Page 37 of Wolf Trapped
“We are going away for a while. There was an incident, and I need everyone safe.” I say with a sigh.
She gets up woodenly and moves to the closet without another word. She moves slowly, her movements robotic. I fucking hate it.
I stomp from the room, not bothering to lock the door since we are leaving anyway. I take the stairs two at a time, finding Angela in my office, sitting back in my chair. “Don’t let this go to your head or anything.” I chuckle.
“I’m in charge, so I get the good chair.” She says with a grin.
“I need someone to remove the scorch marks in the clearing before we get back. I don’t want any more pack members seeing that.” Especially Jara, but I keep that to myself.
“I’ll ask Alex to take care of it, though with how he has been acting, he might already be on it.” She shakes her head, but there’s a small smile there. I hope she’s not jumping into anything with the man too quickly.
I grab my laptop and the charger before walking out into the foyer. Jara hasn’t come down yet, so I walk back upstairs to find Jara sitting with her back to me on the bed. “Are you packed?” I ask, and she nods. I didn’t lock the door, so why did she wait for me to return? I may have gone too far this time.
“C’mon then.” I grab her bag, the computer, and the tablet and walk out of the room. Her shuffling steps are the only indication that she’s following me.
When I open the door, Patrick looks panicked. “Alpha, I found him. He was just outside the b…” I shoot him a look, and he stops immediately, eyes widening at Jara behind me. “The area the incident occurred. He had deep claw marks on his leg and was losing a lot of blood.”
“Where is he?” I ask, squaring my shoulders.
“I took him to the healer. He’s more pissed that the rogue got away than anything.” He chuckles without mirth.
“What did Marie say?” I ask, moving to the truck and setting the bags in the back seat.
“He will be fine after he shifts a couple of times, and she was able to stitch him up to stop the bleeding.” He blows out a relieved breath.
I open the door, and Jara gets in robotically and sits quietly in the front seat.
“Good. Thanks for letting me know.” I reach over Jara and buckle her seat belt. Since she isn’t doing anything, it’s frustrating me more than I would like to admit.
“Of course, Alpha. Stay safe.” Patrick jogs off toward the forest. He’s still on patrol. It’s more important than ever now that we know the rogue is still in the woods.
Walking around to my side of the truck, I hop in, start the engine, and peer over at Jara’s pale face. Has she not been eating? Her eyes have dark circles under them, but they also have red rings, as if she’s been crying. I’m not okay with my mate crying, not because it shows weakness but because it means she’s unhappy.
I gaze at the road, put the truck into drive, and start down the old dirt road. We are going a couple of miles up into the mountains that make up the southern border of my territory, but it will take some time to get there because the access roads are small and seldom used.
I periodically peer over at my mate, who just stares out her window. “You will have a little more freedom out here, Jara. It’s off the beaten path, and the only person who knows it exists is dead.” She looks over at me sharply, and I shrug.
It’s the truth. I hate the cabin in the mountains my father built to escape pack politics.
“My father built it as an escape.” I stare at the road ahead. “I haven’t been out here since before his death,” I say his death like it wasn’t by my hand. He would have never given up his pack, and he was hurting them more than helping them. It was necessary.
“If you don’t like this place, why are we going?” Jara whispers.
“Something happened, and it’s best for all if you aren’t in the center of the pack.” I keep it vague. For the best of the pack and my mate, we remove ourselves from the situation.
We need to find the rogue sooner rather than later before he hurts anyone else in the pack.
13
JARA
“This is it,” Archer says, opening the door to the tiny cabin.
I follow him into the dusty space. It’s cozy and cute, with an unlit fireplace with an overstuffed red couch in front of it that would be amazing to curl up on under a blanket in front of a roaring fire.
“You don’t have to stay in the bedroom here. But stay close to the house. There is still a rogue out there.”
I nod but don’t respond, and Archer sighs. He opens the door off the side of the entrance and shows me the small bedroom. The place is exactly as he said. It’s a place of escape, and I kind of love it. I don’t let Archer know that, though.
