No Escape

Chapter Thirty-Six

It was only a week later when there was another body found at one of the borders. This time at the Northeast border. Sophia's body was all cut up with blood staining her clothes. A note was sticking out of one of her shorts pockets: 'Don't get too comfortable. Nothing lasts forever.'

Things weren't adding up or making any sense. How was he getting into the border without anyone noticing? And how did he know when the shift changes were for the border patrol? How long had the bodies been there before they were discovered?

Lily so desperately wanted to figure it out. She needed to end this once and for all. It wasn't fair to Jackson or his pack. "Okay, so he's managed to get in within borders without patrols knowing, during shift changes every time." Lily spitballed.

"He knows what the schedule are even though we change them every day, randomly." Jackson added on to his mates thoughts.

"But how Jacks? How can he predict all of that?"

Jackson sighed as he ran his hands down his face, "I don't know." He watched as Lily paced in front of him, keeping her eyes on the sleeping three year old in the bed. He could tell she hadn't been sleeping since they'd found the most recent body at the border. He understood why, but he didn't like it. He hated that Nikolas had gotten so close to getting to Charlotte and his pack without them figuring out how he was doing it.

"Do the patrols talk about it? When they're out there with their partners? Do they talk about how they can't wait for the shift change?"

"No. It's forbidden. If they did and rogues were close to the border, they would know the perfect time to trespass."

"So the patrols don't know until the morning of what their schedules look like. Who knows before they do?"

"The Beta works with the head patrols the night beforehand. They go over daily reports and if there are any last minute availability changes. From there he alone creates the schedule, he's the only one who knows until he meets with the head patrols in the morning to pass out the schedules."

"What time is check-in? Is it the same each day?"

Jackson couldn't tell where she was going with this, but he knew she had a theory brewing. "No, we changed it. All the patrols are made aware of the time the last shift ends of the previous day. It's a part of their schedule. It could be midnight, or four in the morning. Check-in is an hour before the end of the last shift. This way whoever gets first shift has time to arrive. Those who were on patrol during check-in, go to their head patrol once they are relieved to receive their schedule for the next day."

Lily thought about it for a minute or so before speaking. "I think we have a mole problem."

"A mole?" Jackson asked.

"Yes, a mole. A traitor." Lily confirmed. "There's plenty of time, even before the first shift of the day for one of the patrols to get in contact with Nikolas and provide the shift changes for the day." Jackson nodded, but Lily could tell that he was not happy about it. "I bet if you looked on the schedules for the days and times which the girls bodies were found for the sectors they were found in, there'll be at least one common name on all three."

Even though this wasn't the time, Jackson couldn't help but smile as he thought about how incredible his mate was. She was so smart and intuitive, especially when it came to pack matters; even if she didn't realize it. He was impressed with her and he knew, like he knew when he first found her, that she deserved the world. He got up from his spot on the couch and made his way towards a still pacing Lily. He lightly grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her into his chest, then wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so proud of you."

Lily was shocked to hear those words. No one had ever said them to her before. She blinked back the happy tears that threatened to escape and pulled back as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I haven't done anything, but thank you."

Jackson shook his head in disbelief, she still doesn't realize her worth. "Haven't done anything?! You've just figured out how he's trespassing undetected, on your own! That's not nothing; that's a major breakthrough." He cupped her cheek with one hand while he gently rested the other on her hip. "We're one step closer to stopping him because of you, Lil."

Lily smiled as her gaze flickered from his eyes toward his lips. Slowly leaning forward, she quickly pecked his lips before going back to her pacing.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay. We know he wants to take back the control of the pack, to be Alpha. And he'll do it most likely by using Charlie against me and me against you. Assuming that he has no idea about the rift between you and Weston, is it reasonable for him to believe that my life, as his son's mate, can be traded for the Alpha position?"

"It's possible. But he'd most likely have a back up plan in case we cross him and attack once you're back to safety."

"No, no. He wouldn't do that." Lily said slapping her head, thinking that it was a stupid thought. That was until another thought popped into her head, "unless he was bluffing. Because to Nikolas, I'm already future Luna of this pack; he wants a strong heir, I'm the perfect person for the job. He'd want me there if he succeeded."

Jackson growled lowly at the thought. His mate was caught up in the middle of this whether he liked it or not, but he couldn't stand to hear anybody talk about her and Nikolas like that. "You're right about him using Charlotte to get to you. He'll probably try to take her and if he were to succeed, he'd try to contact only you to get you to meet him alone. He'd threaten her life if you brought anyone else with you."

"Just for preparedness sake, let's say he does all this. I tell you about it, I go alone..."

"We'd make it seem like you're alone. We would stay far enough away to go undetected."

"But would you be able to hear anything from that far away?" Lily asked. She wasn't sure how much their advanced senses would help them in this scenario.

"If you are marked by then, yes. If not, I might be able to but the others won't." Jackson said.

The two of them thought for a minute before discussing more of the possibilities and how the pack would normally respond to them. They talked about countermeasures and techniques used. The mate pair stayed up into the early hours of the morning forming a plan that would stay between the two of them until everything was over.

"Can you promise me that she will be safe?" Lily asked Jackson, with her worried stare focused on the sleeping form on the bed.

"I will do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to her, I promise." Jackson vowed, kissing his mate on her temple and pulling her closer to him.

~~~

Hey there!

Apologies for this chapter. I'm aware that it's mostly dialogue with background information, but they're figuring stuff out! I hope you enjoyed it either way!

TM