary option. Guess I will find out what that is later.
It was late in the night before Trey and Gammon were finished making plans. I was seeing a first if I understood what I was told. Two alphas working tightly together to secure one pack, all for one female and another they had yet to meet. All because someone in the government overstepped their bounds both government and pack wise. The longer the meeting lasted the more tired I had become but I was not leaving Poppy. Even when they tried to get me to go lay down in another room.
I understood so much more now so when I was asked for the key to the cabin so my remaining items could be retrieved I barely blinked. I knew the danger now, and running to safety was not the same as running away. The only stipulation I had about staying here, Poppy had to stay also. Since Trey had plenty of room he quickly agreed. I briefly wondered how much he would agree to if the request came from me. I was going to have to test that one day.
I was so tired I wished for a brief moment that Poppy could carry me to bed like he did when I was young. Trey wanted to after I stumbled when I got up and tried to walk but Gammon snarled at him and Stormie ended up helping me to bed. My last thought before I drifted off was to make a mental note to ask about that, tomorrow, when I could think again.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Trey
I watched Gabby get more and more tired. This day had been exhausting both mentally and emotionally for her. When I knew she was not looking I tried to get across to the ones not in my pack that we needed to wrap up our discussion around her so she would go to bed. Honestly there was not one more bit of information she could provide and I wanted her resting. She refused as long as we were still discussing the situation and making plans so I did what any good mate would do. I wrapped up the meeting and sent everyone to bed or home. Twenty minutes later Gabby was asleep and we were all back in the sound proofed room but now the size of the meeting had grown to include some of my very best researchers and communication personnel and I even included our little hacker Donny.
As much as I hated to admit it, I, and my pack, owed a lot to that pup. I had put in a request with Gammon for Donny to make a brief visit with Cara and he was considering it favorably. I wonder if Gammon would have lifted a finger to help if this problem did not revolve around his two nieces by mating that he never knew he had before I got him involved.
Jules had an unusual way of keeping up with his vast holdings. When I saw all the places he had, I understood a little better why he did not go looking for his son years ago. He owned land on every continent in the world except Antarctica. According to him the only reason he did not own land there, he couldn’t buy it. He pointed out the United States did not even own any of that continent, Despite the fact other countries did, the US only had research facilities there on land claimed by other countries. Interesting tidbit but not helping us find Trina.
He also had all the information about all his land in some sort of code only he knew the key to understanding. And Josh had all the information Jules had. So we were going to have to send people around the world, not get caught by our own government, nor any of the shifter community, and try to find someone, three someones, on the run and probably always looking over their shoulder not knowing who was friend or foe but who would assume anyone looking for them to be foe. Great, piece of cake, and on top of all that, we had to find out just which member of the shifter community was in charge of this hunt. We had members in every branch of the military, in ever branch of government intelligence and even a couple in congress. And we had to do it all without getting caught or alerting non shifter government officials to our existence.
But when we found who ever was behind this, I swore I was going to end them. Gammon told me I would have to stand in line because he was pretty sure my mate and her sister could not be the only females being hunted and the wolf in charge of this operation had undoubtedly caught some females already. What had been done with them, what danger they could be in was any ones guess but no one in that room had forgotten Trisah and her four years of captivity. And we knew if they had caught Gabby she would even now be in captivity. So we probably had some females to rescue along with finding Trina.
These next few months would be some of the hardest in my pack history and my dad’s recommendation to call Casey made absolutely no sense to me, until I remembered her eyes. I had been meaning to ask someone about her, but with everything going on I had not gotten the chance. Turns out it did no good to ask because all anyone would tell me was whatever secrets Casey had were hers to divulge. I just hoped they were the kind that could help us as we made our plans and alloted our resources.
I was going to have to call her anyway in a few hours. As soon as Casey could leave Gamm
on wanted to get her to fly him and Mia back to his pack so he could prepare them for the unknown. Gabby and Jules would be on that plane also for her protection. The next few months would tell us whether we had sprung any alerts when we were hacked. No one knew Gammon was here and we were hoping his well known disdain of other alphas would keep him off the radar. If no government agency had attacked his compound for the females he safeguarded yet, they were not likely to do so now. Especially since no one knew he was here and had no reason to tie him to me and therefore no reason to suspect he was taking their prize if they guessed her to be here.
I did not know it at the time, I only found out later that grandfather had called Casey when he first heard the news of what was happening. Casey was prepared to fly out at daylight, though it was some time after daylight before anyone else was ready. Watching Gabby get on that plane was one of the hardest things I had ever done in my life, harder even that going up against my former alpha for control of this pack. But I did get to kiss her before she left. It was the sweetest kiss I had ever had and my wolf howled in delight. Then proceeded to shred my insides and howl in misery for days after when he found we were not getting on the plane with her. The next few months were going to be hard.
Gabby (Safe Haven Wolves Book 1) Page 18