“I could eat a horse,” she said. A thought came to her, if she was still restrained, she must have been out of control. “Did I… Did I hurt anyone?”
“Nothing serious,” she said. “You were like a frightened wolverine, they said. It took six people to get you under control. Now just relax, I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake and come back with your food.” She left, the orderly following behind her.
Rea looked at the window, wishing she were outside of the mental ward, but knowing in her heart she needed to be there. Nothing was working, everything was getting worse, and the next time might make what she did on the soccer field look like a minor disagreement. Her other personality was violent, feral and dangerous.
She resolved two things while waiting for lunch. One, she would do whatever the Doctors said to keep her bad side from escaping again. The other was that if it didn’t work, if she couldn’t find a treatment that would work, she would kill herself before she let her crazy part kill someone else. Her family would mourn her, but at least she wouldn’t hurt anyone else.
—
The Chairman’s plane arrived in Syracuse, New York just after midnight. It took an hour to clear Customs, but the relief flight crew was stuck in Virginia because of a winter storm. They wouldn’t be able to leave until their pilots had adequate rest, so that put off departure until noon. Erik called off the Alphas and slept at a nearby hotel for a few hours instead.
At eleven thirty, Alpha Martin Smith, his personal guard Jackson and his father Charles had arrived at the plane with their luggage. “Talk to me, Mr. Chairman,” Charles said as soon as they had handed off their luggage.
“Not until we’re in the air,” he said. “Come on, we’ve got to get on board for preflight.” The Council men sat together in the front, except Erik sat around a conference table in the back with the Adirondack Pack leadership. One of his men collected their cellphones after they turned them off.
“Where are we going,” Martin asked as the plane lifted off.
“Missoula, Montana. The Bitterroot Pack,” Erik said.
“THAT SON OF A BITCH,” Charles said. “He tried to get me to agree to him mating my Joanna, like she was some kind of prize cattle that I’d sell at auction,” he said as his son and Beta calmed him down. Erik was glad he had waited until now to tell him. There was nowhere for him to run off to, no way to call anyone and his seatbelt was still on. “I would never take her true mate away from her. I thought he had gotten over that.”
“Apparently not.”
“Was he after my sister,” Martin asked.
“No point in that,” his father said. “She was already mated, and would have died rather than take him as a choice when her mate was killed. No, he was after Charlotte.” His eyes widened. “Wait, does he have her? Is she alive?”
“She is alive, but he does not have her,” Erik said. He handed him an envelope, inside was an 8×10 photograph of Charlotte as she stood next to the grave, the casket with the American flag covering it in the foreground.
“Oh Luna,” Charles said as his eyes filled with tears.
“She looks just like Mom did,” Martin said as he looked at the photo in his father’s shaking hands.
“We’ll take her back home,” he said. “He will pay for everything he has done to her.” He kept looking in the envelope of background material my men had put together; each article was read, then passed to his son and the Pack Beta. He watched them as they read her story of being found on the side of the road. Adoption papers with her human parents. The attack on the high school student, complete with photographs of the damage she had done. They couldn’t access her medical records, but they did mine Facebook and the news and put together how she had been committed to a mental institution. There were a few articles about her father’s death, and even more about her near-rape and finally the abduction attempt in the hospital that left the two of his Pack members dead. Martin’s nails poked through his own palms as he looked at their photos, he recognized both of them from a visit they had made the previous year.
The emotions that played across their faces went from shock to anger to fury, and he left them alone to process them. Getting up, he moved back to the bathroom, then returned to the seats with a bottle of single malt and four glasses. He poured healthy portions and handed them out as he waited for the inevitable questions. Charles was the first. “How could this happen?”
“So much was going on. She was found the night before we thought the attack occurred, and the next county over. We were so focused on keeping our secret hidden we didn’t even consider that she might have survived.”
“She was a year old!” Charles took a gulp, letting the burn focus him again. “Oh Luna, how I’ve failed her,” he said as he broke down crying.
“Where is she now,” Martin asked.
“The Mayo Clinic psychological ward,” Erik said softly. “We made some discreet inquiries; she’s been having what they think are psychotic breaks, and they are getting worse. She’s been committed indefinitely. There’s nothing we can do about that now; I’ve sent a man to the area to monitor the situation. After the two abduction attempts, no one but staff and family is allowed near her.”
Charles looked out the window while his son and Beta kept looking through the file. “Does she know what she is?”
“We don’t think so.”
“What about her mother? Could we talk to her? Surely she doesn’t want her daughter suffering for nothing,” the Beta said.
“You know the rules, Beta,” Erik said. “Her late adoptive father and her adoptive mother are both human. She can’t learn the truth, ever.” He looked at the two of them, both had rage in their eyes. They wanted Todd’s blood on their teeth. He set his drink down and looked in their eyes, his wolf forward to gain their submission. “Charlotte is not the current problem we need to deal with. She is safe and inaccessible, so nothing will happen soon with her. What I need you to focus on is what is ahead of us when we arrive at the Bitterroot Pack. You are only to be witnesses and observers at his trial, if you cannot restrain your wolves, we will restrain you in silver and throw you in the cells until it is over,” he said evenly. “You have waited fifteen years for the truth to come out, don’t ruin it now.” He glanced down at his phone and showed them the text message. “ALPHA TODD IS IN CUSTODY ALONG WITH HIS LEADERSHIP,” it said.