Ebony awoke with the guys asleep around her. Peter used her breast as a pillow and Franco was on her other side, using her hip the same way. She could feel his breath on her inner thigh. Benedict’s chest was her pillow. She couldn’t make sense of the tangle of arms and legs until everyone got up. Getting ready for the day, having breakfast, and planning the day. “If only there wasn’t trouble out there, I’d be half tempted to take the day off and be with my mates. Bond you to us right now.” Benedict stated as he kissed her good morning. Once everyone was greeted similarly, Ebony felt a change in the atmosphere between everyone. The live wire caused by the anticipation was gone. The men could relax and be themselves finally. No more pussyfooting around. They could touch and express themselves without fear of her rejection, and she felt a little bad about that. If she’d only known, it would be like this earlier. She’d have welcomed them fully that first night. Franco
Franco insisted it was his turn to help Ebony out with the communications work and other administrative duties. While they kept an eye out from the tower, the other two set out to see if they could find out more about these poachers and where they’d been. Ebony figured they could start looking there for evidence of a wight having been disturbed when her family arrived. Ebony hated the idea of them looking for anything like the wight without her. Partially because Benedict didn’t believe that such a creature still existed in the modern world or even existed in the past.“Ebony, hon. You need to relax. Peter and Benedict will be fine out there. They know what they are doing, and they’ll be careful. Honestly, it’s daylight and the chances of them finding anything are slim. You need to focus on how we’re going to keep the other rangers from this area if possible.” Franco was standing behind Ebony, his hands on her shoulders, trying to work out the knots that were formi
Everyone settled as Peter quickly got lunch together. Benedict loved what he saw when they arrived back, and now Ebony finally got her hands on one of them. She sat in his lap facing him, her hands jerking him off eagerly. She whispered in his ear. “I like this, but I want to see you come for me. Come on. I want to see how high you can shoot it.” She was teasing him. Getting him to focus on his happy ending. “Never mind how high it goes. Let’s see how fast I come inside you.” Benedict’s fingers moved quickly to her core and thrust in to test her readiness. “Gods, of course, you’re ready for me.” He moved her from his lap to the desk. Then with her face down, Benedict’s shaft entered her and again showed Ebony how hot he ran and how he loved to drive them to new heights, fast and hard. Again, she throbbed over his knotted shaft. His swollen shaft throbbed, and he thrust into with it grunting, come shooting hotly with it. Her hypersensitive core spasmed each time until he
Ebony took Franco out with her the next day for their search through the woods and just like Benedict and Peter. It was a waste of time and effort.The poachers appear to have dropped off the face of the map, except for the abandoned pieces of their kills. They’d not had the decency to bury or burn the remains.The animals had long since claimed what they left, so there was no point in doing anything more than trying to retrieve the bullets and shells if they could. The last thing they needed was another animal dying because they choked on a bullet.With information from tracking numbers and such, Ebony could record and track how many monitored creatures were victims of these poachers. The worry Ebony had was, did they leave on their own, or did the wight interrupt their hunting trip? “I’d like to stop near the river on the way back. Peter says there’s some wild onions he wants us to collect. He didn’t have room for them when they were out yesterday. He could fi
“Any interesting happen while we were gone?” Ebony asked once they’d settled with coffees in the tower. She watched a concerned look be exchanged between Peter and Benedict before Peter responded to Ebony’s inquiry. “Nothing interesting except we got a rather odd call from Alan while you were out. The report concerns him, but his list of rangers that he could send in here is a little too slim to really pick anyone from. So his solution is that we temporarily stop monitoring from the tower and focus on finding the poachers. Until we have more concrete information, his hands are tied.” Peter’s words were like a godsend in one aspect, but Benedict appeared to think otherwise if Ebony was reading his face correctly. Franco was helping Peter with lunch and staying out of this conversation right now. Ebony could understand that. “What? That’s crazy. They did just sent you three here. Why close the tower down? That defeats the purpose of training you on how to deal
“Benedict, can we talk just the two of us? I have a few questions and I don’t want this to get out of hand.” Ebony approached Benedict later that night. It bothered her how fixated he was on the McConnell pack. There wasn’t exactly a particular thing he said or his reaction. What bothered was Franco’s words. ‘It’s not my place to tell it.’ That triggered something in the back of her mind after their conversation about the pack representation in her family. “What is it, babe?” With night falling and the sounds dropping as the night life settled into place, it was like a blanket lay over the night, giving them privacy of a sort. “I’m sorry, but it’s been bothering me all afternoon, but I didn’t want to pry in front of the others and cause a scene. But will you tell me what you have against the McConnell pack in general? I think having them coming here and being related by a couple of matings. I should understand what’s about to hit the fan.” Ebony tried to be as i
“Benedict? Why are you looking at me that way?” The only way Ebony could describe his expression was that of guilt. “I was joking. Never mind, let’s just get back.” She didn’t like the look. Brains wouldn’t cause this reaction, so why would he react like that from the words ‘brood mare?’ Was that what he saw her as? She wasn’t going to get into that just yet. How would that work? No, it was too soon to work out the logistics for something like that. “Ebony wait. I’m sorry you just caught me by surprise with that.” “Yeah, well, it’s too early to figure out how that would work out. Forget I said anything. Okay?” “But.” “I’m not ready to have pups. My career has just started. Then there’s trying to figure who’s going to father them. If there’s a lot of pups, I’ll need help to raise them. What if I’m a bad mother? See lots to talk about as a group and we have lots of time later to work out how it will happen.” “Fine, as long as you aren’t angry.”
“Ebony? I know you were talking to Benedict last night, but he came into the tower worse than when he left. What happened? Or is asking that overstepping the bounds?” Franco cornered Ebony as they walked the trails, checking on the trail cameras and such to update their notes with. Ebony sighed. “I said something wrong, and I was joking. He took it badly, and I didn’t respond well to his response when he finally gave it. It just went downhill from there.” “Look, I don’t know what you two talked about, but you have all of us rethinking what this all means and how everything will play out. Whatever you said to him has him reassessing what it means for you to have three mates and how it will work out in the future. I’ll admit when he started talking about how many pups we could have, well. I have to admit that it was an eye opener in more ways than one.” “What do you mean?” “Well, I don’t think any of us thought about what would happen if you
TWO YEARS LATER Ebony stood there watching as the last of the vehicles left for the day. This was the first year their rescue training center was in full swing and opened to everyone including the human population. Today had been the first day people could be present to do physical registration. The human turnout had been greater than expected. Which surprised them with an interest they hadn’t expected. It turned out the human forest rangers sent representatives to learn from and to make connections. They wanted to ensure that the different systems didn’t conflict with each other. There was now an an awareness of not just wolf shifters but other shifters, but other types of supernatural creatures. Before all this the creatures would struggle as they hid in silence. Now, they could speak up and get the recognition they needed to thrive.The supernatural beings who attended the registration were still using the portal grove to leave for the day after the mass registration and intr
FOUR WEEKS LATEREbony awoke feeling uncomfortable or different. She wouldn’t call what she felt like she wasn’t in full labor so she said nothing to Benedict. Instead she tried to go about her day and wrap up everything she could. Finish what she could and hand over other things without others noticing why she was doing it now and not in a few weeks. No one mentioned why she was doing this but they didn’t push back either. Benedict took projects and gave them to others to supervise. He hated being trapped behind a desk, but he wanted to be close to Ebony when her time came. His nerves had been running tripwire tight lately and everyone knew not to mention or ask about Ebony’s health, wellbeing, or how close she was to her time. Various family members were calling nightly to check with them. Though they didn’t ask directly. Ebony’s mother said they’d call but wouldn’t come until they were requested to with a specific reason. His mother said the same thing. It appeared to be what
Ebony was relieved when they returned to their territory a week later. Benedict was fully healed now and the needed parts were on the way. The supernatural government and human government had come to an agreement.“I’ve never said this before but I’m going to say it now. I’m glad to be home again love. Look at this place it’s real. I can see it. Not just in the land, but in the wolves. How they interact with each other and function together. Their seamless communication and the emotional bond I can feel it now.” Benedict said as they settled back into his place beside Ebony after the last of their pack had greeted them and gave them reports. “It’s great to know we can step out a few days and things don’t fall apart.”Ebony smirked. “Really right now I don’t think it’s got far to fall apart.” “Ebony it’s not like that anymore.” Benedict looked about in disbelief as they both realized they were both wrong.“No, I guess not. The pack’s not a group of strangers anymore either an
They were on a pause between healing sessions. Benedict needed to have several sessions before his bones were completely healed again. Until they were healed then he wouldn’t be able to shift into his wolf. “How are you feeling now?” Ebony came to sit beside Benedict. She hugged his arm and rested her head on his shoulder after she left a kiss on his cheek.Benedict blinked. The healers had left minutes ago, neither healer was happy with each other. They had left to deal with their issues while Benedict’s body needed time to recover. So, here they were for the first time in seemed alone. Quiet and alone together. “I swear everything hurts more than it did before. But I was told I had several bones that hadn’t set perfectly in the past so they’re fixing them too.”“You had broken bones that weren’t set correctly.” Ebony pointed out with a sympathetic wincing look of pain on her face as she said this to her mate. She tried to keep it light but how could she? It’s obvious he must n
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