Chapter 412 – Falling for the Alpha as a Surrogate Novel

Filed To Story: Falling for the Alpha as a Surrogate Novel

I look down at my baby, strapped into his car seat, in surprise. “Can you tell when your auntie is near?” I ask, curious. But, obviously, he doesn’t reply.

“Well, you’re very bright and chipper today,” I say when Cora opens the door and peers into the car, blinking a bit in surprise at the two extra men in the row of seats behind me, and then at the guard sitting beside Conner in the passenger seat.

“I am indeed,” Cora says, climbing into her seat and closing her door behind her. “Um, what’s all this?” she asks, a little hesitant before murmuring a hello to Rafe and leaning down to kiss him on the head.

“Sinclair wanted us to have extra guards,” I say, giving a chagrined little shrug. “Do you mind? I told him he could.”

“Yeah,” she says, after smiling around at everyone and saying her hellos as Conner pulls away from the house. “Actually,” she continues, ” Roger had the same idea. Did they coordinate this morning?”

“Probably,” I say, rolling my eyes and making my sister laugh. I shake my head, thinking that our two wolf mates sometimes really do have the same mind, even if they’re such different people.

“So!” I continue, leaning forward and grinning at Cora. “Why are you so happy this morning?”

“I’ll tell you later,” she says, waving a hand at me while she glances around at the four men in the car.

Sensing that Cora wants to keep her reason for her happiness private, my grin deepens. “Oh!” I say, leaning forward, “so you and Roger were…”

And then I lean forward, trying to scent her over Rafe, to see if I can prove my suspicions correct –

“Ew, Ella!” Cora gasps, leaning forward to smack me in the arm. “Stop doing that it’s none of your business!” And then she blushes terribly as I burst into laughter. Cora glances around at all of the men who are pretending, quite studiously, that they can’t hear us at all.

But I just laugh and turns away from my sister to look out the window. ” Fine, fine,” I say. “But I’ll get all your secrets out of you soon enough.

It’s a cheerful ride to the Human Camp – – Cora is clearly riding high, and I am feeling good myself. But things start to change as we approach and we’re able to see a little bit of what we’re going to be working with through the fence before us.

“Oh geeze,” Cora says, leaning forward to peer through the chain-link. “This looks…Ella, this looks worse than what Isabel showed us yesterday.”

“She said I would be,” I reply, grimacing as well. But even a glance tells me that Cora is right – that Isabel may have been underselling the difference between these two refugee camps.

When we pull into the spot and begin to climb out of the car, Conner and the guard in front – Anthony, who was likewise with us at the bunker 1 step out first, looking around to ensure that all is well. When Rafe is safely strapped to my chest, Cora and I step out next, the extra two guards following. A big smile breaks out onto my face as I see Dr. Hank standing awkwardly at the entrance to the camp, Isabel at his side.

“Hank!” I call, waving to him as I hurry over, Cora following slowly behind. I turn to see a little frown on her face, but I ignore it as I give Hank a hug and smile at Isabel. “So, you two have already met?”

“Yessss,” she says, turning to raise an eyebrow at me. “Though I wish you’d have told me he was coming.”

“I was asked to come,” Hank insists, frowning at Isabel in turn.

“I didn’t say you weren’t,” Isabel says, looking at him cooly. I hesitate now, looking between them. What was…what’s wrong?

“May I have a word, Ella?” Hank asks, nodding over his shoulder to an empty space behind him where we can speak alone.

“Sure,” I say, stepping aside with him. But he sighs when Conner and another guard step forward as well.

“It’s all right,” I say, putting up a hand to stop them. Both hesitate, but they let me go when Hank and I step a few feet away. Hank has, after all, been cleared as a trustworthy person and certainly not a threat. “What’s – what’s wrong, Hank?”

“You’re underestimating this, Ella,” he says, frowning at me and glancing over at Cora, Isabel, and all of the other men. “Going in like this? It’s never going to work.”

“You, the future Queen,” Hank says, shaking his head at me, “asked me to be here, and already your friend Isabel is sniffing around me like I’m some kind of convict? Just because I’m a human?”

“What?” I ask, confused, glancing over at her. “Isabel Isabel is on our side in this, Hank – she wants to help humans too -”

“It’s not about what she wants, or she thinks she wants,” Hank says, shaking his head and catching my gaze, making me listen to him. “It’s about generations of families telling wolves to keep separate from humans, to not tell them their secrets. And then it’s about the very recent shock that humans have experienced, realizing that wolves are real – and having their world absolutely destroyed by that knowledge.”

“So…” I say, frowning, starting to understand. “Do you do you not want to help? Do you want to leave?”

“No” he says, surprised, “No, Ella, I want to help very much. I just think you need to be prepared for the kind of reception you’re going to get if you walk in there with fifteen wolves in tow. Especially if they, like Isabel, have good intentions but still see humans as inherently different at best, or at worst as dangerous, or untrustworthy.”

“Isabel doesn’t think that,” I snap, instantly defensive.

“She certainly didn’t trust me,” Hank says, shrugging, his eyes apologetic.” And again, Ella, you asked me to be here.”

I sigh, murmuring that I’ll talk to her, but then something else he said rings in my head. “Wait, fifteen?” I ask, confused and looking over my shoulder. “Where are you getting fifteen wolves from? We only brought four guards…and Isabel…”

Hank sighs and then nods to the two black cars in the parking lot that I didn’t notice. And then, as I look at them, the doors open and men begin to spill out. I groan, realizing that Sinclair sent more ahead of us.

“Okay,” I sigh, looking back at Hank. “I take your point. How do you think we should do this?”

“I think,” he says carefully, looking over at our group, “you should let me and Cora take the lead. And leave the vast majority of your guys at the gate, telling them to come in only in an emergency.”

“Sinclair will flip if I go in without a guard,” I say, shaking my head.

“Two,” he says, holding up as many fingers for me to see. “One for you, one for Cora. And Ella? Pick nice ones, okay?”

And I sigh, and nod, and we head back to our group.

Twenty minutes later, after a long conversation and a great deal of negotiation, Cora, Isabel, Hank and I head into the camp with three guards behind us – Conner, Anthony, and a new one named Theo who has a radio line to the men waiting outside the gate open at all times. He also has his phone constantly in his hand and sends Roger and Sinclair text updates what feels like every ten minutes.

“You really don’t have to do that,” I say to Theo, resting a hand on his arm and looking up at him. “My mate is just …overreacting.”

Theo nods to me and then looks down at his phone. “Alpha Sinclair said you’d say that,” he says with a little bit of chagrin. “And…he also said you forgot your phone again, so me being in constant touch with him is the consequence of that.”

“Oh damn it,” I murmur, scowling and pulling my hand away, frustrated. ” I did forget my phone, didn’t I?”

“Yes you did, Luna,” Theo says, giving me a little smile as he tucks his own phone into the carrier attached to his belt.

“Fine,” I sigh, turning to Hank and Cora, who are consulting with Isabel.” Okay!” I say. “Let’s get started!”

Unlike last time, Isabel doesn’t give us a tour of the camp. When I ask why, she tells me that while she felt it would bolster the wolves to see me visiting, she worries that it will have the opposite effect on the humans – that they might see us moving through the camp as a kind of predatory prowling.

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