Sapphire listened to Hayden speak from Magnus’ phone. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This was completely unknown to her. She remembered no one telling her about this. They weren’t just messing with the pack, but the town to feel the ramifications of his orders. She knew her uncle and grandfather had both pushed packs out of the region over the years. But she thought it wasn’t fair, but something that happened. So packs could grow and such. Now it was clearly something that was very wrong. Magnus and Hayden seemed so angry about it.
The discovery outraged them, but she couldn’t get over her, not knowing of her involvement in this. She’d predicted nothing about the goddess or from the goddess. Sapphire wasn’t even sure about how she was supposed to achieve that.
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Cliff left the healer’s cabin and the smelly sickroom. His throat was still bandaged, but he could mostly speak now. As he trudged to the packhouse in search of Ivory and his chance at taking this pack from Kilburn. Cliff didn’t know who he hated more right now. Kilburn for threatening to take any chance of him becoming Alpha here or McDonnell for putting him through the ringer for the honour of some pathetic, weak omega. She wasn’t even pretty or smart. The twit had nothing much going for her. They forced Cliff to search out Ivory and he found her cursing the washing machine for some such misdemeanour against a load of laundry. She was all but crying at it in her frustration and anger. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?” “Yes, how is dying everything pink going for you?” Cliff stifled a laugh when he spotted a load of clothing in a basket with a distinct hue of pink instead of white. “Shut up. I think Sapphire booby trapped the washer
Sapphire heard Magnus’ steps on the stairs leading from the second floor. So she left her cold coffee on the table and walked out into the lobby to ask him more about what was happening with the meeting. What she didn’t expect was to look up the stairs and not recognize the man walking toward her. His eyes were pinned on her and she could see the amusement in them. She thought he’d go upstairs to take off his dusty clothes from riding his bike most of the morning. Now she felt dirty, but there wasn’t time to change. However, Sapphire didn’t think anyone would look at her if he was in the room with her. His hair was slicked back from his shower, and he wore a three-piece grey suit with a blue-grey coloured tie. He’d exchanged his boots for a pair of leather shoes. She didn’t see a single wrinkle anywhere on him. He was so impeccably dressed. Magnus fiddled with what she was sure was a gold cuff link that matched the gold watch on his wrist. Magnus claimed he was out
Hayden cursed himself when the alarm on his phone told him he was late for something. When he stopped at the light on the way out of town, he looked at it. Sure enough, he was missing an alpha council meeting. He’d never get back in time for it. At least the documents got through to Eric and Magnus. They should have enough time to at least read through it all before the meeting. He’d get there, but he’d be late. Hayden hoped it wouldn’t reflect badly on Magnus. He’d tried to get through the mountains of documents, and he didn’t expect to end up locked in the archives for several hours with no way to get out. Magnus knew, but said nothing to him. This meant Hayden didn’t know whether he was fine or in trouble when he got back to the packhouse and into the meeting. He’d not have time to
April waited for Lynn to finish up in the library before she locked up for the night. Thank heavens Xavier and his buddies didn’t return to harass her and Lynn further. But she still worried whether Hayden returned to his territory with no problems. With no way to contact him to check in with him, April walked over to the custom bike shop. She’d stop in there to see if she could get his number or have her number passed on to him. April couldn’t get the tarot reading out of her head. If he was her lifetime companion and elders forbid the joining April wasn’t sure what she would do. Thirty years ago, it would have been no problem. But when the Alpha of the Vagas Moon Pack mated with a witch, it was a disaster. She’d used some sort of magic to attract him to her, and that was the problem in a nutshell. Any trust went out the window.&nb
Magnus sat there and listened to his father introduce the business for today’s meeting, and he did exactly as promised. He moved Magnus up in the list of people presenting and reporting about what was going on in their corner of the pack. “Now Magnus, you said that you’ve encountered several issues that weren’t identified at the time we signed the documents to take ownership of the land? Can you elaborate on your current situation?” “Yes, first. We are settling in here well. But we found out at the nonaggression treaty with the local pack was, in fact, not what they touted it as. Eric here found several questionable clauses that all worked in the favour of the Vagas Moon Pack and their leader. We decided to not sign th
Ivory couldn’t take this anymore. The dishwasher overflowed again, and no one would tell her why or help her fix it. Now she was ruining her nails, washing everything by hand. She wanted to scream more, but Den Mother, Liz, threatened to hit her if she didn’t stop making so much noise. Then she told Ivory exactly what she thought of the jobs Ivory did, and she didn’t have a nice thing to say about any of it. None of this was fair. She was the daughter of the Alpha, and she shouldn’t have to do these things. She was ruining her beauty by doing all this. They needed to get Sapphire back here to do this or find someone that could replace her other than Ivory herself. She’d never recover from all this work. There was far too much for one person alone to do it. She needed a rest from Liz’s constant com
Lenny now had an entire pack to choose from and it didn’t matter who he chose to his alpha. He could build his dream team and for sure get this done without a single hitch. The first call he made was right to Xavier his man. They worked great together on the last few missions, and he didn’t take any crap from anyone. That’s what he needed on his side. Someone that wouldn’t wait to protect himself. With Xavier would come his buddies, Jack, and Gary. Both cold jerks but still handy in a fight even if you had to direct them because they didn’t have an individual thought between them. “Hey Xav. I got a job that needs your light touch. There’s space for Jack and Gary if they’re available. Meet me at the old supply cabin in half an hour and I’ll fill you in on the job we have to do. Br
Sapphire couldn’t believe how late it was. The meeting just ended, and she wasn’t sure what would happen next. Hayden recounted what he discovered to the Council of Alphas. Magnus later spoke with Hayden about several things. She wasn’t sure what exactly they were talking about beyond the fact that she was somehow involved, and the colour of her fur had something to do with documents that were written long before she’d been born. Magnus and his father agreed on one fact. If she left their territory and tried to strike out on her own, she would become a target of several unnamed hunters. That scared her. She’d never thought about hunters wanting her for her fur. In this day and age, who hunted for pelts in the wild? Sapphire knew there was a large anti-fur movement. But she was now distracted, reassessin
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