The Alpha's Choice (40 page)

It said a great deal about the teenager's
recent behavior that no one found her questions suspicious. Those
first few weeks, they'd watched him like hawks, sure that he would
bolt. Now, he'd become so much a part of the fabric of their lives,
the thought of him running away never crossed their minds. He was a
member of the pack.

When suppertime came and there was still no
sign of River, Kat knew she had no choice. She told the others
everything.

"He'll be back," Hyatt said with a confidence
Kat no longer felt. "I used to take off now and then when I was his
age."

"But you always told Dad where you were going
and when you'd be back," Jo argued.

"The poor boy could be lost or hurt,"
Stephanie offered which was something Kat feared, but hadn't voiced
and she was touched by the woman's concern until Stephanie added,
"I thought you were in charge of the children."

There was that pleased feeling again and this
time, Kat thought she knew why. Stephanie was pleased that Kat
might be blamed. The damned woman couldn't put aside her own
interests for a minute.

"This is just what we need on top of
everything else," Alex grumbled.

The discussion went on for several minutes
until Ryker spoke. "He's not lost. He's too wood wise and I don't
think he's run off unless Kat's right and he knows he's been caught
and is too stubborn or afraid to come home and face the music. In
which case, I'd take the odds that he's hunkered down someplace
close. My biggest fear is that he's been injured or…" He shrugged,
unable to say the word.

It was a small consolation that no one had
heard any gunshots during the night.

Chapter 39

Kat felt useless and totally responsible.
Whatever had befallen River was her fault. She should have told
Charles immediately, the very first night she discovered River's
nighttime excursions. Charles and the others would have known how
to handle it best. At the very least, she should have talked to
River, questioned him and made him promise to stop. What made her
think she could handle these children, these wolver children, on
her own? She'd only just learned that these beings existed. What
made her assume that she knew how they thought?

She was alone. The others were gone and the
house echoed with their absence. They were all out searching, the
women in cars and trucks, the men on foot and that was made more
difficult because of Charles' absence. They could cover more
territory more safely as wolves, but that was impossible with their
Alpha so far away.

Even breaking the speed limit and driving
recklessly fast, it would still be two hours before he arrived and
Kat feared what she would see in those beautiful green eyes. This
was her fault.

They'd called him and Ryker reported what had
happened clearly and concisely with no judgment in his voice. Right
now, everyone's main concern was River, but once he was found,
however he was found, the judgment would come and it was what she
deserved. This was, after all, her fault.

She'd sent the children to their rooms, with
directions for Forest to see that they all went to their beds. It
was still early, barely dark out, and their silent acquiescence was
testament to their own fears and concerns.

"We'll find him," Kat told them as she kissed
each goodnight. "Everything will turn out all right," she said and
they looked at her as if they knew it was a lie. In their world
very little turned out right.

Tilda was in her room where she claimed to be
napping and she'd advised Kat to do the same. "You'll be no good to
anyone if you're dead on your feet. You've been up for almost two
days. You'll hear the phone if it rings, though I reckon they'll
send someone back if there's news." Cell phones were spotty at best
in the hills.

So Kat was alone with her thoughts and her
guilt. She stared out the window of the schoolroom, willing the
tall thin body of a teenaged boy to walk across the field with his
head hung down, remorseful and repentant. She didn't care where
he'd been or what he had done. Kat just wanted him home. Home with
the pack where he belonged.

The reflection of four children in the glass
had her turning around. They stood in a line and there was no
mistaking the guilt on their faces.

"Tell her Forest. You're the oldest. Tell
her," Ranger urged, obviously not wanting to be the bearer of the
news.

That alone told Kat it was serious. Ranger
was usually eager to tell everyone's news.

"You know where he is." Kat made it a
statement.

"No ma'am. We didn't lie," Forest said
carefully, "But we know what he's looking for and Meadow knows how
he gets out. She followed him once."

Dakota started to explain in a rush. "We
wanted to tell, but River said…"

"That's not important now," Kat interrupted,
"What's important is you tell me what you know. What was he looking
for?"

"The hide."

"The hide?"

Ranger nodded his head. "Them."

Kat looked to Forest for the translation
though she thought she knew.

"Them. Where we came from. They've done it
before, pretended to be a man and his wolfdogs. It looks like
they're trained, see? They move in on a human pack's business and
pretend to help. The wolfdogs are used as…" Forest looked to the
others for the word she couldn't find.

"They kill people," Dakota said in a matter
of fact way that was frightening.

"And listen real good to find out who to
rob," Ranger added.

The others nodded their agreement. The
wolvers disguised as highly trained dogs were used for enforcement
and spying. Men would talk freely in front of a dog.

"Then when things go sour or there's money
enough, they take it and move on," Forest finished.

"And none of the humans can complain because
what they were doing was illegal in the first place," Kat
concluded.

"They don't leave any humans to do any
complaining. You don't want anybody recognizing you the next time
you come round." Dakota looked at the others and shrugged as if to
say, "Somebody has to say it."

"How does he get out?" Kat asked Meadow. She
kept her voice smooth and soothing even though her heart was
thundering in her chest. "Can you show me?"

Meadow looked to the others and when they
nodded their encouragement, she took Kat's hand and led her to the
cellar door.

Kat had never been down in the cellar and had
taken Tilda's word that it was as cold and dank as an old stone
foundation could be and was only fit for spiders and other crawly
creatures who spent their lives in the dark.

Cautiously, with her hand on the child's
shoulder, she followed Meadow down the rickety stairs and the
warning she had called as a girl came to mind.

"Don't go down those dark, drafty cellar
stairs in the middle of the night with only a candle to light your
way, you idiot!"

Kat stopped and turned back. "Ranger. Go get
a flashlight from the kitchen drawer. Make sure it's one that
works." The boys and Meadow loved to run around in the dark chasing
each other with the beams. They went through batteries faster than
ice cream.

She didn't wait until the faint light from
the open door disappeared. She hit the flashlight's button as soon
as it was securely in her hand.

The cellar was much smaller than she thought
it would be and judging by the fallen shelves was probably once
used for winter storage. Something scurried over her foot and she
jumped.

Behind her she heard Dakota stomp and croak
happily, "Gotcha."

Kat didn't ask what he'd got. Meadow led her
across the room, sure of her direction and pointed to and old pie
safe that had been pulled out from the wall. The opening in the
wall was crude, made by removing the irregular shaped stones of the
foundation. Hinges were affixed to the wall, but the door was long
gone. Kat shined the light inside.

It was not a secret room, but a passage cut
from the earth and shored up with rotting timbers and stone.
Someone had built this to smuggle goods or whiskey or the human
cargo of slaves long, long ago. From where she stood, Kat could see
it slope deeper into the earth. The flashlight's beam could not
reach its end.

"You children go back now," she ordered and
pointed to the pale light hovering over the stairs. "Forest, I want
you to wake Mrs. Martin and tell her where I've gone. She'll alert
the grownups." They all nodded, but didn't move. "Go on. I'm only
going to the end of the tunnel. If River was hurt, he might have
made his way back here and the sooner I find him, the sooner he can
get help. You've done a wonderful job, but now it's time for you to
go back upstairs."

They reluctantly left her and she waited
until they were on the stairs before she ducked into the entrance
and began to walk.

The passage was narrow. Kat doubted two men
could walk abreast. It was not straight forward as she had first
thought. It zigzagged through the earth. The floor was hard packed
earth and the walls, once neatly framed with wood and stone, were
crumbled in spots with tree roots reaching their gnarled fingers
through the opening to reclaim what was rightfully theirs. Chunks
of stone littered the path along with the skeletons of long dead
rats and mice. Kat winced as one of them crunched beneath her
feet.

She alternated between shining her light
ahead and lowering it to the ground at her feet and twice, she
shined it behind her when she thought she heard a noise. But there
was nothing and she thought perhaps all the rats and mice weren't
dead. The thought gave her no comfort.

She passed a spot where the wall had
completely collapsed, evidence of her greatest fear; somewhere
along its length the tunnel had collapsed on River.

Long minutes passed as Kat moved as quickly
as she could. The floor began to slant upward and there was still
no sign of the end or of a collapse. How far had she come from the
house? She rounded yet another corner and she could see a ladder
propped against the end wall. She had reached the end.

Kat ran, eager to be out of this long hole in
the ground. Before the thought had fully formed that this was a
small room and not a tunnel, hands grabbed her and she screamed.
She fought. She kicked.

More screaming followed, not her own, and one
of the men shouted and cursed and flailed his arm back ward. There
was a thud and Kat stopped struggling.

"No! Stop! Stop! We won't fight! We'll do
whatever you want. Don't hurt him. Oh God, don't hurt them."

She ran to Dakota who'd been thrown against
the wall. He was dazed, but conscious. His nose was bleeding.
Ranger still struggled against the beefy arm that held him. Meadow
stood immobile by the ladder, her thumb in her mouth.

"Stop it. All of you. Ranger, stop!" She
looked at the man holding the boy. "Let him go. He won't run."

"Fuck off bitch." He shoved Ranger toward the
ladder. "You run, we kill your little sister here and then the
bitch."

Kat helped Dakota to his feet. She thought
about pushing him toward the passageway and telling him to run, but
she was afraid their captor would make good on his threat. She
steered him toward the ladder.

"Just do as you're told and you won't be
hurt," she told them as calmly as she could.

"Yeah, that's right. Listen to the bitch and
you won't be hurt," the first man said.

The second one laughed. He didn't believe it
either.

As she lifted Meadow up onto the first rung
that was higher than the others, she glanced back and caught the
tiniest of movement at the mouth of the room.

Kat let her foot slip off the rung and fell
back into the man behind her, drawing his attention to her instead
of to the girl plastered against the wall.

"Watch what you're doing, bitch." He gave her
a shove up the ladder.

"Damn kids," Kat muttered loud enough for
Forest to hear. "I told them to go to Mrs. Martin."

"Yeah, well it saved me and Top some time not
having to go get you. We didn't want the old lady anyway."

Kat didn't want to think about what they
might have done to Tilda and she prayed that Forest understood her
message and this time did as she was told.

The outside of the passage was no more than a
hole in the ground. With the wooden cover over it and dead leaves
scattered about, it could easily be mistaken for an abandoned well.
She'd hoped there would be a building nearby, but once her eyes
adjusted to the darkness, she realized they were in the middle of
nowhere.

Top pushed Dakota forward and laughed when
the boy snarled. "You got your father in you, cub. He was a mean
bastard, too."

"My father's going to come get you and you're
gonna be sorry."

"Hate to break it to you kid, but your
father's dead."

Dakota stopped and looked back at Kat and Top
dragged him along. The boy was referring to Charles and Kat hoped
he was right. She gave a slight shake of her head to tell him his
father wasn't dead.

Once she realized their destination wasn't
nearby, Kat began to think. She was so frightened it was difficult
at first, but then reason prevailed. They were wanted alive or
these two would have finished the job back at the tunnel and once
she accepted that they were temporarily safe, her mind started to
work.

If Forest went back, it would be reasonable
to assume the men would start their search at the tunnel. They
would follow the trail from there. Kat knew they would use both
scent and sight so she snapped every twig she could and trampled
every tall plant she could find without making it obvious and when
little Meadow tripped and fell, Kat dragged the poor child a few
feet before righting her, hoping to leave her scent behind.