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“That’s what I thought.” Jerry kicked the door shut and punched in the lock’s code. “Welcome to Boot Hill. Where hell is literally frozen over.”
Jerry followed Waylon out of the kennel, ran the barrel of his gun along the bars in the window panel of the crates as he went to rile up the dogs and slammed the door behind him.
“Talia, are you okay?” It was a stupid question and one I knew the answer to, but I asked it anyway.
Neither of us were okay. The whole situation was not okay and had been screwed up since the moment we stepped foot in Alaska.
“Yeah, how about you?” She wrapped her fingers around the small bars in the window pane and peered out across the aisle.
“It’s not the best place I’ve ever stayed, but it’s not the worst either. The service leaves a lot to be desired. I give it two stars.” I joked, hoping to lighten the mood and our spirits.
Easier said than done over the incessant barking and concentrated ammonia smell.
“If I could leave zero stars, I would.” Talia laughed and her blue eyes sparkled from behind the bars. “Two stars, really?”
“It’s good to hear you laugh.” It was music to my ears on the best of days, but on my worst, it was a symphony.
“There’s no use crying over spilled milk, or pending death.” Talia’s blonde hair brushed the bars as she shook her head. “Besides, crying never solved anything. Trust me. I speak from experience.”
“Laugh or cry, huh?” I reached through the bond and used the magic ingrained in all alphas to soothe our wolves. “I thought we moved past bottling things up.”
“Oh, don’t worry. A good, long cry bordering on full blown breakdown is coming, but I am saving it for when this nightmare is over. I’m no good to either of us if I fall to pieces.”
If I said it once, I said it a thousand times. The woman was so much stronger than she knew and I fell harder for her every second, of every day.
“Note to self, go to the wholesale store and buy a bulk package of tissues. Got it.”
I pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly, preparing myself for the shift in our conversation. I wanted to keep things light, but it was time to get serious and come up with a plan.
“Talia, at some point one or more of the wolves in this pack will come back in here. When they do, we need to keep our cool. Listen to their conversations and gather as much information as we can. How many of them are there, what if any supplies do they have easily accessible? Do they have any wheels we can steal, like snowmobiles or a Snow Cat?”
“They remind me of my old pack. Maddox and his ilk would have paraded us in front of his father by now. I ignored so many red flags. Ignorance is bliss, right?” She blew out a heavy breath. “Anyway, if they’re anything like the Northwood pack, they’ll be coming in here sooner, rather than later and we’ll get an audience with the ranking officials. We should pay attention to the pecking order. Find the weakest link in the pack.”
“The kid who feeds the dogs, Waylon’s boy, he might be a good place to start.” My lip curled back and my canine’s elongated, pressing against my bottom lip, when I recalled the way he treated his son.
“Maybe...” Talia seemed to chew on my suggestion for a moment. “But he’s just as likely to go the other way and rat us out due to a fear of repercussions.”
“Yeah, you might be right, but-”
“You’re going to try anyway.” Talia’s smile came to life in her voice and through the bond. “You want to save him too.”
“If I can.” I rested my head against the steel bars. “I know it’s crazy. I don’t even know the kid. Maybe it’s because we just buried my father. Hell, I don’t know, maybe it’s-”
“Because you’re a good man, Galen. There doesn’t need to be any other reason than that.” Talia reached through the bars and stretched her fingers. The aisle was too wide for us to touch each other but it had the comforting effect she’d hoped for.
“We should try and get some rest if you can.” I still felt the sting of losing my father and watching the teenager recoil from Waylon struck a chord and stirred my alpha’s primal need to protect. I cleared my throat and the emotion that clogged it up. “We’re going to need our strength.”
The sound of metal slamming against metal jolted me awake. I’d just dozed off when a couple wolves returned to collect us. The only wolves we’d been introduced to, or at least knew by name, were nowhere to be seen.
Six wolves dressed in knock off U.S. military style extreme cold camo gear, complete with a digitized disruptive pattern of white with gray tones, marched down the aisle and split off into two groups of three in front of our cages.
One from each team operated the keypad on the locking mechanism and entered the codes. I focused on the tones, listening for the slightest variation and memorized the sequence.
If I could get my hands on some sort of stick or rod, I could try to match the tones to the numbers on the pad. From there, I could unlock the door and get Talia the hell out of Alaska the first chance I got.
“Let’s go. Get a move on.” The leader on each team barked orders at me and Talia, shoving us forward when we tried to stretch our cramped muscles.
We hadn’t been in the cages long but it was enough to put a crick in my neck, back and every joint in my body. I would have given almost anything to shift.
