Chapter 14: Complications

Shirley threw her head back and laughed with abandon at Natalie's words, her short red bob dancing around. They all got into Natalie's car, and Shirley began listing other people she would like to do while Natalie drove them to the Summer Solace camp three miles away.

Natalie listened as Zane criticized each one of Shirley's choices purely to annoy her. She laughed when she was supposed to and spoke wherever necessary, but mainly she was concentrating on keeping herself and her wolf calm.

It wasn't an easy feat to be sure, because her nerves were on overdrive. This was a life and death situation for her and the knowledge that she could fail was keeping her on edge.

Natalie finally pulled into the camp and parked at a space beside a Corolla.

Just as she was opening the car door, she caught sight of her dad's enforcers parking their own car two spaces behind her and almost hissed out loud in irritation.

If not for the fact that she needed them to follow her into the camp in case she had to resort to plan B, which involved sneaking off and losing them in the crowd, she would have walked up to them and given them an earful.

The fact that she couldn't infuriated her to no end, but what could she do? She needed to keep acting oblivious so they wouldn't suspect her true intentions.

With that thought in mind, Natalie heaved a nervous sigh, stepped down from the car, and began heading into the camp. The Spring Solace was an event open to wolves and to humans who knew about the existence of supernatural beings.

Men in the human parliament were invited as a sign of peace, and a treaty between their kind. Thankfully, she wasn't picking up any human scents at the moment, which either meant they weren't here yet, or they weren't coming.

Natalie hoped with all her might that the latter was true, or better still, that Dominic would just show up early so they could get this over with quickly.

Natalie huffed to herself when she noticed that Raven was picking up on her anxiety. The wolf was currently pacing within her, clawing at her, and pushing all her frustration onto her.

To make matters worse, as a creature with the most basic instincts, Raven couldn't help but be drawn to some of the male scents around the camp, which added to her disdain and frustration because the only scent she wanted to perceive was Dominic's.

"You okay?"

Natalie's thoughts halted as Zane's voice washed over her. She could feel he was standing behind her, which meant he could sense that something was off with her emotions, and that wasn't good.

It wasn't good at all.

"My wolf's been fuzzy all day," she tried to explain. "She's practically clawing at my insides to get out. Sometimes I think my being Kage is harder for her than it is for me."

Shirley shot her a sympathetic smile.

"The feeling of being trapped must be driving her wild."

Natalie nodded.

"You have no idea. Come on, let's go get a drink." And try to stay near the makeshift bar so Dominic could easily find her.

They all nodded and Natalie led the way, sidling through the incredibly tight crowd on her way to the bar. She smiled at friendly faces, and sent a teasing growl at those that were not. It was how she acted on a normal day and she couldn't afford standing out tonight.

The head organizer of the event — who was currently acting as the barwoman — looked up as they reached the bar.

In greeting, she nodded at her, Shirley, and Zane before rasping, "You made it? I'm surprised."

She sent a nod toward Natalie. "Especially you. Thought we wouldn't be seeing you this year."

Natalie couldn't help but smile. Renee always made it a point to tease her whenever she was near. It was clear that the woman liked her. Too bad her wolf wasn't interested.

"I'm here just for you, baby girl. You know it," Natalie teased as she always did.

Renee barked a hearty laugh as she placed a plate of something yummy in front of them.

"Oh, Natalie, you are more of a tease than you know."

Turning to face the guys, she rasped,."So, what can I get you all?"

"Oh, finally! The usual for me please," Shirley wailed dramatically, and a weird cocktail was placed in front of her.

Needing to be sharp for what was to come, Natalie stuck to Coca-Cola. She wasn't going to dwell on the depressing thought that she had to stay sober on a party night. It was for a good cause after all.

Zane ordered a beer, and Shirley took sips of her weird cocktail. Natalie discreetly searched for her dad's enforcers, Oslo and Pascal. They stood at the other end of the camp, chatting while still alert. At least there was a decent distance between them all.

The three of them found some vacant stools around the campfire closer to the woods and got comfortable as they drank and chatted.

Although Natalie was fully part of their conversation, it was always at the forefront of her mind that her life was about to change. She was about to enter a temporary mating with the wolf shifter equivalent of the mountain tiger who had a worryingly overwhelming effect on her body.

To add to that, she would never be returning to her dad's pack, and this could even be the very last time she saw her two best friends.

"Natalie! Oh, thank God you're here! I need your help badly."

A curse flew out of Natalie's mouth the moment she looked up to see Nelly, one of her packmate. Natalie had run over everything in her head before coming and had even made sure to plot out every situation possible, but she had failed to take into account that someone might need her for her fixing skills right in the middle of her fake claiming.

Crap.

As the pack fixer, it was her duty to render help when needed, whether she liked it or not.

Taking in a deep breath, Natalie asked, "Calm down, Nelly, what's going on?"

"It's Arya," Nelly tried to explain as she took Natalie's hand and pulled her off the stool. Nelly began to lead Natalie through the tight throngs of people, and as if on cue, Shirley and Zane stood up and began to hurriedly follow them.

"What's wrong with her?" Natalie asked as she was being led somewhere.

"I don't know. She's barely conscious. I guess she must have taken something, but Natalie, you know Arya doesn't drink."

Nelly abruptly stopped in the middle of the camp as they approached a large crowd of werewolves huddled together at the entrance of the camp. She could sense that there was a very powerful alpha male somewhere within that crowd, and it looked like he was being both protected and harassed.

Natalie wondered if it was Dominic and a shudder rippled down her spine as she thought of what was to come, if he found her at all at this rate.

Advancing further, they were met with a lot of foot-squashing and elbow-clashing, but eventually, they stopped before a chair where Nelly's brother, Richard, stood as though on guard. He gave them all a nod in greeting, then nodded toward Arya, who was in the chair, slouched, pale, and limp.

Nelly crouched before Arya and rubbed her forearm.

"Arya?" she called, and the small female opened her eyes slightly, but her expression was pretty vacant.

Shit! She's been drugged.