Chapter 6 - Rosa

I watch Bigby and the other men like a hawk as they leave the bar.

The woman who just walked in comes over to our corner of the room but doesn't get into my space. I stare at her. She seems nice, but I'm ready to poke her eyes out if she looks at Kaila wrong.

The woman is shorter than me, with a mess of dark curls that spill out over her shoulders. She's curvy and wearing a floral summer dress and sandals. Through my natural instincts, I can sense that the alpha keeps glancing in her direction as the group of men walks away, that she's the luna of the pack. It makes sense, as she gives off a very comforting aura.

"Hi," Kaila says, opening her eyes in my arms. I clear my throat, smiling gently at the woman.

"I'm Linnea," she says, her warm smile popping dimples and making her face scrunch up. "I'm Rosecreek's Luna. I spoke with your mother, who explained your situation to me. I was once in a similar position to yours—living under a corrupt alpha. I had even—" she sucks in a breath like it's difficult to say, "—I'd even found someone willing to erase my scent."

Olivia gasps, putting her hand to her mouth. The idea of it is appalling—through blood-bonding or mating, a shifter can always move from pack to pack. New bonds will often form if you just live within a pack for long enough. But once you erase your scent? You can never mate or bond with anyone again. The idea of it is just cruel. Lonely. A last resort.

Knowing this about the luna softens me. First, I feel for her, and second, it finally feels like I'm talking to someone who understands me.

"Here's my proposal," she says, holding her hands up and palms toward me as though showing she's not armed. "I show you the facility I've set up for this program—for sheltering women and children. You can take a look and decide for yourself if you want to stay. But no matter what, you can't breathe a word of it to anybody else after I show you, okay? It staying hidden is imperative for keeping other women and children safe in the future."

"Okay," I say reluctantly when Olivia gives me a look that says What's the harm in looking?

"But it's imperative that you never tell anyone else about it."

"You have my word that we won't share this with anyone. I wouldn't ever want to jeopardize a woman's safety in my position. Or any children."

Kaila squirms in my arms.

"Mom," she says, though her voice is still steeped in sleep. I bristle with anger again at the fact that Bigby drugged my daughter—giving the two of us the same dose. He could have killed her. "Put me down."

I comply, setting Kaila on her feet but keeping an eye on her in case she looks woozy. She runs to Olivia, burying her face in Olivia's stomach. Olivia hugs her back and whispers something I don't catch.

As Linnea guides us, I think about the Jeep, noting that our things are still inside. My heart is racing. I just have to trust these people and know they're telling the truth. They'll let us go if we don't want to stay.

My mom wouldn't have sent me somewhere dangerous. She's too careful for that. Her diligence got us out of there before my dad could catch up.

"Okay," Linnea says, "This used to be a bar. But we're working on remodeling it into something of a community center. I want to staff it with childcare, shifter health experts, and some therapists. All free to the pack."

I look around the dilapidated building, raising a single eyebrow. It will take a lot of work—and a lot of money—to do something like that here. It still smells like stale beer and cigarette smoke.

"I know it's a way off," Linea laughs, leading us further into the building. "We were so busy remodeling the pack center, then I had my first, then we started renovations on the house, then I had my second , then we adopted Bits—"

"Bits?" Kaila asks, her sweet voice ringing through the room.

"Oh," Linnea says, laughing and waving her hand. "You might not believe this, but Bits is my pet pig."

"A pet pig?" Kaila says, her eyes widening, and she turns to me, hope all over her face.

"Absolutely not," I say, wrinkling my nose and patting her head. She swats my hand away, and I laugh, "I already have one little piggy to take care of."

Kaila giggles and snorts a little, making Olivia and Linnea laugh. Linnea leans down and scans her thumbprint on a little pad.

"If you choose to stay," she says, "we'll also program your thumbprint into this. So you can come and go as you please."

From somewhere down the hallway, there's a distant shout, and I meet Linnea's eyes, my brain screaming at me that this isn't safe.

"There are other compound sections," Linnea says, not looking down the hallway. "For research, pack purposes. Aris is in charge of those sections. But they are far, far away from this part and well-secured. None of the staff from that section of the compound have access to this part."

Olivia nods, and I eye the hallway as we walk past, my pulse skyrocketing. If a doctor took my blood pressure right now, I'd be committed. Not a single part of my body wants to follow this woman, especially when the door seals shut behind us silently, but I have no choice.

"Wow," Kaila says, running her hands along the walls, which are LED and lit up like the inside of an aquarium. "This is so cool!"

"Programmed by our resident nerd, Byron," Linnea says, pointing to her head. "With the blue hair."

I see Olivia raise her eyebrows.

"Is this town big enough for two tech nerds with dyed hair?" Olivia asks, laughing and twisting a strand of her pink hair through her fingers.

"Oh, you're into that stuff as well?" Linnea asks as we cross through another hallway.

"That's one word for it," Olivia says but doesn't explain more. Even without looking at her, I can tell her interest is piqued in this Bryon guy.

"What about the alpha?" I ask, clearing my throat when Linnea gives me a look.

"That would be my husband," she laughs.

"Your mate?" I ask, knowing that traditional marriage isn't prevalent among shifters. Our option for that is the blood bond, which is very powerful but not really used. Especially when people have kids.

Linnea coughs.

"It's a funny story," she says, and the faintest look of worry passes over her features for the first time. "Maybe I can tell you sometime if you choose to stay. Oh—here we are."

She scans her fingerprint again, and the door to the room slides open, revealing a big common room with a clear area for adults and children. On one side is a huge, gated fireplace—I can't tell if it's real or just LED—a tall bookcase filled with leather-bound books and several armchairs that look very comfortable. The chairs face the other side of the room, which features a tiny bookcase shaped like a tree full of children's books, a jungle gym, and several bins of toys.

"Wow," Kaila breathes, tugging on my hand. I let her go, and she immediately jumped onto the jungle gym across the monkey bars. When she drops down, she sinks a little into the padded floor.

"This is really something," Olivia says.

"I did my best to make it an area everyone can enjoy," Linnea says, "if you follow me, I can show you the living area."

We cross through another door—with another fingerprint scanner—and into a different area. A large kitchen is on one end of the room, and several dining tables are in the middle. On the walls all around the dining table are doors. Linnea leads us through one, and it reveals what's essentially a little apartment with kitchenettes—microwaves and mini-fridges, like something I had in my college dorm. Each little apartment has an area with a couch and small TV and two bedrooms—one with a queen-sized bed and a crib, the other with two bunk beds.

"This is amazing," I say, finally giving in. It is pretty amazing. "But where are all the people?"

"You're our first," Linnea says, smiling sheepishly and shrugging. "I don't want to pressure you into staying, but I've been trying to put the word out through appropriate channels for a while. It's tough to communicate resources without revealing them to abusers."

I nod, hand on my chin. Olivia gives me a look, and I roll my eyes.

"I guess—" I can't believe I'm about to say it. "We could stay. Just for a night or two."

"That's great!" Linnea says, clapping. "I'll send someone from the pack for groceries right away. Any allergies? Preferences?

"Kaila is lactose-intolerant," I say, "so dairy-free milk, but everything else is fine."

Kaila has climbed onto the top bunk of each bunk bed, squealing in glee. I'll tell her later that I intend for her to sleep right next to me. It'll make her feel like a baby, but I can't stand the thought of letting her out of my sight.

No matter how kind these people seem, I know better than to let my guard down. I did it once with Bigby, and I'll never do it again. I can't stop thinking about the shout we heard from the hallway when we came in.

"Rosa," I say, grabbing her arm before she can leave. "Can I speak to you privately?"

Linnea glances at Olivia and Kaila, then nods, leaving me back out into the area outside the women's shelter. We stand there for a moment, and I hear another sound coming from down the hallway.

"You need to tell me what that is," I say, jerking my chin in the sound's direction. "I don't want to be complicit in some sort of torture chamber."

Linnea's face whitens.

"Oh, it's nothing like that—it's complicated, actually." When she sees my face, she stops, sighing heavily. "Actually, I'll just show you. I believe in transparency. It's not fitting for Kaila to see, so I'll ask you not to share this with her. I also want to reiterate that nobody from the other side of the compound can access this area—none of them even know that it exists."

I nod, not saying anything until Linnea sighs, moving to a different door and scanning her thumbprint. We walk quietly for a moment before turning the corner. I wait for Linnea to scan her thumb again, and then we walk into a large white room.

Chemistry equipment lines the walls—some of it nicer than the stuff I trained with at Stanford. I eye it, wishing I could get my hands on it, but Linnea keeps moving. A couple of scientists are in the lab, working with their eyes on microscopes, and Linnea says a passing greeting to them as we go.

"Okay," she says, stopping outside of a door. There's a loud, pained shout from inside, and Linnea winces. "Please brace yourself for this. Before Aris became the Alpha of the Rosecreek pack, there was a corrupt alpha named Varun, and he was experimenting with a serum that would prevent a shifter from using their animal form. The people inside here are shifters he tested on. We're currently working on an antidote."

I take a deep breath when Linnea opens the door, leading me inside. A man shrieks the moment we walk in, growling and gnawing at the glass on his cell, though he's still in his human form. A woman sits in the corner of one cell, whimpering, rocking back and forth with her head in her hands.

"I've seen enough," I say, not wanting to subject these shifters to any more leering than they probably experience.

My father is a ruthless alpha, but even he hasn't resorted to chemical warfare. I hate to think of what might happen if something like this serum ended up in his hands.

Linnea leads me back to the compound, and I thank her for letting me see. When the door closes behind her, I sit down on the couch, putting my head in my hands and trying to avoid the images of those suffering shifters in their cages.