“Not a bad idea,” Remy replied as his phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and frowned at the screen. “It’s Dante.”
He tapped the answer button and lifted the phone to his ear with a short, “Yeah?” He listened for a few seconds and then added, “Okay. See you in a few.”
“What’s up?” I pressed as he shoved his phone back into his pocket.
“Dante found the basement,” he answered quietly. “There’s quite a few people in there. He’s bringing them up, but … it’s more than we thought.”
“Sierra?” Maren asked.
Remy nodded. “He said she’s there. She doesn’t look so good. Apparently they were left without food and water when everyone packed up a few days ago. We need to finish up and get everyone out of this place.”
“I’ll find Elias,” Katy said, giving me a tight smile and leaving with Maren.
“What are we going to do with all of these people?” I asked quietly, looking out into the hallway where girls were lined up, waiting for more instructions.
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly, “but we’re not leaving them behind.”
“Some of them might want to go home to their families,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but some of them came from families who handed them over to this place when they were infants.”
“Who could do that?” I wondered quietly. “Who could just give up their child?”
“I don’t know,” he said again, this time sadder. He reached for me and pulled me against his side. “But we’ll figure it out.”
“We always do,” I added, leaning into him.
58
Remy
Sixteen girls were still missing by our count when we left Norwood. We’d arranged for a lot of the girls and women to go home to their packs, but we still had a lot of girls who didn’t have a home.
Bringing them back to Blackwater with us was really the only option for the time being.
Since none of the females had any kind of identification, we brought them back on our private plane. After a six hour, cross-country flight, the smell of their fear and anxiety was grating on my nerves.
Skye’s hand smoothed across mine as the plane touched down in Blackwater once again. Hopefully we wouldn’t need the damn plane again for a while; I was sick of it.
“We’re home,” she murmured softly, her eyes scanning the small crowd waiting for us.
“Finally,” I muttered back, already unbuckling my seatbelt. My wolf grumbled, unhappy as the overpowering scents of fear reached a new height.
“They’re scared,” Skye said, giving me a small smile.
I nodded. “I know, but …”
“But the Alpha in you hates not being able to make them feel better,” she deduced with a soft laugh.
“Maybe this was the wrong call, bringing them back here.”
“You gave each of them a choice, Remy,” she pointed out, squeezing my hand as we stood up.
“I know. But some of them are just kids.” I glanced around at the new faces.
We’d brought back thirteen girls and women who had nowhere else to go after we raided the compound and set everyone free. The oldest was my mom’s age and the youngest was maybe two years old.
But one face was missing in the group I had hoped to bring home.
“You couldn’t force Sierra to come with us,” Skye whispered sadly. “She wanted to be on her own.”
“Her parents would want her back,” I replied.
When we’d found Sierra in the basement of the building, she’d looked nothing like the girl who used to flounce around Granite Peak Academy like she owned the place. Her long blonde hair had been hacked into uneven strands that hung limply around her blank blue eyes. Her skin was sallow and pulled taut over sharp bones, enhanced by a clear lack of nutrition.
Sierra had made my life hell at one point, and she definitely wasn’t a friend to Katy, Larkin, or Skye, but the need to protect her was still strong. She looked utterly beaten down.
The only fight she had shown was when I said I was taking her home. She was adamant about not going to Blackwater, and she wouldn’t even look at Skye or me.
Skye and Katy had convinced me to leave her alone. She was eighteen now, and if she wanted to be on her own, then that was her right. Even if I wanted to force the issue, it was taken out of my hands when she managed to slip away during the chaos of corralling everyone and contacting packs and parents to collect the people we’d found.
Dimitri, Lulu, and Alexei had stayed behind with a group from Narodnaya to help with reuniting everyone and keep an eye on the now Alpha-less Norwood pack until we could figure out what to do with the pack.
Skye and I filed into the aisle, waiting for the door to open for us, to disembark.
“I want to call a council meeting for this evening,” I told Rhodes as we paused by where he and Larkin were sitting. “We need to finalize everything that’s happened and figure out where to go from here.”
“No rest for the weary,” Larkin said with a shrug.
Rhodes simply nodded. “I’ll contact everyone.”
“I’ll talk to my mom,” Skye added. “We can have her bring in food for everyone.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed as the door pulled open to reveal the warm Washington morning sun. I exited first, making sure Skye was behind me, as we started down the stairs.
Skye’s soft gasp when we reached the bottom made me turn, but her eyes were staring at the crowd beyond me. A slow, gorgeous smile spread across her face, and she took off running with a laugh.
She ran across the tarmac and straight into the arms of my dad.
Relief hit me so hard and fast that I was dizzy. It had been weeks since I’d seen him upright.
He laughed as he hugged Skye back. And a second later, Katy was pushing past me to run to him, too.
I took my time, watching for any signs of weakness or problems, but my worry disappeared when he grinned at me.
“Hey, kiddo,” he greeted, pulling me into a hug.
“Are you—” I cleared my throat, swallowing around the tangle of emotions. “Are you okay?”
“Doctors gave him a clean bill of health last night,” Mom said, leaning around him to hug me quickly.
“That’s awesome!” Katy cried, hugging him again.
Mom framed my face with her hands. “You did it, baby.”
I glanced over to where Skye was hugging her Mom and then to where Maren was reuniting with her parents, and lastly to my friends gathered around me.
“We did it,” I corrected.
“We’re proud of you, Remy,” Dad told me fiercely, hugging me hard enough to crack a rib.
“I called a council meeting for tonight,” I told him. “If that’s okay?”
Dad paused for a second and then nodded. “You’re the Alpha.”
It was a strange feeling walking into the council room again. It was fuller than the last time, and now at least I had Skye walking in next to me. Everyone looked up as we entered, clearly the last to arrive.
I paused when I saw Dad standing behind the head of the table, his hands curled around the top of the seat reserved for the Alpha of the Blackwater pack.