My eyes roamed up to the voice and the cigarette dropped out of my mouth between the rocks. Hector was standing before me. Cigarette between his fingers, brought up to his lips. He was thinner, gaunt. A look in his eyes that said he was far away, a pain I saw when I came back from the BloodHunter Coven but then so much more. His hair was cut short and he was completely clean shaven. Getting up, I threw my arms around him and hugged him. He chuckled awkwardly but did pat my back a couple times before letting go.“You’ve been missing for almost a year! What the hell happened?”He sighed, smoke coming out as he did. “It’s a long story. One probably best left for everyone to be present for.”I nodded, still taking in that he was here. “Are you hungry? We can get some food set up. Something to drink?” I glanced down at the duffle next to him. “You’re room is untouched. So you can drop your stuff off.”There was a moment of silence before his eyes finally met mine. “Right now, I’d like a ci
We all watched as Hector dished up some of the almost curry-like concoction. Jax put the bread in one of the breadbaskets we used. He took everything to the table but Hector held one bowl back. Opening up the fridge, he took out the container of sour cream. Putting a large dollop in the center, he smirked and held out the bowl to me. I took it and looked down at it. It smelled amazing even with the sour cream.“It softens the spice. You should be able to take it now.”I rolled my eyes but swung around and took my bowl to the table. Everyone was sitting down and it was so long since we had done this. Sadly, everyone was more serious.“Anyone have any news before I start? I’d like to eat a little before I talk my head off.”Hector grabbed a baguette slice and dipped it into his bowl. Everyone seemed to take that as a go ahead to eat. Lucy was the first to start.“Hospital is all set up. We also managed to snag two OBGYN doctors for the hospital. I had to bribe them quite a bit but we’ve
Hello everyone! I know it's been a minute since I've updated on the things going on. It's probably been a little frustrating and I know the writing process on my end for this story has been a little frustrating as well. I promise you I am still working on this one! I hit a bit of a wall and ended up throwing a number of chapters out the window. As I was going through that, I've been hit one after the other with health issues. The last of which I was out for two weeks with covid + pneumonia and landed myself in the ER. I was already in a compromised state but here we are. I'm slowly on the mend and even though I'm really not supposed to be working as much right now and just focusing on getting better, my love of writing and sharing with others has me continuing to work a little at a time. I've also been going through some of my older stories and working on editing them as well. Just because for a few days it was easier to read than to even must the brain power to dig in deep and to w
Vale contacted the pack to tell them we would be adopting the twins. Now, my days were split between the normal tasks around the pack and doing a bunch of research on babies. As much as I wanted a family, I’d never been close enough to having one that I needed to know all the in’s and outs. I didn’t have any friends who had pups either. Rose would have been the first. I felt wholly unprepared. Hector moved out of his room because it was next to ours. He said we would want to be as close to them as possible and relented his room to us. We offered him one of the bedrooms on the third floor but he ended up taking Auri’s old room. He was reverent about it. Not taking any of his furniture and swapping it. Instead, just using hers. It was hard, seeing him and what he had become. It wasn’t that he was crumbling, at least not on the outside, it was more like there was nothing inside. Hector performed every duty and task at 100%. Even with not shifting once, he took over training which freed
The day before Lucy, Hector and I had gone into the closest major city to order furniture for the nursery. They delivered it early this morning and I’d taken most of the afternoon unwrapping and placing everything where I wanted it. Yesterday, I’d chosen the paint too, opting for a grayish-blue color. One of our pack members was an artist and I had her come in and paint black line-work on the walls. My theme was moonlight forest. So on one wall was a forest of trees as an accent and then the moon over some grass with flowers on the other. It was simple lines but it came out better than I imagined. It was starting to look like a nursery. I ended up drilling Hector while we were out of what Auri did with her four kids and he answered most of them as best he could. He said he had more of a hand in Vale’s upbringing. Bryan had his hands full with his two kids at the time and Auri with still working through her injuries. So Hector stepped up but it was a long time ago. Still, he provided
The pack territory was a huge valley. Most of it was grasslands and then surrounded by a forest. We did own some of the land in the forest as well but it would stop a couple miles in. Leaving thick, untouched forest stretching out further North. There was a city further Northeast that abutted the forest on the opposite end but it was a quiet city. Rarely did they venture into the forest but I still had the pack keep to the inside of our territory for runs. The only one who broke that was Hector. I looked behind me and saw the guards struggling to keep up. More surprising though, was Hector. He was keeping pace with Faris, except he hadn’t shifted yet. I’d never really considered myself gay, even when mating with Vale. I loved him and he turned me on like no one else could, but I didn’t really feel a sway towards one gender or another when it came beauty or sexiness. It was the reason why being with Rose was so convenient. I didn’t have to choose, it was chosen for me. Which now it wa
Hector and I stumbled through the pack house door. After the incredible run through the forest, Faris and Rydere tried to race. Well, really it was Faris trying to keep up. After they were spent, Hector and I decided to grab some clothes and head into the town on the other side of the forest and hit up a bar. Which now lead us to laughing, crashing through the front door late into the evening. “Fucking…fuck…” Hector let out a chortle. “That’s a door, Z.” “I know that.” I may have been worse at walking but Hector’s voice was slurred much more than mine. “Have fun did you?” Looking up, Vale was standing on the stairs with his arms crossed over his chest. The sour look on his face made me laugh even more. “Goddess, you look like Leo when he was going to fucking scold me for being…well…not Alpha.” Vale came down, his steps reverberating in the dark house. Everyone seemed to have cleared out or gone to bed. “Well, it’s not very Alpha-like to get drunk on a Tuesday.” I shrugged. “
“Where is Vale?!” I growled, looking down at the two pups in my arms. Both of them were crying, and had been for the past 10 minutes.I’d bathed both of them, only to find out that we were somehow out of diapers. I sent Vale to go get diapers before I finished their bath to go into town. It didn’t take that long to drive across the road and into the grocery store. Hushing both of them, I bounced them up and down.“You’re okay. Daddy’s got you. It’s okay.” I moved around, trying to calm them and myself at the same time.'Vale! Where the fuck are you?'There was no rely to the mindlink. Taking a deep breath, I moved around the room adding more motion to the bounce and hushing. Usually, they were really good. Bryan said we were lucky. That the two of them seemed for more content and inquisitive that other pups he had been around. They were happy to be together and were acutely aware if one was out of the room. If we did separate them for more than five minutes, there would be meltdowns