“No,” I said quickly, emphatically. “Elias tried ripping off something my dad and Lulu came up with that actually helps wolves.”
“Lulu is the one who does magic?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Apparently Damien had someone like her at the place you were held?”
Maren exhaled. “I don’t know about that. Like I said, we were kept separated. The classes were what we were taught.”
“Mating Etiquette for Beginners,” Tate muttered coldly.
“I think they’ve been doing this for awhile,” Maren added slowly. “I mean, Norwood rarely had a female in their pack at school. I walked by a room that looked like a nursery when I was there. I think they’re taking the girls as soon as they’re born, and they’re assigned a mate by the Alpha.”
“Were Kit and Jayla with you?” Remy asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Kit was in my room and Jayla was across the hall. I also saw Sierra in the building … but she wasn’t with us. I asked around, and it sounds like she was in a separate area because she was one of the compromised ones or whatever.”
A shudder rolled through me. That sounded way too familiar.
“Explains why her parents never found her,” Larkin whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “They went to Norwood, but she wasn’t there.”
“The separate area,” I started quietly, meeting Maren’s gaze across the fire pit, “do you think it was like—”
“Yeah,” she cut me off with a sad nod. “Exactly like that.”
“Like what?” Ryder pressed, looking back and forth between us.
“Long Mesa,” I murmured, not resisting when Remy pulled me closer. I was practically sprawled across him, but I didn’t care.
“Sierra looked awful,” Maren commented. “She was so skinny and her hair had been kind of hacked off. I called her name, but she didn’t look up.”
“I’m not Sierra’s biggest fan,” Katy added, “but no one deserves that.”
“We’ll get them all out,” Remy promised, kissing my shoulder absently. “We’re leaving in a few hours. I don’t want to wait any longer than we already have.”
“Is everyone in place?” Dante glanced between Remy and I.
“Yeah,” Remy replied. “Nikolai is reaching out to Alexei, who should have his people in place soon. They’ll monitor what’s going on until we’re on the ground.”
“Anything else we need to do before we go?” Rhodes asked.
“No,” Remy said firmly, looking around the circle at each person. “No. But I also don’t know exactly what we’re walking into. Damien and Trace are gone, but there’s no telling what we’ll find when we get to Norwood. If anyone wants to hang back—”
The chorus of refusals from our friends was immediate.
“No.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Not happening.”
Remy smiled. “Okay. Then everyone finish getting your stuff together. We leave soon.”
Slowly everyone started to get up and wander back inside. I turned to Remy when we were alone.
“Are you ready to go, Alpha?” I arched a brow.
“I’m going to talk to Elias,” he replied. “I’m hoping he’ll give us an idea of what we’re walking into.”
“Good idea,” I agreed, reluctantly getting off of him. “I’m in.”
He smiled as he stood up. “I figured you would want to join me.”
“Always.”
He reached for my hand. “So, let’s talk to Elias.”
The room where Elias was being held by guards was cramped and tight in Windale. Judging by the faint smells of chemicals, it was formerly a storage closet for housekeeping.
He looked up, clearly defeated, judging by the hunch of his shoulders. “Alphas.”
“We’re heading to Norwood in a few hours,” Remy announced, leaning against the far wall. The only chair in the room was the one Elias was sitting on.
“Anything we need to know before we get there?” I added, watching the old shifter cautiously.
“I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head. “Apparently so much of what I believed was a lie.”
I knelt in front of him. “You can still help us. Just tell us what we need to know.”
Elias sighed. “Without Damien or Trace, Damien’s beta will step in. Conrad. He wasn’t there yesterday, but he likely knows what happened by Damien not calling to check in.”
After Rhodes defeated Trace, we’d isolated the Norwood pack into the field using wards from Lulu that would keep them confined to the space until we could decide what to do with them. But also so they wouldn’t give Norwood a heads up.
“You’ll need to get to the facility first,” Elias went on. “That will be the first place Conrad will go.”
“They’ll kill them?” My breath caught.
“No,” he said quickly. “He’ll start evacuating them. Taking them before they can be freed. But Conrad isn’t in New York; he’s in Nashville. And the facility is on the Canadian border. By the time he arrives, you might be there.”
I spun to look at Remy. “We need to tell my Dad. Alexei needs to lock down the Norwood border now.”
Remy was already pulling out his phone.
“What else can you tell us?” I demanded.
Elias swallowed. “There’s four floors and the basement. The basement is storage and supplies. The first floor is offices, mostly. The fourth floor is where our elemental lives.”
“Okay.” I filed that away to let Lulu know.
“The second and third floors are where you’ll find the women. They’re separated by age.”
“Maren told us there’s a nursery?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“You took babies,” I whispered, covering my mouth with my hand.
“No,” he said emphatically. “Never.”
“Then how—”
“Our pack has always let the Alpha assign mates,” he cut me off. “Years ago the pack decided to start the process early.”
“Process,” I spat back at him. “You mean those classes Maren took for how to be a good, little mate?”
Elias’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve realized that mates take better if both mates accept their roles in the relationship. Some have even bonded.”
I stood up and glared down at him. “All that shit you told me about women being Alphas and acting like you supported us? Was it all a lie?”
“Of course not,” he answered. “Look at you, Skye. You became an Alpha just as I suspected you would. But not all women can be a Dashkov. Some have to be shown the proper way.”
My palm cracked against his cheek before I realized what I had done. Remy pulled me back before I could slap him again.
“The proper way?” I shot back, shrugging off Remy.
“Just because your pack believes one thing doesn’t mean the practices of another pack are wrong,” Elias insisted. “The parents of these children willingly gave their daughters to our Alpha. They entrusted him to secure the best future for them.”