Chapter 18: What's Gunner Up To?

~River’s Point of View~

We were all sitting around, waiting to see if Angel would come back, but there was something else bothering me, more pressing. I watched my sexy little mate jumping up and down with excitement and I knew my brothers had to be struggling with their hard-ons like I was at the moment.

“Sunny, a word please,” I said.

I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the backyard where no one would be able to hear us. I mind-linked my brothers to sneak away without drawing attention to themselves.

“What the hell River, what’s your problem,” she said in her bratty little voice.

My brothers showed up and I could tell they were thinking the same thing.

“What the FUCK is Ellie wearing Sunny,” Skyler said, irate and getting in her face.

She laughed and crossed her arms, being defiant.

“What, that dress, she looks hot,” she said.

“Are you out of your mind, what if someone sees her, she’s not even wearing a bra, she’s bouncing all over the place,” Hunter yelled.

“It’s just a clubbing dress, all the she-wolves wear them, well all the ones MY age, I can’t speak for the old ones you all hang around,” Sunny said, trying to defend herself, holding her hands in fists now, by her sides.

She then abruptly crossed her arms over her chest again and gave me a look that said she was winning this argument.

“Where the hell are you going clubbing, a frat house?! That is not appropriate for our-”

Hunter cut me off, “for her … for a pup!”

Whew, I almost told Sunny that Ellie was out mate, relax man, calm down.

Sunny looked at us and started laughing hysterically. After a minute of seeing our stern faces, she stopped abruptly.

Shit...

Her face turned serious all of a sudden and she gaped at me.

“She’s your mate, isn’t she? I’ve wondered for awhile now, I see how she looks at you, I’m not stupid. She’s your mate and she doesn’t even know does she?”

My brothers and I all looked at each other. Well, that’s that.

“We had to make an agreement with Godfrey not to tell her, so you fucking better not ruin this, she can NOT know Sun,” Skyler said, putting his hands on the sides of her arms.

“Wow, I mean, congratulations I guess,” she said.

She actually looked a bit sad and I put my arm around her.

“It must be really hard to leave her here, to not be with her,” Sunny said.

“It’s next to impossible, being in battle is a cakewalk compared to having to be away from her, because we feel helpless. At least in battle I know what to do, how to compose myself, this all is just... It’s so hard for us all,” I said.

“You must all love her ... wait a minute. There was just a full moon, what did you guys do, how did you handle that,” she asked.

“It was fucking awful, we had to sit in the dungeons, chained up, our wolves went completely insane, it was so painful, the worst thing I’ve ever felt. This was the second time since we found her that we’ve had to do it, I don’t know if we can take doing it again,” Hunter said.

Sunny actually looked tearful, and she walked to Hunter and gave him a hug. It really was absolute torture and my wolf was very pissed off at me. I still had a couple burn scars that weren’t fully healed and I knew my brothers must as well.

“I’m so sorry guys, I can’t imagine. I’m … I’m sorry I’ve been teasing you all so bad about her, I’ll never do it again and I’ll keep Meadow straight if she does it. So you really think she should have shifted by now? What if you find out she’s like 20 or something, that would be wild,” she said.

“Whatever she is, I just hope we figure it out pretty soon,” I said.

I heard Angel talking and I nodded toward the house. We all quickly went back inside to Ellie. There was a very short girl with her, who looked utterly pissed off at our presence. She wiggled her nose like we smelled bad and I suppressed the urge to throw her to the floor and give her something to be angry about.

I didn’t particularly like witches, I didn’t trust them. You made a deal with them today, and then in a week you’d find out something else … a promise was never just a promise to them. They always had a hidden agenda, just like the fae.

My dad went to take a call and I looked at Angel, waiting for her to talk.

“Everyone, this is Katrina,” she said, waving her hand at the little witch.

“I’ll need to do a reading on the child, if she has a wolf that was suppressed I will know, and once I know if I can help you, I’ll let you know what my payment will entail, she said, grinning.

She had a weird accent, maybe Mediterranean? Greek?

“What do I need to do,” Ellie asked.

“Let’s have you lay down somewhere comfortable, it will take me a bit of time,” she said.

We all looked at each other and mom led us into the game room. I scooped Ellie up and laid her on the pool table, making her giggle.

Sunny immediately went to the couch and got a blanket once she saw how Ellie looked,

laying down in the short dress. My brothers and I all thanked her over mind-link and Hunter draped it over her.

My dad popped in and said, “boys I need a word with you, it can’t wait.”

Fuck, not now! This is more important!

“You guys go, I’ll sit here,” Skyler said, pulling up a bar stool.

Skyler always opted out of any sort of “adult” like situations, instead opting to stay where the action was happening. I rolled my eyes. Hunter and I followed dad to the kitchen and I opened my mind-link to Skyler so he could listen.

“Dad this is kind of important, what’s got you all excited,” Hunter said, and I nodded in agreement.

“I’ve been speaking to an agreeable person in Blood Claw, trying to keep an eye on what they are doing. He said Tyson had his first shift last night and then he immediately put out a reward for Ellie. Tyson offered one of their finest unmated she-wolves to whoever finds her and brings her in,” he said in a rush.

FUCK!!

Motherfucker

I had to imagine Skyler had the same look on his face that we did.

“That’s not all, there’s a rumor that Gunner is not giving up Alpha, even if Tyson finds his mate. I don’t know what the hell to make about that. Also, Gunner is asking for a roundtable. He wants to discuss the situation that happened at Whisper Crescent. He knows we have a warrant out for him and he’s asking for a mediation, a chance to defend himself without a trial, since he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. He wants to come forward and explain himself,” dad finished.

Hunter scoffed. “There’s nothing to explain, he did it, that’s it. Ellie saw the whole thing and so did another half dozen men sitting in trees.”

With a mediation, the criminal could present themselves to the council without fear of arrest. My brothers and I had spent this last month trying to get him, but he wasn’t leaving his packhouse.

Even with a bunch of vampires on our side, we’d never get him out of there. I wanted to just drop a bomb on it but of course there were likely she-wolves and pups in there. We’d been out on heavy rotations, watching the compound, trying to talk to as many people as we could to get information. We revisited old pack areas where he had raided, looking for anything helpful.

“We need to move Ellie somewhere safe, with us and tonight. She can’t stay here and I’m not taking no for an answer. Why can’t we get him out of his house and then invade while he’s gone," I said.

Hunter and I looked at each other and nodded. We would deal with Godrey later about taking Ellie.

We had moved into a cabin a few miles from here, last month and she belonged there with us.

“I doubt Godfrey would go for invading... I’ll keep the part about Ellie to myself for now, that’s your thing to deal with. I’m going to teleport to the packhouse and see what he wants to do,” dad said.

“Keep us updated, we need to get back to Ellie,” I said.