The women entered the house and immediately started organizing everything they’d brought with them. The three holding Tupperware containers went into the kitchen and began setting up a buffet of their leftovers and leaving space for the food Findley was cooking.
Bonnie stuck her head in. “Just let me know if anything comes up you’re not sure how to handle.”
“What is happening? Did Gwen say why they’re asking for sanctuary?” Findley asked.
Bonnie looked almost stricken when she answered. “I haven’t talked to her yet, but Dane said they were attacked and she’d said they were lucky to have gotten away.”
“Where’s Alpha Grail?” Findley whispered.
“I don’t know,” Bonnie answered.
“Bonnie, they’re starting to arrive,” Draven said, as he walked up behind her holding his phone to his ear.
“I’m coming,” Bonnie said, as she rushed to the front door and opened it wide. She stood there as she watched a side by side in the distance as it drew closer. It came to a stop and Gwen slowly slid off the passenger seat, almost looking like shewas more in physical pain than emotional. She waited while her twin toddlers got down from the side by side and she held their hands as she walked around it and toward the house, not even bothering to look up at the house until she was almost right beside it. The fatigue and pain in her face told Bonnie more than any words could have. This was a female struggling to hold herself together for her babies and her people despite knowing that her entire way of life had just been ripped away from her.
Gwen’s gaze swept across the front of the house, stopping when it landed on Bonnie.
“Gwen!” Bonnie called out, hurrying off the porch and to her side. She wrapped Gwen in her arms and held her for a few brief moments while Gwen let herself lean on Bonnie before she remembered her people needed her to be strong, her boys needed her to be strong, and she gently pulled away.
Gwen blinked away the tears that threatened as she eased back from Bonnie’s embrace. “I didn’t know where else to go.”
“You did the right thing. You and all your people are welcome here. Come on inside. We don’t have an official dining hall, but some of the ladies are throwing together a quick meal and we’ll find space for everybody.”
“Thank you,” Gwen said, hugging Bonnie again, but obviously favoring her side, before allowing Bonnie to lead her inside her home.
“How many are you, Gwen?” Bonnie asked.
“We’re forty-seven. Mostly women and children, but Steve is with us, and four other males that were charged with protecting us,” Gwen said. “I want to get my boys inside and then I’ll come back out and greet them with you.”
“Findley!” Bonnie called out.
“I heard! I’m coming!”
They heard the freezer door open and close, then Findley was coming toward them. “Hi, guys! I got ice cream!” she said,meeting Gwen’s gaze and waiting for her nod of approval before giving it to the twin toddlers who started jumping for it.
Gwen nodded and smiled sadly. “Thank you,” she mouthed at Findley.
“Guys, let’s go over here and sit at this table while mom makes sure everybody gets taken care of, okay?” Findley asked.
Both boys nodded and followed her wherever she went, because she had ice cream.
Gwen returned to the front porch to stand beside Bonnie and greet each of her people as they arrived and were welcomed into Bonnie’s home.
“What happened?” Bonnie asked.
“We were attacked. It was like a swarm, there were so many that they never stopped coming. When it was clear that it wasn’t a standard attack we could easily fend off, Grail sent us to safety in the woods. We established it years ago, a cave like a safe room in a house, but hidden in the woods. If you don’t know where exactly it is, you’ll never see it.”
“Do you know by who?” Bonnie asked.
“The Falwell Pride led the attack, but they weren’t alone. Grail said they weren’t all Falwell, that some of them weren’t ‘the same’. He said they were militaristic, like the Variant, but not quite, whatever that means,” Gwen blinked away tears again, but allowed Bonnie to hug her.
“Where is Grail?” Bonnie asked softly.
Gwen’s composure crumbled into a mass of tears for a just a moment, then she met Bonnie’s gaze and shook her head as she sniffled and her lips trembled as she struggled to pull herself together.
“Oh, Gwen. Oh, no, I’m so very sorry. Are you sure?”
“The last time I saw him he was roaring and taking on several males on his own as the rest of our males battled anything in their path. We slipped away and hid as Grailinstructed us to. After a day of him not joining us, I gathered everyone and we started this way. It all happened so quickly, we didn’t even have phones to contact you with, I just kept praying that no one would find us as we walked. We stayed to the woods and in small groups spread out but following the same path.”
