Page 47 of Escaping Wildfire

“The girls and twins are safe, but they have my parents and Noah’s locked up in the cells.”

“Those bastards.” Cristian cursed. “Why are they keeping you there? Do you know?”

“Cristian…” Gema paused.

“Gem…it’s okay, just tell us.” I tried to reassure her, sensing there was something she didn’t want to say.

“Dad made a deal with Alpha Marek to keep him from killing us and the rest of the pack.”

The three of us exchanged frustrated looks. “What kind of deal, Gema?” Cristian prodded her for more information, the rising anger evident in his voice. Gema sighed on the other end of the call.

“He…he promised my hand in marriage…to Alpha Marek’s son…” She trailed off quietly.

My heart jolted at her words, and I saw red. Cosmo growled loudly, and I was certain the others could see him coming through my eyes just as I could see Ax coming through Cristian’s.

“Dad sold you out to that fucker…” Cristian looked like he was about to rage out into Ax, so I took the phone from him as he started to pace.

“I don’t want you guys to worry about me. Alpha Marek’s son, Larkin, is nothing like his father. He’s actually the one who let me call. He’s helping me, and he doesn’t want any of this either. Dad…” There was a hitch in her voice as she mentioned her father. “I’m furious with him, but I don’t have much time on the phone to get into everything that’s happened these past few weeks. Larkin will help me, but we need your help, too.”

“Gem, we’re doing all we can over here…no matter what, we’ll get you all out,” I promised even though I had no clue how we would do that yet.

I could hear her sniffling on the other end. “I love you, Gem.” I didn’t care that the guys were around to hear me. Any other day they would have made fun of me, but right now they knew Gema needed to hear those words from me.

“I have to go now, but…Noah, I love you, too.” Even with the severity of the situation, I smiled at her words. “Gem, before you go…what’s your wolf’s name?”

“Amora.” She sniffled again and giggled. “Her name is Amora, and she says hi.”

‘Tell her I can’t wait to meet her.’ Cosmo spoke for the first time since we answered Gema’s call.

“Cosmo says he can’t wait to meet her.”

“I love you guys. I’ll call again as soon as I can.” With that, the line cut off, and we were left in silence.

I set the phone on the table. Cristian continued to pace as he tried to calm Ax, and Jordan sat down wiping his hand across his face.

“We have a contact number!” The door burst open as Alpha Kedrick walked in yelling out triumphantly, but he stopped in his tracks as soon as he saw the three of us. “What’s with the long faces? Did something happen?”

“Yeah, we just got off the phone with Cristian’s sister.” Jordan took the initiative and responded.

“Wait, wasn’t she one of the ones taken by Wildfire?”

“Yes, but she somehow managed to make some friends who let her get in touch with us.”

“Well fuck me.” Alpha Kedrick said incredulously as he took a seat at the table. “That’s good news, boys…that means we have someone on the inside now. What else did she say? Do we know why they were taken captive?” He looked at each of us in turn, looking for answers.

“Yeah, but…” I sighed before speaking the words that caused my heart to ache. “The former Cobalt Falls Beta made a deal with Alpha Marek to save all the remaining pack members in exchange for giving his daughter in marriage to Alpha Marek’s heir,” Ax growled loudly as I told Alpha Kedrick everything Gema had told us.

“Your sister?” Alpha turned to Cristian to confirm, but Cristian just nodded, unable to say anything as his anger continued to take over.

“Alright, boys, this is a lot to take in for one day. It’s good that they’re safe, though, we can work with that…and now that we have one of the cat leaders’ numbers, we can reach out to her.”

“Her? Who is she?” Jordan inquired.

“Her name is Olivia Castillo, she’s a bobcat shifter. I don’t know much about her, but from what we’ve found out so far, she’s a businesswoman who owns businesses all over the country, but her main territory and home is south of Cobalt Falls. I figured we could call her and see if she’ll meet with us.”

“When?” I looked at him expectantly. Who knew the person we needed was right in our backyard this whole time?

“How about we try her right now?” He went over to his desk and started to dial her number before the three of us could respond, but we were all more than good with him calling right now. The sooner the better.