Finally, the interrogation was over, and the cocktail social started. Tara didn’t know how this would work, but she watched as the journalists would pull one couple or another over and spoke to them. “I can’t wait for this to be over. I feel like nothing is sacred anymore. What was that about asking Alpha Petrov if he allowed his holdings to be used for human trafficking? That journalist is desperate for dirt. Any kind he can find.” Alpha Danvers stated when he walked over to stand beside Cal. “Yes, it felt like he was trying to search for more than just a few skeletons in a few closets. I wasn’t impressed. I’m tempted to ask for him not to be invited to anymore of these after this.” Tara could hear Cal’s annoyance and his anger simmering under the surface of his calm demeanour. “I’m sure he’s found nothing and will go away very disappointed.” She wrapped her arms around one of his in an effort to calm him. Tara wasn’t the only one who was trying to
“I apologize about leaving you hanging like that so suddenly, Alpha Nichols. That wasn’t planned but if I and my crew caught any of that, my boss would have my head and I’d be looking for a new job. Did you understand what they were talking about?” “Sadly, yes. It’s a horrible disaster that we thought had been prevented a very long time ago. Long before I or you were born, the creation of a Lich was criminalized and banned. They hunted down what they believed were all the existing ones. I’m not sure if this one was an ancient one, or they somehow managed to make themselves into one. But they had an agenda that I don’t know the particulars about. It took humans and supernatural creatures through various devious methods. Experimented with them in unimaginable ways. There’s no way we can know how many supernatural or humans were harmed over the time it was active. It’s been destroyed now. Those that could return to their families and wished to, were given help to go bac
Tara was so happy when the interviews were over. She barely spoke a word, and that made her happy. With a drink in hand, Tara sat at a table, finally having a moment to herself. Other than the time in the bathroom at the fundraiser, Tara hadn’t been alone outside of the club and adjoining packhouse. She was enjoying it for the first time. This was what she was used to, being alone in a crowd. Even if Jaxon was off to the side, watching her and everything that went on around her. Cal was in a meeting with the other alphas that belonged to the Council of Alphas. The Lycan had demonstrated how he shifted, and the ambassador explained the difference between his wolf and the wolf shifter’s wolf. It was interesting how an extinct species came back into existent if it only wasn’t just within the supernatural community. They’d announced to the world the findings the Ruling Council made about what they believed the Lycan were, and they accepted them as wolf
Lately, Cal couldn’t help but think someone more powerful than him was in control of his life. Before the Lich issue, life and leading his pack were easy. The wolves sitting around at this table right now were his biggest concern, with human interference as a minor annoyance. Now everything was like a drama on steroids. Nothing was straightforward and twisted. The Toronto Council of Alphas was sitting for the first time within a venue owned by humans. If that wasn’t crazy enough, the humans were aware of what was going on and what they were. The conference and interviews were going to come back to haunt him. He was sure of that. He could feel Tara’s discomfort and fear throughout the entire event. Now he had to leave her alone for this. At least Jaxon was there, with most of his security, to look after her. “The Fae look like they’ve broken up their hunts and formed several nests. We don’t know how many, but we know we found one and we have reports
Finally, they could get out of there. They all felt like they’d been dragged through the mud and put away wet. It was a little odd to see Cal’s fellow mated colleagues and friends make a beeline straight for the same table as himself leaving the single alphas in the dust. Cal realized now that he wasn’t alone in his feelings about Tara. They too didn’t want their mates out of their sight long when they weren’t in their territory. What he found when they reached the table was several drunk, she-wolves giggling and chattering about something only they knew. The thing that caught all of his attention was Tara’s face. He’d never seen her laugh or smile like this. She was so reserved and quiet. He now saw what he was missing. Cal never saw her smile, laugh, or even raise her voice. Here she was caught in drunken giggles with the other she-wolves like it was a regular Friday night at the local bar. Cal couldn’t stop the smile forming on his face
Cal found Jaxon at the door pacing along with the other enforcers, and they headed to the car. “We’ll talk when we get home. I’m not pleased that you didn’t tell me they kicked you out.” “I sent a text to you, Cal.” Jaxon stood in the elevator and looked at his phone. “My phone says you haven’t received it. Check to see if your phone’s getting a signal.” Now Cal was annoyed, but he looked at his phone. It didn’t have any power. He growled at his phone. “The battery’s dead.” “Sorry, I didn’t leave the door, and she didn’t leave the room at any time.” “She is drunk, as you can see.” Tara drowsily leaned against Cal, and he ushered her out of the elevator and into the vehicle. It took his man’s several minutes to get settled, and then they were off. Tara, however, was softly snoring against his side. “She looks relaxed now.” Jaxon stated as he watched the two from where he sat. “She’s drunk and probably won’t remember any of this. Why
Cal was exhausted. These past few days were insane, and he’d not truly rested at all. So he put Tara to bed as soon as he could and followed her to sleep. The issue wasn’t that he wasn’t tired, no; he was so overtired that he couldn’t fall asleep.Instead, he got up and wandered the apartment. Cal found evidence that Tara had used the stairs and gone upstairs to explore the second floor. He walked up the stairwell and moved into the darkened floor space. The upper floor was just as large as the bottom floor. It was dusty ask expected. The only time they cleaned this space was when they had planned guests. But it was set up for adult guests right now and everything was in neutral colours. That would have to change for his pups, he assumed. He wandered through the rooms that were setup currently as the guest quarters and imagined how they could change into a pup friendly living space. They could house at least six pups and a live-in caregiver. Cal did
Tara woke up the next more, wondering exactly how she got to bed and suffering from a severe case of dry mouth. Then she remembered. The Lunas gathered, bashed a few mates, told secrets about those same mates that made them sound far less perfect than they seemed. They’d even got her to tell them about Cal and what he did that annoyed her. Every Luna there had advice on how to handle Cal and the pack. It floored Tara to find out that Aricka was once a hybrid Druid and human. She was one of the few who transitioned to wolf shifter successfully because of some fluke about how she got pregnant. Aricka had to learn to be a Luna too. She didn’t have any knowledge about the supernatural world, either. Technically, Aricka started with less knowledge than Tara. Melody was closest to Tara’s knowledge level because she came from a fox den, but didn’t have any knowledge about how a wolf pack worked. April was a Beta before all of this, but she was hav