Calum paused when the voicemail came on. Devin was probably busy with his mate, again. He grinned, “Guess you’re busy with…royal mating…stuff.” He chuckled. “I’m at the bottom of some mountain, in the middle of the back-country nowhere—even more than your camp nowhere kind of deal. I’ve tracked my missing clan members to here.” He glanced up the incline to the dense, foliage-covered mountain. “I’ll let you know when I find out more.” He hung up and sighed. Maybe being away right now was a good thing. With Devin newly mated and Kelsey coming home to Gage…it was going to be messy with a whole lot of true-mate issues that Calum didn’t have, couldn’t relate to, and hoped he’d never have to go through himself. His responsibilities with the alliance didn’t leave him time for those distractions.

Turning off his phone, he stuffed it into the waterproof bag and sealed it, then jammed it into his pack. Normally he didn’t take his phone with him, but this was an unknown area and knowing he’d have it, just in case, made him feel better. The challenge would be not to lose his pack, as he’d been known to do occasionally.

The small village he’d stopped at had warned him away from coming here, despite confirming they’d seen the men from his clan in the photos he’d shown. They’d said there was bad juju on this mountain, and few ever came down off it. Calum wasn’t sure about the juju garbage, but if there was even a small chance of the males from his clan being on this mountain, he was going up to find them.

That little village was on the strange side. The way the people watched him gave him the creeps. He wondered if they could smell an outside shifter in their territory, but he picked up no scents that led him to believe there were any shifters among them. He may be paranoid, and they could only be watchful of strangers. With the missing males from his clan, and Tomas’ association taking females from other clans, he was allowed to suspect everyone of nefarious intentions. If anyone had a problem with his suspicious nature, they could eat dirt as far as he was concerned.

It had taken him over an hour to get this far up with his car. He was definitely considering getting a truck when he got back. His car hadn’t been much good for off-roading. He looked around the area he’d parked. It may have, at one time, been a parking area or rest stop, but it was long deserted, overgrown and ignored. If anyone managed to get up here on the not-really-a-road trail he’d taken, they were more than welcome to break into his car. Locking it, he tucked the keys behind the front tire’s rim. He’d learned a long time ago to never take keys on trips into the great wilderness. Losing your clothes or pack was almost always a certainty, losing your keys left you trapped.

He looked back down the way he’d come again before turning toward the incline. “This should be fun.” He sighed and started climbing.

His senses were on overload, so many scents, all familiar, but not, at the same time. He took his time moving through the thick vegetation, checking for anything that might set off his animal instincts. His cat was already on full alert, which wasn’t necessarily unusual, but it made him more aware of what was around him, and a little jittery as well. As soon as he found something to follow, he’d shift and let his animal side take over the tracking.

He walked along a flat area, happy for the break from the upward climb, watching for somewhere he could stow his pack so it wouldn’t be found, not that he anticipated this being a high traffic area, he just couldn’t take it with him. Nothing said ‘not a normal wild animal’ like a big black cat carrying a pack around his neck. He chuckled at that thought.

A few times his cat moved against his skin, telling him to hurry up. He wasn’t sure if it was the new area to explore, or if he sensed something, but it wasn’t like he was drawing this out like a holiday or anything.

When he finally found a spot he’d be able to locate again, he stripped down and stuffed his clothes in the pack. For half a heartbeat, he thought about pinging his location to Devin, just in case, but doubted there would be any signal here.

Shifting, he stretched to his full length and then wasted no time getting moving. This was more like it, four paws meant for this terrain carried him faster than inflexible boots and man-length strides ever would.

When he cleared the dense growth, he paused and scented the area around him. There was a faint smell that tasted familiar, but it was too difficult to tell where it was coming from. He crept through the plush leaves along the ground, trying to see if he could pick it up again. At least one of the missing men had been this way, but not recently enough to be able to pinpoint their every step. The growth here was like it was at Devin’s camp, but on steroids. The leaves a deeper green, the trees were twice as thick and taller. All this made staying out of sight easy, but seeing what was around him was more difficult.

As soon as he located the members of his clan, he was going to find out what had led them here. They had enough area to run and roam, that was a hell of a lot closer to home. There was no reason to come this far and trek up this stunning chunk of dirt. If it turned out to be for some stupid hormone-enticed reason…he was going to smack them in the head. With a large paw. A few times, at least. He had enough going on right now with Devin learning the ropes to lead the Alliance, he didn’t need to be traipsing around some damn mountain looking for stray cats.

Stopping, he sniffed the air. There was…Crouching low, he tried to identify the scents. A nervous twitch moved over his coat—something was off. He inhaled and took more time trying to analyze what he was smelling. Slowing his breathing, he listened. Ears flat, alarms going off in his head, he looked around him. With years of carefully honed animal intuition, he knew he needed to get the hell out of here. Now.

Spinning back in the direction he’d just come from, he paused for a heartbeat and realized he was too late.

Shaelan stood with her arms crossed, looking out the large bay window. From this viewpoint atop the ridge, she could see down into the whole village. This view alone should make the position of the village healer a coveted job. With the scenery and quiet space, who wouldn’t want this?

The job wasn’t popular though, then again to live in this house and hold that position, you had to start training and learning early in life. From around eight years old, the lessons started. With the remote location of the settlement, you had to learn every plant, animal, and mineral, on the mountain then utilize all you could. Accessing modern medicines was virtually impossible. They had some brought up in the regular supply runs, but those took a week, sometimes two, depending on the season. Knowing how to deal with any situation using what was at hand was of the utmost importance.

Shaelan had known this was for her, even when she was a child. While her friends were playing hide and seek, she was studying the plants on the ground. It felt like a calling, even then. She’d gone against her father’s wishes and climbed the hill to the medicine woman’s home and knocked on the door to ask for training. Since then, she hadn’t thought of anything but healing.

Her mother supported her, when not in sight of her father. Honestly, Shae could never recall any tender moments with the man. He looked at her with…disappointment? Loathing? Something, she wasn’t sure what, she always saw it in his eyes. Billie, her best friend, said it was because Shae wasn’t a boy. So, essentially it was nothing that was her fault.

Turning back to the window, she watched—what was his name again? Morris…she watched him come up the path to get Nona-Eve, their healer, medicine woman and Shaelan’s mentor. He was one of the guards at their prison. A place Shae had never been but knew when she took over it would be on her list of responsibilities. Something she was both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. Nona-Eve was, she had no idea how old, but when she retired, Shae would be the medicine woman in the village.

You weren’t just the healer of the people, but all of nature as well. Helping the animals in the area also helped the environment the people needed to live in. Shae took her responsibilities very seriously. She planned on being the best medicine woman in the history of the village.

It had taken her a year to persuade the village council and her father, the head of it, to let her go off the mountain and attend one of the schools there. That had never been done before. Very few left this village for the ‘outside’ world. She’d been so shocked when they had finally agreed to let her go, she hadn’t even paused to find out where they were sending her.

Once settled into a small house, in a town not much bigger than the village, she was then transported to and from the campus. The couple she stayed with were quiet and kept to themselves. In the two years she was there, she could probably count the conversations she had with them on both hands and have fingers left over. A man, she still knew nothing about, lived over their garage and took her to school each day. It wasn’t what Shae had intended when she got down off the mountain for schooling, but she took advantage of the two years without her father’s cold or indifferent glances.

In that time, she’d taken as many courses as she could that might help her to be a better healer, as many as her brain and body could cope with. Sucking up the knowledge while she had the chance. She wanted to help her people and change things. Nothing drastic, just enough to make their lives easier. She’d taken courses on plants and medicines, but also on agriculture to help their crops and maybe bring a few new methods and techniques to help her people thrive.

She also used the time to soak up as much as she could about life outside the village, finding any and every excuse possible for her escort to take her to malls, libraries, and other public gathering places. Within reason of course. She couldn’t justify needing to go to a club or party, not that she was sure she would have, but anywhere else she could manage to finagle she did. Once she came home and took over as the healer, she knew that’s where she’d be until the day her last breath left her body.

Society off the mountain had been so different and, at times, absolutely terrifying. The horrible things people did to each other almost had Shaelan coming home early more than once. It may have been one of the first confirmations that she’d had that proved the life of the village, in such segregation from the rest of the population, was a good thing.

The knock on the door had her heaving out a long sigh before turning to go open it. She pulled the door open and gave Morris a brief empty smile.

“Is Nona-Eve available?”

Stepping back and motioning for him to enter, she nodded. “I’ll go get her.”

Going quickly to Nona’s bedroom, she opened the door and peeked in. Nona sat on the chair by her window. “Oh. I wasn’t sure if you were still sleeping.”

“Heh, I could only wish for such things, child. I’m awake with the dawn each day whether my body is rested or not.” She got up slowly and straightened with care. “The curse of this life, dawn is the only quiet moment you can ever find, so you learn to take advantage of it.” She motioned to the door. “Who’s out there?”

“Morris?” She still wasn’t sure of his name. “One of the guards.”

“Tall and gangly-looking one with a twitchy eye?” Nona cringed one eye to exaggerate what she said.

Shae grinned. “Yes, that’s him.”

“Morris,” Nona said solemnly and walked by her. “You should come with me. Grab my bag and make sure there’s disinfectant and bandages in it.”

Shae nodded and went to grab it. Checking the bag, she made sure it was well stocked, then rushed out to the waiting area.

“She has to find out someday, unless you all plan for her to do this job blindfolded,” Nona told the guard with a clipped tone as she struggled to put her jacket on.

Morris gave Shaelan a skeptical glance and then looked back to Nona. “You’re sure I don’t need to check with…”

Nona paused in what she was doing and waved in an annoyed way toward the door. “Yes. Go.”

Shae went over and helped her get her other arm in her jacket, pulling her long grey braid out of the way so it wouldn’t get snagged again.

“Should just cut it off and shave my head, be simpler,” she grumbled and went out the open door.

Shaking her head, Shae followed and pulled the door closed. Nona’s brusque personality was one of the things she loved most about her.

Morris was halfway down the path ahead of them before Nona reached the first small landing area on the stairs.

“Elevator would be a great idea too, don’t suppose you found out how to build one while you were gone learning?”

“No. I was more concerned with nature, not construction.” Shae smiled at her.

“That’s too bad.” Nona walked a few more steps in silence then paused and looked at her. “I don’t want you to be upset by what you might see, so I’m warning you now.”

Shae nodded, a seriousness replacing the lighthearted banter they usually had when around each other.

“He’ll be chained up, that’s for our safety more than anything.” She started walking again. “I didn’t ask details, but it will most likely be from fighting, so cuts and welts are more than likely what we’re dealing with in there. The odd time it’s an illness or other complaint.”

“Okay.”

“Sometimes they’ll sedate them, the real riled ones, before I get there.”

Shae helped her down from the last step. “Oh, okay.” She almost hoped they had this time, her nerves were strung tightly at the thought of finally finding out what was behind the prison walls. Billie and she would try to get a peek when they were teens, but most of the time Billie just wanted to flirt with the one guard that worked here.

She hadn’t seen Billie since she’d returned, each time she’d gone to her house they had given her some excuse. Shae didn’t know why, but once she got through catching up, she was going to find out. While she was away, Billie was one of the few she missed. No modern communication in the village was definitely one of the things Shae liked least.

As they approached the entrance to the prison, butterflies filled her stomach. When the solid wooden gate swung open, Shae took a deep breath and let it out, slowly. She’d followed Nona around for years, so she wasn’t sure why her nerves were singing this time, perhaps it was finally seeing what it was like in here.

Another guard, Earl, opened the inner door and nodded to Nona. “Two for you today, Nona. A few stitches may be required for the one that got a little too close…” He paled and looked at Shaelan.

Nona mumbled something then waved him aside. “Nothing we’re not used to.” She took off her jacket and handed it to him. “And the other?”

He put the jacket on a chair by the door and started walking. “He was just brought in, we’re sedating him now, hopefully it takes this time…”

Nona stopped and looked up at him, then shook her head and started moving again.

“He got a little banged up coming in…” He glanced at Shae nervously for a second. “Maybe just give him the once-over.”

What was the big deal about her being here? Sick or hurt was the same, whether you were in chains or not. Shae wondered if she’d know either of these men. She really hoped not. Staying quiet, she followed Nona into a room as Earl held the door open for them.

She wasn’t sure what she expected, but it seemed darker than she’d imagined. Not just the lights, but the aura as well, and…what was that smell? It was like someone found a sale on the worst smelling incense and burned it all at once.

Nona took the bag from her. “It’s stinkweed. Used to help cover up the other…less pleasant odors.”

Shae didn’t know what could be fouler than that weed, but she was sure she didn’t want to find out. The room wasn’t large, but it was empty. Cement floor, no windows…maybe this was just for medical purposes while Nona was here? She stopped suddenly when she noticed the man by the wall. With both arms in shackles, the chains secured to cement pillars. She’d thought ‘in chains’ had been Nona’s phrase for handcuffs, not actual heavy chains.

Shaking it off, she went over and took the bag from her mentor’s hand. The blood was running down the man’s side right through a poorly patched-up wound. She knew the next steps for this, even if she was unsure of protocol.

“You’d think after thirty years, they’d put them on a table, or give me a stool,” Nona mumbled.

“I’ve got it, Nona.” She knelt beside the man and glanced at his face, or what she could see of it as it dropped toward his chest. They hadn’t been kidding about sedating him. Placing her fingers on his jugular vein, she checked his pulse—more for her own peace of mind that he was just drugged.

He was alive, and his pulse was oddly strong for the amount of blood running down his side. She pulled off the gauze and tape quickly and leaned down trying to see around the hand that hung awkwardly in front of his chest. Glancing over her shoulder, she looked at Earl. “Could you hold his arm up, please?”

“Sure thing.”

She heard the scuff of his boots on the cement floor. The chains rattled, and then the arm was yanked up above his head. Eyes wide, she looked up at the guard. “Maybe a little lower, so he doesn’t bleed out before I get this closed up?”

“Oh.” He lowered it down.

Nona chuckled from beside her. “You tell him, child.”

She held clean gauze over the five-inch cut as she reached for the disinfectant in the bag.

“Always use the coarse stitching in here, child, in case they get rambunctious later on,” Nona told her.

Shae nodded as she cleaned the area. She didn’t know what he’d got a little too close to, but it was all the way through the flesh. He was lucky it hadn’t hit bone. Later, when it wasn’t her first time inside, she’d be talking to whomever was in charge about something sharp enough to do this to one of their inmates. She wasn’t knowledgeable about law enforcement or custody guidelines, but common sense predicted you kept sharp objects from prisoners.

As she finished the last stich, the door behind her opened.

“Nona, one of the kids fell out of a tree, broke their wrist.”

Nona tsked. “I’ll be along shortly, Morris.”

The door closed. Placing the tape over the stitches, Shae picked up the supplies. “I can go now and check on them.”

Nona nodded. “That would save me trying to rush. I can give the other fella a once-over and then meet you there.”