Grace watched as their vehicles entered the gates of the pack territory. “Why do we look like we’re entering a war zone?” There were guards with guns and what she’d once assumed were giant attack dogs, but now knew were shifters in their animal forms. This was unreal to her. She felt like she was slipping into another world through some sort of magical quick sands. Unreal and yet too real. “I’m afraid it’s a Cold War right now with a high probability of it becoming very active soon.” Bart informed her. “Why, what do you mean?” Grace couldn’t believe much of anything she’d been told even though it all seemed in an over done production for just her benefit. She wanted to believe, but the investigator in her wanted independent proof to back this all up. “It was my job to keep you away from the police station and away from Hectric so that we can deal it with.” Bart was getting sick of Grace asking the same questions as if she expected a different answer each ti
Becky didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t the enormous house or the cozy cottages by the lake. It was beautiful in its rustic quality. The barns and other outbuildings in among the trees and natural vegetation gave the place a natural beauty. “This is all so beautiful and not what I expected after the front gates and walls. It’s all so calming and peaceful.” Becky couldn’t take her eyes off the shifting scenery. The blending of people, buildings, and natural surroundings was just so seamless. “We want to keep it that way. That’s why.” Rob assured her of the logical reasons for the dichotomy of the area. There were people and wolves moving about the place, added to the otherworldly aspect. Seeing a mother chasing a wolf pup had Becky marvelling at the calm composure Rob had picked up the pup and demanding it shift. Then having a small toddler in his arms. He calmly passed the toddler to the mother, and they went on their way. “Wow, just wow.” Be
Grace followed Bart into his apartment. “Can you explain why my apartment is connected to your?” He’d walked into hers while looking for the bathroom. It turned out they’d be sharing it. “We have the visitors’ apartments. Often this is how a visiting alpha, and his entourage would stay. Your space would be for the Beta and mine would be for the Alpha. Across the hall is where his enforcers would stay when they weren’t guarding him.” Bart was unusually free with his information now. Why couldn’t he be like that earlier? “Are you saying these are state rooms? For dignitaries and the like?” Grace wasn’t expecting much more than a bed or sofa somewhere. A state room with a shared bathroom was not what she was expecting. “I guess that would be a valid description. Anyone else would stay in a guest cottage. This is where the highest security is and the safest location in Rob’s territory.” How big was this place to have a building like this, plus cabins? How many
Becky stood there and watched Rob at first. She thought he was joking but having sex once appeared to give him an idea of how far his liberties went with her. No, that wasn’t fair. He’d been talking about her being his mate before that. He’d been taking liberties for longer than that. Becky wouldn’t question his sanity now. She’d seen him turn or shift from one creature to another. There were strangers here that just set off too many warning bells. Too many threats against people which often led to unfortunate accidents and the people leaving town. Then her ex-husband’s blood connection to the company was just too much for her to believe there wasn’t something going on. But her practice was on hold, which meant it would suffer and if it suffered, she’d lose the house and maybe the building she worked out of. Worse, would she have to run again? “Are you sure? Is this something you magically know?” “Honey, I am trying not to jump you and have my way a
“Hm… You really go for the jugular, don’t you? Fine, I could go for a little something.” Becky couldn’t believe these were words coming from her. Rob was herding her back toward the enormous bed now. Kissing her throat and collarbone, he went straight to taking her clothes off her body. Touching and caressing all of her skin, he revealed. She could feel the bed behind her as he knelt and removed her shoes and pants. Naked, she sat on the bed with him standing between her thighs, removing his own clothes. He took his boots off before he opened his pants and let them drop. Her eyes were glued to his straining shaft when she heard his belt buckle hit the floor and he stepped from his pants, then kicked them out of the way. Rob stood before her in his naked glory. Her face was level with his eager shaft. She couldn’t help herself. She reacted for him and when her fingers caressed the tip of him; he gasped and jerked as her finger wrapped around his glorious throbbin
Hera lay in the tall grasses near the small airport. She was there, watching and waiting to record the movements of people and products. The fools never saw her or her vampiric counterpart. He was garnering information on the shipments and people with no one ever remembering speaking to him. As long as he was careful with the cameras in the few key places. He could blank human’s mind on sight, so she wasn’t worried. What worried Hera was the arrival of the founders of Hectric and the youngest inquiring over the presence of his ex-wife here. Though he called her his wife. They’d been briefed on this human. He was crazy, unpredictable, and known to be dangerously violent. His ex recovered, but he’d put her in the hospital and used his connections to stay out of jail or even being charged with any crimes. The lists of supplies and the skills the people coming in brought made Hera’s stomach turn. Sadly, Yoric wasn’t able to get close to the Foun
Hera and Yoric did their part of the job and now were pulled back. Stephan and the others would ensure the crates were delivered by the plane and the pilots would ensure they went wherever NARC wanted them to go. With mage portals, the cargo and pilots would be long gone before the plane hit the side of the isolated mountain. The humans probably would never be the wiser, and who could they complain to? If they complained, they’d have to disclose what they lost and to whom they believed they lost it to. When they were back safely in the motel room, the five team members sat around listening and cringing at the recording of the conversation the founders of the lab had within the hangar before sending it on to their boss. “Where is my wife now? You were supposed to have arrested her and had her here when I arrived.” “Sir, plans didn’t go as expected. There were too many witnesses, and they were questioning us. They have connections to the local polic
Yoric finished speaking with their boss, and now they played the waiting game. They’d listened to the father and son talk about the most vile things in a cryptic manner. The two were cold fish. Their boss wanted them to wait for him and reinforcements to enter the territory they were in. They were to wait there for their arrival and then they would be briefed on the plan that NARC had come up with over the last few days. This lab really needed to be taken down. The founders were monsters and if these experiments and procedures were happening, then those who worked for them were no better than the founders were. Hera would love to play. She was all set to rip into any and all comers from the lab’s town. They thought they were safe from shifters. How exactly they figured that out, she wasn’t sure. Barbed wire and guards with guns were child’s play. She needed to resist going after them as if she were an army of one. “I can’t believe they expect
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