Chapter 114

Chapter 114
“I don’t even know what I’m looking for here.”

I chuckled as I leaned against the steel railing on the side of the road. “Do you see the signs on the side of the road where some people are parking?”

“Yes? I’m passing a yellow one right now.” Noah grumbled into the phone.

“Alright, I need you to drive all the way down to the green one. Park and I will give you your passes.”

Amelia and Landon were jumping up and down with excitement about seeing Leah and Hailey. They finally, after over two weeks of getting the bar shut down, and doing some extra business around the country, were moving in.

Noah was in front, driving a newly acquired truck that had all their boxes and everything that they wanted to bring over from their old place. Behind him, Finn was driving Noah’s Jeep with the kids. I worked with them over the phone and through the computer, getting everything they wanted with the furniture set up for them.

Mostly, the house was done. There were always small things I wanted to add here and there, but the rooms that we needed functional were all done. I don’t know how it happened, but we now have fourteen people in our pack.

We already had to expand the tree houses rapidly, and that wasn’t a place I wanted them to live. I wanted housing around the area for the pack members, but right now, we needed to figure out where they were going to go. Since we were eventually going to make more treehouses, and the guys didn’t seem to mind staying in them, we focused on getting them comfortable.

“Okay…I think I see you.”

I stood up from the railing and stepped forward onto the gravel before the road. Sure enough, even with the slight curve of the road, I could see the new silver truck and the Jeep behind it. Waving, I pointed to the other side of the road where my car was parked.

They pulled in, and Leah burst out of the car as soon as it stopped. Myself and Finn yelled at her, but she stopped on the other side of the road, waving to Landon and Amelia. They were jumping up and down on my side, trying to coax her across. Grabbing their heads, I pulled them back further away from the road.

“No. You need to wait. It’s dangerous to cross the road like that. What if you got hit by a car? There is a curve, and if someone is going too fast, they might not see you.” I looked at both of them seriously. “We have free rein in the forest, but that doesn’t mean we can just forget that there are dangers. Is that understood?”

Both of them nodded, looking thoroughly ashamed. We had been in the forest for a while, and it gave them a completely different sense of freedom. They could go out and run themselves to the ground without running into a single issue. It was everything I wanted for them. Everything we had done as kids in the forests behind the pack house. Something they could hopefully do when they shifted and learned to run.

“Where the hell are we supposed to drive into the house?” Noah stood on the other side of the road, looking at the wall of trees behind us.

“You don’t.” I smirked and nodded behind us. “We have ATVs and carts.”

His face turned to horror. “I’m sorry, is the pack house not accessible by car?”

“No, and I don’t intend on it ever being accessible by car. Come on. Grab the most important stuff, and we can get the rest on another trip back.”

“Goddess above.”

Noah threw his hands up and turned back to the truck with their boxes. Finn had finally got Hailey out of her car seat and took Leah’s hand. Together, they crossed the road, and Amelia grabbed her hand, pulling her under the steel barricade and into the forest. I could tell Finn was about to yell, but I reached out and put my hand on his arm.

“Don’t. They are fine.”

His head cocked to the side as he looked at me for a moment. “Are you sure…?”

“I am. Trust me.”

Finn was still looking at me, with a weird look on his face, before Hailey finally worked her wiggling out of his arms and into mine. It was not a comfortable hold right now, but she seemed happy enough to be in my arms. Noah brought two boxes across the road and set them down.

“So, how are we doing this?”

“I’ve got one of the ATVs with the cart and some straps. We can do one load now, head back, and then grab the other three ATVs from there. The guys should be done with them and had dropped them off.”

Noah nodded, grabbing the boxes again after he climbed over the railing. “How many do you think we can fit?”

“Four at least. They hold a lot; it’s just that they aren’t big. I had to get two more ATVs and two more carts last week because we needed to haul wood from one side of the territory to the other. We weren’t doing it with just two carts.”

“We? Who is we? How many people are here right now?” Finn asked, looking between Noah and me. “I thought we weren’t adding anyone to the pack until we were figuring things out.”

Chuckling, I nodded. “I thought so too. Until a bunch of wolves from Sol’s army showed up. Some with their mates. They were pacing the area, and some of them were even just staying in local hotels, seeing if they could wait until I was accepting pack members.” I carefully stepped over the railing as Noah went to get more boxes from the truck. “I could use them, considering I couldn’t get a refrigerator or an oven in by myself. So, I offered them a place to stay in exchange for labor. More showed up, and now we have a semi-functional pack house and a growing network of treehouses.”

“Tree…houses.” Finn looked worried. “Maybe we should have gone over everything before we came. I feel like I’m missing things here.”

Ignoring him, I called out to the kids. “Did you want to ride on the ATV or run?”

“Run!”

Both my kids yelled from further in the trees. I didn’t hear anything from Leah, but I assumed that even if she wanted to ride, she just out voted. Noah loaded up the last boxes that felt safe to fit before strapping them down in the ATV.

“Do you know how to drive one of these things?” I nodded toward the driver’s seat.

“I mean, yeah. Sure. It’s not hard.” Noah got in the driver’s seat. “It’s just your simplified driving experience.”

Handing Hailey to Finn, he got into the passenger seat. I could have gotten in the back seat, but I didn’t really feel like sitting and bouncing around in it. Instead, I walked and wrangled the kids as we did.

Noah took a while to get used to the controls on the ATV. Finn got out and walked with me while he did, but eventually it got smooth enough to ride in. The kids ran through the trees until they squashed into the back of the ATV to enjoy the ride. I still continued to walk, a little quicker pace now that I didn’t need to keep an eye on the kiddos and Noah could go faster.

“Alpha!”

I stopped, looking in the trees as one of the other ATV’s pulled up with the brothers Jorge and Ricardo. They had come in just after Gerald and Blythe, both under Solaris as well. Moving away from Noah and Finn, they slowed down, and I waved them off.

“The kids can tell you where to go. I’ll catch up.”

“Nate!”

Waving behind me, I strode up the guys. “What’s up?”

“I think we have an issue.”

My eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

“We caught some wolves trespassing on the northeast side. We aren’t sure what to do with them. They aren’t anyone we know, and I thought we should grab you before they get any deeper.”

“Rogues or…?”

Jorge shook his head. “They are rogues, but they haven’t been for a while. Like they just left their pack.”

Jumping onto the back of the ATV, they made a U-turn and headed into the forest. “Did they say who they were?”

“No. They were refusing to talk to anyone but you. I didn’t know if you would want us to bring them all the way into the pack house or not.”

My eyes narrowed as I held onto one of the bars of the ATV. “I think giving me a heads up was fine. You can mind-link me. I showed everyone how the other day.”

Ricardo chuckled. “We know. We figured you would need a ride though. It was more convenient to tell you and drive you at the same time.”

Nodding, I held on as we went towards the treehouses on this side of the territory. Even at top speed, which they thankfully weren’t going, it took a few minutes to get across the forest. A group of my guys, standing with their arms folded like guards, were in the center of the clearing that the treehouses used as a space to hang out. There was even a small pond as well that had an underground spring keeping it full.

“Alpha Nate!” Blythe broke off from the group and came over, helping me out of the ATV. “Sorry to call you out like this. We just haven’t run into anyone we didn’t know yet.”

Patting him on the back, I smiled and shook my head. “You did fine. Just…mind link me next time. I can come over myself. At least until we get the pack house ready for visitors.”

“I mean, we don’t intend to just visit.”

Turning around, my vision turned red as I stormed up to the group, pushing them aside. “You!”

There was a smirk on his smug face, and I wanted to punch him. “It’s been a while.”

“Not long enough. What the hell are you doing here?” I shook my head, trying everything in my power not to pummel him into the ground. “You know what, I don’t care. Get off my territory. I don’t fucking want traitors in my pack.”

Gerald cracked his knuckles and stepped forward. “We can remove them, Alpha. If you need us to.”

“Wait, please! Nate…I mean, Alpha Nate. I know…we know what uncle did, but please. Just…hear us out.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked down for a while, not saying anything.

“Please, Alpha Nate. We ask that you hear us out first. Then, if you still want to throw us out, you can.”

Closing my eyes, I let out a long sigh. “You are lucky, Alpha Jacob, that your nieces are with you.”

He chuckled awkwardly. “I know. Trust me. It’s the only reason I felt somewhat okay coming and speaking to you like this.”

“Gerald and Yusuf, can you escort these three to the pack house?”

“Yes, Alpha!”

I moved to the side as Alpha Jacob, Nessa and Fey walked by me. None of them could look at me, and I did my best to keep my anger in check. Once they drove off, Blythe came up next to me. He put a hand on my shoulder.

“Bad blood?”

“You could say that. Because of him, my twins and I were put in danger. This pack fixed that, but still. He knew what he was doing. He knew the danger he was putting us in.”

We were quiet for a moment, and I let the red drain from me. Walking over to the pond, I splashed some of the water on my face to clear my head more.

“Why don’t you just kick him off?”

Frowning, I stood up and turned around. “As much as I hate to admit it, we need him. I don’t know what happened, and I would like to know. Still, he’s a doctor. Nessa and Fae are teachers. The Alpha in me wants them part of the pack to make up for the holes that we have.”

“Can you trust them?”

Letting out a long sigh, I shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I have a feeling I’m about to get that answer though.”