The Alpha’s Guardian

Chapter 15

I wake the next day to a silent suite. I peek out my room and sure enough Jordon is already gone with the laundry basket. I roll my eyes and get ready for class. I am through my first class when my phone rings. It is Jordon.

“Hello.”

“Nan, they have a scent hit.”

“What about the phone?”

“No good. It must be off, or the battery is dead. Do you want to help search?”

“Yes, of course. Where is it?”

“it’s about 30 minutes away. A wooded area north of the city that the students like to go to. We are headed there now.”

“Can I call Beth’s friends? They would want to be a part of the search.”

“Sure, the more the merrier.”

I hang up the phone and call Melissa and Natalie. Sure, enough they want to be a part of the search.  I meet them outside of my dorm. Both ladies look up at Jordon with a mix of fear and awe.

“Ladies, this is my friend from back home. He is a Mounty and agreed to come down and help search for Beth. Jordon, these are Beth friends, Melissa and Natalie.”

“So, this is who Brad has been raging about,” Natalie states.

“Yes, Jordon is partners with my brother who is also a Mounty.” I tell the ladies.

“When Nanurjuk called asking for help, Tulugaak was going to come down, but he didn’t have the time off. I did, so it made more sense for me to come down then him,” Jordon explains.

Both ladies are watching him with their mouths open nodding.

“Melissa, can we ride with you?”

“Of course,” she answers.

“Don’t worry, you can follow me.” Jordon tells us. I turn and look at him in confusion. I know he didn’t rent a car. He smiles down at me, “Officer Rider is letting me use one of the security vehicles.”

“Oh, okay.” I say and I follow him to the white unmarked truck. The ladies jump into Melissa care and pull out and follow us up to Lake Julietta. We stop at a parking area.  There are already a large group of people. I see Brian, Beth’s whatever, talking to Rider and pointing to a map. There are multiple people dressed like hunters and I can tell by their energy that they are wolves. There are also a lot of humans dressed as cops and park rangers.

Officer Rider thanks everyone for coming and splits the groups up. He leaves the wolves to separate in groups of two. The human groups break off into groups of four. He has four dogs there as well. He allows the dog to sniff one of Beth sweaters. Each dog goes off with a group of humans. Of course, I am partner with Jordon, Deputy Wayne and Rider. Then the groups move off and go to the sector they are assigned to search.  I whisper to Jordon, “Didn’t the wolves track the scent all the way.”

“They tried,” he whispered back. “Lost them at a large stream.”

“Them?”

“Yes, they found another person scent with Beth’s. They are trying to follow his scent as well and see if they can find it leaving the park. Since you and Rider are shifters, we are picking up where they lost the scent.” Jordon pauses and stops me. He leans in closely to my ear and barely breathes the next words.  “I know your abilities are stronger than most shifters, so be careful when you sense something. Let me know and I will try to direct them to follow it.”

I am stunned. He knows I am different and is trying to protect me against other knowing. I just dumbly nod, and he starts up following Rider. Once we reach the stream, Jordon is right her scent just dies off.

“They must have gone down the stream a bit. Jordon, you and Ms. Black head north. Deputy Wayne and I will head south. Radio if you see anything.” Officer Rider tells us.

We break off and move north along the stream edge. We walk slowly about 20 minutes, and I am sure we are about to turn around and head back when I smell the scent of Beth. I grab Jordon arm and pull him to stop. He looks down at me as I close my eyes and focus on Beth scent. I then point off in a direction on the other side of the creek. Jordon jumps the creek and looks around the woods. He pulls out a walkie talkie and radios Rider. He tells them we found some broken branches. He motions me to his side. As I walk further up the path he showed me, I can start to really smell Beth. Once I have the scent strong enough a normal hunter can sense it, I stop and Jordon radios Rider telling him we have a scent hit.

No more than 10 minutes later I hear Rider and Deputy Wayne racing towards us. Once they reach us, Rider drops to his knees and searches the underbrush for any signs of movement. Once he is sure we are moving in the right direction he takes the lead and follows her scent.  I am not sure how long we hiked. It could have been a few minutes or an hour. We finally reach a clearing. It is surround by large trees and boulders. I haven’t taken one step into the clearing when the scent of death hits me. I nearly double over. I can tell it is strong enough that even Jordon can smell it. He turns and steps in front of me blocking the clearing from my sight. I try to step around him and he grabs my arms and pulls my face into his chest. 

He then leans down and says, “Let Rider check it out. You don’t need to see this.”

I am struggling a little and then I just relax and feel his arms tighten around me.   I hear Rider clear his throat and radio the other to tell them we found something. Deputy Wayne comes up next to us and tells Jordon to get me out of here. I start to struggle. I need to know if whatever they found is Beth. I am surprised to find that Jordon is stronger than I expected and has no problem lifting me and forcible removing me from the clearing. Once he is sure we are out of sight of the body. He sets me down. He keeps a tight hold of my arm. I feel the tears running down my face.

“Is it Beth? I must know. What happened?”

“I don’t know. It’s a body. They are going to try to ID them first. We need to head back to the parking lot.”

“What if it is not Beth? I need to find her scent and find her.”

“There is too much death for you to find her scent there. You need to let them do their job. Come on.”

He grabs my hand and pulls me back out the way we came. Once we reach the creek, he pulls me to a stop. “Is there a quicker way back to the parking lot?” He asks me.

I am still crying and numbly following him. I look around and then just blindly point a little further up the creek. We move that way until we see deer trail.  Jordon pulls me along and we follow the trail till it intersects with the main hiking trail. We follow it back to the parking lot. I can see Melissa and Natalie hugging each other huddled up standing next to a hunter. Jordon moves to talk to the man, and I go to the girls.

“They said, they found a body. Do you know if it is her?” Melissa asks me.

“I don’t know if it is her, but yes they found a body.”

“Did you see it?!” Melissa asks.

I shake my head no. The girls pull me into the hug, and we just stand there quietly. Even if the body is not Beth’s, it does not give us any hope that we will find her alive. Jordon comes up and clears his throat.

“Ladies, this Michael Waters. He is going to drive you back to town.”

“What about you?” I ask.

“I am staying here.”

“I am going to stay too.” The other girls shake their head in agreement.

“No, you three needs to head home. I will let you know everything I find out, once I am done.”

I am about protest again, when Jordon states, “Nanurjuk, please. I need you to head back to campus.”

I stare at him, and his eyes are pleading with me. Finally, I nod and move towards Melissa’s car. Melissa hands her keys to Michael and we climb in the car and start the silent drive back.

Back in my room I lay numbly on my bed. I have cried for a while and then I slept fitfully dreaming of Beth calling out for my help and now I am just staring at the ceiling. My phone has rung a couple of times. I haven’t answered it. It was Bard and I just can’t handle him now.  My phone started ringing again and I look at it and it is my mom.

“Nanurjuk, are you okay?”

I sniffle and say, “yes mom.”

“Your brother just called me and told me what you found. Is it your roommate?”

“I don’t know. Jordon stayed behind to verify the identity.”

“Good boy,” she says. Then she sighs, “Maybe you should come home.”

“I can’t mom. I need to know what happened to her.”

“Nanurjuk, that is too dangerous.”

“Mom, she was my friend. I need to know what happened.”

“Sweetheart, I know you are feeling guilty. It is the nature of the Angkkuq to feel responsible for everything, but remember your role is to guide and advise only.”

“What about protect. You told me that we protect our people. If someone hurt Beth and I didn’t protect her, the least I could do is protect others.”

“It is not the same thing, love. We protect packs from abusive alphas and other wolves. Not murders.”

“Alphas can be murders too and our ancestors protected the people from them. This may not be my wolf pack, but I am responsible for these people as long as I am here and if I do not protect them than I do not have the right to call myself an Angkkuq.”

“I am worried about you, love.”

“I know mom. I promise I will not do anything stupid and if Jordon is willing to stay than I will follow his lead.”

She sighs, “Okay.”

“I love you mom”

“I love you too.”

I hang up the phone and decide to call my brother next. He picks up immediately.

“Nanurjuk, are you alright?”

I chuckle a little since it is basically the same way my mother answered the phone. “I am fine.”

“Jordon called me and told me what you found.”

“He stayed behind.”

“I know he told me. He thinks it is her, but he can’t be sure till the DNA test comes back.”

I start tearing up. “I need to ask a favor.”

He groans, “what?”

“If he is willing can Jordon stay down here a while longer?”

“I can cover for him, make it official that he is there, why?”

“I need to know what happened to her.”

“No, you are officially out of this.”

“Tulugaak, I don’t want to have the same argument with you I had with mom. I am destined to be the Angkkuq, and I must protect the people within my pack, even if those people are only temporary and human. I cannot sit back and let a killer go.”

“And what do you plan to do, Nanurjuk?”

“Track the killer down and bring them to justice.”

“Wolf justice of human justice.”

“Human. I do not think I have it in me to rip out a person throat.”

“At least there is some relief in that. You realize this is a terrible, horribly, awful idea?”

“Did you get anything on the sample I sent you?”

He sighs, “Yes, she is a Druid.”

“A Druid?” 

“Yes, they are kind of like the fae but more human. They do not live in packs like most supernatural, where there is one leader over multiple families. They form smaller family groups. But they are hunted for their magic by supernatural and humans alike. That is probably why she was masking herself.”

“Could she have been killed because she was a Druid?”

“Possible, I do not know enough about that species to tell if she was killed just for her magic or for some other reason. There is not a lot of information on them. They are a private bunch.” Tulugaak finally signs again. “I will talk to Jordon. If he is willing and the law officials there are acceptable of it, I will get him TDY there.”

“TDY?”

“Temporary Duty Assignment.”

“Why is there a Y?”

“I have no idea,” he laughs.

“Tulugaak, one more thing.”

“What?”

“Does Jordon know about me?”

He is silent for a moment and then he sighs.

“Yes.”

“How? Did you tell him?”

“It’s not like that. I was dating this woman last year and I fell in love. I asked her to marry me, and she turned me down. She didn’t want to be a Luna of a wild pack in the middle of nowhere.”

“How come I didn’t know about her?”

“I didn’t tell anyone from the pack. I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. You know how much pressure I must settle down and start a family, but it didn’t matter in the end. She didn’t want to leave Vancouver and I can’t stay forever. So anyway, we were drinking my sorrows away and I was a little drunk. Jordon asked why I could just step down and let you be alpha. I told him you could not be alpha that you would become the Angkkuq. He asked what that was, and I told him it is like our pack’s advisor. That you would stronger than any alpha.”

“You told him what?!” Seriously how could you do that?”

“I was in a low place and feeling sorry for myself. I was jealous of you and the freedom you have.  I was also worried that I would never find anyone who wanted me for me and not judge me because of the pack. The next day I realize what I did, and I swore Jordon to secrecy.  He swore that he would not tell anyone. I trust him, Nan. He is the closest thing to a brother I have ever had.”

I groan, “I know. I am not mad. It just shocked me a little that he knew I had enhanced abilities. He told me to tell him if I sensed something outside of our normal abilities and let him know and he would direct people there without them knowing about me.”

“He’s a good man, Nan.”

“I know, Tul.” I am quiet for a minute then I say, “Thank You. I appreciate everything you have done.”

“Don’t thank me yet. Jordon has to agree with this nonsense first.”