“No signal yet,” she said, pocketing the phone and zipping it a split second before Logan took off again.
A light mist hung in the air, the smell of the plants mingling in the thin fog and surrounding Maci as if she were in a fairy tale. She wondered for a moment if she was sleeping and if she would wake up beside Logan, having never had the conversation they had about Chad and her concerns.
Or I could wake up and discover that none of this had happened and that Archer was never a clone and there was no assassination attempt.
She dismissed the idea immediately. While this moment felt so surreal and so much like a dream, she knew that everything that had happened in the past two and a half days had actually happened, and that pretending this was all a dream wasn’t going to fix what was going on in DC. It wouldn’t stop her from wishing it, though.
Logan stopped three more times; each time, she checked the phone and shook her head. The third time, she thought that he looked annoyed, but it was hard to tell. She’d spent a lot of time learning to read human body language, but SSE training didn’t include werewolf facial expressions. It felt like they had gone ten miles, and Maci wondered if the fog that was hanging in the air was contributing to the problem.
Logan continued on, running a little slower now that the terrain was more challenging and the trails were full of twists and turns. She had a feeling that his slower pace was for her benefit alone, and she appreciated the care he took with her. Throughout this entire ordeal, even when she’d been fighting him tooth and nail, he had been unfailingly gentle with her. It was such a departure from everything she’d been led to believe about wolves.
She felt a buzzing against her skin, and she patted Logan’s shoulder to let him know that they needed to stop. He slowed, still walking as she pulled out the phone and unlocked the screen.
Her heart sank when she read the messages. She patted his shoulder again, and he stopped, turning to look at her.
“They captured Chad. He’s escaped, but he’s hiding in the city, and they’re looking for him. We have to help him,” she said, her voice shaking.
She sent a quick text back, ten-four, the universal code that they got his message and understood.
Logan nodded his understanding, turning around to go back the way they came.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “Why are we turning around? He needs us; we can’t just go home and go to bed.”
He rolled his eyes, but she persisted. He shook his head, looking frustrated.
“Talk to me. Change back and talk to me. We can’t just go back to the village and pretend this isn’t happening.”
Logan sighed as Maci slid from his back and he began to shift back to human form. He stopped mid-shift, trying out his vocal chords and failing, becoming more human while keeping his wolf form as much as he could. When he could finally talk, he was nearly halfway back to human.
“We need reinforcements. This is bigger than anything we can fix on our own. Get on; there’s no time to talk about this.”
“Oh,” she said, understanding his meaning instantly.
Before she could say anything else, he’d slipped back into wolf form and lowered himself so she could climb on again. She hurried, grabbing on as he catapulted himself into the night, eating up the downhill trail faster than he had on the way out.
When she saw the village in the distance, she let out a sigh of relief. They were almost there, and whatever Logan had in mind, he could share with Sam so that they could go to Chad, who was a sitting duck.
Logan went straight to his parents’ cabin, shifting before she got a chance to slide off his back. She found herself clinging to his back for a moment before her feet touched the ground. Logan rapped loudly on the door, and almost instantly, Sara was there to greet him.
“What’s going on?” his mom asked.
“It’s time,” he said.
She nodded.
“Go wake your father; I’ll wake the others and gather the children up. How many do you need?”
“As many as can come. At least all the men, but the more people, the better.”
Sara nodded.
“I’ll send out the call, and we’ll do what we can.”
Sara took off then, barefoot and running through the grass and into the foggy night. Logan looked at Maci.
“Go home and pack clothes for me into your bag. Can your laptop trace your cellphone?”
“Yes, why?”
“Chad has your phone in his pocket. That is about the only way we are going to be able to find him. We’ll turn on the tracking software when we get a little closer to town.”
“Understood,” she said, not waiting for him to ask her to hurry.
She took off running in the direction of the cabin, catching glimpses of Sara and others in the dark as the message spread through the village.
She found the cabin in the dark, running in and turning on the light, half expecting clone Archer to be sitting there in the dark. But the cabin was empty, and she shook off the imagination that was running free. The clones were mortal, and they were just as vulnerable as humans. They weren’t just going to materialize in the forest.
She moved through the house quickly, grabbing anything she thought they might need and shoving it into her bag. She checked to make sure that each of the three handguns were loaded, then packed extra clips for them. She hoped they wouldn’t need them, but she didn’t want to go into things unprepared.
She took one last look at the cabin, soaking it all in before turning off the light and closing the door. This was probably the last time she would see the place, and she felt a twinge of sadness at the thought. Staying here had been like a dream vacation, but she had a life and responsibilities back home. She couldn’t live with Logan in a fantasy world forever.
She put the bag on her shoulder and walked away from the cabin. It felt so final, and she almost turned to look back over her shoulder, but she didn’t.
Stop being a sentimental fool, she admonished herself.
She hurried back to Sam and Sara’s cabin, only this time, there was a crowd gathered around the cabin. Maci counted at least twenty people standing there, everyone’s attention on Sam as he spoke. The crowd was mostly men, but a few women had joined, and everyone was ready to go into battle.
Maci found Logan in the crowd and went to him. He put his arm around her, holding her close as they listened to the words of the Alpha.
“The world needs us, and just like before, we need to take care of this human crisis as quietly as possible and slip into the night without making a huge scene. When they awaken in the morning, most humans will have no idea of what happened, and the ones that saw us will think that they were dreaming. We’ll resume our life here as if nothing happened, though there will be bloodshed. Watch out for each other out there, and make absolutely certain that you’re dealing with an enemy before you deal the deadly blow. We don’t want any innocents lost if we can help it.”
The crowd murmured their agreement, and the group of them headed as one to the lower part of the village, in the opposite direction of the one that Maci and Logan had taken before.
“Where are they going?” she asked.
“We can’t just go into DC in a pack,” he said, laughing. “We are too far out. Just trust us; this isn’t our first epic battle.”
“It’s not?”
He laughed as they hurried with the group.
“No, it’s not. We rescue the human species a few times a decade, at the very least. It’s more like every other year.”
“I’ve never seen anything on the news about it.”
“And you never will. They can’t perpetuate the belief that werewolves are dangerous if they have us on the six o’clock news saving the country. That doesn’t fit into their agenda.”
“That is horrible,” she said. “I don’t understand it.”
“It’s how it has always been and always will be. We’ve learned to live with it, and it’s better for us.
We live in peace and quiet, and when we are needed, we step up and take care of the world. We’ve always been the guardians of the human race, and nothing will change that. We don’t need to be thanked; it’s our Fate.”
The group had slowed, and Maci realized that they were all loading up the bed of a large pickup truck with their simple black backpacks that Maci assumed held clothes and other necessities. When they were done, they piled into the extended cab trucks in groups of six, with some crawling into the bed of trucks to sit in the back against the cab.
“Why are there people getting into the bed?” she asked as they waited, the crowd of people shrinking in an orderly fashion as each of the four trucks were loaded and the passengers climbed aboard before they took off into the night.
“Some of our kind don’t like to be trapped. The cabs are constrictive if you’re used to living the way we do.”
“That makes sense,” she said.
When it was their turn, there were only four people left, counting Maci and Logan. Maci opted to hold onto her backpack, sliding into the back seat with Logan and curling up beside him as the truck took off, lights off, barreling down the dirt road at an alarming pace.
“I thought there were no roads out here,” she said quietly.
“There aren’t. We made this road; the forest department doesn’t even know that it’s here.”
“And the trucks?”
“The advantage to spending no money is that it just sits in the bank and grows. The millions my father had when we were banished have grown.”
“The government didn’t seize the money?”
“Nope. The treaty of 1920 prevents that, and no one is foolish enough to challenge the ruling.”
“I’ve never heard of that treaty.”
“No one has. People were too busy with prohibition and women’s voting rights, among other things. It’s a common practice of the government to create a distraction when they put through legislation that the public will fight against. The outrage and constant media coverage of prohibition going into effect served the purpose of distracting the people from the treaty between werewolves and humans. It’s happened since then, with riots being incited by the government for things that they never intended to put through while they quietly pass laws that they really care about.”
“Archer never did anything like that,” Maci said. “But now that you mention it, I’ve seen it happen a lot and had no idea what was going on.”
“Archer is a good guy; one of the best leaders we’ve ever had. He’s the President this world deserves. Not to say that everyone else was bad, but loyalties are bought and paid for, and that makes for a lot of these inciting events that keep people from seeing the real issues that are being dealt with behind closed doors.”
“The public plays right into it.”
“Of course, they do. Because they’re human and they have compassion for their fellow man. They react the way they should, which is why the government continues to use the same tactic. Any time in history that there’s been a great deal of upheaval in one year, there have been secret dealings between governments. It’s not always about wolves, but in 1920, that is what all the civil unrest was covering up. President Wilson was a smart man.”
“I can’t believe I’ve fallen for that every time.”
“You’ll know for next time. Expect the same thing to be used this time. Every time we come to the government’s rescue, they give us something in return.”
“Is that how you won the right to mingle with humans again as long as you registered?”
“It is.”
“And what do you think will be on the table this time?” she asked, forgetting to keep her voice low.
“The registry is going to be abolished,” a familiar voice boomed from the front seat.
Maci looked up, surprised to see Sam at the wheel with Sara at his side. Sam smiled at her in the rearview mirror.
“Do you think they’ll go for it?” she asked.
“I think they would be fools not to,” Sam said.
“I think you’re right,” Maci said.
She sat back and leaned into Logan, trying to keep her nerves calm as they finally made their way to the paved road and headed for the highway that would take them straight into DC. They had almost ninety minutes before they would be in DC, and Maci felt like it was an eternity. She needed to act, and she needed to find Archer and Chad. Until this fight was over and the world was set right the way it should be, she wouldn’t be able to relax. She was ready for a fight.
CHAPTER 13
Chad heard the ruckus before he woke up completely. His eyes flew open, and the sounds of men arguing down the hall pierced through the haze of sleep. He rolled out of bed quietly as his three roommates went to the door to peek out and see what was going on. Chad hurried to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him, then opening the window. There was a loud creak, but he ignored it. With the noise in the hall and out on the street, there was no way anyone heard it, and he wasn’t going to waste precious moments trying to be quiet. He’d heard enough to know that he’d been found.
He slipped out the window and hung by the tips of his fingers for a moment before he let go from the second-story window.
He stayed limp, rolling when his feet hit the ground and standing up in one smooth motion as his body had been trained.
Looking both ways down the alley, he went left, away from the main road and toward the hotel district. Even around midnight, the city was still filled with tourists walking the streets and enjoying the monuments lit up at night. He shed the hoodie, dumping it in the shadows at the end of the alley and making his way to the first hotel.
As he expected, there were throngs of tourists out strolling around, completely unaware of the dangers that were so close.
Just one block away from the homeless shelter, it was like a different world, and his slacks and casual sport coat fit right into the crowd as they meandered down the sidewalks, enjoying the city and the cool evening.
Chad kept his eyes open, careful not to draw attention to himself as he scanned the crowd and the surrounding area for suspicious activity. He was in the clear, for now. But he needed a better plan. He didn’t know how they had found him so quickly, but he had an idea. He was sure that the clerk who hadn’t made eye contact was in on it, though he couldn’t be sure how.
Chad followed the group to a movie theater that played all night, continuing on and melting into another group when they went into the building. He needed to be out in the open for now, at least until he could come up with a solid plan.
He could hear sirens in the distance, but he didn’t think that they were for him. Whoever was behind the clones would do their best to take care of Chad quietly. Any attention brought to them would be unwanted, and he knew that they would go to great lengths to keep it quiet. For now, that worked to his advantage.
A group ahead had stopped, one of the men holding what looked like a sheet of printer paper. Something about the way they were scanning the area set off alarm bells in Chad’s head, and he quickly turned down a dark, narrow alleyway between two buildings.
He picked up the pace when he was a few yards from the road, in a hurry to get out of the dark, dank alley and back onto the sidewalks of DC.
He was almost to the next street when he felt an arm around him and a hand clamp over his mouth. He reached for his knife, then realized that he had dropped it with the hoodie, leaving himself unarmed. This was it; he was a dead man.
Nevertheless, he fought his assailant, clawing at the man’s arms and trying to rip himself out of the man’s grasp. The man held on tight, not giving Chad any wiggle room.
He yelled, though the sound was muffled by the hand held tightly over his mouth, hoping that a passerby might hear the struggle and sound the alarm.
Someone did step out of the shadows, but their calm, cool demeanor as he fought valiantly to release himself from the grasp of the man in the darkness made it clear that who
ever it was, they were not surprised to see Chad being held captive.
When the light of a nearby streetlamp illuminated her face, Chad stopped fighting and stared. His hands went down to his sides, and he relaxed, relief washing over him. The hands let him go, and he half ran, half stumbled to the woman standing before him. He surprised her, throwing his arms around her and hugging her tight.
“Maci, I’m so glad you’re alive,” he said, releasing her and turning to address Logan. “Man, you scared the piss out of me. You could have just said ‘hi’.”
“You were a little too on edge; I didn’t want to risk it. Where are they?”
“They’re everywhere,” Chad said, knowing instantly who he was talking about. “They’re holding people in a defunct mental health facility a few miles from here.”
“How did you escape?” Maci asked.
“There’s another clone of Archer. They’re using him to convince the new captives that it’s safe to talk. I was telling him about what happened, and he said something about being surprised that you would trust a shifter. I’d never mentioned that Logan was a shifter. I asked him for his jacket, and when he pulled it off, no scar. He tried to poison me, but I hid the food and pretended to be dying. I escaped when the morgue tech came in to deal with my body.”
Logan was grinning from ear to ear.
“Man, you’re crazy,” Logan said, almost laughing. “I can’t believe that worked.”
“I couldn’t either, but the people they have working in the facility aren’t hardened criminals. They appear to be scientists and lackeys just doing a job, with no idea of the ramifications of their work.”
“That is typical. Most people aren’t evil.”
“Is it just you two?” Chad asked.
“No,” Logan said. “The pack is here.”
“Good, because they found me, and they’re close.”
“They’re probably tracking Maci’s phone like we did.”
Chad shook his head.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. They wouldn’t know that I have it, but all it would take was checking the location, and they would know that I either had it or that Maci was back. Either way, they would be picking up someone that got away.”
The Wolf In The White House Page 14