Chapter Thirteen – Monica

Jay had arrived early, Monica was certain he’d been prowling the area for a few hours. Dragons in the air, bears on the ground, it made sense. If any of this made sense. Seeing Trent yesterday unsettled her. People didn’t get kidnapped from their homes, not in this country. It was as if she had fallen into a dream, or a nightmare. The reason she’d gone to war was to keep the people she loved and cared about safe. The kidnapping of Yolanda proved she was powerless to prevent bad things happening. And that sense of being powerless stuck in her throat.

“Hi, Wyatt, get enough beauty sleep?” Jay asked as they entered the kitchen.

“I did, can’t you tell?” Wyatt put his hands under his chin and made a face.

“So mature,” Monica replied as she sat down next to Jack. “Are the pancakes good, Jack?” Jack was eating his pancakes, which were smothered in maple syrup. A bear after her own heart.

“Yes.” He nodded and jammed another piece into his mouth.

“What news of last night?” Jay asked.

“We found Trent,” Wyatt answered. “Liam is going to look at some CCTV footage of the area and see if he can trace a boat that’s moored at his location. We thought we should do the same for the area around the house where Yolanda was taken from.” Wyatt glanced nervously at Jack.

“We made progress,” Monica said, keeping her voice upbeat. “We just need a little luck and we can crack this.”

“I’ve been thinking. If Trent goes ahead with his plan to free Tarak, why not tell the relevant authorities? That way no one should get hurt.” Jay stuck his fork in another pancake. “These are good, Ruby, I’ll come over for breakfast more often.”

“Anytime.” Ruby set down another batch of pancakes and sat down next to Jack. “Isn’t it risky? Asking for help from anyone else? Unless we have no other choice.”

“You mean in case there is a mole?” Monica asked. She nodded and placed her fork down on her plate as she thought it over. “These groups have eyes and ears in so many places. We can’t afford to be compromised.”

“You don’t think that’s too dramatic?” Wyatt asked.

“You’ve been out of things for a while, old timer. Corruption is rife.” Jay’s voice was filled with sadness. He’d been there, he’d been betrayed. It was clear that he’d suffered, but Monica didn’t want to ask him any further details, not here around the breakfast table.

“Jay is right. And someone gave Trent the information and the maps. I would guess they have a man on the inside; if not on the police force, then a prison guard.” Unless things changed, Monica feared Trent would have to complete his mission and free Tarak. “We have time. We can identify the hideout before it’s too late.”

“Too late?” Jack asked. “Too late for what?”

“Don’t worry, we’re doing our best.” She gave him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. But she had no more to give. “Let’s change the subject.”

They all looked at each other, and then at Jack. “Is Harlan Jr. coming down for breakfast?” Jack asked as he finished his pancake.

“He is, Fiona is just getting him dressed. What do you want to do today?” Harlan asked. “I think Monica and Wyatt are going to be busy again so it might be the three of us.”

“Hi, Harlan Jr.!” Jack’s high voice squeaked and he jumped around in his seat, kicking his legs. “I saved you some pancakes.”

“Hi, Yack,” Harlan Jr. said as Fiona settled him into a seat.

“I found a phone in Jack’s bag when I unpacked it last night.” Fiona reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone. “I didn’t know if it was yours.” She handed it to Monica.

“It’s Mommy’s phone.” Jack held out his hand for it.

“I’m going to hang on to it, okay, Jack? I’ll keep it safe.” Monica looked down at it and pressed the power button to switch it on. After a second or two, the screen lit up. There was an alarm flashing on the screen, there also appeared to be a couple of missed calls and a bunch of texts. She couldn’t access any of them. “It’s locked.”

“I know the password,” Jack ventured.

“Are you sure?” Monica asked, getting up and going to crouch down next to him.

“Yes, it’s Mommy’s favorite day.” He smiled as he tapped the screen and the phone unlocked.

“What is Mommy’s favorite day?” Monica asked as she scrolled through the notifications.

“My birthday!” Jack was high on pancakes and maple syrup.

Monica made a mental note of the numbers before turning her full attention to the phone. “What’s this, a perimeter alarm?” She bit her lower lip as she tried to figure out what it meant. “Is that your house alarm? Was it set off when someone came into your house?”

“No, it’s for my watch.” Jack leaned over and put his sticky hands around her neck. “It tells Mommy if I leave the backyard.”

“That doesn’t help much because we know you have left the yard.” Monica was about to scroll through the texts when Jack set her straight.

“I’m not wearing my watch.” He pulled up his sleeve to prove the point.

“So who is?” Monica’s heart leaped in her chest. “Jack, do you know where your watch is?”

“On the sofa at home. I took it off before I went to the park with Freddy.” Jack tapped the screen with his sticky finger. “It should show you where it is on the screen.”

Monica waited for it to load. “That isn’t your house.”

Jack’s face crumpled. “Someone stole my watch? The bad men stole my watch?”

“No, not necessarily.” Monica pulled up the map and pressed the minus button to zoom out, trying to figure out where the watch was located. “Somewhere in Wadepark.” She zoomed in looking for an address.

“Wadepark, are you certain?” Wyatt’s voice was hoarse as he spoke and his face paled.

“That’s what it says. Why, what’s there, Wyatt?” Monica looked at the screen and then at Wyatt.

“It’s an old Army training center.” She vaguely remembered the name, the place was shut down a few years ago as the Army tried to cut costs. It resulted in a larger base being converted so resources could be channeled into one place rather than split up. The idea was to cut down on paperwork and bureaucracy, in truth it led to new recruits feeling like outsiders.

“It’s where I trained.” There was more, but he wasn’t saying, not with Jack here.

“I need some air.” She got up from the table, pocketing the phone, and headed for the door. She sensed Wyatt following, but Jay stayed put at the table. He was astute this was a private matter between her and Wyatt. “What is it?”

Wyatt walked past her, he stepped off the porch and walked toward the trees as if he wanted to escape. “It’s where I trained with my squad. We joined together, trained together, and were deployed together.”

“This includes your friend, the one who died?” Monica asked gently as she joined Wyatt. They stood together in a patch of sunlight that filtered through the trees. It was going to be another beautiful day, and she longed to put this behind them and move on. She longed to be alone with Wyatt on the mountain, running along stony trails and climbing to the highest peaks.

“Yes.” His voice caught in his throat. “It’s where it all began and also where it all ended.”

Monica’s shoulders sagged forward. Of course, it wasn’t only the fact that the base had closed down that stuck in her memory. It was also the place where a soldier had killed himself. He’d thrown himself in the river. All that was left was a note beside his dog tags. “Nobody was ever found.”

Wyatt wiped his face. “Looking back, I should have seen it coming. He was a man on the edge. He was a shifter but his wife, his mate, left him. She found another man while he was deployed abroad. He gave his life for others and then took his own. We didn’t realize how bad he’d taken it. Only when you have a mate of your own do you understand how devastating it would be to lose the one you love, the one who is supposed to be yours forever.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” She reached out to him and he turned to her, the pain in his face heart-wrenching.

“We were a unit, we should have seen how depressed he was.” Wyatt ran a hand over his hair. “But I still would never have expected him to take his own life like that.”

“You said he left a note?” Monica had a bad feeling about this. Was it a coincidence that the watch was at the same place that Wyatt and Trent had trained? Even if it wasn’t connected to the suicide, it might well be connected to them.

“He did, saying he couldn’t live without her. It was all too much.” Wyatt shrugged. “Why he never came to us, he could have talked it over. But he’d become so distant.”

“Okay, let’s go back over this. Who else might be connected with Wadepark? You said your squad trained there, could one of them be in on this?”

“No.” Wyatt shook his head and looked at her as if she were crazy. “We all took Jonas’s suicide hard. I left the Army and came here, Trent went undercover. A couple of the other guys moved to different units. The rest I don’t know.”

“It is possible. Wyatt, people do crazy shit sometimes, we both know that. The stress of the job. The stress of losing someone.”

“Crazy shit like going and living on the side of a mountain?” he asked.

“Yeah. Crazy shit like that,” Monica answered gently.

He shrugged. “You think I’m a coward?”

“I didn’t say that. I believe anyone can get jaded and the death of Jonas must have been hard for you all.”

“I was his best friend, best man at his wedding.” Wyatt walked away from her, heading toward the trees. She could sense the air shimmering as he fought not to shift. “He called me. Right before he did it. I could have said something, talked him down, if only he’d trusted me enough to tell me what he was thinking.”

“It’s okay.” She couldn’t let him run again. “I’m here.”

He swung around to face her. “Meeting you, feeling the bond between us has shown me what he lost. I understand now what he was going through. I just wish I’d been able to stop him.”

Monica let the rest of her questions slide. She couldn’t push him anymore, she needed him here, not on the mountain somewhere, but the wild look in his eyes said he might need the freedom of the mountain for a short time to center himself again. “Wait here.”

She ran back to the house and took the porch steps two at a time. When she entered the kitchen she stopped briefly to ask if they minded looking after Jack for an hour or two.

“No problem,” Harlan said. “Is everything all right?”

“Wyatt needs to clear his head. I think I do, too. We’ll be back by ten and then head into town to speak to Liam. He said he was going to find out about the CCTV.”

“Is there anything you need me to do?” Jay asked as he stood up ready to leave.

“Not yet.” She stopped and thought some more. “Can you look up any information about the Wadepark barracks, particularly a suicide that happened there a few years ago? Jonas. He was part of Wyatt’s squad. I don’t know, there’s something off about it. But it’s a gut feeling, so I could be wrong, it’s been a while since I’ve had to rely on my gut.”

“My gut is full of pancakes,” Jay said, following her out.

“Take your time,” Fiona came to the door and placed a hand on her upper arm. Jay nodded and left the two women alone. “We haven’t had time to talk, but Wyatt seems to be pulling himself together. Don’t let this push him back over the edge, for both your sakes.”

“Thanks, Fiona. For everything. It can’t be easy having two complete strangers in the house, especially when one is a five-year-old.”

“I love kids. Don’t worry about that. And Jack and my son are the best of friends already.” Fiona’s voice grew somber. “Take your time, get Wyatt through this. He deserves happiness. Ever since I first met him I sensed a sadness running deep inside him. Seeing him with you, seeing this chance for him to be happy. It makes me and Harlan very happy.”

“Thank you.” Monica pulled Fiona into a hug. “I never expected it to be this difficult. I’ve dealt with missions that have gone wrong, with comrades dying. But this, when your heart is wrapped up in it...”

“Go to him.” Fiona placed two strong hands on Monica’s shoulders and pushed her away. “We’ll be here for you when you get back. And whatever you need, we’re there for you. If Wadepark is where Yolanda is, even if there is a chance she’s there, we’ll be ready to fly tonight.”

“That’s reassuring. It’s a good five-hour drive away. But I’d like something more to go on than the watch.”

“Really? I think Yolanda was smart enough to know it was the only way she would be found. When they entered the house, she slipped the phone into Jack’s backpack and put the watch on.”

Monica nodded. “You’re right. I don’t want to drag Wyatt there on a wild goose chase. It might be too much for him.” She turned back to Fiona. “What if that’s what whoever is behind this wants?”

“Another member of the squad?”

“It’s plausible. I mean if Jonas was feeling that bad, why would he fake his suicide? Who does that and what did he have to gain?” Monica let go of Fiona and stepped off the porch. “Two hours, no more.”

Monica ran across to Wyatt, shifting into her bear as she reached him. He sensed her presence and shifted into his wolf, and the two animals ran off into the trees, fading away from the world as they entered the thick forest leading up into the mountains. She let him lead the way, he’d spent the last few years exploring the mountain range and knew the best places for a wolf and a bear to go in broad daylight without being spotted.

The last thing they needed was to end up on YouTube as a cute bear meets wolf video taken by a tourist. Bears and wolves tolerated each other but they certainly didn’t run wild and free in broad daylight together.

Wyatt led her through deep valleys and over mountain streams that tumbled down from hidden springs. The higher they climbed, the clearer the air smelled and the more open the country they traveled through. Her muscles burned as she tried to keep pace with the wolf, but she was not built for this terrain at high speed. Gradually she dropped back, until he stopped and turned to look at her, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Wyatt shifted back to his human form, his expression less tense, coming up here had been just what he needed. Monica joined him, shifting into her own human form as she approached. “I wanted to share this with you.” He reached out to her and held her in his arms, turning her around so they looked out over the mountain to the scene below. “It always helps me put things in perspective.

The mountain range was made up of secluded woodland and hidden valleys, cliffs and peaks. They’d climbed higher than she thought. Yet she longed to climb higher, to conquer the mountain, with Wyatt by her side. “It’s incredible. I can see why you like it up here so much.”

“I do.” He sighed a long drawn-out breath, as if he’d come to a conclusion he wasn’t totally happy about. “But this just reminds me I can’t live above the world, I belong in it. We belong in it.”

“We do. Side by side.” She turned around to face him. “The view isn’t so bad in this direction either.”

He stroked her cheek, his eyes flicking down to her lips. “You are more beautiful than any mountain.”

“Charmer.” She stepped closer and stood on tiptoes to press her lips to his. They belonged together, could face anything together, and finally, she was sure Wyatt felt the same way. The reservations she’d harbored in her heart passed. This was right, this was their beginning, and the end to the torment caused to Trent, Yolanda, and Jack. Being with Wyatt made her strong, they could conquer the world.