Chapter 279

Judy’s POV

My mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. I couldn’t believe I was stupid enough to get pregnant with Gavin Landry’s baby. I was on birth control, but either I missed a pill that morning, or my birth control failed. If I missed a pill, I hadn’t noticed. I leaned against the tree, my knees pressed to my chest; the cold afternoon air whipped around me, and a slight chill crept up my spine.

I kept my sniper rifle in hand, loaded and ready to go at any moment. I loved being on post because it was all about being quiet. I needed the solitude; I needed to figure out what I was going to do about this pregnancy. Could I really have a baby on my own? Should I tell Gavin about what was going on?

My wolf wanted me to share the news with him, but I knew what was going to happen; he would deny both me and the baby. He wanted Rachel… not me. A part of me thought about calling my mom; she would know exactly what to do in this situation, but it would also worry her, and she would insist that I come home. I couldn’t come home right now; not while Gavin was still marrying Rachel and expecting a baby with her. I wouldn’t allow my child to feel unwanted; that was the last thing I wanted.

A twig snapping brought my attention to the perimeter, breaking through the haze of my thoughts. My body tensed as I pulled my wolf’s eyes forward so I could search my surrounding area easily. I sniffed the air, frowning when I didn’t smell anything. Typically, I’d be able to smell a rogue easily or an intruder. There were no others from the force scheduled to be in this area right now, so I knew it wasn’t one of the other team members. Whoever it was that was approaching was masking their scent.

A shadow in the distance drew her attention, and though I couldn’t see what it was, I knew something, or rather someone, was there. I positioned her sniper and peeked through the scope to get a better look; between my wolf sight and the sniper scope, I was able to finally get an outline of a person.

My heart nearly stopped when I saw that it was a young girl… a teenager. She was stumbling past the borders and onto the Redcliff pack territory. Her clothes were ripped from what looked like a struggle; she had bruises all over her body and blood on her clothes. Her blond hair was a mess, and her eyes were bloodshot from crying. She had bruises beneath her eyes, and her lip was split open.

It was clear she was beaten.

The worst part was… I recognized her.

I reached into my bag and pulled out my walkie-talkie; I couldn’t mindlink with the team leader yet, so he gave me a walkie-talkie so I could keep communication with him while on post.

I pressed the button to connect to him and brought it to my lips.

“Someone is crossing the border. A teenage girl, blonde hair and, small frame. Looks to be wearing jeans with flowers on the bottom cuffs and a loose-fitted blouse,” I say into the walkie-talkie.

For a moment, there was no response. I kept my eyes on the girl as she struggled to walk through the perimeter. She stopped a few times to take several deep breaths, as if the short distance she just walked was too much for her to handle, and she was already winded.

“There are reports of a missing girl from last night,” Marlo said into the walkie-talkie. “Cindy Carson, Janet’s daughter.”

Oh, right!

I remembered meeting Cindy once. Janet, I’ve seen you a few times at the grocery store when I stocked my kitchen with food last week. Janet owned the store, and when Cindy wasn’t in school, she worked part-time at the store. She was a sweet girl, very reserved and gorgeous. I almost didn’t recognize her.

I had no idea that the rogues from last night had taken her, and my heart broke for her family.

“Her father was found dead this morning along with others,” Marlo continued.

“How’s Janet?” I asked. “Did she survive?”

“She wasn’t home at the time of the attack. She was across the pack at her store. She was thankfully safe from the attack.”

Relief flooded me at hearing that, but my heart ached at the thought of Janet losing both her husband and her child. But it looked like Cindy was being returned… but the question was… why?

“Should I approach her?” I asked Marlo.

“No, I’m sending backup. Keep your post. This could be a trap.”

I didn’t think about that; my heart was hammering against my chest.

I kept my eyes on the girl, Cindy. She stumbled a few more times before resting against a tree; her shoulders sulking. A small sob escaped her lips as tears ran down her cheeks. There was something strange about how she was moving and the way she was acting. I knew she was beaten; she was certainly in pain, but why wasn’t she trying to get home as fast as she could? Why wasn’t she rushing away from the borders? A place where they clearly tortured and tormented her?

My wolf had a strange feeling about this, and I agreed with her. My eyes darted around the forest until I spotted a few Gammas in wolf form walking towards Cindy. They were sniffing the air, trying to get a whiff of her scent, but I knew, like me, they couldn’t smell her. She was wearing the masking spray, which should only be occupied by Gammas of the Elite force. It was created specifically for the Elite Force; nobody else was supposed to have access to that, so it was strange that Cindy was wearing it.

There were a couple more Gammas walking in human form as well. They had weapons and were searching the perimeter, one of whom was looking up at my post, and though he couldn’t see me, he gave me a nod.

I didn’t bother to return it because again, he couldn’t see me.

My eyes found Cindy, who had no idea that gammas were approaching. She took a deep breath before moving from the tree and heading in the direction of the pack grounds. Her eyes were averted down, and that was when I noticed she was barefoot.

She had her hands on her belly, and her fingers were trembling as she clutched her shirt, like she was afraid it would fall off her body.

That was when I noticed something on her belly; it was small and hardly noticeable, but my wolf was immediately on high alert at the sight of it.

It was small and resembled a tick, but I knew better. I’ve seen them before, and I was warned about them in training at school.

I stared at the Gammas who were approaching her and stopped as I watched her finally notice them. Her eyes were wide, and I saw the slight panic on her face; that was all I needed to know… that was all the proof that was required for me to expose myself completely to them all.

Without thinking, I screamed.

“It’s a trap!!!! Take cover!!!!!”

But it was too late.

The explosion was booming, and the fire that erupted from it nearly took out the entire forest. My post was completely obliterated, and I was thrown out of the tree. My wolf took over completely, her fight and fight mode activated, and right now, all she wanted was the flight. She shifted just as the explosion reached us, the burn of the fire stung, and she howled in pain as the smoke of the cloud invaded our lungs.

That didn’t stop her, though; I felt the pain from her paws as we landed on the ground… or at least what used to be a ground. Now it was nothing but a wasteland of heat and gravel as we ran through the burning forest.

The Gammas and Cindy were dead; that much was obvious. I could hear the commotion from the pack; I knew the explosion wasn’t enough to take them out, but it was enough that it did some damage and alerted the rest of the force.

If Cindy was able to get any closer to the pack, then it would have taken out the entire back… but instead, it only took out our forest. My heart was racing as we dodged falling trees and jumped around the blazing fire that nearly consumed us entirely.

My wolf was fast, and not before long, we were breaking through the clearing and back on the packland. There were buildings that had caught on fire from the explosion and trees that were burning to the ground way too close for comfort, but they were being taken care of by other gammas.

My lungs were burning from the smoke, and I hadn’t realized that I couldn’t breathe until I started to see specks of darkness clouding my vision. I was thankful at that moment that my wolf was taking complete control and got me out of that situation.

A giant black wolf came towards me, and I knew right away that it was Alpha Sampson. The second I was in his presence, my wolf had finally stopped running. She collapsed to the ground, our head hitting the pavement, and my chest heaving as I struggled to breathe.

Sampson’s wolf whipped his head around, and I knew he was sending a mindlink to someone. Then he turned and leapt towards the threat, his large wolf not looking back for a second.

I hadn’t realized that I shifted back into human form until I heard the sound of my own moan. I was in pain, and I could hardly breathe from how much smoke I had consumed. My skin was charred from the explosion, and I’m pretty sure I sprained my leg from the run back to the pack.

As my vision went black and I slowly lost consciousness, the only thing I could think about was my baby and how all I wanted was to protect it.