From Here to Paradise

Chapter 16 - Pawns

A/N Quick note. This is a longer chapter. I'm sorry. I tried making it shorter but???

To say Joe was mad was an understatement. He was fuming. Not able to see what the problem was. Not able to understand what was going on. Why were Zane and Blaine listening to this girl? How could she know what was going on as if she had a crystal ball?

"I'm sorry, Joe," I said quietly. "I know you don't know me but in the last few weeks I have trusted shifters who would have been paid thousands of dollars to bring me to him or kill me. You've seen him influence others. I promise I will show you want you need to know, okay?"

Joe was weary, beat up, hungry, and felt so off balance. All he wanted to do was to protect the few people he could. The few he had escaped the Luna pack with were his family. Sure there were new shifters in the pack. New. Shifters. In. The pack. Of course. 

He looked at Summer and nodded his head.

I looked up in the tree, checking both their minds out. One was oily. The evil had already eaten away at him. It wouldn't be long before there would be no way back to how he used to be. It was frightening to know the lengths this man would go to take me to Garrett.

I asked the vines to release one of the men, keeping them tethered by his ankles and wrists. They didn't want to release him but after some gentle coaxing the man was slowly, and I mean slowly, brought to eye level.

"Hello, Scott, how ya hanging?" I asked, knowing he wasn't the brightest, not that it was his fault.

"That was pretty funny. I'm doing fine," he said, tilting his head.

"Can you tell me why you're here?" 

"Uh," he looked up in the tree and pointing out the other man, "he told me I had to get close to a woman named Summer and kidnap her. Something about her uncle being worried about her mate hurting her. I don't think he knows what he's talking about," he said, slapping a head over his mouth, eyes growing larger.

"It's okay, Scott, I won't tell him," I said. "My name is Summer and the man who wants me wants to kill me for something he did to my pack, my parent and my friends."

"Oh, no. A-Are they d-de-dead? Wait, Aunt Betty said you killed them," he gasped out. "Y-you k-killed them?"

Zane, Blaine and Joe growled loudly, scaring the man I was talking to.

"That bitch! So, this was their whole plan! They planned this from the very beginning!" Joe yelled out. He looked over at Scott and me, calming down immediately. "I'm sorry for questioning you, Summer, even if it was in my own mind."

I nodded, knowing he was truly upset with himself. He could have never seen this treachery without first hearing it from his own people and Scott was the perfect patsy.

"Scott," he waited for Scott to look up, "I'm sorry your aunt did this to you. But, you have it wrong. Garrett, your aunt and uncle sat this up. Summer didn't kill her family or pack. Do you understand? She didn't do it."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, nodding his head. "Summer didn't kill her family or pack. Yes, Joe, I -" he stopped talking, eyes rolling back in his head.

I quickly had the vines release him and ran to check on him. I couldn't hear his heart beat and he wasn't breathing. I tried reviving him but it was no use, he was gone.

All of a sudden we heard laughing. It was the rogue shifter who was still up in the tree. He kept laughing manically. It was an eerie sound to hear in the quiet of the forest. The other shifters stilled and quit talking.

I asked the vines to bring him to me quickly, trying not to use hate in the command. I knew I didn't want the kind of magic - dark magic - to infiltrate my being. I would be as bad as the bastard if I stooped to that level. Defensive magic was okay as long as it was used to protect your life or the life of your family.