Escaping Wildfire
Chapter 26: Brown Claw

Gema

I went out into the living as Larkin continued to sit with Rory as she slept. I had lost track of time with everything that happened, but I realized I was starting to get hungry.

I heard a knock at the door, and I wondered who it could be before opening the door.

“Jade! Is everything okay?” I let her inside and locked the door before joining her on the couch.

“It’s Jasmine.” Jade looked like she had already been crying, but she let more tears fall as she spoke. “She’s refusing to eat now…it’s been two days, and I don’t know what to do anymore. The only time she leaves the room is for mandatory training, but even at training she’s more of a zombie than anything…and the panic attacks have been getting worse. She needs help, Gema. I’m really scared for her.”

I embraced Jade as she continued to cry. Larkin must have heard us as he came out of the room. He looked at me as if to ask if she was okay, and I shook my head to indicate that she wasn’t.

“I’m sorry.” Jade was startled as she realized Larkin was here. “I didn’t know you were here, I’ll go now.” She rushed up to leave, scared of Larkin, but I held onto her hand.

“Wait, Jade. You don’t have to worry, he’s on our side.” I gently pulled her back down to sit, and her eyes widened at what I said. “What?”

“He’s not like his father, he’s helping us.” I looked over at Larkin to make sure what I was saying was okay with him.

“I want to help you get back to your brother.” Larkin did me one better by speaking up for himself.

“You do?” Jade looked up at him before turning back to me, “You trust him?”

“Yes, he helped me call the boys. They know we aren’t hurt and are working with Harvest Moon on a plan to get us out.”

“You talked to Jordan? How is he? Can I talk to him?” For a brief moment, her eyes lit up.

“Yes, he’s good but misses you and Jasmine. I talked to my brother earlier today, but we won’t be able to call again today.”

She looked down at her hands disappointed but nodded anyway. “Can they help Jasmine? I can handle it here a little longer, but Jasmine needs help.” She looked back up at me with pleading, watery eyes.

I didn’t have any answers for her, but I wanted to help. I wanted to wave a magic wand around and make it all better for her.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I wasn’t expecting anyone to say anything else, but Larkin spoke up, “I have an idea.”

Noah

Gema’s friend, Nora, had arrived early this morning and was given one of the rooms on our floor to rest and recuperate. The doctor had been sent to examine her, and Alpha said she had been underweight and malnourished. It sounded like Gema was right about Alpha Marek’s treatment of her, so while I wished it was Gema we got out, I was glad to have been able to at least help her friend.

We went to training in the morning as usual, and then Alpha wanted the three of us to meet him in his office after lunch.

“Come on in guys, Isaiah and I were just finishing up a phone call with our sister.”

I didn’t miss how Jordan’s eyes shifted for a second as Neo came out at the mention of his mate. I knew he was still hurting over her, even if the pain of losing his parents superseded the pain he felt over his mate.

“Ellis is making sure Nora is taken care of, but we put her on the same floor as you guys hoping it would make her feel safe. Maybe you guys can work on making her feel welcome once she is up and about.” We nodded in agreement. I wanted to help her, but I also wanted to ask her all about how Gema was really doing.

“I did have something else I wanted to talk to you guys about.” Alpha continued with the real reason he called us here. “As you know, Alpha Tate and I are good friends. He’s been instructed by the Council and other bear Alphas to stay out of Wildfire business…but he’s never been good about following orders.”

“Does that mean he’s going to help us?” Jordan looked at Alpha to confirm.

“He hasn’t said that outright, but he’d like to meet with you boys…on his territory.”

“At Brown Claw? You want us to go down there?” I was certain my eyes lit up at the chance to head back to Texas. Brown Claw wasn’t quite home, but it was as close as we could get right now. Cosmo perked up at the thought of being back near Cobalt Falls. “When can we visit?”

“You’ll head out tomorrow. I can’t leave the pack right now, but Isaiah will drive out with you and serve as our pack representative. I consider you guys fully Harvest Moon right now, but I want you to make the right decisions for Cobalt Falls when you meet with Alpha Tate.”

“Yes, Alpha.” We all agreed to be ready to head out in the morning as the drive would take all day.

None of us had ever been on bear territory, so we were unsure of what to expect. I felt hopeful though, Alpha Kedrick was coming through as he promised, and for once, I didn’t feel the usual despair I did at the thought of Gema and Cobalt Falls.

As we reached our rooms, we saw the door next to my room click open, and a tall, slender girl with light brown hair and green eyes stepped out. She froze as she saw the three of us.

“You must be Nora.” I held out my hand for her to shake. “I’m Noah, and this is Jordan and Cristian. We all shook her hand in turn. She looked like she was about to cry. “You’re Gema’s brother?” She nodded towards Cristian. “You have the same eyes…” She looked towards me, seemingly not knowing what to say. “and you’re her…the twins’ brother.” It looked like she decided to change her mind about what to say at the last minute. “So, you must be Jasmine and Jade’s brother.”

“How are they?” Jordan blurted out the question on all our minds.

“They’re sad..” she tilted her head thoughtfully. “I didn’t really get to know your sisters well as they mostly kept to themselves, but the twins seemed to adjust well once they were allowed to start training.”

“Training?” I asked.

“Yes, Alpha Marek made training mandatory for all of your siblings. Gema has even been helping teach the pup’s training group.”

“She has?” Nora nodded and pride swelled up in me for Gema. As the Gamma couple, my parents had always led the training together, and my whole life I had imagined myself with my mate doing the same. Picturing Gema leading the pups made me yearn for that life with her.

We offered to give Nora a tour of the pack, which she accepted, and invited her to dinner with us afterward. She was polite and readily answered all of our questions about our family but was also quite shy. Once we finished eating, the three of us headed back upstairs to pack for our trip tomorrow.

As directed, we headed out early and had a pretty uneventful ride. Gamma Isaiah was a good guy. I had gotten to shadow him during our training and learned a lot from just watching him interact with his pack and warriors. He hadn’t found his mate yet, and he had shared with me that he was planning to go on a mate-replaceing trip after our training, but now his trip was put on hold indefinitely due to our predicament with Wildfire.

Once we hit the Texas state line, Cosmo and I felt more at ease. The air here was different, and I had missed the feeling of being home. We got to Brown Claw a few hours later and were greeted at the entrance by Alpha Tate himself. He led us to their main house where we would be staying the night.

“You guys got here just in time for dinner. We’re a smaller clan, so we usually all have dinner in the main hall together. We can head to my office and talk after eating.”

We all nodded and were led to a table with a few others. “Here, let me introduce you to my mate and son, Sydney and Tristan.” We greeted everyone and were directed to sit down as plates were brought out for us. Our parents had always told us to keep a safe distance from the bears as they liked to keep to themselves, so it was strange getting such a polite greeting from everyone.

Gamma Isaiah had seemed a bit uncomfortable since we arrived. He was usually the picture of a calm and collected wolf, but he was slightly fidgety and his heart rate was a bit faster than usual. As for dinner itself, the bears had made delicious food and had given us more than enough of our fill. I thought wolves ate a lot, but these bears could put us to shame. We finished dinner, and the Alpha led the four of us to his office.

“I don’t think I thanked the four of you for coming yet but thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I’ve been trying to keep an eye on Cobalt Falls since you guys called me about the attack, but things seem to be running the same as always. I’ll be honest, I never paid much attention to you guys before this, so I’m not sure I would notice any changes.” We nodded our heads in understanding but didn’t say anything as we were still waiting to hear what Alpha Tate had to say.

“I’ve been thinking about this for the last few weeks, and the Council’s decision doesn’t sit right with me. Wildfire has been allowed to do as they please for too long, so I want to help. I want to pledge my pack to help Cobalt Falls and Harvest Moon defeat Wildfire.”

“What about your seat on the Council and the Council itself?” Gamma Isaiah asked.

“My seat?” Alpha Tate chuckled humorlessly. “I was playing nice with the other Council Alphas as I didn’t want to rock the boat too much before I officially took over the third bear seat, but Alpha Keenan informed me just this week that he has decided to extend his time as Alpha. He told me his son isn’t ready to take over, but the reality is that Alpha Keenan isn’t ready to let go of his power as both Alpha and a member of the Council. One good thing, though, is that him doing this frees me up to do as I wish, and I want to help with the takedown of Wildfire.”

“Thank you, Alpha Tate, we appreciate all the help we can get.” Jordan, ever the diplomat, spoke up for us. “You mentioned that you’ve still been watching over Cobalt Falls. Would it be possible for us to go over and see how our pack is doing?”

“We’ve mostly been doing virtual surveillance. We set up some nearby cameras, in inconspicuous places, and I’ve had my tech guys checking on them. I’ve gotta say, once you guys get your pack back, you have to step up your tech game. It was too easy to get these cameras set up on your lands.”

“That was the plan once we finished our training with Alpha Kedrick…” Cristian paused for a second, “but we never made it back home.”

Alpha Tate was silent, understanding exactly what Cristian meant. “I’m truly sorry about your pack guys, but tomorrow, we can look at the surveillance we’ve set up. In another hour or so, once it’s dark, and if you guys aren’t too tired, I can take you to some of the places where we scout in person.”

“Yes! That would be great, we’re not too tired.” Jordan said a little too enthusiastically before looking at me and Cristian for confirmation. We both nodded and agreed that we wanted to go tonight. Even Gamma Isaiah agreed that he had enough energy left to go with us. So, we waited for the sun to go down as we explained to Alpha Tate everything we had already planned with the cats and how we had helped Nora escape.

Once the sun went down, Alpha Tate led us out to a spot near the shared border of Cobalt Falls and Brown Claw. I thought we would just look over the border to see if we could replace anything, but Alpha Tate continued to lead us into the border and to a spot where we could see the packhouse while hidden by the trees. He was brave for crossing into wolf territory, but at the same time, I was surprised that he could so easily get this far into our territory. We really did need to step up our security. There were no wolves even patrolling the area.

A few people were heading in and out of the packhouse. I recognized most of the people, and it looked like a few of them were arriving home from being out training. Luckily, we were downwind and no one could smell us as we watched. Our previously thriving pack seemed the complete opposite of what it used to be. Now, hardly any lights were on inside the packhouse, and people looked too somber for my liking.

The five of us looked on silently, and I noticed Gamma Isaiah was still quite agitated. Before I could register what was happening, his wolf let out a low growl as a group of wolves walked up to the packhouse. It was some of the female warriors, and they looked like they were part of the group that had been out training.

“I’m sorry, Gamma Isaiah,” Alpha Tate patted his back, seeming to understand what was happening before the rest of us realized it. “Which one is she?”

“The taller one, with the curly hair.” He clenched his jaw, staring at the woman he was referring to.”

“Your mate?” I suddenly realized what they were talking about and asked to confirm my thoughts. Gamma Isaiah just nodded as he continued to watch the woman he couldn’t yet meet as she disappeared into the packhouse. We stayed quiet, and I could tell Gamma Isaiah was fighting with his wolf to not rush into the pack house and claim his mate. The Gamma knew he couldn’t give us away, though. We headed home after that, more determined than ever to get our home back from Wildfire.