37. Anna

37

Anna

Chaos broke out. London ordered his second and third to continue their search for the mole. When Lunessa and Irene tried to leave, he barred their exit, demanding them to tell him what a ternary was. When Finn and Amelia tried to leave, London tried to order them to stay until Finn told them exactly what Maeve's plan was. Jax was barking orders at London and trying to muscle passed him, all while keeping his hand firmly in mine.

So much chaos. I couldn't hear myself think. I couldn't even begin to process. "Enough," I roared.

Silence followed. Breaking Jax's hold, I climbed on the desk so I could see everyone. "We are not going to let that insane bitch, no offense Finn, control us like this."

Finn cleared his throat. "I'm going to go with insane bitch, too."

"Okay. So, we all have questions. I think we need to break it down one-by-one. First of all, London, obviously there is still a mole in your pack. You should take the necessary steps to correct that. Second, we can't figure out a defensive until we understand Maeve's plan. Amelia, I imagine Maeve has cut off whatever access you had."

"I printed out what looked important."

"That's good. We should make a lot of copies and make sure that Elonso gets a copy. Maeve might already be trying to gain control of him. We need to get to him first. Three against one is far better than two against two. Janelle and Cindy can help. They know him best. Barring access to Maeve, we need to know what Maeve knows. She obviously thinks I'm a kind of weapon. What did she call me?"

"A ternary," Saul supplied. "It's something made up of three. It's mostly a computer and mathematic term, but I have come across the term in some older books."

I looked over at London. He's gone unnaturally still. "I'm guessing there's something about a ternary in the journals."

"There have been several mentions of the ternary form, a mythical creature that was wolf, human, and a third. It was mostly nonsense."

"Apparently it's not. Is that information included in the copies you gave me?"

London nodded.

"Great. So I've got some reading to do. We're not going to panic. I can't even use my magic, so it's not like I'm going to be wiping out the mountain today." Nobody laughed. "All right, terrible joke. What I mean to say is that Maeve can't do anything until she has me. So we're just going to make sure that doesn't happen."

"We can put her in the bunker," Cruz said in a low voice.

Jax growled. "You touch her, and I will break your neck."

Well, shit. This was going south very quickly. "London, are you in favor of putting me in a bunker?"

For a very long second, he didn't reply. If Jax killed London, we were going to lose an important ally, but finally London shook his head. "No. No bunkers. As you said, we need to keep our heads. If you'll excuse me, I have a traitor to find, and you have some journals to read."

As the office started to empty, my knees weakened. Jax was immediately there to pick me up and plant me safely back on my feet. "I need to talk to London, but I think we need to leave tonight," he said in a low voice. "I want three wolves and a witch with you at all times, and we need to start packing. Make sure that Cindy and Janelle know."

I stared up at him. "And if he doesn't let us leave?"

"He won't have a choice." Jax kissed the top of my head. "I know you need time with all of us, but I can't give it to you right now. Can you keep it together?"

"I've been doing it my whole life."

It was hard to watch him go, and it did not surprise me when the wolves formed a barrier around me and started to move. He hadn't even told them. They already knew. Lunessa was on one side of me, and Irene was on the other.

In a low voice, I told them what Jax told me. "Lunessa, I don't know if it's safe for you to return to the coven. I'm also not sure if London will let you leave with us."

Lunessa snorted. "As if London has any say over me. You're right that I can't go back to Darkwyn, although there is a wealth of information there. I'm certain I could figure out what's going on, but I don't know that the Crone will let me share it."

"Can they force you back?"

"Yes. I am hoping that it doesn't come to that. I'll call them once we're back on Jax's land." Lunessa blew out her breath. "Jax is right that we need to leave here as soon as possible. Luckily, Irene and I don't have much to pack. We can stay with you."

"It's a real shame you can't just pop us back home," Kenzi said under her breath. "I don't want to have to fight my way out of here."

"Don't lie, Kenzi. You would love it," Finn snorted, but his voice was shaky. He also needed time to process things.

God, I had so many questions for him. I had so many questions about everything.

We were all packed and ready to go in an hour, and everyone piled into my room. Anxiously, we waited for Jax to return. The room was quiet and the tension was thick.

It was another hour before the door swung open. We were all on our feet at once. Jax stared at us. "Lunessa, can you take Janelle and Irene with you?"

"No, but I can take Irene and come back for Janelle. It will take me several hours to recharge."

"There isn't going to be a car available. We're going on foot. Irene and Janelle can be in charge of the papers. Is there anything else that we can't leave behind?"

Everybody shook their heads. Most of the technology was borrowed from London, and everything else was disposable. Clothes. Toiletries. It could all be left behind.

"Lunessa, take Janelle first. Irene can at least glamour herself for a couple of hours. We need to leave as wolves."

I couldn't stand it anymore. Unwanted fear was gathering inside of my chest. "London is our friend. He's not really going to keep us prisoner here, is he?"

"London is our friend, but he's made it clear that his first priority is finding the traitor. In twenty minutes, all paths in and out are going to be blocked for the duration of the investigation." Jax took my hand. "If we give him any reason at all to keep us here, he'll take it. We leave now. Let's gather what we need Janelle to take."

In the end, it wasn't much. Amelia had compiled all of her information into several binders, so the file that London gave me wasn't much. We packed it into a backpack. Saul had printed out some information, and he had six books he wanted to take with us. In the end, he could only bring three. Irene couldn't glamour the books, and Janelle could only carry so much.

Lunessa picked up a coin and whispered to it before handing it to Irene. "A locator so I can find you quickly. I'll return as soon as I can. How long will it take you to make the trip?"

"Five days minimum if we don't run into trouble. Seven days is most likely," Jax responded.

Lunessa did a quick head count. "With the exception of Anna, I can transport you all within four days. It doesn't seem like much since Anna is the most vulnerable, but it may help."

"How will you find us? We can't carry a coin around in our mouths," Kenzi pointed out.

"When I'm recuperating, I'll spell another object. One that I can attach to whoever is going next." She looked at Janelle. "Are you ready?"

Janelle nodded, and the two of them disappeared. Except for Irene, everyone jumped a little. "I can't glamour myself into a wolf," Irene pointed out. "Who should I look like?"

Grabbing my phone, I pulled up a picture and showed it to her. "This is Denise, one of the juveniles. She's still having trouble controlling her wolf, so she's often walking around as a human."

Irene frowned. "And why do you have her picture?"

"I took a lot of pictures of the pack one day. It was pretty, and I kind of like it here. I guess, for a moment, I felt like a visitor," I muttered, a little embarrassed. Then a thought occurred to me. "Why does Irene need to glamour at all if we're allowed to leave?"

"There's a traitor, Anna," Jax reminded me softly. "The last thing we want reported is that we've left protected land."

Shit. I hadn't even thought of that. Who the fuck knew what was waiting for us outside of London's land.

"Let's do this."