Finally, the meeting ended with promises that they’d come back for the start of the celebrations at noon.
“I’ll go finish up figuring out when we have time for any of this and attempt to prioritize it all.” Alrick closed the door behind the NARC investigators and looked at his mate.
“I wish we knew something of the timeline of how events will play out. I’ll keep you company while you work. I’m tired but I don’t want to have another trip into the Dream Realm again.”
Alrick frowned. “You might get more clarity.”
“What if cl
The morning came to early Jessie woke up to music playing outside. Just as the music got started, it would stop and start again. Someone was setting up the sound system. A peek outside the window showed Jessie that the front lawn was bustling with people. The last steps for the New Year’s Eve Event. She couldn’t believe that things have come so far, so fast, yet there was so much more that need to be done. Jessie needed to remember that there was so much more they’d need to accomplish in the coming days. But today would be for the pack one last hurrah before their expansion would happen. Alrick Came out of the bathroom having just finished showering and stepped into his closet. She figured now was her turn to get her day sta
The two couples spent their time talking with each other as they waited for Rachel and entourage to arrive. It was an interesting time because Jessie learnt so much about Craig and Alrick as they talked about their combined past. Lily, too, seemed to learn things about them as well. The men needed to be pulled away from pack business when Craig brought up the idea of solar and wind generation for the pack. His idea was sound, but not today. If they controlled the electricity and pulled the pack off the human’s electrical grid, the pack would not need to explain the use of their electricity. Wind turbines and grasslands combined wouldn’t need more land and brush wouldn’t need to be cleared. It was a future project for a future that was still a ways away.&
The day slowly ended, and they left any thought of troublemakers and awkward scenes behind. As darkness fell, the pack withdrew to the audience chamber and the dining hall was both open for eating. Jessie had an idea for a better space, but again, it would have to wait until time allowed. There was growing, and they needed to expand to accommodate everyone. Jessie wandered through the audience chamber, smiling and chatting with people. Wishing them a happy New Year and ensuring that they’d everything they needed, we’re enjoying themselves. As dinner ended, they pushed the tables to the side, and everyone gathered again. Alrick took to the stage and paced there while he waited for everyone to assemble. He welcomed everyone to the next stage of the celebration. Introducing a DJ, a well-known Druid musician, who began by filling the room with a variety of dance music as the hours played
Alrick climbed into bedside Jessie and curled up to her. “When do you next see Doc. J.J.?” “In the morning, eight in the morning. He’s going into the office here to let me have some privacy for tests he wants to run. It won’t be an ultrasound or anything special like that. Why?” “I want to go with.” “Don’t you trust me?” Jessie sat up and looked at him through the darkness. “What do you think I’ll do?”
Rachel and Davie returned to their cabin. It’d been an enjoyable evening. It wasn’t their pack, but at least they were welcome, and the evening’s events were familiar. “Well, that was an evening of surprises.” “You can say that again. First, they discover a mine full of… What type of gem was it? To think the Iron Hill Pack failed and died out because of mismanagement and a lack of education about their choice of business. Gods, how many suffered and died in unnecessary poverty? Who can you blame now? Jessie didn’t know the pack was hers. Yet she did her job without the resources or knowing it was her job.” “I guess it proves that the job is more than a title. You can be an Alpha without the title and have
Jessie rambled around the packhouse with nothing much left to do with the cleanup. There was a surprising amount of compost to remove from the building, but by spring it would be well on its way to be useable in the gardens. She’d a chance earlier to see them, and an expansion would need to happen. But if upgrades were being made, she’d thought an additional greenhouse or two would be well worth the cost. But that would wait for spring. Alrick already confirmed with Rachel that they’d be able to question Hector at eleven this morning. She’d meet them and everyone would travel together. But with the winter months, many people volunteered on the cleanup, and Jessie’s pregnancy was the excuse used to exclude her from cleanup chores. It’d not taken long for someone to spill the beans to Bonnie about her pregnancy. Right now Bonnie was pouting because she’d m
Ever since speaking with Doc. J. J., Alrick was questioning the sanity of Jessie’s decision to talk to her brother. He would ensure he stayed close to Jessie through the whole thing. But he truly contemplated putting his foot down and saying no. What he worried about how the stress of arguing would affect her health. Now he pulled the vehicle up to the front of the packhouse. There he stopped and looked out over the front of the building. “What’s up?” Jessie looked around, confused at what he looked at. “Pups… I think it’s just sinking in. We’re going to be parents…”
The small group left the holding cells in silence. They returned to the packhouse and settled down to eat lunch. “Why do I feel like this is all my fault? If I’d done something or said something. Why didn’t he say something about this to me?” “It’s an internal conversation to explain why they treated the way they did. I don’t think he wanted to talk about it, because he might learn that he was wrong. He isolated himself because of it. Hector lied to everyone, and he stole from everyone. He hated being Alpha, and he fought against the responsibility. There’s nothing sane about that. You are a victim, not a cause. Your parents created this, and I don’t believe they were the only ones involved. This i
Three months since the mine returned to the Silver Ridge Pack’s control. It’d been out of their hands for almost six months in total. The miners could finally return to the mine safely. Oddly, the Fae never returned to the region. Perhaps the Fae thought better of returning for some unknown reason? Either way, the pack now settled into their new way of life. Everyone lived more closely together and now grew closer to each other every day. Kelly and Kyle focused on themselves and the things going on in the tavern. Making changes where needed to make life easier for the suddenly overflowing pack living and working under the tavern’s roof. Not everyone initially was a pack member, which meant there were strangers among them, but they were in the same position as the pack. They would come to find their places in the pack. It wasn’t smo
Kyle left Craig’s office and went back to the tavern. The changes around here didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t know how he’d tell Kelly the truth about him. He’d told Alpha Alrick when he approached him to ask for membership, and they both agreed that they would take it easy and not tell anyone about it. He entered the warmth of the tavern and went in search of Kelly. There were more people staying here. Kyle would need to get used to it. On a good note, someone started preparing the bar for tonight. He wondered who that was. He’d need to find out and see what he could arrange. It would be nice to have someone else behind the bar a few nights per week. He’d have time to focus on Kelly and Eddie. Here’s hoping it wasn’t Kelly. She would have so much on her hands right now. He w
In the Chamber, Dean found his people working hard to document everything they could. He thought of the worst-case scenario. His mind worked out vague plans on how they’d evacuate the entire pack or packs. He didn’t know where the blast radius would be. If they could use this magical leak to their advantage, they could use it to attract the magically starved Fae here. Because they’d attacked several wells of power in Europe. Well, ancient wells, wells that ran dry over a thousand years ago of their magic. “Sir! I think you need to see this.” One of the portal experts brought in to review what they’d found. “I need to show you what we have. Though I think we just might have a weapon on our hands that we can use.&r
Dean left the Alpha’s office and moved towards the vehicle that would take him to the mine. His heart sank. Because of the lies he must tell these shifters. But the mage’s council ordered the information with a need to know thing. Those runes weren’t the mystery. It’s the placement of them. Dates and times didn’t add up for them. The meaning of the runes was what they wanted, kept quiet. Mages or even druids opened these portals. It’d been the humans, but that wasn’t the shocking thing. Humans didn’t possess magic, meaning someone was powering them. Someone supernatural, and the traces of power he’d found at the other site told him far too much. It took him several weeks to discover what supern
Alrick sat back in his chair as he watched Jessie walk from the room. He hated doing that, but the future didn’t look like it would be any easier. If Kelly and Kyle possessed any chance at happiness, they must work things out by themselves. Interfering with any part of the process would cause complications and all involved would suffer for it. He couldn’t stand for that. Now he needed to focus on the issues at hand and put out as many of the dumpster fires as possible. Craig found three incidents already where he’d forced wolves into time out, meaning they’d locked them away for a time to cool off. To wolves, this was like putting a drunk into a drunk tank to sober up. Territorial instinct still lingered within wolf shifter’s minds.&nbs
Jessie now sat in Alrick’s office again. Alrick returned to the office and instantly went to his computer and copying something to everyone. There were two mages in there with them and they were watching a video Alrick took of the portal. “Well, it’s definitely not natural, and whatever is trapped inside the crystal isn’t as secure as we hoped. Look at this crack here. When the wall came down, it must have damaged it. We’ll get it secured as soon as we’re done here. But the runes are fascinating. I’ve not seen anything similar to this. We need to get copies of them. Then we’ll get people in translating them. But I know these aren’t from the local area. They didn’t have a written language when these runes appeared, that’s for sure. Someone came here and did this long
Kyle couldn’t believe this. It took him several attempts to discover why this summons came so suddenly. When the enforcers first entered the tavern, he thought they were there to take him away from everything and everyone that he’d grown to love within the last few years. Now, with Kelly so close all the time, he didn’t want to deal with this. He just wanted to live a quiet life. Thank the gods he didn’t go off on them. Because what they called them in for was far more unbelievable. The Fae were back. Gods, the Fae. Now here they were setting up people to stay above the tavern. Several would stay in the restaurant, studying the human media for mentions of their actions. Others looked after the cattle. The mine would one day return to the pack, and only the gods knew when it would happen. NARC sent a motley cr
Kelly couldn’t believe what was going on. Her heart pounded as they escorted everyone to the Audience Chamber. Her confusion increased when she saw everyone entering at the same time. Was there something wrong with the refugees? Before entering she asked several people but all she learnt was, it was an emergency. Once inside, though, she learnt quickly about some very unbelievable things. The Fae were back and roaming the world again. How could that happen? No one was aware of that. They could only find out that one enforcer on duty at the mine experienced an attack by an unknown Fae. Where and why were both great mysteries? Kelly quickly found Petra and retriev
Alrick sent the first force back to the Audience Chamber to help with organizing nearly three hundred shifters. They would fan out throughout the emergency land. When this pack first settled here, they laid out the main buildings in such a way that they could guard them easier, and the pack could monitor each others’ safety. The issue with this is it didn’t take into the changes within fighting over time. With machine flight, and now Fae using the Dream Realm as their public transit. They literally popped in and out at will. But at least it gave protection from physical attack and a false belief that everything would be okay. He prepared to go with his second set of forces for a short time. He needed to assess what truly was there. Not that he didn’t believe Herald. If Herald said he saw this, then Alrick believed