Abandoned Treasure
Different Looks

Nathan Storm’s POV

Arrowhead Pack Lands

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Everything happened so fast. One moment, I was riding along in the passenger seat of the ATV and looking at the gravel path leading towards the main road. Then I heard gunshots, the ATV swerved and rolled, and I was hanging from my seatbelt.

I shook my head clear and looked at the driver. Chris was dead, a single shot to the head. I punched the button to release the belt and rolled off him to the pine needles and gravel of the ditch. Chase and Rori were already down with their pistols drawn. “Chris is dead,” I said.

They didn’t respond, and I could tell they were linking. Gunshots were coming from multiple hostiles farther up the road, both single rifle shots and automatic weapons. No one gave me a gun, so I reached over and unclipped Chris’ AR-15 from his harness. I also grabbed a spare magazine from his vest and stuffed it in my pocket.

Chase was firing a pistol from the back end, so I peeked around the front end. I had to shoot left-handed to stay behind cover, but I’d practiced this before. I could see multiple hostiles, all dressed in camo and body armor. They covered each other as they advanced, so they had training. I took a couple of shots at the nearest men before return fire forced me to take cover.

Shit.

I peeked out again, taking two shots, and they were closer. They were also moving to flank us, and we’d soon lose the cover of the ATV and be sitting ducks. “We need to retreat,” I said. “There’s too many of them.”

“I can’t leave my people behind,” Rori objected.

“You’re the valuable one here. We have to keep you safe.” I looked around, replaceing a shallow ditch heading into the woods. “Chase, you shift and carry Rori out of here. I’ll hold them off.”

The gunfire was getting closer by the second. Chase and Rori looked at each other before Rori nodded. Chase set down his pistol while Alpha Rori holstered hers. Chase shifted, and Rori climbed on his back. “Good luck,” the fiery Alpha said.

“Covering fire.” I leaned around the hot engine, firing rapidly at the hostiles coming into my left. They were closest to the escape route, so I had to suppress their fire. I popped off twenty rounds rapid-fire in their direction. They shot back, hitting the ATV’s fender near my head. I ignored the pain and kept shooting for two more seconds before the action locked back, the magazine empty. I ducked behind the engine again to change magazines as dozens of rounds slammed into the vehicle. I glanced back and saw Rori’s hair flying in the wind as Chase raced towards safety.

Now, it was a dozen soldiers against three or four of us. Bullets kept peppering the ATV’s frame as I took cover behind it. Eventually, they’d shoot through a thin spot or get wide enough to get a clean shot at me. I could hear the others were still in the fight, pistol shots ringing out as they fired back.

That didn’t mean we’d win. I knew I was fucked; I didn’t have the ammo, the position, or the backup to survive. The others only had pistols. My duty was to hold them off until Rori could escape.

Fuck it. I only had to hold them off for another thirty seconds.

You never pop your head out in the same place twice, or you get it shot off. I stood up, firing over the top at the men now standing twenty yards away. I hit one, shifted targets, and ducked back down as they raked my position with fire again.

And then the shooting stopped.

I checked the magazine; I had twenty rounds left in the rifle plus whatever Chase left in the pistol. I moved over to the rear end. Swapping to my normal firing stance, I brought it up, expecting the attackers to be on top of me.

Instead, I saw them running for the road.

I didn’t fire. The last thing I wanted in this situation was for the attackers to turn around and light me up again.

I waited until they were out of sight, wiping blood out of my eyes as I waited. I told Jade over the link that it was over, but I had to protect and tend to the wounded. My mate worried, but she knew enough to let me focus on the situation. “Coming forward,” I yelled out. The adrenaline was flowing, and I didn’t want them shooting me. I stayed low as I ran for the first vehicle.

Scott Sterling was dead, his body still belted in place. Frank was covering them, his pistol in his left hand with the butt pressed down on the hole in his right forearm. Lana was bleeding from her lower left leg, ignoring the pain as she tended to her seriously wounded mate. I knelt next to her as she held her shirt to his chest, just below the right shoulder. Another bullet hit his right bicep. “Keep the pressure on,” I said as I pulled my shirt off. I twisted it, wrapped it around the holes in his arm, then used a stick to tighten the makeshift bandage.

James started to cough, spraying blood everywhere. “Need your shirt,” I said before I ripped Frank’s shirt off. I folded it into a square. I got down next to James again. “Keep pressing while I roll him onto his side and check for an exit wound,” I told her. There was one, so he didn’t have a bullet stuck in his chest. I pressed the bandage in place.

James passed out before the wolves arrived. Frank ordered them to seal the perimeter of what was now a crime scene. Possum and Doc Olson arrived soon after with a stretcher and medical supplies. They went to work on the critical patient. “Grab some alcohol and bandages and patch each other up,” Doc said.

Frank was already walking around like a boss, but Lana wouldn’t leave James’ side. I grabbed the supplies out of the bag. “Let me see this leg,” I ordered Lana.

“It’s nothing,” she said as she moved so I could get to it. She’d taken a fragment in the calf; it was bleeding still, and I could feel the piece under her skin. I rinsed my hands with alcohol, gloved up, then poured some on the wound. “SHIT! That fucking stings!”

“This is going to hurt more,” I said. I used a scalpel to cut through the skin, then a pair of tweezers to pull the jagged piece of copper and lead out. Then, I flushed the wound as best I could before hitting it with alcohol again. Drying it off, I used butterfly strips to hold the jagged wounds together and backed it with a large bandage.

The shrapnel wounds hurt and were still bleeding, so as soon as I finished with Lana? One of the arriving wolves made me sit in the field ambulance so she could clean my face and arm. They weren’t deep enough to need stitches, but I looked like a bandaid factory when she finally finished.

The human ambulance arrived, and I watched as Doc and Possum loaded him up. Doc and Lana went with him, leaving me with Frank and the other Pack wolves. That didn’t last long; Frank was too stubborn to wait for an ambulance, so Possum cleaned and dressed his bullet wound before driving him to the hospital in Two Harbors. The Sheriff’s Deputies took over the scene, and most of our wolves headed to the Pack House.

The area was a crime scene, and I was a primary witness. They put me in a squad car and drove me to the Sheriff’s Office in Two Harbors. I knew enough not to make any statements before consulting with a lawyer, and I used my call to ask Jade to get me one. They stuck me in an interrogation room, and I sat there for hours. I was outside mind-link range with my family, so I had no idea what was happening back at Arrowhead.

Finally, the door opened, and a deputy let a middle-aged man in an expensive suit in. “Thomas Kendall,” he said. “Your wife hired me as your lawyer.”

“Nathan Storm.” The door was closed, and he verified all surveillance was off. This room didn’t have a one-way mirror. “How much do you know?”

“I’ve represented Maria in the past, so I know a thing or two about shifters,” he said. “Assume I don’t, though. Walk me through what happened.” That took an hour. “Here’s how we handle this. We don’t talk about the attack on Arrowhead you participate in. There is no statute of limitations on murder, and I don’t want you incriminating yourself. The others already know not to say anything about it. If asked, you were walking down the area of the previous Pack House with the current Alpha.”

I never expected my actions to face anything but Pack justice, so I was glad the Alphas clamped down. If that video ever made it to the human authorities, I’d spend the rest of my life in jail. “Understood.”

“Outside of that, your actions were in self-defense. The other witness statements will back that up. Stick to the facts, Nathan. Answer the questions honestly, but don’t elaborate. If it is a yes/no question, answer yes or no. If I tap your arm, shut up and talk to me in private.” I nodded. “Ready?”

Thomas stayed with me as we moved to a conference room for my statement. The Lake County Sheriff’s Department wasn’t a big organization, maybe twenty people. Their only investigator was still at the scene, so the Chief Deputy was the local representative. With him were agents from the FBI, DEA, Customs and Border Patrol, and Homeland Security. It took an hour to give my statement and answer their questions.

Thomas asked for the room when they finished. When they were gone, he turned to me. “Nice job.”

“Thanks. Why all the different departments?”

“The attackers were Cartel. That brought in the DEA and Customs. Having a Pacific Cartel hit team operating in northern Minnesota brought in Homeland Security.”

“What did they want?”

“No one knows yet. Probably some connection between Arrowhead and the Sinaloa Cartel.” He handed me his card. “Don’t say anything to anyone outside the Alphas without talking to me first.”

I shook his hand, and he escorted me outside. He turned for his Mercedes SUV, but I recognized the Omega standing by the Ford Explorer. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride,” she told me.

She was friendlier and looked at me differently now, as did the others when I arrived back at the Pack. I’d defended their pregnant Alpha in battle and shed blood for their Pack. That wasn’t what they expected from a rogue with my history.

Lana and my family were waiting outside the safe room as I arrived. The crying girls enveloped me in hugs. Even Mykayla looked shaken by the attack. “I could have lost you,” she sobbed into my arm.

“Never,” I replied.

I told them what happened as I ate a sandwich upstairs in the dining room. A dozen or so Pack members and two Enforcers listened in, but I didn’t care. I’d just finished my story when the Alphas relaxed the security posture, allowing us to return to our RV by the beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach or the pavilion. The mood was somber; everyone felt empty without Chris P. Bacon. Jade put the kids to bed while I drove Mykayla back to the Beta home. Only their housekeeper remained; James made it through surgery but was in intensive care, and Lana wouldn’t leave the hospital without him. “Tomorrow’s a big day,” I said as I tucked my daughter into her bed.

“They won’t cancel it because you got hurt, right?”

“My part isn’t until Monday, and I’m not on anything stronger than Tylenol. You’re the one who is going to suffer all weekend.”

“Yeah. I love you, Daddy.”

I pulled her into a hug. “I love you too, baby.” I kissed her forehead and turned out the light, hiding the tears forming in my eyes.

It wasn’t fair, I thought as I returned to the theater room. High-dose chemotherapy was not going to be fun. At least I could talk to Mykayla over the family link, even while she was in isolation.

I turned on the cable news, which featured the “Cartel Attack on Arrowhead Pack.” They had helicopter footage, interviews with law enforcement, and even a statement from Alpha Rori. I jumped up when I heard something clunk behind the screen. Alpha Rori and Chase appeared from behind the curtain. “We need to talk, Nathan,” Rori said.

“Please, sit. How can I help?” I linked Jade into the conversation.

She told me what the authorities had learned from the ransom card on the dead attacker. “Pretty ballsy to go after you after what you did to Sinaloa,” I concluded.

“A person who can steal billions is worth the chance,” Chase said. “We need to get Vic and Spider Monkey to a safe hiding place and do it without tipping off anyone where she might be.”

“You have her with a Pack?”

She nodded. “Nothing would stop them from trying the same thing with another Alpha. That’s why we need someone outside the Pack structure. Someone with experience in making people disappear and connections the Cartel can’t trace.”

“We need the Oracle,” Chase added.

My mind was going five different ways. “I have to be here for Mykayla.”

“You do, but Jade does not. We’ll take good care of Isra and your children. They love it here, and the whole Pack will keep them safe. I need Jade and her laptop to work her magic.”

Jade didn’t want to leave but recognized they needed our help. She agreed and packed up. Rori would have Jade smuggled off Pack lands and taken to a private airfield within the hour.

No one would tell me where she was going, even her. The fewer people that knew, the better.

I didn’t sleep well that night, worrying about my mate heading off into danger.