17. Freedom

It's up and down every day.

Charlie is a great kid; I love having her with me, but I can feel how torn she is. It's like how I felt when I was her age, and I sympathize so much with her. It's so difficult to go through all the stuff she did. I know that many things she does or says are a defense mechanism and that there is a deeply rooted sadness in her that she tries to hide with her anger.

I know that some pack members side-eye me for not putting my foot down more, but Charlie is traumatized, and she doesn't need someone who makes her feel worse. She doesn't need someone who locks her in, or who goes all super-helicopter-mom on her. She is almost sixteen, and this is the first time in her life where she is safe and with family.

I'm just glad that Dante is on the same page as I am. And everyone else, frankly, can fuck off.

Annie fortunately pulled a few strings so that Charlie doesn't get suspended from school, although she needs to be careful not to lash out against someone again. I understand where she is coming from, but she can't keep solving her problems with her fists.

Fortunately, Dante and I are invited to a casual get-together at Dave and Raffy's house tonight, the perfect opportunity to get our minds off our troubles. They live on the pack grounds like everyone else, but Annie made sure they got one of the bigger houses that provides them with more privacy, and has a big enough yard for their monster-pet.

As if on cue, Sugar pops up and leaves his drool all over the floor, and barks excitedly. "Sugar!" Dave exclaims. "I told you not to harass our guests."

"I got him." A young woman chuckles. It's Esme, Raffy's sister.

"Don't worry, we aren't terrified," I say. "Just grossed out."

Dave grins while Esme tugs Sugar away. He gives me a hug and shakes Dante's hand. "An evening without kids. Who would have thought that could ever happen? Annie found a nanny for her girls. Is anyone watching out for Charlie?"

"She is old enough to stay at home," I say.

"That she is," he snorts. "But I meant someone from the guards to prevent her from climbing out the window."

"She would never do that," Dante says with absolute sincerity.

"Oh, you poor na?ve soul." Dave sighs.

I let his words sink in while he leads us to the living room. I don't want to alert Dante, knowing how overprotective he can be, but Dave is not wrong. Charlie has moments in which she just snaps. I wouldn't put it past her to sneak out.

We make sure to say hello to all our friends before joining Annie and Dave. When Dante goes to get us some drinks, I turn to Dave again. "Sometimes it feels like she wants to test our love and loyalty."

"You mean Charlie?" Dave asks before he nods. "That's what I would have done at her age. If I… you know… suddenly found a family member that cared for me. I had my grandma, but it's different to be part of a family.."

"Me too," I mutter. "Had I suddenly found family when I was her age, I would not have trusted the bond."

"I think you are doing well," Annie says. "You are patient, and you prove to her over again that no matter how much she fucks up, you are there for her. Give it time; eventually it will stick with her."

I squeeze her arm.

"Oh look, Jun and Luca are here," Dave calls out, waving at our gamma couple.

Luca beams happily and waves back. He is such a pure soul. He went through years of abuse to the extent that his wolf was almost killed, but he constantly keeps pushing and trying to overcome his past. How someone who went through so many horrible things can still stand here smiling and being such a kind soul is beyond me. He is truly an inspiration.

"Luna," Luca smiles shyly. "Beta Ella." He greets us before jumping into Dave's arms.

"You look gorge," Dave tells him.

Luca beams, showing us his biceps. "Been training with Jun," he admits, smiling when Jun puts an arm around his shoulder.

"Oh right," I look at Jun. "You!"

Jun looks at me with a frown. "Did I do something?" He looks worried for a moment. "Please don't tell me I forgot something."

"No, you did amazing," I chuckle. "That idea with Charlie getting some training!"

"Really?" He looks relieved. "I was scared I overstepped."

"Not at all, I appreciate the help," I reassure him. "I think hanging out with Livia and working with her will do her so good."

"Oh, Livia will do her training?" Annie asks. "That's a fantastic idea. She is great but has some anger issues too. Unlike Charlie, she knows how to channel them."

"That's exactly what Dante and I have been thinking too," I say.

"Speaking of, where is he?" Dave asks. "I thought he wanted to grab some drinks."

I let my gaze wander around until I notice Dante coming back inside with Liam and another young man. A handsome guy with short brown hair and a strong chin. "Cute," Dave comments, ignoring Raffy's glare. "Who is he?"

Annie follows our gaze. "That's Levi," she explains.

"Oh, Nicole's nephew!" I say.

"The pack doctor Nicole?" Dave asks. He grins. "Of course you befriended her since you probably constantly need her for Charlie."

"That, and Charlie is friends with her son, Austen."

Dante and Liam join us with a couple of drinks and some canapes while tugging a slightly nervous Levi along. He seems to be spellbound to be around so many high-ranking pack members, but he still appears confident. "Levi just completed our exchange program," Liam explains. "He was our guinea pig and volunteered to go and visit one of our allied packs and learn from them. We want to have this as a regular program now."

"It was a great opportunity, Alpha Liam," Levi says.

"He just returned earlier than expected," Liam explains. "I met him on my way."

Poor guy, I think, to bump into the alpha first thing upon his return has to be scary. Liam is a fantastic alpha and an overall great person, but he is stoic and composed, and gives off a stern image. As an alpha, he has to keep everyone in line, but he is putting real effort into being more approachable. Fortunately, he has Annie to help him with that.

"Welcome back home, Levi," Annie greets him with a warm smile. "We heard you did very well in your training."

"Thank you, Luna," he says, looking slightly flustered. "I was really happy about the opportunity."

"Seems like we will soon have a new sentinel to add to our warriors," Dante muses.

"Yeah, they showed me some neat techniques," he explains. "Wild Meadow is a rather small pack, but they are really effective and are living with a werecat pride. Their queen showed us some tricks."

"You learned to be sly like a cat?" Dave teases.

"I wish I could say I were."

"Let's put that to the test," I chime in. "So, how would you deal if you knew someone would be spying on you or someone in your family. But you don't know who they are; they are not showing themselves, and every trace you follow disappears into nothingness."

I hate the fact that we don't know who exactly spies on us. Well, we know it was a professional hitman, but they had to come from somewhere!

"Can't you lure them out?" Levi asks.

"That would endanger a child," I say. Charlie is going to school, which is a heavily guarded place at the moment, but other than that, I don't want to take the risk and let her play the bait in such a dangerous situation.

"How young is the child?"

"Teenager," Dante says.

"How about someone who acts as her?" Levi offers.

I grab Dante's arm. "D, we could absolutely do that. Charlie isn't tiny; she is rather tall. We could have one of the female warriors dress up as her."

"I agree," Liam says and nods at Levi. "You passed the test."

Levi lets out a sigh of relief, making Dante chuckle. "Take your day off tomorrow," he tells him. "Your aunt and uncle are looking forward to seeing you, and Austen is too. Spend some time with them, and if you want to, you can join training the day after."

Levi beams. "Thank you, Beta Dante."

We watch him leave before Liam turns his attention back to us to let us in on his own plan. "Annie and I have some information too," he says. "That's why I was late. Can we talk somewhere private?"

"Let's go to my office," Dave offers.

Without disturbing the party and pulling the attention on us, we make it to Dave's office. Liam closes the door behind us. "Clyde Garcia," he says. "The council managed to put a name on that guy Ella drew, one of the guys following you."

"Then we have a name," Dante exclaims.

"Yes and no." Liam sighs. "I talked to Eric earlier, and he confirmed my suspicion. It's a made-up name. However, there is a criminal record attached to his name. Very shady guy. Eric will send us the record."

"While I wish we would have a real name to track down, it's still something," Dante says.

"I have more," Liam interrupts him. "Annie and I talked to our pack witches," he explains. "Stella and Jazz said they would need one object, anything, that belongs to one of the mercenaries, and they could track them through a spell." He pauses. "Stella's wife Portia asked her underground contacts too. She said the group we are searching for is always working for a customer, and they need to have a spy somewhere. A mediator between them and their customer, someone who wouldn't raise any suspicions when he strolls through the city."

"Someone we can't smell and detect?" Annie asks. "Then he can only be a human."

"That's what I thought too," Liam agrees. "I talked to Portia about this."

"Oh, you got even more?"

"You remember that Portia opened this bar with Dave's friend? The one who is one-quarter werewolf?"

"You mean Ye-Joon?" Dave asks.

"Exactly. All it needs is for you, Dante and Ella, to get out and play the prey. He told Portia he could toss in a few rumors here and there that say exactly where and when you will go out. And Levi is right; we could have a young female warrior pose as Charlie. It's not a bulletproof plan," he adds, "but it's more than we had until now. Worst case scenario is that the both of you go on a dinner date and won't have anyone following you."

"For all it's worth, the mercenary group could still be in England," Dave points out.

"Do we really believe that?" I ask.

For a moment, we are all silent. "No," Annie says, and everyone else agrees. "However, I think we would benefit from knowing what they were after."

"You don't think they want Charlie?" Liam asks.

"I didn't say that," Annie says. "The timing is too off not to be connected to her, but I feel like we are missing something."

It's silent around us. I can see Liam furrow his brows while putting a protective arm around Annie. "You are right," he says. "Something feels off."

"As long as we don't know what's going on, we need to be extra cautious," I say. "I want a guard to follow Charlie regularly. I know she likes her independence, but I can't take the risk. I will try to reassure her that it's just temporary."

"I agree," Liam says. "It's unfortunately necessary."

I know Charlie will hate it, but better safe than sorry.

The guard Ella and Dante picked for me is trying to be subtle, but he is always somewhere around. Gisela and Austen notice him too. "Man, they must be really worried about you," Austen mutters.

"Ella said it's just temporary," I say. "But it's so annoying. They think someone is after me, but nothing has happened so far."

"Right? What can happen in school? They are guarding it anyway," Gisela says.

"Has it always been that way?" I ask. "I mean with the school being guarded? There are humans here too."

"No, that's ever since Luna Annalise became luna and one of her friends, Alpha Celine, became alpha of Moon Blood. A while ago, a student was abducted, so they decided the school needs to have more werewolves as teachers or working there."

"Technically, it's not guarded," Austen explains. "They are working here. In case of an emergency, they can act fast."

"Makes sense," I say. "But shouldn't that be enough guards?"

Austen shrugs. "I don't know. Dad and Levi are also always extra cautious."

My phone beeps, a message of Rob coming in, the boy who asked Ty to hand me his number. He wants to meet later. "Awesome," I groan. "I have Miss Doubtfire here spying on me while Rob wants to invite me to a coffee shop later."

"Oh cute." Gisela beams. "You can still go, right, Austen?"

"Hm," Austen says, looking slightly nervous. "I guess so."

"Isn't it extremely lame to show up with my nanny in tow?" I ask.

Gisela scrunches her nose. "It is. A bit." She and I exchange a gaze, grinning at each other. I love this girl. She is a little devil inside. "It's time for the super-besties-distraction-strategy!"

"Awesome." I laugh. "Does my other bestie help too?" I ask Austen.

Austen rolls his eyes. "I guess I have no choice but—" He doesn't finish his sentence because one of our teachers approaches us, gesturing for Austen to come closer. Next to her, there is a tall, handsome guy. "Oh, Levi," Austen beams.

"That's Levi?" Gisela asks, giggling. "This family has good genes."

"They really do," I agree.

The tip of Austen's ears turns pink. "You are so stupid," he mutters before dashing off towards his cousin. He seems to really look up to him, which is cute. The two joke around for a while. It looks like they are getting along really well. I hope my bond to Ella will be like that too one day.

Gisela and I sneak closer to listen until Austen grins and waves at us. "These are my best friends," he says to Levi. "Charlie and Gisela. You know Gisela already."

"That I do." He chuckles. "The angelic troublemaker."

"At your service." Gisela grins.

"I have heard about you, Charlie." Levi smiles brightly. "You are Beta Ella's and Beta Dante's niece."

I nod. "That's right."

"So, why are you here, Lev?" Austen asks.

"Got the okay to pick you up for an hour or so," he explains. "Alpha Liam asked me to meet with his twin brothers. Their classes finished earlier. I thought it would be nice for you to tag along."

"Wait." Gisela blinks. "THE twins?"

"Who are the twins?" I ask.

"They are one class above us, the hot one with the blonde hair and the freckles and the gloomy, mysterious one," she explains.

"Oh! They are the alpha's brothers?" I ask. "I wasn't even aware it was them. It makes sense why they are so popular."

"They are visiting the same martial arts class as Austen, and the alpha wanted me to catch up with them," Levi explains. "Just for an hour or so."

"Makes me want to join the class too." Gisela giggles.

"Don't worry, they are going to visit this weekend," I say, remembering what Ella told me about keeping the weekend free.

"Awesome," Gisela says before linking our arms. "Okay then, see you later, Austen."

"Sure, I will catch up with you once I'm back," he says. He looks like he wants to say more, but then he just smiles.

Gisela and I return to our class while scheming how I would ditch my guard. I'm not even sure that I want to date Rob, but I figure a cup of coffee wouldn't do any harm. He is the first guy to show interest in me, ever. Back in my days at the orphanage, I was always the odd one out… too loud, too confident, too snarky, too much of a tomboy.

Too much of everything, just not enough girl, it seems.

So, the least I can do is meet Rob without having a guard with me who makes me look like a weirdo again. For once I'm fitting in; I don't want to be an outsider like I usually am.

We have a long lunch break today, which is probably why Rob suggested meeting during that time. Right when it starts, I hurry down the staircase to the basement, where the changing rooms for the sports clubs are disappearing into one of the bathrooms. From inside, I can hear Gisela's voice, talking to my not-so-subtle guard. "You know," she says, sounding angry. "Women's problems! Have some respect."

I laugh inwardly. Nothing gets a guy more terrified than having to talk about a girl's period. I peek out of the door, noticing how Gisela is standing there, hands at her hips, and lecturing the poor man about how difficult it is to be a girl and bleed every month.

She is the best.

I silently sneak out of the bathroom and into the storage room next to it. The window there is big enough for me to squeeze through and disappear from school without being seen.

Hello freedom!