Call of the Wild (21 page)

The little ones would have to be carried. He also figured there would be a certain amount of injuries during their travels. As they grew tired, they would trip and stumble. Sprained ankles and scraped knees were likely. Waving over the other chaperone, another female from Kylie’s pack, he asked her to see if any of the children needed first aid now. That done, he went back to his map and wished he knew what was happening back in Marlinton and the other shifter towns.

Pretty soon after they finished eating, the littler kids curled up in various spots to nap. Some of the older and braver children made their way over to where Aaron sat on his rock.

“Whatcha doin’?” asked a little girl about twelve.

Aaron looked up at the girl. She had brown hair and brown eyes. There was some dirt smudged on her face and her clothes were also a little worse for wear. She was adorable and the only thing he could think was he wanted one of these. How soon could he get Marsha pregnant? Was she pregnant already? She said she hadn’t gone into heat yet.

“Don’t bother him,” said a boy when Aaron didn’t answer. When the girl turned to walk away, a small frown on her face, Aaron reached out.

“Sorry, I was thinking,” he said bringing her back to his side. That was all the encouragement the other children needed to gather around. Soon he was surrounded two deep on all sides. “I have some maps of the area and I’m working on the very best way for us to go through the forest so you’ll all be safe.”

What he learned was that these children had been running around in this forest all their lives. They were able to give him information he didn’t already have. Like where a big tree had fallen over a gully. It was easily crossable and would save time. There were a few other short cuts the children knew about. He noted them all down and adjusted his plans. Thanking them all he ordered them to rest while he went back to checking his watch every ten minutes. Marsha had been gone too long to suit him. He knew he was being irrational and he didn’t care. Didn’t the damn woman know he couldn’t live without her?

Without the children along, the trip back the way they’d come went a lot faster. Kylie led the way to the path the next group of children should be taking. For the first fifteen minutes or so, none of them spoke. They were moving as fast as they could, trying to make up time now. Traveling back with the children the going would be much slower.

As they approached the highway, they slowed down. They didn’t want to be seen by any drivers—people who might remember seeing them and mentioning it to others. Ben approached to see if the way was clear. If anyone did happen to spot him, they were less likely to think anything odd about a man in the woods. It was discriminatory, sure, but Marsha knew it was the way of the world.

Marsha turned to Kylie and spoke in a quiet voice. “How far from the highway are they located?” she asked.

“It’s less than half a mile from here; just far enough in so if someone were to pull over and wander into the woods to pee, they wouldn’t be seen. They knew I’d come back to lead them across,” said Kylie.

“Are your children with this group? I noticed they weren’t with the last one.”

None of the children had acted proprietarily toward Kylie when she had been in Aaron’s arms. If her pups had seen that display, they would have said something.

“They’re split between this one and the last one. My eldest is helping with the middle group, along with my second. My mother-in-law has my two youngest in the last group. I know she won’t let anything happen to them. And since she’s married to our alpha, she’s setting an example by bringing up the rear.”

“Just the way you are. Aaron told us what happened when he was a kid. I’m sorry about your family. My family was killed too, though I was older than you were when it happened,” Marsha confided.

“Too many of our people are hunted and killed. I pray the changeling helps us become safer. I don’t want to worry about my children. They infiltrated our town over the years. They have all of our names. Even if we move, where would we be safe?”

Marsha reached over and gave her a hug.

“Laura is the bomb. Now that she’s mated to the National Alpha, we’re going to start seeing some big changes. The bad guys have been winning this war for too long. We’re going to be turning the tide on their asses. Now, I’ve wanted to ask you something that I can’t ask any of the guys.”

Kylie looked at Marsha and nodded, her eyebrows raised, her eyes questioning. Her expression was giving Marsha permission to go ahead and speak.

“Do these pants make my ass look fat?” Marsha’s eyes were guileless and full of mischief.

Kylie’s eyes went wide and she had to cover her mouth with her hands to keep her laughter quiet. Tears averted, they started smiling and whispering secrets to each other like little girls. That’s how Ben found them when he came back.

The three of them crossed the highway quickly and made their way through the woods to where the second group of children waited. None of them saw the man perched in a hunting blind near the top of one of the tallest trees.

He was at least half a mile away, keeping watch with a pair of binoculars. He’d been there since dawn. He was the worst kind of fanatic. He had watched the woman and another adult lead a group of children across the highway. Now she was back with two different adults and no children. When he saw them head back across the highway he knew what they were doing, he picked up his radio.

The highway went along in a stretched out horseshoe shape. Within the horseshoe, there were two of the three shifter towns being targeted. The Society was suspicious when so many groups of Scouts and other gatherings of children made plans to be away from town at the same time. They moved up their timetable. Originally, they were going to attack on Thursday; now it would be Wednesday, today. As soon as all of the children cleared the woods, a convoy of members would drive along the highway and stop at pre-arranged locations.

They had prepared balls of barbed wire that held kindling soaked with gasoline. At the same synchronized time, they would light the balls and kick them off the highway and into the woods for a fast spreading fire with no gaps for their prey to wiggle through. The convoy would then split up. They would block off the highway at either end of the horseshoe by dropping trees across the road. They had blocked off all of the adjacent smaller fire roads already, there was going to be no way out. Other trees along the way would also be taken down to help the fire jump the road cutting off all escape.

The price of having a few Shayatin wizards help them in their attack would be the children. The wizards wanted the children and they wanted all shifters dead; it was a trade-off. Still, it was likely the wizards would kill the kids after they drained them of all their magic.

While the man in the tree was contemplating his future murders, Marsha, Kylie, and Ben were meeting with Kylie’s mother-in-law, who was the female alpha of her pack.

“Mom, you’re here early, thank the Goddess. Marsha’s mate says we don’t have much time,” Kylie asked.

“I’m really worried; our enemies seem a lot better organized than we thought. Is it just the three of you?” she asked Marsha.

“No, Alpha, my mate and the rest of our team are in the woods on the other side of the highway. It’s looking more and more like a trap. The Society has something planned for the children. We’re being herded in one direction. Also, when we entered the forest, the ranger checking us in was Shayatin. He had the stink of dark magic. All of this has been reported, and I know we’re on alert. Still, it would be nice to know what the bad guys are planning to do now,” said Marsha.

As if in answer to her question, an owl hooted nearby. Looking over at the edge of the small clearing they were standing in, she saw two great horned owls perched on a low branch. This was unusual, because owls usually liked to be higher up where they had greater scope of sight. The great horned owl had the largest eyes and sharpest vision over distance of all the birds of prey.

She wasn’t left wondering long, as one of the two owls shifted into a naked man. Marsha was really surprised. Owl shifters were one of the rarest breeds, and they tended not to mix with other shifter groups. They preferred to live in the wilder places and deeper forests, often living completely off the grid. They were living green before it became popular. In fact, they made their money by consulting on green living.

Marsha stepped closer so they could speak. She made an effort to keep her gaze above his shoulders. It was difficult. His dangly bits were…dangling…practically over her head.

“Good day, sir. Do you have information for me?” she asked him.

“There are watchers in the trees. They’ve been there since dawn. We believe they’ve changed their plans. Alpha Marasov spoke with our Parliament and requested aid. We’ve been here keeping an eye on things for nearly a week. I wanted to let you know to gather all of your children, then wait for my mate’s signal to come out from cover to cross the highway. We have some influence with the full owls and these woods are bursting with them. We are planning a surprise for those who would invade and destroy their nests,” he explained.

“All I can say is that your timing is perfect. We’ll wait for the signal as we begin gathering the children. Thank you,” said Marsha.

“Yes, you have my thanks too,” said the Wolf Alpha.

Marsha made a mental note to find out her name. Kylie had just called her mom. She didn’t know what those birds were going to do, she only hoped it was effective.

“If everything goes well, you’ll have some unexpected help,” the man added, before he dove off the branch. He shifted mid-leap, beating his wings to regain altitude, his mate following behind him.

“Okay, I don’t know how much time we have. Let’s get organized. How many children are here?” Marsha asked the Alpha.

“We have three hundred and twelve children ranging in age from infants to high school. I was able to get the older ones to come along on the pretext of helping us protect the younger ones. Only it’s no longer a pretext, we’ll need everyone’s help if we’re going to pull this off,” said the Alpha.

“How long have you been traveling with this large a group?” Marsha asked.

“It’s been a day and a night. We’ve got the logistics pretty well nailed down. If we give the planned path to the twenty or so of us leading and carrying the younger ones, we’ll be able to move quickly.”

“Thank you, Alpha. I’m Marsha Brady. My mate and I are heading the team to get the children to safety. We split our original team when we discovered brush piles wired with explosives. By the time we rejoin the others, we hope to have half of them disarmed. This will give us options for avoiding the corridor you’ve all been forced into so far.”

“My name is Joan Hendricks. It’s nice to meet you, Marsha. I only wish it were under better conditions. While I’m all in agreement for ruining the plans of these murderers, I’m worried that if they discover we’ve moved, they’ll pursue us. I have volunteers willing to act as decoys.”

“Don’t you worry everyone will make it out safely. We’ll be in better conditions soon. I’ll even buy you a beer.”

“Make it a whiskey and you’ve got a deal. Now, do you have a map showing where we need to be?”

Marsha pulled her map out of her backpack. She showed Joan the path to the clearing where the rest of her team and the other children were located. It took nearly an hour to get all of the leaders informed as to how they were going to cross the highway, and where to go from there. As Marsha went through the process, her admiration for Alpha Joan increased. Moving a group of children this large, with stealth, for over twenty-four hours, was an enormous task. Just thinking about bathroom breaks boggled her mind.

The other thing she’d noticed was that all of the leaders were young. The oldest, other than the Alpha, was barely of legal age to drink. They must have been expecting all out war back in their towns. Worried about what was happening elsewhere wouldn’t help her now. She needed to have faith they would prevail. Then all of those conquering heroes would want their families. It was her job to make sure they had families and children safe for them to return to. After all, their children were their future.

She had been chafing at her assignment. Being out in the woods, instead of on the front lines, hadn’t suited her. Still, she didn’t say anything to Laura or Aaron about where they put her. Now she squared her shoulders and strengthened her resolve. She understood her team now had the single most important assignment. She vowed then that she wouldn’t lose a single child assigned to her care.

Looking over at the Alpha, she noticed Joan was also looking at her, gauging and assessing her. The Alpha gave her a small nod of understanding. She was aware of the thoughts running through Marsha’s head. The nod was her approval and recognition of their combined commitment.

They had split into twenty-five groups of fourteen children, plus one or two here and there. There were at least two adults or older teens with each group. Marsha’s plan was to spread the groups out. She wanted to have a line of twenty-five abreast with their charges lined up behind them. Each of the twenty-five lines could snake its way through the forest and still remain in sight of the next group to their left or right. While at the same time, they would only be responsible for the children in their own line.