I’m all for the fFrst Amendment. Hell, I was a cop for years, and a soldier before that. I love the Constitution and had already proved time and time again that I’d be willing to die to protect any clause, amendment, or paragraph of that sacred document.
But I’ll be damned if it wasn’t sometimes a little much.
Side by side, Elise and I followed the white-robed Veronica through the sunny compound, down the dirt paths, surrounded on all sides by shining, smiling faces. Faces of men, women, and children of all different races and ages. I saw one man from South Asia, maybe Indian, another group from South Korea. All seemed happy to be there, interacting with everyone else like it was just another day at the cultist compound.
“See her at all?” I murmured to Elise as we headed through the cavern of buildings on both sides, the smell of fireplaces and cooking stoves filling the air.
“Not yet,” she replied. “There’s gotta be at least two hundred people here, though.”
“Maybe we should just ask?”
“Now this over here,” Veronica said, waving to a squat, corrugated metal building with a brightly colored, amateurish mural of a wolf painted on one side, “is our central smokehouse, where we prepare all of our meats and sausages.”
“Smokehouse?” I asked.
“You sound surprised, Jake.”
“I’m from California originally and more of the, uh, religious groups out there are vegetarian or vegan.”
“Ah,” she said. “Yes, but what wolf is vegetarian?”
I shrugged. “Good point.”
Looking around at all these people, I idly wondered what kind of world-shattering I’d be doing if I told them there actually were intelligent wolves in the world, that they were actually shifters, capable of human thought and interaction when they were in their other forms. Probably knock the sheets right of their backs.
“And this is our store house, where we keep our flour from the grain we grow on our cooperative farms. We use it to bake bread that we sell at local farmer’s markets.”
“Never heard of a wolf eating a loaf of bread,” Elise said lightly.
Veronica ignored her and kept us moving. All around us, congregation members glanced our way, but none approached or waved.
“This is our textile area, where we sew robes for our new followers. Sister Nancy is our seamstress, and would be responsible for measuring you for your new clothes when you decide to join.”
“When?” I murmured to Elise.
She snorted. “High opinion of themselves,” she replied in a low voice.
Veronica continued our tour, pointing out the different areas. It seemed everyone had a role to fill, a place to be every day at all times. No set of hands was wasted. If you had a strong back and could swing a hammer, you were in construction. If you weren’t skilled, you were in the fields or they taught you to work in the bake house.
“Any idea where Eve would be? Does she have skills or anything that’d put her in a certain occupation?”
“Only skill she has is getting out of work and manipulating people. So, wherever her good looks and charms would get her.”
We made our way to the center of the compound, to the three-story ranch house we’d seen on our first approach. “And this,” Veronica began, sweeping her hand over the face of the white house, with its surrounding yard and white picket fence along the perimeter, “is Reverend Fenris’ home where he lives with the sisters who assist him in the immense responsibilities which rest on his shoulders.”
From the road, the ranch house had looked almost stately. Large, imposing. This close up, though, I could really see the wear and tear on it, the paint peeling and blistering in parts, the framing wood around the windows rotted and cracked. Could’ve used some of that surplus building supplies to touch up the place, at least.
“Think I found the most likely place,” Elise said from the side of her mouth.
“Most likely.” I raised my voice a little, so I could be sure Veronica could hear me. “Sister Veronica? Any chance we’d be able to meet Reverend Fenris today? I’d like to meet the man I’d be following before I, uh, make any decision. Can we just go up to the house?”
“Oh, no,” Sister Veronica replied, shaking her head. “There is a very strict policy of no masculine energies being allowed near the house, save the reverend’s own. He requires strict adherence, so that the naturally healing energies of the female members of his assistants are not disrupted, which may break his contact with the Great Alpha. But the reverend takes his daily walk through the community and has daily meals with his pack, and you could partake as a guest.”
“Uh-huh,” Elise murmured.
“The reverend requires intense concentration during his times of study and preparation for the evening gatherings. If he isn’t able to communicate with the Great Alpha, we may lose our guidance from our benefactor.”
“Got it,” Elise said, shooting me a look.
Veronica pinched her lips together, clearly disliking the tone Elise was using.
“What my girlfriend means,” I said before I’d fully thought through my wording, “is that we completely understand the healing vibes of a woman, and how important it is for the reverend to be able to communicate with the Alpha.”
“Great Alpha,” Veronic"a corrected as Elise shot me look over my use of the word “girlfriend.”
“Yeah, the Great Alpha.”
The red-headed woman pinched her lips tight together and looked over both of us. “May I be honest with both of you?”
Aw, shit, here it came. We were going to get kicked out before we even scratched the surface of this place and found Eve. And I had zero desire to come back here after dark to try and sneak around this place to find Eve. None whatsoever.
“Sure,” I said.
“Well, why not?” Elise asked.
Veronica sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’ve met your kind before. People who have shut themselves off from the healing powers of nature, of the energy that the Great Alpha provides freely and without condition to his pack. You must learn to open your hearts to him, to freely and unconditionally accept the love and energy that he continually pours over you.”
Slowly blinking, Elise and I just glanced at each other. Wow, that didn’t sound cultish or anything.
“Well,” Elise spoke first, as sweet a smile as she could manage gracing her lips, “isn’t that kind of like the point of us joining up with you guys? I mean, how else am I supposed to open my heart to the Great Alpha, unless I have the guidance of Reverend Fenris?”
Veronica looked at both of us long and hard. Eventually, though, something must have clicked inside of her. “This way,” she said. “I’ll show you to the fields, so you can see what our daily lives are like.” She turned on her heel and headed north, to the outskirts of the small community.
Elise sidled up next to me. “Girlfriend?” Elise asked quietly as we walked.
I ran a hand through my hair. “Sorry. Figured it would it made more sense than whatever we are. Just make things easier.”
“I’m just giving you a hard time,” she said with a small smile. “I kind of liked it. Just surprised, is all. Figured you wouldn’t want to move so fast. Most men wouldn’t.”
“Well, most women wouldn’t scratch behind my ears.”
She laughed, bumped into my side as she slid her arm beneath mine, and grabbed my hand tight. “If she’s here,” Elise said, “she’ll be at the group meal, right?”
“I would imagine so. There’s only so much you can get out of.”
We continued to follow Sister Veronica. As we passed one of the final two structures and approached the line of fencing that separated the wheat and other crops from the main structures, I noticed a building off in the distance with two white-robed figures flanking the front doors. They looked to me like guards of some sort.
But what kind of coop compound had guards on buildings? I almost raised a question to Veronica, but I knew that she’d just give me some bullshit answer. Poor kid was in deep with all this Great Alpha talk. Don’t get me wrong, she seemed sweet enough, but I still didn’t trust her to give me the truth.
“This,” Sister Veronica said with a grand sweep of her hands that seemed to encompass the totality of the amber grains that stretched as far as the eye could see, “is one of our many fields we cultivate throughout the area. We grow both wheat and rye here, for use in our sprouted breads, but all this right now is a winter rye. It helps keep the soil healthy for the wheat. After the harvest, we’ll plow the dead stalks into the soil to add nutrients back in. Do you see that hill over there? Just over that is where our cattle land begins. It’s rocky soil, not much good for anything.” Little white figures bobbed their heads, working in the fields.
“How much of the beef do you sell?” Elise asked.
“Oh, we consume most of the meat from the cattle. Brother Gunther is a Master Butcher from the Netherlands, and has been with us for a few years now. We go through several heads of cattle each week.”
“What’s out that way?” I asked, pointing toward the building with the men out front.
Veronica glanced back over her shoulder at the building. “That one? Just farming implements and tools. Fertilizers and mulch, seeds for the coming season. That kind of thing.”
I looked over at Elise, eyebrow raised, and she returned the gesture. Who the hell put guards on farming tools?
“How about we head up to the community library and I get you some copies of the reverend’s writings on the Great Alpha?”
We followed her back to the main part of the community and headed back towards where we’d parked the pickup. I exchanged nods and unsure smiles with some of the congregation members. Well, unsure on my part. Theirs looked completely sincere.
“Hey, Sister Veronica,” Elise said as we neared the building. “I was wondering, I think a friend of mine from high school joined your group a little while ago. Any chance you might remember her?”
“Recently?” Sister Veronica asked. “Maybe. What was her name?”
“Lilith? Or Eve?”
“One of them her first and the other her middle?” Veronica asked with a laugh.
“Something like that.”
Sister Veronica shook her head. “Sorry, doesn’t sound like any of the lost souls that have recently found us. What does she look like?”
“Black hair, like mine. Curly all over.”
Veronica shook her head again, and Elise’s face sank a little.
“What about a girl named Jasmine?” I asked, thinking maybe Jasmine was still around and could point us to wherever Eve had gone. “Blonde with dreadlocks? Would’ve been about the same time.”
“Oh,” she said, “yeah, totally, I remember her. She’s one of our wandering pups, we call them. She’ll arrive, stay for a week or so, then take off again. Reverend Fenris allows that, even though most of the community doesn’t take advantage of it. We’d prefer to stay here with the pack, under the Great Alpha’s protection. But Jasmine, she travels and spreads our word.”
“Is she still around, maybe?”
Sister Veronica shook her head as we came to a stop in front of the education center. “Sorry, she’s already gone again. Jasmine is like a dandelion jn the wind, or lone wolf in the wild. She wanders and wanders, sometimes bringing home new members, sometimes not.”
I frowned as I glanced at Elise, and she looked back at me with a look that said, “Now what?”
“Only an hour or so until our group lunch,” Sister Veronica said, smiling a little weakly. “Want to get out of the cold?”
Elise sighed and nodded as her shoulders slumped forward. “Sure, Sister Veronica.”
“Wait till after lunch to get out of here?” I mumbled as Veronica entered the little cinder block building that served as their education center. “My stomach’s already rumbling.”
“Yeah, I guess. Feels like this morning was a complete waste.” She frowned more deeply and her whole body seeming to sag. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said her dog just died. “Sorry, looks like we drove up here for nothing.”
“It’s okay, Elise,” I replied as I pulled her into a hug. “We’ll find her. Promise.”