227 I Got This
Ashleigh left Clara’s office with a smile.
It was beginning to feel like a real possibility that they would find the answers to why Cain had been killed. Once she had proof, it would be enough to go after Tomas without fear of the other packs rising up against them.
Finally, she would be able to be honest with Caleb, and they could move forward in their life together.
She pulled out her phone.
“Who is this?” Bell answered dramatically. “The number looks slightly familiar, but it’s been sooo long I can’t be sure.”
“Oh, shut up,” Ashleigh laughed.
“Well, whoever you are, you sure are rude,” Bell sighed.
“Okay, I don’t call, I don’t write, I’m the worst,” Ashleigh smiled. “I’m sorry.”
“You should be,” Bell pouted. “I only hear about you from Galen, and he never has the real answers. I mean, he has no clue if you have been doing your kegel exercises or done any strengthening of your pelvic floor.”
Ashleigh stopped in her tracks.
“I’m sorry, what??”
Bell burst into laughter.
“Sorry, it’s just so fun to mess with him.”
“Did you really ask him those things?” Ashleigh laughed.
“Yes!” Bell laughed.
“You’re the worst,” Ashleigh said.
“I really am,” Bell giggled. “But somehow, none of you have ditched me yet, so I guess I’m not all bad.”
“Definitely not,” Ashleigh smiled.
Bell began to describe another prank she had pulled on Galen, but Ashleigh had become distracted.
Someone was leaving the science building, but they didn’t look familiar. Or rather, they did look familiar, but not from Summer.
“Alice…?” Ashleigh whispered.
“What?” Bell asked.
“Bell… I gotta go… I think I just saw Alice….” Ashleigh said, watching the figure turn a corner.
“In Summer?” Bell questioned.
“Yea… I gotta go. I’ll call you back!”
Ashleigh hung up the phone and ran after them.
***
They couldn’t fight all the wolves gathered at the gate. The wolves of Eclipsed were skilled and ruthless. Every time one lunged or attacked, it was brutal and unyielding.
Jonas had thrown himself into three that charged at him. He managed to take one down while the other two hit, bit and tried to stab him in the process, hitting each other.
Caleb and Axel had moved together as they were charged by the remaining wolves. Receiving several injuries in the flurry of the attack.
The wolves of Eclipsed had attacked together, but that was where their cohesion ended. They were frenzied, thrashing wildly. Not caring if the enemy or each other was bitten, scratched, or pulled apart.
The three alphas were able to slip away in the confusion.
Blocked from the gate, they managed to move back inside the village. Moving away from the fires, they found what was the armory. The weapons had already been destroyed or ransacked. But the storage room of the building provided much-needed shelter from the attacking wolves.
“What the hell happened here?!” Caleb shouted as they used the furniture in the room to barricade the door. “You said those are the Eclipsed wolves?”
“Some of them,” Axel said. “This pack has two hundred wolves… we’ve maybe seen twenty.”
Jonas was pacing and growling.
“These Eclipsed folks ain’t right. They’ve always been real aggressive. It’s their style. But they don’t hurt each other. Something happened to those wolves out there.”
“Alpha Jonas?” a soft voice came from behind a stack of boxes in the corner of the room.
Jonas stood up straight, looking to the corner. Axel and Caleb each moved to defend themselves.
“Alpha Jonas… is that you?” the voice asked again.
“I’m sorry, sugar, but I ain’t movin’ into the dark corner of the room when I just been attacked by people I called friends just yesterday. So, if you want to confirm me, you better come out yourself,” Jonas replied to the voice.
“Ok, I’m coming out, please don’t attack me…” the voice replied.
The boxes moved enough to allow a young girl to crawl from under them. She was no more than fifteen years old. She was on the shorter end, her hair pulled back into a messy bun of dark hair. She wore jeans and a t-shirt but was missing shoes. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Black smudges were on her face, and a look of fear and relief mashed together as she saw Jonas.
“It is you!” she cried, tears falling from her eyes as she ran forward and threw her arms around him.
Jonas held the girl. He looked down at her, pulling her chin to look up at him.
“Amy?” he asked.
She nodded.
Jonas let out a deep sigh and hugged her tight.
“What happened to you, girl? Where is your daddy?”
Amy let out a thick sob.
“He’s gone,” she said through tears. “He sent me to the communications tower… he held them back so I could send you the message… they set fire to it while I was inside.”
“Oh… Darlin’…” Jonas whispered, holding her close and petting her hair.
“I got out one of the windows… climbed down to the ground… But, I was too late… they… they had already torn him apart.”
“Who did this?!” Jonas growled as he held the girl.
The sound of movement outside the door made it clear that the wolved had found them. Axel and Caleb took up positions near the door.
“This won’t hold them back for long,” Caleb said.
“Is there any other way out of this room?” Axel asked, looking at Amy.
She lifted her head and looked at Axel. He gave her a reassuring smile.
Amy nodded. Pulling away from Jonas, she pointed to a shelf of cleaning supplies.
“I was too scared to go alone…” she admitted. “It leads into the workshop next door. But I don’t know if they set fire to that building or not.”
“There were no fires on this side of the village,” Caleb said.
“Let’s go,” Jonas said, grabbing Amy’s hand.
Axel pushed the shelf out of the way and found a doorway hidden behind it.
Caleb went first. He positioned his weapons in front of him, preparing for any surprises they might find. Jonas and Amy followed. Axel pulled up the rear, trying to drag the shelf back enough to cover the door.
The walk through the secret tunnel wasn’t long, and luckily there were no surprises. They made their way into the building next door. The private entrance was in a similar storeroom, except it was apparent the attackers had made it inside.
Jonas turned Amy into his chest so she wouldn’t need to see the bodies. But there was nothing he could do about how their blood had permeated the air.
She sobbed into his chest and followed as he led her to the door.
Caleb again took the lead. As they reached the front of the workshop, he raised his hand to stop them from going further.
The front door was still closed, but the window beside it had been smashed. This was how the attackers had entered and exited the building.
Caleb leaned forward to peek outside while the others stayed back.
Just outside, he saw three men. They were wandering around. One talked to himself, and another looked in every direction as though he expected an attack. The third watched the other two closely.
Caleb bent down and picked up a screw lying on the ground. He tossed it between the paranoid man and the one that paced. They turned and looked at each other, each snarling. It didn’t take long before they had leaped for each other.
The third man joined in, and soon they had taken themselves out of the equation.
“There is a cave about a mile from the village. If anyone survived, they’d go there,” Amy whispered.
Caleb nodded.
He led the others slowly across the village. The wolves that had been following them before seemed to still be trying to gain access to the storage room.
He could see the gate up ahead; it wasn’t far now.
A low growl from behind them caught his attention. They turned to see a large grey and black wolf. Another low snarl to the left, and then one to the right. Wolves were coming out of the corners. There were six of them now.
The three alphas prepared for combat, placing Amy between them. They each shielded her with their backs.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Axel sighed.
“When is anything ever easy?” Caleb asked.
A howl in the distance drew the attention of all. Several more echoed the first. A chorus of the howls of at least twenty wolves.
Jonas smiled. He lifted his chin to the air and let out a loud howl in reply.
The six wolves that surrounded them quickly focused back on Jonas. He readied his blades.
“Keep her safe, boys,” he said. “I got this.”