After the steep climb on the mountain trail to the mouth of the cave we parked our ATVs' near the warriors who were standing guard just as my dad had ordered them to do. I mind linked Captain Flynn before proceeding into the cave. 'Has anyone been in the area?'
'No Sir, I have men stationed all through the woods about twenty yards apart in all directions. And none of them have sensed anything other than the normal forest creatures. That is until your group was detected entering the woods behind the Pack house.' He reported right away.
'Thanks for the update.We will be going inside the cave for a while, stay vigilant until further orders.' I instructed. Quickly disappearing inside the mouth of cave with Andie beside me and my dad and Skyler following close behind us.
We navigated the tight passageway winding our way to the center to the large cavern where Andie and I had rescued Chase. The sunlight pouring in through a large whole at the top of the cave illuminated the space, making what had happened inside clearly obvious.
Everything was exactly the way we had left it, minus the dead bodies of course .Blood stained the walls of the cave and three large puddles of coagulated blood spotting the ground clearly indicated where the bodies of those bastards had been laying.
The pungent scent of splattered brain matter and blood hung in the air making it hard to breath. However among those foul orders I detected something out of place,the faint scent of the green forest. A mixture of earth, grass, and pine trees.A fresh scent that shouldn't be deep inside of a dark ,damp,cave.
My eyes traveled up to the large opening at the top of the cave as I thought about the direction of the wind before we stepped inside. Mentally I shook my head for even considering the thought of the scent of the forest could be coming from out side. The wind would have to be blowing in a downward direction, something not possible for wind to do.
My gaze traveled around the perimeter of the large cavern finding no logical reason for the scent of the forest to be inside this closed space. There was no leaves,grass ,or mud anywhere in sight.
Frustrated I ran my hand through my hair, sweeping my eyes over the area one more time. Taking note of everything present in the space. A stack of black clothes an ammo box and two assault rifles stacked neatly against the wall. My gaze shifted to the make shift bed little Chase was laying on noticing it was exactly the way we left it.
Everything looked undisturbed and the warriors that had been standing guard never reported seeing anyone else in the area. Which seemed suspicious to me.Surely thoes bastards were waiting on someone else to do what ever the hell they were planning to do to Chase.
I ask myself, had someone one tipped them off and they knew Chase had been rescued.Or perhaps they could conceal their presence from my warriors, like those bastards that kidnap little Chase? I wondered.
While I was lost in thought, without warning Andie suddenly dropped my hand and bolted across the cavern. I scrambled to catch up with both of us coming to an abrupt stop right in front of the pile of black clothes.
In a blink of an eye,Andie's hand shot forward retrieving a turtleneck shirt from the pile of neatly stacked black clothes, handing it up to me.
" Smell this" she said, with her cute little brows tugged closely together .
Taking the shirt from her hand I brought it closer to my nose, I didn't even need to take a sniff. It was obvious that the black clothes was the source of the scent I had been trying to find. The scent of a green forest was imbedded into the fabric,reminding me of the scent cover sprays human hunters use.
" Skyler," I shouted to get his attention and waited until he looked in my direction before waving him over " Come help me take all this stuff to the side by side"
"Do you have a lab at your work place?" Andie ask, her dark blue eyes shining with curiosity.
" I do but not one like your dad has at his company. The one I have is for doing chemical analysis on crude oil. But I can get access to a medical lab, there's one down town at the morgue. What is it that you plan to do?"
"No, no, I mean a mining lab." She sighed and sounded really frustrated " Do you have one of those, uh! What do they call those machines? Oh yeah, I remember a XRF spectrometer."
"Good thinking sweetheart, I'll send one of these shirts to Jessica the geochemist at my mining laboratory service. Perhaps some of that state of the art equipment I invested in can help with this kidnapping investigation."
Skyler squatted down and opened the ammo box that was setting beside the stack of black clothes. He let out a low whistle " look at this shit."
I glanced down to see what he was talking about, my eyes bugged out immediately "whoa dude! Are all of those silver?"
" Looks like it." Skyler hummed, digging out a hand full of shells to look at the ones underneath.
" Isn't that burning your hand?"Andie ask.
Skyler smirked,"Do you think that asshole beside you is the only one that's different."
Andie giggled, " No, but that looks like pure silver."
" I'm sure it is," I confirmed glancing back down at Skyler "put those back and let's get this stuff loaded up."
" Are we going to shoot these Ak -47s?" Skyler ask hopefully.
I grinned " I don't see why not."
" Before you two get all carried away, just remember ,you are the ones who will be picking up all those shell casings." My dad grumbled,making his way towards us with a black plastic box in his hand.
" Andie do you know how to use this?" My dad ask, holding up the plastic box for Andie to get a better view.
" Yes sir," Andie responded right away.
"What's in the box?" Skyler ask
" Your ass would know, if you hadn't been hung over and missed your class when I went down to the morgue ." I said with a cocky ass grin.
" I thought Doctor Death" he chuckled correcting himself "I mean Doctor Henderson was going to reschedule it, because your ass was hung over too." Skyler whined like a fucking little girl ,snatching up the ammo box and shouting over his shoulder " Come on let's get this shirt loaded up."
Grabbing the two AK-47s up I threw the slings over my shoulder and grabbed the pile of black clothes following Skyler's grumbling ass out of the cave.
After loading up all the evidence we collected from the cave, the DNA evidence, Andie collected included. I mind linked Captain Flynn giving him orders for him and his men to return to the training center.
Our group of five jumped on our ATV's and headed back to the pack house. After we crossed the creek my girl turned those damn blue eyes up to look at me with a beautiful smile on her face.
" Can I drive again" she ask all soft and sweet. Fuck! I think she just purposely batted those fucking long ass eyelashes at me.
Is my girl trying take advantage of our mate bond? I wondered. I hate to tell her, but I'm tougher than that, especially when it concerns her safety. But I guess it won't hurt anything to let her have fun for now.
" Sure sweetheart, grab the handlebars."I murmured, and leaned forward stealing a quick kiss on her cheek.
I believe she's let Skyler's bullshit influence her today. I guess a peck on the cheek will do for now, as payment for getting her way. But when she gets eighteen, the price is going to skyrocket.
There's going to be plenty of passionate sleepless nights, as restitution for my long awaited pleasure and anything else she tries to sweet talk me into.
I going to start today, keeping a tally evey time she bats those long fucking eyelashes or utters something in that sweet little voice that's ment to sway my decision. Now you can take that to the bank, you just wait and see.
"Ahh!" I screamed like a little girl,We're flying through the air and it looks like it's going to be a hard landing. I'm grabbing for anything I can to hold on to. I believe her reckless little ass is going to kill both of us before we get back to the pack house.
' Tell Andie you need to turn around and find your balls. You must have lost them somewhere back in the woods,because no one with a pair would scream like that.'Skyler taunted through the mind link.
'Shut the fuck up asshole.'I yelled back in his head . Andie jumped another hill and ,oh fuck! I really need to watch what she's doing instead of bickering with Skyler.
' Now that's no way to be.' Skyler quipped, through the mind link.
' No way to be' I grumbled in his head 'I'm going to die and my fucking beta thinks it's funny . Isn't it your job to protect me.'
' No where in my job discretion does it say I need to protect my Alpha from his Luna. I'm certain that would make me a trader.' He sent back, cackling like the wicked witch of the west.. Fucking asshole!
Oh thank the Moon Goddess, we finally made to the driveway. " Go slow sweetheart, we don't want my mom to complain about us ripping through the yard." I murmured in my girls ear.
"Okay " She grinned all innocent and shit.Like she didn't just try to kill us both.
Skyler pulled into the garage beside us, stuck his hand up in the air, giving my girl a high-five.
" Awesome ride Andie,we'll have to do it again real soon."He smiled at Andie, then turned his head towards me with a cunning ass smirk on his damn face.
"That would be great, I'd love that." Andie squealed excitedly.
" Yeah that would be great, but unfortunately we can't sweetheart. We have all this evidence to process and I forgot to tell you two about the attempted kidnapping this morning."
Andie covered her mouth and gasped in horror.
" Who?" Skyler shouted
" Penny's little three year old girl" I said, instinctively pulling Andie back against my chest and wrapping her in my arms.
" Penny Wilcox, the girl that works here in the pack house?" Skyler almost shouted, his temper rising by the second.
" Yes, Penny Wilcox the girl that works part time in the kitchen." I confirmed
" Are you sure it wasn't her old man?" Skyler grumbled. It seems Skyler might know something about Penny I don't.
" Old Man, like her dad ,Jacob or her husband Milo?" I ask, wanting more information.
Skyler shook his head, " No, her real dad, Charles Tucker, he knocked up Penny's mom when they were in high school. Jacob adopted Penny when he married her mom. Penny wasn't even born yet when Jacob and Felisha recognized each other as mates." Skyler sigh
And continued " Anyway ,Charles got fucking pissed because Felisha left him for her fated mate(aka Jacob) Instead of going on with his life he tries to make Penny, Felisha and Jacob's life missable.
" How do you know all this?" I ask a bit confused. I had no idea Skyler knew so much about Penny I never even seen them talk to each other.
" You know Penny is the same age as me,well when I was about sixteen. I used to hook up with Penny sometimes"
" What? I never seen you even talk to Penny."
Skyler smirked "That's right no ever did but do you remember when her mom used to work here in the pack house? Skyler shrugged "Well when her mom was here working ,I used to go over to their house."