Thoreau - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Leo
We measured the study with a yardstick and wrote our numbers down on a piece of paper, then measured the bedrooms right above it and compared the two sets of numbers. Thoreau actually enjoyed the whole process. He said he liked numbers because he could trust them.
At the same time, I found out he needed some help before we sent him off to school. He could count and read numbers and do basic addition and subtraction, but he kept calling dividing 'extra subtraction' and multiplying 'extra addition.'
I mean, he's not wrong in a way, Ruby snickered.
Yeah, but sometimes he adds when he's supposed to multiply or subtracts when he's supposed to divide, I pointed out. If he gets the terms correct, it might help him to understand when to do each function.
In the end, we discovered there was something funny about the study. The numbers just did not add up. We kept coming up with a void of about six feet wide by about six feet long.
"We measured above the study, so maybe we should measure below it," Thoreau suggested.
"Smart thinking!" I praised him.
"I'm smart?" A big smile broke over his face.
"You are very smart, buddy!" Moving slowly so I didn't spook him, I put my arm around his shoulders and gave him a gentle side hug. "Now we just have to figure out which part of the basement is under the study."
"Oh, that's easy. We'll go like this from the stairs." He slipped out from under my arm and took a few heel-to-toe steps. "I will measure from the study door to the stairs this way—"
"Then walk the same way across the basement from the bottom of the stairs," I finished with a nod. "Nice! Go ahead and start measuring while I grab us some snacks."
He was slowly gaining weight with Dr. Myers' nutrition plan, but the memory of his skeletal body plagued me, and I offered him food all day long. Thankfully, he was good about saying no if he felt too full, so I figured it worked out.
"Okay, Leo! Bring me the snack that smiles back, please!"
Grinning, I trotted off to the kitchen to grab his bag of Goldfish crackers.
After I measured in the basement, Leo and I still had the same size space missing in the study, and we were both determined to find out why. We figured out that it had to be in the corner closest to the door into the room. Leo said it should be a round wall because the outside of the house had a something called a turret right there.
"A turret looks like a mini tower," he told me when I just looked at him.
"Oh! Our house has two of those. A little skinny one in the back and a big fat one in the front. Which one should be in this room?"
"The little skinny one. The big fat one is off the corner of the living room. You called it the bubble room, remember? And Emerson told you the Christmas tree will go there because it will look nice in front of the windows."
"Oh, yes, the bubble room!" I nodded, then my eyes widened as I thought of something. "Leo! The skinny tower doesn't have any windows!"
"That's right, which means it would be easy to hide something inside it if it's also walled off on the inside of the house."
"So how do we find it?" I asked.
"There has to be a trick to opening a secret door. Let's check the wall first. If we don't find anything, we'll try the floor."
The wall he pointed to had floor-to-ceiling bookcases built into it. Bubba and Gelo had started putting books and framed photos and knick-knacks on them, but most of the shelves were still pretty bare.
"I think it would be easier to hide something in a corner than the middle of a wall, don't you, Leo?" I tilted my head as I walked over to it.
"Yeah, and that's where the turret would be, anyway. I'll start feeling around the edges of the shelves. You see if you can get anything to move."
"What do you mean, move? This is all made out of solid wood." I waved my hands at the big bookcases. "None of it is going to move."
"There has to be something somewhere to trigger the door opening," he said as he ran his fingers between the bookcases and along each shelf. "Just see what you can find."
I didn't know what I was looking for, but I started rubbing my hands all over the old wood. I liked how it felt against my skin, cool and smooth and firm. The corners of each bookcase were decorated with pretty flowers carved from wood. They were all the same pattern, about as big as my palm, and stuck out like knobs.
"Leo, what are these called?"
"Hmm?" He stopped what he was doing and looked where I was pointing. "That pattern is called a rosette, and they're mill work appliques. That means someone carved them, then either glued or nailed them into place to make it fancy."
"So they're not part of the bookcases? That means they might move, right?"
"Reau, you're so clever!"
Leo draped an arm around my shoulder and squeezed me, and that warm feeling came back in my chest, just like when he called me smart earlier. I grinned up at him and he grinned back.
"You start on that side and I'll start on this side," he said and let his arm drop off my shoulders.
"And do what?" I tilted my head as I looked at him.
"Try turning them or pushing them in. I bet one of them opens a hidden door."
"Oh! Okay, Leo the lion!" Excited now, I nodded really fast.
I decided I would turning first. That made more sense to me than pushing. So I put my hand on a rosette and tried spinning it. Nothing. Then I tried pushing it in like a button. Again, nothing.
"It could be a little stiff. Wood swells in damp weather," Leo said as he fiddled with a rosette, but had the same luck as me.
"Be careful not to break it," I warned him. He was much, much stronger than I was, and could easily rip one of the rosettes right off the bookcase. "Bubba would be upset. He loves all this old stuff."
"I know he does, and I'm being careful."
Nodding, I touched another rosette and felt it wiggle just a tiny bit under my fingertips, and I gasped.
"Leo! I think this is it!" I squealed and hopped up and down.
"Well, go ahead, buddy!" he said as he came to stand next to me. "Twist it and see what happens!"
So I made myself stop hopping around and put my pointer finger on the edge and tried to turn it to the left. It didn't budge. Holding my breath now, I twisted it to the right and almost fell over in shock when it moved with a soft click!
Stepping back, I stood next to Leo and we watched with dropped jaws as the bookcase swung open to reveal a tiny room with a set of funny wooden stairs circling up, up, up!
"We did it, Leo! We solved a mystery!" I wrapped my arms around his waist and jumped up and down.
"You did it, you little smart bean! But we have another mystery now. What do you think is at the top of these stairs?"
"I hope not the attic." I shuddered. "Gelo said he'd take care of the ghost, but he hasn't yet and I don't want to run into it!"
"Don't worry. Ghosts only come out at night. It's only one in the afternoon, so we're safe."
"A ghost might get confused because the thunderstorm is making it so dark outside," I told him with wide eyes.
"I'll protect you if we run into it."
"How can you protect me from a ghost, Leo?" I frowned up at him. "Can Ruby eat it?"
"Hmm. I don't know if a wolf can do anything against a ghost. We'll have to ask Gelo later."
"Then how will you stop it?"
"I may not have the alpha power of Tall Pines anymore, but I still have moon power. That's something only the Goddess herself could take from me, and I know it can be used against just about anything supernatural. We'll be fine."
"All right, Leo, but if I die, it's your fault."
"Yeah, yeah. Do you want to go first or should I?"
"You first!" I moved behind him, laid my palms on his shoulders, and pushed him forward. "And if there is a ghost up there, you get rid of it so I can 'splore without it getting me."
"What are you going to do if it gets me before I can get rid of it?"
I wondered if he was teasing me, but even if he was, he had a good point. I stopped pushing him and put my finger on my chin as I thought.
"Well," I said slowly, "if it scares you to death and you actually die, I will run to my room and hide in my closet and link Gelo and Bubba to come home."
"If there ever was a real emergency, you go to the safe room, Reau, not your closet."
"Safe room?"
"We'll look at it tomorrow sometime," he said. "It would be good for you to practice, anyway."
Then he bravely stepped forward, and I watched with big eyes as he started up the stairs.
"Oh, and, Reau? If you follow me, prop the hidden door open. I don't want it to swing closed before we know how to open it from the inside."
I looked around for something I could use as a prop and didn't find much. Except for a desk, a couch, two lamps and four big armchairs, the study was pretty empty. In the end, I grabbed a stack of hardback books and put them on the floor against the door frame.
Then I hurried inside.
I could tell this room was old, probably as old as the rest of the house, because the wood was dark and heavy just like the bookcases in the study. The stairs swirled above my head and disappeared into the darkness, and I could hear Leo walking around up there and wondered how he could see.
I got my answer when the bluish-white glow from his phone's flashlight lit up the top of the stairs and the tips of his shoes.
"Reau, see if you can find a light switch down there," he called. "There's a lamp hanging from the ceiling, but I can't find a switch up here."
Running my hands over the walls in the semi-darkness, I found a metal rectangle with two round buttons in the middle of it. The top one was sticking out, and the bottom one was flush against the metal plate.
Maybe that was a light switch, although I didn't know why there were two buttons instead of one little lever like all the other light switches I'd ever seen in my life.
I pushed the top button in and grinned when light flooded down from the top of the stairs. Now I could see the light switch better. The metal cover had a fancy design with rosettes in the four corners. As for the black buttons, they were pretty plain except the top one had a white center that glimmered a bit even in the dark.
I bet if I push the bottom button in, the light will go off.
Before I could test that, though, Leo called down to me again.
"Good job, bud. Come on up."
Knowing he wouldn't have said that if there was any chance of a ghost getting me, I eagerly trotted up the stairs into a small, cone-shaped room. At some point, someone had finished it with white walls and put a thick gray carpet on the floor. The lamp hanging down from the center of the ceiling was only an inch or so above Leo's head, and it was probably the only place in the room where he could stand up straight without banging his head.
"Well, it's definitely the top of the turret and not the attic," he said, although I'd already figured that out for myself. Then he reached up and swiped his finger through the dust on the glass lamp shade. "We need to do some cleaning. No one's been up here in years, I'd guess."
"Leo, Leo! This can be my secret hiding spot!" I screeched and hippity-hopped around.
"Sure, but you better be careful going up and down these stairs. No running on them. They're too steep and the spiral is very tight."
"I will be careful!" I said and nodded a bunch of times.
"I mean it, Reau. They are much more dangerous than regular stairs. They don't even have a railing. You could get serious injured or worse if you fall down them."
"I promise I will be careful, Leo." I met his eyes for a second to show him I meant it, and he nodded.
"Good enough. Well, I guess it's okay for you to play up here so long as we figure out how to open the hidden door from this side of the wall. Oh, look. There's a vent," he put his hand over the metal grate in the wall, "and I feel cool air coming out of it, so I can assume there's also heat up here in the winter. Hmm. I wonder if this was a storage area originally, but what would you store up here?"
"I don't know, but I can't wait until my besties come for a sleepover! I'm going to save this as a surprise for them!"
"You can surprise Em and Gelo with it tonight. I bet they'll let you buy some pillows or something for up here, too."
"Oh, boy! They will be so shocked! We discovered a hidden door, secret stairs and a surprise room!"
"You did most of it, buddy. I'm proud of you."
I froze and stared up at him and even met his eyes to see if he was telling the truth - and he was!
"You are?" I breathed.
"Of course I am. You didn't give up or get frustrated, and you thought your way through the problem. You did a good job, bud."
Leo was proud of me!
He said I did a good job!
And earlier, he called me a smart little bean.
I wasn't a bean, but still, he called me smart!
Me.
Smart!
Crashing into him, I buried my face in his shirt and hugged his waist hard enough to make the breath huff out of him. With a little chuckle, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and squeezed me.
"Thank you, Leo the lion," I whispered.
"For what, buddy?" he whispered back.
I didn't have the words to sum up everything he did for me since I met him. Taking care of me, reading with me, letting his wolf run around with me, saying good things to and about me. What words could sum that all up?
I came up with the best I could and hoped it was enough for him to understand.
"Thank you for being my friend. I love you."
"Aw. I love you, too, buddy." He hugged me harder and kissed the top of my head. "And thank you for being my friend."
When they got home, Bubba and Gelo were very interested to see our surprise and hear how we figured it out.
Bubba admired the woodwork of the secret stairs and Gelo examined the funny light switch with interest. He said the push buttons had mother-of-pearl inlay, which is why they gleamed a little in the darkness.
I giggled when Bubba squished himself into the turret room and Gelo had to wait until he came down the stairs before coming up to see it with me.
Then I showed them the rosette on the back of the hidden door that lined up with the rosette on the bookcase. It worked the same way, only you had to turn it to the left.
"Like a pair of doorknobs, really," Bubba said, and Gelo agreed with a nod.
When we were all back in the study, Leo told them that I was the one who figured out how to open the hidden door, and Bubba and Gelo also said they were proud of me. Gelo even baked me chocolate chip cookies after supper, saying we had to celebrate my success, and Bubba said Wayne and Arch could stay overnight anytime they wanted so I could show them!
As I ate my cookies, Gelo put Frozen on again while Bubba got out his phone, brought up an online store, and told me to pick out whatever I wanted for my secret hiding spot. The first thing I saw was an enormous brown teddy bear that would be sooo comfy to lay on while I read or watched TV, but when I showed Leo, he shook his head.
"It's ten feet tall, buddy. If you got that, nothing else would fit in that space, including you."
My bottom lip popped out in a pout until Gelo said I could get it for the extra space in my bedroom.
"Yay! Thank you, Gelo!" I squealed and gave him a hug.
Happy again, I asked Leo to show me how to buy it, then watched as he clicked the plus sign next to the price. Knowing how to do it now, I took the phone back and scrolled some more until I saw a round bed that looked big enough to hold Arch, Wayne and me. I turned the phone to Leo again, and he showed me how to check the dimensions, which I learned just meant measurements.
When we got the right size selected, I put it in the cart, then picked out three pink and white pillows that looked like cat paws and a big, pink, super fuzzy blankie. Unable to resist, I added three cute, squishy-looking stuffies: A white and aqua cow for Arch, a teal bunny for Wayne, and a pink, lavender, and white pig for me.
Then I handed Bubba his phone.
"Did I spend a lot?" I asked him. "I don't need any of it if it costs too much."
"It's fine, honey. I make a good salary as Alpha Cole's beta, and I've spent very little of it over the years, so I have a good amount in savings."
"I can always chip in, too." Gelo leaned over and kissed Bubba's cheek. "My money is our money, and I've got plenty of it. Monster hunting pays very well."
Needless to say, I was an extra happy boy when I went to bed that night.
Which was good, since the next morning got off to a horrible start.
"Rogues in Dark Woods!" Alpha Ash shouted through the whole pack link, waking me up while it was still dark outside.
Seconds later, Leo burst into my bedroom while I struggled to untangle myself from my sheets.
"Come on, buddy. You need to go to the safe room."
Wide eyed and trembling, I nodded and grabbed Baby Tanner, the wolf stuffy that luna gave me yesterday. Before I could scoot off the bed, Leo swooped down and picked me up in his arms and, seconds later, we were in the basement.
Leo elbowed open the door I'd noticed while we were measuring down here yesterday, then rushed inside and set me down on a couch.
"After I close this door, you lock it and stay in here until you hear from one of us. Promise me, Reau," he said in his scary voice.
Only this time, I knew he wasn't trying to be scary. He was trying to make me understand how serious the situation was. And it was serious. Rogues were dangerous, and I knew I had to do what an adult said so that I'd be safe.
"I promise," I said in a small, quiet voice.
"Good boy."
Then he was gone, pulling the door shut behind him.
Lock the door, buddy, he linked me.
My heart banged against my ribs and my lungs made my chest go up and down really fast, but I forced my wobbly knees take me to the door and raised my shaking hands to lower the big metal bar into place.
Scurrying back to the couch, I hugged Baby Tanner tight against my chest and squeezed my eyes shut.
Reau? Wayne linked me. Are you in your safe room?
Yes, WayWay. I promised Leo I would stay here until he or Gelo or Bubba told me I could come out. Are you and ChiChi in your safe room?
Mom and the pups are, Arch said before Wayne could. We're on guard outside our house.
But you could get hurt! My eyes flew open and filled with tears at the thought.
We practice for this all the time, Reau. We have beta blood. Protecting others is what we were born to do.
Yeah, baby, don't worry about us, Wayne added. We know what we're doing. We just wanted to make sure you were okay and not panicking.
I'm scared, I admitted.
Nothing to be scared of, Curls, Arch said in a gentle voice. Nothing's going to happen to you. Beta, Gelo, and Leo are right outside dealing with things. They won't let anything get past them.
But what if they do? I whimpered.
Dude! Beta Em is a freaking beast in combat, Gelo's the Angel of Death, and Leo's a former alpha. Wayne smirked. They probably won't even need anyone else to take care of a few rogues. Am I right, Arch?
Wayne's right, Curls, Arch chuckled.
See? Even if there are twenty rogues, those are pretty damn good odds, Wayne laughed.
Language! Arch said at the same time I said, No-no word, WayWay!
Whatever. Wayne rolled his eyes at both of us.
Then Bubba knocked on the link sharp and hard, and I told the boys I had to go.
Bubba? Are you okay?
Listen to me carefully, Thoreau. Leo found his mate. We're sending her to you. Go out on the back porch and wait for her. Take her to the safe room with you, then both of you stay in there.
Is she one of the rogues? My eyes grew wide at the thought.
No. She's a fox shifter.
A fox?! I jumped off the couch and ran to the door, unbarred it and raced up the stairs. Oh, boy! Oh, boy! I'm so excited to meet a fox!
Get back to the safe room with her as soon as you can. And she's hurt, so be careful.
She was hurt? Did the rogues hurt her? Poor thing. I needed to help her!
I will, Bubba. Promise!
I rushed through the house to the back door and stood on the porch, bouncing on my toes and all fear forgotten in my excitement to see a real, live fox shifter!