Chapter 6: Legends and Liabilities

The action was immediate. For a term that wasn't even in the binder, the reaction was universal. The older CBP adults seemed to move all at once. Mr. Mercer moved Sutton and Sienna away quickly. Mrs. Mercer, following a silent command, disappeared upstairs with the Liturgist to pack Sadie's belongings at a pace that was normally unheard of. Their heavy footsteps could be heard moving in Sadie’s room—her space, being dismantled in minutes. The Historian had fingers flying on the laptop, documents printing at lightning speed. The scientific instruments, so different from the ancient artifacts used back in Montana, lay forgotten on the counter, no longer treated with the clinical care they had received just moments before.

​“Mr. Miller, it is time to go. Her things will be at your vehicle in minutes.” William was pressuring the air with every ounce of Alpha energy he possessed. Sadie could detect it more clearly now, but it felt bizarre—like a hand resting lightly on her arm, though she knew the intent was far more aggressive.

​“She still has rights,” Caleb’s Alpha was hardly raising its head, just starting to awaken. “Her account, her car? We haven't set up splitting the cost—”

​The Historian placed a manila folder in his hands as if on cue.

​“You will find all the paperwork included here. In light of the test results, we covered the costs for the bank account and the car. We went ahead and had one shipped appropriate to the area rather than waiting for confirmation of your inventory.” Burgess was controlled and clipped. He was scared. Caleb wasn't. Nothing about this aged wolf would ever scare him.

​“What about her transfer? I didn't give you our contact, and what if she decides to return in two months?”

​“The contact was determined through deduction based on yours and Mr. Colter’s transcripts. I anticipated you wanting to ensure her rights, so the account balance will cover tuition and all other needs—including options if she doesn't wish to stay with you.”

​“Options?” Sadie's voice finally made an appearance. It was soft and frail. The change the ritual caused had left her raw and bare; her senses were too heightened. But first and foremost was the pine and wild vanilla scent blocking her nose.

​“Yes. Options. Chattahoochee Bend Pack is in close proximity to many powerful humans. A Sovereign cannot go undetected in this proximity to them.”

​“So I can't come home? Ever?” Sadie’s mind began spinning. She was in a cohort at her school; that was how most education programs worked. All of the strings in the world couldn’t magically fix this. How long would it be until she would be able to resume her degree? What about student teaching?

​Sienna and Sutton, so far obediently staying with their father, spoke up at this. They might live different lives and value different things, but Sadie was their sister.

​“William, surely she can come back, like the pups who need to leave—” Sutton tried to reason, using her lawyer brain. Finding loopholes was her specialty.

​“No.” The weight of Alpha in his voice seemed to take a massive amount of effort to project. “She is a danger. We may not know how she will turn out, but we do know it will be noticeable.”

​“Think about how this will look to the pack,” Sienna tried her angle. Knowing the optics was her best tool.

​“They won’t know. They will think she found her mate and is having her happily ever after.” He sounded tired. “Hopefully that will be the case. If not, she can call, she can write. You girls can go… well, we can discuss you visiting there another time.”

​The two women accepted it, but they didn’t like it. They looked at one another as if their former goals of social climbing had very rapidly taken a backseat. As they stood there, Sienna and Sutton pushed around their father and pulled their little sister into a tight embrace. Caleb heard one of them—he couldn't be sure which—whisper into Sadie's ear, “We will find you.”

​Caleb took the manila folder, his grip tightening until the paper crinkled. He didn't care about the money or the car, but the way William was speaking to Sadie—as if she were a storm system to be tracked and redirected—was making the pine and vanilla in his scent turn sharp and metallic.

​“You’re exiling her,” Caleb said, his voice a low, dangerous vibration that made the Historian’s laptop screen flicker. “She hasn’t even packed a bag, and you’re treating her like a breach of contract.”

​William didn’t blink. “I am protecting my pack, Mr. Miller. Something I suggest you start doing for yours. Something I will do for yours. She is a Sovereign. No one will hear about that from us. In Vinings, she is a target. In Painted Ridge? She might just be a legend.”