Magnus heard the vehicles drive up and stop at the front of the packhouse. He withdrew reluctantly from their kiss. Now wasn’t the time for people to find them in an intimate situation. There’d be pups hopping out of vehicles very soon, and he didn’t want to explain to their parents. “Looks like you get to meet more pack. The next caravan of pack just pulled up out front. Why don’t we go meet them? Sarah Ann will have them settled into the packhouse in no time. They’ll be tired so we won’t take a lot of their time. I just want them to know your face for now.”
“I guess.” Like it hadn’t been a long day for her. So much for her birthday and getting away from this town. Leaving all this mess behind.
Returns to her room to find Sarah Ann putting away clothing in her closet. She’s taken away the bag she’s packed. Sapphire can’t believe they expect her to wear clothing like this. She’s used to wearing hand-me-down or discarded clothing. But these still have the price tag on them, and they’ve never been worn. These are clothes Ivory would wear. Shows new toiletries in the bathroom and she’s got multiple pairs of shoes. Even winter boots. Sapphire finally returned to her room to find Sarah and a pile of clothing on a chair. “What’s going on here? Where did all this come from?” “Colette returned. Poor dear got stopped by one of the annoying police officers. Which made her late. Don’t worry,
Sapphire pretended to go to bed just so that Sarah Ann would leave. But it took far longer than she expected for the house to grow silent. There were so many people wandering about suddenly, with the new pack members staying within the walls of the packhouse. This confused her even more. Everyone treated the packhouse as if it were their own and not the private residence of the Alpha family. Only a handful of people should dare to enter it. They’d allowed her to use the basement door because she was family. Not here. Sapphire could hear a pup crying most of the evening, but all Magnus did was push someone to finish preparing a place the pup could sleep in peace. He also searched for a missing stuffed wolf the pup lost somewhere in a vehicle.
Magnus followed her scent. It wasn’t hard to find. He was curious about what she was doing and why. He understood that her previous pack had badly used her. Sapphire might even believe that all packs were like that. He’d hoped she would stay around to see that they weren’t lying to her. That she was truly safe. Did she fear her uncle and his pack that much? Sarah Ann believed she didn’t say half of what was in her head because she feared it was being used against her. Was this part of it? She wouldn’t stay because she couldn’t believe she could trust anyone. He needed her as much as she needed him. They’d kissed a lot, and he thought it meant something to them. Perhaps she went for a run to clear her head? The da
Ivory helped bring Cliff into the old healer’s cabin. It was dark, smelling like old people and dying people. She hated it here, but Cliff needed a healer right now. That monster who beat him made a mess of him. There’d been so much blood that she feared Cliff would die. He’d not awakened since they left the Black Hole. Ivory didn’t know what else to do. This was supposed to be her mate and that other guy walked all over him like he was an unskilled pup. What was she going to tell Daddy? How was she going to get him to agree now that Cliff should take his place as Alpha of the pack? Sapphire again messed everything up for her again. This time, Ivory couldn’t express herself with Sapphire because she’d left. Just up and left, not even a bye or sorry. No remorse. When Ivory got her hands on her, she
Magnus stood there bare in the moonlight; signs of the recent fight still covered his now human form. Sapphire was glad she wasn’t in her human form because she would not have found the words to respond. No man or shifter should look like that. She waffled her head and shifted her gaze from him. In her discomfort, she took a few more steps back from him. It was a show of meekness, respect, and self-preservation. What was he doing here? Did he follow her all the way? Why? He should have gone to sleep hours ago. “Sapphire, who was that? I need to know, and I need to know now. Who did I just chase off my land? Who invaded my territory? Was he a member of your old pack?” He stopped approaching when he realized Sapphire was backing away from him. “Hey, hey, stop that. I’m not mad at you. I’m unhappy ab
Sapphire ran off a distance with her dress in her mouth and hid. She shifted and dressed, thinking about everything Magnus said to her. What did he mean by the rules she’d learned in her uncle’s pack differed from the rules in his? Her uncle was proud that he ran a traditional pack, and we enjoyed the privilege of that. Were there diverse ways to run a pack? Is that why their family ran off all the other packs? It was a relief to get away from the staring eyes of the enforcers. She disliked being the centre of attention. Nothing ever good came of it. Now she debated whether she should return or wait for the enforcers to leave. “Sapphire. All you needed to do was put your dress on. Come back here now, please.” Magnus sounded tired.
Hayden walked down the hall to leave a note for Magnus. Eric needed him to visit the library and the town’s archive at the town hall. He’d already found some confusing pieces of information about the sale of the land. Eric needed the verification of the true boundary of their territory. His documents bore no less than five different references to different boundary placements. He needed to know which one, if any, were the current boundaries. What Hayden didn’t expect was to find Magnus curled up on a rug outside of his mate’s apartment door. He stopped dead in his tracks blinked a couple of times. Magnus had a rather large bandage on his side, and his clothes lay in a pile beside him. Well, Hayden figured at least he didn’t sleepwalk from his apartment here. He leaned down and ‘booped the snoot&rs
Hayden left Magnus to work out exactly what he needed to do to keep his mate safe. He couldn’t comprehend how the girl didn’t understand she was safe with them. Maybe she’d experienced such a sheltered life with all its abusive horrors, and she didn’t understand right from wrong? He didn’t know. Hayden found his own issues on the front burner right now. She was there, unlocking the library doors. His work took precedence over her. She was safe as long as she didn’t know about wolves and how close they were to her. That didn’t stop him from wanting to spend time with her and trying to ease her into his world. Gods, why did they choose a human for him? He needed a human mate right now, like a snowman needed a sun lamp. With that amusing but morbid thought in his head, Hayden jogged up the ramp
Sapphire and Ivory met the rest of their family over time. It took a long time to become comfortable with every one of them. So many differences from how she grew up to her life as she knew it now. She needed to find a new normal as mate, sister, and Luna. But it happened. Ivory and Ran took over the Vagas Moon Pack, and they renamed it, the New Moon Rising. Ran was still not sure he wanted to be their Alpha, but his family and his in-laws made it clear he could and would be the Alpha of this pack. The girls’ father took some time to warm up to Magnus and Ran. He claimed he needed to know his daughters first, to know what was best for them. Until then, he would reserve his opinion on if he approved of their mates. Ivory and Sapphire found their mother was a force all her own to be reckoned with. Margaret insisted there be ceremonies to recognise their mating. She was the mover and shaker when it came to teaching her daughters how to be e
“We’re still trying to unravel the truth here. So when we figure it out, we’ll happily tell you the entire gory and horrific parts. Just understand Ivory and I are learning to get along, but we only found out we were sisters. That we still need to work through.” “Betty made us adversaries. Sapphire was all but a slave. She had me believing I was their daughter and better than everyone. Sapphire was trying to replace me. I know better now and I’m trying to make amends. This is new for us. We just learned they planned to force Sapphire to commune with the Moon Goddess, and I was a sacrifice. We believed I was her daughter then.” Both parents were horrified. “We’d have tried harder if we knew she would try that. Gods, we’re sorry.” Howard came closer to their sister’s back. “It’s complicated.” “Let’s move on to happier things. If we’re talking, we can enter. So, let’s get the introductions done. You know me. I work as a teacher and r
Sapphire was too confused and overwhelmed. She let Ivory lead her to the bathroom, where they straightened themselves. Both looked at the results in the mirror. With the same ponytail and makeup. Thank. They looked similar. “I’m not wearing the same outfit, so don’t suggest it. Gods, Ivory, I don’t look like me.” “Yes, you do. If that monster hadn’t this, we’d be sisters, and this Sapphire is what you would be. No wonder I was jealous of you.” Sapphire’s head shot to Ivory’s face for clarification she’d heard correctly. “Jealous? I thought you hated me. I would never have said you were jealous.” “Do you think our mom can reverse the suppression spell on you? Or me? If there is one on me.” Sapphire pretended she didn’t hear it. They had enough to deal. “Why not? We’re part of a magical litter of wolf shifter pups. Does that sound like a fairy tale comedy movie opening line said by a narrator?” Sapphire wondered what would have happened if she’d gone to t
“Let’s see if we can figure this out.” April leaned over the page. “Okay, this is an edited version of what we see here. Well, that’s interesting, though it shouldn’t be a surprise.” April pored over the papers, looking closely at the words and symbols. Ivory tried her best, but she wasn’t sure what was important and what wasn’t. So, she tried to get everything she could. “What is it? I don’t get half the marks on the page. I just copied them the best I could.” She felt like a fool. What good was she? “The mark here leading to Betty. That’s new, or old. Different, at the very least. However, you want to describe it. It’s the mark used to denote an adoption. Betty isn’t blood related to your mother. She’s an aunt by adoption, not by blood. Her blood would have been useless, and she wasn’t the girls, so she’d have seen nothing. Now here are the names we’re interested in. Jane and Howard Percival. That next part here says there are three pups all born over two days. L
April couldn’t believe what she was about to do. Normally, anything to do with blood magic was off limits. Well, usually that’s because the magic would cause get harm to the person or persons involved. In this case, she’d risk the disapproval and any punishment. Which would be laughable when she showed the council of elders what they would have to do to break the curse. From what little she could understand of the magic used in the treaties, and resulting events. No one before her cared about the limits that were placed long ago on how magic could be used. When someone called North America a Wild and Lawless Land. It wasn’t just the humans that were wild and lawless. Those that practiced magic were too. Doing things in the middle of nowhere that they couldn’t anywhere else. Even now, they uncovered places like this occasionally. Places that the locals would call, better left alone and untouched. In this case, if April was correct. The page with their b
Magnus watched his mate carefully as she and Ivory went through the journals and other documents they recovered. April was still completing what they needed to do for the witches to be released by the nature spirit. Or if anything needed to be done since this Roger Helbourne was gone. As far as anyone could tell, Roger made the deals. Without him, they weren’t sure if the deals survived. That’s why he’d been kept like he was. As long as he was here and functioning, the treaties were active. But they wanted to be sure they were gone for good before inviting the other packs back. Ran was in talks with those of the Vagas Moon Pack who ran and survived. They’d have the grisly job of cleaning up the land and making amends to it. The Vagas Moon would then fall under the McConnell Pack umbrella after that, and the isolation would have to end as well. Magnus’ pack was settled here now and the previous pack happy where they were now, with no interest in returning here. Each
Ivory couldn’t find out what happened to Cliff or Xavier. Those two and their buddies were missing in action. They’d been at the fight, but they weren’t among the dead there or on the Vagas Moon Pack territory. Ran assumed they went rogue after the battle and were in the wind. Ivory wasn’t so sure. Cliff was a jerk, but he wasn’t a very bright one. It took days to find any trace of them. Sadly, that trace was a campsite out in the middle of nowhere. Sadly, whoever they joined up with at the end was more than evil and stronger than them. They’d survived only to end up being hunted by a human with more money than brains. If they read correctly, the evidence. She was scared now. What if they were wrong and Cliff came back for revenge? Ivory couldn’t tell Ran what she’d done. Snubbing Cliff after her father turned rescinded his favour. Cliff came to her for help, and she deliberately messed up his plans to get back into her father’s favour. It hadn’t
Ran watched the two women leave out of the corner of his eye. “Gods, I thought they’d never leave.” The two men stopped training and mopped themselves of the sweat they’d built up as they spoke. “Here’s hoping they can be sensible and learn to get along with each other.” Magnus said as they tapped water bottles. “Have you told Ivory she’s taking over as your Luna?” “No, not yet. I’m not sure how she will take the news, and I’m still coming to terms with it.” “I get it. Sapphire took some easing into it, too. I couldn’t just hand her the keys after I bit her. Sarah Ann says there are things Sapphire just doesn’t have a clue about, so it will take a while before she’s got things mastered.” “Oh, I suspect she does not understand about what the position truly entails. My problem is not having her bulk in fear. Her training is still months away from completion.” “So, you really are training her to obey you without question?” “I
Sapphire and Ivory sat in her office drinking coffee for a little bit before Ivory gathered up enough courage to speak to Sapphire. “If my mother was the reason we hate each other, does that mean in another life we might have been friends?” Ivory wasn’t sure if she was ready to apologize to Sapphire for the years of emotional and physical torture, she put her through.” “I don’t know. If you weren’t so self absorbed and demanding, maybe. It’s hard to tell, really. Your mother tried with all her might to make you into a shifter version of herself. Now I don’t mean this as a slight against you, but she was pretty successful. She pulled so many tricks with us, I’m not sure either of us knows who we truly are.” “You really think that?” “We’ll see, won’t we, now that we know she’s gone and can no longer influence us directly? I know that her influence made someone lock my abilities away so I couldn’t use them. Whoever did that seemed to know a wa