“They will accept this?” Benedict had waited for Ebony’s mother to finish with the testing. She’d taken a lot more than blood from both he and Ran. Hair, skin, blood, and more that he wasn’t willing to talk about. Then she warned them and the council it would take time. If they wanted it done properly, they’d have to sit on their hands for a while. That’s what Benedict overheard her say. He’d come to like her over the last week. She didn’t take guff from anyone. No wolf of her own and she still stood toe to toe with Michael and other alphas. It wasn’t something Benedict expected. “If they don’t accept it then that’s their problem and you will never find anything that would make them happy. This is your copy, and they are right now mulling over theirs.” Benedict had to sit down for this. Ran entered the room. “Are you ready? Do you have everything? Benedict?” Ran stopped and stared at them. “Are those the results?” “Oh, yeah,
They left the colorful swirling void through an icy blue portal. It closed behind Con with a snap. With only six people using it, the mages didn’t need anyone present to manage keeping the opening open for everyone. They stood there in a stone cave where a carved entrance stood. “Well, this is the home portal for the pack. We have a cave system that runs through the mountains that border our territory. The packhouse is not far, and we aren’t deep in the cave.” Magnus said as he watched the light of the mage portal close behind him. “I guess this is one way to keep the portal quiet around here.” Ebony said as she looked about what appeared as a cave that someone worked the stone into an almost hidden room. “Oh, they’ve used this long before we settled here. No one at the University could tell us who built it. That somehow became lost to time. So don’t listen to anyone if they try to tell you the Fae built it. They never needed these thing
“This way. Can you please take this up to the rooms? You know what goes where. Thanks Clay.” “Hey, what are you doing?” “Taking Benedict to meet mom and dad. It’ll take a minute, but can you see mom waiting any longer?” “Okay, yeah. That’s something I want to see, but I don’t think I want to experience when dad sees him.” “I thought your mother spoke to your father and explained what happened?” “Okay, I don’t know the entire story. I thought she’d have to before the council said something, and dad found out that way.” “Maybe we can manage it differently then.” “What are you thinking we might do differently?” “Warn her. I’m here and she can prepare your father before that. Tell him I am here and who I am to him?” “I guess, but wouldn’t the results arriving be enough to have triggered it?” “It may have, but no one heard them
“Don’t worry Benedict. This will not cause any problems worse than we’ve met in the past. If anything, I can finally tell the story of how we met and not heavily edit it so your father doesn’t look like an evil monster.” “Me! You’ve been lying to me and everyone for decades, Loni. How am I the evil monster? I would have been out there ready to rip him apart. Gone to war with whoever harboured him.” “No one harboured us. He kept us moving around and in territory assigned to lone wolves. He had a fear of any type of pack organisation. I think the loneliness made him take his life in the end.” There was a silence in the room for a while before Hayle spoke. Hayle blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “Of course, he did. The selfish prick. He couldn’t allow her to leave, even though your mother was my fated mate. Something wasn’t right in his head, Benedict. I’m sorry. I don’t know if you have some kind of bond w
Once they settled everyone into their rooms. Then they ate lunch. Hayle grumbled because he couldn’t put off the Council anymore. They wanted to meet their missing pack member and assess who he was and where he fit. Talk of prison or killing him was now on the back burner with the test results. The reason they didn’t toss out those options was because they feared Benedict might bring some sort of mental instability with him from his kidnapper or some twisted understanding of reality. Hayle wasn’t sure which, but he took offence to it reference as a possibility. He saw the three she-wolves interacting with his pack. Hayle had to remember these three were litter mates and now members of the McConnell Packs. Well, all but Ebony. They were nothing alike. The extremes in their personalities were fascinating. Sapphire and Ivory appeared to have a truce of some sort going on between them. Ebony appeared friendly with both, but distant at the same time. Hayle won
The large screen television masqueraded as a painting over the fireplace in the study, now held several images of the Board members of the McConnell packs. They headed the McConnell Clan around the world. These were elder McConnell pack Alphas. One of which was Hayle, Benedict’s father. Now he saw why no one feared what would happen to him. They had someone on the inside with a personal stake in his survival. But it explained why Hayle didn’t want to let his indiscretion become known. He’d found and lost his mate. Now he learned he’d fathered a pup who stood there as a lone wolf. His parents didn’t look good because he wasn’t that small pup anymore, nor had he been for many years. “So, you’ve gone by a false name for most of your life and you were unaware of your connection to the pack. Is that what you would have us believe?” “Sir, I don’t know what else to say about that. My father, or whoever he was, never told me we were members of the
Ebony stared at those around her after the meeting ended. How was this supposed to be now? Where did they go from here? What did they all mean? They mentioned several trivial things and addressed nothing. Where did they start? Because they made it clear, they didn’t care whether anyone resisted or objected to their wishes. Or were they demands or commands? This seemed so odd to her, and now she understood her father’s resistance to joining them. Everyone chattered away to each other. No one appeared happy with everything they heard from the council. Alpha Hayle and Luna Loni were both raked over the coals for not disclosing Benedict’s true paternity, as the wolf who raised him wasn’t a McConnell wolf, but a wolf adopted in and known to have a grudge with the McConnell clan. Most appeared happy with the decision to keep Benedict within the pack. Even though they’d not accepted him. “They’re being careful. Benedict, the council is assessing you. We’re
Ebony watched Benedict sit at the dinner table and realized that he wasn’t used to this kind of thing. Sitting down with family wasn’t something Benedict had any experience with. She’d grown up with family coming in from all over the place. Some days, it felt like they came crawling out of the woodwork like a cockroach. Not a description she’d say to Benedict or use it to describe family. He’d run for the hills in seconds. But here he was with his little sister, chattering away to him about who knew what. She was a pup still. So much of what she said didn’t pertain to anything based within reality. Ebony thought she was speaking about a television program or something from the internet she saw. Benedict tried to stay patient and polite as she spoke to him. He didn’t understand. He could ask her to stop. His brothers may have had something to do with encouraging Sofie to talk to him like this, because they were sitting there pretending not to listen
Ebony took Benedict to the closest healing center she had her Beta call ahead to explain the situation to explain that they weren’t having an emergency but they did need extensive healing for a leader. Her Beta sent a file that Benedict’s Beta received from the healer about his condition so that they could understand what to expect when they arrived. They wouldn’t book an appointment until the healer received it. But when she received the file it took minutes to receive a response. Ebony wasn’t happy that they didn’t seem to accept their words and explanations. It wasn’t until someone recognized Ebony’s last name and connected it to her mother then things changed. “Why did you have no one say anything about it Luna?” A junior healer who worked as a senior administrator and was working as the leader of the group managing Benedict’s needs while was there. “I love my family but I’m not a shadow or a facet of anyone of them. I’m
“When when last spoke and I told you I hadn’t received injuries I wasn’t lying. We had a freak accident nothing that we could have predicted or accounted for. They misplaced truck and the ground was too wet under it. When a second vehicle moved out while they were moving a skid of equipment into place. The earth under the rear wheels shifted off the back of the truck in seconds and I was beneath it. The skid was no longer full but heavy enough to break my femur and three ribs.We had a healer there, so they patched me up. The planes needed several repairs that would take days. I didn’t want them to take time away from the repairs to take me to a healing center then it would take longer to get home. Before you say anything, I didn’t believe I was that severely injured.” Benedict hadn’t believed he’d been that injured until after the Druid had stabilized his breaks and the pain had settled in when his adrenaline had faded. He’d been embarrassed by his response to that, but it was to la
Benedict didn’t tell Ebony that he stayed away an extra two days because he had gone to the front lines to review the damage to their equipment and vehicles. Fate got him and he ran right into a freak accident and a human skid slid off the back of a flatbed truck. There was no question about it the accident being an accident. Wolves and humans were working together to pack the truck at the time. But the mud under the truck shifted when another vehicle started and moved out.He’d left with a broken leg and three ribs. At least they’d had a druid healer here who could start his healing process. But he wouldn’t be able to shift for a week. Benedict would walk home though a little slowly.Benedict knew he’d lied to Ebony, but he didn’t want to explain it on the phone. Not when she was so close to giving birth. His people had to make several repairs on their vehicles there in the field to get it home anyway. It took a day longer and it didn’t hurt Benedict’s recovery. Even though h
Ebony waited at the Pack house. It had been three days since Benedict and their team had left for the fire. The pilots had come in for fuel and repairs. Several vehicles had come in baring injured people on the way to get care. They’d been found trapped within the fire or were injured during fighting the fire. But so far, their wolves, mages, druids, bears, and such had stayed safe and were still working toward stopping the fire. However, Ebony had heard complaints that magic was a disappointment by the human fighting contingents and not nearly as powerful or magical as they had believed it should have been. Which received sighs, warnings, and reminders of their that there were limits like anything within reality. Ebony used the time, or she tried to, to finish the pups’ suite. It wouldn’t be used fully right away. They would have the pups in their room first before they would use their suite. She wondered who these pups would look like. Ebony h
Benedict was teasing Ebony with names over dinner when the call came through. The first real call. They’d been watching a storm for the last three days. It’s winds were pushing thirty-five miles an hour and lightning was flashing randomly throughout the mountains. The problems they were having was the area the storm was in had been a dry zone for the last eight months. They were waiting for the lightning to start multiple fires, flash floods, landslides, and car accidents. Humans would need help it’s how these things worked. Extreme weather was becoming worse not better. Humans could handle a lot but it was adding up.“Go on, this is what we made this place for. Show them why we’re here and what we can offer.” Ebony all but pushed Benedict out the door. “I have enough people here to help me. I’ll be fine here missing you. Now go.”“Right. Don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone okay?” Benedict begged. He wasn’t sure what she would do. But she was pushing him out the door when he w
Ebony couldn’t get comfortable. Her stomach was so large now. She struggled to get out of the bed and chairs. Ebony avoided standing for too long. It had been months since she’d shifted into fur, and she missed hunting. She missed running and there wasn’t any way she was going to run like this. But her balance was off like her pups decided they wanted to sit only on one side of her body. That’s the only way she could describe it in her grumpy upset mood.Benedict was distracted by Ebony’s distressed attitude. She still had two months until she gave birth. He tried to ensure she had everything she could want and if she wanted to move then she had someone with her to help her. Preferably it would be him. He hated anyone touching her but him now. They spent more time together. “I have a few gifts here from the families and the Pack wants to set up the pups’ nursery. Are you ready for that or is it too early for you?”“oh no I’m great. Go ahead and have them bring me in the gifts
Ebony had her staff enter and between her staff as Marian’s staff they worked with the school’s staff. They had to brute force at times to get the documentation completed and wait times waived. To gain the testing schedules at a specific date and location. But between Marian and Ebony’s joint effort they were able to overcome the bureaucratic mess presented to them. Marian used the media and the public eye to keep the gears moving. While Ebony had the eye of the supernatural government on her through Benedict’s father and her father. So, there was no room to falter and no time.Even so it took months to achieve this and get this far. Now they were able to step back into their everyday life. Ebony’s baby bump was beginning to show now. Benedict was managing the building of the healing center and hiring of healers as many would also work as teachers, rescuers, emergency workers, and such.Benedict knew he had to have a certain amount of medical foundation up and running fast sin
Benedict moved through the Pack house searching for Ebony. He’d received word that Marian had arrived at the gates and was headed there right now. This was the first time she’d visited their territory and Ebony along with many others were abuzz with trying to make everything perfect for her visit. “Ebony, Marian is here. She wants to talk to you about the results of her PTA meeting.” Benedict leaned into her study and saw the stress on her face. “What’s going on? Do you think it went that badly?”“Badly? I don’t know. I mean come on. It can’t get any worse than they say no, and we carry on with our previous plans. No, they might want to limit where out pups can and can’t go after this. They might fear our pups can’t control their aggressive nature and might cause problems.” “I don’t know about that wouldn’t she have said something on the phone if it had been a no.” Benedict asked in an effort to point out the effort Marian was taking to come to their home.“I don’t know Ben
“Marian, I know in a perfect world we could plan this between the two of us and we’d have pups and children learning together without a problem.” Ebony went to a meeting luncheon with Marian to speak about Marian’s idea of the pups going to school in the town with the town’s human children.“Right. It would never happen that way, would it? Alright, so how will we do this?” Marian said a little chagrinned. Ebony shook her head and shrugged. She cocked her head to the side as she got a sudden thought.“We’ll start with talking to the children’s parents. We don’t have to talk to them. A questionnaire or a phone call. A town hall meeting or a PTA meeting. You can choose what would make the community feel more comfortable. I would hate to hear someone a year from now say that they felt they were left out of the decision and didn’t feel like a member of the community.” Ebony gave a vague idea. A blush crossed her cheeks when she realized how random and unworkable it was. But Marian did