Claiming Treasure

Alpha Rori King’s POV

Arrowhead Pack House

“I thought you should know,” she said.

“Thank you for telling me, Loralei. I’m sure the FBI is being thorough.” I hung up the phone, silently fuming about what was going on. In the four days since the attack, the FBI was no closer to finding the identities of the missing men. They had learned the names of several of the men, and agents had served warrants on several homes in the Monogahela Pack. So far, Ron and Teri had been able to hold their new Pack together and keep the investigation from spreading further into their isolated mountain valley. “It’s just a matter of time,” I said to Chase as he worked on our finances.

“They aren’t going away quietly,” he agreed. “All those bodies and the television coverage, I didn’t expect they would. What that hell were they thinking would happen when they come in, guns blazing, on the shores of a human-populated lake?”

“I don’t think they were thinking. It’s a mess, though.” I looked out the window at the lake, which was finally ice-free. “That’s the third call I’ve gotten this morning, warning me the FBI was poking around in my affairs. They were asking Loralei if there were any signs we were involved in drug trafficking or gang activity. Thank Luna that we have good relationships with our neighbors.” Loralei owned the property next to our back entrance, which now had two burned-out homes torn down next to her. Her family had owned the property for decades, and she wasn’t selling. The FBI talking to her again for background made sense, even though she wasn’t home during the attack. I didn’t like them pushing her about our activities.

“At least she likes us, and knows the bikers are good people from when she came over for the picnic,” he said. With the biker parties and the multiple attacks, we had to reach out more. Saving our neighbors from the kidnapping helped, as did the beach parties we occasionally had where we invited them. “I’ll talk to my Mom, see if they can shut them down from above like they did with the Task Force.”

We’d swept the office and Pack House for bugs, but we were watching surveillance teams near the entrance, and we believed the FBI was listening to our phones. If they had targeted us, they’d be going after our finances and backgrounds next. “The deal we made with the Feds didn’t include any future acts. If the Justice Department keeps poking around, we’re all in trouble.” Frank had made things clear when he briefed the Council; none of us would be able to withstand scrutiny for long.

“Not from here,” I said.

“I’ll use a burner once we get to town. I have to go visit our lawyer, and we need to pick up our meat order from the new supplier in Duluth.” We went through a lot of meat and seafood. We had used a butcher shop in Two Harbors that delivered to the Pack House, but the owner backed out after the attack. He ‘didn’t want to get involved with anyone shady,’ he said. The longer the FBI treated us like criminals, the more people would assume we were criminals. “I love you, Rori.”

“I love you too, baby. Stay safe.” I kissed him goodbye and went back to work.

An hour later, I got an urgent send from Lance, one of our front gate guards. “Alpha, we have a female rogue here requesting sanctuary and medical care for another rogue. The second is in her wolf form and is in bad shape.”

“Define bad.”

“Hit by a car, unconscious, blood on the nose.”

Shit. “Leave the other guard until I get you relived. Lance, you take them to the clinic and stay with them,” I said. Picking up the phone, I called Possum, who had our babies over at her house for the morning. “I need you at the clinic immediately,” I said.

“The nannies are here for the toddlers, I’m on my way,” she answered. As an Emergency Room nurse, she was the best option with Chase gone. My next call was to Oxbow Lake, where I asked them to get Doctor Olson here as soon as possible. I walked out the door just as Lance carried the wolf in behind Possum, who opened the door for them. I walked across the street while I called Chase. “We’ve got a problem at the Clinic, how far out are you?”

“We’re loading the order now; maybe forty-five minutes?”

“Hurry home.” I hung up as I entered the Clinic, walking past a beat-up Honda Accord sedan. I could smell the blood and the scents of their wolves; rogues had a wild edge to their smell. A woman was pacing back and forth in the waiting room while my guard watched from the door. She didn’t strike me as a threat; she looked to be in her fifties, which made her an old wolf. She was tall, almost six feet, and thinner than was healthy. She was poorly dressed, and her eyes spoke of a hard life.

She almost fell to the carpet when she felt my dominance in the room. She did step back and kneel to me with her neck bared in submission. “Alpha, I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do. Please don’t kill me.”

My heart broke for the old wolf, who was shaking in fear. “It’s all right,” I said as I got down in front of her and pulled her to me in a hug. “No one will hurt you here. You have my word.”

She broke down in my arms, sobbing uncontrollably. “She expected to die,” I asked the guard.

“For most Packs, a rogue arriving without invitation is killed first and questioned later,” he said. “Your offer to take in rogues hasn’t been out long, and it’s not like we have them on a mailing list. She was willing to risk death to bring the young wolf to us.”

“Thank you for bringing her here. I am Alpha Rori King, welcome to the Arrowhead Pack. That’s Lance, one of the warriors here.”

“Mabel Johnson,” she said.

“Who is the wolf you brought in? Your daughter?”

She shook her head as she tried to catch her breath; I helped her to the couch, where I held her hand as she recovered. “I don’t know who she is,” she said. “I found her by the road while I was out hunting. I couldn’t leave her to die.”

“Where?”

“Near Ely. I’ve lived there for the past twenty years.”

She was looking back at the treatment area, and since Possum couldn’t link with me, she couldn’t tell me how the young wolf was doing. “Lance, go help Possum and give me an update. This wolf is not a danger to me.”

He hesitated for a second; a pregnant female was vulnerable, and a rogue could be unpredictable. “Yes, Alpha. I’ll get the Security Center to send over another to replace me.”

I rolled my eyes, but he was right. “Have them send over new clothes for a tall, thin woman and some food.” Her clothes were bloodstained and ruined. Lance walked out of the room as I looked at Mabel. “Mabel, were you part of a Pack at one time?”

She nodded. “Bitterroot.”

I let out a low growl at that; I’d heard enough stories out of that hellhole and had a bunch of Omegas in my Pack who had survived it. She started to cry at my reaction, and even let out a little urine in her fright. “No, not you, but I know many who suffered there.” I pulled her into my arms again and held her while she caught her breath. “Does anyone know a Mabel Johnson from their time in Bitterroot?”

I got immediate yes answers from the older Bitterroot Omegas, with my housekeeper, Sally, among them. “She died a long time ago, Alpha, back in the early fifties. Why would her name come up?”

“Because she’s crying in my arms right now in the clinic waiting room,” I replied.

“OH MY LUNA I’ll be right there,” she said, quickly joined by a few of the others. They must have run to the Clinic since a half-dozen of my Pack came through the door less than a minute later, all screaming and crying as they gathered around a shocked and crying Mabel.

“Alpha told us you died,” Sally said when they finally settled down. I took a chair, letting her friends join her on the couch.

“He tried,” she said. “I tried to escape, breaking the bond and running for the border. His border guard caught me. Alpha and his men raped me, beat me to within an inch of my life, then dumped me off Pack lands. It took days before I healed enough to get away from there.”

“What happened then?”

“I stole some clothes and hitchhiked to Phoenix. I took a new name and worked at anything I could do. Waitress, cook, home health care, housekeeping, anything I could find. When I had been in one place too long, and my lack of aging might raise questions, I’d move to another town and take another name.”

“You’ve been rogue all this time?”

She nodded. “I’ve stayed at least a hundred miles from any Pack since that day.”

“How did you avoid going feral,” one of her friends asked. “That’s a long time to be alone.”

“My wolf took what happened to me hard,” she said. “Even as an Omega in the Pack, you belonged to something. The way Alpha and the others turned on me, it changed her. She didn’t want to see another Alpha again.” Her face dropped as she realized what she said and looked at me; she quickly bared her neck. “I’m so sorry, Alpha, I didn’t mean you. My wolf likes you.”

“It’s all right, Mabel. My wolf didn’t like Alphas either. There are still a few out there she doesn’t like,” I said as the girls laughed.

Doc Olson walked through the door, barely glancing at me before he went down the hall to the treatment room. Two more women followed him, one with clothes, the other with a tray of food. The girls set their things on the table, and I introduced the girls before they returned to the Pack House. “Sally, I’m sure Mabel would appreciate a shower and change of clothes before we eat,” I said. “Can you take her back and help her with that?”

“Of course,” she said. She helped Mabel up before grabbing the clothes and walking her down the hall. “I’m so happy you’re here, it’s so different…”

The door closed and I looked at the other girls. “She’s getting sanctuary, and if she wants, she will join our Pack,” I told the relieved girls still in the room. “I’d never turn one like her away.”

“It’s going to be a big adjustment, she’s spent longer as a lone wolf than as a Pack wolf,” Violet said.

“And I need you guys to help her settle. Find her a room in the Omega quarters; better yet, see if she wants to stay with Mabel or one of you for a while. Introduce her around and tell her how this Pack functions. She’ll find it easier to accept from you than from Chase or me.”

“Of course, Alpha,” she said.

“We’ll take good care of our friend. She was good to us in Bitterroot,” another added.

“I’d expect no less.” I got up and went back to the treatment room, telling Lance to return to his duties. The wolf was still out, a blood bag was hanging along with an IV, and Doc was shaving her side. “How is she doing,” I asked.

“Lacerated kidney, three broken ribs, broken left leg,” he said as he swabbed her with Betadine. “She’s bleeding internally. I have to operate.”

“Chase will be here in about twenty minutes. He’ll come straight here.”

“I can’t wait for him,” he said as he opened a surgical tray. “Another thirty minutes and it would have been too late.”

“How old do you think she is?”

“Young. Not long from the first shift,” Doc said. “Gown up or get out, Alpha.”

“I’ll be in my office,” I said. “Thanks for coming, Doc.” I walked back out, leaving the girls to wait for Mabel. I needed to talk to the Pack, and lunch was starting soon.