Chapter 43

Amaris sucked in a breath. She never dreamed that Marco was helping Adam. “But then Gran contacted me and told me to find you.  She said that you were in the river and to get you safe. They will meet us there.” Marco continued unaware that Amaris’ heart rate had just spiked in fear.

“Gran is awake?! Where are they? Is everyone else ok?” Marco looked at her questioningly. “I do not know. Gran contacted me in a dreamscape and told me to take you to my hunting cabin. I built it a few months ago and Gran is the only other person who knows where it is.” Marco explained.

“A dreamscape? What is that?” Amaris asked curious. There were so many things in this new world that she knew nothing about.

“I will let her explain it to you since she is the witch. Come. We need to get moving. “. Marco waved her on and then walked into the forest. Amaris was still frozen in her spot. What did he mean Gran was a witch. Did he mean a literal one?

Marco stopped again and turned back to Amaris. “We need to hurry. They are not that far off. “Marco repeated.  He stepped backward and with one motion reached down and scooped Amaris up and began to lightly jog with her through the forest. He ran for 15 minutes carrying Amaris the whole way. At last she saw a little cabin as they came through some dense pine trees. It was small. Likely it was only one room.

Marco set Amaris down and motioned for her to stay in the trees. He slowly walked forward and avoided the window on that side. He peeked in and then ducked under the window. He then proceeded around to the front of the cabin and out of Amaris’ sight. Marco came back on the porch a couple minutes later fully clothed. He waved Amaris to him. She walked out of the trees and around the front. The cabin’s front windows had been shuttered and the door stood open. Marco had gone inside already.

Amaris walked into the little cabin and was amazed at the place. Marco seemed like a quiet, back to nature kind of guy. Here was a cabin that was full of computer monitors and racks of hard drives. It looked like some government top secret facility. Amaris looked around in amazement. “I thought you said this was your secret hunting cabin?” Amaris turned to face Marco who had seated himself at one of the stations set around the room. There was a bank of monitors in front of him and each screen was split and showed a different wooded area. Marco was still silent and Amaris noticed that the ear facing her had an earbud in. “This place is nuts.” She says to herself. “Where are the antlers mounted on the wall and the shotgun. There are no fishing rods and tackle.” When she finished spinning around looking at the rest of the room, she found Marco facing her with a huge smile on his face. “I call this my hunting cabin, but I never said what I was hunting.” His grin got wider. “I am the head of security for Lyle. Adam decided to relieve me of that duty when he took over, but I was asked by Lyle and Gran to continue in secret. I know everything that goes on in our territory. Every move, every call, every internet search. This is where I monitor it all. “ Amaris’ mouth fell open.

“You have been doing this all on your own all this time?” Amaris was curious now.

“No. I was Lyle and Adam’s father’s head of security. When he was killed 4 years ago and Lyle took over, he asked me to stay on. After he found you and decided to stay in the village as your guard, Adam took over for him temporarily. Adam started making personel changes to only people who were completely loyal to him in the important positions. Lyle was too busy down the mountain to see what was going on, so I let him and Gran know. They asked me to keep doing my job but in secret. I have 2 1/2 years worth of info on every meeting and phone call. I was not able to tell anyone because Adam did not trust my loyalty to him either and he has had me followed. Until the last few months when he relaxed it. I think he was concentrating more on you, so I was free to build this in secret and fortify it.”

“How long has Adam been in charge and when did he start moving his own people into place?” Amaris said as she took a seat in one of the near by chairs. Marco swiveled his seat to see her better and folded his arms across his chest as he leaned back. “Well Lyle went to scout out the town and to try and figure out why his father made frequent trips to the village down there.  He also wanted to know why his father was in contact with Gran, but there was no record of what he was in contact about. That was when he saw you and realized that you were his mate. That was about 4 years ago. He went back and forth between there and here for about 6 months and it was just too much to keep up with here and he couldn’t stand to be away from you for that long, so he asked Adam to step up in his place while he went down and lived in the town to be closer to you. It was a very hard decision for him. I think that is why it took him 6 months to decide. He is very loyal to his pack and takes his position as Beta very seriously. Adam stepped up with the thought that it would be only temporarily and he would make all decisions with Lyle. About a year later Adam just started doing things himself and did not ask Lyle anymore. Soon after he began to replace people with his those that were loyal to only him. So for about the last year, year and a half, he has had full contro of everything. I suspected him much sooner than that, although Lyle trusted him since Adam is his brother. I began doing things quietly in the background. I do know Adam is not working alone. He is working with someone else. He was very good about hiding it.  He uses an encrypted sat phone and no digital foot print to trace either.  As a result, I am still not sure who it is. I finally convinced Lyle after the attack on the town. That was when he intended to confront Adam.  He went back to the cabin to make sure that you were safe first, but you Wow gone and Adam was waiting for him. Adam locked Lyle up. I am still not sure why he let you two go when you were in the bunker at the parking garage, but that was a plus for us. He was also holding Gran captive the whole time. That was why he had her at the bonfire the other night. I was there, but you took control of that one, I was only able to help you after you took off into the woods. I took out a few of Adam’s scouts. Now I am on the run just like you.” Marco stopped talking and looked at the door suddenly. He pointed at Amaris and then motioned to a small door in the corner as he got to his feet slowly and quietly. Amaris moved quickly into what turned out to be the bathroom. Once inside she closed the door and stood close listening. There were several voices but Amaris could not make out what was being said. Suddenly the door knob was ripped out of her hand and Anna was standing there and wrapped her arms around her in a big hug.