Chapter 907 Chapter 907
Her hand was shaking as she held the phone up closer to her mouth. She couldn’t have a breakdown right now. Her mother hadn’t abandoned her, but—
“Hello.”
“Savan, it’s Ena.”
“Well, this is new. You miss us already?”
She smiled. “I just got some news from—” She looked at Foster. “—the Alliance.”
“Wow, they report to you now? That’s something. What’s the news?”
She didn’t know how to say it, but this was Savan, so she didn’t have to do it gently. “They found Elliot.”
There was a long pause. “Are you serious? Is he all right? It’s been years. I was a kid when he disappeared.”
“I don’t have details. His health is okay, I was told.”
“Shit. I can’t believe this. Is - does he want to come home?”
“He does. I wanted to let you know before any arrangements were made.”
She heard him blow into the phone. “Yeah. How - how soon can he get here? I’ll have to furnish a room for him.”
“Talk to Jesse,” Foster said. “He’ll deal with that.”
“Right. Okay. Uh, damn, my mind is blown.”
Ena smiled and understood exactly how he felt. “I’ll let you know when arrangements are made to get him home.” She didn’t know where he was. She hadn’t asked. She was going to have to learn more about being an Alpha and how things worked at the Alliance.
“Thanks, Ena. You too, Foster. Damn glad you found us.”
“I have to go. I’ll talk to you soon.” She hung up the second he acknowledged what she said.
“That had to feel good.”
She glanced at him. “It did. I’m just—” She exhaled. “Processing a lot.” She looked at the phone. “Betty is going to go off like a bomb.”
Foster laughed. “She’s quite the lady.”
Ena focused on finding her name in the phone and selecting it. Foster had walked her through calling Savan, and she wanted to do this one without assistance. She pressed the symbol to call and then the speaker one. When she heard the phone ring, she smiled, feeling pleased she had navigated it all on her own.
“Hello? Did I do that right? Hello? Shoot.”
“Betty.”
“Yes. Can you hear me?”
“I can. It’s Ena.”
“Ena, you are my first official call on this little thing. Heidi and I practiced back and forth, but that don’t count really.”
“Are you sitting down, Betty?”
Betty scoffed. “Of course I am. I can’t stand all day. My knees don’t like it.”
“I have some news.”
“You called me with gossip? I love little phones.”
Ena smiled. “The Alliance found Elise, Betty.”
“What? Alive? They found her alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where? Do I need to pick her up? I haven’t driven in years, but I know I can.”
“No, Betty. You don’t have to go pick her up. They will bring her home.”
“Home. My little Elie Is coming home.”
Ena couldn’t remember how long ago she’d disappeared, but Betty used to fantasize about spectacular things she thought she was doing out there.
“Heidi,” Betty yelled. “Elie is coming home.”
“Betty.”
“I’m listening. I’m just so happy.”
“Elise Has a six-year-old son.”
“She had a baby? Well, what’s his name?”
Ena looked at Foster and then back at the phone. “I didn’t ask his name.”
“Heidi,” Betty yelled again. “My Elie had a boy of her own. Ena, when are they coming home? I’ll have to clear out the clutter in the other room.” She sucked in a breath. “What am I going to do with the boy? Melony And Karlee Are in the other room.”
Foster looked over at her. “She may want to share her room with him until they’re adjusted.”
“Yes. Good. Foster?”
“Yes, Betty.”
“Is my Elie broken like Melony and Karlee?”
Foster glanced at her for a second. “Most likely, Betty.”
“All right. That’s fine. Home will help fix her up. I’ll keep an eye on both of them.” She sniffled. “I’m going to start blubbering here. Thank you, Ena. Thank you, Foster.”
“I’ll let you go, Betty. When I know when they’re coming, I’ll call you.”
“Yes. Yes, good. Bye now.”
Ena looked at the phone and then Foster. “I need a bit before I call Orson.”
“No rush.”
She looked to see him give her a brief look fille switch compassion. “This is all crazy. The alliance is real. They’re saving my clan and finding lost members. It’s a lot to take in.” She nodded.
“Yeah, it is.”
Ena looked doubt the window and watched things go by. She hadn’t even paused to think she would be leaning Minnesota for ht e first time in her life. That made it all even crazier that the one thing she’d always dreamed of doing was happening, and she was so full of every other emotion a body could feel that the excitement she should have felt wasn’t there.
“Are you all right? I can stop if you need to walk it off.”
She looked over at him. “I could walk for days, and it’s not going to make this any easier to digest.”
“Zain will have people looking into those names, and you heard him say there were more to go through. Waylon had records too.”
She had forgotten that part. “It’s like they keep records of our kind, the same as they would livestock.”
He nodded but continued to look at the road. “It’s sick, I know, but we’re shutting them down.”
Ena nodded. “How many of our kind do you figure have gone missing over the years because of this?”
Just the way he gripped the steering wheel told her that he knew something about it.
“I don’t know exactly because of so many clans vanishing, but last count—” he glanced at her “—that I saw on one of the tech guys’ system was eight hundred that we know of.”
Ena couldn’t speak for a moment. “Eight hundred shifters missing.” She wiped a tear from her eye and then gave her head a shake. “It makes every single one that the Alliance gets back a miracle.”
Foster reached over and took her hand. He squeezed it. “Yeah, it does.” Tugging on her hand, he pulled it over and then kissed it. “Call Orson and get it over with.”
Ena sighed. He was right. “You’re right. Orson is better equipped to cope with this than I am.”
Foster looked at her. “I don’t know about that. You’ve flexed a lot of alpha-ness in the last few days.” He winked at her.
Ena snorted. “Alpha-ness? That’s not even a word.”
“Should be. Is now.” He grinned.
Tugging her hand out of his grip, she looked at her phone. “Do you have any notebooks or anything like that?”
He blew out a breath. “Probably. There’s a tote of mixed stuff somewhere. It has some toys and kids’ stuff; I think I saw notebooks. Why?”
Ena brought up Orson’s number. “I feel like I should write things down as they happen. You know, keep my own record.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Mmm,” She pushed the call symbol beside Orson’s name before she changed her mind.