Janine looked everywhere for James and nothing. He wasn’t in any of the places she expected him to be at this time of day. She’d looked from his apartment to Emily’s, the dining room, even the office. Nothing. He must be out with Emily somewhere. She hoped that boded well for their mating. This was such a touchy subject, but one day she’d be able to remind them she’d tried to get them together for a reason.
In the end, she could do nothing but leave a message asking him. To confirm, Haden actually had spoken to him about this idea. It didn’t take long for James to get back to her with a yes, and the revised contract was on his desk. It just needed to be signed before the planning stages for the investigation could start. James also mentioned that he hoped she would find it an interesting project t
Eva was quickly tossing things into a couple of bags when Emily found her in her apartment. Eva opened the door for her. “Oh, hi. Perfect timing. I was just going to text you. We’re in a bit of a hurry. Something is wrong over in Damon’s pack and he must go investigate it. We’ve got tickets for a flight just after lunch, so there’s no time to waste.” “Geez. What could happen there?” Emily closed the apartment door behind her and went to sit on the bed beside the open bags. “Well, someone has the idea that they can take over the pack while the Alpha and Beta are away. Now, there are several in the pack that are up in arms over this. Damon wants to go back before things get violent. Emily, what am I goi
James read the note from Damon thanking him for taking such good care of his mate. He hoped James could work things out with Emily. But duty called back home, and he would take Eva with him to deal with that. Duty. That was a heavy word, and it was showing on his desk. The inbox was a good four inches full of files, letters, and other things his mother in her position of Luna couldn’t deal with. How did it add up so quickly? He’d only been away for a few days. When he sat down to deal with it, his mind lingered on Emily and the issues between them. He’d not learned how to block her moods and emotions from him. That is, if he ever did that. From it, though, he’d figured out when the emotions were about him. They contained a sour no
First, they were the only people on a small plane heading back to his home. The silence in the plane caused Thomas to relax far too much and, in his jet-lagged state, he was dozing off in Asia. She tried to ignore his rudeness by keeping herself busy. But neither talked about what happened earlier before he found this out and he wasn’t in any state to deal with it right at this moment. “I think we should mate quickly. Forget all the pomp and ceremony. Just get over it like James and Emily. We can always have a celebration at a later date when this is all over and both packs are comfortable with our new arrangement.” It took Thomas several moments to process what she’d just said. “Uh… I’m not sure this is a good
Janine watched Haden take a call from his daughter into another room. The poor man worked so hard on this all day and now he needed to deal with the disaster that was his daughter. She wasn’t sure what she could say or do to help him navigate fatherhood with a grown daughter who was in crisis. As she wasn’t the girl’s mother, it wasn’t her place to say or do anything, and it was hard. She didn’t understand why the more maternal members step up to help him with their experience. That is, after all, what pack was for. As he dealt with that, Janine laid out charts and graphs of how things would happen, when and in what pattern. They set scopes and needs out so that they would have a gauge of whether this would work. What would they accept and what wouldn’t? It was all so complicated, but logical at t
Damon and Eva walked off the plane and waited to claim their baggage. No one waited for them there because they didn’t want Jason to know that they were there. The last thing they wanted was to walk into a trap of some kind. Eva was tired. She’d found the flight exhausting. So, they were going to meet a few others of his pack at a hotel near the airport so that they could get all the information about what was happening. Damon also didn’t want to go far from the airport, as he wanted to be the one who picked up Thomas and someone else. He wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly, but he thought Thomas said a name he thought Thomas would never say again. Asia. She was with him for some reason, which couldn’t bode well at all. Being mates and separated for so long. The told on their mental and emotional sta
Emily didn’t really have much of anything since she’d shipped it all to Damon’s Pack’s Territory, and it would take weeks to get it back since there were issues with a wolf trying to subvert control from them while they were away. So, there wasn’t any point in returning to her cottage and it felt odd since she’d be leaving the man who was technically her mate. She was so torn over this. Part of her she’d lived with for so long celebrated the idea that James finally saw her for the woman she was. Another part of her was the woman that dragged him from bars falling down drunk, chased women from his bed, made sure those same women never came back to haunt him and dealt with his unfortunate behaviour while he dealt with pack business outside of the pack. The one that outraged her most was being
Haden poured over the schedules, amazed at the detail and the practical level everything was at. He couldn’t find anything she missed. They would work steadily, contacting people and arranging everything. Janine was a marvel at how she’d planned everything and recorded every step. If only this went so far as her doing the same thing for his pack’s administration needs.He didn’t plan to leave his position as Alpha soon. Annabelle was far from ready if ever to take her place as Luna. Her mother may have been his mate, but she never made a good Luna. He’d always felt his mating with her failed his pack in too many ways to count.Silver Hills needed something better. He was too old to be effective anymore, but he couldn’t see himself stepping down unless he was sure of his successor.Annabelle’s taste in males was dismally poor, and her personality did
Everyone overflowed the small hotel room, but they ended up with eleven people in one room. Once again, they filled in the last people to arrive about their plans. As they now had one main one and two backup plans. Undercover of dark, they took the vehicles as far as they could along the old logging road. Once they couldn’t go any further, they would need to walk at the end of the way. But no shifter would walk in on two legs. Four were so much faster and far quieter. “Alright, everyone. Phones on silence if you’re taking them. I recommend we leave a few here if things go badly and others take theirs with them. Lukas, you are the least skilled at fighting. It’s your job to protect the vehicle and get it out of here if necessary. The other two just leav