Extinguishing Wildfire

Jordan

Olivia arrived within the hour of my talking with Alpha and Isaiah, and the guys and I were called back into the office.

"I texted Tate to send over the footage of the guards, and he's already had his team send me the footage they got in the last month. We need you guys to look it over and let Isaiah know which guards you trust." Alpha was quick to give us his orders.

"Does Olivia know about this yet?" I questioned as we hadn't said anything about Isaiah's suggestion.

"Kedrick filled me in on what was discussed." Olivia crossed her arms over her chest, commanding the room as she tended to do. "I think at this point, we don't have time to come up with something better. We need Isaiah in and out so that he can get back to help us with getting everyone to California."

I was surprised that she so readily agreed to the plan, but her reasoning also made sense. "You don't think someone else should go?"

"No, I think Isaiah is best. He already knows everything and will take the mission seriously as he has a stake in this with his mate. It's perfect really."

"Alright, give us the video, and we'll report back once we have something."

Alpha had us move to Beta Gabriel's office to watch the footage, and the three of us settled in. "Let's see if we can get this done quickly. The sooner we finish, the sooner Isaiah can get on the road."

"You think the guards will still be on a two-week rotation like we had them?" Cristian settled into a chair as he started up the first video.

"I'm hoping so, it'll make it much easier to figure out who might be on guard and when."

"I don't recognize these first two, they must be some of the Wildfire wolves. I hope they aren't all Wildfire, it'll make this nearly impossible."

Cristian fast-forwarded the video until we saw the shift change. It looked like they had kept the shift time the same. Four hours at a time so that the warriors could still have time for training and practice.

I pulled out a notepad and wrote down 'unknown' for the first shift. The video seemed to start in the evening as the next pair was harder to see with it being dark.

"Can you guys tell who that is? That night vision camera makes it harder to tell."

"Looks like that one guy, you went to school with, what was his name…Luis," Noah snapped, pointing to Cristian for confirmation."

"Yeah…yeah, that's Luis Chavez, don't know the other guy though." I wrote down the name and we moved on to the next shift change. This went on for a good twenty minutes with us writing names down.

"One week down, looks like this week is new people." We wrote down a few more names, Laura, Omar, Carmen, and Ricardo. All wolves we were familiar with and could trust, but then we came to the afternoon shift.

"Holy shit! Is that…" Noah trailed off as Cristian and I focused on the screen.

"Moon Goddess must be throwing us a bone after the summer we had." Cristian nodded slowly, still looking at the screen.

"Rebecca Sanchez of all people, now let's make sure. Do you recognize the other person with her though?"

"That looks like Carlos whatshisname," Cristian looked away trying to remember, "Torres?"

"No, no, I think it's Flores…" Noah cut in, "Oh man, my dad always had trouble with him. Talking back and shit, said he was a little lazy, but somehow still passed all the fitness tests so he kept him on."

"Alright, let's keep going. If they still do the two-week rotation, she will be on duty this week. What are the odds?" We watched through each shift change for the remainder of the week and then moved on to the following week. It was taking longer than expected, but we finally got through most of the footage right before dinner time. We were on the last couple of days when Isaiah burst through the door

"Tell me you have something I can use." For such a big guy, it always surprised me how vulnerable he could be. I knew he was mostly doing this to meet his mate, but I was grateful that he was willing to take the risk.

"We actually do have some good news for you."

"That's great! Tell me."

"The guards rotate every two weeks, they just finished up the last rotation with group B, so Group A is up. How about we just show you?" I nodded at Cristian to rewind to Rebecca's part. "This is the 2 pm shift."

The three of us watched Isaiah with bated breath to witness his reaction.

"Mate! It's her, my mate! You guys are totally not shitting me right now, right?"

I chuckled at his reaction, "No, Moon Goddess must really want you to meet her."

He smiled and just continued to stare at his mate on the screen. "I have to start packing. I have to find something to wear! Actually, I should talk to K first." With that, he rushed out of the room.

"I think he's excited," I stated as we laughed at his reaction.

"I hope he gets to bring her back.

"Me, too. He's a good guy, so let's hope he can save our pack and get the girl all in one day."

Neo settled down now that we had a plan for our pack. He was still sad about his mate but no longer agitated about our pack. The three of us shut down everything and headed down to dinner with our siblings. I was hoping Alpha would also give us an update on how things were going now that the foxes were here.

What we didn't expect was the tension that met us in the dining hall, the foxes were on one side and the bears were on another, but you could see them glance warily at each other every so often. The two species had always had conflicts in the past, but we were all under the impression that establishing the Council had helped with their relationship. By the looks of things, we were wrong.

"Hey, there you are. I looked for you in Gabriel's office but you'd already left." Alpha walked in behind us. "I've never seen Isaiah so excited. He even asked Ellis to help him pick out something nice to wear." He chuckled.

"We're just glad we found something good, I hope it works out for him...and for us."

"It will, I'm sure of it. Now we just have to get these bears and foxes on the same page, and we'll be ready." He whispered that last part, not missing the tension in the room. The guys started walking to our table, and I followed. Even with Aaliyah gone, my mood was good today. Things were looking up.

Isaiah

I hardly slept last night, but Kedrick wouldn't let me leave after dinner. He said I needed to get at least a few hours of sleep before heading out on such a long drive on my own. Maximus kept leaping around in my head, making it hard to think. I was excited too, but he took that excitement to a whole nother level, acting like a pup on its birthday.

I trimmed up my beard and spent way too long in the shower getting clean, which probably wouldn't matter as I had a full day's drive ahead and would need to change shirts before meeting my mate.

'Mate, mate, mate, mate.' Maximus chanted as he leaped around in my head.

'Come on, I know you're excited, but you have to calm down. All this excitement is making it hard for me to drive.'

'Fine, I'll tone it down.' He grumbled. 'It's not every day I get to meet my mate for the first time. We've waited so long for her already.'

He decided to roll around on his back this time, probably daydreaming about our mate. I couldn't blame him, though, as I'd been daydreaming about her too. I've waited my whole life for her.

Kedrick found Ellis when I was 18, and I immediately knew I wanted what they had. I had never dated around in high school as I had grown up going to school with all of those girls, and none of them did much for me, so it wasn't hard to keep away from them. I worked hard to become a good warrior and once Kedrick made me his Gamma after he stepped up as Alpha, I put all my energy into making our warriors strong. At 25, I hadn't expected to have to wait so long to find my mate, so I prayed that she'd accept me and return to Harvest Moon with me.

I stopped a few times to stretch my legs and eat, but I drove a little faster after each stop. I had hit the Texas border around lunchtime, so I was set to make it to Cobalt Falls right in the middle of her shift. Maximus started to get anxious again as we approached the border.

I stopped on the side of the road to change my shirt and make sure I looked okay. Ellis helped me pick out a nice button-down shirt, so I put it on and rolled up the sleeves as it was crazy hot outside.

I slowly drove down the road, knowing the border was less than five minutes away. I rolled down the window, hoping to catch her scent. I still remember how she smelled of lavender and vanilla. I'd even bought a lotion that smelled like her. It helped Maximus calm down to recall her scent.

I drove a few more minutes before I finally smelled it. Her peaceful scent wafting my way. I hoped she was just like her scent...sweet, soothing, and gentle.

The border was just up ahead, and that's when I saw her. She stepped out of their checkpoint box, and I slowed down, stopping as I reached the security gate. I was close enough to see her brow furrowing. Could she smell me already?

"Who is it?" I heard her partner ask her.

"I'll go ask." She walked my way, and I could see her wolf coming through as her eyes glowed silver.

She gasped as she reached my window, and I couldn't help the smile that came over me. "Mate," We both said at the same time.

"Hi, I'm Isaiah."

"Isaiah, you're not from here…but you're my mate…" She covered her mouth with her hand, but I could tell she was trying to cover her smile. For a moment I was stupefied by how radiant she looked. Her curly hair was up in a ponytail, and she was wearing her uniform, but she couldn't have looked more beautiful. I almost forgot why I was even there.

"I…I'm…I was looking for Brown Claw, but I think I made a wrong turn. I'm really glad I did though." I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.

"Hey, Rebecca, everything okay?" The guy called out to her again, and I really wished he would just shut up and leave us alone. I wanted to hear my beautiful Queen's voice again.

"I'm glad you made a wrong turn, too. Brown Claw is left at the fork, you turned right."

"I sure did make the right turn." She giggled at my words, and I leaned out the window to get closer to her. "You seem to be on duty, when do you get off?"

"At six, but do you still need to get to Brown Claw? You're a wolf right?" She was probably confused as to why a wolf would be going to visit bears.

"I'm all wolf," Maximus practically jumped out to show her, "but I have a few friends up at Brown Claw that I'm visiting. They can wait though, it's not every day I find my mate." She bit her bottom lip trying to hide her smile again. Damn, she was everything I wanted, and I couldn't take my eyes off her.

"Let me link my boss to see if you can come inside the border, maybe we could spend some time together and get to know each other?"

She went back to her partner and said something to him that made him look my way.

'That's right, she's mine!' Maximus directed the words to the guy with her, even though he couldn't hear, and wagged his tail. Rebecca walked back my way after a few minutes.

"My boss wants to meet you at the pack house, but said he'll grant you two hours on pack lands if you only go to my place to help me get my things." That was a bit unusual but can't say it was completely unexpected as Wildfire had always done things differently.

"You just met me, are you okay with that? Do you want to come with me?"

My nerves shot up at the question, but she gave me a shy smile, "You're my mate, of course, I want to go with you."

"Great, I'll wait for you to get off and we can head inside together." She nodded at me, and with that, I knew there was nothing I wouldn't do for her.