Wild and Free

(Mason’s POV)

I didn’t know what to say to her. So I stood there, pacing and thinking as her gaze burned holes in the sides of my head.

She obviously wanted me to keep her secret until she made up her mind, and I respected that, don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t know if she was really thinking it through.

There was the possibility that she might just choose not to leave, taking away the heavy burden of keeping this secret from me. But it was more than likely that she, being the person she was, would stick with her decision. In that case I didn’t know what I would do. My mind was yelling at me, saying that I couldn’t let her just simply leave. But it was like my body wouldn’t do anything about it.

“I don’t think you’re thinking this through,” I said to her, my arms crossed over my chest. In a way it helped me outwardly keep my wolf at bay, as he was restless inside me, begging to be let free.

“What else can I do, Mason? It just seems like everyone that I’m around gets hurt in one way or another,” she replied defeatedly, rubbing her palms anxiously with her fingers.

“You could stay and deal with it with your friends instead of running away!” I took a step toward her. “Don’t you want to be here anymore?”

“Well what good did wanting to do anything ever do for me!” she yelled, frustratedly.

I looked at her, confused, “What the hell is that that supposed to mean?”

In that moment she looked like she would do anything to take back what she had just said. I just couldn’t quite figure out why.

She opened her mouth to say something but never got the chance because both of our heads were turned by the sound of footsteps approaching. I guess I would rephrase and say my head was turned and Auden followed in suit because there’s no way she would’ve heard the noise as it was too far for human ears.

“What is it? Who’s there?” Auden asked me worriedly, looking back and forth between me and the direction from which the noise came from.

I shook my head, “Don’t worry it’s just the group,” I assured her as Kenzie and everyone else came into view. “What are they doing?” I thought to myself aloud.

They all ran toward us with distressed, almost scared expressions on their faces.

“Mason we need to leave now,” Kenzie said when she ran up to me. She grabbed my and Auden’s wrist, tugging us along with her

I knit my brows, stopping in my tracks “Why? What’s going on?”

Riley stepped up next to me, “Kenz got a vision of a fight.”

“A terrible fight,” My sister elaborated. “I didn’t recognize the place but we were all there.”

Cassie walked next to my sister, “We were leaving the cafeteria when she got it. I went to grab Auden’s stuff because she left it and this fell out of her binder,” she said, handing me and her a small and eerily familiar piece of paper.

Auden barely took a glance and the paper before looking away.

Looks like somebody didn’t keep up our deal. Time to face the consequences. Prepare for a fight. Meet us where the town began or we kill the first innocent we see on the street. One hour. Tell no one.

I clenched my jaw, crumpling the paper angrily and shoving it in my pocket, “Fucking bastards,” I growled under my breath. I turned to Auden, holding up the paper, “Did you know about this?”

She gave me that look that told me she was offended and was trying to hide it, “If I had gotten a threat that someone innocent was going to get hurt, I would sure as hell have told you.”

Kenzie’s hand on my arm was about the only thing keeping me from shifting then and there.

“They were there,” Auden mumbled. “In the same room as us. How could I not have noticed?”

“We need to make a plan,” Riley said. “It’s the only way we’ll get out of this mess alive.”

I crumpled the paper in my fist, “No, what I need to do is figure out what the hell they mean and go where they say. None of you are going to be responsible for any innocent deaths. It isn’t anyone else’s fight but mine.”

“The note was for me,” Auden said, catching everyone’s attention. “They obviously think I didn’t keep up my end of the deal and want me to be punished. We might as well just let them do what they want so we don’t spill any more blood.”

“Are you crazy?” Cassie exasperated, stealing the words from my mouth. “The only blood being spilled would be yours if we did that, which we won’t.”

She snatched the piece of paper out of my hands, her and Kenzie leaning together to read it over again, as if reading the threat would make it any less frightening.

“Where the town began. What is that supposed to mean?” Greyson asked, looking at everyone for suggestions.

We were silent in thought for a while before Auden sucked in a breath. All of our heads snapped in her direction.

“What? Did you figure it out?” I asked.

She looked at me almost skeptically, “I’ll only tell you if you promise you won’t make Cassie, Holden, and I stay here.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head both in anger and frustration that she knew what I was thinking, “These guys aren’t messing around. They mean business just like that night. It would be safer for everyone if you guys stayed away from the battle.”

“Bullshit,” Holden spat angrily. “I’m not leaving Kenzie.”

“Same here,” Cassie agreed, tightening her hold on her own mate’s forearm protectively.

My sister looked up at Holden, “I don’t want you to have to see what they had to see the first time we met these people.”

He opened his mouth to protest but my words cut him off, “Besides,” I said, “We don’t want to be worrying about your safety if things get ugly, which they will.”

Auden crossed her arms over her chest, “I don’t need you fighting my battles for me.”

I smiled a little at her determination, “As confident as I am in your skills with a letter opener, I don’t think that they’ll appreciate the gesture as much.”

She rolled her eyes but didn’t seem to be changing her mind. None of the three did.

“Look, we don’t have time to be debating this,” Cassie said. “You guys need to know where to meet those bastards, and Auden knows where. Just agree to let us go before we waste more precious time!”

“Fine! You can come, but if we say run, you run and don’t look back,” I told them, spending a second longer holding Auden’s gaze than I should have. It felt eerily like it would be the last time. “Just tell us what the message means.”

She took in a small breath before speaking, “They said where the town began right?” she asked, earning various conformations and nods. “Well think about it, they had to get the name White Chapel from somewhere.”

Cassie knit her brows, confused, “Wait you don’t mean the actual church on the mountain, do you?”

Much to her dismay, her friend nodded.

“Mountain?” Kenzie inquired.

Auden bobbed her head inconclusively, “It more of a big hill but yes.”

“But no one has been there in years,” Holden stated, “There’s probably nothing even left of the old white chapel anymore.”

“Well I don’t have any other guesses as to what they could mean,” Auden said.

I shook my head, “It sounds right.”

“But the chapel is pretty far in the forest,” Holden pointed out. “It’s not close to the town at all so we have to be sure that that is what they mean or else we won’t have enough time to get back here before… you know.”

We all nodded in agreement.

“Kenz do you remember anything from the vision? Anything about the place?” Greyson asked my twin.

She looked deep in thought for a moment, remembering the glimpse of the future she’d gotten, “Not much. All I know is that it was in some sort of clearing, not the forest,” she knit her brows in concentration. “There might have been a white building in the back but I couldn’t see it clearly. I haven’t learned how to recall the visions, just control myself when they happen.”

Auden put a hand on her shoulder, “Don’t worry about it. You’ve done great,” she assured Kenz, addressing her guilty expression.

Kenzie and I were similar in that we didn’t like the be useless or unhelpful. It was a thing in our family that if we weren’t doing something to contribute in some way, then we shouldn’t be there. And if we couldn’t live up to expectations then we beat ourselves up for it, like Kenzie was doing then. She knew it wasn’t her fault that she didn’t have the power to recall yet but it wouldn’t stop her from feeling like she could’ve done better.

Auden’s comment seemed to ease her mind, however little it helped.

“I don’t think we have a choice. We’ve wasted too much time already. We should just take our chances with the chapel like Auden said,” I told them.

Everyone nodded again in agreement and began walking. My sister’s hand on my shoulder held me back from the others for a moment.

“Mason, should we tell Father?” she asked nervously.

I looked down, “I guess I wasn’t the only one thinking about that huh?”

She shook her head solemnly, “I’m just thinking of what happened last time. Sure we weren’t expecting the attack from these wolves but we still should’ve told someone.”

“And you’re thinking that we’re making the same mistake twice by not telling anyone this time,” I finished for her, earning a nod in confirmation.

“I mean the note said tell no one,” I reminded her.

“Yeah but it also said to prepare for a fight,”

“We’ve already apparently broken their rules,” I quoted, “what would they care if we broke this one?”

She knit her brows, “I didn’t really understand that. This whole battle thing they’re warning us is coming is over some rule they think we didn’t follow. But what did we do wrong? You didn’t tell anyone about the fight did you?”

I opened my mouth to agree but the fight with my father slipped into my memory and I closed it.

My twin’s eyes widened, “Mason we promised we’d keep it to ourselves like they said!”

“I had to tell Father! He’s lying to us about something and I think it has something to do with these wolves, whoever they are,” I told her.

She closed her eyes and rubbed her temple, “You don’t think that he would’ve gone after them do you? After you told him?”

I shook my head, “I told him about the deal. We were mad at each other but he’s not stupid enough to go after something he doesn’t know anything about, no matter how powerful our pack is now.”

Kenzie scoffed, “We’re no Wildes.”

“Even the Wilde pack wouldn’t have gone after a rogue pack that they know nothing about,” I said.

“So what other options are there to explain why they’d suddenly do this? I know for a fact that Cassie, Holden, or Auden have said a word and Riles and Greyson wouldn’t either. That leave you and me. You haven’t told anyone else have you?”

I shot her a look, “What? Do you think I talk to Julian about my personal problems?”

She rolled her eyes, “Whatever. So that doesn’t leave any other explanation.”

I shook my head, rubbing the back of my neck, “I think we should worry about all of this after we all get out of this alive and well.”

She Kenz looked up at me, not a trace of hope in her eyes, “And how can you be so sure that that will happen?”

“I’m not,”

~~AUTHOR’S NOTE~~

Hope you enjoyed!

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~your Cheshire Cat loving friend