Outcast (Supernaturals Book 2) (25 page)

“At least get my dad out so that he can work,” she begged.

“Gretchen, I’m not entering Pine Hollow for anyone, even your dad. If he can get you guys to the east side of town near Deer Point Road, we’ll meet you and bring you here, but that’s it,” Dave said, making a slight concession to the situation.

“Aren’t you staying with the Sullivan pack? Don’t they have magical powers or something? Can’t they pop in and out and get us?”

“We are and yes on both accounts, but they won’t.”

“Are they too scared?”

“No, but they don’t want to start a war either. The Council has a witch working for them. That witch has probably set up wards to sense them, their magic, and us. She might even have something set up that will catch us or stop us from being able to leave once we’re there.”

“Fine,” she said in a defeated tone. “Rachel went to get Dad. He doesn’t know I called.”

We didn’t completely believe her, but Mr. Rodstrom sounded confused and irritated with his girls when he entered the room.

“What’s your sister talking about, Gretchen? She says you have someone on the phone who is going to help us leave. Who did you call? What have you done? Who knows what you’re doing?”

“Mr. Rodstrom,” Dave said a bit loudly so that the man could hear him. “This is Dave Carmichael.”

“Robert’s boy?” Mr. Rodstrom asked a bit hesitantly.

“Yes sir.”

“Did my girls call you?” the question came through clear as a bell indicating that he had taken the phone from his daughter and brought it to his ear.

“Yes sir. Just so you know, you’re on speakerphone. Ryan, Leigh, Danielle, my parents, and the Alexanders are here.”

“What’s going on? Why do you have my daughters on speaker?”

“Your daughters sent Maddie, my sister-in-law, a text stating that your family needed help getting out of Pine Hollow.”

“She did what?” he all but screamed into the phone before pulling it away, covering the mouthpiece, and yelling at his daughters. Most of his words came through the phone muffled. We could make out a good bit of what he was saying, which boiled down to, “How dare you call someone like this without my permission? Never tell my business,” and so on. We heard Gretchen say something back about him being stubborn and pig-headed, and then there was a loud tiger roar that shut Gretchen up and caused Rachel to burst into tears.

“Dave, are you there?” Mr. Rodstrom asked a second later.

“I am. Is everything all right there?”

“Yes. I should punish these two for what they’ve done, but they aren’t wrong. We need help. I have clients threatening to drop me. The Council has forbidden us to leave or to tell anyone about the order, so I have to make up excuses. I’ve gone to the Council to explain that if I don’t meet with these clients, if I don’t show up to court sessions, I’ll lose the client and the money. They don’t seem to care. Martin has lost his mind and has browbeaten the rest of the members into submission. He isn’t thinking straight and doesn’t seem to care. I don’t know what’s going on, but we have to leave before anything worse happens. Others are talking about leaving as well, but after your parents disappeared, the Council has set up patrols all over town. Rumor has it that we could buy off some of them to look the other way, but no one that I know of has left town. I don’t know every single member of this pack, so I can’t say no one has left. Listen to me, I’m rambling. Gretchen says you can help. Can you?”

“We can help some, but you’ll have to do the hardest part. The Council has threatened to start a war with the Sullivan pack if we step a single toe onto their territory. If you can get to Deer Point Road, we’ll be there to bring you the rest of the way here. You’ll have to leave everything behind. You won’t be able to make a run for it if you are loaded down. We have a place for you to stay with food and anything else you may need if you don’t have anywhere else to go. If we bring you here, you have to agree to obey Daniel Sullivan, the pack’s alpha. You’ll live under his rules and you’ll contribute. Can you do that?”

“If he’ll let me continue with my practice, I’ll do anything.”

“I’m sure he will. Listen, I trust you. When Gretchen first called, I thought you guys were setting us up. I’m still not sure that isn’t the case, but I’m going through with this as if it isn’t. What time of the day do you think all four of you can slip away without being missed?”

Dave spent another twenty minutes or so on the phone making plans with Mr. Rodstrom before calling Daniel to inform him of what was happening. He was also worried that this was a trick and said he wanted to see if Sam would be willing to go with them. She might be able to use magic to see any hidden dangers or throw up wards the other witch couldn’t sense to aid the Rodstroms in their escape.

I busied myself with cleaning up after dinner. A part of me wanted to help, but I knew Ryan would never agree. The other part of me was scared and feared that once people realized that I was more or less the cause of all of this, they would start to hate me all over again.

Chapter 27 ~ Confronting the Enemy

~~~Ryan~~~

Leigh wasn’t as worried about the second rescue mission as she was the first. She understood the supernatural world a little better, knew what we could do, how strong we were, and that unless the Council threatened a person’s life, we were not going onto their land.

Sam agreed to go with us. Since she wasn’t technically a part of Daniel’s pack, she could, in theory, sneak into Pine Hollow and assist anyone who wanted out, but she wouldn’t have any back up, which meant that Daniel said that a stipulation of her going was that she had to stay with us at all times. She rolled her eyes at his command but agreed to Daniel’s terms.

The Rodstroms decided they would come out one at a time with long intervals in between in the hopes that no one would get suspicious of their actions. The twins came first. Originally, Rachel was supposed to come then Gretchen, but Rachel got scared, so the two had to come together. They had walked a friend home from school, all the while talking about how their dad was taking them hiking that afternoon. They played up the father/daughter bonding and tried to show how excited they were to have him home so much and doing stuff with them. Once the girl was home, they cut through her backyard and into the woods. In case someone followed them, they went straight to the entrance to the trail, changed clothes in the bathroom/rest area there then sat at one of the picnic tables for nearly forty-five minutes, every so often complaining that their dad was late. They eventually gave up on him and hit the trail on their own. The back loop brought them close to where we were, so they broke from the trail there in a full out run and didn’t stop until they almost literally ran into us. They were supposed to text us when they got near the patrol line to get the all clear from us, but they hadn’t.

Sam immediately threw a few pinecones with scent blocking spells on them into the path they had come from to mask their smell from the next two guards who came through on patrol. Neither girl thought that anyone had followed them, but to be certain, Dimitri disappeared with them almost immediately, and we ducked back into the trees we were hiding behind on what we considered our side of the territorial line. Dimitri reappeared a half a second later. I sent a text to their father to let him know that the girls were safe and to remind his wife to text when she got a quarter mile away from the border.

A half-an-hour later, she left the house to go for a run. She followed our instructions to the letter, and we had her back to the Sullivan pack in no time. Mr. Rodstrom was a different story. We waited and waited and waited on him. I sent him a text the second Devan disappeared with Mrs. Rodstrom, and Mr. Rodstrom sent a text back stating that he would leave the house in fifteen to twenty minutes, pretending to fetch his daughters before curfew.

He didn’t send a second message until nearly an hour and a half later, long after we had started to panic. Come to find out, before he could leave the house, two people called—both clients, so no one who suspected anything—then, as he was exiting his backyard, a guard approached him to ask where he was going so close to curfew. He explained that he was supposed to meet his daughters for a hike but had gotten hung up on work calls. He figured that they were still on the trail waiting for him, so he was going to get them.

The two men went back and forth, the guard asking questions that made it sound as if he were suspicious of Mr. Rodstrom. Eventually, Mr. Rodstrom had to get a little annoyed with the man before he backed off. Mr. Rodstrom was afraid his annoyance made him sound guilty of something, but the guard never followed, and the man finally made it out of Pine Hollow.

Overall, the extraction went as planned, but something inside me told me that things wouldn’t continue to go that smoothly, and I was right. The next extraction almost didn’t happen and what came afterwards nearly destroyed both packs.

One of Dave’s cousins called him about a week after we extracted the Rodstroms and asked Dave to get him and his wife out of town. The Council had been trying to get Emanuel, Dave’s cousin, to spy on the rest of the family and aid them in getting to Dave. That fact immediately set off alarm bells in everyone’s head, but Dave insisted that the man would never do that and that his telling us of the Council’s plans was proof. We discussed the logistics of that extraction for nearly two weeks before agreeing on a plan, not that the plan was an elaborate one, but Dave kept trying to worm his way into things, or the Council inadvertently got in the way.

Every one of us was sure that the Council knew, somehow, that something was going on because each tentative date we set, they interrupted. Nearly every time Dave called his cousin, someone from the Council showed up on his doorstep. Our reconnaissance also came back with news that the Council had doubled their patrols both along the border and inside the town. They all but went door-to-door to make sure everyone was indoors by curfew.

Leigh wanted me to stay out of that mission, but since we weren’t letting Dave, Danielle, or Daniel go for fear that it was a trap, I couldn’t stay behind.

The plan for Emanuel and his wife, Josey, was for them to make a run for it about an hour before dawn. The guards appeared more relaxed and unobservant between two and five in the morning, making it the best time for anyone to try to escape. The couple lived in the center of town, so they were going to have a hard time making their way through town and into the woods. They begged for more assistance even though they knew our hands were tied.

I felt like a coward by not taking more risks to help people. Martin wasn’t stable, and we couldn’t chance him killing people or worse to keep them from leaving. Sam was the best we could do to assist inside the town. She emailed the couple the ingredients needed for the spell to mask their scent. Without Sam’s magic behind it, the potion wouldn’t be perfect, but it would do in a pinch—Emanuel and Josey just couldn’t get too close to a guard.

They sent us a text about a quarter to four to let us know they had left the house and were deep in the woods. At five after four, they sent a text to say that their neighbor, and a good friend of Josey’s, Rebecca, wanted out as well. Our initial reaction was no, but since the woman knew about the plan, she was with them, and Josey vouched for her, so we relented. 

Just as they were about to leave the woods and cross River Road to us, the guards spotted them, or smelled them, since Rebecca didn’t have the scent mask. Josey screamed, and Dave called for them to run faster. Devan and two other Sullivan pack members approached the edge of Pine Hollow territory so that they could instantly disappear with Emmanuel, Josey, and Rebecca when the three emerged.

Josey was the first through the tree line. She shrieked when Devan grabbed her, but they were gone quickly enough. Rebecca was next. She didn’t scream. She didn’t even seem scared. That thought should have stuck with me…should have made me suspicious, but the sudden appearance of Emmanuel and the group of guards following close behind him distracted me.

Devan reappeared and grabbed Emmanuel, but before he could disappear, Martin’s voice broke through the night and commanded us to cease. We all spun to watch them as Devan’s pack mates returned.

“Take him and go,” Dave demanded of Devan. I spun at the sound of his voice. The appearance of an unexpected person must have made him demand that Devan bring him.

“Don’t do it,” Martin said. “If you do, you are declaring war.”

“No, we aren’t,” Dave said. “They left Pine Hollow on their own. Your territory ends right there.” He pointed down to the red line we had spray painted on the road earlier in order to keep track of the territorial line.

“You lie,” Martin said, glaring at the offending line.

“Not lying. I’ve studied the map carefully,” Dave said, holding up said map. There is nothing you can do to us. If you try to retaliate, the Regent will get involved. They already know what you are doing and are simply waiting to see how far you take things. I suggest you calm down, release your city, and get over yourselves and your antiquated ideas before you lose control over Pine Hollow.”

“The Regent will never take this town. We’ve ruled over it for too long.” Martin looked frightened, but his voice was calm.

“I don’t know about that. They’re pretty angry with you right now. You’ve stayed off their radar for years until the stunt you’ve pulled with Leigh, and now you’re basically holding your own people hostage. Both things are large offenses. They aren’t going to put up with that much longer. But never mind them, if you keep this up, I will take you down.”

The other Council members present looked from Dave to Martin nervously. They had their secrets, their misdeeds. Everyone knew that or at least suspected as much. I had the feeling that Martin had leverage on them all. That was the only reason Dave and I could think of that would have them following his every command.

“You’re only a pup. You don’t have the power to take over this town,” Martin said, ignoring the other Council members.

“We both know I do,” Dave said calmly. “I’ve known since I was sixteen that you were terrified of me…that all of you were. Don’t you remember? That was the year that you tried to order my parents to arrange my marriage to your daughter, who was five at the time. Not only was I not going to marry her due to our age difference, but everyone knew I would marry no one but my mate. You didn’t know I was home that day. I walked in on you trying to browbeat my parents into signing the forms, and I told you right then that the marriage wasn’t going to happen.

“You tried to argue, but we both heard the command in my voice, heard the compulsion in my tone. In that moment, I knew you knew I was alpha material. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I knew I had power over you, but I didn’t act on it and have never tried to do so. I made sure to keep an even temper and reign in my emotions, so as not to appear as a threat. I was fine with most of the rules of our town and had planned to go on letting you rule over me until you scared yourself enough to start letting your fear override your logic, but you snapped quicker than I thought you would. So I suggest you take your minions and go home. You can’t do anything about what’s happening here. If your people want to leave, I suggest you let them, because if the Regent doesn’t step in soon, I will.”

The threat hung in the air for a long time. Finally, Martin’s lip curled as if he was going to snarl, but Dave stepped forward so that he was in plain view of everyone and flexed his fingers, which were claws. He opened his mouth and roared. The Council flinched in unison, and one-by-one, they retreated until only Martin stood on trembling legs looking at us all. Despite the fear radiating off him, a smile spread across his face before he turned and ran.

“Well, that was unsettling,” I said.

“What part?” asked Devan.

“All of it,” I said, looking at my best friend in awe. “Though mostly that last grin Martin gave us. He’s up to something else.”

“He is, but I don’t want to wait around to find out what that something is. Let’s get home. Emanuel and Josey are family, but I’m not sure I trust Rebecca. I don’t know her, and I want to know why she wanted out of Pine Hollow so badly,” Dave said.

Back at the main cabin an hour or so later, Dave, Daniel, Darius—an older brother of Dimitri’s who had been away during all of this working on a building project and who was the next in line as alpha of his father’s pack—and I sat across from Emanuel, Josey, and Rebecca, listening to their story and asking questions. All three swore that they hadn’t told Rebecca what they were planning.

Rebecca swore she hadn’t known they were planning anything until she saw them leave that morning.

“All those guards make me nervous,” Rebecca had informed us again and again when we asked about her side of things. “The Council isn’t saying much about what has been happening, just increasing the number of guards the town has and the number of patrols. I didn’t like it. The anxiety of it all has given me insomnia. I was on my back deck sipping tea and hoping the serenity of the morning would make me sleepy.

“I saw Emanuel and Josey leave and wondered what was going on that had them sneaking out their back door. I didn’t know they were leaving the town until I heard Emanuel tell Josey they needed to walk faster or you might leave them. That’s when I caught up to them and asked to come along.”

Her story seemed plausible enough, but I could tell by Dave’s posture that he did not buy it. Daniel and Darius showed no outward emotion at all. I couldn’t smell a lie on her, so they couldn’t either, but whatever that thing was inside of them that made them alpha material sensed that she wasn’t being truthful.

After a long pause, Dave said, “Okay. You three are free to go…but Rebecca, we will be watching you. We have a pack and family to protect. We aren’t tyrants like the Council, but if you step out of line, I will punish you.

“I understand,” she said, looking suitably chastised.

“We’ve had a long night. I say we go home and get some rest. Emanuel, Josey, Rebecca, Devan will show you to your cabins.

The three followed the big man out the door. As soon as they exited, Leigh entered with a few others. She looked scared. I had wanted to tell her more than just that I was back when we returned, but Dave and Daniel had wanted to interrogate our three new arrivals as soon as we got back.