Heartless Angels

Chapter 24 – Jack

Chapter 24 – Jack

I found

found the truck, Father,” I say into the phone. It just doesn’t make sense where I found it. She must have left it and hightailed it out of Corinth, or is in another part of the city.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense?” Father’s voice sounds high pitched and tinny in the phone, the connection is not very good because of the remote area that they have to travel through to get to here.

“It’s outside the castle, I respond, looking at the information in my hand. The truck definitely matches. Maybe she had hoped that the truck would be lost in the shuffle of all the people going into the Elite 10 training. Unfortunately for her, it looks like people who were parked beside and in front of her have all left. It makes the truck stand out even more, almost as if it’s

shouting to get noticed.

“Why’s that so weird? James asks. “Maybe she thought she could get a job close by. The castle is always busy from what I understand.”

He’s not wrong, except, right now only minimal staff are there because of the Elite 10 training. The identity of the Elite 10 is so secret that they only allow those of the highest rank on the premises and even then, there isn’t any interaction between the trainees and anyone else. Captain Bush, the older wolf at the precinct who had been helping me to locate Oakley, had told me that. That was why it had taken them so long to canvas this area in the first place.

“They are doing Elite 10 training and selections for the new pack. There’s no way that Oakley would be here. The only thing I can think of is that she saw a crowd and tried to lose herself and the car in it. According to Captain Bush, there were close to 500 wolves here and they cut them down to 50,” I respond, getting out of my car and trying to snoop around the truck.

I can’t get much information from it. I get a light whiff of Oakley’s scent, along with another she-wolf’s, but it’s not enough for me to follow. The truck has been out in the elements for days. And metal doesn’t really hold scent that well anyway. Not the way that trees and grass do. If we had still be in the forest, there likely would be enough of a scent for me to pick up. But Oakley knew what she was doing when she ran. She was always smarter than the rest of us and too smart for her own dam n good.

“I don’t see anything that would lead me to her in the truck. She cleaned it out and made sure that there wasn’t anything that she left behind so that she could be traced,” I say, disappointed.

I

“Who found the car? You or the cops?” Father asks.

“Me, but I’ve notified Captain Bush. He’s sending a team out here now. They are also going to pull the CCTV footage to see if they can figure out where she’s gone from that. It’s something that they would be doing in the next couple of days anyway to wipe all the footage for the week. With this piece of the puzzle, it’s enough to say that Oakley is a missing person and in the city. Now they can do something” Suddenly, a very familiar scent hits my nose from the passenger door. “S hit! Beta Gus has been here. That means Levi knows that she was here!”

A string of curses comes down the line. “How old is the scent? James asks.

I take another whiff, trying to test it against what I know about the city and how smells have floated on the breeze amid the smog and pollution around here. I mean how do wolves live here? It stinks! Calming my thoughts, I respond, “No more than two

hours.”

“So, Levi’s nearly a day behind us. Gus is going to have told him and with the way that Levi is freaking out about Oakley’s disappearance, he’s going to be on his way, Father says and I can hear the anxiety in his tone. “Ok. Here’s what we’ll do. Jack, I want you to talk with Captain Bush and get as much information as you can from him. We’re about an hour outside of the city from all the side trips that we took to make sure that your trail was right. Send us your location and we’ll get there ASAP. We

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Chapter 24 – Jack

have to find Oakley before Levi does!”

“On it,” I say and end the call.

“You see here. She goes up to the sign up, waits for her turn in line, and then she goes in. She has yet to emerge,” Captain Bush says.

“That isn’t possible…” I breathe out, my voice low and quiet.

By this point James and Father are here and are watching the CCTV footage with us. We have already combed through all the possible evidence at the parking lot. The cops got the door open and Oakley’s scent wafted over me to the point that I had tears in my eyes. But that was the last thing of her in there. Just like all the other cars she left behind, the only thing she left behind was her scent.

Captain Bush had me and what was left of my family meet him at the precinct to watch CCTV video.

“You can watch it if you want, but I can guarantee you that she doesn’t appear through this door at any time over the last several days,” Captain Bush says.

“But why? She barely has a wolf. I mean, she’s only shifted twice that I know of,” Father says.

He’s right. She’s fairly defenseless and we let her go. We made her leave. As emotions roll over me, James studies her on the video.

own.”

“Look at how confident she’s walking. There’s…something different about her,” James says. “It’s like she’s come into her

“She looks beautiful. She looks so much like your mother,” Father mutters. He’s right. Oakley looks so different from the way that she’s looked the past few months.

“So, let’s say that she is still in there. Let’s say that she has the skills to be a part of the Elite 10 training” James says. “How do we get her back?”

on

“You can’t,” Captain Bush says, sadly. “Once she became part of the Elite 10 trials, she became untouchable to even the highest ranking wolf in the world. She is theirs now. We aren’t even supposed to know who is theirs.”

“No. No! She can’t be. She’s our sister. His daughter. She is our family and we should be able to have access to her!” I cry out, frustrated that I’m so close and yet so far.

“You can try” Captain Bush says with a sad shrug of his shoulders. “The worst they can do is say ‘no. Which is what I have the feeling you will be hearing quite emphatically. Sophia Knight is not one to bend or break. I’ve never heard her willing to help. anyone looking for one of her trainees.”

“We’ll help her see reason. Fortunately or not, the alpha of our old pack and her ex-mate is one of the strongest alphas on the continent. She will have no choice but to help us,” I say.

“I hear that you’re looking for something within these castle walls,” comes a voice from behind us. We had been escorted

into a sitting room, far from where the trainees were training. It seemed as if we were being hidden away, so that no one would

see us. Or so that we can’t see them:

“Not something. Someone. Ifespond, rather tartly.

AhAnd who are you looking for?” she asks.

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Chapter 24 – Jack

“Our sister. Oakley Moon, James responds.

“I don’t know anyone of that name,” the woman says, a slight quirk in her eyebrows.

“We know she’s here. We saw her enter the trials and she’s never left. There’s CCTV evidence to that effect. She is here.” Father’s voice is stern and certain. It’s a warrior’s voice, one that not many will deny.

But Sophia Knight, who I assume this is, is made of sterner stuff. The trainees that come here come to learn how to be the best of the best warriors on the entire continent. They will be the most elite of all the warriors in the world, trained to protect all of us. They leave behind their families, their packs, their mates, and potential futures. In return, they expect that we keep their anonymity. As we train them, clothe them, feed them, and nourish their desire for knowledge. We are oath bound to help them in these pursuits and to keep their identities secret. So, no. I cannot divulge whether or not your sister is here. Not without a unanimous vote from the council”

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