Chapter 56: Maps

Corinne

I stand before this big group of intimidating leaders, and I feel almost faint with anxiety. I hope that I don’t disgrace myself even further by passing out right in front of them. It would have been so much easier if they had let Amelia stay. Or Evan.

But at least I have Evan’s sweatshirt, and I smell his scent in the fabric that is covering me and keeping me warm. I have already gotten somewhat accustomed to his scent, and it brings enough familiarity that I don’t feel utterly alone.

One of the women sitting at the table gets up and comes over to me. She has reddish-brown hair, and is offering me a sympathetic smile. “It is good to meet you, Corrine,” she says, as though this is just a friendly introduction and not an interrogation. I think she means to put me at ease, but it almost seems scarier. Is she trying to soften me up, so that one of these others can have more of an impact when they are harsher? Good wolf/bad wolf?

I nod at her, not sure what else to do. She puts an arm around me, and leads me to sit at one of the chairs around the large table. I perch at the front of the seat, literally on edge, while she walks around a couple of seats away and takes her chair again.

She indicates the huge bearded man next to her, wearing a t-shirt that shows his powerful arms are covered with tattoos. “This is Alpha Ross of the Dark Woods pack,” she says, and he stares at me with his terrifying fierce eyes. Dark Woods pack is the one that we attacked on the road the other day, and this Alpha would be within his rights to kill me right this instant for the crime I committed against him. He is so enormous I know that he could do it with a single swipe of his huge hand. I drop my eyes, unable to meet his gaze.

The woman continues speaking, and I hesitantly look back up at her, avoiding the gaze of the scary Alpha. “I am Luna Darlene of the Dark Woods pack,” she says. She is mated to this intimidating giant?

Apparently she is going to introduce me to everyone. She goes on, indicating the brown-haired man sitting on her other side, who I recognize as being the one who first approached me standing next to the car on the 299 last week, another man entitled to kill me. “This is Beta Nolan, also of Dark Woods pack. One of your friends, Evan, is his assistant. Another of your friends, Dominic, is also from our pack.”

Interesting that she points out these connections to me. I really do think she is trying to make me feel more comfortable, but again I don’t know if it is only to put me off my guard for when things get tough later. I wrap my arms around myself, wearing Evan’s sweatshirt, and it feels like he is here too, just a bit.

Darlene indicates the people sitting on the other side of the table. She gestures to a big light-skinned man with long blond hair who looks like a Viking, and says, “This is Alpha Kanen of River Moon pack, whose packhouse we are in right now. This is their territory.” He stares at me too, but seems less angry than Alpha Ross, probably because at least I didn’t take part in an attack against River Moon. I’m glad he doesn’t look that angry, because I have harbored a secret desire to join his pack, and if he already hated me that hope would be dead on arrival.

Darlene then says, “This is Luna Janine of River Moon,” pointing to a young woman with pale skin and long dark hair, very similar to mine, who actually smiles at me. One thing I’ll say, these two women seem friendlier than the men, who are definitely not smiling. Same as in our rogue gang.

She introduces the final two men from River Moon as Beta Malcolm, a large black man, and Gamma Michael, a surprisingly mild-appearing man with light brown hair. She adds, “Their assistants are your friends too. Theo is Beta Malcolm’s assistant, and Amelia is Gamma Michael’s assistant.”

I nod, and look down at the table in front of me, feeling the weight of their eyes on me. All seven of them are watching me, expecting something from me. How much will this hurt, I wonder. I remember how enemies were questioned back before I was exiled, and how Xavier would get information out of people. I hope that I can somehow protect my baby through whatever is about to happen. Will it be here, or will I be taken somewhere else, some interrogation chamber to be tortured?

My hands are shaking, but I am hiding them inside the sweatshirt sleeves.

I hear one of the River Moon people get up, and I close my eyes and flinch, expecting it to begin, but instead of a blow landing, something is set onto the table in front of me. I open my eyes to see that Gamma Michael is standing next to my chair, laying a huge map down on the table in front of me.

He points to a part of the map, then takes a marker he is holding and puts a red dot there. “This is where we are now, at the River Moon packhouse,” he says. He marks another red dot. “This is where the cave is that you described.” He marks an X over that dot. I follow his fingers as they trace along a line on the map. “This is the 299 freeway,” he says, “and this” - another red dot - “is where you ambushed Dark Woods.”

I flinch again, expecting to be cuffed for this. How could a leader mention my attack on a pack without beating me for it? But no blow lands. Instead he continues pointing out a few other landmarks and locations on the map. Arcata, some other roads and freeways, the coastline.

He puts another paper down on top of the map, and I see it is the rough diagram I helped Amelia put together with the locations of the rogues’ cave network.

“We want to correlate the locations of these caves with this more detailed map,” he says.

There is a full minute of silence while seven people stare at me, and I stare at the two pieces of paper on the table, and nobody hits me at all.

Is this it? I really am only being asked for information? Just to help fill in their map? Can it be possible that I am not about to be beaten to a pulp? That seems so unlikely, but….

I hesitantly pick up another pen, and move my hand along the map. I glance up, and Darlene is nodding her head at me encouragingly. I look down at the map. There are a lot of lines here that I don’t really understand, but I think I can sort of understand the roads and some of the other areas. The red dots help put things in perspective.

I start with the cave that is closest to the one they already explored. “Um,” I say, in a very small voice, still so intimidated by all of these leaders, their authority oozing off of them, “there’s another one near here.”

Michael leans in, watching my hand. Luna Janine gets up too, and comes over to lean against the table on my other side.

I don’t know how long it takes, but eventually we have filled in the map. I haven’t marked exact dots, because I can’t be precisely sure, but with this map, and some others, and some pictures that they pull up on laptops, I’m able to at least give them some circles on the map, showing more or less the areas where they should be able to locate the cave entrances.

My expectation of being beaten, or tortured, or hurt, is diminishing with every minute that I pass in this room full of pack leaders. I’m still completely intimidated, but I am becoming less afraid.

Finally, I really do think I have told them everything I know about the locations. We keep coming back to the same questions, and I keep having to say that I don’t know. I’ve exhausted my store of knowledge. Even now, they don’t beat me to make sure I’m not holding something back.

Alpha Kanen has been watching keenly, but silently, throughout the entire afternoon. He participates for the first time, after Gamma Michael rolls up the map and it doesn’t seem like anyone has any other questions. Kanen puts a cell phone on the table in front of him. Gamma Michael comes to pick it up and puts it on the table in front of me.

“Do you recognize this?” Michael asks me.

I don’t dare touch it. I’m not sure why they are showing me a phone. But I lean my head forward, to take a little sniff of it. Even in our human forms, wolves always want to check the scent of things. It’s instinctive.

And it provides me information that I wasn’t expecting to have. I do recognize it. My eyes widen and I look up at the Gamma. “Yes,” I whisper. “It belongs to Seth.”

“One of the rogues?” Alpha Kanen asks, the first time I have heard him speak.

I nod. “Seth is Xavier’s second-in-command.” I try not to screw up my face, try not to get emotional. I sense Darlene looking at me from across the table, and when I meet her eyes, as she watches me with a look of quizzical sympathy, I lose a bit of my self-control. I sniff and wipe my sleeve across my face. Nobody mentions it.

“Do you know the passcode?” Michael asks.

“Um,” I say, and try to think of what Seth might use. “I, uh, I don’t know.” I cringe a little, thinking this will finally be the failure that triggers violence.

But instead, Michael instructs me, quite mildly, “Give it some thought. Let us know if you think of anything.”

There is a minute of silence while the leaders glance across the table at each other, then Alpha Kanen says, “That’s enough for now.”

Darlene stands, and comes to me. “Come along,” she says, “I’ll show you where there’s a bathroom, then I’ll take you in to dinner.”

Bathroom? Dinner? I expected to be in a dungeon by now recovering from a beating. I still feel entirely off-kilter. But I definitely need to pee, so I’m glad that Darlene is considerate enough to offer this to me.

As we exit the conference room, I see that Amelia and Evan and Theo are all standing just outside, leaning against the walls, waiting. They offer me smiles as I walk past, and I think that Evan especially seems very relieved to see that I am still in one piece. I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to talk to them again.