South Mountain Pack Ch. 11

Rose looked at her watch and said, "Time to head to the Miller's. Remember to behave yourselves and Sophia and Maria, I'll be there at 3:30 to pick you up."

"Remember your fathers are there if you need them," said Annie and she hesitated before saying, "Boys, please watch out for your sisters."

"Like we would let anything happen to them," said Lorenzo pulling Maria's braid until her back was against his broad chest; his arms encircled her shoulders as he rested his chin on her head. "They may be annoying as hell, but for some strange odd reason we love the little munchkins."

Maria giggled as she said, "And for an even odder stranger reason, I love all of you too."

Gianni pulled Sophia's ponytail bringing her close to him as he hugged her tightly. Kissing her forehead and hearing her giggle, he added, "How else would we entertain ourselves if we didn't have them to torture and harass?"

"As long as WE are the only ones torturing and harassing them," Vin said quietly as he straightened his shoulders and looked at each of the males. "The School House has security in place but I don't want somebody else responsible for OUR sisters safety. They are OUR sisters, OUR responsibility. Our Dad's didn't give us special instructions to make sure they stay safe, but we know what we have to do. I don't want them left alone for any reason, I want one of us with them at all times." The boys stood up straight, all sense of teasing gone as they nodded their heads.

"Gabby this includes you too...you are as much a part of this family as our sisters," Dom said as he glanced at Sal. The three girls looked at Dom and nodded their heads, they had listened to what their Alpha said yesterday and knew the danger they could be in so they didn't argue or offer resistance.

Vin looked at the girls and smiled as he said, "We also need your help. The Miller girls are going to be overwhelmed with school, training and the news Alpha Carlo told us yesterday. We need you to be there for them, to talk to them, ease their concerns but most of all be patient and help guide them."

Gabby looked at Vin and said, "We'll make sure they understand and we'll do whatever we need to keep them safe." Sophia and Maria nodded their heads as their brothers gave them one final kiss and released them.

"I know you will protect each other and remember you have the strength of numbers and your love for each other. We'll follow you over to the Millers, I want to get more pictures," said Annie smiling as she heard the youngsters groaning.

As they went to their assigned vehicles, Ant saw the look on Sal's face as he watched Gabby get into a different vehicle and opened the bond to the boys saying, "Victor and Sal, switch vehicles."

Sal turned to him with a smile on his face and said, "Thank you, Ant."

"No problem, use this time to talk to her and get to know her, find out what makes her laugh. Damian and Lorenzo will be in the SUV with you, so they will help you and Angelo, I expect you to be nice," said Anthony as he helped Sophia into the front seat of his truck and put her backpack on the carpet near her feet. "Oh, and I'll keep the bond open so we can keep in contact with each other at school."

"Do I have to be nice?" asked Angelo with laughter in his voice before his tone turned serious. "After yesterday when he comforted her when she was upset and stepped in front of her to protect her, he has my support. As long as he treats my sister with respect he won't have any problems with me."

"Thank you, Angelo that means a lot to me," said Sal. As he went to climb into the SUV, he saw Gabby sitting in the middle of the third row seat and asked, "Where do you want me to sit Angelo?"

"Next to my sister, dumb-ass. What is the purpose of having you ride with us if you can't talk to her?" Angelo asked with a smile on his face. "Lorenzo will be back there with you, I'll sit in the middle with Damian and chaperone."

The first two minutes of the four minute ride to the Millers was nerve wracking for Sal. He could hear low murmurs from the front as Alberto and Maria talked quietly but every time he turned his head to say something to Gabby, it seemed as if she was going to say something and instead she put her head down and blushed. So he said nothing, just kept glancing at her and looking away while she glanced at him and put her head down.

After watching them do this for two minutes Lorenzo said, "I can't take this anymore, Sal say something to Gabs before we get to the Millers or I'll tell her an embarrassing story of when you were a little one."

Sal's face flushed bright red as Gabby turned her gaze on him and smiled. He wracked his brains thinking over the advice the guys had given him yesterday and said in a rush, "You look beautiful in your uniform." He was proud of himself that he didn't stutter, and the compliment that he paid her made sense.

"Thank you, Salvatore," said Gabby shyly as she tilted her head and then a teasing sparkle came into her eyes. "You're not going to tell me my cardigan matches my eyes?" Alberto, Lorenzo and Damian started laughing as they remembered Sal's fumbling attempt to give her a compliment yesterday.

Sal smiled at her and sat up straighter as he got more confidence in himself, "No, while the blue compliments your skin tone and brings out the red highlights in your hair, your eyes are a rich liquid chocolate brown with streaks of green and they are sparkling right now because you are smiling."

"Oh," gasped Gabby as her face flushed bright red and she ducked her head down. She took a deep breath and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as she started to smile. "I didn't think you had noticed."

He leaned in and whispered close to her ear, "I've noticed a lot of things." He sat back and smiled before he looked at Damian who smiled back at him.

"We're here, everybody out," said Alberto as put the SUV in park. The entire Miller family were waiting on the front porch, the girls talking excitedly as Phil took candid photos of them like a proud uncle, while Todd was demonstrating to the younger girls the proper way to apply a choke hold using Matt as his victim. Nana Ellen and Holly were making last minute adjustments to their uniforms and checking their backpacks to make sure they had everything and Papa Mike was handing each of the older girl's money. It looked like chaos but every one of them had smiles on their faces.

Within minutes the youngsters were lined up according to Annie's instructions, after taking one picture and looking at it, she moved them around and was finally satisfied. Five minutes later, Annie and Phil were satisfied with the pictures they had taken and Vin took his cell phone out of his pocket to check the time.

"Before we leave, I want to have a short meeting," Vin said in a loud commanding voice drawing every ones attention. "We need to go over some rules before we get to The School House because I don't want any arguments once we get there." He stopped talking and looked at each of the Miller girls who stared back at him. "We don't know who or what is behind this threat and even though The School House is secure, we would feel better if one of us was by your side at all times. Once you get tested for your class placements, I will ask Alpha Carlo and Aldo to allow us a short break so we can work a schedule out as to who will be part of your protection detail to get you to, during and from class."

Dom said firmly, "I don't care if you're in the restroom, they will wait outside the damn door for you. If any of us sees one of you by yourself, there will be hell to pay, for you and the boy who is supposed to be with you. Do we make ourselves clear?"

"Is this really necessary?" asked Erin as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I really don't want him, I mean somebody following me." As she finished her last statement she glanced at Lorenzo and then looked away blushing.

Lorenzo rolled his eyes and before he could say anything, Gabby stepped forward and said, "Yes, it is necessary. You heard Alpha Carlo yesterday and what could possibly happen to all of us. These guys..." Gabby stopped and took a deep breath as she waved her hand to include the young men and then continued, "These guys are OUR brothers and THEY ARE PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE TO KEEP YOU SAFE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING? THEY WOULD DIE TO PROTECT YOU AND YOU ARE SO UNCARING AND SO UNGRATEFUL TO THEM THAT I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY."

Gabby stared at Erin before looking at the other Miller girls, Brianna was standing next to Vin and Morgan had her face buried in Dom's neck. "Do you have anything to say in your defense? Because I really want to hear it," she continued.

"Well, I... it'll make me uncomfortable," stammered Erin as her face flushed red.

"MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE? DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME? THIS IS SERIOUS SHIT HERE; WE'RE TALKING ABOUT BEING KIDNAPPED, RAPED OR MURDERED AND THE ONLY THING PREVENTING THAT... IS THEM," shouted Gabby as she once again pointed to the boys. "YOU DON'T THINK THEY WANT TO BE WITH THEIR FRIENDS AND DO THEIR OWN STUFF INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING US AROUND?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think about any of that," murmured Erin, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "I just want to be normal and be happy."

"That's fine, but while you're being normal and happy, don't put my family and friends in danger because you are too stubborn and too selfish to follow some simple rules designed to keep you safe," said Gabby with her eyes narrowed. She looked at her brothers and said, "Car! Now!" Without another word she climbed into the SUV and without saying anything everyone assigned to that vehicle climbed in.

There was silence for several moments before Todd said, "Girls, I expect you to follow EVERY instruction Alpha Carlo, Frank, Joe, Aldo and the boys give you and we will have a talk this evening when we get home from the men's meeting. It's time to get going." He walked to his car and got in and waited for his Dad, Vin, Brianna, Caitlin and Erin to get in his vehicle and he watched as Matt and Phil got in their vehicle followed by Dom, Morgan, Kelly and Aislin.

Papa Mike stuck his head out of the SUV and said, "Remember to lock the doors and put the security system on. I'm not sure when we'll be back." Nana Ellen and Holly nodded their heads as they waved goodbye to Annie and Rose. Once everyone was ready, the caravan pulled out of the driveway and headed to The School House.

"Well, that went well," Damian said sarcastically, as they pulled out of the driveway. "Gabs, without your patience and understanding there could have been shouting and tears...Oh wait...there was shouting and tears."

"At least I wasn't the one that made her cry this time," said Lorenzo as he turned to look out the window, the image of Erin's glassy eyes replaying in his mind.

Gabby started blushing and said, "I didn't mean to make her cry, I may have been a bit more forceful then what I intended."

"Ya think?" asked Damian, raising his eyebrow before he started laughing. "Hell, Freddy Krueger would have started to cry if you hollered at him like that." The boys started to laugh and Maria shivered, she hated horror movies.

"I got to ask, what the hell got into you?" asked Angelo still laughing as he turned around to look at his younger sister. "Are you getting ready to get your period or something? Cause you acted like a total PMS'ing raging bitch."

Alberto choked and the SUV swerved before he got it back under control, Maria turned in her seat with her mouth hanging open, Lorenzo, Damian and Sal stared at Angelo then Gabby then back to Angelo. Gabby was staring at her brother with a murderous expression on her face as she hissed, "I can not believe you said that, especially with Salvatore sitting here next to me. You've embarrassed me for the last time in front of him, you...you..." and she launched herself at him, putting her brother in a chokehold.

"OH, SHIT," Sal shouted as he grabbed her waist to pull her back as Lorenzo tried to get out of the way of her feet as she tried to get a foothold and Damian was laughing so hard he hit his head on the window before falling out of his seat.

Anthony reminded everyone to lower their windows as he pulled up to the gate. A guard came to each window and glanced inside as Anthony said to Jeff, "Rossi, Anthony. Carlucci's Sophia, Victor, Enzo and Gino." Jeff checked each name off on the clipboard and radioed for the gate to be opened, as Anthony went through the next vehicle pulled up, stopped and repeated the procedure.

Alberto watched them for several minutes in the rearview mirror and heard the sounds of fabric tearing; the oomph's and grunts as flesh hit flesh, Lorenzo and Sal swearing and Damian laughing. He had finally had enough and shouted, "STOP IT NOW. Angelo, apologize to our sister, Gabby calm down, Damian stop laughing, Sal pull her back, and Lorenzo sit your ass down. We're almost at the gate and I don't want to explain to our Dad's why you're fighting, so pull yourselves together and straighten your uniforms out." They pulled up to the gate and as soon as Jeff, Duke, Jerome and Austin Sabatini saw them, they started to laugh. After checking their names, they went through the gate and the men started laughing louder as Gabby launched herself at her brother again.

"Why did you say our names that way?" questioned Sophia as she started to get nervous as they waited for the others in the student parking lot.

"It's another subtle measure of security," answered Gino as he rummaged in his backpack for his comb. "We say the last names first, and if something were wrong, we would say first names then last names. Like I said it's subtle, something they wouldn't pick up quickly."

"There's a lot going on that I don't know about security, isn't there?" asked Sophia as she looked at her intended and her family.

Enzo rolled his eyes and said, "You don't know a third of the stuff we do to protect you. We've been doing it so long you think it's normal."

"Oh," Sophia replied as Anthony grabbed her hand and squeezed it to reassure her. The last vehicle to pull in was Alberto's who parked next to Anthony and everyone moved in front to wait on them to get out, and when they did the youngsters and the adults present looked at them in astonishment.

Damian opened the right rear passenger door and fell laughing hysterically onto his back with a black eye, a bruised cheek, his cardigan halfway off, blood on his shirt and the left sleeve of his shirt torn. Angelo opened the rear driver's side door and fell out landing on his hands and knees with blood dripping from his nose onto the asphalt, his cardigan completely off, half the buttons and the right sleeve were missing from his shirt, scratches were on his face, his lip was split open and Gabby was on his back holding him in a chokehold. The right side of Gabby's hair was flying around her face since she only had one barrette in her hair, her left arm was in the sleeve of her cardigan while her right arm was out, her right shoe was missing and she was muttering, "You son of a bitch...". Sal was next out of the SUV with footprints over his shirt and cardigan, scratches on his face, a bloody nose, a black eye and blood on his uniform shirt. Lorenzo calmly got out of the vehicle with a bloody split lip, a black eye, a bruise on his left cheek, footprints on his shirt and he was holding Gabby's shoe in his hand.

Alberto looked at them and shook his head while Maria put her hand over her mouth to hold in the laugher. Sal pulled Gabby off Angelo's back and the five of them slowly walked to the front of the SUV as a voice loudly boomed, "Does anybody want to tell me what happened?"

Five youngsters stared at their Alpha and their mouths opened and closed several times before Gabby said quietly with her head down, "It was a minor disagreement, Alpha Carlo. Angelo said something I didn't like, and when I went after him the Carlucci's tried to hold me back from beating the hell, I mean heck out of Angelo." She looked at Lorenzo, Damian and Sal saying quietly, "I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"You did all that?" Carmelo asked Gabby and she nodded her head before looking back to the ground. He looked at the bloody faces of the boys and the condition of their uniforms and took in Gabby's shoeless foot, mussed cardigan and missing barrette, but otherwise she didn't have a mark on her. "Angelo, what did you say?"

"Uhmm, well...I kinda maybe might have asked her if she was on her period and I may have said she was a PMS'ing raging bitch...or something along those lines," muttered Angelo as he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. Damian started laughing again but one glare from his father shut him up.

"Angelo, you deserved the beating your sister gave you," said Carmelo with a frown to his son. "Now give your sister a hug, find her barrette and Lorenzo give her back her shoe. The rest of you clean up before you go into The School House."

"Hey, Ant could you take a pic of us? This way we'll have a before and after shot of our first trip to school after Hurricane Gabs hit," said Damian with a big smile on his face. The five of them grouped together, Lorenzo still holding Gabby's shoe, as Ant took the pictures everybody started laughing at the ridiculous sight they presented. After Ant was done, they started to clean up their uniforms as much as they could.

"Well, that was fun, I can see riding to school with this group is gonna be a blast. I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow, but I'm going to make sure I bring a helmet with me," said Damian cheerfully as Angelo glared at him.

The youngsters turned around and stared at him and Lorenzo sighed loudly before he shook his head and said, "Okay, I'll ask, why do you need a helmet?"

"To protect this stunning vision of pure male perfection, of course," Damian responded with a serious expression on his face before he started to smile as he heard the groans from his family. "But a broken nose may enhance the bad boy image; make my rugged good looks stand out even more." He looked at Caitlin and when she blushed, he started to laugh and as he walked past her he nudged her with his shoulder and laughed even harder. As he walked to the front door he was pleased with her reaction for some reason.

Gabby glanced at Sal as they followed Damian, seeing his black eye that was already turning green and yellow and the cuts slowly disappearing, she murmured, "I'm sorry I hurt you. I didn't mean to hit you or anything."

"That's okay, I wasn't worried about me getting hurt, I was only worried about you," Sal whispered back and then he blushed. "I didn't mean to grope you; I was just trying to get a hold of you to pull you back."

"Well, I was hoping that was your hand, and not your cousins," Gabby giggled and quickly looked at her two brothers hoping they didn't hear Sal. Realizing what she said and seeing the surprised look on Sal's face at her response, she blushed and said, "I can't believe I said that, I didn't mean it like that, I mean I'm glad it was you and not Lorenzo and Damian, especially Damian, not that I wanted you to do that, well at least not right now, I mean ... I don't know what the hell I'm saying."

Sal started to laugh as Angelo turned around to look at them and narrowed his eyes. "It's okay, I won't tell if you don't," he whispered into her ear while Gabby started to giggle again and this time Alberto turned around to look at them.

Principal Richards and Aldo greeted them as they walked through the front door and gave them a binder with their name and homeroom number on it. Vin led them up the east stairwell to the second floor and explained the homerooms were grouped according to family and mates and intended mates were placed together. Excited voices and laughter could be heard as they walked down the hall to the last classroom on the right, the largest one on the floor to accommodate the twenty-four of them.