Eva stood at the edge of the meadow. An entire pack of wolves she barely knew waited for her to step forward be accepted by their alpha into the pack. Then have her mating with Damon announced, validated, and accepted by the alpha and the pack. No biggie, right? Just a formality. So why weren’t her feet moving? She could see Damon, and he could see her. Okay, she had this. Penny expected a mommy by the end of the day. Gods, what was she getting herself into? Fine, just one foot in front of the other. Eva made her way through the crowd as it parted for her. Asia and Thomas arrive late last night for this. She’d still now spoken to either of them, so Eva didn’t know what was going on. It only took a minute for her to get to the ceremonial mound. She walked up the gentle grade to Damon, and he took her hand in his to lead her into position. They traditionally lay the meadow out. If a human passed by, it would look like a family garden party was happening. Flowers, ta
April watched the vehicle pull up to the front of the packhouse and she recognized Gerald exiting the vehicle. Her belly did a somersault, and she wasn’t sure if the queasiness she felt was for the man she just saw, her nerves, or her pregnancy. April was hiding on the upper floor of the packhouse, and Asia just left to greet Gerald. She wanted to have a talk with him before April saw him. April knew she could get behind that. Now, if only Asia could keep him talking forever, then April would be ecstatic. What did she feel she’d lose to him? Freedom? Her identity? Her independence? The life she’d built for herself on her own merit. All other the above? She’d watched strong women go from being their own person to being Mrs. so and so. Losing their very name. Would she be able to do as she liked? Or they would expect her to drop everything and fulfil other peoples’ expectations? Would they hold her to traditions and values that she didn’t hold? These were all questions April feare
April knew she had to face him. But between his size and dominating personality, April didn’t stand a chance. She wasn’t a meek little mouse of a wolf. Or a broken one. She was feeling tiny, and that wasn’t something she was used to. Add in the man was drop dead gorgeous with his perfect hair and designer suits. Suits he didn’t think twice about shifting in. He just destroyed and replaced without a thought. Gerald must hate her. He probably believed she was pregnant just to corner him into a mating. That didn’t click since he’d messed with her head and used her animal to ensure she became pregnant. That or someone else messed with him too, and they were both in this mess together. April’s mind was everywhere and nowhere. Trying to find every scenario possible and finding nothing that made sense. Asia followed her to the office door, where April stopped before it was dead in her tracks. Thomas was leaving the office and April could see Gerald’s tall and very
Damon drove Eva to the school so that she could finalize everything before her classes started. She wouldn’t need to stay in residence, as their territory was relatively close. The administrative office was busy with people milling about everywhere. The noise was out of this world and within five minutes, Damon wanted to scream and growl at people to shut up. This was not a space for him, but he would tolerate it for Eva. He tolerated the self-guided tour she felt the need to do to find all her classrooms. Testing the food in the cafeteria and the coffee shop. Locating every bathroom to know the good ones from the bad. Eva was in her element, but this place wasn’t familiar to her, and she kept looking over her shoulder, fearful that her stalker would appear out of thin air. That’s why Damon was here. He knew they deliberately sent her transcripts to them. The fool was trying very hard to locate her. He’d be in for a surprise when he met her new husband.
Janine struggled, to let others take over the planning and execution of her mating ceremony. It didn’t seem right to foist it on to someone else. She felt like a burden. But that’s how it had to be. She was a focal point of the ceremony. She couldn’t be in the spotlight and behind the scenes at the same time. But what if something went wrong? Something always went wrong. Would they be able to handle it? Janine’s mind struggled with this concept silently for most of the day since she woke up. She should enjoy her day. Instead, she was in a heightened state of anxiety waffling between taking back control, throwing in the towel, and running away. But in reality, it was far too late for any of those. Emily was there with her beautiful pups. Gods, life went on when you weren’t looking. Janine made sure Emily wanted for nothing and the pups were pleasantly comfortable. She couldn’t believe James allowed Emily to come here since she’d only left her bed at the medical cen
Asia looked at her calendar. Emily had sent back a date for her mating ceremony and now it was her turn to question if she was taking on too much too soon. They’d just joined the packs together and working out how everything would go into the future. She had to admit they hit it or miss sometimes. “Why do you look like you expect your calendar to bite you or poop on you? I’m not sure which.” April stood in the door of Asia’s apartments. “Yeah, I got a date for the mating ceremony. But that’s not why you’re here.” Behind April were several bags. “Yeah, well, about that. I think I’m sort of stuck. He wants me to be downstairs, ready to leave in. Oh… five minutes. Uh… I came to ask if you could see your way through this to collect everything I’ve left behind and we’ll work out later how to ship it to Toronto.” “I’d ask if you’re sure, but hon, I love you and I can’t see any other way for this to have a chance at a fortunate outcome.” “I’m still n
“So, have the pups been treating you, right?” Eva’s image came from Emily’s laptop screen with her cheerful smile and a rather loud child in the background wrestling with her father in the background. Eva realized where Emily’s eyes were. She winced in embarrassment. “Sorry about that. It’s raining here so I can’t send them out. You’ll get used to it when yours get old. Gods, did I just say that? Anyway, I miss you and wish I could help with the planning. How is it going?” Emily realized she hadn’t answered a single question. “That’s a lot to answer. Ugh, here we go. You asked for it. How is it with twin pups? Sleepless. I’m not sure I remember the meaning of it. As for the plans for a mating ceremony. Slow, very slow. I just don’t have the energy to plan anything. I’m exhausted all the time. Sometimes I’m not sure I’ll get it all done in time. Those days I just want to cry.” Emily practically whispered this to the laptop. She was embarrassed and didn’t want James to kn
Gerald was in a rush for the plane with his mate in tow. Gods, he’s just taken her in the back of a rented limo like a teen boy on prom night. The worst thing was he could do it all again, and he planned to go on the plane. They were definitely in heat. He could feel it in his blood and the one taking her would ease it. She definitely wasn’t in any better shape. She’d not complained when he tucked her panties into his pocket. April was trying her best to keep up with Gerald as he moved through the airport. It didn’t take them long to get to the private plane and onto it. Her baggage was being stored on the plane by staff. Now they waited to take off. April found her head swimming with the speed of it all. She wasn’t sure why her mood was so calm. Once they were in the air alone, there Gerald released their seatbelts and insisted she sit on his lap. He busied himself with her body, touching and exploring her at his leisure. When she tried to move off his lap, s
Happy EndingsJames and EmilyEmily and James have come so far from the stunted, messy, immature, and abusive relationship of their early years, overcome medical disaster, and so much more. Now, as parents and on the verge of a successful resort business, they deserve a little peace and quiet to enjoy their second chance. Their highlight success was with the rogue wolves that came to them. All but two survived the trip and the great adjustment into pack life. They had such success that eventually both twins had their own packs when they were old enough.Janine and HadenThey have both found a second chance with each other and a new lease on life managing the resort. Life won’t be quiet for them, but that’s the life they chose. So we leave off with the weapons, passing to the Largest Ontario Wolf Shifter Pack and the political power of the Wolf Shifters. Now they can settle into their twilight years together, chasing Duck Shifters from the front fountain, and keeping bear shif
The candle and a long stem lighter, so Gwenda chose to use the lighter without the candle and she heated the back of the paper. “Here goes nothing.” It took several minutes, but something appeared. “No one knows we used this trick. I had to have written it. There’s no other way this could have worked. Now what do we have? GPS coordinates, wait. There’s another set. Maybe I went back to get the coordinates?” As she move about the page, a set of seven coordinates appeared. She took the flame away, but gasped. “There’s something else here. Hold, let me reveal it too.” Everyone moved in closer and watched an eighth GPS location appear. “Either location? Where’s does that lead to?” This stumped her for a moment. “We need to plug these into a GPS system and see where they all lead to. The first one isn’t anywhere near the others.” “Of course not. The first one is in Orion’s Forest Territory. They probably scattered the others around here. I recognize the general numbers f
Finally, Asia’s plan came to fruition. Today, they would have their mating ceremony. Janine helped so much, with all the plans. She’d gone above and beyond when it came to their unique needs. But Asia now saw that it was safer for their packs to stay where they were. Penny now scared Asia with little comments, and her track record of being accurate with those comments was the reason.Asia watched the internet as information leaked out. Much of the speculation came from disbelievers and conspiracy theorists. The government and law enforcement had little to say, which only fuelled the debate more. Asia knew there was nothing to be done but to stay quiet and let the ruling council deal with it.Today was her mating ceremony, and it would be a good time in her life. It took long enough to get this far with Thomas and her pack. She wasn’t going to fool herself. There would always be someone commenting on the changes in a negative way.Those witnessing in person were minimal and all, but Ap
Karl greets the Alphas as they file into the room he’s using as a study currently. Once they’re settled with tablets, notepads, etcetera, James opened the meeting. “Alright, I think we can skip the intro to the reason for this meeting. We all know why and who we are. Okay Karl, tell us what you have found.”“Thank you, Alpha De Marre. Yes, uh, this is extremely complicated, so please bear with me as I need to explain there’s far too much back story. First, I have received some upsetting news. The latest attack by the Fae was investigated by my life partner’s enforcement team. The entire team is missing. I want to leave and go help, but I have been told not to stay here to continue working. Second, there’s supposed to be a Fianna weapons expert coming, and they are now late. Now, what I found while translating the journal. Hold on, I missed a few disturbing facts.” Karl held up a smaller book. “All original surviving copies of the translation book for the Fae language at in the univers
Karl now turned his attention to contacting his life mate, Pat. Everyone should be home. It was early there.He kept trying with no luck to connect with Pat. Karl didn’t like the feelings of isolation. Or that he didn’t know where Pat was.After some time, it forced him to decide to stop trying. He couldn’t reach anyone at home. It was as if the location was empty of life and that was far from normal. He took a break and found himself a drink and lunch. He could eat before stopping by the front desk to request that they explain how to find the room he was using to study the books in. When he identified the weapons, he did it under the view of the local arms master who ran James’ armoury. They worked together with attempting to understand what weapons killed which creatures. Some were pretty famous while others were far front known. He needed a person who understood lore and creatures from it. He knew languages used for writing magic spells and rituals. He wasn’t truly a specialist an
“Morning Karl, I have a response from the council. The Fianna will send a representative out to assist you. I’m surprised they moved this quickly. They have requested we send them via a mage driven portal rather than flighting out there. You should see them after lunch. Let the front desk know where they will find you. We’ve arranged for their stay. Now, how is the translation coming? Those weapons can’t be handed over without an understanding of what their purpose and function is.” Mages were well ahead of the everyday man. Humans finally got video calling, mages always had that. They called it scrying and Karl used it now to contact his mentor. Who was within the grand walls of the great library? Mages had to have a mentor while they studied and proved themselves. “Thank you, that’s great news. I have most of it translated. Currently, I’m attempting to build a detailed catalogue. With entries about each weapon mentioned within the journal. After that, I must identi
Asia met with Janine the next morning to organize her mating ceremony. Thomas and Haden couldn’t help with it since they needed them to help with the latest discovery. “So here we are. I think I have everything ready for you to look through. There’s even a checklist, so as we fill the binder, we know we haven’t missed anything. Now, so I can help direct you in the right direction. What did you have in mind?” Janine tried to give off a professional air. She ended her words and held her breath, waiting for Asia’s response. “Oh, well, I don’t want anything too complicated. Actually, Thomas and I have been talking about it and we realized that there’s no way we can get everyone we want here without going over the budget.” Asia peaked at Janine, unsure how she would react. Asia watched Janine’s face fall. “Oh, we still want a simple mating ceremony, but we want to live stream it to both territories. We’ll have two receptions later on. But it makes everything a hu
“Okay, now you have to tell me who pushed you to do that. I want to thank them. It was perfect.” Emily sat in the bath with James and a glass of wine. She couldn’t see her official mate as she sat between his thighs with her back leaning against his chest. “I’ll start getting offended if you won’t believe me. It was my idea and others just helped. I didn’t like how much you were doing with the pups, pack, resort, and trying to get the mating ceremony setup. It was too much for anyone. I wanted you to relax and enjoy this time.” “You really have changed. A year ago, you wouldn’t have cared if I collapsed from exhaustion.” Emily was a little beyond tipsy now after the refreshments at the reception and drinks at the spa. She’d been careful, but they added up. James, too, was nicely mellowed out. They handed their pups off with a pack caregiver on duty for the night. “Yes, I would have. I relied on you far too much. I think if things hadn’t gotten to the extreme, thi
You’d think mages would write everything down on paper and there would be hundreds if not thousands of people employed to look it up at the university. But that wasn’t the case. Computers hold their own kind of logical magic. People just accept that it’s a science. But Karl was aware of the rare instance when some sort of information made it into the hands and minds of those that needed to information to change the world.Here, Karl had the name of a mage, but no time period. They had an app for that. He sent the information about the approximate dates from the journal. Then he hoped for the best. If the name was in the database, he would receive that information soon enough. If it wasn’t, then he could proceed to a physical look up within the older written documents that had yet to be transferred into their version of a computer. Now he continued to translate the stories within the book. That’s what they were, stories. Each weapon had a story. No facts or statistics were t