“It’s okay. You’re safe. I won’t. No, I can’t hurt you. Not intentionally, at least. It goes against my nature. Gods, you’re skittish. Okay, where do you want me to start?”“I’ve been put on the suspect list in your missing person’s case. I want to know exactly what happened and how you ended up in my bed. Why are you wearing the bandages? I put on a wolf I found at the side of the road last night?”“Thank you for that. You probably saved me from being dinner for the wildlife out there.”“Wildlife. Sarah Ann and I found you at the side of the road leading up to our homes. How many wild animals could be in this area?”“You’d be surprised. Wolves attacked me, wolf shifters that is, behind the Wolf’s Den.” Rob gave a sigh. That’s when the name of the bar struck Becky and she understood the meaning of it. This bar was his home, his den. “I thought they were trying to kill me for my territory. I’m… Uh… What you’d call the Alpha wolf of the region. But they didn’t kill me, instead they left
“Fine, I’ll go see what he wants, but I can’t make any promises. Stay here.” “I don’t have a phone. Can I use yours?” “It’s in the kitchen charging.” “Crap. I need clothes and I’m assuming since you were alone in here, there’s no man in your life that would leave any here.” “No man would dare do that. But currently you’d be correct. Though I doubt you would fit any if they had left something here.” “True enough. I’ll need to call my brother and get him to bring me some.” “Fine, I’ll bring it with me when I come up and tell you the coast is clear. Okay?” “Thanks. Keep the questions and explanations to the minimum. Don’t let him know you know anything about wolf shifters or that he’s one.” “I don’t and I won’t.” Becky just wanted to get out of there. She didn’t feel comfortable with him standing there wrapping a sheet around himself in her bedroom. Her emotions were all over the place and she just couldn’t
Becky sent off a text to Jane Ann, hoping she’d respond. The message was asking her to stay home. She wasn’t feeling well today, and she’d deal with her guest on her own. The message would probably bring Jane Ann running to Becky’s house with bells on, as they say. This would be a problem. Becky could see that from a mile away. She took her phone, looked out her front window to ensure that Officer Hebbs was in fact gone. He was, so she went back upstairs with her phone in her hands when it dinged from an incoming text message. ‘On my way, this better be good.’ Jane Ann was nothing, if not predictable. Give her a day off, and she can’t leave the reason alone. Back in the bedroom, Becky found Rob pacing, clearly anxious. “He’s gone, but we have a problem.” “Great, what?” “My co-worker. Well, she’s my employee and friend, but she’s helped get the clinic off the ground. So, I call her my co-worker. Jane Ann Peters is on her way over, e
Becky came down the stairs, now fully dressed with her blonde hair wet. Rob noticed she wore no makeup and looked tired. “You haven’t slept well?” “What? No, that’s normal. Now what is happening? No, just stay sitting. I can get my coffee.” Rob tried to stand. He needed another cup, and she appeared to need one. “Want another?” “Yes, please.” Rob held up his cup, wondering how she functioned so well, as tired as she was. Her health concerned him. She brought the coffee to the table, then fetched the milk and sugar before she sat. “Now before Jane Ann gets here, what are you? I mean, are you a wolf man? Or werewolf? What do you call your species? Is that right?” “Wolf shifter. Wolf. Shifter. Are acceptable. Don’t call anyone a werewolf. They are a rare, almost mythical monster. If they’re created, they most likely die. Those who survive are crazier than you can believe.”Becky wanted answers from him before anymore interruptions. She needed
Rob sat, and Jon laid out the food. Becky could feel her heart skip with these two in her personal space. “Now, I’ve briefly filled Rebecca in on the situation. We need to eat and then we need to get out of here. Jon, whoever, attacked me, left me for dead. They found me and patched me up. Jon, it’s worse than a breach. She’s my mate and meeting her surprised me so much I said the word mate. No, I didn’t explain it to her, she thought I meant friend. Hebbs got his hands on her and she mentioned it.” “That’s a lot to unpack. Uh… The wolves who attacked you are from the Indigo Dawn. Or you don’t know them at all?” Jon looked down at his coffee and frowned, a little confused at how the story played out and who were the exact players. “They didn’t stop to talk, identify themselves, and their markings weren’t familiar. They just torn into me and left me for dead in the woods near an old side road.” Rob wasn’t pleased with what he had to say. “I’m not sure how the
“Look, I’ll help Becky get a few things together before anyone goes. Why don’t you two make sure there’s no one sulking around out there? I don’t know about you, but Officer Hebbs showing up here is a little disturbing at this early hour. He should just be getting to work right now. Not banging on Becky’s door. You might want to remind him about decency and all that.” Jane Ann said as she tucked her garbage back into the bag it came in. “Truthfully, I believe you’re correct. To get here from where he stays, he has had to leave his home well before six in the morning. He must have planned to come out here for this reason.” “Where does he live?” “Two towns over, barely outside of my territory. It either took him over an hour to get here this morning, or he’s been waiting all night to do that. Either way, he planned to be here and in your face.” Rob didn’t like this at all. Once Becky was in a safe and guarded location, he and Officer Hobbs were having
“You’re sure you want to have double trouble? I mean, I can just watch mine from a distance.” It was Jon’s voice Becky heard as she and Jane Ann walked down the stairs back to the kitchen. Her bag of belongings in her hand. “Call him and tell him what is going on. We’ll make sure everyone stays safe. Use her phone and I’ll use yours so Hebbs can’t connect me to her. We can’t leave any loose ends, or they could end up catastrophic.” Robert’s voice sounded stressed, more so than when they went upstairs. Both women frowned at each other. “Fine, but you won’t be able to hold that conversation on the phone. It’s too easy for someone to trace or record.” Jon again. Becky wondered if that was the conversation Robert planned to have with the officer. “I don’t plan to. He’s coming to the Wolf’s Den for this meeting. No more middle ground now. You’ll go with them when the time comes. Take them to the vet clinic and let them do what it is they want there. I’ll
Jon followed Rob upstairs. “Hey, listen, I know I said some things that she didn’t enjoy hearing, but it’s my job to remind you of the unsavoury truths. The elders will make her miserable until she left to get away from it. You need to talk to them before she meets them. The others would probably go along with whatever you wanted if the elders kept their opinion to themselves. But until that can happen. Why don’t you stay with her? At the Wolf’s Den or here. I don’t think it would matter which place. Well, that’s not true. The Wolf’s Den is more secure, and it has that apartment above it. She’d never be late for work. With a minor change to schedules, you could be with her when she works, and she could be with you when you do.” “I get it. Thank you. Now I have to call Hebbs and get this meeting set up. I’ll need you to be my hand on pack territory. I think Jane Ann should stay at the bar too. You okay with making the trip back and forth each day?” Rob knew Jon didn’t
Becky stopped in at the new broadcasting centre in town to have lunch with Grace. Jane Ann was back in the pack, claiming she couldn’t get away because her twins didn’t let them sleep last night. She’d had two males in offspring. Becky still thought it was odd to say that, but they could be lynx, wolf, or human. It was anyone’s guess right now. No one would know for another seven to ten years. Grace sadly lost a pregnancy. The healers claimed it was because she was doing too much, and the stress was too much for her. They would continue trying to have pups once Grace’s schedule settled down and became more manageable. Becky and Rob were still trying after a few false positives. But today was the day they’d first gathered as the mate’s self-help group and explained everything to Grace. How did the pack take the news that their Beta’s mate wasn’t human but a lynx shifter? It was mixed, but nothing like the reaction of the elders who were remo
3 Months later- First Lycan Pack The seer entered the new territory and felt the rush of the past and present mingling there. Sadly, she may feel it. She wasn’t strong enough to see it. Thankfully, she couldn’t see it either. The headache she received to some time to get rid of. The land had a lot of traumas associated with it; the druids did their job and tried to wash it away. The issue was that only a god or time could purify a land fully, and no one had time like that to wait. She settled into the seat the pack provided for her as she waited for the time she’d be needed. Many spoke carefully with her, and it was all quite sombre and different from the last one she’d presided over. Someone pushed her right shoulder forward and when she looked behind her, there was no one there. Well, no one with a physical body. She’d told no one that she had a physical connection to the dream realm. She’d encountered no one with this curse? Ability? Whatever people
“Jon, wait. Uh, we need to talk. I want to know when we’re breaking the news to everyone. I mean, what’s one more scandal? One more controversial mating fact? I hate sitting here lying to everyone.” Jane Ann held onto Jon’s forearm and looking into his eyes. Her guilt and frustration were written all over her face. Only Jon knew their family’s secret, the reason they were one of the few families that kept the pack’s secrets over the years. Only the alpha’s knew about them, except no one told Rob directly and since Rob didn’t correct anyone about assuming Jane Ann’s species, she’d struggled with telling him. Jon though kept begging her not to say anything to him, because it was all too much at the time. Her big secret? Her mother and she were lynx shifters. One of the few shifters that didn’t have a pack or community. They lived usually in family groupings only. Jane Ann’s father followed her momma here and kept her secret and that of the pack this entire tim
Becky couldn’t believe how quickly the pack pulled off the preparations for the mating ceremonies. Two for the price of one. It seemed this was offending the case where there would be a spree of matings at the same time. She’d been given several reasons for this, but it all came down to people finding the one that fate made perfect for them. The wolf shifters don’t believe that people complete each other. Rather that they complement each other. No one is lesser in a pairing. Where one goes, the other will surely follow. The drive for family and community or pack was a driving force for the wolf shifters Becky was somehow now intertwined with. Rogues were an exception to the rule she found out, and it often harmed them mentally and eventually they would see physically it. That’s why the Ruling Council and Rob were so keen on convincing the young rogues and their pups to settle for the pack life. They didn’t show the signed of the mental of physical decay yet;
Everyone in the First Lycan Pack territory was trying their best to adjust to the changes. Even Bart found he had difficulty adjusting to the new routines. Half his problem, he found, was that he needed to write the routines so he could refer to them again and again. The week went by far too fast. Bart learned quickly that the rules and routines he introduced were a strong suggestion. Those rules and routines right now needed to be written in wet cement rather than be set in stone. Grace’s day was insanely busy with her forced to travel between the packs for her job with the Ruling Council. Once the rest of the pack was here, they’d find people to train for the jobs she’d need help with, and then they’d move everything over to their territory. Rob right now was being nice to them and more than generous to let them use the space they were using. Today, the plan to bring the rest of the pack here was in full swing. There was an excitement in
The seer sat last, and she smiled nervously between her guests. “Now, let me guess. You’re here because you want your lives to go on as the Moon Goddess planned them, but you’re encountering obstacles. Am I right?” She looked expectantly at Rob and Becky as if they had the answer she sought. They looked among themselves to see who would be the first to say anything, but the seer carried on as if there wasn’t an awkward silence. Her friendly voice prattled on as she tried to entertain her guests. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything mystical or magical that gave me that information. My phone and messages have been lighting up like a Christmas tree mid season with calls from many people who are angry one way or the other. Heck, one elder called me to find out if I, a seer, could put a curse on you, like I was a mage, druid, or witch. When I told him I couldn’t and wouldn’t he threatened to harm me. You really must get those old wolves under control, Alpha Northgate.”
The next day, Rob took his brother and their mates to see the local seer. She wouldn’t accept membership within his pack, but she didn’t have to. All she needed to do was provide guidance when some came looking for it. They well paid the seer for that. They hoped she wouldn’t respond like the Council of Elders had. If she did, they’d have to delay the mating ceremony until he would repopulate the Council of Elders with a better representation of the pack. This wasn’t something Rod discussed with anyone else. It was a silent worry that nagged on his mind as they travelled the distance to get to the Seer’s small home, which she’d built in a quiet corner of the county district. “How are we going to approach this one? A little more information would go down more nicely this time, because what you did yesterday, Rob, was a shocking revelation, and it doesn’t look good when the people backing you up have to pick up their jaws off the floor. We should k
“Okay, now I have a list of all your names here, and packages with the information you’ll need to know to settle in here. These packages contain everything from what room you’ll have here for now to the house that will be yours. Contact numbers are pre-programmed into the phone inside each package, so when you get your package, don’t drop it. Yes, your new position is within the package, along with a list of your duties. There are several maps, so you can get around here on your own. Your phones have an app that, if you get close to one of the current borders, it will beep. No one is coming to get you if this happens. But if you’re lost, please call. I’ve seen the land out there and it’s a mess. The humans messed with the terrain extensively. So try going for a run in pairs or small groups until you are familiar with the location. Or at least tell someone you’re going and about when you’ll be back. One of the lynx stone masons found a rather steep hillside one evening and wen
Becky and Rob were both pleasantly surprised by the response his speech received from the pack. Rob learned quickly that he’d been wrong. His pack was with him, and not the Council of Elders. He couldn’t believe the support he received with people volunteering to help set up the mating ceremonies for both couples. “Yes, I’ll let everyone know when we have a planning meeting, and we can make all the decisions then.” Rob assured them over and over until he had to stop the crowd forming. “I’d like to thank everyone who’s offering or offered to help right now. I’ll set up a meeting for everyone who’s interested in offering their services or volunteering. We’ll take a few hours and decide, organize who’s doing what. Just set things up so we don’t miss anything, or have too many people doing one thing. We’ll make this a success.” A murmur of approval went through the small crowd of people, and they talked among themselves. “Look, I’ll put a clipboard out tonight in the pac