The Alphas Wonder Land Phoenix Mountain Book 9

“It's about a days drive to Falcon. You got everything?” Rex loads up his bags into the back of his pick up.

I cock my gun and aim it. I release the trigger and holster it. “Everything that’s important.” I throw my bag into the bed of the truck.

I feel a hand on my back. I turn with a grin. “Hey, little fox.”

“Hey. You ready?” She straightens my jacket.

“I am now.” I smile and press my lips to hers. I kiss her softly. If I possibly die today, I want this to be my last thought. I pull back. “You don’t have to come. We're just getting the information and leaving.”

“I’m not leaving you.” She mumbles.

I run my thumb across the soft skin of her cheek. “You stay in the back, ok. Stay behind me.” I kiss her forehead as she nods.

She looks into my eyes. “Before you see it yourself, you need to promise me you won't do anything stupid.”

“What am I going to see?” I ask.

“Just promise me, Sawyer. No matter what. You don’t be a hero.” Her voice was shaky and she looked scared.

Rex clapped my shoulder. “I’ll watch him.” He looks at me and I furrow my brow.

“What are you not telling me?” I swallow.

“Let’s go.” Damica gets into the truck and the rest of the scouts jump into the other vehicles.

By the time we get to Falcon, the moon is out. The area is a deep blue. It’s so strange.

We unload and arm ourselves.

We parked in the 200 acres of wood and were trekking in from there.

I walked with Rex in the front and Damica was in the rear.

I held onto the straps of my pack. “So. You kidnapped a kid?”

“No. I borrowed a kid. It was only supposed to be for like an hour, but the Falcons changed the plan.” He said without turning his head.

“Who told you? About Dami?” I question as I walk around a rock. Our boots crunching in the forest dirt.

He pushes brush out of his way. “A woman named Miranda Williams. She tracked me down in here. I don’t know how she knew about us, but she did. She said there was a cure, but I’d have to do something shitty for it. She told me that Damica was special. The only one who could help. She told me how to do it, then disappeared. When it didn’t work, we sought her out. Checked mirrors for years. Then we found her. I pulled her in and demanded to know where Damica was. We figured she was too young. Her wolf hadn’t come in yet. We waited until she was 16 to give time. Miranda brought her to us. It didn’t work again and Dami disappeared until now. I didn’t mean to be so rough with her. I’m just…I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“I can understand that, I guess.” I watch the ground as I walk.

“I…I want to apologize.” He raises his head to the trees. “I shouldn’t have come at you like that. My anger saw red and I reacted. I shouldn’t have done that. Especially, around the kid.”

I glance at him. “You have quite an attachment for a kid snatcher.”

“Kid borrower.” He corrects. “I tried to put her back, but River stormed the safe house. Dami was here because of me. I vowed to protect her. She was so small. She reminded me so much of my little girl, it was like I saw a ghost.”

“You have a kid?” I study him a bit. He didn’t really same like a dad type.

He swallows and adjusts his pack. “I did. Then the Reds hit us. They started a pack war in the middle of the night.” He lets a little cough. “My house caught on fire. It went up so fast. I tried to get in, but the whole first floor was burning.”

“Don’t say it.” My face pained and I shook my head.

He nods and bites his lip. “My…uh…my mate and daughter were in the house.”

“Fuck, man. I’m so sorry.”

He coughs again and mans up. “It’s fine. I know why we were hit. We knew it could happen, but the job was just to good to pass up.”

I look down at the ground again. “If it’s any consultation, I’m sure my father’s rotting in hell for it.”

He turns his head to me. “You’re the Alphas son.”

I nod. “The youngest. My brother got ripped apart 12 years ago and my sisters rotting in prison where she should be. We joined the Alliance after we lost the pack war with Falcon Ridge. I’ve changed the pack a lot.”

“Huh. Clearly, I’ve missed a lot.” He presses his lips together.

“So, you protected Dami here?”

He nods. “I kept that little girl as safe as I could. I’m sorry to say, she shouldn’t have seen or went through what she did, but she did. I can’t change that. All I can do is be there for her when she needs me.”

I perk up a bit. “What did she go through? She won’t tell me everything. I just get little bits here and there, but I get the impression there’s a lot more.”

“It’s not really my place to say.” He says.

“Come on. I need something here. It’s bugging the shit out of me.” I tap his arm and look back. Dami is talking with the others.

He sighs and looks back at Dami. He turns back to me. “I tried. Just understand that. Her first night here, she spent in Falcon Ridge prison.”

“What?”

“I got sold out by Miracle. River took her to Zander. They wanted her for her blood. They wanted to weaponize her. Weaponize a baby. They figured they could use her cure to disable their enemies faster. When it didn’t work, they took her and locked her up.” He looked back. “I don’t know what she saw, but when I got her back, she was so scared. Then I lost her again.”

“This doesn’t sound like you did your job very well, Mirror guy.” I scowl.

“We were in the woods and she walked away. I was fucking freaking out. Almost killed Greg. I lost my damn mind. I searched everywhere. Then one night, I woke to crying where we were camped out. I’ve never hugged that little girl so tight. Brought my large ass to damn tears. I asked her where she was, she could only say she was with the dark lady. As years passed, I found out the dark lady was the dark Shaman. The damn Shaman had my little girl. I caught up with her. Was determined to kill her, but she hit us first. She can bring the ash with one shot. If she hits us, we explode. She’s been hunting us ever since.”

“Dami, was with her? Did she say what happened to her?”

“She said the same seven words over and over. To this day, it sends shivers up my spine.” He walks over a log.

“What words?” I ask as he starts to get ahead.

He looks over his shoulder. “I died and came back to life.”

I stop at his words. “No.”

I get bumped by one of the scouts and Dami stops. “You ok?”

I look at her. “I need you to tell me everything about your death. Right now.” I eye her harshly.

****

DAMICA

“How did you…” I start.

“I forced it out of Rex. Enough, Damica. You tell me what you did here. Right now or I’m not moving another step.” He growls.

My chin quivers. “He shouldn’t have told you.”

“Yeah, well, he did, Damica. Now, talk.” He demands.

I wrap my arms around myself and walk past him.

“Rex staged a prison break, but really, it was a revolt. They attacked the unit and Rex found me. We ran for days. I was cold and hungry. I woke up to a song being sung in the trees. I walked into the woods and found a chocolate cupcake on a log. I was 5, I didn’t know any better. I was taken by the Dark Shaman.” I sat on a log. Sawyer sat beside.

“Who is it, Damica?” He asks.

I shake my head. “She never revealed herself to me. Only her plan.”

“What was her plan?”

I stared into Sawyers eyes and pressed my lips together. “To kill me.” A tear fell out.

“I tried to get away. I ran so fast, but she sent the raccoon dogs after me.”

“Raccoon dogs?” He asks.

I shiver a bit. “Large. Loud. Markings of a raccoon. They look like stretched out versions of dogs. They howl, you freeze on the spot. They drool blood and they can kill someone like Rex in a matter of seconds. They caught up to me and dragged me back.”

“Then what happened.”

I stood up and walked away.

He came up behind me and turned me around. “Damica.”

I was crying now. “She took me to a lake in some place full of rocks. Like a mountain that fell over. She put me in the water and held my…” I turned away from him.

“Fuck.” He grabbed me and held me.

“I was dead Sawyer. I was dead. She killed a 5 year old girl.” I cried into his chest. I was shaking bad as I relived the memory of my tiny arms and legs thrashing under the water.

“It’s OK. It’s OK, baby.” He held my head.

“I don’t know what happened next, but I know, I was dead, then I wasn’t. I remember breaching the surface and gasping for air. Crying and panicking, the Shaman held me and told me it’s fine, I’m fixed now.”

I wipe my cheeks. “She took me to this location in a small forest in the desert. She said the cave used to belong to night flyers.”

“Night flyers?”

“A race of people who only hunt at night. Wolf like creatures who eat hearts. At least that’s what the Shaman told me. I never saw one. Anyway, in the cave was a lab. She was making all kinds of things in there. She said she had to test my blood to see if it worked. Whatever she thinks she did, it didn’t work. My blood was the same. I was with her for almost a week while she conducted tests on me. I guess I failed because she took me back to Rex. Rex was convinced that Zander had something to do with it, so he started the rebellion. Said no more kids are dying by his hand.”

“Damica, what do you mean by that?” He cinches his brow together.

I motion into the woods. “We better catch up.” I mumble.

Sawyer follows as we catch up to Rex and the others. They’re stripped of their clothes as they sit at the edge of the forest.

Rex motions to get down and calls us up front.

“Red. Welcome to Falcon.”

Sawyer turns his head. His eyes go wide as he slowly stands.

In the blue light, spotlights flash across the large base.

Thousands of soldiers march around the buildings and stand in formations. Loud speaker announcements roar over the compound. Lines of people with hands behind their heads stand on the east side on the property with guards armed to the teeth. Two black helicopters take off into the night and like a fucking nightmare come true, the rising sound of hundreds of crying children coming from a containment camp at the north side. All screaming and crying for their mothers.

“What is this?”

I shook hard. I spoke like I was in a trance. My eyes filled with tears as the fear filled me. “When they rip you from the arms of the adults, they take you inside. Perform all kinds of tests. If you disobey, you’re punished. Whipped, hit. Whatever. They have a healer named the Phoenix. She takes the pain away…but that doesn’t stop River from doing it again.” I say as I try to remain calm.

I step closer in between Sawyer and Rex. “Zander orders the tests to find the child with the cure here. I don’t know how he found out there was a cure, but he did. Then Miracle told him that Rex was taking me and they came. They ripped me from Stu’s arms. Rex tried to save me, but they’re were too many guards. They took so much blood. I was so sick, I vomited all over the floor. River was so angry. After, I was put with a bunch of other scared children, all doing the same thing. Crying.” I wiped the flowing tears off my cheeks.

“You’re taken to Zander and inspected. Children that don’t meet what they’re looking for, are taken away. Never to come back. After, they stick you in there. Separated from the adults.” I heaved a breath.

“Why?” Sawyer looked back at me.

I could barely say the words. “So you’re easier to be killed when you fail the tests.” I choke.

“Oh, fuck no.” Sawyer grabs me. He holds me tight. “They’re killing them?!”

Rex stands. “If we don’t do something, yes. They’ve been doing it for years. Since they found out about Dami. They’re convinced there’s another one of her here. We want to save them, but…”

Sawyer pushes me back and drops his bag. “Then that’s what we’re fucking doing.”

Rex squats down beside him. “We can’t.” He grits.

Sawyer glares at him. “I’m not fucking sitting here, while those monsters kill kids. Fuck that.”

“Sawyer, you can’t fight them, there’s too many.” I say to them.

He roughly points behind him. “Look at that holding area. There’s hundreds in there. More than enough.”

“They’ll die. I barely escaped.” Rex spits.

Sawyer pulls out rope and another gun. “Yeah, well, last time you didn’t have me. Give me…50 minutes. Not one second sooner.”

“Where are you going?” I flop my hands to my sides.

He grabs my head and kisses me. “I’m making sure no kid ever has to suffer your nightmares ever again.”

He looks to Rex. “50 minutes.” He puts a black bandana around his nose and mouth and takes off walking low around the treeline.

Rex looks at me. “He’s insane.”

“I know.” I wrap my arms around my waist and look over the compound.