[HOURS BEFORE PAUL SEES RAVEN IN THE CELL] Paul and Dom led the enforcer group to the central-west club. Down near the old Canadian National Expedition western gates. Streets, small, reminiscent of horse-drawn carts, not cars. Street cars ran east to west on the streets and buses north and south. These were not streets where wolves could wander free in their fur, let alone tear one another apart. But since the city grew past the tiny villages and hamlets into each other and became towns, then cities, and now the Greater Toronto Area, GTA. Wolf shifters and others lurked on every street with businesses alongside those belonging to humans. The social club was one of those businesses. It claimed to be a member only social club. What they meant was they were a social club for supernatural creatures. Here, long before it became legal, alcohol, and gambling ran. People here gamble with more than money. Alpha Jones could buy many things and his buyers often
Hilary stayed on the outskirts and the hidden spots near the Pack House until Alpha Jones departed for business. Hilary entered the Pack House. She couldn’t find Raven anywhere to deal with her. No one would speak to her about Raven. Hilary knew no one would have a problem with her removing her competition from existence. Raven was no competition as she wasn’t a Pack member, but a possession. Alpha Jones’s attention Raven stole from Hilary’s caused her problem. Hilary couldn’t learn about what business Alpha Jones went to deal with or how long he’d be gone. She didn’t know what to do. They didn’t want trouble, so they gave her what she wanted. How could Alpha Jones act like that to her? She had beauty and breeding, unlike Raven, the gutter trash wolf. Raven was all but a rogue. If Hilary spoke, Raven would turn rogue. Hilary knew what it took to lead the Pack. Her mother drummed everything she needed to know into her at an early age. Born and raised
“No, I don’t want you. Leave me alone.” Alpha Jones pushed her away again before he turned to his Beta. “Paul, get me my Pet. Only she is allowed to care for me. It’s her job. Tell her I command it if she gives you any trouble.” “But I’m here to help and care for you Alpha. Me, Hilary. I’m here and I want to assist you like a chosen mate should.” Hilary realized her mistake when speaking to her injured Alpha. He tried to sit up but failed and Hilary cried out in surprise at his actions. The enforcers the Beta mentioned entered to see their Alpha lunging at him. “He’s delusional. Help me.” Hilary said. As she burst into tears as she cried out. “I said LEAVE Hilary! I meant it. You aren’t welcome here. Paul, remove her and ensure she doesn’t return.” “You need someone watching over you Alpha. She’s willing.” “I said bring me my Pet now. She will look after my needs.” Hilary’s outrage packe
Raven didn’t argue with the Beta. She felt glad to leave the cell behind. The stairs were a lot. The Beta led her by the arm. He’d focus on scolding her first, which meant he’d keep hold of her and prevent her from falling. Four floors later, Raven entered Alpha Jones’s living quarters, and the Beta led her into the Alpha’s bedroom. “Where’re the guards? They should be here guarding the Alpha.” He grumbled under his breath. The Beta’s anger was visible to Raven as he pulled her along. “I’m sorry. I don’t know where they are.” Raved had wished to ask why they guarded inside the Alpha’s living quarters and not outside the entrance to it. Raven got her answer when she saw the Alpha in his bed. Alpha Jones looked pale. He’d the look of a wolf in a forced healing state. As an Alpha, his importance to the Pack meant he couldn’t afford downtime for illness or injury if a healer could avoid it. Reality lent its science to this aspect of shifter
“It’s simple. I’ve never had the power to resist in this group. Without Pack status, there was nothing to protect. If I had fought back or tried to defend any claims.” Raven said. She shrugged her shoulders as she watched the Alpha hold her hand. “I had to care for my little belongings, as nobody else would. No, it wasn’t easy. I had to search beyond the Pack to stay alive. If I retaliated against Hilary, I couldn’t control my anger. I’d have killed her.” Her emotion went unnoticed by Paul, which was not to his liking. His wolf’s instincts screamed in his brain that the missing emotion was a red flag. She avoided saying something to him.“The Alpha claimed you refused to join Pack or him. Paul said. He felt his curiosity rise when it appeared as if her words and the Alpha’s didn’t match. He wanted to know how she explained the conflicting explanations. “Is that what he told you? I wonder if he knows how wrong that is. Or did someone lie to him about that, and h
“This is insane. How dare they invade and establish themselves in our territory? Alpha Klyne asked. “The nerve of these humans was unbelievable to him.” Local humans hated the Red River Pack so much that he’d do anything to push them out of the area. The Pack needed their territory and baring keeping that, they’d need fresh territory. Yet, the Humber Valley Pack had already established their claim on that territory. “They claim they inherited the property and have reclaimed it.” Dale, his Beta, spoke over the phone with him. Alpha Klyne felt disheartened and annoyed with Alpha Jones. He’d never expected things to unfold as they had, and he’d come unprepared for a fight. “That’s ridiculous. It’s impossible. Our Pack has existed in this territory for five generations. Shifter generations, not humans. These humans are liars.” Alpha Klyne said. He protested the unfair treatment of his people by their long-time neighbors. The humans screamed and complain
Raven sat beside Alpha Jones as he rested on his bed. She couldn’t do anything else because he wouldn’t release her hand. He gripped it to his chest, relying on it as a lifeline or tether. Releasing it would mean being lost somehow. That’s the impression Raven had of Alpha Jones’s actions. Raven doubted he knew how his wolf acted. She was unsure if he acted as a wolf and his wolf tried to claim her as his. While his human half ignored and resisted their mate bond. When Alpha Jones awoke, Raven knew nothing had changed between them. No one told her how he received his injuries or what state his injuries were in. So, there she sat. Watching him to ensure that he didn’t take a turn for the worse. Unknowing, what would signal a turn for the worse? Raven could feel an ache in her heart from the fear she might miss something. She had no right to demand answers or actions. She was to blame for putting herself in a position like this. Nothing new there. Rav
“I’m on it. I’m sorry and I’ll get this fixed right away.” The Delta returned to his computer and began working. He should his head in disbelief at what he’d learned. Alpha Jones had announced yesterday that he didn’t have a chosen mate. Hilary campaigned to ensure every Pack member knew she believed herself the next Luna by becoming his chosen mate. “I want her confined and waiting for Alpha Jones before he awakens. Am I understood? I need to know who disobeyed my command. Heads will roll. Hilary disobeyed my command for the third time. I won’t have her running around her attacking people and lying about her position within this Pack. Get this fixed.” He left the command center. The kitchen was his next stop, and it didn’t take him long to have a tray of food prepared and he delivered it in person to Dom’s living quarters. When he entered, he found Dom sleeping undisturbed, with Raven in what appeared to be a death grip. She slept on top of the covers at an awkward angle, not
“Brigid says she’ll be in touch soon with scheduling so we can have a rotation of sorts. That way we can have a consistent rebuilding going on inside the Dream Realm. So, how are we going to run this place around all that? I don’t even know what anyone thinks about all of this because no one’s dared to speak to me. It’s like they think I’ll unmake them or something.” Raven said to Dominic as she returned from the Dream Realm where she’d had a meeting with Brigid and the other Dreamers. Dominic had seen the changes in her and the Pack. He’d said nothing to anyone about his idea of taking the Pack into the Dream Realm and becoming part of the enforcement powers there. He could see their Pack as a foundation of a future power.He wanted to support Raven the best way possible and he didn’t think he could do it from here.“Raven, love. Everyone is in shock because nothing is how they thought it was. They’re trying to figure out where they and you now rest in the world. People have
“Dominic, don’t worry about it. I know you don’t have to explain to me. When you disconnect your call with me I received a message from someone that explained what was happening.” Lily said as soon as they returned and she made them sit down to eat a meal.“Then can you explain it to us?” Dominic practically begged Lily to explain what they had witnessed even though she hadn’t been there to witness So, he wouldn’t stop the stow for anything and allow her to explain what she’d pieced together through some of her very odd channels, not that any of this was straight forward.“Please tell me she isn’t doing the biggest mistake of all time.” Raven stepped in now and she was practically begging to know that they weren’t letting her do something foolish. It was something they’d all been questioning since Brigid first said she was going to investigate the situation and she didn’t want anyone else going with her, because she didn’t like the idea of the risk. She had Het’ Tur and she didn’
“Does this mean that the danger is over?” Raven asked Brigid as she looked over the woman’s shoulder to see the males in the golden armor.“My family is gone and they won’t be offering the Dream Realm to the Fae again as a travel hub. But there’s still other dangers that they and the Fae abandoned in my realm without my permission. Then there’s the instabilities within it created by their interference and war of Dreamers. Add in now I have the dimension version of surprise boarders complicating all of this.” Brigid glared at the male standing in the golden armor watching her explain this to them.He stood with his guards in eire silence. They hadn’t drawn a single weapon or removed a piece of armor including helmets.“You have got to be kidding. How exactly are they dead? Did he say how he killed them? I mean if he killed your father. How is he alive? Why was he in the prison and not on the throne?” Heather didn’t sound like she bought the story he’d given Brigid.Brigid blink
“What about my brothers? Or brother? What ideas do you have to deal with them?” Brigid didn’t blink, but her tone was her reminding him of the situation she faced rather then asking him for help with a solution.“When I got through with him. He knew I was your mate, but he couldn’t do anything about it and he’d not be the one to sit on your father’s throne.” Het’ Tur said. He was smiling and trying not to laugh. He’d been angry with the brothers. They’d been so focused with their plans and emotions. This was why her brother was going to kill her. She was alive to work for him, but when she escaped he acted like like she’d betrayed him. Or she’d tried to kill him. Het’ Tur knew Brigid had never done anything to betray or hurt any of her relatives.“Het’ Tur, how did he ever learn about where you were or that you were my Fated mate?” Brigid didn’t understand how her brothers would have discovered him among the masses. Or that he was connected to her. That’s what she was asking, but
“That? Is your reaction Lady Brigadetta?” Het’ Tur asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. Brigid winced at the name he used to her question before she looked at him in disbelief.“The woman no longer exists and you know that. She hasn’t existed for so long that I can’t tell you the last time I heard someone say her name. The noble house died ages ago and the few that didn’t have been fighting each other trying to finish the job of ending that noble house. I’ve been surviving in my own way doing my own thing until recently. But I will not answer to that name ever again.” Brigid stood up to him. She didn’t want to be that woman. Her past would stay there and she was determined of that.“Do you have a choice to do that? Really?” Het’ Tur asked in disbelief that she would believe she could believe change her life like this.“Welcome to the modern era and a new realm Het’ Tur. Here, I have the right to chose the way I lead my life. I choose how my life unfolds here.” Brigid s
Dominic didn’t know how to ask Brigid about Het’ Tur. If she didn’t know he was her mate. How would she react to his claim? She must help him get Raven back. First Dominic wanted to contact Lily. He wanted her thoughts on Het’ Tur. Did she know anything about him or what he was talking about? Could she tell if he was lying about anything? Any confirmation of facts he’d been giving out would be appreciated by him.Lily answered faster than he expected. “Lily, I don’t know where to start. Well, I do. Raven’s been kidnapped by a creature who says his name is Het’ Tur and is Brigid’s mate. He wants to exchange Raven for Brigid. Who is he? Do you know him? Do you know if he’s telling the truth?”“Oh, wow. I haven’t heard that name in a long time. A very long time. He was the Head of the Crystal Lord’s Guard. He disappeared when the Crystal Lord did. Mind you that time period is a historical mess. There’s a lot of deaths and missing persons. Missing treasures and all that. He’s ther
“We are stronger together than he can ever be. After all, the fool killed his mate and his offspring. He has nothing, but the fool believed that because he can’t die from old age that he’s all powerful.” Het’ Tur shrugged and acted like he found this entertaining as anything. “Wait, he’s immortal. But not eternal. Is that what you’re saying?” Dominic waved a hand momentarily distracted from his need for his mate by the discovery he’d learned. The big bad wasn’t as big and bad as he’d thought. “That is exactly what I have said. My mate understands this, but her brother appears to not understand it. I want to use it against him once and for all. He seems to use it easily enough against his relatives. I see no reason why I can’t use it against him before he uses it against my mate.” He seemed at ease with the knowledge that death was a lot easier and permanent than it was expected to be. Dominic wondered if he understood how permanent. Permanent was.
“I’m told, I have you to thank for doing what I couldn’t do.” The tall leader in his golden armor stood tall and straight and spoke to Dominic. His posture was stiff. One of his men held Raven’s unconscious body behind him as they lingered close to the portal. Another armor man held a squat brick colored statuette which Heather assumed was the anchor they searched for. “I’ve not said who I am and I’m not sure what I’ve done that you couldn’t do.” Dominic was off put by this creature. After all, it stood almost three times Dominic’s height, and he was fighting his instincts not to try to find it’s throat through the armored gorge. He wanted to get to his mate now. “There’s no need I can see it was you. But I still want her back.” The creature was certain in this as if he saw something only he could and that he felt made him superior to everyone else. “However, I don’t have that luxury.” Dominic crossed his arms struggling with his patienc
Raven and several other Dreamers moved toward the portal. The winds were unnatural and blew higher than they should. Her hair blew against her face and annoyed her. She should have tied it back somehow, but that could have complicated things if she had to shift to her fur. They were in pairs heading up the side of a mountain. It wasn’t a steep or tall mountain. They’d walked up it rather than climbed it. Raven would have called the mountain ridge a ridge of hills because the mountains were so old and worn from time. “That’s bigger than I thought it was.” Heather said as she assessed what was ahead of her. They were the first to make it to their portal. “Yeah, I see why we’re all here.” Raven’s eyes widened as she studied the portal. “What was that?” Heather asked as she jumped and pointed off to her right, startled by something there. “What was what?” Raven tried to follow Heather’s finger but couldn’t locate what