Chapter Five – Monica

After a breakfast of fresh berries and a gloopy porridge, that tasted better than it looked thanks to the wild honey Wyatt added, they collected their gear and set off back down the mountain. Monica watched as Wyatt dampened the fire and packed a backpack with clothes and a toiletry bag. He then secured the cabin and his belongings, packing any perishable food and placing it in his backpack. As they left the cabin, he stopped and turned around to look inside as if he was saying goodbye to his home.

“You okay?” Monica asked as Jack scampered through the trees ahead of them. She kept a watchful eye on the young boy, but she let him roam. When this was over, she wanted Jack to be the same carefree boy, not one who lived in fear for the rest of his life. For that to happen, she couldn’t smother him. Her senses told her there was no one around, and Wyatt had been patrolling the area most of the night. They were safe, for now.

“Yeah. I’m good.” Wyatt looked up at the blue sky above them as the leaves rustled in the wind. “This is my home. I like the peace and quiet. But it’s time to move on.”

“You can come back.”

“Is this where you want to live?” he asked. The question surprised her, and she took a moment to respond. “That’s what I thought.”

“I’m not saying I wouldn’t want to stay here. But not live.” Her brow creased. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

“You mean thinking about another person and their wants and needs?” Wyatt was already getting used to the idea. She sensed it in the way he spoke, and the way he treated her. Which made her nervous. She didn’t feel that same intense attraction that pushed everything else aside. Sure, she liked Wyatt, and she wanted him, but insta-love had passed her by.

We can settle for insta-lust for now, her bear informed her.

“You got it. It’s not like you can flip a switch.” She watched Jack as he chased after a rabbit. “It’s different than being in a squad.”

“I should hope so,” Wyatt laughed, more relaxed this morning. “With a squad, you watch each other’s backs. With a mate...”

“You watch my front?” she asked, refusing to blush as she injected Army humor. His nearness made her feel feminine. Like a woman rather than one of the guys. But she wasn’t ready to take that step. While they worked together, she needed to maintain an emotional distance.

“I’m trying very hard not to watch your front. Or your back.” He held up his hand and made a curved motion. “That part of your anatomy in particular.”

She burst out laughing. “What would my momma say?”

“Did you join the Army right after school?” Wyatt switched the subject, which was probably a good idea with young ears so close by.

“No, not until my late twenties. I trained as a lawyer,” she admitted.

“A lawyer. And you gave that up?” He sounded as if she were crazy, which she probably was. She gave up a good career for a life of danger.

“I did. I decided to enlist and make a real difference.” And she believed she had.

“Why?” Wyatt sure liked asking direct questions.

“I felt fake. Sometimes you just knew a person was guilty, but you still had to argue he was as innocent as the day he was born.” She grinned. “I was so naive.”

“And when you joined the Army?”

“I joined the territorial Army first. I was a reservist. Influenced by my father who was a career soldier. He always wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but that isn’t why I joined up.”

“He must have been proud though.”

“He was. And I’m sure he took the credit, at least behind my back.” She loved her dad, but he was formal and regimented, everything she didn’t want to be. “But he wasn’t the reason. My unit was deployed after a hurricane wreaked havoc along the coast. It was the most alive I’d ever felt; the people were real. The food not so real.”

He laughed. “Yeah, the food.” Wyatt whistled. “Hey, Jack, you need to come back here and stick close, we have to go down a steep trail.”

Jack ran back toward them, his cheeks flushed pink with excitement. “This is the best place in the world.”

“I like to think so.” Wyatt stopped at the head of the trail. “I’ll go first, Jack in the middle, and Monica at the rear.”

“Yes, sir.” Jack saluted Wyatt and then followed him down the trail. His small feet kept slipping and sliding on the small rocks and pebbles, but he persevered and kept going. Monica watched him carefully but kept her other senses alert to their surroundings. As far as she could tell there was no sign of another person on the mountain, but there was no room for complacency. If what she’d found out was true, then there was every chance the men holding Yolanda would stop at nothing to get their hands on Jack, too.

What was better than one hostage? Why two, of course. As if Trent needed any more incentive to do what they asked.

But what if she was wrong? What if this had nothing to do with Trent’s Army career? As the sun rose in the sky and warmed the ground, she went through all other possible scenarios. Trent had left the Army three years ago. Once Jack was born, he’d wanted to be home with him, not stuck halfway across the world. He’d done his time, fulfilled his duty. He’d left to work a desk job in a local government department. Trent once told her he missed the Army but was grateful to go home each night and kiss his wife and put his kid to bed.

Could this be tied to after he left? Could something in his private life have sparked the kidnapping? It didn’t add up. Trent’s family was too important to him. He would never do anything stupid that might put them in danger.

“Are we all okay back there?” Wyatt called over his shoulder. He didn’t look behind, he was walking point and his eyes constantly scanned the terrain for threats.

“We’re okay.” Monica reached out and grabbed Jack as his feet slid from under him. “Nearly at the bottom, buddy.”

“This is fun.” He turned a bright smile on her, and she couldn’t help smiling back.

“I used to love the mountains when I was your age. Not these mountains, another range up in the north. My brothers and I used to spend all summer exploring them, camping out under the stars and roasting marshmallows on a fire.” Her childhood memories revolved around the remote Army base her dad was stationed at. When he was deployed, Monica and her brothers would run wild in the mountains. This mountain range gave her a sense of nostalgia.

“I want to do that,” Jack said. “When Mommy has the baby, I’ll have a brother or sister, too.”

Wyatt slid to a stop and turned to face Jack. “Your mommy is pregnant?”

“Yes. Not very... It’s going to be a Christmas present.” He stopped behind Wyatt. “Do you need to rest?”

Wyatt lifted his eyes to Monica’s. “No, I don’t need a rest.” He turned away and continued walking down the trail, his pace a little faster. The sense of urgency had just gotten ramped up. If the kidnappers found out about the baby, how would they use it against Trent?

Five minutes later they were on level ground, hiking toward the trees in the distance. “This all looks so pretty in daylight.”

“Yeah, you would not have had the full mountain experience in the dark.” Wyatt’s voice had an edge to it that most people wouldn’t notice. But Monica was not most people. She was trained to pick up on the clues people hid in their voices. As a lawyer, a change in tone or language could give so much away.

“Can we come up here again?” Jack asked.

“When this is over,” Wyatt replied.

“You mean when you find Mommy and Daddy?” Jack asked.

“Yes.” Wyatt ducked as he entered the woods. The air under here was cooler, filled with the scent of pine. He walked another ten feet then halted, lifting his hand to warn them. Monica closed the distance between her and Jack, wrapping her arm across his chest to keep him near.

“What is it?” Monica asked quietly. She couldn’t hear anything other than the wind in the trees and the sound of her own heart.

Wyatt turned around, a full 360 degrees, his head tilted to one side. “I thought I heard someone.”

The tension in her body increased and she strained to hear anything that didn’t belong on the mountain. Jack looked up, watching her face, trusting her to keep him safe. Was that a twig cracking?

Wyatt spun around to look in the direction of her car. Was someone waiting for them on the road? Had they found her? Perhaps they had been there all night. The wolf shifter lifted his nose into the air and took a deep breath, then he relaxed. “It’s okay, I know who it is.”

“Who?” Monica hissed. She trusted Wyatt, she had to, but she wasn’t ready to trust everyone who walked into her life.

“The local ranger. Jacob. He’s a good man, you can trust him.” Wyatt struck out toward the road, his pace faster, and they followed. Jack had to jog to keep up.

“Here, buddy, I’ll carry you.” She swung the small boy into her arms, not because he couldn’t keep up with Wyatt, but because if they had to run, she would be ready.

“Are we going back home?” Jack asked hopefully.

“No, Jack. We’re going to find help.” Monica wished she could tell Jack what he wanted to hear. That she could give him what he wanted most in the world, his parents. But she couldn’t. Not now. Possibly not ever.

“I thought we came here to find help, to find Wyatt?” Jack asked, his chin resting on her shoulder.

“We did, and now Wyatt is taking us to find more people who can help us.” She stroked his head. “Maybe there’ll be other children you can play with.”

He lifted his head and smiled. “I miss playing. I miss school.”

“When I was your age, I loved cutting school and going out over the mountains,” Monica confided in him.

“All my friends are in school and we don’t have a mountain.” He looked over her shoulder at the high mountain peaks. “But when I’m a big bear, like Daddy, I’m going to explore all of these mountains.”

“Okay, Jack, we’re nearly on the road. I need you to be ready.” She kept her voice low. Wyatt was about fifteen feet away from them, but he still might be able to hear her whispered plan.

Why are we keeping secrets? her bear asked. We can’t let him walk into danger.

He won’t be in any danger if it’s his friend. But what if his friend isn’t alone? It would be better if we hid in the trees. That way Wyatt will be safe, too.

You mean if it’s an ambush? Her bear didn’t like the idea, but they both knew it was for the best. Wyatt was trained for this type of thing. If there was someone with Jacob, someone who was a stranger to the area, he would be on high alert. When her mate paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder, giving her a brief nod, she knew they were on the same wavelength.

Monica pulled back, putting more distance between them as the trees thinned and Wyatt broke out into the open air. “Hey there, Jacob.”

“Wyatt, what brings you this way?” a voice greeted him.

“I was on my way down to visit the dragons.” Wyatt’s voice sounded relaxed and friendly, no noticeable tension.

“Dragons,” Jack whispered in her ear.

“Maybe it’s like a nickname,” Monica told Jack, who squirmed in her arms.

His eyes went wide. “But what if it’s not?”

She had no answer for him, instead, she put her fingers to her lips and told him to be quiet so she could listen. Wyatt’s voice remained relaxed, his tone even and his words friendly.

“Liam flew this way earlier and saw this car. I was checking that it didn’t belong to a hiker who might have gotten lost in the dark.” Jacob’s voice held no tension. He wasn’t hiding anything.

“It belongs to a friend of mine,” Wyatt said smoothly.

“You had a visitor?” Jacob sounded surprised, confirming Monica’s thoughts that Wyatt spent his life up here alone.

At least we know he doesn’t have any female friends. Her bear’s words made her stop in her tracks. Monica hadn’t given any thought as to whether Wyatt had a girlfriend. Someone to keep him company on the cold winter nights.

“Monica,” Wyatt called her name and she jumped guiltily. “Come and meet Jacob.”

Monica emerged from the trees, holding on tightly to Jack as she held out her hand to the ranger. “Hi there.”

“Good to meet you, I don’t think I’ve ever known Wyatt have a visitor from out of town.”

“I’m a friend of a friend.” Monica smiled easily, she was not going to divulge any more information than she needed to. Not yet. Trust had to be earned.

“I’m Jack.” With a bright, happy voice, Jack held out his hand to Jacob.

“Hello there, Jack.” Jacob chuckled as he shook Jack’s hand. So trusting, the young boy had none of Monica’s tight reserve. It appeared Trent hadn’t taught his son to be afraid of anyone. She only hoped, by the end of this adventure, he was still as innocent.