CHAPTER Terryall Trespassers

Shalom...

The majority of the Monarch Mountain Ravers were in the cooler upstairs. They did not like getting too warm, except Ryan who hated being cold as much as Chelsey did. I knew they were worried about me taking care of the trespassers.

"Shalom, we want you to go back to the house. Matthias stay with you tonight. Corey can stay with you tomorrow. Do not be alone with them," Richard ordered me.

"That boy needs IVs and care... His father does too..." I refused, but something was nagging me, and I wasn't sure exactly what was wrong. I just felt like something was off about them. Why do they still smell of the snow? My wolf wanted to know.

"Donavon can do it," Richard insisted.

Matthias spoke next. "We don't think they have been Ravers for very long. They smell like the chemical weapon, like they were contaminated recently... And their teeth and claws aren't like ours... They were only exposed to enough to be changed for a few days or hours, less than Will and Jake were exposed to." Matthias was a biology teacher at the high school before that night. He was Saul's age and had murdered his family, but like many of the Monarch Mountain Ravers, he lived only to protect Justice and me. "They aren't real Ravers.

I was aghast by the implication, and yet, it felt terrifyingly true as I accused, "You think someone dosed them with the Elm Street weapon, just enough to start the change and trap them then dumped them in the Q.Z.."

"Yes, Luna." Matthias frowned. "They smell like we did the first week. Someone exposed them."

"Why would anyone do that?" I did not want to imagine how horrible it must be for the newcomers if what Matthias suggested was true, so I proposed an alternative. "What if they are part of those moving back or sneaked back into the QZ to check on their homes and accidently got into the residue? We need to find out where they were exposed and notify Jon Lance and Merle Greyson of a possible secondary contamination site."

"Possibly... But I still want you at the house with Justice." Richard was adamant.

I heard a honk as he finished, so I announced calmly, "Yes, Alpha. The kids are back from the library with my books and maps... Keep an eye on them, if you need me, come get me."

Walking back to the house, Richard followed me, muttering in a low tone, "They might have been exposed then dumped by the Human Purity Terrorists to try to make it look like the Ravers are still mad, or that werewolves can't return to the Q.Z.."

Hesitantly, I asked, "Do you really think they were kidnapped from somewhere, exposed, and dumped in the Q.Z. by the HPM?" What he suggested made horrible sense for those who were filled with hate.

"I don't know, but something about them finding us... And the boy is too young to have survived without medical assistance. There were two juveniles only a year younger than Ryan who died of seizures." As he constantly scanned around us, Richard insisted, "I think you should go to the Florissant Cabin for a few days."

"Let's see what the kids found, and then we'll talk to Galen," I responded as we went inside. Donavon was sitting at the table reading the newspaper article on Aliza Abbott and the written notes I jotted on a yellow stenopad as I theorized about where she made the Project Elm Street bio-chemical weapon used in Colorado.

"Is this true? You think this is the woman who poisoned that storm... But she's just a clueless party girl." Donavon looked paler than normal as we stared at him, then he stammered, "I... I h-had a girlfriend who followed her Instagram."

"She isn't what she seems. I have pages of notes on her from my late husband's journals and hundreds of pages from her own files. The clueless heiress is just an act. She hates all nonhumans and wants those with nonhuman genetics sterilized for the good of the pure human genome," I revealed as I heard the truck parking.

"Donavon, go help Matthias with our new guests. He's going to be staying at the cabin. Keep a close eye on them," Richard ordered abruptly and harshly. "The boy may need another IV." Donavon stood upright then hurried out.

Staring after him as the door slammed, I turned to Richard. "Why did you send him away like that?"

"Because he just lied to us. The slight alkali-change to his scent. That's what a lie smells like." Richard scowled then picked up the paper. He sniffed all the pages and scrutinized them. "He became upset as he was reading your notes."

"Why would he do that?" I picked Justice up out of his bouncer.

"I don't know," Richard growled out.

Chelsey came in grinning ear to ear as Ryan and Corey headed for the dorm. I could see them shaking with the effort to maintain their human form after four hours.

"The snow is really coming down in Woodland Park, but we got all the maps and travel books we could find on South Carolina.... And Ryan found this." She held up a paper that looked like a Google Earth printout "Guess who has a facility in Cades Depot? That Aliza biyatch."

Sighing, I glanced between her and Richard. "I guess we'll need to go to South Carolina."

"Chelsey, can you take Justice to your room?" Richard ordered her, but his tone told me it was going to be a long evening arguing with the Alpha as Ryan's wolf scratched on the door. Opening it, Richard snarled at him, sounding like an angry grizzly. Ryan backed down the steps with an apologetic glance at Chelsey and sprinted back toward the dorm barn.

"Really?" Chelsey snapped, but I held up my hand to stop her tantrum.

"Please, Chelsey. The Alpha and I need to discuss what you found and what to do about it, and don't go to the dorm tonight. We had trespassers today and... and we..."

"We don't think it is safe for you or Shalom to go down there," Richard finished for me.

"Why?" Chelsey demanded cautiously.

"Because Matthias thinks they have only been Ravers for a short time. They still smell sweet," I answered. "Please take Justice to your room. I'll call you when dinner is ready."

"Yes, Mrs. Phillips." She obeyed but from the change in her scent I could tell she was scared.

VvvvvV

It was late when I went to my room and came back with a small rectangular mirror. Setting it on the table, I shook my head at his scowl.

"Richard, we agree, Aliza Abbott and her people have to be stopped. No more of the E.L.M. Dust of Rage stuff can ever be made. The Revelation Night can never happen again," I reminded. "If they are making it, we have to stop them. If they are growing it, we need to stop them."

"I know, I just don't know who we can trust, lass." Richard's human eyes were only slightly cloudy, but they conveyed his worry.

"We can trust each other, and Saul... and maybe the Light Fae. And I think we can trust Jake."

"I don't like it, Shalom." He expressed his disagreement.

"Neither do I, Richard but what choice do we have? I don't want Justice to grow up in a world where he can be turned into a murderer at someone else's whims." I was desperate to stop that from happening.

At midnight, I placed a candle on the corner of the messaging mirror Galen had given me. It was a way to communicate that no one could eavesdrop on.

"Galen Morganason?" The mirror shimmered, and I could see Galen's eyes first then his face.

"Greetings, my queen," his voice sounded mockingly happy compared to how I was feeling. I honestly wanted to slap the smug grin off his face. He knew I would do it, and that Richard would hold him while I did it. He also knew that we would do anything to protect Justice's future.

"I'm in... we're in. I deciphered more clues from Kenneth's journal. I know where we need to go and how to get in, to get the information we need so we can stop it from happening again."

"Excellent, I'll see you soon." Then he was gone.

Richard growled with his head bowed. "I still don't like it."

Watching my son sleep, I breathed out my words more than speaking them. "It's the only way."

Blowing out the candle, I tucked the mirror in its leather case, then I picked up Justice and headed toward my room. "Goodnight, Richard. What would you like for breakfast?"

"Shalom, I'm going to find where that father and son came from. I don't like it that they just showed up. Matthias and I agree they have not been Ravers for almost a year. None of us still smell of the snow as they do," Richard said as he stripped, draping his giant clothes over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. "I want ye to keep your cloak close and your go-bag packed. If anything suspicious happens, put it on. Once you clasped it around your neck during the attack on our pack, you vanished with Justice, Chelsey, and Ryan. It's a trick ye might need to pull again if the enemy is releasing new Ravers into the Quarantine Zone. I'll send Matthias to the house."

"I'll be careful. They won't get my son." I said bravely as my wolf growled her agreement.

He went out the door and grew into his Raver as he reached the bottom step. I shivered as he retreated into the darkness. I would never understand how he could just walk around outside naked in the cold, despite his assurances that Colorado was much warmer than Nova Scotia in the winter. Taking my baby, I laid him down next to me and pulled up the quilts and fleece bedding. My mind didn't want to go to sleep.

The information the kids brought back from the library showed the places that Kenneth specifically mentioned had Abbott owned pharmaceutical research and production facilities. Because of the Human Purity Movement and Aliza Abbott, I had lost everyone I loved and even my happiest memories were tainted. I breathed in and out slowly. I would find the truth, and I would ruin her with it.

Where are you hiding your poisons, Dr. Abbott?

VvvvvV

As I sat in the rocking chair by the fireplace, I nursed Justice and watched the horizontal snowflakes shattering on the window. High above the farm, silvery, fast-flying clouds reminded me of another day less than a year ago, the last happy afternoon I had with Molly and Miles. The day I thought the 9-1-1 alerts were a Halloween hoax and my family paid the price. Grieving my failure to protect his siblings, I held Justice a little tighter as the wind from the incoming snowstorm battered the century-old home. I was grateful for the thick log walls to keep the winter outside.

A gust blew through the door as Corey came in carrying an armload of wood for the fireplace, he was relieving Carl who went to patrol the area around the farm. Corey placed the split logs by the wall. "It is really starting to come down. Ryan is bringing Chelsey back from the dorms. Matthias said to tell you he is making the run to the closest clinic with a wolf pack to get more medications and I.V. solutions for the kid."

"Is he doing any better?" I asked, but Corey's swallow and head-shake answered as Chelsey rushed in out of the blowing snow, holding the door for Ryan who was carrying another armload of wood.

"I think we are going to get a few feet this time, Luna Shalom," Ryan said sheepishly, with a grin at my glare. "I know you're not looney yet, but my father would want me to treat you with respect."

Shaking her head, Chelsey apologized for her mate, "Sorry Mrs. Phillips, my country wolf doesn't have the manners of us city wolves."

Ryan growled and hugged her, nipping at her neck as she giggled.

"Enough," I warned, "Unless you want to run patrol in this weather, young man."

"No, Luna, I mean, ma'am," Ryan refused then went back outside for more wood with Corey

Shifting on her feet, Chelsey looked out at the barn turned dorm. "Do you think it's true?"

"What's true?"

"What Matthias and Alpha Richard think? That the newcomers have only been Ravers for a week or more?" Chelsey sounded like she was trying to be brave even though she smelled terrified. She had seen her father hurt her mother after he murdered her brothers under the influence of the Elm Street chemical weapon.

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

"Do you think it is possible they got into something that made them sick after they came back to the Q.Z.?" She asked as she waited by the door.

"I don't know... You were in the Springs for a few weeks before Nicolea and Will rescued you. Did you smell it?" I asked, hoping maybe there was a more merciful explanation than the Pure Human Movement terrorists torturing nonhumans to make more Ravers, but in my heart, I knew it was something Aliza and definitely Gerard would do.

Shaking her head, Chelsey revealed, "No ma'am, if anything there was no smell at all left from the snow."

I nodded pensively, then changed the subject. "Do you want to start the stew for dinner or do you want me to?"

"I'll do it. I like to cook for my man." She grinned cheekily.

"He's not your man yet, he's not eighteen yet, and neither are you," I chastised in a motherly tone, and she pretended to blink at me innocently, despite her blush.

I laughed as she opened the door for Corey. Standing, I carried Justice into my room to change his diaper before his nap. Glancing out the window, I saw something large and white blur past the glass in the blowing snow and shook my head, thinking some poor seagull from Terryall or Eleven Mile Reservoir failed to leave soon enough to make it south before winter. Changing Justice's wet diaper meant he didn't need a bath this time but he would make up for it later. My little wolf ate and pooped like a big wolf. Going back down the hall, I caught a glimpse of Chelsey kissing a snow-covered Ryan with a dishtowel around his shoulders like she had been drying the snow in his hair. He was still holding an arm full of split logs for the fireplace. Suddenly, his head jerked away from her, and he grew into his Raver with a terrifying growl. Something that sounded like rocks pelted the kitchen windows and they broke inward. The logs crashed onto the floor.

Ryan's Raver crouched over Chelsey as she shouted, "Run, Shalom! We're under attack!"

"Get into the cellar!" Hollering at them, I cowered in the hall, curled around Justice as the living room windows broke inward. Little white darts stuck in the wall, and I was grateful for the sturdy log construction for the second time today.

"Ryan!" Chelsey screamed her mate's name as he collapsed onto the table, crushing it.

I heard Chelsey's exclamation of profanity then nothing but the storm howling through the broken windows. Crawling into my room, I glanced a large white drone moving away from the window. Laying my son on the floor, I pulled my baby sling off the closet doorknob and put it on, then put my son in it. Opening the bottom drawer of my dresser, I took out the enchanted scarlet cloak and fastened it around my neck before carefully opening the small closet's door to get my go-bag. Outside in the storm, I heard shouts, Raver howls, the whir of military drones, and then gunfire. My wolf and I scanned constantly for threats as we hurried cautiously back to the kitchen. I peeked out to see a dozen men in snow camo surrounding the barn as I slipped on my heavy snow boots. Ryan was lying in his skin on the shattered table. I pulled the darts out of he and Chelsey, before stuffing the information on Cades Depot and my notes into my go-bag next to Kenneth's journals and the messaging mirror. Tossing the backpack down the stairs ahead of me, I dragged my unconscious wards into the root cellar.

As I closed the trapdoor, holding the rug over it to keep it hidden, I heard the distinctive sound of a heavy drone; it was in the living room. I slipped on my pack under my cloak. Chelsey and Ryan were both unconscious, so I left them hidden under the stairs covered with an old tarp. I felt like a coward leaving them, but they were both breathing as though deeply asleep. I hoped they would revive and remain undiscovered until they could escape. My wolf's eyes peered through the darkness as I crept to the outside door on the opposite side of the house from the barn. I unbolted it then quickly backed down the stairs when I heard footsteps running toward it. The door to the root cellar was slammed opened.

"Luna Shalom?" Corey called out.

"I'm here. Hide, there's a drone!" 

I warned too late as Corey swore then he fell halfway down the short staircase. I fled further into the shadows as a drone lowered down into the root cellar. Darts fired into the room hitting the walls as I pressed into a corner behind a pillar.