Vindicator

Chapter 7

Christina was sitting in the café on her laptop, connected to the wifi so she could look for a place to bring Jenna in the event she agreed. She and Karma realized after making their offer that they were in no position to offer a safe place to Jenna, when they hadn't even settled down somewhere themselves.

Karma had gone to the Lupine Realm to keep an eye on Jenna, and ensure nothing went wrong while they waited for her decision. This left Christina with the task of waiting for Jenna in the Mortal Realm, and finding them a safe space.

She sighed, frustrated with the lack of good options locally. Money wasn't an issue, fortunately, as Christina and Karma had used Karma's gifts to their advantage to make several lucrative investments. The issue that Christina was struggling with was the security of their choice. They wouldn't have the ability to defend a pack house, as most packs could, so they would require some other means to protect their guests.

Almost as if she'd heard her mother's woes, Karma waltzed through the door. She was buzzing with excitement as she slid into the seat beside Christina.

"Hello my love" Christina greeted her daughter, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I have something to show you" she said, bouncing in her seat. "Alessia and I were discussing...The gifts we got" she said. "We played around, and figured something out that should help with the problem you've been having in your search" she finished with a grin.

Christina gave Karma a curious look. "What if Jenna shows?"

"Alessia is keeping an eye out" she said, winking.

Smiling at her daughter's excitement, Christina nodded. She packed up and followed her daughter out of the café. They walked out of the little village and into the woods before Karma finally stopped.

Christina raised a brow at her daughter. "Well?"

"Walk through it" Karma encouraged, a huge grin on her face as she motioned in front of them.

Christina smiled at her daughter's enthusiasm, and walked forward. She expected to find herself surrounded by the familiar fog; however, she was NOT expecting the blast of wintry air that hit her as she stepped from the middle of the woods onto the top of a snowy mountain. She gasped, and jumped back, stumbling backwards through the opening her daughter left. She was about to land on her butt when Karma grabbed her and kept her upright.

"What was that?!" She shrieked.

Karma gave out a full belly laugh at her mother's reaction. Christina glared at her daughter, swatting at her, but she couldn't help dissolving into laughter after a moment, too. She was happy to see her daughter laughing so hard.

"Sorry, Alessia made me promise to tell you it wasn't her idea to put the exit up there" she said with a grin. "So, you know that I can open a door or window somewhere, as long as I can picture it in my mind. And I don't have to have been there, right?"

Christina nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"Well, I realized since I can leave a window open for Alessia to watch Jenna, and still come and go, that I can keep multiple gateways open at once. And Alessia and I were playing with it, and realized we can overlap an entry point with an exit point! So I can open a door anywhere, and have it exit anywhere! It's basically a portal to teleport us wherever we want! We can find a place on the side of a mountain or something that nobody can get to, and it'll give us the natural protection we need!" She said, bouncing on the balls of her feet as her excitement oozed out of her.

Christina stared at her daughter, mouth agape, in shock. She was right! This was fantastic! They weren't restricted to accessible locations now...They weren't even restricted to proximity to Jenna's existing pack. She allowed her daughter's enthusiasm to infect her, and she let out a joyous laugh and bounced around with her in a happy embrace. They could finally make a home!

The two got to work finding a safe space to house their new pack. They wound up buying a castle in the side of a snowy mountain where it was essentially always winter. The roads were snowed over and nobody had been able to get the the castle in years. Perfect! By the end of the week the two had purchased the castle, cleaned up and furnished several rooms, and prepared it with the necessities that a small group of women would need.

Unfortunately, despite their preparation, on the seventh day of their wait there was still no sign of Jenna.

Karma and Christina were sitting in the café waiting anxiously, when a few minutes before closing they spotted Kim walking in with a worried look on her face. She saw Karma and Christina and rushed over to them, a look of relief washing over her briefly before the worry returned.

"I thought she left without saying goodbye" Kim said as a way of greeting.

"So she's decided to come with us?" Karma asked.

Kim shrugged her shoulders. "I assume. I haven't heard from her in a couple days...But the last time I talked to her, she said she was going to talk to her mate in a last-ditch effort before leaving. She was supposed to tell me how it went..." she explained, trailing off as her worried look increased. "Do you think something happened?"

Christina and Karma exchanged looks. They had only been getting Alessia to watch the café while they were preparing, and had decided they could forego keeping eyes on Jenna. Karma had scouted the pack out and determined that their treatment of Jenna was a generally isolated situation, and the pack members at large were not mistreated. She'd checked into Jenna's former pack, though, and planned to pay them a visit once Jenna was safe. Due to this, they hadn't felt the need to keep a close watch on Jenna anymore; until she had her baby, she'd be safe.

Or so they'd assumed.

"You should come back and check into it" Alessia suggested.

Karma nodded her head, which made Kim gasp. "I never should have let her go talk to him" she said, her eyes filling up with tears.

At that moment, the owner of the café happened to walk over and clear her throat. She was about to remind them that the café was closing, but upon seeing Kim's tears she just awkwardly shuffled away.

Taking the hint regardless, the she-wolves ushered the teary human out the door to continue their conversation on the lamp-lit sidewalk. Christina had a motherly arm around the girl's shoulders, murmuring comforting words to her.

"We'll get Kayla to go check on her, okay?" She offered, using the false name she'd previously given Karma as part of her story.

Kim sniffled, shaking her head no. "She told me before that it's impossible for someone to get in there without being caught" she said miserably, feeling that her friend was trapped for good in her greatest time of need.

Christina patted her shoulder with a comforting smile. "Nobody is sneakier than my daughter, don't you worry" she whispered.

Christina nodded to Karma, who nodded back before she turned and ran into the night without another word.

Kim stared at Christina with wide eyes. "Aren't you worried she'll be hurt? She's going alone?"

Christina steered them to a bench on the sidewalk and sat down with Kim, smiling at her. "She isn't alone, she has her wolf" she said softly.

"But still..." the human trailed off.

Christina patted the back of Kim's hand. "Don't you worry, she'll be safe. And if Jenna needs help...Well, our Alpha won't hesitate to rescue her" she said with a grin.