Page 81 of Escaping Wildfire
I took a deep breath before responding. “I can’t say for certain, but I can tell you that we’re already planning on how to stop Wildfire.” I paused not knowing how much to tell them or whether to even be honest with them, but I decided it was best not to lie. “It probably won’t be pretty, and there’s going to be some fighting before this is all over, but I can promise I’ll do my best to keep you and Felix safe.”
“Will we get Mom and Dad back?”
I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and pulled him close to me. “That’s the plan, it’s just harder to get to them because they’re locked up. Alpha Marek is a bad man who used our parents to get you guys to behave while you were at Wildfire. I want our parents back as much as you do, and Alpha Kedrick will help us. We just have to be brave for them because Mamá and Papá miss us just as much as we miss them.”
“We can be brave, Noah.” Felix chimed in from my right, and I brought him into the embrace. “Can you train us, so that we can be ready for when you fight Wildfire?”
“You won’t be fighting anyone, at least not until you’re my age.” I ruffled his hair. “But I’ll teach you, it’s good to start early and learn some self-defense.” The boys smiled at me and went back to eating.
“Can we learn too?” Jade looked over at Jordan. “I know we already know some stuff, but I’d like to keep learning…like Noah said, for self-defense.” Jade put on a brave front, and she’d kept it together for Jasmine, but I could see a bit of fear in her eyes as she spoke to Jordan. What they had gone through had left them all traumatized, and maybe continuing to train would help them heal, or at least give them a sense of peace.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll talk to Alpha about starting you. Probably Tuesday since Labor Day is coming up.”
“Also, would it be possible for me to go to school?” She looked down at her plate, not making eye contact with anyone.
“You want to go to school school?” Jordan craned his head to look past Jasmine and over at Jade.
“I know we said we’d do the homeschool thing, but I need to get out. It’s just…I feel a bit trapped being here all day.” She sighed loudly, “Can I just try it out?”
“Alright, I’ll ask Alpha, I’m sure we can get it set for Tuesday, too.” He looked at Jasmine, “Do you want to go, too?”
“No!” She said a little too loudly. “I mean, no…no I’m fine with the homeschooling…I…I’m not ready for actual school.” She shook her head vigorously with wide eyes.
“Okay, no worries, you can homeschool as long as you want.” Jordan put his hand soothingly on her forearm, and she settled back down.
“What about you guys?” I asked my brothers. “Do you want to go?”
They looked at each other, doing their silent twin talk before Felix spoke up for them. “We want to go, but as long as we can be in the same class.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Alpha and see.”
We finished up our lunch and went our separate ways. We’d been given the day off from training to rest, but Cosmo was feeling antsy, so I decided to head out for a run.
‘What do you think Amora’s like?’
‘I bet she’s gray like the rest of her family. Small but strong just like Gema.’
I had thought a lot about Gema and her wolf over the last few weeks. I’d felt pretty confident that we’d be mates this whole time, but now that our time to find out was finally becoming a reality, I was nervous. ‘Do you really think we’ll be mates?’
‘I’m about 90 percent certain we are, and the other 10 percent of me knows she’ll love us regardless. We’re awesome, remember?’
We ran until we reached the pack border and then started to head back. Cosmo sounded like his old self during our run, and it was nice to experience the normal banter from my overly confident wolf again.
I got back to my room at five to three, just enough time to shower before Gema arrived. As I was getting out of the shower, Jordan linked me that Alpha wanted to see us in his office. I quickly threw on some clothes and rushed downstairs.
“Come on in,” Alpha waved me in, and I could see that Cristian and Jordan were already in the room.
“Is everything okay, Alpha?” My heart was beating like crazy, unsure of why he had called us into his office. Please let Gema be okay.
“Yes, everything is good. I called you three in here because Gema and her friend have arrived.”
Cristian and I made a move to get up and leave, “Where is she?”
“Hold on a minute, sit back down guys.” He motioned with his palms out for us to stay put. “They’ve taken the girls to the pack clinic. The cat shifters who first treated them gave them a sedative, and they’re both still asleep, but the doctor said they are healing up nicely and should both wake up soon. I wanted to talk to you here before you rushed down there with all of your questions. The girls need rest. For now, Ellis went down there with them, and she’s linked me that you can go visit. One at a time in the room though.”
“Yeah, we can stay calm. You two go on ahead, I want to go get my sisters so they can see her, too.” Jordan went out to get the girls and we stayed with Alpha.
“Come on, I’ll drive you two over there.”