Ch. 98: Accomplices

CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT
Rachel~
I woke up on the Saturday before my birthday with the imprinted vision of the loveliest dream in my mind. I had walked through a forest on a clear night without getting cold. I had magic coming from my hands that helped me protect myself - and defend others. I met an angel in heaven and we talked about life. If only any of those things were true. I flirted with a big, broad shouldered guy with a touch that felt like magic, and we went for a walk in the snow. There were beautiful twinkling lights on a Christmas tree, and we were somehow both in town for the Tree Lighting Ceremony, and the cabins in Tahoe. For a split second when I had woken up and was still a tiny bit unconscious, they all had felt real. Even the angel stuff, and I don’t consider myself religious at all. But that is all the kind of stuff that happens to main characters in stories - not to random people in real life.
“Mija,” my mom called from the doorway. “Time to start- your sister is already mopping.”
Saturday morning in latin households were days for deep cleaning and loud music. I had been fighting for every second of sleep while I heard my mom on the phone yelling loudly into the phone in Spanish because the connection is always terrible, and my grandma in Peru is hard of hearing. A bad combo.
It was my weekend to vacuum, and so I quickly splashed water on my face in the sink to wake up before preemptively moving furniture around to get things done. Meg was already putting the mop away when I took the vacuum out. My mom, of course, had already cleaned all the appliances and countertops in the kitchen while on the phone. Now she headed to the bathroom to scrub some things while I plugged in the vacuum and powered it on.
With the sound of the vacuum so loud, I lost myself in the movements I’ve committed to muscle memory. Move that, start in this corner and go all the way there, push that out of the way, lift up that cord, and so on. As I followed the mindless movements, my mind wandered to the dream again. There was just something so… It was like a light ‘dejavu’, nothing I could clearly put my finger on, but something was definitely there. What did it all mean?

Nick~
Aamon was trying to push through too early. Again. This time I wasn’t sure if there was anything we could do to help him or to stop him. But that’s the second Evan punched him so hard he flew back maybe ten, fifteen feet and slammed right into the trunk of a tree.
To a regular person, they could have died or would at least have been unconscious, and/or in terrible shape. But for our future Alpha, it seemed like just enough to surprise him and get him out of his state of mind.
Jake had flown, crashed into the tree, and then jumped right back up to his feet. Evan rushed him, while I stayed a few steps away, making sure I could get Ally out of there if needed. But instead of this getting out of hand, Evan held his ground, and held Jake’s furious gaze long enough for me to tell him Sophie had already been captured.
“We linked the guards, she is in the cells,” I added, taking another emphasized step by Ally.
If it became a choice, I know I would choose her. Not really a choice at all. I didn’t choose to breathe either, it just happens.
“And-” Evan said from next to me.
We all turned our heads to him. He looked like he was linking someone.
His eyes refocused and he added, “My mom led the look through Sophie’s things. There’s something you need to see in her diary.”
“Just. Tell. Us,” Jake said, his voice laced with Aamon’s voice.
“It looks like she was dumb enough to write down all the crap she pulled in her diary. And she named some accomplices. The guards are gathering them now. They’ll meet us in the cells,” Evan informed Jake.
He didn’t say a word as he turned on his heel heading to the small prison we had on the grounds.
Ally immediately went to follow him but I asked her to please stay where she was, insisting her time was better spent trying to Living Dream with Kyle for any other information we could get. Although it ruffled Asher’s fur to leave her there with another male. She agreed after a moment, and I kissed her cheek before taking off.
I had to snap at Asher with a fast, “Do you really have such little faith in our mate?” to get him to let her go.
I was surprised Jake (or Aamon, not sure who exactly had more control second by second) didn’t go breaking everything in sight as we made our way quickly to the holding cells. No, instead, it was like he was getting considerably hotter. Like actual heat was coming off him, so much so that it felt like we were standing by a bonfire the size of a person. A tall person. Or most literally, a werewolf.
We met with the rest of our team and they quickly ran down the list of most important things to know. When Evan’s mom quickly recapped the different ways Sophie had successfully harmed Rachel, I had to shove her out with some lame excuse about my mom asking for her help with something back at the packhouse. I couldn’t let her watch how deeply what she said infuriated our Alpha. For now we were maintaining that Rachel was some human that Sophie had set her eyes on. And for now that was enough - that a werewolf was using their abilities and the magic/ abilities of others to hurt an innocent human. A human who had not harmed a werewolf or anything close to it.
Evan again came at Jake with a huge punch to the gut to keep him in check. But it was barely enough. He was an inch from shifting. I could see it in his eyes, feel it in the scorching heat rolling off him, see it in Evan’s hurt wrist and burned fist. Aamon was there behind a barrier the thickness of paper, crackling with rage. I picked up the notebook and continued to skim for things. Our Beta linked us that the other named accomplices had all been gathered except for one. Tiffany. One of Sophie’s friends. I skimmed through the notebook looking for her name to see if Sophie put anything else in her of use to us in searching for her buddy.
Evan ticked his head to the side, silently indicating that he was taking Jake to the side to get some steam out. He didn’t even seem to react to the now blistering burn on the outside of his fingers from where his fist had made contact with Jake’s shoulder. Jake didn’t hesitate following Evan out there, he knew what was at risk if he shifted too soon and he needed to work off some of that - whatever that was building.
My eyes continued to skim page after page, slowing down each time I saw Tiffany’s name. But nothing so far other than learning Tiffany was the one who made contact with the black magic coven, ‘The Collective.’ Sophie seemed to imply it was Tiffany’s idea to find them in the first place, knowing that they existed somewhere and were in dire need of funds. And I knew that Sophie’s family, while somewhere in the middle in their ranking in the pack, had tons of wealth locked away from generations past who had done well investing after listening to some crackpot psychic who turned out to be right for once. They had gotten very lucky and hoarded their wealth away.
“It seems we scared one to tell us that Tiffany wanted to turn on her own for her first shift a few days ago. We’ve got an address, I’m taking a team out,” our Beta said suddenly from my side. “Are you good here?” He asked me, looking between me and out to where Jake and Evan were beating the ever-living crap out of each other.
“Yes,” I said back with an assurance in my tone that was probably the exact opposite of how I truly felt. Good here? No, not at all. But I just grinned and nodded at him.
He stopped for a moment, rocking on his heels, with a question on his face, but after a moment it seemed that he changed his mind.
He’s not a dumb wolf by any means. I know he, and many others, are suspicious about what’s going on with Jake. But somewhere between their subconscious preferring ignorance (to pretend like it’s all totally normal because they can’t handle anything else right now), and trusting their Alpha - they left things alone. For now.
Ignoring the ticking time bomb that was somewhere behind me raging out on Evan, I continued to scan the notebook for anything useful.
I was hoping to see something about Rachel’s boyfriend, or maybe that Vance guy and the mysterious accomplice. But no dice.