Alrick woke to a warm body in his arms. This was an unfamiliar experience. His previous encounters ended with either he or his partner leaving at the end. It confused him at first. Then Alrick remembered who was in his bed with him, and he realized it didn’t upset him in the least. She smelt like jasmine and honey. All warm and soft. He could become used to this. His body was responding in the most predictable way.
Then he realized why he’d awakened. Someone was banging on his apartment door and now the warm body beside him was throwing herself from his bed with a scream of shock and dismay. She huddled in the corner of his room by the closet door. She shivered there in fear. He hated that smell. She needed to calm down.
Alrick wasn’t enjoying the morning as he thought he would. “Drug manufacturing. They weren’t just manufacturing drugs; they’d a hedge mage cursing it so that their clients became addicted after the first dose.” “As if those drugs aren’t bad enough alone. Cursing them? How does Jessica-Lyn fit into this?” “I hate to say what the hedge mage claims because we’ve not verified it for accuracy. But he claims Jessica-Lyn was the one that paid him for his work.” Alrick said as glowered at Craig over the news but stayed silent. “Everything I h
Alrick didn’t think about privacy. He’d worked himself up with his own thoughts and concerns. Entering the bathroom, he found damp clothing draped everywhere. Confused by the sight he’s found, Alrick continues looking around the small room. He finds her slight form in fresh clothing but curled up on the floor by an open toilet. Her hands and knees cradling her head. Jessie’s hair covered her face. It was still damp from showering. It took him some time to understand what he was seeing. She’d done what he told her to do. She’d showered and changed. Washed her clothing and hung it. How few clothes did she have? But she was now ill. Why? Nothing made sense to Alrick. He knew she shouldn’t be alone.
Alrick couldn’t bear the doctor removing him from his own apartment while Jessica-Lyn received an examination. He hated the not knowing part. Not knowing if she was ill or getting worse. He’d other fears, but his mind wouldn’t process them. It all made him antsy and hence he was acing the hall.Craig leaned against the banister that overlooked the pack house entrance. There he watched his friend work himself into a ball of stress.“You’re going to hate me for what I’m about to say. Calm down and get your head straight. I need you with me. We have things to deal with.” Craig’s phone chimed just as he finishes speaking. “The team of enforcers we sent out are back. They’ve locked the mage and evidence up.”“Good, what’s taking him?” Alrick watched his apartment door again. It had only been twenty minutes at most since they had left Jessica-Lyn with Doc. J.J.“We need to
Alrick could take her out to visit some others. Craig kept talking about the new mother. He should organize a meeting. He could deal with both by gathering everyone together.Maybe host a gathering that wasn’t just him welcoming them. He could find out their concerns and they could meet others of his pack.“Here’s a thought that will cover multiple needs. You want to see them. I need to know their concerns. A meeting hosted here would fix that. At the end, we host a gathering where both packs meet. A formal welcome and all the trimmings. What do you think?”Jessica-Lyn was quiet for so long that he feared she wasn’t listening. But she said. “It would help them. No one listened before.”“Good, that’s something that will happen. I’m going downstairs to get some things done. You’re coming with me. That water is only a stopgap. So, while I suffer paperwork. We’ll have food brought for you
Alrick dismissed Craig and Dale, leaving him alone again with Jessica-Lyn. She was curled up in a chair after finishing a little food. He couldn’t tell whether she was ill, pretending to be ill or making herself ill. But the information he was sitting on. It now contradicted so much that it frustrated him. He looked at her. Alrick now saw her as a victim of her brother. Just like the rest of her pack. He decided to bring her into the fold. If he was wrong, he would have to explain why he harboured a fugitive. With NARC’s rules, his pack may lose access to needed resources like medical services. He hedged on the side of caution and punished her. What if he was wrong? She was innocent and that was punishment. Would that make him worse than her brother then? If he was careful, he could tr
They sat there for minutes. Still connected to each other. Panting as their world returned to its previous norm. That’s when he felt her shudder. It was out-of-place now. He lifted her from his lap as the moment became awkward. Her hair hung in such away he never saw her face. But he needed to get things done. Not fuck the afternoon away in an attractive piece of entertainment. He needed to remember that he couldn’t. He wouldn’t get involved with a criminal. “It’s time to get dressed. I have things to do. Your jobs today is dusting the books in here. Leave my desk. Take the cart back to the kitchen. Don’t forget in a few hours we will gather to initiate the pack’s newest members.” She couldn’t respond beyond a nod. Jessie was at a loss. She did
“Why would she leave? She has nowhere to go. Get people out there. Search for her. Find out if they know any places she might hide. If she’s not here when the enforcers arrive. I don’t want to know what they’ll do.” By law, right now she was his concern. They’d hunt her. It was standard for the enforcers to hunt down out of control rogue wolves. This did things deep in him. He did not like the feeling. His mind didn’t want to believe she would leave on her own. Why would she choose to become a rogue? She could have worked towards becoming a member of his pack.“Alrick, I might know why she left. Not the place to talk. But I think you should hear it before you go off halfcocked.” Craig wasn’t just his Beta. He’d been through everything with him. From growing up to the recent wars. Alrick knew Craig would tell him the truth. But never where he’d lose face with the pack.Nodding distractedly, he follo
Craig couldn’t understand why she’d left. Everything she’d come with lay discarded in her room. Jessica-Lyn’s choice must have come from her experience with Alrick. Craig felt his respect for his friend lessen thinking she’d felt herself better off alone and hunted that living with the Silver Ridge Pack. Jessica-Lyn has said nothing of her actual intentions to those that knew her. A couple received a goodbye, and she’d just walked out. No one questioned her or stopped her.Alrick returned with the clothes Craig was sure he’d last seen her in his hands not long after dawn. Jessica-Lyn left her people behind in Alrick’s care.Slacking his sexual need on her and then discarding her. Craig could not understand what words Alrick said to her. But for her believe she was better off outside of a pack?Stories were coming in from many
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