Reuniting With His Mate [Cackle Lands 3]

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

“Darby what the hell are you doing?” Cobalt hissed, as he looked around to make sure no one was around to see or hear them.

“Coming.” Darby whispered back.

Hearing a sound, Cobalt got ready to shift if he needed to, but relaxed when he saw it was only Osha. “Did you see anyone?”

Osha dropped the rabbit from his jaws, then shifted, saying, “Nothing. The last markings were made two days ago, but at least we can eat. Where’s Darby?”

Pointing towards a large hole in the ground, Cobalt replied, “He went in there.”

“What the hell for? Damn it, we don’t have time for his bullshit right now. We need to get out of these hyena lands before someone catches us and kills us just for grabbing some dinner. My jackal is none too happy to be here right now, Cobalt.”

“Mine neither, Osha, but we can’t leave without…”

“I’m here! I’m here!” Darby said, pulling himself out of the hole. “Did I hear Osha say he caught dinner?”

“Yes, but if you get us caught killing game on hyena lands we’re not going to get to enjoy it.

What the hell were you doing down there?” Osha muttered, as he finished pulling on his clothing which Cobalt had handed him.

Brushing himself off, Darby said, “I heard a distress call and it took me a minute to realize that it was coming from underground. I smelled something odd, and when I got to this tree and pushed, it moved revealing this large hole.” Looking at Cobalt, Darby whispered, “There are people down there and they’re in trouble.”

“Not our problem. Lets go.” Osha said, turning to leave.

“We can’t just go and enjoy dinner when there are people in need of help, Osha. It isn’t right.”

Darby insisted.

Osha turned around, saying, “Darby, I’m sorry that some shifters are in trouble, but if we stick around here much longer we’re gonna be in big trouble with the leader of this cackle, and we could be in just as much trouble as those people down there.”

“Darby, how big is that tunnel?” Cobalt asked.

“I have to hunch over to walk in it, but it’s pretty big and it’s long. I think it goes all the way to the main area of the cackle lands.” Darby answered.

“And you’d be right. Who are you and why are jackals on hyena land?” someone asked.

Darby looked around as did Cobalt and Osha. Osha growling, “Who’s out there? Come out and face us like men.”

“I asked you a question. Why are three jackals on hyena land? Do you have any idea who’s land you’re even on?” The faceless voice asked.

“We were only passing through, and shifter law states that as long as we don’t stay longer than twenty-four hours, we can be here without incident.” Cobalt stated.

Another voice said, “That timetable ran out yesterday. So, why are you still here?”

Darby sighed, “We just wanted to get something to eat.”

“Who the hell are you and what do you care what we’re doing on these lands? It isn’t like you belong here either, fox man.” Osha snapped.

Cobalt watched as two men walked out from behind a large bushy area. Both were about five six or so, one was chubby with short light brown hair, and the other sleek and kind of freaked Cobalt out with his silver hair and odd eyes—one blue and one brown. “Who are you?”

“I’m Wally, but some call me Tiller and this is my best friend Ruben. Who are you?”

“I’m Cobalt, this is Osha, and that one there is Darby.”

Looking around nervously, Wally said, “You really shouldn’t be on these lands. Thornridge cackle is run by a seriously evil b***h named Patrice Warden, and if her men catch you here they won’t ask about the twenty-four-hour law, they’ll just kill you where you stand.”

“We were just leaving anyway.” Osha stated, gruffly picking up the rabbit he had caught.

“Osha, we can’t leave those people down there.” Darby hissed. “We need to help them.”

Wally gasped, “You’ll help us get Mikka and his parents out of there?”

Darby nodded as Osha shook his head.

Darby looked at Cobalt, pleading, “Please Cobalt. You know we can’t just leave them there. For the love of the gods, they are shifters stuffed underground. We need to get them out.”

“And do what with them, Darby? We can barely take care of ourselves, and if this Patrice finds out what we did, we’re looking at a death sentence.” Osha argued.

“And if we don’t, we are no better than the people that put them there.” Darby argued back.

Cobalt held up his hands, snapping, “Enough, both of you.” Looking at Wally, Cobalt asked,

“Why are they buried underground?”

“Because Patrice wants to be the ruler of these cackle lands and Mikka is her son who was supposed to take over as alpha. When he planned to run away with his mate, Patrice knew that would mean someone else would become alpha, and that wouldn’t be her, so she had him kidn*pped and dropped into a cell. His father and mother were taken before that, but we still have no idea why.” Wally answered.

“It took us a long time to get to them, and when we finally did, they weren’t in any shape to walk out and in case you hadn’t noticed, we aren’t big enough or strong enough to carry them out.”

Ruben explained.

Osha rolled his eyes, saying, “And we wish we could help with that, but again, we have nowhere to take them even if we did get them out of there.”

“Not true. We know a place. It’s a few days walk from here, or if you have a vehicle, a day’s drive, but I know that if we can get them there they will help you.” Wally stated.

Ruben nudged his best friend, hissing, “You can’t say that, Tiller.”

“Why not. That’s Miller and Calvin’s family, and they would never let their alpha turn the people away that freed them.” Wally said with confidence.

“We don’t even know if the rumors are true.” Ruben insisted.

Cobalt asked, “Who is your friend Calvin’s alpha?”

“The rumor mill has it that Calvin and his brother Miller are part of the Trident cackle. Miller is mated to the alpha, and Calvin is mated to one of Alpha Tyler’s brothers, Jackson.” Wally answered.

Darby gasped, “Are you talking about the same Cackle lead by the multimillionaire Alpha Orson Tyler who owns a gem mine and horse ranch and half the lands east of here?”

Nodding, Ruben answered, “That’s the one.”

“And how do you know Calvin and his friend Miller?” Osha asked speculatively.

Wally quickly replied, “Calvin, Ruben, and I became friends a long time ago. When Miller was being targeted by an asshole, he came to us worried that he was going to be in real trouble.”

“Patrice had been working with the cackle alpha from the Whitewing cackle on the neighboring lands.” Ruben started to say.

“Are you talking about that sick f**k Alpha Lenox?” Cobalt ground out.

Nodding, Ruben answered, “Yeah, he and Patrice have been working together. They think if they join cackles they can be large enough to take out the smaller cackles all around the area.”

“Then be strong enough to take out Orson and his cackle. But, if the rumors are right. that just became a little more difficult, because they just joined up with Dirge cackle, the all-women’s

cackle next to their lands, and Dirge are crazy good when it comes to fighting.” Wally said with excitement.

Orson, still looking at them with distrust, asked, “If you’re such good friends with this Calvin guy, why did he leave you behind when he left, and why are you still here where you say the alpha would sooner kill you than look at you?”

“Calvin didn’t just leave us behind. We were going to follow them, but things just happened so fast. He and Miller didn’t have a choice but to take off when they did. We didn’t know what happened when Calvin didn’t meet up with us like he normally did and Tiller went digging around.” Ruben explained.

“Literally.” Wally interjected.

“What were you digging for?” Darby asked.

Wally quickly explained, “Patrice and Marco were originally from the Whitewing Cackle. They had Mikka and Calvin, but soon after that Marco met his true mate, Caitlyn. Patrice agreed to allow him to leave her, on two conditions. One was she be able to leave and go to Thornridge.

Second was she wanted to be able to take Mikka with her. Marco hated giving up one of his sons, but he also knew he couldn’t live without his true mate, so he agreed. Lenox was glad to let them go. I think it was then that they knew Mikka was destined to be an alpha, and Lenox felt threatened, so was happy to get rid of him. Miller came along soon after, and things in the cackle were getting bad. Lenox was a horrible alpha and was mistreating his people. Talk of Marco challenging Lenox was being whispered and Lenox heard the rumors, so came up with some lame ass excuse to send Marco and his family to Whitewing as a ‘gift’ to the allies.”

“f*****g dick.” Osha snarled.

“You won’t get any argument out of us.” Ruben muttered.

Wally soon continued. “Word is that Patrice was pissed when Marco showed up with his new family. The alpha of Thornridge had no heirs and knew he was getting old. Realizing he was getting a young alpha from Lenox, he took Mikka under his wing and now Patrice felt that Marco would do something to threaten her plan to take over the cackle.”

Ruben jumped in saying, “That’s when she started to do her best to make hell for them all. Miller and Cal were always in one fight or another…”

“That’s how we met Cal. He was getting his ass handed to him and we came in to help.” Wally quickly said.

Osha snorted, “You two took on a Hyena?”

Shaking his head wildly, Wally said, “Oh hell no. Do we look that stupid to you?”

“We waited until Cass and his buddy were fighting about who would get to really show Cal what he was good for, and Tiller and I snuck in and pulled him to safety.” Ruben explained.

“Then Marco started to train Cal and Miller to fight and protect themselves. Calvin took to the training like a fish to water, but Miller… well if he heard Cal say ‘ow’, he would start crying and apologizing.”

Ruben gave a small laugh, saying, “Cal said that’s when his dad took him aside and explained that Miller would never be a real fighter as he just didn’t have it in his heart to hurt someone. So, he had Calvin promise him that no matter what happened, he would always be there to protect his brother.”

“Cal vowed to do just that.” Wally emphasized with a sharp nod.

“So when Lenox and Julian, the old alpha of Thornridge, started getting close, Cal and Marco knew something bad was coming, and soon enough Marco and Darlene were banished from the cackle, but the alpha refused to allow Miller or Cal go with them. Cal came to us and we talked about possibilities of what we could do.” Ruben continued, getting just as animated as Wally.

Nodding Wally said, “We just knew that Patrice’s b***h ass was up to something, and it wasn’t going to go well for Cal or Miller.”

“That’s when Tiller said it was a shame they couldn’t just live underground like us, and Cal got the idea of underground escape routes.” Ruben said.

Wally quickly jumped in saying, “But then, according to Mandrake, a soul sucking demon had his eyes set on Miller and was willing to make a deal to get the man he desired.”

“Mandrake?” Cobalt asked.

“He’s another shifter that can heal people, and he said he was called in to…”

“Tiller, we shouldn’t be talking about things that Mandrake prefers to keep to himself.” Ruben chastised.

“Sorry.” Wally muttered.

Ruben looked at Cobalt, “It didn’t take us long to came up with an underground tunnel system. It took us a long time to make it, but we got it done, and when Miller was taken by that seriously depraved Lenox, it came to a point that Cal had no other option but to get his brother to safety.”

“When we came back the day after their escape, we knew something was wrong. We went into the tunnels and there was one we hadn’t quite finished yet. When I started on it, that’s when we smelled the three shifters.” Wally explained.

Nodding, Ruben said, “We recognized a couple of the scents, and it took us a minute, because it smelled like Cal, but… not. So we charged through until we came to the spot, and when we got into the underground cell and looked, we were shocked to see three people down there in two different cells.”

“The two males looked similar to Cal and kinda smelled like him. That’s when we realized that it was Cal’s brother, Mikka and his father Marco.” Wally said, then sighed, “That could only mean that the woman was Marco’s mate Caitlyn.”

“We tried to get them to move, but it was like they were drugged with something, because they wouldn’t wake up. We were left with no other choice, but to cover the hole with a thin layer of dirt and get word out that Patrice had Cal and Miller’s family in an underground cell and hope that Cal would return with help to get them out.” Ruben said.

“Then we were told that the Triton cackle was attacked, and we knew that meant the rescue would be delayed, but we don’t know how much longer they’re going to last in those cells. If you would help us, we could get them out of there, and I bet Alpha Tyler would offer us asylum.”

Wally said with hope.

Cobalt didn’t say anything at first, but Darby urged, “Please, Cobalt. We can’t just leave them there to die.”

Surprisingly it was Osha that said, “Let’s go in and get them.” Then he turned to Wally, “And you better hope you’re right, because if not I’m eating you first.”