Lessons in Love

Chapter 74: Information

POV: Beta Ben Westlake

“Rick, come on, man.” I shook my head. “I know what you saw that day and …”

“You have no f*****g clue what I saw.” He growled at me. “You weren’t there.” He blurted out. It sounded like an accusation. He must have realized it because he closed his eyes and stepped back from me.

“No, I wasn’t.” I said softly. “But I am now.”

“I’m dealing with it.” He said firmly, staring me in the eye. He wanted to believe what he said, but I saw the doubt deep behind his stare.

I nodded anyway. “Yeah,” I lowered my gaze, unable to stand the lie he was trying to convince himself of. I took a deep breath and looked back up at him. I tried to hide my disappointment but the way he shifted his shoulders and looked away told me I'd failed. “You want to go to work, let’s go to work.”

Rick was not dealing with it. He was hiding from it. He looked tired, like he hadn’t slept, and the panic attack had been hard to watch. He’d curled into a ball on the floor, shaking and crying for ten minutes. He hadn’t realized how long he’d been laying there. I could tell when he looked at his watch as we went up the stairs that he was surprised by the time. I grabbed his arm to stop him.

“They’re getting worse, aren’t they?” I asked.

“Ben, we need to focus on work.”

“You need to focus on you!” I snapped. I immediately regretted my tone, raking my hands through my hair with a sigh. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bite your head off. I’m just worried about you.”

Rick looked down at his feet. “I know. I’m going to be alright. I’ve just hit a bit of a rough patch. It’s happened before, and I got through it.” He shrugged and continued up the stairs.

“It’s been this bad before?” I asked, falling in step with him. Rick shrugged a little and nodded as we reached the third-floor landing and the end of our conversation. “Hey Brian, where’s your compatriots?” Rick greeted the kid with a wide smile that looked almost genuine. I opened the door to the office, and we went.

“They decided to take up Ms. Campbell up on the offer to go to school. Abby was a little nervous, but Ms. Campbell said she didn’t have to stay the whole day if she didn’t want to. Your mate is exceptionally kind, sir.” Brian said, turning to me as he sat opposite my desk. “I really didn’t think Abby would go with her if I’m being honest.”

“My mate has a background in social work as well as teaching. She knows how to put people at ease when the subject matter is heavy.” I said, casting a look in Rick’s direction. Rick gritted his teeth and looked away.

For the next several hours, we poured over maps of the area. Brian was immensely helpful. He showed the corridors he used to sneak in and out of Flain River’s territory and the path he’d blazed through ours. He knew numbers, encampments, and all sorts of details we hadn’t been able to confirm since the war.

“What about this area?” Rick asked, pointing to our Northern border. “Are there cabins, caves, anything you can think of?” I knew where Rick was going with the question. We’d been searching that area for days looking for Marcus and Eleanor.

“No,” Brian shook his head. “Not so close to your border.” His finger drifted up the map. “Ridgeline has a dungeon up here near their border with Flain River, I think.”

“You’re not sure?” I asked.

“I’ve smelled silver in that area, so I try to avoid it. It’s underground. I saw a guy coming out of there a long time ago.”

“How long ago?” Rick asked.

“What did he look like?” I asked at the same time.

“Uh … four or five months ago.” He said. “I didn’t get a good look at him as a man. He was tall, though, around your height, sir, but wider in the shoulders with a bit of a gut.” He said to me. “He had dark hair, but it was greying at the temples. Then he pulled his clothes off and shifted into black wolf. Around the same size as you are, maybe a bit bigger. He was big. I remembered thinking to steer clear of that area for a while after I saw him. I just got bad vibes, you know?”

“Yeah, I do.” I said, looking at Rick. He raised an eyebrow back at me. He was thinking the same thing I was. The man Brian was describing sounded a lot like my father.

“What are you planning to do with all of this?” Brian asked.

“Well,” I leaned back in my chair. “We think we should expand what you’ve started. We think it’s a great way to keep people from ending up feral and for us to bolster our pack numbers.”

“You’d take them in? All of them?” Brian seemed surprised.

“No,” Rick said. “But we’d allow people to stay who wanted to. Some people get turned out for legitimate reasons, and we’d have to be careful of people like that, but when a pack turns someone out, they have to file paperwork with the council. Those records are made public, so other packs can choose whether to allow them into their packs. The system isn’t foolproof, but it’s what we’ve got. It’s how we decided to let you four stay here.” He shrugged.

“So, it says what I was turned out for?” Brian asked cautiously.

“Yes,” I said. I pulled a folder from the pile on my desk and handed it to him.

Brian took the folder and a deep breath. He opened it, and his jaw tightened in anger. The file the council was sent said Brian worked off a debt but did so unsatisfactorily. It included that his father had run off to become a Rogue and that Alpha Owen had circumstantial proof Brian had been working in league with him turning pack members Rogue.

“Sir, I swear to you …”

“Save your breath, Brian.” I smiled at him. “We already know who’s been running the Rogues in this territory, and he’s been doing it long before your father left.”

Brian let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you, sir.”

“You’re too old for our educational programs, but you’re welcome to join our training program. Once we’ve assessed your skills, we can look at hiring you on as a warrior. You could continue what you started if you want.” Rick said. Brian’s eyes lit up at the idea.

“You mentioned college,” I said. “Riley can help you do the entrance exams if you want to go to school.”

“Thank you both so much.” Brian’s smile was contagious.

“We don’t have a college fund here like other packs. You’d have to earn your tuition.” I said. “But there are lots of jobs to be had.”

“I’m not afraid of a little extra work.” He assured us.

“Training starts at three this afternoon.” Rick said. “Go get some lunch from the kitchen and rest up. I’ll come and get you at quarter to and show you where the training field is.”

Brian stood up and shook Rick’s hand. “I look forward to it, sir.” He said before turning to me. I took his hand to shake it and saw a silver burn on his wrist below the cuff of his shirt sleeve. I shook his hand and smiled at him. He left the office with a huge smile on his face.

“Did you see his wrist?” I asked Rick.

“Yeah,” he said, watching my reaction.

“Was it the father or his Alpha?” I asked.

“You’ve spoken to him more than me.” Rick shrugged. “But honestly, it could be either.” I growled before I could stop myself but cut it off quickly. “We’ll take good care of him.” Rick said with a knowing smile. “We should get moving.”

“Moving? Where?” I asked.

“Riley just mind-linked about her aunt and the witch.” Rick looked at me like I was crazy.

“She didn’t mind-link me.” I said with a chuckle. Riley linked me before I’d finished snickering to tell me the same thing. “I stand corrected.”

Rick and I walked to Riley’s house. Riley’s old house, I mused. She had slept in my suite the last two nights, and they had been glorious. Rick sat on the porch steps as we arrived.

“What do you think she’ll be like?” He asked.

“Which one?” I asked.

“The witch!”

“I think she’ll be the earthy, hippy type.” I said as an SUV pulled toward the house.

“They give me the creeps.” He grumbled as the vehicle came to a stop in front of us.