Chapter 11

Shaelan motioned down the hallway. “Cal was telling me that Journee’s been gone for eighteen years.”

He nodded. “I barely remember her.”

“That day won’t be very clear to you. Your brain was still forming, and it is going to only remember what was important to you then. Trauma is like that.”

He could only nod. Trauma was the best way to describe it.

“Cal said there are sketchbooks in her bag.” He turned the corner she motioned to. “Do you think it’s a way to trace her path?”

He had considered that briefly, but the one thing he never did was get his hopes up and wish for things until he had all the facts. Too many times, he had fooled himself into thinking he was almost to his end game. “I guess we’ll find out in a few days.”

“Yes. She’s very strong, so don’t worry about any complications.”

When they reached a big double door, Calum came out of it. “There you are.” He smiled at his mate. “How’s the patient?”

“She’s doing good.” Shaelan went over and hugged him.

“Aunt Mari showed up at Ed’s.”

Shaelan’s expression was shock and horror. “Is everything all right at home?”

“Seems to be. She decided she needed to come help look after all the young ones at Blair and Noah’s.”

“Oh my.”

“Her hair is lime green now.”

“Really?” She grinned, “is it better than the pink?”

“I’m not sure if any color your aunt picks is better.”

Shaelan laughed. “It will be interesting for them with her around.”

“She went into a home ware store and found out there are more kinds of forks.” Calum opened the door and waited for Shaelan to go in.

“How many did she bring?”

“A small duffle bag full.”

Shaking her head, she kept walking.

“Devin will be done in a few minutes.”

Asher stopped and looked around. It looked like a cafeteria that a school would have. The tables and chairs were set up to occupy most of the space. The front of the room was clear, and down the one side was a long open window. Before he could even take a step, his nose told him that coffee was coming from the direction of those windows. “I’m going to grab a coffee.”

“Right behind you.” Noah walked up beside him. “We’re in room twenty-two.”

“Okay.” Asher went around the tables and toward the window. “I’ll let you show me where that is.”

Noah snorted. “If I can find it again.”

“Maybe they’ll give us a map.” Asher reached the counter and leaned down. Inside was a full kitchen, and there was more than coffee going on in there.

“Two more big men, Holly.” An older short woman with salt and pepper hair and bright rosy cheeks came over. “I’m Yolanda. What can I get you, boys?”

“Just coffee.” Asher gave her a polite smile.

He glanced at the other woman as she walked down to the coffee urn. She was probably in her late fifties or early sixties and had greyed-out red hair. She glanced at him, and he inclined his head to be polite.

“There will be food after the meeting.” She said abruptly.

“Appreciate it, ‘mam.”

She eyed him for a moment and then turned and went into a big walk-in fridge.

“Here you are.” Yolanda smiled and motioned to the end of the window. “All the fixings are down there.”

“Thank you.” He took the cup and nodded.

“Thanks.” Noah followed him. “A lot of faces here, I don’t know.”

Asher glanced around as he stirred his coffee. Most of the bodies were team members, but there were several he didn’t know. “I don’t recognize many either.”

“I’m sitting near the back.” Noah turned around and headed toward the door.

Asher looked around as he blew on his drink. He recognized some of the incursion team and special operations. He took a sip, Illias was here and had his head down talking to a woman beside him, so she was likely part of the tech team. He started walking toward the back when Webb, Gia, Deacon, and Amari came in the door. Tripp, Jesse, and Evanna were right behind them.

As he reached them, the room went silent. He glanced to the front. Devin stood there.

“To make this easier, can we, for today—” he glanced at Rayne, and she smiled, “sit with our teams.” Rayne said something to him. He gave her a tender look and then shrugged. “So everyone will know who to go to later on when they need to.” He turned to look at his mate again. She gave him a beaming smile.

There was a lot of movement, and chairs were dragged across the floor for a few minutes. Asher sat down at the table that Jesse did. Tripp grabbed Amari and kissed her for several seconds before he went over and sat down at the table with Blaise Morgan. Deacon winked at Gia and then went over and sat with Konner.

As the commotion settled, Rayne stepped over to stand beside Devin. “Welcome to the Factory, everyone.” She smiled. “Our King is hoping to be here in the next few days, but we’re here to get everything in motion.” She looked around the room for a moment, “this is going to be the new base of operations for the Alliance.”

In Asher’s mind, it made sense. The headquarters was in a city, and it always struck him as strange that the world of shifters was operating in a city. To him, if there was too much concrete and noise, it was hell functioning. His animal needed fresh air and open space.

Devin watched his mate for a moment and then glanced around the room. “All members of all of our teams have been cleared to be here. Anyone not cleared is not going to get past the gate.” That got everyone’s attention. “The shifters you may have spotted patrolling in the area are from several rogue factions that we have brought in.” There were a few whispers about that. “They want the Alliance protection against the Tomas empire just as much as the rest of us.” He nodded. “They stay off-site, but they keep watch for anyone trying to get to this compound in any way other than the road.

Asher shrugged. He’d never considered that the rogues were in more danger than most clans were. He spotted Deacon giving Gia a look and wondered what that was about.

“They’re not officially a part of the Alliance, but they are earning their way to it.” Devin finished and then sought out Calum with a focused look. “I’m going to let Calum go through those here.”

Calum grinned and got up.

Asher didn’t blame the prince at all. He looked about as comfortable speaking to this many people as Asher would. He likely wouldn’t be able to.

Calum went to the front of the room. “I’ll go through this quickly, but first. The rest of the team members are monitoring locations that have been confirmed to hold either prisoners from our clans or those working with Aiden Tomas and his associates.” He looked over at Griffin. “Most of which we wouldn’t know about it if weren’t for Griffin Ballard. With his mate, Blaise,” Calum glanced her way, “they’re going to run the factory.” He looked around the room.

Blaise stood up, “If anyone has an issue with my mate, they can get over it. We’re shutting Aiden Tomas down, and it’s because of the information he gave us.”

Calum tried not to smile as she glanced around, leveling everyone with a hard look.

“Amen to that.” Someone yelled.

It shocked Asher that everyone started clapping. He got it though and began to clap as well. Griffin, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to crawl under a table because of it.

“All right, everyone. We have a lot of information to cover, so let’s get this going.” Calum grinned at Griffin and then turned and inclined his head to him for a second.

Asher hadn’t realized that Griffin was mated to Blaise. He looked around the room. Lately, everyone was finding their mate. He scowled at his cup; he’d never thought about finding his. After the events in his life, he knew how happily-ever-after turned out.

“Sitting at the back, under Jesse’s guidance, is the clan coordination team.” Asher looked up to see the entire room looking at him and the others beside him. “Amari, Asher, Webb, and Gia are here today.” Calum held his hand up, “each team has an office,” he smirked, “not large ones—in this building, and I’m told we’ll get names on doors soon.” He looked to Devin for confirmation. “Jesse’s team covers the most miles on for the Alliance.”

“Except for you.” Gage grinned at Calum.

“Except for me,” Calum agreed. Asher saw Shaelan smile at that.

“Also, at the back of the room,” he motioned to the table Wynter Carr sat at. She was a big woman and not in an out-of-shape kind of way, Asher thought. She had snowy white hair, and there was no mistaking she was from the polar bear clan. “Is the Incursion team. Wynter and a few of her members, Konner, York, Sloane, and Nox.”

Asher hadn’t seen Sloane around much, but he noticed she had one arm in a sling and wondered what happened there and what the other guy looked like. Sloane wasn’t a big woman, but he knew from his teammate, Foster, that she was one mean coyote when she needed to be.

“From the Special Operations team,” Calum pointed to the table along the wall, “we have their fearless leader, Kenzo, along with Leyton, Tripp, and of course, Blaise.”

Leyton was, without a doubt, from a bear clan. He had that bulky look that Webb and Raymond Hardy had. Asher wasn’t sure about Kenzo, but with his grey, white, and black hair, his best guess was a snow leopard. He smirked briefly; he’d like to run against one someday.

Calum cleared his throat. “We only have the team leader here for the clean-up team today.” He grinned at Kaid Rivera. “Because they’re all out helping keep an eye on locations for us.” He nodded his head to Kaid. Asher knew nothing about that man other than he was always fast getting somewhere and cleaning up any evidence of anyone being there.

“For our tech team, who have kept us all off the radar since our security breach.” Calum motioned to the front table. “Nate, Illias, and Fallan.” He glanced at Devin for a moment, who said something to him. “Okay.” Calum looked back at the room, “Fallan is going to be stationed here all the time, whereas the rest of the teams will rotate out from time to time.”

The woman sitting beside Illias nodded her head. To Asher, she didn’t look anything like a computer geek. She had dark orange hair with jet-black tips spiked all over the place in any direction, and she was dressed completely in black except for the bright turquoise earrings she wore. He couldn’t even ponder a guess on her clan type.

“Everyone here knows Raymond and his team members Pasha and Graham.” He looked at the center table, “Raymond won’t be here much, he still has to be seen at the headquarters, but one of his team will be here most of the time.”

Asher knew Pasha, as she was from his clan, and he’d seen Raymond before but knew nothing about Graham. His best guess to the clan was the same as Kenzo, with the streaked hair.

“We rarely see any of the surveillance team, but today Uri has Cy here with him.” Calum gave Cy a quick salute. There was no mistaking that he was from Calum’s clan, with the dark hair and green eyes giving that away. Asher never quite got how most of Cal’s clan had green eyes. He would have figured that jaguar would have brown eyes, but he was no clan genetic specialist.

“And, of course, under the leadership of our prince” —Calum turned and bowed to Devin, who, if Asher wasn’t mistaken, wanted to smack him for it— “is the retrieval team.” He motioned to where Blair sat, “Blair, Kobie, Noah, and of course, my mate, who is technically going to be in charge of the Factory’s medical team going forward.”

“I’ll still be out in the field with all of you.” Shaelan clarified and sent her mate a look that challenged him to object.

“Of course.” Calum grinned at her. “Helping out Shae is—” He motioned to the table in front of where they sat. “Fionna is keeping an eye on a patient right now, but Taylor,” he glanced at his mate, who nodded, “Madison and Christian are here.” Asher could only see the back of their heads. “Mika and Nichelle are going to be training with the medical staff, and Dr. Collins is also here today.”

A tall woman stood up. “I don’t have an office here, but if anyone needs to speak with me, I will find us a private location.”

Asher looked at Amari, who didn’t hide her grin. She rolled her eyes and tapped her head. He looked around the room and wondered how many of these team members a head doctor thought would chat with her.

“I’m sure everyone has met Holly and Yolanda,” Calum motioned to the kitchen, “who are going to keep us all fed.” He smiled at the women looking out the window. “You have the most important job, ladies.” He turned and looked at Gage. “Kelsey and Gage won’t always be here, but they’re here to give our heating and other mechanical areas a good tune-up.” Kelsey nodded.

He turned and looked at the two men sitting at a table by themselves, “We have Seth and Evan here from the property team. They will be here sporadically as they move around to find us more housing and locations.” He glanced at Kobie. “Your friend, Fischer, is also part of that team.” He motioned around him. “He’s been in contact with Devin since you were brought across, and he’s just the person we need to go about getting things done for us.”

Kobie looked surprised. Asher wasn’t sure, but he thought he’d heard chatter from some of his teammates that her brother’s lifelong friend was a one-form and had saved the surviving members of that clan. Two legs, four legs, Asher didn’t care just as long as they were helping find, rescue, or look after shifters.

“Last but not least, we have McKenna.” Calum smiled at her where she stood in the corner observing. “She has some skills we haven’t quite decided how to put to good use but trust me when I say we’re glad she’s on our side.”

McKenna smiled and then shook her head.

Calum looked at Devin. “The floor is yours now, prince.” He bowed his head, turned around, and walked away with a big grin.

Shaelan stood up and looked at her phone. She glanced briefly at one of the women sitting in front of him and then rushed for the door. The woman with blonde hair got up and followed her out. Asher looked at the door and then at Jesse. “It must be Journee.”

Jesse nodded. “Go check. Devin doesn’t want her roaming around until he’s talked to her.”

Asher nodded, got up, and walked quickly to the doors, hoping he remembered how to get to the medical area.