“Now that we’ve had this delightful dinner, Kole, please tell us why we’re eating privately? This usually means you have an announcement to make to the pack, but you don’t want to blindside us, so what is it?” Stone Danvers asked, demanding to know why they were here. He had a good book waiting for him, to end his day with, but his routine wasn’t finished he still had his daily run.“Father, please give me some patience and time to explain everything first before you get impatient and dismiss it before you learn everything.” Kole tried to forewarn his father that his very nature would complicate this announcement, but he silently chastised himself. He knew better than this. His father never changed his stripes.“Learn everything about what? Dear, you’re talking a lot but saying nothing right now.” Elaine Danvers was the patient one and Kole’s mother. She was the empathic soul and motherly influence in this family.“Right, as you know, everyone sitting at this table has never given up
“You spoke to your family? What did they have to say? How did your father take it?” Cal didn’t know what Kole said to them, but Stone was just that stone hard and a traditionalist through and through. He hated anything that changed the standard way things were done.Stone still struggled with the loss of his daughter. She may have been the elder, but she was his little girl. His only girl.Then there was Kole’s Beta, Kiera’s father. Cal was on pins and needles about meeting Elliott again. Elliot was considerably older than Cal and now his father through mating. It was a sobering feeling for Cal. What did he say? How did Elliott feel about all of this?“My father is pretending to accept the fact she is his blood. I suspect he’ll bide his time and then, when we least expect it, he’ll interrogate her about her story. Then I expect everything to go downhill from there with my mother letting in on my father for being overbearing. I’m sure Tara will be in tears. Which will probably
Cal straightens from the back shoot after the last beer keg rolled down with no incidents. It was always a good day when there weren’t any injuries from runaway beer kegs. He still couldn’t help but smile at that, even though it could be a serious issue. Beer kegs could be serious weapons if used correctly.He had to stop pondering how they could use this when his phone rang. Cal knew he wasn’t expecting a call, though he needed to make time to talk to Tara and call Kole back with a date for a meeting, and he wouldn’t be calling Kole uncle any time soon. It was just too weird.Sure, Kole was ten years older, but they’d been placed in the same grouping for the experiment because it was just starting up and there weren’t any other alphas close to Cal’s age back then. Now, Kole ran the school that brought all the packs’ pups together for grade school and high school. They still educated the younger pups within the pack for the first eight years of education, before they sent them out dai
Cal finally returned to the packhouse section of the club and moved to Tara’s office. This was something she could easily ask the accountant, Jimmy Pagent. It didn’t matter he needed to see her anyway to get several things straight with her and to tell her about the meeting.When Cal got to her office, he stopped himself from barging in and knocked before he entered. “Hey, I hear you need to talk to me. It so happens I need to talk to you, too. So, I’m going to assume whatever you need to ask can be settled quickly before I drop a few bombs of my own.”Tara looked up and smiled as Cal entered. Her facial reaction changed as he spoke and when he got to the word bomb, Tara flinched. That she knew meant it wasn’t a good thing and there’d be work involved. Tara would worry again that she fail at whatever needed doing. “I just wanted to know if you wanted to track the expenses, I incurred for the Lycan preparations, or are we just going to absorb them?” “Now there’s a goo
It took Jaxon only half an hour to have everything set up and the necessary people showing up. The room was in an uproar as confusion reigned and they all tried to make sense of the scraps of information they’d discovered.After fifteen minutes, groups of wolves scattered the Pack Dining Room. They’d arranged themselves by department or job. Security with security and so on. Jaxon stood there and announced to the gathered crowd. “Please take notice of anyone missing for later. They have five minutes to get here before this begins. There will be a recording of the meeting made along with any notes taken. We ask that every group take notes and shares them with us afterward. We’ll ensure they keep everyone in the loop on this. It’ll be a genuine team effort, but I’ll let our Alpha to explain this fully to you and then we’ll go from there. So five minutes until we start. Please be ready. If anyone needs something to take notes, the stationary cabinet is at the back.”She-wolves usually us
Tara came out of the meeting stunned by all that needed to happen to make these changes. Now, with notes in hand, she needed to make changes to several things. Before she held back doing anything and thought what she did was to a grand scale. What Tara learned in there was her effort weren’t enough. She must think larger and do a lot more.Her staff left, following her, and talking among themselves. They were all pleased their efforts were recognized, but unhappy that they criticized them as not going far enough. They were ready to get down to the brass tacks and get the changes made immediately.“They could be here as early as tomorrow. I say we should focus on the six immediately needed residences for now. Have them readied by morning if it’s possible and then get on with scheduling the rest of the spaces.” Betty tried to walk while making notes on the pad in her hands until she almost missed the turn and the corner wall in the face.“Mind where you’re going, geez the last thing tha
Tara stood by the sight of where the mage portal would appear on the main floor of the club. It turned out that out-of-town supernatural clients could arrange to come and go from this portal area so they could avail themselves of the club. They verified all their credentials before they made the portal appointment with the mages. Today Tara watched the blue glow of the portal form. It was the first time she’d ever seen a portal in action. Now the Lycan would use the portal to arrive here. It was fascinating to see the blue glow open to swirling blobs of multi-coloured light. Tara now understood why Cal warned her of the feeling nauseous a little from the way the colours moved and shifted. Only moments later, several figures were seen making their way out of the portal. Each one carried a backpack or bag of some sort. Tara realized she could relate to these Lycan. Everything they owned was in those bags. Tara’s bag, she assumed, was still in the mote
Five Days LaterWith the Lycan settled into their homes. The scramble to get everything a wolf shifter needs to live comfortably for each one. Tara soon learned that the small she-lycan was still coming to grips with her ability to shift, her instincts and senses amplified as they were, and just the culture shock of how differently they live to humans. As she started life as a human before Hectric took her for their experiments. The files were correct. Each Lycan had unique experiences and needs. There was no way to create a blanket program to get them back to being a functional being.However, Eddie found that if he took her into the kitchens and gave her a little encouragement, she was an excellent baker, and he was an excellent assistant. The two began to haunt the kitchens to the point that Rachel assigned them both to work there. The little Lycan was educated as a baker in her human life and quite talented at it. Eddie seemed to have a natural talent for preparing foods and follo
One Year Later —Tara sat out on the poach behind the packhouse with a laptop open to a spreadsheet. She and Emily were working out the next year’s budget and the projects they’d tackle.With Emily looking after the club while they were up here. It was interesting, to say the least.Tara gave birth on schedule. It was about the only thing that was on schedule these days, and Cal was sitting on a blanket on the grass with one-year-old Natalie Nichols. The apple of her daddy’s eye. She had him wrapped around her little finger and he’d have it no other way.Eddie and his Lycan girlfriend were now running the kitchens here for Rachel. They’d mated and, well… Tara expected to hear that they’d have pups soon enough.Jaxon, well, he was back in the city. Tara wasn’t sure what was happening with him. Cal wouldn’t speak of it. But Jaxon took a leave of absence from his position for a bit. Tara wasn’t receiving the full story. But as far as she could tell. Jaxon may have two mates. One wasn’t d
Five Months Later —Tara felt like the size of a house. She propped her ankles up on her desk and she had to eat her fries with no salt. It wasn’t the same, nothing tasted the same. The poking from inside was regular now and she couldn’t wait for the last six weeks to go by. She’d been six weeks pregnant when her symptoms started and since then, if it wasn’t one symptom, it was another. Tara would be more than happy for these little monsters to enter the world.Cal was everywhere and nowhere, it seemed. He told her to clear her calendar today because he wanted to show her their new territory. The thought of trudging out there was exhausting to her. But she’d do it because he was just so insistent. He promised they’d stay the night out there and come back the next day at a leisurely pace.“You ready to go?”“Yes, I just don’t understand why we have to do this now. When all I want to do is take a nap.”“You can nap in the vehicle on the way. Don’t worry, I’ve packed everything we need a
Tara could feel the ball of conflicting emotions rolling about in her head and her belly. She had a new life inside her. No matter what, she’d never be alone again. But how did she explain all of this to them when the time came?How should she explain this to Cal? He had to be expecting this. Look at the second floor. She didn’t like it necessarily. Their pups living completely separately from us with someone else looking after them. Why hadn’t they spoken about this before?Tara’s eyes closed as the elevator dinged and opened. She’d not thought that it was important before this because she wasn’t pregnant, and they didn’t have any pups. Now she thought of it.This morning, Cal was gone before she got out of bed. This was a day she didn’t train, because there were other things she needed to get done. Which, of course, didn’t get done? A few steps brought her to Cal’s office over the club.She knocked and entered when she received the okay to enter. Tara lucked out because Cal was alon
David Monroe struggle with the enforcer training. His heart wasn’t in it and his skills lay in other places, but everyone lumped him in with the other male Lycans because he was a Lycan. He’d exhausted almost every avenue trying to explain to them he’d rather be patching people up and treating pups with fevers. While he was moping during a break, his phone rang, and it surprised him to see that Emily’s name came up on his phone. “Hello, Emily. What’s wrong? Why are you calling?” He couldn’t think of a reason she could be calling him for, but any chance he got to speak with her was better than nothing. “I’ll tell you, but you have to be very careful with what you say. No one can know why you’re about to be ordered to the Luna’s office. What we need you to do, is slip out of the packhouse. If anyone asks, you’re running an errand for the Luna. That’s it nothing more. What you need to do is go to the closest pharmacy and pick up a pregnancy kit. Come back here
Again, Tara was up late the next morning. Cal was determined he wouldn’t let her feel like he neglected anything about her. From sympathizing with her, to how her emotions were toward absolutely everything, and he didn’t forget to include planning their future together.Well, he talked, and she mostly listened. What he said wasn’t bad. Tara didn’t have a problem with any of his ideas. She didn’t have much to add or at this time have an emotional connection to any of it.Now, though, Tara needed to get her day going, and she felt like something that had been dredged from a swampy pond. It took only minutes for Emily, her newest staff member, to realize there was something wrong with Tara.“If we had a cat, I’d say you look like the latest thing it dragged home. When will we see you going to a healer?” Emily eagerly asked Tara as she returned from her latest flight to the bathroom. Tara looked at her with an expression of exhaustion.“I’m fine and I’m not planning ongoing to see one.” S
“Stone dear, you know I love you. I’m your mate and partner in life. I have always advised you about everything honestly and in your best interest.” Elaine still quietly sat in the sitting room and calmly spoke to Stone. The others had slowly filtered out to go on with their day or to watch their guests leave. “Of course you are, and you have.” Stone looked out the window and watched the vehicles leave. Elaine could see he was distracted by what was going on and his own thoughts. “Then why are you being an ass and not listening to anything I say now?” She let her irritation slip into her voice and she dryly responded to him. Her annoyance was obvious. Stone’s instincts instantly alerted him to the fact that not all was good between himself and his mate. Over the years, that instinct helped him avoid many different disasters from exploding in his face when it came to their relationship. “I’m listening Ellie. I’ve always listened.” “Then explain to me if you listened to me, then why
No one said much of anything on the way home. The privacy divider between the front of the vehicle and the back raised then never went down. Cal pulled Tara to him and sat her in his lap. He didn’t do anything more but let her soak up his warmth and strength. He buried his head into her neck and hair. The smell of the wool sweater mixed with the natural spice of her scent. He instantly felt his aggressive feelings smooth out and gentle. It’d been difficult watching her get so wound up from it all. Tara sat there, and all but purred. As their vehicle made slow progress through traffic, it’s darkened windows gave them the privacy that Cal didn’t care, Tara turned and straddled his lap instead. She didn’t do anything more than that. But his body felt her skirt hike up and he groaned, knowing how naughty she was instinctively gravitating to for comfort. That wasn’t what their mating would ever be based on. He’d never satisfy his needs while she was seek
Kole wanted to get back to the gathering as quickly as possible. He didn’t want any misunderstandings between anyone, let alone the two packs. There was no way he’d explain to the pack that their beloved elder and ex-alpha alienated his first born grand pup with blind stubbornness, hateful questions, and fear. That wouldn’t be happening today or any day. Kole wouldn’t risk fighting with Cal. How would it look when the Council of Alphas met? His father always forgot about that. Though the council of alphas didn’t exist during his time in control of the pack. He’d been a forward thinker of his time and moved his pack to a territory that was being noticed by the local humans. It meant he could settle their businesses in, and those humans would see those businesses as founding members of the business community. “Let’s go back down now and please be nice to her. She’s so much like Heather and you wouldn’t talk to Heather that way. Just apologize and let mother do
“That’s my third pup there and his mate. Your uncle, Stephen, and his mate, Ariel. Their grown pups, Erin, and Eric. That about covers your living family here, dear. Everyone sit please. Stone has created enough excitement and drama for one day. She has a sweet soul. Stephen, treat her like you would your sister and don’t act like your father if you know what’s good for you. As for the doghouse, it’s an old guard shack that’s been turned into a bunkhouse for single wolves who, for one reason or another, don’t want to make the trip all the way back to their homes to sleep. It’s affectionately called the doghouse because often there’s trouble between the few mated wolves that stay there.” “Oh, good grief. That’s horrible.” “Oh, don’t think your grandfather hasn’t stayed there a time or two. Though these days he’s more likely to use a guest apartment.” Tara looked over the tissue at Elaine with a shocked expression. “You’re joking.” “No, I’m n