Gunner's POV
I was in the middle of training with Ben when I felt my mate trying to connect with me. I told Ben I needed a break and went off to a quieter place so I could hear her. Maddox jumped in before I could even say hi, and then she said she was in the shower. Oh for the love of all things holy. This girl is going to be the death of me. I could feel Maddox prancing around pushing images in my head of our mate in the shower. Thank the goddess that Koa distracted Maddox long enough for my mate and I to talk.
She updated me on how her training had been going and how some guy named Jax had been more or less taking care of her this whole time. Although the thought of another male touching my mate pissed me off, I also owed him for making sure she was safe. I had to calm Maddox down a couple of times at the thought of this guy and we finally agreed that we wouldn't kill him but instead he deserved a thank you. At least until we got her back, because once I'm back around her, there will be no need for him.
My mate also informed me that there were some lycans on her side with this. She said she didn't have exact numbers but would have a better idea in the coming days. This was great news for us because that meant there would be less we would have to kill and more on our side in this fight. After she filled me in on all the details from the past few days and assured me that she was doing fine and that Jax was keeping her well fed, we said good night and broke the link.
I headed back to the training room where I found Ben on his phone. I told him that I had some new information and that we needed to go speak with our dads. I knew they would be back from lunch already and that they should be at the packhouse, so Ben and I both mindlinked our dads to tell them we were heading their way and not to leave. We grabbed our bags and made our way back to the packhouse.
Once we got up to where the Alpha's office was, I knocked on the door before I heard Alpha Nik say to come in. I opened the door and Ben walked around me to sit on the couch while I stood in front of the desk that Alpha Nik was sitting at and my dad was sitting in one of the chairs next to me.
"Alpha sorry to bother you but my mate just gave me some information that I felt I needed to relay asap. I also feel that the other Alpha's involved along with Charlie should be in on this too. Is there any way we can do a phone conference with them?" I asked.
"This must be major if you're wanting to get everyone now." Alpha Nik said as he grabbed his phone. "Derek, can you call Alpha Brock and have him get Charlie on the line also. I will call Alpha Trent and Gunner you have the number for Alpha Isaac?"
I nodded and pulled out my phone and started dialing the number I had for Alpha Isaac, while dad did the same. Once we had everybody on the phones, we put them all on speaker phone and let each of them know.
"Ok Gunner, what's so important?" Alpha Nik asked.
"My mate connected with me and has informed me that some of the King's warriors and regular people of all ranks, all the way down to the servants and maids, are on our side in this fight. She does not know exactly how many just yet but said that she is going to try to figure it out in the coming days. I just wanted to let everyone know at once so I didn't have to repeat myself 5 times." I said all in one breath.
"Well this certainly is a game changer for sure." Alpha Brock said.
"How will be able to differentiate between the people on her side versus the people on his side though?" Alpha Trent asked.
"Exactly what I was thinking also." Alpha Isaac concurred.
"She is working on that. She has to first figure out how many there are. She wants to get some of the lower ranking people with no fight training out of there before the war happens, but at the same time we don't want servants on the King side to get smuggled out with them and be used as spies for the King. As of right now, the King has no idea what's going on. I just know that he does not care for my mate's wolf for some reason, which does concern me." I informed.
"If he went through the trouble of abducting her and everything, I doubt he will try to hurt her in any way. He must know that if he tried to kill her wolf, he will be killing his own daughter in the process." Charlie said.
"Yeah, but he can also pull her canines and that will get rid of her wolf without killing her." I said.
"Depending on how strong she is and how she handles it, it could be a slow, very slow death. She would get weaker each day until she just gave up." Alpha Trent said.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." I said with a low growl at the thought of someone doing that to my mate.
"I meant no disrespect Gunner." Alpha Trent said.
"Ok moving on. With this new information, Charlie, and Alpha Isaac, can we set up a sanctuary for the people Cheyenne is wanting to get out before hand?" Alpha Nik asked while tapping his pen on his desk.
"We do have a place here, but wouldn't that be too obvious since Iceland is close to Scotland?" Alpha Isaac asked.
"We can use Iceland as like a transfer or holding station if you will. Boats will bring them into Iceland, and Isaac you hide them until we can move them out. Greenland is just on the other side of you, and we can also start bringing some of them back to the states." Charlie answered. It was a pretty good idea.
After everyone agreed on this new plan all the calls were ended and my dad looked at me with knowing eyes. I knew he was worried about me losing my mate. He of all people knew exactly what that felt like. I gave him a slight smile and nodded my head to tell him that I was ok.
"Did Cheyenne tell you when she would connect with you again?" Alpha Nik asked as he was scribbling something down on some paper.
"No sir. Before today, it had been a few days since I last heard from her." I said and that's when he handed me the paper that he was scribbling on.
"Ok well, next time she does give her this message. It's just our plan about how to get the people out. We need to know when to start sending the boats. She will need to figure out how she's going to get the people out without the King knowing. Gunner, I know it's a lot to ask of her, do you think she can handle this kind of mission?" Alpha Nik asked and if I didn't know any better, I thought I heard his voice shake just a little bit.
"Sir, she might have grown up as an omega, but as we've learned she is the lycan Princess. She has been training all day every day, and if she isn't doing that, she's at the gym for strength training. The fact that she's still ok and doing good with that, I believe she's more of force to be reckoned with than what we all thought she was." I said proudly.
"Ok. Good enough for me." Alpha Nik put his hands palm down on his desk and stood up, "You just keep us informed and updated with everything she says."
"With all due respect sir, I don't tell you everything." I said looking down at my feet.
"What are you not telling us?" Dad spoke up this time.
"Do you really want to know that she was in the shower when she connected with me, dad?!!!" Ben lost it at this and was holding his gut laughing so hard. Even Alpha Nik had let out a hardy chuckle, while my dad tried to hold his back and just stared at me.
"Point very well taken son." Dad finally said and turned to look at Alpha Nik, "Is there any way we can get a message to her so we're not always waiting for her to connect with Gunner?"
"I've been working on that already. Without her checking in regularly, it's almost impossible to tell if she is or is not in danger. Gunner, please ask her to try to check in with you every night before she goes to sleep. I don't care if it's just her saying 'I'm fine' while yawning. Just something so we know she's ok." Alpha Nik looked at me and I nodded. "Ben if you are done pissing yourself over there, I have a job for you boys to do."
"Really? Pissing myself?" Ben asked as he stood up and walked over to the desk.
We both stood there while Alpha Nik told us that he wanted us to go scope out the Howling Mountain pack. We were no closer in finding Kira than we were when we started. It's like she never existed. Alpha Nik told us to go question her parents and even the Alpha. The Alpha was just more a formality than anything else. It would also give us the chance to ask for permission to freely go about his territory and also see if he would allow us to bring one of our own trackers onto his lands.
************
Ben and I arrived at the front gate to the Howling Mountain pack. We slowly pulled up and a guard walked towards us.
"Good evening. How can I help you?" He asked very politely.
"We are here per our Alpha's request to speak with your Alpha about a missing person." Ben said in his serious Alpha voice.
"Oh yes, Alpha did tell me you would be coming by." The guard said nodding at the both of us while waving to the guard to open the gate. "You boys enjoy the rest of your evening." He said as he waved us threw.
We had to go to the Alpha's office first. It was weird that he didn't know that one of his own pack members were missing for a whole week. That was the first question that I wanted answered. Secondly, why did he not organize a search party or something? Ben and I had talked about divide and conquer to try to hurry this along, but we decided that we better stick together on this one. Rule 39 like dad said. Nothing was adding up and we needed to get to the bottom of this, and fast.
We pulled up out front of the pack house. It was smaller than ours but then again, his pack was smaller than ours. This pack wasn't known for its modesty to say the least. Half the time I didn't know how they could even stay afloat. They were not money savvy at all. As we were getting out of the blacked-out SUV, someone had opened the front door of the pack house and was standing on the front porch with his arms crossed over his chest. This boy looked to be no more than maybe 16 years old. His tough guy act caused me to chuckle which I had to cover up with a cough.
"Are you the guys from Blood Moon?" He asked us.
"Yes we are. Where's the Alpha?" Ben asked seriously.
"What are you guys doing here?" The kid had taken a couple steps towards us still putting on this tough guy act.
"Listen boy," Ben growled and you could feel his Alpha aura seeping out, "I do not answer to you. I am here to see the Alpha and that's all you need to know. So either get to stepping and get out of our way or I'll…"
"COLLIN! What are you doing?!" A lady came rushing from inside the packhouse. "I am so sorry about that! He just doesn't know when to keep his trap shut!" She growled while looking back at the boy, who was now cowering behind this lady.
"My name is Ben, the son of Alpha Nik from Blood Moon. This is Gunner, son of Beta Derek from Blood Moon. We are here to see your Alpha about a missing person." Ben informed.
The lady offered her hand out for a handshake, which we both obliged. "My name is Mary. Luna here at Howling Mountain. Please, come inside. I will take you to Leo." She softly smiled and turned to walk back inside while grabbing the boy's arm and yanking him along with her. She led us down a couple different halls before stopping in front of a set of French doors with a name plaque that read "Alpha Leo's Office". She knocked twice and then slowly opened the door and popped her head in.
"Excuse me darling but Ben and Gunner from Blood Moon are here to see you." She said.
"Great send them in!" He sounded relieved which made me wonder what the hell was going on.
We walked in and gave the Luna a slight smile and nod as we passed her. She closed the door behind us and we heard her walk down the hall. It wasn't until we couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, Alpha Leo let out a huge breath and put his head in his hands.
"Are you ok sir?" I asked.
"Yeah. Just been crazy around here and being the Alpha, everybody is looking to you for answers. Ones that I don't have to give my people."
"Well maybe we can help with some of that. We're here about Kira Moonstone." Ben said as he grabbed a chair and sat. I followed suit.
"That's what started it all. If we can figure that out then maybe the rest will go away. I will help in any way that I can and would appreciate any help you can give also." Alpha Leo sounded a little relieved.
"First off, how did you not know that a member of your pack was missing for a whole week?" I asked.
"She had requested to go off in search of her mate. Who am I to deny a girl of finding her mate? I told her to check in with me a week after she left and that we would go from there, you know if she needed more time or whatnot." Alpha Leo stated.
"Makes sense. So when she didn't check in, that's when you started calling around in search for her?" Ben asked.
"Correct. I called all the surrounding packs. Wolf Claw was the first I called because her parents told me that she had been spending a lot of time there a few months before her disappearance."
"That would be because my mate was her best friend. My mate's older brother did confirm that she had been there frequently and even spent the night there a few different times. Once you discovered she was missing, did you send out a tracker or anything to search for her?" I asked.
"Of course I did. The tracker lost her scent on her parents' front porch!" Alpha Leo explained.
"What? How…" Ben and I looked at each other confused.
"I don't know how. Her own parents couldn't even scent her out past that either. I had the best in the country come out here and they couldn't find her either. She literally just…vanished." Alpha Leo said sounding defeated.
"Ok so here's what we do know. Kira was best friends with my mate, Cheyenne. We also know that the college dropped her a week before my mate's abduction. Cheyenne was abducted by the King of Lycans." Alpha Leo's mouth dropped to the floor. "Kira disappeared the day after my mate's abduction. We have a location for my mate. We are putting together a rescue plan before infiltrating. My father raised me that there are no such things as coincidences. So, I'm willing to bet my wolf that Kira is involved in this somehow, either as a victim or an accomplice. Obviously if she's a victim in this, as in maybe the King is holding her and had planned to use her against my mate to get my mate to comply, she will be rescued. So question now is, if we find out that Kira is on the wrong side of all of this, what are your orders?" I explained in as few details as I could.
"Obviously, like you said, if she is involved in that and is a victim, please bring her home safely. If she is on the wrong side and aided in your mate's abduction, silver with wolfbane shackles and bring her back to me alive. No food or water for 2 days at a time." I could see his anger rising at the thought of the worst-case scenario.
"Well I guess with that new info there is no need to go talk to her parents or even try to track her now. Sounds like you already have tried all of that." Ben said.
"Here is the file I have on her. Everything is recorded in there." Alpha Leo handed Ben a file folder about a half inch thick with everything he had on Kira and her disappearance.
"Alpha Leo, there is something else and you stating that the trackers lost her at her own front porch just makes me wonder about it. The King has witches working for him. They probably masked her scent so she couldn't be tracked. Please inform her parents of this and see if anything weird has happened lately, and if not to be on the lookout. I don't think they would come after her parents, but just as a precaution at this point." I stated while looking at the file with Ben.
"This just keeps getting better and better." Alpha Leo groaned.
We said goodbye and headed back to the SUV. Ben and I decided to wait until morning to relay this information to our dads. We had talked about different scenarios and the ways this could all play out on our way back to Blood Moon territory. Once we were back on our land, I asked Ben to drop me off at home so I could grab some food and a shower. It had been a long day and I was tired.
Dad was sitting in his recliner in the living room watching some new show with Queen Latifah as the main star. Mom used to get so jealous over her, she swore dad would leave her for Queen Latifah if he ever had the chance and then dad would flip it around on mom that she would leave him for Chris Hemsworth if she ever had the chance. The memory made me chuckle as I walked into the kitchen. I made me a heaping plate of leftovers and went into the living room with dad. He asked how our trip went and I filled him in on the details.
"Sounds like you guys made the right decision. I think it would have been a waste of time to question the parents at that point also. Have you told Nik this yet?"
"No. Ben and I talked about it, but figured it was getting late and I honestly just wanted food and a shower dad. I only told you now because you're here and I'm eating."
Dad started laughing, "Roger that son." And he went back to watching his show.
I finished my food and told my dad goodnight and then headed upstairs to take a shower.
"Mmmmm Shower…" Maddox was purring in my head.
"What the hell?" I asked him.
Just then he started pushing images into my head of our mate in the shower.
"Would you stop it! You are such a horn dog. Do you have any respect?" I scoffed.
"Oh come on!" He pouted. He was like a child sometimes I swear.
I got in the shower and was thinking about my mate. Thinking about having her in my arms finally. Smelling apples and cinnamon for the rest of my life. I shook my head to rid myself of the thoughts and shut the shower off. I grabbed a towel and dried off and headed back to my room. I closed my door behind me and put on a pair of shorts and walked over to my bed. Just as I was about to flop down something caught my eye.
"DAD!" I hollered out while I stood there just staring at it. I could hear my dad come running up the stairs and into my room.
"What's wrong!?" He asked.
"Has anyone been here today?" I said pointing to my bed.
"No, nobody. How the…" Dad stopped when he noticed what I was pointing at. "I'm getting Nik and forensics here now!"
"Wait dad. Forensics? Why them?" I asked.
"What if it's some sort of trap and there's poison involved? I'd rather be safe than sorry son. Do not touch it!" He ordered.
Any hope of sleep just went out the damn door. Great! It's going to be a long ass night!