It's been two days since The Adler Pack's Alpha got in contact about Harper being there. Since then the four of us, Scarlett, James, Morgan, and I, have packed enough for a weeks stay and have gotten in the road. It'll take us a lot less time than it took Harper because that little dumb-ass decided to walk instead of drive.
"How much longer!" Morgan groaned from the back seat.
"We should be almost there." Atlas was behind the wheel. He glanced through the rear view mirror at Morgan, she still looked slightly pale from the attack even though it had happened over a month ago. She even still refused to tell anybody what happened during the whole interaction.
Atlas worried for her. Although Morgan wasn't his child, he still felt a bond to her like she was. Harpers telling of what happened that night didn't clear up anything from what they found at the scene, in all honesty it seemed that Harper didn't really know anything about what happened. Neither Morgan or Harper can recall how their attackers got burned to an unrecognizable crisp.
"We're here." James leaned forward from the back seat to look out the front window.
"Woah!" Morgan exclaimed, the excitement building on her face as they got closer to the castle-like mansion.
Shortly after Atlas parked the car in the large roundabout driveway.
"Stay in the car for a moment. Let me go to the door alone first." Atlas opened his door and knocked on the wide double doors.
A loud creaking came from the door as it swung open. The Adler's pack Alpha had answered the knock herself, something unusual for an Alpha to do in case of an ambush or surprise attack.
"Atlas! It's good to see you." She spoke as she kissed each of his cheeks, a common greeting that most allied packs followed.
"C.B., it's good to see you as well." Atlas returned the greeting then looked to Scarlett and the other two to wave them over.
"By the way.." the Alpha spoke softly so that only Atlas could hear. "The C and B stand for Charlotte Blake." She chuckled at the thought of him not knowing her name. Then it occurred to her. 'I wonder if Harper knows my name?'
"Hello Charlotte." Scarlett held out her hand to greet her. "It's nice to meet you." Scarlett smiled and they exchanged la bise, cheek kisses.
"Charlotte, this is my wife Scarlett." Atlas pulled Scarlett closer to him in a protective, jealous manner.
"Can we get inside already?" Morgan walked up with two luggage cases and an annoyed look on her face.
"Yes, of course." Charlotte opened the door more and stepped aside for the three of them to come in. "If you leave your bags at the front of the foyer my maids will bring them to your rooms. In the meantime, Maurice has prepared a lovely meal for us all." Charlotte lead them to the dining hall where Harper has already been waiting. Scarlett ran up to him and gave him a hug before pulling away and slapping his arm.
"Don't you dare leave and not tell me! Do you know how much I worried about you!" She pulled him into another hug before Atlas and the others came over to greet him as well. As they sat down to eat James walked in and greeted everyone.
"Now, who might you be?" Charlotte checked him out, they seemed to be around the same age and something just seemed right about him.
"I'm James, Ma'am. Atlas's Beta." James bowed his head and kissed Charlotte's knuckles.
"Well, James. Please, pick any seat." She eyeballed the chair next to her, hinting to him.
Atlas chuckled and exchanged knowing glances with Scarlett and Harper. They ate in chatter, talking about their packs and travels, and exchanging tales of battles and humor, before long they finished eating and finally the subject of Neil and Niklaus's search and rescue was brought up by Harper, of course.
"Well, the first thing we need to do is go through the Ever Green pack history.." Charlotte cut Atlas off.
"Yes, we've done that." She chuckled
"Oh, then next we need to find their allies and.." She cut him off again
"That's done."
"Okay, then we need to establish who's most likely to.."
"Attack the Ever Green pack and take two boys? I've done that already." Charlotte chuckled but Atlas was starting to get annoyed with her cutting him off. It was a sign of disrespect, especially from one alpha to another.
"Fine, then tell me what's left to do." Atlas had an irked look on his face.
"A plan, it would seem, is all that's left to find." Charlotte got up from her seat and opened the door leading to the library and gestures for them all to follow her. Inside the library was a three stories wall of books spanning every side of the room, each story was roughly 13 feet high.
"Quite impressive." Scarlett smirked
"Thank you. We've been expanding on our collection for centuries." Charlotte seemed pleased with the awing looks that appeared on each of their faces upon entering the room.
"If you'll follow, over here is where all the information we've piled together on the Ever Green Pack is." She walked over to a table at the back corner of the library, two stacks sat on the table and just above them was a map with different colored pins sticking in it. The first stack seemed to be about the Every Green Pack, each of the five books contained different information for different things, the second stack contained five folders each one with a different label: Allies, Enemies, Location, History, and Possible Targets.
"Alright" Atlas looked over the table. "Where do we go from here?"
***
Niklaus and I have spent the last five days thinking of a way to escape from here. He's been here before and knows the guards, shift changes, and layout plans for the pack better than I do and so far we have figured out how to get out of the cells and through the front doors but Niklaus has said that Blink apparently filled his pack mainly with trackers and muscle all professionally trained in hunting, combat, assassinations, and government level cleanup as to not leave any traces behind. So basically if we want to get out of here and stay out of here we'll have to find some way to mask our scents, hide any trail we leave, and drop from the earth for awhile all while avoiding death and somehow managing to ignore the fact that I have a mate waiting for my return. Of course there's always the option of returning to the Red Vine pack but then a full on war would break out between the two packs and any allies they each have.
(F*ck! What the hell are we going to do?) Neil yelled one his thoughts.
(Maybe if Niklaus could shift? Or figure out that Lightning thing he did?) Blue was only trying to help but it was annoying Neil because they'd been trying that for days.
"Niklaus?" Neil called out to see if Niklaus was still awake, he wasn't.
(Sh*t! I need him to wake the f*ck up!) Neil hated being cooped up, he didn't know why but he figured it had something to do with his memory loss, something in his subconscious.
(You could try hitting him with something?) Again Blue wasn't really helping but it did give Neil an idea.
"This is gonna hurt.." Neil spoke under his breathe.
Neil twisted his wrist as much as possible to make his palm face him, he bent his wrist forward and ejected his claws. He turned his head, the nails from the collar poked into his neck.
Neil winced and sucked his teeth due to the pain but with as much speed as Neil could muster he jerked his head forward and pulled one his claws from the cuticle.
'Ah f*ck!' As Neil shoved away the pain he gained his bearings and positioned the nail in his mouth. Neil spit the nail through the bars and managed to just barely hit Niklaus but it was enough. After years of torment Niklaus had learned how to wake up quickly with only the slightest touch.
"What was that?" Niklaus looked over towards Neil, the dark shadows of the dungeon shielded his face.
"A nail, hurt like hell too." Neil winced slightly as he twisted his wrist and head back to the most comfortable position he could get in shackles.
"What do you need?" Niklaus couldn't see Neil but could sense that he was up to something.
"Can you try again? To find Shade, I mean?"
"I've told you, he's gone." Niklaus's voice was soft, barely even a mumble.
"Can you tell me what happened? What you remember from before he disappeared or left or whatever?"
"Why? What'll that do?"
"For one, it might hold the key to getting you your wolf back."
"And for two?"
"For two? For two, it's not like we have anything better to do."
"Alright, I guess..." Niklaus paused and took a deep breathe. "Where should I start?"
"Start at when you were first taken."
***