I was anxious and couldn't sleep. The information Aunt Tamyra had delved had me giddy all day. It was well after 11pm and I'd been careful to pretend to sleep in my shared room with the girls. I kept my breathing slow and deep for the past hour. Emileah had been sleep ever since I got back from school. Sahara was nowhere to be found until now.
"Emi. Wake up." She said in what I would describe as a whisper but must have been perceived much louder by Emileah as she woke up instantly. I could tell since she started rustling her sheets. There was a yawn then Emileah spoke.
"What about your little kitten friend, wont she come in here looking for you?"
"Leo's here. I told her to just cuddle with him if she gets scared." I wanted to roll my eyes but considering they were still closed, the action would be useless. There was no way I was going to miss the meeting because some little girl was afraid of the dark.
She'll just have to grow up for the night.
I waited 15 minutes after the girls left to make my move. I had found out-after listening in on a phone conversation Brady was having during gym class-that Collin was going to be on patrol for the meeting tonight. That gave me the idea. I knew the pack would smell me long before I got close to the meeting spot. So I snuck into Collin's room and stole his clothes. Hopefully his lingering smell on his clothes would cloak my smell long enough to get close to the meeting.
Though once I arrived it would be a done deal, maybe I'd get to hear something before I got banished. Hopefully god mom wouldn't spank me. That would be embarrassing.
I locked the doors before I left, not wanting any of the younger kids in the house to escape during the night.
Then I thought about that last thought.
It would be pretty irresponsible of me to leave the kids (shifters or no) unguarded in the house even if this was a marked 'hands off' house in the tribe. With my luck this would be the night someone got the gall to ransack it.
" 'ello?" The voice on the other end answered groggily.
"Claire, I have a favor to ask." She woke up some and agreed to come sit with the kids until I returned. She had refused until I told her where I was going and when I had her voice brightened immediately.
"Go do your thing Leo." So here I was trudging through the LaPush forests. Three miles was going to take awhile for me especially since there was a downpour earlier causing the forest floor to feel like sludge. Not to mention Collin's clothes pretty much drowned my entire body. I only hoped I didn't cross paths with Collin before I made it to the meeting.
"-more assistance here until we know who's behind this." Good, they were having the meeting in human form. "Even with our numbers, we're being spread thin by patrolling both here and in Olympia." I recognized the voice as Embry's.
"It's our job to find out who's doing this. If we stay here any longer, there will just be more attacks." Tre was the one to respond.
"We could be attacked. Whoever is doing this is obviously very stealthy. We could get blindsided or have a sneak attack on the Rez." Embry argued.
"I know that but we're needed to protect more than just the Rez Embry. We have the other Havens to think about!" Tre was obviously growing tired with this argument. I took a few more steps as the voices got clearer.
"We're the Enforcement pack for a reason," that was godmom. "When we leave, we'll momentarily shut down the checkpoint that way the pack can pull out of Olympia. You'll have more than enough wolves to patrol just around LaPush." I heard Embry sigh in aggravation.
"If you shut down the Olympia checkpoint that cuts off our Haven supply route. We'll be too isolated." Quil jumped in countering.
"You'll still have contacts up north. They can reroute the Haven supplies south to here."
"You're talking Canada. That's vampire territory. The Cullen arena." Embry stated.
"What's wrong with the Cullens? They've been by our side for years now."That was Uncle Seth. "You can't still be holding onto prejudices."
"I'm a wolf of LaPush first and foremost. My job is to protect my people from vampires. I'm their chief, I can't start depending on vampires to feed my people."
"It won't be the vampires feeding you. They'll just be bringing the products. It all comes from the same place. The Havens are supplied jointly." Tre commented.
"You're asking the impossible." Embry was obviously refusing to see reason.
"We're asking you to be sensible. This is the only compromise. You want us to stay and help guard LaPush and Olympia when our job is to catch whoever it is that is going on this reign of terror." God mom jumped in.
"This isn't a compromise. This is you ordering me what to do." Embry argued.
"She wasn't ordering you, she was telling you what your limited options were." Tre's voice rose, I could tell he was getting angry.
"This doesn't concern you Tre, I know you don't have many ties to us since you're not Quileute-"
"Excuse me?"Tre sounded offended.
"Shut up!" I froze at God mom's command. Then it happened. She started sniffing the air.
"What's Collin doing out here? He's supposed to be in Olympia until 2am." Great Brady.
"That's because it's not Collin." I didn't try to move as Tre stalked towards my direction. There would be no point, he could catch me easily. He let a ghost of a smirk cross his face when he figured out it was me. "Well well, Leo don't you think you're kind of far from the house." He joked as he pulled me into view of the pack.
"Yeah, guess I got lost." I tried to joke back. My humor fell flat on the crowd, especially god mom who was simply glaring at me. I ignored it instead focusing on Emileah's shaking head. There were a few seconds of silence, everyone obviously felt uneasy with my presence, not quite sure how to proceed. I decided to break the silence. "I know I apologized a while back and you guys accepted it but it wasn't sincere. Not really. I'm sorry that some of my past actions haven't been completely thought through and I wasn't taking everyone's safety into consideration. I cough that up to youthful ignorance and maybe some jealousy but I'm not sorry for sneaking out here tonight. Nor am I sorry about worrying about the only family I've ever known. I came out here tonight because I want to know what's going on with you guys because even if it hurts to know I can't really help out, it hurts worse to have to imagine all the bad things that could be happening." No one moved. No one spoke.
I could actually hear the crickets.
"You always did have an overactive imagination." I grinned at god mom's joke. She finally softened her features. "You know you're not getting out of this scot free. You left a house full of-"
"I called Claire." Quil's head popped up at his imprint/fiance's name. "She's watching the kids."
"I knew he wasn't sleep when we left." Emileah said. I only grinned at her as Aunt Tamyra and Uncle Seth scooted over on their log to make room for me.
"Now where were we?" God mom asked. "Oh right, Embry was being a stubborn fool." The man in question immediately raised a hand in protest but Uncle Seth cut him off with an epiphany.
"The beaver triplets!" It took all of two seconds for most of the pack to figure out what he was saying. "There's a joint beaver and elk haven in Alberta, that's where the beaver triplets went years back."God mom made a sound of annoyance at their mention. Aunt Tamyra reached over to jab her.
"We can ask them to re-route some supplies here. Though, they're farther north than the vamp checkpoint in Edmonton who could get you supplies faster."
"We'll try our luck with the beavers." Embry said.
"Then it's settled," Tre started, "We're headed that direction so we'll stop by and get the re-routes worked out, close down the checkpoint in Olympia and figure out everything once we get to Alaska." My face scrunched up in confusion.
"Alaska?" I asked and everyone stopped speaking to look at me. God mom turned to me.
"Our pack is leaving the Rez, we have a job to do." She explained.
"When?"
"Two days."
Well that came as quite a shock to me.
"Am I-"
"Yes." I didn't need to finish my question since she already knew what I had been ready to ask. A grin crossed my face and she returned it. "Though your aunt's gonna be serving extra patrol time for her disobeying orders." Godmom said as she mock glared at Aunt Tamyra who just shrugged.
"Well worth it." She said and rubbed me on the back. The meeting ended after shifts were distributed and the Haven school staff started their own separate meeting to reorganize teaching since Aunt Tamyra, Collin, and Brady would no longer be able to teach. God mom approached me.
"I guess it's time we let you in the know." I didn't respond as she guided me out of the clearing and into the forest. "There's been a lot of activity these past few months. How much do you know?" She stopped walking to look at me. I shrugged.
"The last definitive thing I heard was the attack on the Olympia checkpoint and the two escorts being killed along with the new student going missing." Godmom's eyes widened.
"Then you've missed a lot." I frowned, she didn't notice. "There have been similar attacks since then."
"Here?" I asked panicky. She shook her head.
"Other Havens. Seven newly found shifters, all very young have gone missing. The scent, if there even is one, is usually vampire. But we have no clue who it is. Sometimes there is no scent."
"Doesn't that just mean, it happened before the kid even makes it to the checkpoint?"
"No. When we get to those scenes, there's definitely been an attack, the thing is there's no scent at all. Not even from the dead escorts. Whoever it is must have some type of cloaking ability." That shocked me. The wolves were pretty much blind if the attacker had no scent. A surprise attack would be easy.
I was fearful for them.
"How many attacks have there been?"
"Five, that's left nearly 10 escorts dead." I did the math. Only one kid was ever sent to a checkpoint at a time which meant that two of the seven that disappeared had done so without an attack.
"What about the other two?" God mom sighed.
"Do you have a general idea how the Haven-checkpoint system works?" She asked me. I only knew a little. "Each Haven, like ours has a checkpoint usually in a nearby city. Our main checkpoint is in Olympia. The Cullens for example in Alaska, have a checkpoint in Edmonton." I nodded knowing that much already. "The checkpoints are usually small houses or cabins in which an escort or two lives. The escorts have mainly been panther volunteers from Clarice's pack. Their job is to ship and allocate supplies through the checkpoint chain. That also includes any new shifters." This was where I looked up. I didn't have much knowledge of how the young shifters arrived at the Havens. "The panther pack usually encounters these lone shifters, or runaways. They give them the option to join a Haven. The pack escorts them to the nearest checkpoint and from there the quickest passage to the desired Haven is made via checkpoints only. An escort will leave his checkpoint with the shifter and meet the escort at the next checkpoint halfway. The kid is, for lack of a better term, handed off and continues on. This pattern continues until the checkpoint before the Haven is reached. There the escort will take the shifter toward the Haven up until the 3 Mile Walk." Godmom looked at me expectantly after explaining all that.
"What's the 3 Mile Walk?"
"Three miles before the Haven, the shifter is allowed to walk, alone for the final stretch. It was an added part to the system to allow the shifter the chance to change their minds about joining the Haven without any influence from us."
"Why would they change their minds?" It didn't make sense to me why anyone, a runaway would turn down the chance to be cared for amongst their own kind.
"These kids give up a lot when they come here. They can't contact their families anymore. The panther pack usually fakes their deaths or they become one of those thousands of missing children. Once they finish school they either stay at their respective Havens to continue work in it or they become volunteers some other way. It's a lifelong commitment they have to make in a relatively short time. That's why the Three Mile Walk is their last chance to pull out."
"That's when the last two kidnappings occurred. During the Three Mile Walk?" Godmom nodded. "Then how do you know those two just didn't pull out."
"We know because Tre and I strongly protested the implementation of the Three Mile. Those kids sometimes are really young and shouldn't be left alone for that long a distance. That's why the escorts are encouraged to travel out of detection of their senses for the Three Miles. It keeps the kids safe and still allows them influence free alone time."
"So you're lying to them about being alone?"
"No," she stopped, somewhat frustrated with my conclusion, "a few of the kids have expressed that the escorts can be intimidating so they don't want to just run away. If the escort is out of sight and smell, the kid can feel free to leave if they want. The escort won't try to stop them. But they are still there if protection is needed."
"So the kids got kidnapped-"
"After the hidden escort was killed." She finished. The discussion going on earlier now made more sense.
"How's Cla-the panther pack dealing with losing so many of their own?" I quickly corrected myself though god mom made no notice of it.
"They're coping but not too many are eager to fill in escort spots of their fallen comrades. That's why patrols have been extended to include Olympia because we don't have an escort there 24/7." We were headed back the Rez, I noted. I'd nearly fallen a few times from all the mud but god mom caught me everytime. It was a lot to take in.
I felt kind of guilty that I had been adding stress to the mix when I was with the Rogues, while they were worrying about all these attacks on the Havens.
"So we're leaving in two days," God mom nodded as we stopped at the edge of the Reservation. "Why are we going to Alaska?"
"It's a bit of a social visit." She replied in a way that told me not to ask anymore questions. She used to do that a lot to us when we would travel to different missions. The less I knew the better, she would say. "You should probably hurry home and relieve Claire." I'd started walking realizing that god mom wasn't following. "I'm going to head back, make sure Embry doesn't screw anything up when we leave." She flashed a smile and turned to head back into the forest. I stood to watch her retreating form, the slightly slumped shoulders, hands in her hoodie pocket. It was always so bizarre to see my god mother in the body of a perpetual teenager.
Someday I was going to look older than she does.
"Leo! You survived!" I hadn't realized I'd made it back to the house until Claire burst through the front doors and threw her arms around me.
"I'm glad you had such faith in me." Claire hit me.
"I was worried, that they wouldn't listen to you," she paused when I didn't reply. "They did listen to you right?" I hesitated just to make her sweat some more. Her eyes grew big and sad when I sighed.
"Yeah, they listened." I added happily and she hit me again.
"You're such a tease." She laughed with me. "Does this mean you're leaving with them?" I nodded again as we stepped into the house, lowering our voices so as to not wake up the shifter children. "I'm happy for you, I really am, I just wish…" I stopped her with a hug. I knew it caught her off guard since I wasn't much of a touchy feely person. Another trait Emileah and I shared.
"I'll miss you too Claire." She pat my back after a few moments. I was really going to miss her. I was going to miss everyone on the Rez. Well maybe not Wilson, but it was a lot more people than the other times I'd left.
A/N: woohoo long chapter!I hate short chapters...really I do, writing reading whatever....but I' trying to stick to one scene/environment per chap...who know how long that'll last. Anyway, the update, Leo's back in the know withe the pack, Leah-Tre's pack is leaving, destination Alaska then some other stuff's gonna happen. Also if the information about the checkpoints and havens and escorts is confusing...think of it like this: it's like the Underground Railroad type thing but for shape shifters. And if that didn't clear it up then just leave the question in your review *hint hint*