Becky didn’t believe the day could get any odder. Once the Elders of Rob’s wolf pack left, they left her feeling drained and vulnerable. They needed to finish cleaning up the back rooms after they were ransacked. Rob kept trying to talk to her about what happened, and Becky would brush it off. Several times she’d pick up something and then leave the room to put it away somewhere else. It was irritating, Rob. Becky could see that. But she couldn’t bear dealing with it right now. Every time she thought too long on it, her hands shook, and she wanted to curl up in a dark corner and cry. Becky couldn’t deal with anyone right now. “Becky? Becky, did you do something or say something to the Robinson’s?” Jane Ann came in with a questioning look. “No, why?” “Or the Samuels’?” “What are you talking about, Jane Ann? Please, get to the point.” “I’ve got several payments from several business accounts that I have to process.
Bart got the guys out there and he suffered a ribbing about it until he reminded them this was how organized crime warned people they would be killed if they continued to do what they were doing. “Look, how do we know she didn’t leave it here for you to find?” “Because she’s having a hard enough day as it is. Whoever did this got her fired from her job. Also, she was with me. Helping me out with some research.” “Oh? You call it research now, do you? Anything else we should know about you and redheads?” “You have got to be kidding me. We were looking at business records. She’d already done the research, and she was offering it to me without a warrant. Think about it, we could connect it to the missing persons.” “If that’s the case, you need to tell us about your secrets on how to get women to cooperate in investigating better. Geez.” Bart snorted. “Nothing I can see on the packaging and the rat’s throat was slashed
“Yeah, I’m reporting in.” Bart said, annoyed. He’d finally been able to get Grace to rest. The last thing he needed was to find himself in a position where he had to explain what he was and how her reality was just the tip of the iceberg. No, that he wanted to avoid as long as he could. It was hard enough watching her flirt with people around town, trying to get information about her story. Gods, what was he going to do with her? “Well, Bart, me old friend. You know you should have reported ages ago. The boss isn’t going to be happy. I’ll see what I can do to appease him.” “Tell him I have some complications on this end and read the reports I’ve sent in. I’m dealing with a human investigative reporter, among other complications.” What Bart was telling the Gamma on the other end of the phone who worked in the office on behalf of their Alpha and boss, shut up. It’s none of his business until the Boss says it is. Bart and the guy on the phone were not the same
Becky came into the bedroom, watching Rob change his clothes. The man was a god in physical form. Too beautiful to be real. How had she missed it? They all appeared that way. How could anyone mistake them for human? Those eyes, their physical build was a cross of model beauty and athlete. All power and strength with hints of their more feral nature. She could see that feral nature right now, as his eyes never let her. “You know we can’t stay here. I won’t leave you here and risk you might be in danger. Now, get your things together and we’ll leave.” “What kind of welcome will we get when we reach your home, and those elders talk?” Becky absolutely hated this. She’d left her home because of this very situation. Her ex-husband, his family, his people, and her parents made it impossible for her to live there. She’d been miserable and couldn’t live her life without judgement or the media in her face. People wouldn’t do business with her, and she floundered for b
Becky’s phone rang. One rancher was bringing in a sick pup for treatment. “I’m sorry, Rob, but this is work. I need to be here. I get it. You need to be with your pack, too. But I have to look after my business, because it’s what’s keeping me afloat financially.” “Fine, but John and Janie stay with you, and you don’t do anything if John says otherwise.” Rob couldn’t believe the timing. They were trying to get out of here to a safer location and she was finding reasons to stay. “You’re tying my hands.” Becky was struggling here. She needed to do this. It was her livelihood, for crying out loud. She didn’t have people to staff it for her, so she could go running who knows where. “I’m keeping you alive. Just try to do as I ask, please.” Rob felt like she wasn’t taking this seriously or not seeing her life as worth the consideration. “Alright for now. I shouldn’t be much more than a few hours. I’ll get John or Jane Ann to call you if it’s going
Bart’s brain froze as he started at Grace. What did he say to that? How much had she heard and how much did she understand? “What are you talking about?” Play dumb. Make her question what she heard. Pretend to be confused. He was a dead man if his alpha or the local alpha heard Grace right now. She had to stop this line of investigation for everyone’s safety. “Werewolves. They’re littered all over the place. The ranger station. The street names. Even the bar’s named Wolf’s Den. Anyone with my experience can see the signs. Then your vague explanation of not being covered by basic human rights. It all makes sense. Well, say something.” Grace was hoping he’d just tell her the facts and beg her not to write about it. She actually didn’t plan on mentioning it. She wasn’t a fool. Perhaps if she kept him talking, he’d slip up and confirm something. “Have you been in the sun too long? Werewolves, and what was that? Were bears? What is that, anyway? But I can confidently tel
Becky reached the clinic and unlocked. Jane Ann went to the front desk to get ready for the anxious client. John headed for the back room to make sure it was secure. Becky finished changing into her scrubs and jacket when the bell over the door went off. She could hear John on the phone with someone in her office. Smiling, she made her way to the waiting room. The reporter Grace was there look worried or anxious. “Hi Grace, right?” “Yes, I have a question and I need to know you’ll take me seriously and won’t think I’m crazy.” “I’m waiting for an emergency to arrive, but until then, I guess I could try. I’m not sure what you’re talking about, though. You need to make yourself more clear.” “You know all the wolves in the area? Not the normal ones, but the sightings of huge ones.” “Vaguely, I guess. Why?” Becky could see where this was going, and it wasn’t good. “This is crazy.” She was torturing herself with this. “First off, I would never write ab
Becky finally discovered there was no injured dog coming. The strangers must have called in the false emergency. When she called the ranch, they knew nothing about what she was talking about. Now to deal with a reporter freaking out that werewolves exist. How did she get tangled up in this again? Right before she picked an injured one up off the road. “Okay, I got rid of them. I don’t know who they were, but they gave me the creepy and a sick feeling. Grace, what are you blathering about exactly? John, have you worked out what she’s talking about?” Becky came in, trying to keep up the lie. She didn’t like lying, but as everything was going, it was for everyone’s survival. “We just got her calmed down. But from what we all heard out there. I’m calling Rob and Bart. None of you go anywhere. I swear you’re giving me a heart condition.” John left the room to make his calls. Becky could tell him if he shifted, she had the equipment to find out if he had a heart condition
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