Outcast (Supernaturals Book 2) (27 page)

We didn’t have the “dream wedding,” but we had our wedding and it was amazing. Our wedding night was even better. I thought we had been loud the day before, but that night those staying in the cabins next to us moved to the main house for the night. Ryan was quite proud of himself the next day as he pranced around the campgrounds.

Chapter 29 ~ The Plan

~~~Ryan~~~

Three days after the wedding, my father received a call from one of his friends asking for assistance in escaping Pine Hollow. After what happened the last time we assisted someone in leaving the town, Dave and Daniel were a bit hesitant to help anyone else. The two of them, plus Danielle, Katelyn, Darius and myself were sitting around a large table at the Sullivans’ house discussing the matter and not coming up with a plan we liked.

My parents were waiting in the other room. Dave had asked them to leave, but my father had refused. Dad wasn’t being disrespectful, but he was being argumentative and pushy in his insistence that we help his friend. Despite this, Dave had seen his refusal as an act of defiance and, for the first time, had used his alpha voice on one of us.

Dave didn’t want to leave any one in the town who didn’t want to be there, but he also didn’t want to start a war. Our best bet, we were deciding, was to take the matter to the Regent and persuade them to help. Serena had taken most of the news to them already, and they appeared reluctant to intercede. Dave felt that if we requested a meeting and took everyone from Pine Hollow with us to tell their stories, then we might be able to persuade them to assist us in taking over the town.

Our group was discussing this option when Devan stormed into the room with Rebecca in tow. Dave looked outraged that she, one of our people, was in handcuffs without his knowing, but said nothing since we weren’t in his house or on his land.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Daniel asked, coming to his feet with Katelyn following his action as she contemplated the woman. Dave and Danielle remained seated, and I could tell he was attempting to reign in his anger. Both of us knew that Devan wouldn't have tied the woman up for no reason, but it was hard to not take offense of his doing so without consulting Dave. Our reactions told me that Dave definitely needed to request that the Regent place him in charge of Pine Hollow. He had been skating around the topic, but everyone knew it needed to happen.

“You need to hear what she has to say,” Devan said, pulling the woman closer to the table. The room went quiet. Rebecca didn’t say a word only looked at all of us in turn. When she got to me, she burst into tears.

Puzzled, I looked to Dave for answers. He didn’t speak to me. He stood and walked over to the woman. He led her to his chair and untied her arms, though he surreptitiously motioned for Devan to stand behind her. Dave was on her right between her and an empty chair. I was on her left. She couldn’t make a move without us catching her.

Darius handed her a box of tissues. We all waited for her to get control of herself before asking Devan to tell us what was happening. What he knew ended up not being much. He was on patrol at the campgrounds. Rebecca approached him and asked if he would bring her to Daniel’s house since she didn’t know where it was. Devan refused. She begged, saying she had something important to tell Dave. He said she could wait until he got back. She said she wanted to tell him right then while she had the nerve.

“I kept blowing her off until she said she was hired to kidnap Abby and Leigh,” Devan said.

His last words brought on an explosion of action and commands from nearly every person in the room. I tried to run from the house and to Leigh, who was with Abby at her cabin, but Dave stopped me. Dimitri tried to do the same, but his father pinned him to the wall while he and Dave both ordered guards to the house and demanded someone call Abby’s office. There wasn’t any real reason to panic. There was no way the Council was getting onto pack territory without someone knowing it. And on the off chance they did, Abby’s cabin was highly guarded. Besides, Rebecca said that someone had hired her to kidnap them, not anyone else, and she was still sitting in the chair Dave put her in, crying.

A second later, Abby’s voice quieted everyone. Darius’s cell was lying face up on the table and the call was on speaker. “Hello, Darius,” she said.

“Abby, baby, are you all right?” Dimitri demanded, breaking away from his father and leaning over the table to the phone.

“Yeah. Leigh and I are working. Why? What’s going on?”

“I can’t tell you over the phone. Have your guards bring you guys to Mom and Dad’s. Now.”

“Okay.”

“Dimitri, is Ryan all right?” Leigh asked before Abby could disconnect. Her voice was steady, but I could tell she was terrified.

“I’m fine, baby. Do what Dimitri says, okay. Hurry.”

“All right. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The call cut out, and we waited. Thankfully, most of the Sullivan pack had magic in them because in seconds the room was full of people. A guard held each woman and Kayla. Once they let the three go, Daniel ordered the guards to surround the house and put everyone on alert.

I pulled Leigh into my arms and toward the back of the room away from Rebecca. Dimitri did the same. Darius took my place as one of Rebecca’s guards.

“Ryan, you’re scaring me,” Leigh said, holding me tight. I was not ashamed of how violently my body was trembling.

“And you’re scaring me,” Abby said to Dimitri.

“Fucking mating makes them overreact,” Devan said, shaking his head.

“Go to hell,” Dimitri said.

“Watch the language,” Abby said, covering Kayla’s ears.

“Sorry,” Dimitri and Devan said.

“I’m not wrong, though,” Devan said. “She’s just a tiny woman who said what she was hired to do. She didn’t actually do it.”

“That doesn’t mean I’ll take any chances with her,” I said, blocking Leigh from the woman’s view.

“We should at least hear the entire story before we freak out,” Devan said.

“I agree,” Daniel said, and Dave nodded. “Why don’t we all just calm down and listen to what she has to say. Rebecca, are you ready to tell us what you meant by ‘you were hired to kidnap Abby and Leigh?’” I heard Leigh gasp behind me, so I pulled her back into my arms.

“I think so,” Rebecca said, nodding and ignoring everyone but Dave. “About a month ago, the Council came to me and asked if I would keep an eye on Emanuel and Josey. They knew Emanuel was Dave’s cousin and might be the next one to try to leave town. They didn’t say if they hired others in town to watch anyone else they suspected of leaving, but I figured they had. They offered me a great deal of money, and since most of the town was hurting financially, I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I said yes and signed a contract. I didn’t fully understand what I was signing until about a week before we escaped. Martin came to me and said that he didn’t know when the couple would make their move, but it would be soon. He wanted me to follow them, leave with them, if possible, and bring Leigh, Abby, or both back with me.

“I haven’t made a move to do so. I haven’t had contact with the Council since I left, but I know that every day at noon a van will be waiting for me at the market just outside of town and that I have a month to comply or they will kill my sister.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Dave asked.

“Because I can’t go through with it. I love my sister. I don’t want her getting hurt or dying, but I can’t kidnap anyone. I mean, I thought about it. I tried to work out a plan, and I only focused on Leigh. I knew there was no way I could manage them both. But I didn’t know Leigh was pregnant until yesterday at the wedding. My sister’s life isn’t worth that baby’s life and my soul.” Silent tears were streaming down her cheeks as she spoke.

“You understand that we can’t let you go, right?” Daniel said, looking and sounding apologetic.

She nodded. “What will you do with me?” she asked.

“For now, you’ll go into a holding cell. You haven’t committed a crime that we are aware of, but at the same time, you are a perceived threat. You’ll stay in that cell until we deem you safe.”

“I understand,” Rebecca said and held her hands up to Devan for him to cuff her again. He and another pack member led her from the room.

Daniel pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number. A female voice answered, and he asked if she would please join us at her earliest convenience. The woman said she was free and would be there in a second. True to her word, before he could hang up his phone, someone knocked on his front door.

We turned to see a guard escorting Serena into the room. She went to Kayla to give the child some love before coming to the table. Everyone took a seat after she did and remained silent until she spoke.

“What can I do for you today, Daniel?” she asked sweetly.

“We have a problem, or to be more precise, our current problem is escalating. We have a young woman in our holding cell who says the Council ruling Pine Hollow hired her to kidnap my daughter-in-law and Mrs. Hart. I know the Regent has been on the fence about this situation, but we feel that things have gone on long enough. We need to rid that town of its current rulers and place Dave and his wife, Danielle, in charge. There might be some opposition, so we were hoping that the Regent would back us in this endeavor to avoid bloodshed,” Daniel spoke softly, and Serena listened without interrupting.

When he finished speaking, she turned to Dave and Danielle and asked, “Are you finally willing to seize what’s rightfully yours?”

Dave looked from his wife to the Angel and said, “We don’t want the position, no ma’am, but we can no longer stand by and watch what’s happening to our home. What they’ve done to the Alexanders and others in similar cases over the years is unacceptable. I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to lose lives in this, but we have to do something.”

“What’s your plan?” she asked Dave, putting up her hand to silence Daniel who was about to offer his advice.

Dave looked to his wife, to Daniel, but said nothing.

“I have an idea,” Danielle said to the silent room. “I don’t know how well it’ll work, but with the Sullivans by our side and the Regent backing us, we might be able to pull it off.”

“What’s your plan, dear?” Serena asked as we all turned to her.

“We let Rebecca kidnap them both.” The second the words were out of her mouth, the room erupted in voices. Serena said nothing, only looked at Danielle. Leigh began to cry. Abby argued that she couldn’t go through with this plan because of her daughter. I yelled at Dave that his wife was out of her mind and that I refused to put my wife and unborn child in danger. Dimitri yelled at Daniel, saying about the same except the unborn child part. Daniel and Katelyn ignored us all and discussed the plan. Dave just looked at his wife in shock and as if he was considering the idea.

“Silence,” Serena said. She didn’t yell, but her voice carried and quieted the room. “Please elaborate,” she said to Danielle.

Looking around sheepishly, knowing that anything she said would further anger everyone in the room, she said, “We let her kidnap them. Let her take them to the Council and then, once the Council thinks they’re in the clear and are on the road with them, we ambush them. They’ll be on guard at first, but the closer they get to Pine Hollow, the more they’ll let their guard down. We can set up patrols at the three main entrances to town. Whichever one they use, we can converge there. We stop them, take them into custody, and lead them through the center of town, so that all of the pack will know what we’ve done.”

“What if the Council makes it into Pine Hollow with them?” I asked.

“We have two options. Abby can get them out using magic or we go in and get them. They’ll have two of our people, mated women whom they’ve taken against their will. We won’t be going against any supernatural laws by going in and getting them. While we’re there, we take down the Council.”

No one necessarily liked the plan, but after more yelling and arguing, we all grudgingly agreed it was the best way to get things over with. We talked for hours, working through all the scenarios we could think of before we felt that we had the plan settled. The one thing we needed to know for certain before we put it into motion was if the Regent would back us. If they didn’t, the town might not accept Dave and Danielle as their alphas.

Chapter 30 ~ The Kidnapping

~~~Leigh~~~

Three days. Three long freaking days. That was how long it took Serena to get back to us with the Regents’ decision. She didn’t say why it took her so long. I worried that she had a hard time convincing them that we needed help or that they needed to get involved. She didn’t act as if there was an issue, so maybe they just took their time deciding or had too many other pressing matters. Luckily, she returned with good news. The Regent had agreed to the plan. They promised to watch the situation play out and to step in only when needed. That would make the task a tiny bit more difficult. We had feared that would be their decision though, which was why we hadn’t factored them into the plan too much.

Two days after that, Abby and I stood in her cabin shaking with nerves and running through the plan for the billionth time. Sam had given us each a few pieces of jewelry that would aid us in different ways should we need help. The first were our necklaces—mine was a teardrop sapphire wrapped in wire dangling from a white gold chain and Abby’s was a heart-shaped locket. If I threw mine at an assailant, it would explode. The explosion wouldn’t be large, but enough to hurt the both of us if I stood too close. Hers held a powder that would burn the person.

Our earrings were tracking devices. Our bracelets held tiny, thin, sharp knives. I prayed we wouldn’t have to use any of it, and I prayed it would be enough to defend ourselves against our kidnappers.

The closer to the time for us to leave, my stomach grew nervous.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” I said as we exited Abby’s house. I leaned over the porch railing and dry-heaved into the bushes.

“This isn’t a good idea,” Ryan said, patting my back. “We’re not only putting my wife in danger but my unborn child. That isn’t fair.”

“No it isn’t,” Dave said, “but she’s the one they want. We are sending Abby in to help. She can hopefully get them out quickly if things go south.” Ryan looked at Abby doubtfully. She didn’t have a handle on the teleportation ability, and that ability we would need if things got deadly.

“But what happens if they accidentally hit her stomach or…” Ryan asked, causing me to panic even more.

“Oh shit,” Abby said, rushing back inside the house.

We watched her go in confusion until Dimitri said, “I forgot all about that shirt.”

“What shirt?” Ryan asked, as I sipped on a bottle of water he had handed me.

“I found it. Leigh, come here,” Abby said, sticking her head out her bedroom door.

I looked to Ryan, and he shrugged his shoulders. On shaky legs, I walked to the woman. She pulled me into her room and shoved a white tank top at me.

“What’s this?” I asked, holding up the shirt.

“It’s for protection. Sam made it for me when we found out we were pregnant. Dimitri became so paranoid that something was going to happen to me since a wolf had shot me twice that he asked her to make me a few things to protect my stomach. Put it on.”

I pulled off my t-shirt, put on the tank top, and then pulled my shirt back over my head. “What does it do?”

“Push on your stomach,” she ordered, and I did. Nothing happened.

“What the…”

“It’s magic. Nothing can damage any area of your body the shirt covers.”

“Awesome. This actually makes me feel tons better,” I said, hugging her tightly.

“I thought it might. I can’t believe I forgot I had it. Sorry,” she said, shaking her head sadly.

“No problem,” I replied, wishing we had thought to ask Sam for something like this earlier. We’d been so focused on the plan that we hadn’t been thinking straight, not that I would have thought of it, being so new to the magical world and all.

We went back outside. I was crying again—this time in relief. At Ryan’s worried look, I told him about the shirt. The thing relieved him a bit, but neither one of us was okay with what was about to happen. He held on tightly to me the entire walk to Abby’s vehicle. He held my hand through the car window and even ran alongside the car until we picked up speed, then he dropped to all fours and shifted into his wolf form so that he could better keep up with the vehicle. Dimitri and most of the other pack members who weren’t on their way to Pine Hollow had already done this so that they could discretely follow us.

I watched him in the side mirror until he turned into the woods with the rest of the pack, and then I faced forward in my seat and grabbed Abby’s hand. She was shaking but managing to keep the vehicle steady as we left pack territory. Rebecca, who had already been in the vehicle waiting for us when we left Abby’s house, said nothing.

The drive to the shopping center didn’t take long. From the back seat, Rebecca told us where to park. Abby did as Rebecca ordered, then turned off the car. She and I moved as if we were about to exit the vehicle. As part of the plan, Rebecca slipped her arms around our shoulders and placed a rag over our mouths. Instantly, we were asleep.

Sam made the sleeping potion that Rebecca would tell the Council she had stolen from the witch. The potion wouldn’t last long, so they would have to move quickly if they wanted to take us.

I didn’t feel them remove me from Abby’s vehicle or put me in the van they drove, but when I woke not five minutes later, we were exiting the shopping center’s parking lot. Neither one of us had to feign fear, outrage, or the determination to break our bonds. The only thing I was grateful for was that, so far, Rebecca hadn’t lied about what she said would happen. They silenced our cries by threatening to shoot us in the leg. We gave up quickly, but our kidnappers didn’t think anything of this since they saw us as weak humans.

As we rode, I took the time to take in our situation. They hadn’t bound Rebecca, but she sat between two armed men in the back seat, and she didn’t look happy about it. Someone had tied me to the seat behind the passenger seat and Abby to the one behind the driver. We still wore our protective jewelry, so Rebecca hadn’t told them the pack was tracking us.

Two women occupied the front two seats. The one in the passenger seat held a gun. A large dog lay on the floor between Abby and I. A shifter, I was sure, by the way he watched us. They weren’t taking any precautions.

Dave and Daniel were right, though. The further we got from the Sullivan pack, the more relaxed they became. A human wouldn’t notice, but unbeknownst to them, Abby and I weren’t completely human. The unfortunate part was that we couldn’t break from our bonds. Every time one of us shifted our hands or legs, the dog growled or someone from the back seat would tap us with the butt of a gun, so we resigned ourselves to sit in silence and wait for the next stage in the plan.

The drive took us nearly three hours because we took back roads and veered off in different directions to shake off anyone who might be following us. We also had to stop twice for me to pee, which I had to do behind trees on the side of the road because they refused to pull into a gas station. My frequent need to urinate pissed them off. They almost didn’t stop the first time, but I threatened to pee in the seat, and almost did, before they pulled over. A comment or two was made about this, but they attributed it to fear and nothing else. I was pretty sure the shirt and my already being heavy masked the pregnancy.

When we were twenty minutes from town, we turned onto a country road to meet up with a caravan of other vehicles. We pulled along the side of the road and stopped. Two men exited one of the vehicles in front of us. One came to my door and the other went to Abby.

An armed person who must have come from behind us opened our doors for the men. In quick succession, they released one of our hands and scanned our fingerprints. After a long, silent second, the man who had scanned my hand said, “She’s Leigh.”

“And she’s Abby,” the other man said.

“Okay, wait here,” the first man said. “We’ll radio this in for further directions. You will follow us back to Pine Hollow. Mr. Burch wants to personally bring them into town.” The man didn’t sound all that pleased about what he was doing. And if I was being honest, none of our kidnappers did. My money was on the fact that the Council was forcing them to do it. This fact made me wish even harder that I didn’t have to hurt anyone in order to get out of the situation.

Ten minutes later, we were back on the road. We didn’t aim to take any of the major entrances into town at first. The first three roads we attempted to go down were blocked. We didn’t see the blockade, but just as we were about to turn down the road, someone from one of the vehicles radioed to tell us that wolves from the Sullivan pack were waiting for us.

By the fourth road, our captors understood that someone was rerouting them to the main entrance to town. Our caravan tried to leave the area, but again they found their way blocked. In all of their planning, I don’t think they took into account that the Sullivans had strong magic in their genes, or they underestimated their abilities. Packs with such abilities were a bit of an outcast among shifter packs since they didn’t want the full scale of their abilities known to the supernatural world, but most supernatural sects were that way to some extent.

Finally, someone ordered our captors to drive to town, meet the pack head on, and fight if need be. The voice over the radio sounded confident that the group could defeat the pack, but the men and women in our van didn’t show the same emotion.

Reluctantly, our driver headed toward Pine Hollow. A quarter of a mile from the welcome sign, we stopped. Wolves, coyotes, large dogs, mountain lions, you name the animal and it was out there surrounding us on all sides. I searched for Ryan in the sea of animals, but I couldn’t find him. Ahead of us, though, stood Dave and Danielle. Daniel, Katelyn, Darius, my parents, and Ryan’s parents stood behind and around them—all of them were in human form.

“You have to the count of five to exit your vehicles,” Dave commanded. “If you don’t, we will come in after you. I know some of you are armed. I will forewarn you that your weapons will not harm anyone who came with the Sullivan pack. As you can see, there are more people here than what belongs to Daniel’s pack. I’ve convinced most of the shifters on guard here to join us. Those who did not are secure and safe. Please note that if you come out firing you will only hurt your own people. Possibly a brother, a sister, a parent, or a spouse.”

“That isn’t possible,” a voice called from one of the vehicles in front of us. I couldn’t see the person, but they had to be using magic to project their voice that way for everyone to hear.

“Martin, I assure you it is. You’ve spent too much time pretending that Pine Hollow is the only shifter pack on the planet. Your ignorance is your downfall. We not only have a powerful witch on our side, but an Angel and the Regent. You can’t win this. Pine Hollow now belongs to Danielle and I. I will pardon everyone who surrenders peacefully.

The woman sitting in the passenger side of our van unbuckled her seatbelt and reached for the door. So did the guards behind us. As soon as they did, they began untying us. The dog growled, but the man behind me told him to shut up.

“What are you doing?” the woman behind the wheel asked.

“Letting them go,” the woman in the passenger seat said.

The driver raised her gun, but the passenger was ready for her, and she cold-cocked her in the head with the butt of her own gun. All around us, I saw people exiting vehicles with their hands up. Shifters in human form met them and carried them off.

The passenger in our vehicle got out and came around to open my door. The dog leapt for her, but I kicked him in the belly and he rolled out of the van. She grabbed him and yelled for someone to help her subdue him. She also yelled that Abby and I were in the vehicle and unharmed.

In a blink, Dimitri and Ryan were at our van. Ryan shifted into human form fully clothed, something I was oddly thankful to Dimitri for, because despite what was going on, I didn’t think I would have reacted well to other women seeing him naked.

Dimitri jerked open Abby’s door and ripped away her remaining binds. He jerked her into his arms and disappeared only to reappear behind his parents.

Ryan pulled me from the vehicle and began walking me toward the front of the caravan, carefully keeping his distance from the vehicle Martin had apparently been in this entire time, his body shielding mine as we moved. More shifters assisted Rebecca and her two guards away from our vehicle.

Martin’s driver had left their car along with three of the Council members who were on their knees with their hands tied behind them in front of Dave. The new leader was calling for Martin to come out with his hands up. I heard a sigh of relief escape a few people and turned to see the man opening his car door. Ryan had his back turned, so he didn’t see the gun. I screamed. Two shots rang out, and then everything went crazy. I didn’t feel the second shot go through my shoulder because the first one ricocheted off Ryan’s chest and hit me in the stomach. From either the shock or pain or both, I passed out.

I came to sometime later to the feel of a large soft mattress underneath me. I didn’t recognize my surroundings at all. Quickly, everything rushed back to me, and I began screaming for Ryan and crying.

“I’m right here, baby. You’re okay. Shh. Calm down,” he said, rushing to me and pulling me into his arms mindful of my rapidly healing shoulder wound. I vaguely recognized that my mother had rushed to my side as well.