Draven was sleeping soundly in the downstairs living room of Jack and Bonnie’s house, when a hurried knock on the front door coincided with his phone ringing on the coffee table next to the sofa he laid on. He got up and snatched up his phone as he went to the front door, looking through the peephole before opening the door — Jack’s mate and kids were upstairs sleeping, there was no such thing as being too careful.
Recognizing the male at the door, he unlocked the door and pulled it open at the same time he swiped his finger across his phone screen. “Dane? What’s going on?” he asked, as he finally read the message from Paxton, who was overseeing security that night.
“Alpha Grail’s mate, their kids and some of their Pride are here requesting sanctuary. They’re in bad shape.”
“Alpha Grail’s mate has arrived with her kids and some of her Pride. They’re requesting sanctuary. I ran ahead to talk to you before they made it up here to make sure Jack wanted to grant sanctuary.”
“Yes! They saved Bonnie. Bring them here, now. I’ll wake Bonnie and call Jack,” Draven said.
At just that moment Bonnie, wearing sweats and her bathrobe, and her feet covered in thick socks and shoved into her house slippers, rushed into the room from her bedroom. “I’m here. What do we know?” she asked, slipping her phone into thepocket of her bathrobe after reading the message she’d received at the same time Draven had.
“She said they were attacked, and are lucky to have escaped. They came here because they didn’t know where else to go,” Dane said.
“Draven’s right. Bring them here, and treat them with the utmost respect. They saved me, personally,” Bonnie said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Dane said, turning to head back down the mountain, as he typed out a message to Paxton.
“Tell them drive right up here and park wherever they want. We’ll work out where everyone is staying later,” Bonnie said.
Dane turned back to her with a weird expression on his face. “There are no vehicles,” he said.
“What do you mean there are no vehicles?” Bonnie asked.
“They’re on foot. They walked. They have nothing but the clothes on their backs,” Dane explained.
Bonnie’s eyes widened in surprise, but she recovered quickly. “Take four wheelers, side by sides, trucks, whatever you need depending on how many are waiting. Don’t make them have to walk all the way up this mountain. Bring them here and we’ll find places for everybody.”
“On it,” Dane said, sending out a message to those he knew were stationed at the top of the mountain to help move the new arrivals from the base of it up to Alpha’s house.
“We have the extra houses Titus is building. He’s got some completed, and there’s only one or two unfinished but even they’ve got walls and a roof. They’re enclosed just not finished on the inside,” Draven said.
“If it comes to it, we’ll access those, but first let’s get them here and get them fed and taken care of.”
Bonnie turned and headed quickly for the staircase.
“What are you doing? You need help?”
“Gathering spare blankets, towels, some clothes. I’m going to turn on the lights in yours and Rance's, and the spare bedroom up here. There are bathrooms in all of them, everybody can get cleaned up. I’m putting Gwen and her kids in the spare one. Niko is really the only one that uses his room up here anymore so I’m not going to put anybody in it without his permission, but I wonder if I should consider putting someone in Rance’s room?”
“You can put somebody in mine. I sleep down here anyway when Jack’s not here, and since Brinnley arrived, like you said, I’m not here much otherwise,” Draven said.
Bonnie nodded as she ran up the stairs, returning only minutes later with her arms full. “Draven! I need to get some food together, too. They’ll be hungry.”
“We’ll get it taken care of, Bonnie. They’ll understand that it’s the middle of the night.”
“Call Findley. They helped her, too, she’ll want to help us take care of them,” Bonnie said. “And anybody else you can think of that might want to help.”
Minutes later Findley arrived, wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top she’d obviously slept in. “I’m here,” she called out as she walked right into the house without knocking.
“Cook something!” Bonnie asked from where she stood in the living room, yanking her hair up into a ponytail. “I don’t care what. Gwen and some of her people are on the way up. They’ve requested sanctuary and they’re on foot. They’ll be starving.”
“Got it,” Findley said, going straight to the kitchen and pulling things out of the fridge. She turned on the burners on the stove and ripped open packages of steaks and sliced them into strips before adding them, bell peppers — red and green, and some onions to the skillets she’d set on the burners, then she started a pot of rice on the back burner.
There was a tap on the door and when Bonnie opened it, Jessica, Alison, and a few of the other females of the Pride stood there anxiously with blankets, soft socks, pillows, and sweatshirts, while two or three of them had their arms full of Tupperware dishes filled with leftovers.
“Forgive the interruption, Reigna, but Draven said we’ve granted sanctuary to some of the Gamieyon Pride’s women and children. We’ve brought clothes and food and blankets. We’re here to help,” Jessica said.
“Thank you!” Bonnie said, hugging Jessica before standing back and allowing them all into her home. “Findley is in the kitchen throwing together some food. Just… jump in wherever you think help is needed.”
