A/N: not edited
Chapter 58 – Gabriel POV
Chelsea! I tried again, disappointed as hell when she didn’t respond, had I really lost her? I had. “Don’t even go there!” Marx said with conviction, “this isn’t your fault, with what we know, I’m not sure that only wolves are behind this. I mean they made a car vanish,” he and I were pondering this but I still felt out of my depths here.
“Sh- she could be anywhere right now and we cannot find her, Kai – can find anyone. With Chelsea nothing comes up,” I said what I feared the most.
“I cannot, say what whoever has her is willing to do but… after your performance and hacking abilities, I personally wouldn’t move her, I believe she’s in California-”
“What would be the point?” I interrupt him, “Move her now? Move her later?”
“Look, maybe they didn’t know that they needed to be more careful. I believe they need her alive. If this was about killing her, the syringe would contain poison or a lethal dose of something to kill her. It wasn’t. that works in our favor. While you were gone we actually had Jamies blood tested, so maybe we need to go at this from another direction. There has to be a trail Gabriel,” I thought over his words and it really made me think about this from all angles. But instead of elimination a suspect I added one. Added a new theory as well.
Gabriel you could be right… Max agreed and after what Chelsea told me, showed me, it made sense.
“Francesca,” I spoke and something flashed in Jamies’ eyes. He knew that she could do this. Everyone was waiting.
“She wouldn’t do this,” Giovanni said while Jamie said, “She could do this,” Giovanni whipped his head to face Jamie.
“Will someone please explain what is happening?” James said when Jamie and I hadn’t broken eye contact.
“Francesca has the ability to make the weak minded do and believe what she says,” Jamie answered and my respect for him increased.
“How-”
“That is what Chelsea believed,” he answered.
“She could make Madeline believe that this Robert Delaney guy is her mate and convince Scarlet to help as well,” he continued but I tuned them out and opened my laptop and manually asked Kai to search for Leo, Robert and Francesca.
Even if they aren’t entering the same place together.
One could be entering from the back, the other the front, but if they’re at the same place at the same time, it could very well be what I believed in the first place, each working separately with different end games but they happened to cross paths. Francesca would be the perfect person to help get Chelsea, promise her she’d have me in the end and she’d be glad to help probably. Or depending on how scorned she felt now, she knows that the only way to hurt me, is to hurt Chelsea…
Max was furious, growling, in my head, frustrated as well that he couldn’t reach Aria and Avena.
I myself, I felt helpless… empty even because I didn’t know what to do next… all my plans now were radical and against what we would normally do.
One… put out a missing persons on Chelsea; get the FBI involved like a regular human…like they could find her when I couldn’t… I shook my head to myself. My second option would be to start teleporting myself into the homes of different shifters, neither of those are options Gabriel, Max thought pointing out the obvious.
Regardless of the years I’ve been able to teleport or make my hands light up, I’ve never abused either. I had done more teleporting today than I had compared to any six month period. It was difficult to have my gifts but not be able to really use them, as they weaken me. However that wasn’t the problem, until I developed Kai, I hadn’t been able to freely experiment or even search for Katie.
Kai when opened on my computer could manufacture my heartbeat in a room when I teleported out, but also with censors, and a shock added to my watch in which alerted me to return to my body when using the astral projection ability.
I had kept everything quiet, only telling Nonno, waiting until my father stepped down. Power in the hand of the wrong person only led to chaos and destruction, and my father was the wrong person. So I had good reason to keep silent, until now. Max and I both knew and understood, that I had many things to be wary of now… but maybe Marx was right… unknowingly I might have put fear in Chelsea’s kidnappers. I wouldn’t be strong enough to pop into many different homes quickly, we need to narrow down locations, we have to find our mate, Max thought pained.
.
.
.
“Gabriel!”
“Papa!” Ava shouted pulling me back to everyone, climbing onto my lap, Jack spoke and I wanted to leap across this table and strangle him.
“There is one thing,” he said almost hesitant, like having some kind of internal debate, looking around the room, at Giovanni, James, Saul and Rico.
“Chelsea has a tracker…” he said clearly and it was a good thing Ava was in my lap. I saw red, rumbling deep in my chest, but when Ava placed a small hand on my face that was all it took to clear the fog of hate and red. I see Casey lean closer to me, ready to protect his little mate, if I cannot calm myself and quickly at that. I take a deep breath, then another until finally, I gaze – no, glare at Jack. Why would he wait to alert the rest of us with something like that?
“Look listen… its not a regular tracker… it’s based off her body temperature. Jason had it placed when she was 11 years old. If they search her for one, they won’t be able to find it and we can’t use it to reverse track her. It works based on her body temp, after she shifted we had the numbers changed. If her body temp drops to 95.8 degrees it will turn on. If it spikes to anything higher than 104 it will send off signals to my phone and give a one or two mile radius to her location,” he says placing his cell on the table.
“What’s the point of that? It doesn’t tell us shit?” I try to remain calm but I yell the words. “How is that helpful? To her?”
“She’s not being harmed and is unable to even use her gifts Gabriel. If they were taking her blood or anything like that…” he paused shooting a glance at Marx, making me remember, “Chelsea would have spiked a temp-” I nodded.
“Her body would be generating more blood to replace what’s being taken,” I finish for him and receive a message from Kai on the screen.
NO CONNECTIONS BETWEEN LEO ROBERT AND FRANCESCA.
Using my free hand I pulled my cellphone out.
TO REMY: Do a hard search. Hack cell phones, emails, any type of digital correspondence. I know that Francesca, Leo and Robert have crossed paths, speaking to each other in some ways and I want to know how.
I go back to ignoring everyone, trying to see the missing pieces, for a brief moment I think that this is a ransom type kidnapping, but Chelsea is a white wolf… taken by a hunter that was changed to a wolf… yeah… no.
.
.
.
I ignore the ache and worry, thinking of anything else, not dwelling on Chelsea, but ways to find her. Until I am back at step one, I’m useless. I sit and do nothing because there is nothing I could do. I don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle, I understand why anyone would want Chelsea but I think I thought if they took her they’d kill her. Standing abruptly I give Ava to Casey and stalk out of the back door and I let Max finally take over, force him too.
Shifting quickly, I’m on all fours fast than any time before, I run towards the woods surrounding our home, paws hitting the ground hard. All the furry, anguish, and disappointment, we run it away. We try too but it doesn’t work so I push myself more. Running faster, harder. Two hours go by and we never stop, my muscles, ache, hurt and clench, spasm but I can’t stop, despite feeling like I could collapse, I continue.
I try to avoid thinking about returning to a house and my Chelsea isn’t there.
But I think about it anyways, it slips in and I’m angry all over again. After the third slip I welcome that anger. I run and the sun goes down, the moon comes up and Chelsea’s dream plagues me, I don’t stop running even though I know I’m going in circles on the property. Memories seep to the front, as the trees blur together, and I can’t ignore them, in spite of how weak they make me feel.
And I get angrier because I’m not weak, her smell, sigh. Touch, legs, smile. Lips pouting, the way she holds her spoon whens she’s turning something on the stove. Water dripping down her body beautiful body. The face she makes as she reaches ecstasy. Picture after picture consumes me. Moment after moment. Her eyes lighting up when she’s with me. They’ve changed. I’ve noticed it. They shine. Not empty or alone. Or the look of a child in the corner on the outside looking in. Very little sadness in them anymore. I’ve changed her. But – but I stop running when I realize, she’s changed me.
I collapse to the floor of the forest. The night air swirls around me, I howl out a pitiful cry. A cry for my mate. Louder when it’s not returned. When she doesn’t answer. She can’t answer. It’s been long. I howl. I whimper. Nothing happens as I interrupt the stillness and quiet. No one has come to give me good news. I wished them too, yet they haven’t. I cry in wolf form, another thing I haven’t done since Katie. I’m howling in pain. Not the physical kind but one I can and would gratefully exchange with it if I could.
My grief is multiplied exponentially when I think about Katie, I lost her too. I lost her and was never able to find her. This couldn’t be like that. I couldn’t lose Chelsea for that long – it had only been hours and even that was too much. My thoughts spiral again as I thought about Chelseas dream. I look up at the moon, concentrating, praying, that they could just appear to me, help me. Help me! Give me a clue like they gave Jason so he could find her. I thought our bond was strong but maybe because I hadn’t finished our bonding it was weaker than I thought. Maybe loving her wasn’t enough; why was this even happening? Hadn’t she endured enough? Was this my fault? It was. I knew that.
Chelsea and I, we’ve been so blindly blissful that it made her drop her guard. She was too busy caring for everyone, Ava and I, the pack. School. Dance. Her art. Then I added to it, proposing. Everything just one more distraction. She had yet to really say she loved me, not with her words; only her small actions, reading to me, massaging my body, running her fingers over every inch of me, getting bold in that as well, not a single inch of my body that she hadn’t examined, and learned.
It had been over 6 months since I last had sex but I was still satisfied, we were learning each other’s bodies, what brought us ecstasy, made our skin tingle, toes clench, pleasure escape and take over our whole bodies. For once I cared about someone else’s pleasure and comfort; and after what I saw in her mind when she was resetting at Marx and Camilla I thought it was best to do as I planned.
Chelsea was abused by Leo, I couldn’t rush, hope into sex, not even if our bodies desired each other, I wanted to pace ourselves. It was hard denying myself, but I had something different with Chelsea, it wasn’t that we were mates and her pheromones attracted me to her. And because of that, our physical chemistry isn’t what I already missed. She calmed me. We could be doing nothing, but be together and I was content.
No – more and beyond content, and I was furious at the person who took that away from me. So I howled and cried about that.
.
.
.
An hour or more passed before I trotted back to the house, getting closer I see my Nonno, sitting back, reading something. He doesn’t acknowledge me, but I see a pair of gym shorts and they weren’t there before I shifted.
Changing back quickly, I slip the shorts on and take a seat near my grandfather.
“How long have you been here?” I break the silence.
“An hour or so… not very much…” he finally buts the book down.
“Your father returned. It also seems you’ve put the fear in some of the Alphas… as well as the Elders,” I know what he means, but again, I didn’t care that they knew.
“You’re stronger than before,” Nonno states. He’s right of course, but only I’m stronger because of Chelsea.
Chelsea?
Chelsea?
I think her name, call her and wince. A shudder runs thru me. My Nonno looks at me with pity. Sad eyes. I hate it. He knows and his face becomes impassive.
“Jay left, took the kids, is furious with Madeline,” I snort. Let me guess? And you… Max thinks as do I.
“Not all directed at you, Elder Caelum came with,” Nonno continues as if he could read my mind. He could. Once upon a time, before Chelsea.
“Madeline was, is in the cellar, separate from Rian, we had a woman, Victoria, question her,” I snort, she was a useless pawn.
“There is more Gabriel, Audrey is missing as well, that is the only reason Jay even returned his cell phone, but he didn’t bring back Jayda and Jaxon,” wait hold up! Nonno stopped letting that sink in. it can’t. Why would he take the kids, but leave them somewhere? What if he was extricating his family one by one, Rian next? More importantly… Audrey? Why? She’s human? Weak. My face screws up in confusion.
“Is – what do you think that has to do with Chelsea?” my voice frigid, was this just another distraction to throw us off? Take time to seek Audrey out so whoever could make off with my mate.
“Well if they are following Lore, they think Chelsea is a White Wolf, then surely Audrey is one too, then they’d have everything they needed-”
I scoffed, “they wouldn’t need to even bother with Audrey,” I blurted out, catching myself quickly. I didn’t have time to even widen my eyes at my stupidity when Nonno shot up and surprised me.
“Say no more Gabriel, You need to let me enter your pack!”
“What?” I said taken aback.
“When I go back the Elders will know what I know. They cannot read the minds of anyone that belongs to your pack. What you have revealed to me… should not be information they obtain,” he said before briskly walking into the house and returning with a sharp, but small knife. I looked up at him skeptically, unsure of what was really going on.
Was this a trap? Would he report back to my old pack? Betray me? I shook my head; I didn’t know who to trust besides Max, Kai and Remington.
“My bonds are old. This is the way to keep them severed and tied to you and your new pack,” he sliced his palm handing me the knife. Following his lead, we place our palms together as he pledges his loyalty to me and my pack, and Chelsea. I could feel the absorbed strength that wrapped around my pack.
At the same time, I knew that Nonno Sabastian had felt us as well; he rubbed his hand over his chest, as if that would ease the ache he felt. But it wouldn’t and he knew why. Only Chelsea could release me from what I was feeling now. Finding her and holding her in my arms as her scent calmed me, the scent that helped to assault the demons I hid inside myself. I couldn’t go back to being the same person I was before, empty.
“We will find her son,” Nonno whispered, his voiced pained.
“Bet you regret your decision now don’t you?” I tried to joke but it came out sounding weak, halfhearted and more like a whimper than a joke. The chuckle I added at the end even worse. Nonno grimaced.
“Save your energy-” he starts but is cut off, I hold my breath hopeful that my father has news since I told them I’d give Scar and Ames back when I had Chelsea.
“Clara…” he continues but I don’t listen after he says Nona’s name, she felt his bond shift and was worried. I walked back inside and sat at the counter, hungry.
.
.
.
Eating an apple, Nonno comes back in, no longer on the phone, “Nona is on her way,” he tells me.
“Anything new?” I ask but no longer putting hope into my voice, or questions, especially when they hadn’t got a thing from Madeline… this Robert guy, he played her well.
Nonno shakes his head, “No, but many want to leave your fathers pack. Not those involved in the family business but others. It’s no secret that many have thoughts on the work your father does, those that now know of your gift… they think you’d be a better leader, willing to accept Chelsea…” I already knew that.
Anyone in the pack under 35 years old have continuously told me I should take over sooner than later. While the old fashioned thought my ideas were too radical, they stuck to the idea that it worked for so long, why change? Apparently evolution wasn’t a word they knew.
“I can’t think about that now,” I had enough to worry about.
“Many want Ames and Scarlet released especially Ames because they have no Beta right now,” I shake my head.
“Not going to happen,” Nonno nods.
“And your sister?”
“Injected my mate with a needle, then hauled her body out… she’s as responsible as Madeline,” I say bitterly. I don’t have many regrets but not leaving when Chelsea and I first met, is now at the top ten of my list.
If I had, I wouldn’t be feeling this pain, I wouldn’t feel so dreadful.
Max who was normally upbeat, around and commenting on everything had turned inward. Hiding himself. I could force a shift but it would be difficult when he was pushing me to remain human. He didn’t want to be around when his mate was missing.
“What-” Nonno stopped and went to my mind-link, bush has ears son, he thought.
What do you mean they wouldn’t need Audrey? He asked.
Chelsea has two wolves... I begin to tell him different things but still remain selective in my revelations. I trusted Nonno. How many people know this? He asks when I’m finished. Chelsea’s pack.
“This is a mess,” I don’t reply. The clock rings and my eyes burn, it’s almost 3am. I show Nonno where he and Nona caN rest before heading to my and Chelsea’s floor. I stand outside of our room, willing myself to enter our room. I can’t, I know that her scent will assault my senses, I step back and walk to my office. I lay on the couch there, and try to sleep, just a few hours.
.
.
.
As my mind wanders I pray that when I wake up again, that today was just a complete nightmare that never happened.
I drift off but not before shouting out a call, CHELSEA! Sleep takes me waiting for a response.
__________________________________________________
Vote! Vote! Comment!!
© 2014 new_season All Rights Reserved