~Nicklaus~THE PAST It had been about a month since he met his mate Emily. She was beautiful. The most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She would make an incredible Luna, and she came from the oldest known werewolf family… so she would be powerful. And her wolf….. her wolf was something out of this world. They’d been spending some time together.. she would be joining him at his pack in a week or so. And within the year they’d be married. The only problem was this kid from her childhood was hanging on for dear life. They’d grown up together and apparently he loved her. He couldn’t blame him really, she was easy to love. Unfortunately she was very fond of him too. But Nick was here now and he was her mate. Once he marked her that would go away….surely. There were several packs coming into the Elkwood territory as there was a big party that night. Every year the packs held a get together of sorts to mix all the unmated wolves. Of course lots of the ones that were mated came as we
~ Emily ~The Present She felt like they’d been driving for days but it had only been hours when they finally arrived at her old pack territory. It was even colder here and snowier than it was back home. She wondered how it looked in Lo’s territory, he was even further north than they were. She had been trying not to think about him but it was impossible. The way he had kissed her the other night. It was if no time had passed, and they were back in her teenage bedroom again. She had to stop. She couldn’t be thinking these thoughts trapped in the car with her brothers. Emily couldn’t help herself as her mind drifted back to him slamming her against the wall…. But then he basically yelled at her, and punched a hole through the stone wall… so there was that. Brian cleared his throat. “We made it!” He said. She snapped out of her daydream really hoping no one had noticed where her mind had gone. Looking around her home pack land made her nostalgic for her younger years. People a
~Emily~She sat and stared at her dad, dumbfounded. “What??” She said… totally confused. “I was just a young teenager when I met your mother. There were several of us at that time that were still unmated. So a bunch of the neighboring packs got together and held a dance for all the high school aged kids…. Much like they did when you were a teen. You do remember that don’t you?” Her dad’s eyes twinkled. How could she forget? That was one of the most confusing and scary nights she’d ever been through. Probably the only time Lorenzo and Nick worked together on something together. And probably the last time they ever would . It took hours for the heat to wear off and all the crazed wolves to calm down. “Soon as I walked in the building I knew something was about to happen.” Her dad said. “I knew there was somebody there I was meant to meet. Her scent was the most amazing thing I had ever smelled…. It was alot like yours.” Her dad smiled at her. “I walked around the room until I spot
~Emily~ The following day after breakfast Emily went to the library hoping to see Juniper. She hadn’t seen her in a long time even though they stayed in touch and talked to one another often. Sadly June still hadn’t found her mate. Emily thought part of that was because she never left the pack and went anywhere.Even when they had big events or parties in the territory June wouldn’t go. She chose to spend most of her time in the library/bookstore she and her family owned. Emily couldn’t blame her for that though. If she could be surrounded by books all day every day, she would. June spent so much time around the books that she was one of the smartest people Emily had ever met. Over the years she had probably read every single book in that place. And it was a huge building with thousands of books. She had read all the medical and scientific books, every nonfiction book they had, and encyclopedias. She also read all the history books. Not just the human history, but the werewolf hi
~Emily~“Why are you asking Emily?” June said. “I’m pretty sure I know… but I just want to make sure we’re going down the same road here so to speak.”Emily, still deep in thought didn’t speak for a moment. “Sometimes I wonder if a mistake was made, making Nick my mate.” Emily told her. “There’s never a mistake.” June said. “There’s always a reason. Maybe you were mated with Nick not to be with him forever, and not because the two of you are actual soul mates… but because you needed to be in the position to do something or help someone. Maybe you’re mated to him so you’d be in a certain place at a certain time. You never know why… but it doesn’t always have to be so cut and dry. “And maybe….” June said. “That’s why you were given two mates.” Juniper had easily figured out Emily was asking about mates for herself, and she was pretty certain Lorenzo had something to do with it. “Maybe,” June continued. “You were blessed with a second one because he’s going to be the one you love
~Emily~ Emily was in a sour mood the entire ride home. Brian tried to ask her what was wrong a couple of times but she couldn’t really explain it. She just missed everyone. Hopefully the bad feeling she had gotten earlier was a one off. She didn’t open the papers June had slipped her as she was leaving because she wanted to wait until she was alone to do that. No reason to mention it to anyone until she had some sort of proof. She knew it was a one off but she had her suspicions. She just had to figure out a way to put everything together. It was like a puzzle but the pieces were all in different boxes. She had decided against telling her family everything. She just couldn’t force herself to talk about the trial or anything to do with Susan. She had been having too good of a time. She was able to forget about all the stuff going on at home and relax for a while. It would all come out soon anyway. Once they got back to her territory and she got back into her cabin her mood lifted
~Emily~ PAST It had been a few months since she had met Nicklaus and things were going well for the most part. They’d been ‘dating’ so to speak if you could call it that. He had stayed with her pack some here and there. Hester kept a really close eye on him, naturally. And then she went and spent a week with his pack. This was customary when wolves from different packs met and were mates. And this continued. They’d go back and forth and stay a few days with each others packs. She went more to his pack, however, since that’s where they’d end up staying as he was the Alpha. The best thing about Nicklaus’s pack that she had found so far was Charlotte. Charlotte was only a couple years older than Emily and Nicklaus. But her father had once been a big part of the guard so, she was trusted to be around pack paperwork and perform important pack duties. She had been the pack secretary, the person who takes care of Luna appointments, ever since Nick had become Alpha…. which he had done at
~Emily~THE PAST “So this is the famous Hester Elkwood’s daughter I presume.” Sophia said after a very awkward few seconds of silence. Emily smiled kindly. “Yes Hester is my fa….”“She is quite young.” The sister, Susan, interrupted her. “She’s the same age as me Susan.” Nick said. “Did you expect the goddess to pair me with someone much older?” Emily felt very uncomfortable. She found herself looking down as everyone in the room, including the guards stared at her. “I just mean it will be hard for her to take on Luna duties at such a young age.” Susan replied. “Oh no,” Emily told her. “I’ve been taking care of Luna duties for my father for years, my mother has long since passed away.”But Susan only gave her a look at that response. “Susan is to be Luna soon as well.” Nick told her. “She is marrying Alpha Caron of the Whitetails.” “Congratulations”. Emily told her. Again she only got stared at.. She could tell Nick was getting angry at Susan for the way she was acting. Emil
Emily She had stopped by her old office, using the key Nick had given her and grabbed as much stuff as she could. She stuffed it all in a box and then started out the building to go back home. Soon as she opened the door she ran into Ellis. “Emily!” He said brightly. “How are you?” He asked her eyeing the huge box. “Hello Ellis, I’m doing.. alright. I just came to get some work from my office. I’m going to work on it at home…. well… in the cabin.” She told him. “Alan is doing his beta work from there as well.” “Ah…” he said understanding. “So he decided to stay behind? I know Brian has returned home for the time being.” Ellis said. She nodded. “Yes he did.” “He’s a good brother.” Ellis said patting her shoulder. “Do you need some help?” “No I’m okay. Thank you. But.. I do have a question.” She said. “Any word on when the next trial will start?” Ellis sighed. “It may be a little bit. We’re still collecting evidence on Raleigh and the rogue wolves. We’re even getting testimon
Emily She found out a couple days later they were keeping Sophia in confinement .. just as they did Raleigh. Of course they didn’t send her to the dungeons. She was sure Nick threw a fit to make that happen and she was angry and annoyed about it.He had been avoiding her ever since the other day when she had let her feelings known about Sophia. Ever since then Tutu had been bringing the kids over. Nothing had been decided yet about the cabin where she had been staying. She was sure there was tons and tons of work she needed to be doing for her Luna duties. So she finally decided to go find Nick and ask him about it all. And at the same time, she was going to tell him what she had decided about their relationship. But she was scared. Alan had been on the phone all morning talking to someone at her home pack about some business. Her dad had been handling it all but Emily knew he was probably covered up by now. Especially with no secretary or Luna there.. and both Brian and Alan b
Emily The last few days had run together. Emily had been thinking really hard about what she needed to do now as far as Nick went. On one hand, she didn’t want to leave the pack.. she had grown to love most of these people here. And they needed her.. especially now with everything that’s happened and where Nick’s mindset was. But… could she really stay with him, after everything? It was seeming more and more unlikely. But then what about the kids? She had pulled Andrew aside the other day, and told him how much she appreciated him standing up for her. And how proud she was of him. He smiled shyly and then threw himself at her giving her the world’s biggest hug. She squeezed him back, tears in her eyes. She still hadn’t spoken to Lorenzo. Alan had told her he had called him so he knew everything. Maybe he was waiting on her to call him.. but … she was scared. She knew he was in his pack with his second mate around. What if he’d marked her? She didn’t think she could take that
Lorenzo Turns out he waited for quite a long time. Turns out Emily was just as stubborn as he was. Turns out… this was a lot harder than he had expected. It became apparent Emily wasn’t going to be the one to reach out. And as stubborn as he was, it didn’t look like he was going to either. He would bet money she called her dad and June. Is he not as important as them? He knew he was being a baby about it. But for whatever reason he couldn’t make himself stop. Cyrus had left with a few of his guardsmen. Plus all the ones from the other packs who had stayed there for a while. He had even gone out in the fields with him for a few days to help train. Part of growing up in the Elkwood pack was learning to fight. It was one of the reasons he and Emily, plus her brothers, were so good at it. Hester made sure everyone knew how to defend themselves. And Lorenzo had picked it up super fast… so fast, in fact, that Hester used to have him help the trainer there. He knew he should prob
Emily Nick looked very rough at the moment. He seemed to be looking less and less like himself lately. But he had brought the kids so she smiled. “Tutu is taking the day off. Can you watch them?” He said. His voice was gravely. Like he hadn’t used it in a long time. Or else he had overused it. “Sure!” She said brightly. Any chance she had to spend with her children, and Andrew, she would take it. She wanted to pull Andrew aside and talk with him anyway. After he had been so brave and stood up for her, she had to let him know how much she appreciated it. And him. “Can I speak to you a moment outside.” Nick said. He didn’t really ask the question.. more like he made a statement. She told the kids Alan was in the kitchen and she walked onto the porch and shut the door behind her. Nick was running both his hands down his face… something was frustrating him… she could feel the chemo signals coming off him in waves. “Do you know what they’ve done?? They’ve arrested my mother. My
Emily That day when she got home her family wanted to celebrate. She immediately called her dad and told him the good news.. to which he cried again, and in turn so did she. Then she called June and told her as well. She got sad again, about the fact that she couldn’t call Charlotte … but her family was working overtime to make her feel happy and excited for the future. They fixed a huge meal. The biggest they’d made in forever. There was steaks and potatoes.. lobster tails and a salad… rolls and corn on the cob. And Maeve had made brownies for dessert. It was heaven. After dinner they sat around drinking coffee and talking about everything. Emily looked at each of them. They’d been here with her through the entire thing. As much as she was happy it was over, she was sad that this would be ending too. Her brothers would have to leave soon and go back to her home pack. Brian was the alpha and Alan the beta. They’d been gone for way too long. Even though her dad was there and
Lorenzo He thought there was probably a permanent ridge in the floor he’d walked the same spot back and forth so much. Pacing to one side of the room to the other, he waited. And waited. And walked. And walked. He was waiting for an update about Emily. Brian had called him a day earlier and told him what had happened at the trial that day. What Emily had told everyone… what REALLY happened that night when Susan died. Everything Brian had told him made him so angry he had thrown a chair through the window. Apparently that was his thing now, chair throwing. It was the second time recently. So once he calmed down he had that to fix. He wanted to call her. Damn did he ever want to call her. But he figured she would be busy, talking with her family and spending time with them. He didn’t want to interrupt or interfere. Plus he figured if she had wanted him to know what was going on, she would call him. He was being stupidly stubborn and he knew it. But…Her best friend died. Thing
Emily She still hadn’t spoken a word to anyone about what Ellis had found.. nor what she took pictures of…… nor what June had discovered. Ellis had found wolfsbane at the clearing. It was over in the bushes wrapped in cloth. The same bushes that Susan was trying her best to get to. She was going to poison Emily. She just didn’t get the chance. It’s why she shifted back to human in the middle of their fight… she underestimated Emily’s nice and soft demeanor… thinking she could gloat about what she had done and Emily wouldn’t shift and attack her. Guess it pays to have an angry side that never comes out. It’s how she poisoned her before. They’d figured that out as well. Susan had put wolfsbane in Emily’s chocolate cake. The dessert she knew Emily would eat because it was her favorite. If the guards who had searched the area of the fight had found it.. they probably left it because they were scared to touch it. It was that poisonous to them. But she doubted they even looked. S
EmilyShe gasped.Her hand went quickly to her mouth as the whole room began to speak at once. Nick stood up angrily. “You cannot possibly think this is true.. he is a child. He’s barely seven years old! Why would you have him come here and say this?!” Nick spat angrily. Emily frowned at him. Did he ever stand up once during her trial and tell them they had it wrong?? Did he stand up for her when Felix was speaking down on her? When she was accused of murdering Susan?? No. In fact the opposite. He sent her here. Without question. He decided her fate. And now when it’s about his mother he does this?“Mr. Blackforest control your outbursts.” Ellis told him, forgoing Nick’s alpha title. “Andrew.. buddy… surely you misheard…”Nick tried. But Andrew frowned at Nick and shook his head. Emily felt a tear run down her face. First because poor Andrew who had to overhear such things about his mother no less. And then for Nick.. who was still to this day taking up for Susan. Still trying