Chapter 837 Chapter 837
Oryn opened another bag and looked inside it. More food. She grabbed a few packs of the cookies and jammed them in her bag.
“There’s an empty duffle bag under that box.” He pointed to it.
She looked at him. He had no shirt on and was putting some kind of cream on his wound.
“Might as well take a bit of everything if you don’t mind carrying it.” He went back to looking after his shoulder.
“Who pays for all of this? Are you rich?” He didn’t look rich, but then again, Kenric didn’t look like a psychopathic killer, and yet, he was.
He chuckled. “No. The Alliance does. They send everyone out with enough supplies for any situation.”
She looked at the bags and boxes filling the back of his vehicle. She’d be an idiot to not take extra. Moving a box, she saw the bag he was talking about. With that, she’d be able to take a couple of those blankets.
“What’s your name?”
She glanced to see him taping a bandage to his injury. “Oryn.” He couldn’t do much with that, so she didn’t see the harm in telling him.
“Thanks for saving me, Oryn.” He smiled at her.
Oryn started to smile back at him and then jerked her head so she wasn’t looking at him. He wasn’t going to be around long enough to be friendly with.
“There are meat sticks in one of those boxes. Cheese and crackers too.”
She turned and watched him put on a shirt. “You’re okay with me grabbing some?”
He shrugged and then winced. “If I run out, they’ll bring me more.”
On the way here, she’d considered it had all been a set-up, and there would be someone waiting to grab her when they got here, but now she was pretty sure this guy was legit. Stuffing two blankets in the bag, she looked to see what he was doing. He had his phone and was typing on it fast with his thumbs.
He paused and looked at her. “Just checking in to see how my team is doing.”
“You have a team that just carries supplies around and watches?”
He chuckled. “More or less.”
“How many are on your team?”
“Ten.” He kept typing.
“And they work for the Alliance?” She was determined to catch him up in his own tales.
“Yeah, along with the other teams.” He glanced at her and then went back to his phone when it buzzed.
“Other teams?” She’d been out here a long time and never come across any Alliance teams. She was grabbing handfuls of things from all of the boxes as she kept an eye on him. Anything was better than the nothing she’d been getting by with.
“Yeah. Incursion, special operations, coordination team—” More typing.
She straightened up. “How many people?”
He paused and glanced at her. “On all the teams?”
She nodded.
He blew out a breath. “There’s probably over a hundred now, but with the teen training program, that number will grow.”
“Teen training program?” She found the box with the meat sticks. They’d love these. She grabbed a bunch.
“Yeah, we’re training them to eventually be on the teams to get out there and help shifters. Once we clean up the garbage in North America, I guess we’ll be going to other countries.”
Oryn sat on the edge of the door, opened a meat stick, and took a bite. Over a hundred people were helping shifters. They’d failed her clan, but if what he was saying was true, she knew some that needed help. She looked up at the sky. The trails were melting, and soon, where she’d been staying would have visitors again. She had to move, but she couldn’t leave this area until she had Kenric.
“Big black case has medical supplies; you should take a look.” He was typing on his phone again.
“You’re doing a lot of typing.”
He glanced at her. “Just seeing how my people are doing. We’re spread out all over the map right now, and I worry.” He scoffed. “Hadleigh takes too many chances, and being a flier, we’re needed the most often.”
He had women on his team. She got up and went around to the back and spotted the big black case. “Girls work for the Alliance?” This is where she might catch him telling tales, she thought as she pulled the box over and unclipped it.
Uri laughed. “Some of the scariest, deadliest members of the teams are women, so yeah, they work for the Alliance too.”
That answer surprised her, and she needed to think about that for a minute. The black box had things in it, she didn’t’ even know what they were for. She picked up some packets. “Biotrien.” She looked through the vehicle at him.
He leaned his head in the door. “For water clan. If they’ve been held in captivity, their health is bad. That mix gives them the nutrients they need.”
She looked at the packet and put it back in the box. “You said something about meeting some.” She’d never seen any herself. “I thought they were gone.”
“So did we.” He came around to the back and stood there with his phone still in his hands. “We closed down an island that’s been operating for years—where they took young girls and came across some Sea clan.” He shook his head. “One of the water clan on the incursion team was completely shocked that there were still some that lived in salt water.”
She looked at the packet. If this was all a ruse, only a crazy person would carry around something for water shifters. She moved a few boxes, glancing at the labels.
“Are you looking for something in particular?”
She shrugged. “Just browsing.” She gave him a side glance. “Not often there’s a store and pharmacy in the middle of a bush.”
He grinned. “I guess not.” He started typing on his phone. “Let me know if you need something specific.
“Yeah, will do.” She moved a few more things aside and then picked up a box with a red label on it. She didn’t know much about any of this but knew what she needed.
“That’s for kids under ten.”
She jumped because he was right beside her. How the hell had he gotten there without her hearing him? “What’s it do?”
“Cold meds.” He picked up an identical box and read the label. “Coughs, nasal, sore throat, and fevers.” He set it back down. “It’s an all-in-one, I guess.”
She set it beside the box and pulled something else out. She didn’t want to put it in the bag while he was watching. She flipped the box around to read the English side. It had a child’s drawing for a label, so she figured it was ointment for cuts and was kid-safe. She set it with the cold meds.
“Oryn.”
She turned and looked at him. He didn’t have his phone out now and was giving her his full undivided attention.
“Look, you don’t have to trust me. I get it if you don’t. I was on my own for a long time, and it’s easier to be cautious than get caught in something.” He put his injured arm’s hand in his pocket, and she figured it was probably bothering him. “You don’t have to like me. You don’t know me, so I don’t expect you to right now.” He held her look. “I know you don’t need my help, and that’s fine.”
She frowned at him. Where was he going with this?
He reached over to where she set the cold meds and ointment, picked them up, and held them out. “If you need these, then there’s someone out there who does need my help.” He held them out to her. “There are meds for pain and fever in there, too, for kids and adults.” He turned and went back to the front of the vehicle.
She looked at the items in her hand and then at the box. “Is there something for stomach aches?” He looked at her. “For kids.”
He held her gaze for a moment and then nodded. “Shaelan has an entire pharmacy in that box, so I’m sure there is.” He came back around, pulled the booklet that was tucked in the side of it, and opened it. “Thank God she includes a list and instructions. Stomach ache.” He flipped a few pages and then stopped. “Yes.” He handed her the booklet and then leaned over and started digging through the box with his hand.
Oryn flipped through the booklet and swore inside her head. No one would do all this unless it was for real. She blinked back the tears that formed in her eyes. The Alliance was real again. “Listen, if you don’t have to take off, I could use a hand getting some of this back—to where I’m staying.”
He turned around, holding another box. “I have time.”
She looked him up and down. “How are you at hiking now that you have boots?”
He grinned. “Pretty good at it, actually.”
Oryn looked at the boxes and bags in the vehicle and wished for a minute she could just drive it up the side of the mountain. “We don’t want to carry too much; the snow is soft and deep once we get up far enough.”
He held out the box to her. “You pick out what you need the most, and if I have to make more trips, I will.”
This man couldn’t be this understanding. She eyed him for a minute, and he held her look without glancing anywhere else. Could he? “Yeah. Okay.” She handed him the booklet and then pointed to him. “If you’re not being straight with me, I will pluck out every single feather your bird has.”
His eyes widened, but he didn’t flinch. “Deal.”
“Shit.” Turning, she put her hands on her hips and looked inside. “Is your shoulder okay to carry a pack on it?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
She couldn’t even look at him. No one was this nice. Just no one. “Fine.” She went around to the other back door, yanked it open, and opened a tote sitting there. Inside were dehydrated meal kits. “For real?” She looked over the boxes at him, standing where she’d left him.
He tilted his head. “For any situation.”
She snorted, grabbed a handful, and tossed them to the other side where the duffle bag sat. Sighing, she closed her eyes. “You got any stuffed toys or dolls?” She looked back at him.
He opened his mouth and then grinned. “I have no idea what’s in some of these. Truth be told, they just packed it full and sent me on my way.” He shifted the black box over and pulled a tote closer. “But Rayne—” he looked at her. “—the prince’s mate had a hand in this with Shaelan, so there’s bound to be something in her for little ones too.” He looked in the tote and then at her. “Diapers?”
She shook her head. “Toilet paper would be good or tissues.” He didn’t say a word; he just nodded and started digging through things. Was she crazy to be considering this? Did she have a choice? She'd gotten them this far, but they needed more, and she had to stay close to here to get Kenric.
“Ah. Found tissues and—” He straightened and gave her a blank look. “Feminine products.” He said the words like they hurt his tongue.
She grinned. “Don’t need those yet.”
His shoulders slumped, and then he tossed a few boxes of tissues toward the duffle bag. “There’s another smaller bag somewhere in here, I saw it when they were packing this in. We’ll fill it, too.”
She looked back into the next tote because her eyes were watering again. “Sure.” She managed to say without her voice shaking. If he turned out to be a fraud, she might cook his bird on a spit too, because right now she was feeling something she hadn’t felt in the last year. Hope, and she didn’t want to be crushed again by failing them.