Dead Luna
Chapter 64

Jackson's

POV

"That was a close one," Amelia says, after we've gotten in the car and driven halfway to the main highway that would lead us north towards Washington state. "Great job on that quick thinking, Glen! Your explanation was reasonable, and not exactly a lie, either!" "I've been in politics for a long time," Glen responds modestly, but was obviously happy with Amy's praise. "You get used to equivocation on the spot."

While Glen does the driving, I sync up Amelia's phone to the car, and get her playlist going to her favorite tunes to sing along to. I had been helping her the last few days with developing her playlist during her downtime. And then I get to enjoy listening to Amy as she sings along, loosing herself completely in the music. She has such a wonderful singing voice, and watching as she "dances" along makes my heart happy. Whatever she does, she does with her whole body and soul. It's simply amazing. I feel blessed that I can witness even a part of her life.

I know she is more than a little freaked out about the whole princess thing, and the possibility that she could someday become Queen Luna, but honestly, she would be amazing. I wish she could see herself the way others see her. Not only is she strong and beautiful, but she is sensible and caring as well. She was given the opportunity to help people on behalf of the Moon Goddess, and she has not shirked her duty, even when sometimes the wolves she is helping aren't deserving of her help. And I've witnessed how fair she is on the rare occasion that she's needed to punish someone, like the rogue wolves. I know she didn't enjoy that, but she was still fair. And I've seen how kind she is, often going out of her way to help someone who needs a hand. Yes, I admit it. I love Amy. How could someone not love her? And its a shame that to her I'm like an older brother. If she would even give me half a chance, I would take it. But I know we aren't destined mates, and that once I am given my fated mate, I will be happy. And yet I will always care deeply for Amy.

About an hour and a half into our drive we cross the Columbia River into the state of Washington. Along the way we pass many tall wind turbines, slowly turning from the strong winds that blow through the Columbia River Gorge, as they create power to electrify the Pacific Northwest. They look odd, dotting the landscape, and yet they cover the rolling hills in huge numbers. I'm always amazed at the ingenuity of the humans, trying to harness the earth to do their bidding, rather than live at peace with all of creation. Never being happy with what they have, always desiring more. Not that wolves don't often desire something "more", but they are much more attuned to nature than humans could ever hope to be.

Halfway between the small cities of Goldendale and Toppenish is a rest area along the windy highway, and Amy indicates that she needs to stop for a few minutes. I watch as she gets out, and makes her way into the concrete building. Nothing seems out of place, but after several minutes pass I feel a rather odd sensation. Like a tiny pinch in my neck. I look over at Glen, who doesn't seem concerned.

"Something is wrong! We better check it out." I say, and we quickly get out of the vehicle and head over to the building. We start sniffing around, and follow the scent of Amelia and what could potentially be several other wolves who seem to be scent masked, around the back side of the building and into the woods.

"We better shift," Glen suggests, so once we are out of sight of the building, we disrobe and run off into the woods in search of Amy and whomever had taken her. It doesn't take long to replace them, as the wolves who had taken her couldn't drag her along unconscious in their wolf form.

Glen's wolf Diamond and my wolf Sky are both huge and intimidating, and as soon as the group of 4 wolves saw their pursuers, they dropped Amy, shifted, and all but one moron ran off. Glen tackled and killed that one, while I took off after the one I figured was probably the leader. I caught him easily, and was able to pin him down, my canines ready to rip out his neck at the smallest provocation. He stares at me in terror.

Glen is there within a minute, shifts back into his human form, and begins to question the wolf. I remove my teeth from his neck so he can answer, but continue to growl menacingly at him.

"Why did you take the girl?" Glam nearly screams at him. "Do you know who she is?"

"We were gonna sell her on the black market," he says nervously. "She's obviously got a high blood status, so she'd be worth a lot of money. It was nothing personal."

"What did you knock her out with?" Glen asks menacingly.

"It's a combination of stuff, including wolfsbane." He claims. "She'll wake up in 4 to 5 hours, and be alright in a day or so, I swear!"

I look over at Glen, and he nods. Then I rip out the assholes throat before he even knew what hit him. Then we rush back to Amy.

Glen checks her pulse, and he looks relieved. I see a tiny red spot on her neck, in the exact spot that I had felt the prick earlier in my own neck. That must have been where they injected her with their cocktail of drugs to knock her out. I hadn't felt any fear coming from her, so they must have snuck up from behind her as she was leaving the restroom. The sneaky bastards!

"We better move fast before they come back with reinforcements," I suggest. We pick her up and both of us shove our shoulders under her armpits to drag her along like a drunkard. Which is really not far from the truth. Then we move as quick as we can back to the edge of the tree line where our clothes are stashed. We don't even bother with the niceties, like shoes, underwear and t-shirts. We just throw on our pants, and head for the car as quick as possible. Thank goddess it's another warm day, so we don't look out of place.

As Glen is pulling out of the restroom parking lot, I look back and see several wolves staring at us from around the side of the building.

"Damn, that was way to close for my liking!" I say to Glen as he floors it. I'm in the back seat with Amy, trying to get her unconscious body buckled in properly with my shaking hands. "How far away is the Satus Pass pack?"

"A little more than 20 miles," Glen says. "Why don't you phone ahead and see if they can have medical staff alerted and ready? I'm not sure I trust the information we got from Mr. Rogue."

"Good idea," I agree, and give Alpha Thorn and Luna Candice a call to apprise them of the situation.

Then I ask Glen if I should call her father, the king? He says he will take care of that call just as soon as Amelia has had medical treatment and we know the extent of her potential injuries. There is no point in worrying the Alpha king without knowing the answers to everything he will ask.

I can't believe how close we came to losing Amy! If I hadn't been suspicious of that tiny pain in the neck that I felt, they could have had her shipped off to anywhere in a matter of hours. I shudder to think of would have happened to her, sold on the black market as a s*x slave or for who knows what other nefarious purpose?

The guards at the gate are expecting us, thanks to my call. They give us directions to the medical clinic, and we head there as quick as we can. A team of medical personnel are waiting for us next to a gurney, and we get Amy out of the car and placed gently on the gurney as quick as we can. Then I watch helplessly as she is pushed inside. I can't help but be reminded of the events of just less than two months ago when she was killed by rogues. This time is obviously different, I doubt she is in mortal danger, but she very easily could have been.

I feel guilty for not having gone and waited outside the building for her. I could have easily prevented those assholes from grabbing her in the first place! But at least we killed 2 of them, and maybe I prevented them from grabbing some other female, saving her from a horrible fate.

While I wait for news of Amy, the Alpha is asking questions about the assailants, as he intends to send a team to that rest area and try to rid the area of the criminal elements if they are still there. Glen and I answer to the best of our ability.

Less than an hour later, after they've done what tests they needed to do, I'm allowed to see Amy.

They've somehow managed to get her into a hospital gown, and hooked her up to a bag of IV fluids, as well as machines that check her heartbeat and her blood pressure. Otherwise she looks perfectly fine, and I thank goddess that Glen and I were able to get her out of that situation basically unscathed.