We touched down ten hours later. Neither James nor Damon had been informed of my arrival. Hell, Damon hadn’t even been informed that the kids had been kidnapped in the first place. I found out that the older boy’s name was Cody, and the girls name was Melissa. They were seventeen, and they were also twins. I had them fill me in on what had happened since they were kidnapped until I arrived, then told them how I eventually wound up finding them. “And so here we are. I’ll probably have to face a court-martial for stealing the helicoptor, motorcycle, and brushplane, as well as leaving base without informing my commanding officer and stealing enough weapons to wage a war.” I was smiling the whole time, and they weren’t able to help laughing right along with me. I was amused because I kept finding myself up to my neck in shit like this. “Carmen, can you teach us how to protect ourselves when we get home? I never want to feel that helpless again.” That was Cody. “If I don’t get arrested, I’m going to teach all pack children basic self defense. I want to stop this from happening again just as badly as you do.” I replied. “Good.” Just then, the pilot turned on the fasten seat belts sign, and thats how not twenty minutes later we were back on Base. I dialed James. “I’m here. I have all four missing pack children. I’m probably about to get arrested, so get your ass down here now.” I hung up. I didn’t expect that Blake had lied to cover my ass, but I found out that he did, because no MP’s tried to arrest me as I walked through the gate. I was not entirely suprised to see Damon and Cole standing there, arms crossed over their chests as I walked out the main gate. Damon didn’t speak to me as he helped load the kids into the car, but he didn’t really need to. I could tell that he was extremely angry with me.
The silence from Damon continued in the car. The only talking was between Cole and me as I filled him in on the situation. Damon and I would have to work it out in private later. I turned my mind to the domestic situation with Danny and his girlfriend. I had thought of the perfect punishment for him. He was never going to touch another female in a forceful or angry manner again. That meant he could never hit her again, and he was also to never verbally abuse her again, because if he did he would be thrown out of the pack and banished.
I delivered my verdict to Danny before trooping upstairs to talk things out with Damon. “Carmen, why the hell did you go behind my back?!” “Damon. Calm down. I went without telling anyone where I was going because I wanted to be sure that if and when this backfired, it wouldn’t be able to hurt you or anyone else for that matter.” “Carmen, we’re Mates. Not only that, we’re the alpha pair of the European pack. We can’t be keeping any secrets from eachother.” “Damon, I had to. I’m sorry if you don’t understand why I had to go alone to rescue my family, but all I need you to understand is that it had to be done, and I knew that neither you or the Government would have let me go.” “You’re right, I wouldn’t have. There’s a reason I would have told you no. Because you could have been killed!” “First of all, you don’t have the right to order me around, Damon, second, I will do whatever it takes to defend my family. Third of all, I’m capable of keeping myself alive, goddamnit!” “That dosen’t mean you have the right to scare the shit out of me by randomly going off the fucking grid!” “You don’t think I was scared shitless when I found out they had been kidnapped?! You don’t think I didn’t already realize that actions have consequences? That if I fucked this up, I would die? Wow. Damon. Just wow. I’m amazed that you think that I’m stupid enough to be that ignorant.” I hid my hurt behind an exterior of rage, stomping to my truck so I could drive off base and stay in a hotel room. “Carmen! Wait! Carmen, I’m sorry!” I ignored Damon as he ran to catch up to the truck, rolling up the windows, turning up the music and locking the doors as I finally made it to the highway. I drove all the way to Amber’s house and explained what had just happened. She took one look at my face and pulled me into her arms. I sobbed into her shoulder for at least an hour. I’m not even really sure why I was crying. Maybe it was just that everything that had happened to me over the past few years was finally catching up to me, maybe it was something else. I ended up spending the night at her house.
When I woke up at five thirty the next morning, someone was banging on the front door. “Oi! Hang on a bloody minute, would ya?” I called out, taking on an Irish accent. When I pulled open the door, it was Damon standing there. He grabbed me by the wrist, and I spun out with a kick to the groin, which Damon intercepted rather easily by pulling me into his chest. “I am so sorry, inmea mea. I should never have been so harsh to you.” I accepted his apology by resting my head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry too Damon. I should have at least called to say I was alright, but I guess I was just operating under the belief that it’s better to ask forgiveness...” “than permission?” there was a smile in his voice, and I felt his chin resting on the top of my head. “Yeah. But no matter what, I will probably still do stupid shit like that from time to time.” “And I’ll probably still be as overprotective and hot headed as I was last night.” With that, it was like a reset button had been pushed. All of the tension there had been between the two of us over the last few hours had just vanished. I wrote a note to Amber telling her I was back at base, then Damon piled into the truck with me. I gave him an odd look and he said: “What? Oh. I kinda... teleported here.” “Ohhkayy. I’m going to pretend that that’s not mildly creepy.” He cracked a full on smile, and I nearly drove into a tree because I got so distracted.
I woke everyone up at four-thirty the next morning so I could train the kids about defensive combat. I decided to cover some more basic mixed martial arts moves, and when they had those nailed, we could begin the more advanced stuff. Shockingly, almost all of the kids nailed the moves pretty much perfectly on their first try. All except for Angel. But I knew I could train her one on one later, so I spent the next hour having the kids practice holding their own against me, James, Cole, Damon, and another SF wolf named Derek. We all agreed not to use any move that could seriously hurt a kid. at the end of the session, Cole and I sparred to show the kids how to apply the moves. after the session was over, I was none too suprised to see Cody and Melissa walking over to me. “Alpha Carmen, we were wondering if you would be willing to spend time teaching us one on one.” Melissa asked me. “First of all, drop the title. You guys are family to me. Second, I’d be glad to tutor you in the martial arts.” They looked happy to hear it. then Cody spoke up. “Carmen, our parents are dead and we don’t have a place to stay. Could we stay here with you? It would make for easier training.” “Of course you can stay here. You’re right that it would make for easier training schedules, and I would never turn away packmates who need a place to stay. I have to warn you though. The training isn’t going to be easy. You’ll be working long hours, in addition to doing extra studying about world culture and other related topics.” “We understand. That is why we asked you to train us.” Melanie spoke up. “Good. You two can have the two guest bedrooms on the second floor. They’re the first doors on the right and left. Be sure to get a good breakfast, because the real work begins in an hour.”
