Chapter 17: Chapter 16 - Auden

Saturday 5 December

~*Auden’s POV*~

I dropped Nat off at the library on my way to the kitchen.

Pausing at the entrance, I watched as she disappeared back into the seat that she’d vacated an hour or so earlier, grabbing out the book she was currently devouring. I would have happily wagered everything I owned on the knowledge that we wouldn’t see her again until dinner time rolled around in another few hours.

Shaking my head at her diligence to go through every single fiction or non-fiction book the pack owned, I started walking towards the kitchen before I heard muffled shouting coming from Takeshi’s office. Even though he took his role as Alpha incredibly seriously, Takeshi was typically a very laid-back type of person. To hear yelling coming from his office was unusual, to say the least.

Knowing that I could see his office door from certain angles in the kitchen, I continued my journey. I needed coffee in the worst way. The years of working as an on-call doctor meant that I now slept especially lightly and woke to pretty much anything, including Nat’s screaming.

Thankfully, it seemed I was the only one still affected by her nightmares, as both Cody and Jackie had become used to Nat’s screaming and could sleep through everything except the very loudest of noises right next to their ears. I knew Jackie was counting the days until Nat would leave our apartment. To say that he wasn’t happy that Cody would continue living with Nat during the camp was the understatement of the millennium, but he finally agreed to the arrangement when Cody threatened to move her university studies interstate. I realised that what she was saying was a bluff, but he hadn’t, and so he panicked, eventually relenting to her demands. Fortunately, Nat was with Tatum and Zelda when the argument occurred, so we had spared her the knowledge of how dysfunctional our family truly was.

Setting the percolator going, I grabbed a cup from the cupboard. I was standing at the counter waiting for the machine to finish doing its thing when Takeshi’s door flew open and Spence stormed out. I watched him angrily navigate the lobby, his shoulders hunched, and hands clenched into stiff fists at his sides.

Looking back towards the office, I could see Takeshi standing in the doorway with his arms folded in front of him. He shook his head with a disappointed scowl before noticing me at the kitchen counter. He wandered over, grabbing a cup of his own from the cabinet.

“Want to talk about it?”

He sighed gloomily. “Not really.”

“Fair enough.”

We waited in silence as the percolator bubbled away.

“It’s just he can be such an arse sometimes!”

I swallowed a grin. I knew he’d want to talk about it, eventually.

Unfortunately, Cody took that exact opportunity to walk into the kitchen.

“Coffee… Give me coffee…” She ignored us entirely, as she grabbed a cup from the cupboard and stood in front of the percolator, blocking it from our view.

I looked at Takeshi and rolled my eyes. Of course, Cody thought her need for caffeine outshone our own. Takeshi grinned back at me; his earlier anger tempered ever-so-slightly.

“I meant to tell you, Auden. I heard from Konstantine the other day,” Takeshi muttered under his breath to me, seemingly trying to keep his voice from carrying to Cody.

“K-bear?” Cody whirled around and stared at us. “You heard from K-BEAR?? How is he? What’s he been up to? Tell me everything! It’s been so long since he called!!”

“Cody.” I glared at her. “Remember what we talked about? How it’s rude to eavesdrop?”

“I ain’t dropping no eaves!” Cody rattled off.

I continued to glare at her. “Enough with the movie quotes, Cody.”

She fluttered her lashes at me, trying to act all innocent.

I wasn’t buying it.

Luckily for her, however, the percolator took that opportunity to finish its percolating and clicked off.

I crossed my arms and pointedly stared at the empty cup in her hands. “You want to get your coffee now, Cody?”

“But…” Her eyes went wide, trying to silently beg me to let her interrogate Takeshi. “But… K-bear…” She bounced her attention to Takeshi, then back to me.

“This is not your conversation to have, Cody.” I stared her down.

The pout that appeared on her face was the biggest I had seen in quite some time, but she wasn’t going to sway me.

“Fine!” She turned back to the percolator, filling her cup to the brim. “You never let me in on any of the news anymore,” Cody murmured to herself before placing the percolator back in its cradle.

I watched her drag her feet out of the kitchen, still hoping against hope that Takeshi would start the conversation again whilst she was within hearing distance.

I held up a hand to stop Takeshi from speaking until I thought Cody was truly gone. “Let’s talk about Konstantine later, yeah? You know what she’s like.” I tilted my head in the direction Cody had just left and rolled my eyes once more in exasperation. Takeshi grinned and nodded his agreement.

“What’s he done this time? Spence, I mean?” I poured the freshly brewed coffee into my cup and motioned for his. He pushed his cup across to me and I waited for his response as I filled it.

“He saw James.”

I finished pouring his cup and set the percolator back, grabbed my own, and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“He what now?”

Takeshi huffed in response, setting his lips in a firm line. He picked up his cup and started walking back to his office. He bobbed his head at me, indicating that he wanted me to follow him.

I walked through his door at the same time he was settling into his chair behind his desk. “Shut the door please, if you wouldn’t mind.”

I obliged, before finding my own spot in the chair opposite him. Wrapping both hands around the hot cup, I breathed in the delicious coffee aroma wafting up to my nose and waited for him to continue.

“Spence was at the Borderlands the night of the full moon and it seems he was the first one to sight James crossing into our territory.”

I raised my eyebrows in shock.

“He knew?!”

“Yeah. A full seven hours before you saw him.”

“What?? And he did nothing?!”

“He said he didn’t think it was important. He said he didn’t recognise the wolf as James.”

I slowly and carefully placed my cup on his desk. “He didn’t think it was important…” I trailed off, not believing what I was hearing.

“Apparently not.” Takeshi scowled in annoyance. “Apparently, he saw a large black wolf from a distance, but he says he thought it was a border jumper, so he alerted Kelly and the other guards, then ignored it.”

I slowly frowned as I thought about what he was saying. “Well, that’s understandable. If he thought James was a border jumper, he followed the usual protocol.”

Every year, Kinglake would bulk up their border patrols in anticipation of the annual Fated Mates Ball. Our pack had a long-standing arrangement with the State Council that Ball attendees could use our lands on the night of the full moon closest to the Ball. We instructed every guest to steer clear of what we called the ‘Borderlands’, the stretch of land where our pack border met Kinglake’s. Most of the time there weren’t any issues, but there were always a few wolves that would try to cause trouble and attempt to make their way to the Borderlands.

Our guards caught most of them before they got too close, but inevitably there was the occasional wolf that would get through our lines. We termed them ‘border jumpers’. Kinglake always shored up their border with more guards to catch them, and no amount of negotiation from our side would get them to surrender the captured wolves back to us or to their original packs.

We never heard from the captured border jumpers again.

We had tried everything we could to stop wolves from trying to jump the borders, knowing that they would get captured, then presumably tortured and killed if they got through, but nothing we said ever seemed to work. It almost felt like the young wolves treated it as a game, a bizarre rite of passage that arose out of boredom. Every time Kinglake captured someone, we would issue an alert to all attending packs advising them of what had happened. The border jumping attempts would die down for a couple of years, but then complacency would set back in, and the efforts would ramp up again, and continue to get worse until they captured the next wolf.

It was a vicious cycle that we could do nothing to prevent.

Typically, Kinglake would then ease their numbers in the days that followed the Ball full moon, until their standard guard would remain.

Takeshi nodded. “I agree. He did follow the usual protocol. What isn’t usual protocol is not sharing the bloody news with me until today. Five whole days after he fucking saw him.” His voice rose in anger.

“What?”

Takeshi took a deep breath in, trying to calm himself. “When he saw James, he followed procedure by telling Kelly and the guards and they all kicked into gear. Unfortunately, everyone lost track of him until you found Nat at the Black Spur the next morning.”

“Little wonder there. They were headed away from the Borderlands, not towards it.” I paused, following what he was saying. “Spence never saw Nat?”

Takeshi shook his head.

“Have they confirmed that the wolf I saw at the Black Spur was, in fact, James? Maybe Spence didn’t know.”

Takeshi nodded with an angry sigh. He lifted his hands to rub his temples as he tried to rid himself of the headache he undoubtedly had. “They scented the area later that day and Kelly confirmed it was James. There were several other scents, but because we haven’t met Nat’s wolf yet, we can’t determine which one was hers and which were Ball attendees.” He paused as I felt the anger rising from him again. “Spence was with Kelly when the confirmation came through. But that’s not the worst part about this whole mess. I’m sorry I haven’t told you sooner, but James was able to make it back with none of our guards catching up to him.”

“Fuck.”

“My sentiments exactly.”

“How the hell did the Kinglake Alpha get so far into our lands and then back out again without getting caught?!”

Takeshi grimaced, his jaw grinding audibly. “I don’t know. And that’s what bothers me more than anything else. None of what I’ve heard from our guards or Spence so far has instilled much confidence. I’ve ordered an audit of current protocols to see where the gaps are. I’m hoping to hear from Kelly in the next week about the results.”

I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “They should have picked up the scent much earlier than they did. And not just with Nat, but with James as well.”

He nodded unhappily. “Exactly. It’ll be interesting to see if the audit agrees with us.” He picked up a scrap of paper in front of him and began to shred it into tiny pieces. It was a nervous habit he had developed after the deaths of his family. “Kelly told me earlier today that Kinglake haven’t lifted their reinforcements like they usually do after the Ball. It’s like they’re waiting for us to do something.”

I took a sharp breath in. “They know we have Nat.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “Well, at least James does. And you know how much control he wields over that pack.”

I got up and started pacing the room. “Maybe they’re waiting for us to approach them to do a prisoner swap? But it’s been days… Why wouldn’t they have tried to start negotiations for her return?”

“I have no idea.”

“Maybe they don’t want her back…? But why chase her so far into our territory if they didn’t want her back? Why risk it? And why did James, of all people, chase her? Why not one of his guards?”

“I don’t know. None of this is making any sense to me yet.”

“There’s something going on here we’re not seeing,” I said, lost in thought. I anxiously twisted my hands in front of me as I paced. “And I’m willing to bet that it’s locked away in Nat’s brain somewhere.”

“Maybe she knows something that they think will make us want to attack them?” Takeshi tossed the paper he still had in his hands onto his desk before crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair. “But what would be so bad that would make us do something like that? James knows we don’t want war. Not after what happened after Black Saturday.”

“Maybe they don’t know she’s got amnesia?” I paused my pacing as I pondered this for a moment. “Goddess, Takeshi… What the hell was she running from?”

“I don’t know. But I’m assuming that whatever it is concerns the entire Kinglake pack. They wouldn’t continue to go to all this trouble if it was minor.”

“Do you think this could endanger us?”

“They don’t have the numbers for a full-scale attack, but if they really wanted to, they would have made a move already.” Takeshi frowned in concentration.

I started my pacing again. “Have you heard from your Bunyip friend yet? Maybe she could shed some light on all of this.”

“She hasn’t responded to any of my calls yet.”

I tilted my head in consideration. “She must be busy. You’re one of the few that she likes. I thought you would have heard from her by now.”

A tiny, wry grin appeared on his face, but he remained silent.

I slowed my pacing before leaning onto the back of the chair I had been sitting in. “Speaking of calls, you mentioned earlier that Konstantine phoned. Why’d you do it in front of Cody? You know what she’s like about him.”

A slow, evil grin spread across his face. “I wanted to see if she still had a thing for him. It’s been years… I wondered if she’d gotten past it.”

I glared at him. “Thanks for that. You know she’ll be lying in wait back in the apartment to interrogate me, right?”

He laughed. “You’re welcome.”

I growled at him, which just made him laugh harder. He could be just as obnoxious as she was. I figured it was easier to change the subject than continue this dead-end argument. “How’s he doing? Cody wasn’t wrong — it has been ages since we heard from him. Was it about the twins? What have they done now?”

The laughter dropped almost immediately. “Not about the twins. Well… Not technically. He’s in a spot of bother. He found his fated mate.”

I dropped my jaw in delighted shock. “Really? That’s awesome news!”

Takeshi grimaced.

“Wait. That’s not awesome news, is it?” As I watched his shoulders slump, the excitement drained out of me. “What’s wrong?”

“Remember that call we got about eight months ago? About the twins accidentally chasing a woman off a cliff?” he began.

I cast my mind back. “Yeah… Vaguely. A lot’s happened between then and now, Takeshi. Especially when it comes to the twins.”

“The woman that fell? She was Konstantine’s mate.”

The colour fell from my face. “The twins almost killed his mate?? Oh, dear Goddess…” I brought my palms to my cheeks. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

“You know she pulled through. She’s fine. But we will need to do something about the twins. If even Konstantine can’t keep them in line, we’ll need to find another solution.” He hesitated. “That’s not why he called, though.” He looked up at me with sadness in his eyes.

I waited for him to continue. “What happened?”

“She’s human. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her about our world, so he let her go.” He paused.

I waited, as it felt like the worst news was yet to come.

“But he didn’t reject her.”

I sighed sadly. “And it’s been eight months?” I murmured. I knew where this was headed.

“Yeah.”

“That’s not good, Takeshi.”

“I know.” He, too, sighed sadly. “Konstantine’s struggling. He wanted some guidance on how to cope.”

“Apart from finding her and rejecting her?” I frowned in thought. “Well… We could send him some of that potion that your Bunyip friend made for us when we were grieving.”

He pondered what I was proposing. Back when we lost our loved ones, we were struggling to survive, not only mentally, but physically as well. When it looked like we weren’t going to make it through our grief, his friend had come to the rescue at the last possible moment and given us a concoction that helped ease the pain we were experiencing. We both owed her our lives.

“I don’t know if it will work with him. Her potion was quite specific. She made it sound like it would only work on those whose mates had passed, not those that had decided not to complete the mating process without rejection.” Takeshi stroked his stubbled chin as he thought about it before his eyes cleared, showing that he’d come to a conclusion on the matter. “I guess there wouldn’t be any harm in asking her.”

I nodded in agreement. I did a little thinking of my own. “Do you think she’d be up to mixing a sleeping potion for Nat at the same time? She’s still having nightmares.”

He leaned forward to make a note of it on one of the larger scraps of paper littered on his desk. “I’ll mention both potions during my next call. No guarantees, though.” He paused. “How’s Nat doing otherwise?”

I sat back down and picked up my now cold cup of coffee from his desk, swirling it around to see if there was any way to salvage it. “Apart from her memory loss and the nightmares, she seems fine. Cody loves her; Jackie hates her. You know. The usual.” I shrugged.

Takeshi let out a quiet snort. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from Jackie.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I can’t say that I would disagree with you there. I’d have a greater chance of seeing pigs flying and hell freezing over before I see Jackie like anyone new. He’s happier now that she’s moving out for the camp, but he’s furious that the two of them are sharing an apartment.”

He laughed. “He’ll get over it, eventually. Are they both ready for the camp?”

“They move in tomorrow. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Cody so excited about something.”

A huge smile lit up his face. “Good, good.” The camp was the one thing he looked forward to the most every year. For a workaholic such as himself, the camps were a way he could have some fun, without actually taking any time off work. He took great pride in organising the best activities for the teens that he could. I had to wonder if he did that because he knew he’d be taking part alongside them.

After the heartache he’d suffered over the years, no-one could deny him the small amount of happiness the camps gave him every year. He really was just a big kid at heart.