Chapter 287
We are getting deep into the fall and our recon missions have been going well, I think. I still don’t
know what information we are getting and I have the feeling it is meant to be that way.
I guess I can see the appeal behind our lack of knowledge since the idea is for us to be taken. We
really don’t know much. I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary as Mina and I walk through
the streets of different neighborhoods and cities near where the most girls are being kidnapped.
Mina and I spend almost every weekend staying in a rental property with Nickolas posing as our
uncle. The backstory for the humans is we are looking at the University, for the wolves we are
traveling for Mina to find her mate. Hoping both stories get us noticed we aren’t super shy or
reclusive, we both talk to everyone and play up the ‘girl vibe’ as Nickolas calls it. I am so exhausted
after we are out all day acting like that, who knew being social could burn you out more than
training? But it is working to get us noticed and I am being pushed, no thrown, out of my comfort
zone acting like this and wearing trendy clothes, going to restaurants, shops and other heavily
attended areas around Orono, which is the closest city to the University of Maine campus.
What Mina and I have gathered by accidentally overhearing bits and pieces of conversations is that
some of the clubs and bars near campus and in Orono are becoming heavily attended recently by
an unusually high amount of new guys to the area. Most around college age so the humans aren’t
really suspicious yet since we are in the middle of a semester, but we know they are wolves. Some
smell like rogues, but not all of them, which is making us suspicious.
No one has approached us, but that might be because of our chaperone who is less than pleased
when any male walks our way. Nickolas is playing his protective part a little too well, but it does give
us an excuse to rebel a little. We haven’t done anything yet, but we do plan on returning to this area
in January with Mina attending classes at the University. If anyone asks, I’m being homeschooled
until I can join her. It’s the most plausible story we have. So Mina and I have come up with a few
ways to ‘sneak out’ and meet up with a few of the other girls we have met while walking around
when we get back.
We have our rental until the Thanksgiving holiday and then we need to move on for a bit to make
our mate story more believable.
There are several conservation areas in this state and surrounding our position. While we have
been working the people here, the rest of the team has been fanning out working methodically to
search them for any signs of rogue camps or hideouts. They keep coming up empty handed, but
that also could be the masking thing they have going on too.
I think everything is truly riding on Mina and I being taken. That is where we are going to get
answers. I don’t know how I feel about that though. I know we have plans in place so our attackers
won’t get far with us no matter how sedated or subdued we are. And we get to be temporarily
branded sometime after the Thanksgiving break so they can track us. Since Mina will be 18 soon, I
think whoever is holding up the branding process was waiting and hoping for her to find her mate,
which would effectively put a stop to this part of the operation since no one in their right mind would
let me out alone for this.
Nickolas and Osiston got their way though, since we venture further and further from them as we
explore the city. They can’t be with us all the time and our mind link only goes so far. The magic of
the brand is it covers any distance and Nickolas more than anyone has been fighting for us to get it
done, especially now that we are in this mission fully.