“We have to do something, we have to help him. Lindsey, use your wolf-telepathy thing. Tell him that I’m alright, that he needs to come back.” Sofie is aware that she’s shouting, but there’s no way that she’s taking no for an answer.
“It won’t work, Sofe.” Lindsey gives her a gentle, apologetic look, the kind of expression a mother might have as she tells her children that Santa Clause doesn’t exist. “Ashton’s cut himself off. He doesn’t want to hear us. I can’t reach out to him with my mind, it’s like he’s not there anymore.”
Sofie shakes her head, not prepared to accept what Lindsey is telling her. “Call him on his damn cell, then! Do whatever it takes, we have to get him back here!” Sofie looks at them all, wondering why no one was moving.
“You mean this cell?” Gus holds up Ashton’s phone, waving it at her like a flag. “He’s gone out on a limb, he wasn’t about to be taking calls!”
“We have to help him. What are we going to do?” Sofie looks around at her friends, trying hard to keep herself together. She can’t accept that after everything that’s happened, everything that they’ve been through that it comes down to this, a forgotten cell phone.
“We are going to help him.” Lindsey’s voice is soothing as she takes hold of Sofie by the shoulders. “But you need to rest, Sofe.” She ignores the shocked look that Sofie gives her. “You’re a new-born. You have a lot to learn before going out into the world. You need to be taught how to control the change, how to deal with your new abilities. This is a whole new world for you.”
“How long? How long will it take to learn all of that?” Sofie crosses her hands over her chest, tapping her foot impatiently as if she’s expecting it to be immediate.
The Lycans look between themselves, sheepishly. “We’ve never seen a human turned. It’s not an exact science.” Hector bravely pipes up and then shrinks back down again under Sofie’s thunderous gaze.
“So you don’t know.” She looks around at them all, gauging their reactions. She is noticing so much more about them; the way Gus tightens his jaw when he doesn’t want to admit to something, the way Lindsey’s scent changes ever so slightly as she looks at her warily. “The truth is that none of you know what to expect because none of you have experienced this before. Well I’m experiencing it now and I can tell you that I don’t need to rest. I’ve done enough of that. I feel fine, better than fine, actually I feel amazing!” She stands on the balls of her feet, ready to do something, anything. Energy courses through her and it’s like a drug, the more she has the more she wants. She can sense, smell, hear, feel things she never could before. It’s like the world is opening up to her slowly. “I’m not going back to bed when Ashton is in danger. It’s not going to happen.” The look she gives them is determined, she won’t be swayed.
“What’s your plan?” Gus gives her that impenetrable look of his and Lindsey shoots him a glance of disbelief.
It takes Gus’s direct question for Sofie to realize that she doesn’t actually have a plan. Her body is ready, primed for action. But her running after Ashton and the two of them going up against Luke and his followers is only slightly less stupid than Ashton facing them on his own.
The silence stretches on and Darwin looks at Finn with irritation, as he taps on his keyboard at lightning speed. “Are you even listening to what’s going on? What are you doing on that contraption that’s so goddam important?”
“You know, it’s kind of cool, there are message boards popping all over the country, people supporting you guys. They’re talking about civil rights and how what’s happening here in Beaumont is outrageous. It sort of restores your faith in humanity, doesn’t it? They call themselves The Howlers, kind of sounds like a bad sitcom.” Finn looks up at them, blinking, not realizing that he’s just given Sofie exactly what she needs.
Sofie wonders if they can actually see the light bulb shining above her head. “Finn, you’re the best!” She flashes him a brilliant smile and watches as his chest puffs out at the compliment. “Contact as many of them as you can and tell them that if they really want to help to get their asses to Beaumont. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
“Lindsey, I need you to get in touch with the neighboring packs, the ones nearest first, and then work your way out from there. Use your ESP, email, smoke signals, whatever the hell it takes! Tell them that they’re needed here to protect their brothers and sisters.” Soifie doesn’t even wait for a response before turning to Gus.
“You can save your breath, Mr. Voice of Doom over there. I know the other packs may want to distance themselves from us, but I’m counting on the fact that they’re not short-sighted enough to think that whatever happens in Beaumont won’t affect them. Besides, they’re our only shot if this is going to work.” Gus looks at her, blinking as if he’s trying to figure out if he just saw what he thinks he did.
“Lindsey, make it clear to the other packs that if we lose Spring Canyon then their home could be next. It’s in their interest to help Ashton and the rest of the pack.” Sofie looks at Lindsey who is standing with her mouth open, but no words are coming out. “Well get to it, Linds. We’re kind of on a deadline here.” Lindsey’s mouth snaps shut and she looks as if she’s at war with herself over what it is that she’s going to say. “You said you would follow where I led,” Sofie reminds her quietly. “Well, this is me leading. So are you prepared to follow?”
Lindsey frowns at her friend, tilting her head as if she’s appraising her and then a smile spreads across her face. “I’ll need Hec’s help. I can use our bond to magnify the reach of my telepathy, spreading a wider net.”
“Whatever you need, Linds.” Sofie waves at the couple to get to work and they both hurry off in the direction of the barn.
Gus stands still, his eyes trained on her, waiting expectantly. “What? If you’re looking for a fight, Gus then can we just park it for now and deal with it later? Right now there are more important things to talk about than how you don’t agree with anything I’m saying.” Sofie’s voice is sharp, but she doesn’t have time for the tension between them. If her plan is going to work then they need to band together, all of them.
Gus lifts his head a little higher, looking her straight in the eyes. “I’m not looking for a fight. I’m looking for orders.”
Sofie feels like she’s just been thrown for a loop. “You don’t take orders from me, Gus. I’m not an Alpha.”
Gus waves her words away as if they’re not important. “You’re Ashton’s mate. You’re the Pack Mother. That’s all I need to know. What are your orders?”
Sofie is touched by his words, by the loyalty of this man of few words and strong convictions, but there’s no time to get all touchy feely. “Get the rest of the pack ready, they need to be prepared for a show of force. Tell them to put their game faces on. Once you’ve done that, come back here, you’re coming with me to the drill site. I have a lot to learn and not a lot of time to do it. I need you to teach me how to turn…on the fly.”
Gus doesn’t question her, he doesn’t even raise an eyebrow, as if what she’s asking of him is nothing out of the ordinary, just another day. He nods curtly and goes to carry out her orders, padding away silently.
Finn and Darwin look like they’re in awe of her and it’s only then that she realizes what’s just happened. She’s been accepted into the pack, not just by becoming a werewolf, but by leading them, by being what they need her to be.
“What can we do?” Darwin looks at her eagerly, actually excited at the prospect of what’s about to happen.
“Umm, I’m already doing what I can.” Finn holds his hands up as if he’s expecting someone to disagree with him. “I’ve almost got everything that we need; proof of what Luke’s been up to, his hacking, his sexual harassment of employees, his poisoning of the environment. I love it when a plan comes together!” He smiles at her, unbelievably pleased with himself.
“Good, as soon as you have it all, send it to everyone and I mean everyone; t
he local authorities, the Feds, to the press, post it on friggin’ Facebook, just get it out there!” Sofie waves her hands expansively as if to demonstrate the ‘there’ she’s talking about. “The sooner we can get the tide of opinion to change against Luke the better chance we have.” She doesn’t add that it’s not just a better chance at winning, but at surviving.
Sofie makes a move to leave the two men, but Darwin hasn’t finished yet. “What about me? What should I do?”
Sofie settles a hand on his shoulder, looking into his watery brown eyes. “I need you to keep yourself safe and well away from the drilling site. I don’t want you to get hurt, boss.” She smiles at him kindly but the disappointment is written all over his face.
“Sofe,” Finn’s voice breaks the moment.
“Yes Finnbarr.” She turns around to him, ready for him to deliver some bad news; it was what she’d gotten used to hearing.
“So now that you’ve died and come back as a werewolf. Does that make you a werewolf-zombie?” Finn’s eyes actually light up at the prospect.
Sofie laughs, thankful to have her friend with her, the one person that can make her laugh when everything else seems to be crumbling around their ears. “There’s no such thing as zombies, Finn. Surely you don’t believe in fairy tales.” She smiles at him enigmatically, feeling a surge of something flow through her.
As she turns around to walk into Ashton’s house, she feels like her head is a little bit higher, her back a little straighter than it was before. She has no trouble hearing Finn’s excited whisper to Darwin as she reaches the front door.
“Holy shit! Did her eyes just glow? Did you see that, man?” She can almost see Finn hopping up and down in excitement. “This is going to be freakin’ awesome!”
CHAPTER TEN
Sofie smells the drilling site before she even sees it. It smells like smoke and the stench of oil is so strong it sticks in her throat, threatening to gag her. She covers her mouth and nose with her hands.
“How do you stand it?” She looks at Gus, her eyes wide as she feels like her senses are being overloaded.
“You can scent it? Already?” Gus makes no effort to hide his surprise behind his battered and bruised.
“You can’t?” She looks at him in disbelief. The smell is so strong it’s like it’s lodged in her nose.
Gus shakes his head, his face assume its neutral expression again. “We’re still a good few miles away. That’s incredible.”
“Is it because I’m...new?” Gus has given Sofie a little bit of background on what to expect as they travelled on foot towards the drilling site, but there were still quite a few holes to fill.
“I don’t know.” Gus looks at her strangely. “Ashton’s the only other were I know that can scent over that kind of distance, but he’s an Alpha.”
Sofie doesn’t dwell on what that means. She’s been doing that a lot recently, parking her questions, her hypotheses and suppositions for another time. It was something that the scientific side of her brain rebelled at. But she knows that if she let herself go down that road, she wouldn’t be able to do what needs to be done; she wouldn’t be able to save Ashton.
Sofie has to swallow hard to stop herself from vomiting at the smell from the site. Gus notices her discomfort and holds his arm out to stop her in her tracks. “Tune it out.” He doesn’t offer any further explanation and Sofie looks at him as if he’s speaking Chinese. He sighs impatiently, forgetting that she’s as clueless as a new-born about her new abilities. “If you let the smell get to you then it’ll take over, you won’t be able to think about anything else. It’ll make you sick.” He looks at her to check that she’s understood. “Pick out another scent, whatever it might be -- the smell of the grass or of the drops of water on the leaves of the trees.” Gus’s eyes seem far away as he talks about the land he loves. “Pick one out and focus on that, get your head straight.”
Sofie nods, glad that Gus isn’t babying her and just giving it to her straight. If he were being gentle with her then she feels like she might break into a million tiny pieces. This way he was helping her be strong. She lifts her head and tries to push past the smell of the oil and smoke, trying to find something else to hold onto. And there it is. She picks it out, pushing everything else out of her senses. It’s Ashton, she would know his scent anywhere; the mix of the fresh outdoors and the musky manliness, a combination that drives her wild.
“He’s down there.” Sofie looks through the trees as if she would be able to see him. She doesn’t need to tell Gus who she’s talking about. “Let’s go.” They advance on the site, carefully picking their way through the trees, traveling as fast as they can, but keeping their eyes open for hunters. Sofie doesn’t believe for a moment that Luke isn’t having the surroundings of the site patrolled. She just hopes that the other pack members are being as careful, they were mobilized all over the clearing, prepared to attack, to defend Ashton if they needed to.
As they get closer, it’s not just Ashton that Sofie can sense anymore, there are voices being carried on the wind and hundreds of other smells. Gus looks at her and the apprehension on his face tells her that he’s noticed the same.
“Oh God.” Sofie’s voice is a groan as they get close enough to see what’s going on. Her eyes zero in on Ashton. He’s standing by the tree line, head held high, as Luke puts on a show in front of his followers, his hundreds of followers. They were even more outnumbered than she had thought. “Damn you, Luke.” She grits her teeth, finding it hard to even say his name without feeling that red mist of rage descend on her again.
A strong hand on her shoulder brings her back. “Don’t let it take over.” Gus’s voice is gruff. “At least not until you need it to.”
Sofie nods, remembering his first lesson. He had explained that being a werewolf was like having two parts to yourself, one constantly at war with the other; the human and the wolf. The trick was to learn how to allow both sides to live in harmony, to choose who was in charge.
“How long did it take for you to do that?” Sofie had asked as she tried to digest everything he was telling her, feeling like she was cramming for a pop quiz.
“A few years,” Gus had replied, offhand before realizing what he’d said. “But you’re probably a quicker study than me.”
His words come back to her now as she swallows her anger at Luke, trying to find a place of calm, where Sofie the Scientist is running the show. She almost has it when Luke starts in on his speech.
“Here we have the leader of the animal pack.” Luke points towards Ashton, as if anyone could miss him. The big man stands strong and noble and regal as a king as all eyes are on him, dissecting him. Sofie can smell the waves of hate and excitement coming off of the crowd. They shout out ‘Wolf Scum’, ‘Monster’, ‘Beast’. Ashton doesn’t even react to it and Sofie feels a surge of pride in him.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we should hear what the creature has to say. I, for one, am dying to know what his explanation is for the crimes he’s committed against this town and this people.” Luke’s smile looks more like a snarl as he hands the floor over to Ashton. A roar of approval goes up amongst the crowd, adoring Luke as if he were a rock star rather than an environmental terrorist.
“I have no explanations to give,” Ashton starts, his voice booming out but Luke doesn’t let him finish.
“I knew it! I knew it! So you admit then that what you have been putting this town through; the lies, the mysterious disappearances of good townsfolk and God knows what else, you admit that there’s no excuse for it?” Sofie can see the way Luke’s eyes light up with glee.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Sofie can tell, even from this distance that Ashton is starting to get angry and she sends up a prayer to anyone that’s listening that he can hold it together for a little longer. “We haven’t committed any crimes against the good people of this town and, as far as I’m concerned the people that have disappeared got what they deserved. That is unless you think child killers sho
uld be allowed to just walk free. Is that what you think, Mr. Calambor?” Ashton’s voice is low and menacing and Sofie can’t help but smile as Luke struggles to find something to say.
“We can all throw accusations around, but do you have any proof to back up what you’re saying?” Luke leans over the podium that has become his preaching post, staring hard at Ashton, clearly sure of the answer he’s about to receive.
Ashton’s jaw hardens. “If you want proof you’d have to speak to the little dead girl, but unless you have a medium that’s probably not going to happen.”
A rumble goes around the crowd as they comment on what’s happening in real time. The crowd is lapping the drama up, feeding off of it. The power of the mob, Sofie thinks to herself.
“Well, isn’t that convenient?” Luke waves Ashton’s explanation away.
“Not for the little girl, or her family.” Ashton’s voice is low, but the force of it carries across the canyon.
The sounds coming from the crowds are changing, almost imperceptibly things seem to be shifting. The man in front of them is becoming less of a creature than they had expected. Ashton is winning them over, one at a time. Sofie just hopes it’s enough.
“Let’s stick to what you came here for, shall we?” Luke clears his throat and straightens his suit, probably wondering which angle is better for the cameras.
“By all means, I wouldn’t dream of wasting your time. I can see you’re a busy man.” Ashton grins wolfishly at Luke, leaning lazily against a tree. “What is it that you actually do, apart from giving press conferences and getting rich from oil that doesn’t belong to you?”
There are chuckles and gasps from the crowd as Ashton’s attack hits its mark. Luke’s eyes look like they’re about to bulge out of his head. Gus snorts, the closest thing she’s heard to a real laugh from him. “Maybe Ash doesn’t need our help after all.”
Torrent (Alpha Love - a Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 4) Page 16