Jessie began packing to travel to meet the new pack members for the first time. This was the second time in a month she’d packed her things. The first was the end of one living hell to enter another. It wasn’t as happy a time as she believed it should have been.
This time, though, was harder. She must pick and choose what she took with her. Jessie found it stressful. Unsure of how she wanted to appear to these people. They were refugees, not rich businessmen. But she wanted to appear in control, yet not appear as some disconnected leader.
Lily found Jessie coming from the bathroom. “Hey, what’s all this?” Jessie’s clothes lay scattered about her walk-in closet and the bedroom. “Are you having morning sickness?”
“I’m fine. I have all these clothes and no idea what is appropriate and what’s not. Choic
Ashley looked about the cabin she shared with Sal. All her things were in boxes, along with Sal’s luggage. This was truly happening. She was getting her wish to be Luna. It just wasn’t the Luna of the Silver Ridge Pack. They’d not even spoken of a pack name yet. But here they were barely mated and starting a pack with a group of strangers. “I think we’re about ready for tomorrow. Are you ready to spread the word?” “Yeah, let’s spread the word of our woes. How horrible it is we can’t fix our computers. We need help from your Alpha to send a report. I wonder if this will work honestly.” “Not if you say it lik
Alrick found Craig grabbing a snack. “What’s up?” Alrick said quietly to Craig. “Don’t ask questions. But we need to survey a few places right now and we need to take the ladies with us. No questions right now. Come on.” “Fine, but you’re acting weird.” Alrick’s expression cut short any more comments Craig might have. Upstairs, they found Lily and Jessie fussing with clothing and general items they wanted to pack for the trip. “Ladies, I need you not to question me about this. No resistance either. I will explain once we’ve left. But we are all stepping out for a while to review the progress and readi
Davie stepped back into the cabin he shared with Rachel and smiled at her in triumph. “How’d it go?” “Perfectly. Now we sit and wait. I don’t think he’ll wait long. It’s a perfect time to enter and do what he needs to do.” “He may be smart, but he’s not a natural planner. I can’t believe what he missed.” “Oh? What do you mean?” “I’ve continued to watch this. I can’t believe he thought we wouldn’t tape his c
Rachel watched Daniel being hauled off to the holding cells. She punched the send button on her phone to send off the final report that would allow them to return home. Now the packing could happen. They could use the cabins freed up for the refugees and such. This was a mission that would resonate with her. So it affected many. Some forever scared. Yet they were opening their lives up and welcoming others who bring their own traumas. “Well, now what do we do?” Ashley stood beside her, also watching them struggle with the older man. “We’re packing up to leave. You have a pack to form.” Rachel turned from the window and walked past Ashley.
Jessie couldn’t help but feel nervous. Her mother raised her to avoid anything magical. No dream realm and definitely no magic. Avoid all other supernatural species as you can. It was all dangerous and left you open for discovery by their stupidity. That was what Jessie learnt. Now she must unlearn it all. Silver Ridge worked with NARC and other factions. The construction crew was a mixture of Bear Shifters and Druids. She’d seen nothing like this. The Druids manipulated the land in wild ways. They thawed the land and moved vegetation at will. The strength of the Bear Shifters made fast work of moving things into place. But who would have thought a Druid could control the very water in the concrete? Oh, it wasn’t instant. But what they did definitely changed the world slowly around them. Things they would need to wait for spring now would take weeks to accomplish.&nbs
“Well, I guess being an ambassador or their staff has a few perks. Alrick looked out the window after looking at the bathroom. We’ll be comfortable here for now. Why don’t you lie down? I’ll tuck the luggage in the closet. We’ll take our time with this,” Alrick pointed at the luggage before he pulled them off the bed. “I’ll sit, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to lie down. I’m not that tired either.” Jessie was feeling uncomfortable since the trip through the portal. But she wouldn’t cave in to her fatigue. It was part of the pregnancy and sleep wouldn’t fix it. “if that’s what you want, then just relax on.” &nb
An hour later, a knock at the door of Alrick and Jessie’s room notified that someone was there. When Alrick opened it, he found Craig and Lily on the other side. “Glad you could make it. We have a little more time before they will want to meet us. Come in, and get comfortable. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier that you needed to be here, but I’m afraid it slipped my mind.” Alrick directed them to where Jessie was sitting. “Hey, Jessie. Feeling better? I’m sorry I just noticed you were a little green around the gills. It happens more often than you’d believe.” Lily noticed her queasy expression before on the way to settle into their rooms. “I’m fine now thanks for asking. Don’t worry about it. I’m a master
Jessie now sat at one end of a conference table with a white board behind her. Alrick sat beside her on the end, with Craig and Lily on his other side. The room was odd in that there’re raised tables behind the seat of the long sides of the table. That was where Joyce and the guards sat with the Ambassadorial staff. Allan and Edith stood behind Alrick as they waited for the other ambassadors and their staff to enter. It took some time for everyone to settle. There was more jostling about to find the perfect seat. It was a novel experience for Jessie, as she’d encountered nothing like this. In the past, everyone knew their place and where to sit because of that rank. Then in the Silver Ridge Pack they mixed and mingled at will. Now it was like everyone was jostling about as if the seat held the position or they were att
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