Chapter 19: Chapter 19~ Barbies and Questions

Althea’s POV~ As we sit here..in the office..in the silence that followed that strange phone call..we just stare at each other…finally, Dillon looks up and says “He was talking about Sydney. Right?” And that was all it took. Every single one of us lost it! It was, most likely, an extremely dangerous situation for her…but Damn! She went from the frying pan into the fire! I said…”Okay. Let’s look at this logically. We assume Michael has Sydney..and he somehow, believes she is your mate. And he wants to trade her for me. So..how did he find Sydney? Are they somehow connected? I mean, they are both certifiably insane? Do crazy people just gravitate towards each other? Where did he find her? Does he have people close enough to be watching our pack? No..no..if that were true, he would know I am Luna and Sydney is as crazy as a soup sandwich.. so did she stumble into one of his lackeys who took a liking to her and she played the Luna card to try and get herself out of a sticky situation? But..that still leaves the coincidence of the whole situation. I have to talk to Aunt Dee!”

The guys sat there looking at the door she had just stormed out of..Caleb looked at the door..back at Roman…then at the door…and said “The fuck was that? She just rattled off a bunch of crap. And stormed out?” And Roman said “she’ll be back…she’s processing “ and the Dillon said “I just don’t get why she doesn’t just poof herself where she wants to go and poof back!? She’s a witch, right? Can’t all witches poof?” Roman looked at him for a long minute…wondering why it never occurred to him that Dillon seems to be three bricks shy of a load sometimes.. He said “Althea is a fire witch…and while she has many gifts..teleportation isn’t one of them” Dillon nods and says “Ohhhhh” like he was just given the answers to the universe.. Roman says “Caleb, can we access the video surveillance at the academy? I wasn’t concerned about what happened before because it seemed pretty self-explanatory..but now, I am questioning a few things. Look into Dean Madden’s background..he seemed a decent enough man, but he was one of my father’s hires and I really never questioned it. He certainly was a little off-center yesterday. He has always presented a confident and intelligent persona..but maybe that’s all it is..a persona. I think we should detain him..maybe do a little interrogation.” Brent linked the guards at the academy and told them to bring Madden to the packhouse. Roman said “Althea is right. This all seems to be too much of a coincidence. Two many pieces aren’t fitting together. And the only one I believe about the whole scenario is a 16 year old kid with a broken heart.” He stood up and said “Let’s move into the conference room. We can all look at the security tapes on the tv in there. If we all choose a different camera feed maybe one of us will spot something crucial “ He linked John and Neil, asking for a meeting in conference. Althea and Deidre were walking back toward the office when they met up with Neil, who told them everyone was in the conference room. They all walked in together. Roman looks at the group of people he has come to look at as his closest family and smiled. Good people! He has been blessed. Althea walked over and climbed into Roman’s lap and he whispered “all better?” And she nodded. Roman explained the situation, as they know it..and they know very little. Roman said “By getting his hands on Sydney, Michael assumed he had leverage. Shit! I would have paid him to take her. But here we are. John, can you get some trackers close to GoldenMoon safely? It could be dangerous, as he’s been building an army. And I don’t want to jeopardize any of our men..” Caleb turned and said video feeds coming online as he pulled the 70 inch projection screen down. Neil whistled low and said Nice! Caleb divided the 8 camera feeds on the screen. The cameras were strategically placed to show all critical points at the academy. The last one being the dean’s office. Roman looked at the screen and said “eliminate the cafeteria feed. It’s too occupied and wide open for anything nefarious to happen. We all choose a camera feed and see what we can see” Caleb said “how far back do I go? I mean..what day should we start watching from?” Roman said “Go back to the day our girls arrived. I realize that’s a lot of time to cover, but we need to know when first contact occurred…if contact occurred. And we need to do our due diligence “ John spoke up and said “I just sent two of our best to scope out GoldenMoon. Made sure to tell them to have their SatCom phones on them and their location beacons.” Roman nodded. Caleb said “The feed is ready to start.” Althea linked Martha to ask her to arrange snacks and coffee. It was going to be a long day. Roman passed out pads and pens saying “Write down anything you think looks suspicious..no matter how trivial. Then we can all compare notes. At anytime you need the feed rewound, just speak up.” And Caleb rolled video. They all got comfortable and started watching. About 45 minutes later, Martha brought a tray with snacks and coffee and bottled water. They had reached the date Sydney was admitted. They watched her yell at the dean and trash his office..Althea said “Is there sound? Can we hear what they’re saying?” Caleb punched a few buttons and we heard “Well..I don’t care about your mate! You better tell him to get me out of here, If he wants Sioux River!!” Roman said…back that up to when she walked in… and he went back to Sydney’s arrival. Normal conversation until the dean said “what did you do to land you here? It makes you singularly useless, at this point” She jumped up and spewed a bunch of nonsense about that new witch in town trying to usurp her position as Luna. And a lot of blustering about getting even. He tried to placate her and calm her down..he said “well..in this report, it says you attacked two people in front of the Alpha.. What did you think was going to happen?” She yelled “Happen?? What did I think would happen? I assumed he would have my back! I am Luna damn it! And entitled to the privileges..as such!” He said..”well you are stuck here for six months and there’s nothing I can do about it” She started throwing things and yelled “you better figure it out and make a few phone calls” He said “ My hands are tied! He has my mate! Goddess damn it! I can’t help you when I can’t help my mate! What do you expect me to do?” And she repeated what we had already heard. She was escorted to her quarters after that and as we watched the dean he sat down and put his head in his hands..after several moments, they saw his shoulders shaking and heard a sob. Caleb paused the feeds and looked around the room. Well that was interesting. Just then a knock at the door alerted them to the dean’s arrival. Althea smiled and said “Hello again,Dean.. Have a seat. We want to talk about Barbie. We have questions…..