All out of Love - Meeting Pax

Proloque

“Colt? Hey Colt! How nice to see you here too.” Colt turned to where the familiar voice came from.

“Hey Russian giant, are you alone?”

“I think I just saw Tearlach too. And Kajika, they came together.”

“How nice, this is the first time we’ve all seen each other at the same time, I think, at least if Nasim and Emily come too.”

“Yes, Emily thought she would visit this pack before going back to her own.”

“Then these months will be quite fun again. I’m thinking about setting up a small company in the form of a pack with our group. You and I have always been together, always with one of the others there. Only Nasim and Kajika have never met before. But we worked well together individually, let’s see how it goes when we’re all together and I’ve been asked a few times if we can’t get together because there is a conflict that needs to be resolved. Our reputation has preceded us. So I thought, my father is not yet old enough to transfer his Alpha title to me, that I still have time to set up a small company in mediation and advice for packs, try to keep the peace without bloodshed if at all possible. Provided you feel like it. What do you think, Lev? Or are you going back to Russia?”

“Phew, no, I’ve seen it there, way too many plots and conspiracies. Except for a few, I don’t know who I can trust.”

“So you like it? I thought I would become some kind of think tank, something like that. And if we have to deal with wild wolf shifters, for example, we can hold our own. We have proven ourselves in this before. I already said that I have been approached by several packs. I can go there on my own, but I know that the six of us, if we combine our knowledge, will be an incredibly strong team. Our strength lies in brainstorming and logic.”

“Let’s see who’s here tonight, then we can present your plan to them.” Colt hit Lev on the shoulder.

“Awesome, man, glad you’re joining us. Once we get paying packs, I also had the idea to help wolf shifters who have nowhere else to go.”

“Admirable, love that, indeed. Yes, that feels good. Can we give something back.”

After the Alpha from the Crescent pack, where they would be interning for a few months, had shown their room, it was time for dinner. Indeed, the friends Colt and Lev had regularly encountered on their inter-pack tour were all there this time. Colt gained experience in seeing how a pack could be run before taking over the pack from his father. Lev was a Lycan, a slightly more advanced wolf shifter and immortal, which meant he occasionally went into hiding for a while in different packs. He had to disappear from the radar for a few decades to avoid noticing that he was not aging. Now it was easier, but also more difficult than a hundred years ago. He could do business via the computer in this time, but the world was much smaller now than it was then. And he didn’t want to go back to his family in Russia. He didn’t get along very well with his parents. He missed his sister and cousin, but because the world was indeed a lot smaller, he kept in touch a lot by telephone. He had worked for the Lycan Emperor for a long time as a mediator between the Emperor and the Packs, and still does from time to time, so he liked Colt’s idea. The only thing that bothered him was that he had grown to care about these wolf shifters, he couldn’t really afford that. Wolfshifters lived long, but he lived forever.

Lev saw his friends already sitting together at the table. Only Nasim was not there. “Hey Lev, it’s great that you’re here too. Colt already told us,” Tear said. Lev shook hands with them all.

“Too bad Nasim isn’t here,” Colt said.

“I understand he will come. He helped his last pack with some computer programs or something like that. I talked to him about going to this pack and then he said he was supposed to come here too. Also to help with the technology here,” Emily explained.

“Well, I’m not waiting for that, I have no idea when he will be here. I have his phone number so if you all like what I want to discuss with you, I’ll give him a call tonight,” Colt said.

“You make me curious,” Kajika growled, “tell me!”

“I have already been approached a few times by different packs, because we have resolved various dilemmas and conflicts during previous internships at packs. Even though we weren’t all there at the same time and we weren’t all working on the same things at the same time, I’m sure that if we work together we will be even stronger and more successful. So my idea is to start a new pack so we can communicate with each other and help other packs. What do you think of that?”

It was quiet for a while, they had to think about it. Except for Lev, they all had a pack to go back to and pick up their Alpha tasks there. “I think it’s cool,” Kajika started, “my cousin is the one who takes over my father’s pack. I don’t need it, nor do I want to have to keep fighting to prove that I am worthy of the Alpha title to those narrow-minded elders. My cousin is an honest and fair Alpha, he wouldn’t put anything in my way if I wanted the title, so I leave it to him. If it weren’t so, I would fight him,” she grinned evilly, “but I will let it be known that he can do it.” They chuckled at the strange logic.

“Wait a while, for the same money, it won’t work.”

“I don’t believe that, but then I’ll come up with something.”

Tear rubbed the stubble on his cheek. “My parents are also still young. So for me it will take a long time before I can take their place. So yes, I’m in.”

“Lev also thought it was a good idea this afternoon, or have you changed your mind?”

“No, this was my job until fifty years ago. I mediated between the Lycan Emperor, the Wolf Shifter King, and the packs. I think it would be fun to do it on a smaller scale. I would possibly like to take on the task if we have to extract information from a shifter. I do it with love.” The friends’ eyes widened with shock.

“Right. Okay… fine,” Colt said, not quite knowing what to do with it. “Emily?”

“I don’t think I can participate. I have to go home. I’ve been away long enough and they need me home. But just because I’m not participating, don’t let that stop you. The idea is great. An organization where Alphas can knock on the door, without losing face.” Colt nodded happily.

“Thank you. I also thought that once we get paid, we could possibly help individual shifters. For example, if they are treated poorly in their pack or if they feel that their Alpha is not leading the pack properly, causing financial problems.”

He looked at them a little shyly. “I already have a name. Not entirely convenient in combination with ‘pack’, but I wanted to give us the Latin name Pax. Peace.”

“Wow, that’s beautiful,” said Kajika. The others also nodded, approving their new pack.

“I vote for Colt to be the Alpha of our new pack,” Tear suggested. Colt protested.

“We have to vote for that.”

“We vote in favor,” said Lev.

“Me too,” Kajika said immediately.

“Sure? But only in name, otherwise we are equal, one Pax, I wouldn’t do it otherwise.”

“Agreed,” said Lev.

The next day they performed the ritual and formed an official pack. A week later, Nasim also arrived at the Crescent pack. Colt had called him and he thought it was an honor to come and work at Pax and be inducted. He promised to come as soon as possible and today he finally arrived.

Kajika froze when she saw Nasim, he felt her gaze and a wide grin appeared on his face. But after looking at her face longer, he pulled it back into neutral. She shook her head and looked away from him. It was clear she didn’t want him. He had to know about that. Later, because the Alpha came to him. After welcoming Nasim and making an appointment for the next day to help with the IT problem, Pax looked for a quiet place to let him officially join Pax.

As they walked to the ceremony site, Lev had walked next to Kajika. “What’s going on with you and Nasim?”

“No idea, what should there be? I just met him, Lev, I have no problem. But for now, for shifters who just met, things are going fine, right Nasim?” The latter a little louder, with a tone in her voice that challenged Nasim to say otherwise.

“What you say, yes,” Nasim grimaced. Kajika was his mate but she made it clear that she didn’t want to know anything about it. Why? Who knows? Lev snorted in disbelief.

“Okay, I’m really looking forward to working with Pax and it won’t work if things don’t work well between the members.”

“You won’t get in trouble from me,” Kajika promised.

“Nasim?”

“Not from me either, Lev.” Nasim sighed, he really hoped he could make it happen.

The ceremony with the official words and the dropping of a drop of blood from the palm of each of them into a copper bowl with fragrant burning Palo Santo wood, which created a beautiful perfectly formed white cloud every time a drop was placed in the fire fell, was special and impressive. It also connected the five members of Pax as one and allowed them to communicate with each other telepathically, mind-linking.

In the following months, several packs managed to find them and the Alpha had given them an office with a table where the six of them could sit. Emily wasn’t part of Pax, but they were good friends and was a valuable brainstorming contributor.

The months flew by, the Alpha had shown them how the Crescent pack functioned. How they could make a pack function as a team, in which every member needed each other and did not function like some packs, where the omegas were treated almost as slaves and the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta were the elite and the omegas were inferior. The friends had indeed been guests at such packs before and had already individually tried to show the Alpha that a pack in which everyone worked together as a team was a stronger pack.

Their last week arrived and they were gathered in their office. They wondered what they would do next. “Maybe we should buy a house somewhere and use that as our pack house,” Colt said cautiously.

Buying a house was no small feat. He knew that his friends made a good income through shares in companies run by shifters or had real estate themselves. But buying something together was a step further.

“I own several residential properties,” Lev said. “Also one in a forest not too far from here. I use it every now and then when I rejoin society. That doesn’t mean I want to live among people, I don’t like the attention I attract.” He was a tall, impressive, very pale man and would indeed have stood out too much. “We can make that our headquarters.”

“Pax then pays rent to you,” said Nasim.

“This house is mine. At most we have costs for gas and electricity. That is the only thing that needs to be paid.”

Suddenly the door flew open and Emily came running in. “Gosh, human, what’s wrong with you?” Kajika flew up. She didn’t have a good feeling about Emily, even though she liked her. A bit double.

“Sorry, sorry, I thought you might already have left,” she gasped.

“What nonsense, we wouldn’t do that,” Kajika snapped.

“No, but if you were at work you would have let me know too.”

“It was Pax business now,” Colt soothed.

“Why are you so worked up?” Lev asked.

“Um, I just got a call from home... things aren’t going well, but I don’t know what exactly is going on. He didn’t want to say that.”

“Who didn’t?” Colt asked.

“The Alpha.”

“You are being called by the Alpha?”, Kajika asked suspiciously.

“Okay, my father then.” Emily looked a little uncomfortable so she didn’t ask further. “Would you like to come home with me? Find out what’s going on?” Pax looked at each other.

“Maybe we can go as friends,” Tear suggested, “because if we haven’t been asked, it’s a little pushy if we come there uninvited and say we’re offering help.”

“Especially because we don’t know what’s going on, or if anything is going on,” Nasim agreed. The others nodded in agreement.

“Then I ask it differently,” Emily grimaced, “would you like to come visit us as my friends? I would like to show you my pack.”

They finished the week, helped the Alpha with a dilemma, thanked him for his hospitality and urged him to be sure to call if they could help with anything. Then they were on their way again. Instead of going to Lev’s house, their new pack house, they drove to Emily’s pack, the Dark Raven pack. They parked just outside and took their bags out of the trunk. Tear was distracted by the murder ravens that populated the trees. “I understand why your pack is called Dark Raven, Emily. You can barely see the leaves of the trees because of the amount of ravens. Unbelievable and what a sound they make, deafening.” They walked to the pack entrance while Tear kept an eye on the ravens. They seemed to warn them. He wasn’t feeling well.

They walked past the pack border, with no Warriors on guard. Pax looked at each other, something strange was going on. “I forgot my bag,” Tear was startled and immediately turned around. He hurriedly walked back along the path they had just followed and hit something so hard he hadn’t noticed that he landed just as hard on the fortunately soft forest floor, causing his head to hit the ground. “Oof.”

He lay there for a moment. He lifted his head, a little dizzy. What had he run into? It wasn’t a branch because his head wasn’t the only thing that hurt. In fact, his whole body ached. But especially his foot and knee. And his shoulder. Actually everything. He grimaced and pushed himself up on his elbows, his friends came to his aid and hoisted him onto his feet. Lev walked with his arms forward to where Tear had fallen. Like a mime artist, he let his hands wander against an invisible wall. Then he turned furiously to Emily. “What the hell is going on here?”

“I don’t know,” she stammered.

“You’re lying about it being printed on you,” he snapped. Colt and Nasim grabbed her.

“Talk!” Kajika was almost nose to nose with Emily. See, she thought, I felt it right after all.

“It’s a security. If someone wants to go outside, he must first be checked before he can leave. This way, no one can simply enter and leave our pack land unnoticed.”

“What strange security. What about birds and deer?”, Kajika didn’t believe it. There was a smell to it.

“They don’t come, they sense it.” Pax looked at each other and shook their heads in disbelief.

“Take us to your father, he’s the Alpha, right?” Colt asked. Emily nodded and led the way. After fifteen minutes of walking in tense silence, they arrived at a weathered pack house. It looked like it could use some maintenance.

“Just wait a minute and I’ll go get him.” They looked at each other again. With that security, wouldn’t the man have already been waiting for them?

“This is weird,” mind-linked Tear.

“It’s also extremely quiet,” Nasim said.

Kajika, true to her name, walked silently behind Emily. She had left the packhouse door open and walked in behind her. “Master?”, she heard Emily say. Master?, Kajika thought. Who calls his Alpha master? There’s something really wrong here. Kajika sniffed the air. It smelled old and musty. And she smelled something else. Vampire! She also felt something else, something dark and heavy. Black magic. Her grandmother, a shaman, had taught her to recognize evil uses of magic. She looked around to find a place to hide. The hall contained a void and judging by its poor condition, no one went there. She mind-linked what she had observed to the others and very carefully climbed the half-decayed stairs on her toes, as carefully as possible, close to the side of the railing, removing as little dust and cobwebs as possible. Once upstairs, she crouched down in a dark corner, which wasn’t that difficult, all the light seemed to have disappeared from this house. She continued to listen. There was an answer in a strange unnamed voice. It sounded scratchy, angry and tired. At least that was something. If the voice sounded tired, the man probably was too. “Where did you stay for so long?”

“I couldn’t find anyone and once I found them I still had to get them here. But I have them. They are waiting outside.”

“Good, I’m hungry.”

“Get out of here,” Kajika shouted through the mind-link.

The four friends hadn’t exactly been waiting. They had walked around the house to see if there were any other residents and if there was any way to get away from this pack with the grave mood.

Emily followed the man. Kajika could now see them clearly from her spot on the mezzanine. The man looked very cliché as you would expect from a vampire. A black cape and slicked back hair. “Are you releasing my family and pack members now?”

“Eat first,” he growled, now that he smelled fresh blood, very strong fresh blood, he had no more patience. Plain blood from a wolf shifter didn’t do it for him anymore, he needed Alpha blood. Emily thought he was going to release her family, but he didn’t. It had taken her too long and he needed feeding. He walked out ahead of her. “Where are they!”

“There,” she came out. “Oh no,” she whimpered, “they just got here. Five Alphas.”

“They can’t get out of here anymore.” He grinned. Despite his lack of nutrition and his dying hunger, he loved a hunt. Their problem was that he could easily summon them. But what fun was there in that? Too bad he was so tired, otherwise he would have enjoyed it even more. He raised his head, inhaled through his nose and caught a very strong smell. His mouth watered. The scent of an Alpha’s strong blood was his second favorite. Tasting the actual blood was oh so wonderful. He looked forward to it and followed its scent.

“Guys,” mind-linked Kajika, “Emily’s family is here somewhere too. That vampire is holding them hostage. He’s coming after you. Please watch out.”

“I’ll lure him away from you, find that family,” mind-linked Lev. As Emily and the vampire walked away, Kajika came out of her hiding spot. Lev started to run away somewhat noisily. Not too exaggerated, but accidentally on purpose stepping on branches. The vampire picked up the sound and followed Lev, grinning at such stupidity, Emily hot on his heels, afraid she might run into one of the others. Kajika followed them again, her trusty blowpipe at the ready.

Nasim, Colt and Tear had reunited and looked inside several dilapidated buildings. At one point they smelled a strange odor. They had arrived at a detached low building. It looked like pack prison. It smelled like death, but very old. The thought of a mummy crossed their minds. They looked at each other in shock. It wouldn’t, would it? “Are you going to look? I’ll keep watch up here. I have seen enough mummies in my life,” said Nasim, an Egyptian by birth. Colt and Tear chuckled.

“Then you should go,” said Tear, “you’re already used to it.”

“Who says they are mummies, how could that be possible? It’s just an old, dead smell,” Colt hoped.

“I hope you’re right,” Tear muttered. They walked carefully down the stone steps into the darkness, the feeling of cold and damp rushing towards them, sticking to their arms. Thanks to their wolf vision, they didn’t need light.

Once downstairs, they continued walking carefully. They pushed open a door. The room they now entered had a small window high in the outside walls. Enough to require a little less effort to see. It was a room of cells, but what they saw in the back shocked them to their core. There was a pile of pale bodies, all dried up, thrown down like old rags. Like mummies without bandages. Men, women. “No children.” Tear didn’t know whether to be relieved about that. Colt dropped to his knees and looked at the neck of an unfortunate man. He sighed in defeat. There were holes in his neck. After further inspection, he also found holes in the wrists.

Suddenly a sound reached their ears. They simultaneously turned towards the cells where it seemed to be coming from. When they focused, they recognized the sound as faint breathing. They quickly walked over to see, to their horror, that the children had been put in the cells, huddled weakly against the darkest walls. “I don’t know if you can hear us, but for now you are safe here. We will come and get you away as soon as possible,” Colt promised them. He turned to Tear. Whom pointed to the stairs.

“Let’s leave quickly and see if Lev needs our help. We have to put an end to this.” Colt mind-linked the others to the update. Kajika immediately reported that they were at a border that Lev had walked straight to from the pack house.

Lev swore exaggeratedly when he ran into the transparent wall. In response he heard a loud laugh that sent goosebumps down his spine. “I love hunting, unfortunately you make it very easy for me. It’s that I’m hungry otherwise I would have pretended not to hear you.” He stalked towards Lev like a black panther. Lev pretended to try to get away, but in reality let him get closer unnoticed.

Nasim, Tear and Colt had now arrived at Kajika, who was keeping an eye on everything behind bushes, her blowpipe, with a thin wooden arrow in it, still at the ready. “What the hell is he doing,” Nasim mind-linked, placing a hand on Kajika’s back. She was shocked and almost inhaled the dart. She glared at him.

“Don’t touch me,” she snapped through the mind-link, breathing in his scent, which surprisingly calmed her, and then replied, calmer now, “I have no idea. It looks like he wants that fool to get him.”

They saw Lev stumbling along, trying to keep himself upright but failing miserably. The vampire shot towards him at the speed of light. Nasim, Colt, Tear and Kajika crept closer to attack in case of emergency. “Don’t intervene,” Lev shouted through the mind-link as he saw them getting closer, “I have everything under control.”

Emily yelped in fear as the vampire grabbed Lev’s neck in a headlock. Lev struggled for a moment, but the vampire now seemed far too strong for the Lycan, pulling him up and pushing him against the invisible wall so that Lev stood with difficulty and bent on his legs. The vampire bent Lev’s head further to the side and sank his teeth into his neck. He could barely reach it, had mistaken Lev’s size, but the vampire was too hungry, smelled Lev’s wonderfully strong blood and sucked it in greedily, a heavenly look on his face. Lev’s broke out into an evil grin that his friends didn’t understand.

Emily started to cry. Colt and Nasim grabbed her so she couldn’t run. “How could you,” Kajika growled softly at her, silently darting past her to help Lev. He looked at her and held his hand in the air to stop her, his five fingers extended and also lowering one finger at a time as if counting down. Before he reached his pinky, the last finger, the vampire began to shake. The friends recoiled in alarm.

He let go of Lev, his hands reaching into Lev’s clothing. With a look of pain and horror on his face, he slowly sank to the ground and shook as if he were having some kind of seizure. Lev stepped back, pushed the vampire away from him with his foot, and leaned leisurely, arms folded, against the invisible wall as if watching something very amusing, a satisfied and triumphant look on his face.

Suddenly, two things happened at once: a puff of dust puffed up as the vampire turned to dust, and another thud drew their eyes to where Lev was standing a moment ago. His heavy body had landed him backwards on the forest floor with a crash. “What are you doing?” Tear asked in alarm, his heart still in his throat because of what he had just seen.

“Holy shit, it just fell apart like powder,” Kajika almost cheered.

Emily also started cheering. “Guys, sorry, sorry, sorry, but you saved us. I’m so terribly sorry that I lured you here under false pretenses, but you… I don’t know how, but… thank you so much!”

“Yes, about that, we should rip your head off. What a worthless rotten act. I thought we were friends,” Nasim snapped.

They had rarely seen him like this. He was usually very mellow, but he had been terrified when he saw that vampire hanging from Lev’s neck.

“I agree with Nasim on that,” said Colt, “we were friends,” he said, emphasizing were, a disappointed look on his face, “and you know who we are, you could have been honest, then we would have helped you.” Emily bowed her head.

“I wanted to save my family, he would release them if I provided some strong wolf shifters…”

“Um, you mentioned being saved,” said Tear, “how in the world did you do that Lev. “That vampire… dust… that wall… gone. I…I…gosh.” He slapped himself on the cheek because he couldn’t get the words out. Lev grinned. “I can’t do anything about the fact that that wall fell away, probably because that vampire is dead. His magic gone, now that he’s gone. That vampire apparently didn’t know that Lycan blood is poisonous, except to our mates.”

“Oh, great, that’s why you said you were going to lure him away. Thank you very much, Lev. Now we can get out of here quickly,” Kajika said. Emily tried to back away slowly.

“Whoa, where are you going,” Nasim said as she bumped into him. She looked down.

“Um, I um, I’m going to see my dad.”

“Sorry, Emily, I think we have some really bad news for you,” Tear said, “we saw in the pack prison, um, whew…” He struggled to deliver the bad news.

“In the prison, only the kids were alive,” Colt said, “which makes me think we need to get there.” He suddenly started running, followed by the rest.

Fortunately, they found the keys to the cells quickly. Colt turned to Emily. “This is going to be terribly difficult for you, but we promise to help you if you promise to give the children a place and support them.” She nodded emotionally. It was a difficult few hours when she saw who had all died. All pack members had been drained by the vampire, except the children. He probably wanted to keep them until they were adults. Colt called his father to see if the pack doctor could come to the Dark Raven pack. The children were flexible and with good nutrition, which, now that the invisible wall was gone, was easy to find. They helped her renovate and clean the packhouse. It wouldn’t be easy, but with the help of the teenagers, some of whom would soon get their wolf, it would be possible. Plus Pax said she could call them anytime.

A month later they were finally on their way to their own pack house.