Chapter I
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1
She never cried, well, almost never, except for a few times, but that was to let go of everything she felt guilty, angry, powerless, or disappointed about. More of a cleansing. Like now. After that, she felt completely empty and light again. Now that she was here, relatively safe compared to what she was used to, she could let herself go again, her client, Hans Petersen dead, murdered by a woman... great! Dissolved… Loser.
She laughed through her tears. Glad he was dead. She hated it so much that she had to betray these hospitable people… wolves… whatever. She wanted to meet that woman, but that would never happen. It was now time to decide what she was going to do. She wanted out of the Secret Service!
She didn’t dare just resign. If they knew she wanted to leave, she would be watched or probably just killed. The best thing was to disappear. Hopefully Hans had only hired her and not told her what his plans were. Then she would be just fine here.
Because she had arrived before the one spy who was here - besides the two of them, there were other spies stationed in the other packs that Hans had used, he didn’t happen overnight - she had not yet been noticed.
Maybe it made a difference that she was not a wolf and had not come from a pack, but a human who suffered the trauma’s in her life and was looking for peace and space to write. And that she ended up here by accident because she got lost. Now she also happened to really enjoy writing, she found out. Maybe she could keep doing this instead of being a Sparrow.
People thought they were no longer used, but nothing could be further from the truth. She, Kyra, was one of them. Involuntarily, but if you were orphaned as a toddler and then ended up in an orphanage that supplied children to the KGB, you had little choice. Kyra was called Red by the KGB because of her hair. An English name because she would work abroad a lot.
Her parents named her Kyra, which is the Slavic meaning of sun, probably also inspired by her hair color. Why else would she have been called Sun?
She always had her hair cut very short in a ragged pixie cut so she could easily hide it under a cap or wig if necessary. Red hair was too noticeable in her profession, especially in combination with her blue eyes with a dark gray rim. Red hair and blue eyes, a legacy of her Udmurt heritage, a region in Russia.
She also had an assortment of lenses in her possession, currently hidden in a safe in the city along with her wigs. She would have liked to have long hair. She didn’t even know if her hair was straight or wavy. But it was just much more practical, this short. Maybe in a while when she found a safe place.
She had a little feeling that she was in the right place here. Hans had told her what these communities entailed. These packs lived secluded because they were wolf shifters and did not want to be known by humanity. Strange that they had allowed her, as a human, here in their hidden world. While they wanted to keep the fact that they could turn into a wolf a secret... Strange. Who ever heard of it in real life and not in movies? Not her and she had already seen many bizarre things in her life, but this beat everything! This here was a completely different world and she hoped the KGB had never heard of it either.
Because of all those thoughts, the effect of that cry was nil, that had never happened before. She felt mendel somewhat and through thinking she had sorted things out a bit, but the feeling of relief and feeling lighter did not materialize.
Kyra dried her tears. She went to make herself a cup of tea in the small kitchen in her cabin, which was on the pack grounds, immediately splashed some cold water on her face against the weepy feeling and crawled back behind her tablet. Enough self-pity! She continued with her book.
***
“Good,” said Morvenna, sorceress and healer. The barbecue was out. The food was gone - bunch of wolves - and they had cleaned everything. The six members of Pax, the smallest pack in existence, one of the two packs of her soulmate Colt, which she had been part of for a week, were now sitting around the fire pit chatting. Ian and Caitlyn, good friends of Morvenna and Colt, and Alpha Winters, Colt’s father, were also there.
They celebrated that Morvenna had finally let Colt claim her, through a bite on her neck, connecting them forever.
Alpha Winters shared the Alpha function of the Full Moon pack, the other pack, together with his son. He had already left for the guest room, he had a meeting the next morning, so he would leave a little early. Father and son had divided the duties as long as Alpha Winters still felt like it and then Colt, along with the pack’s Beta, his friend Ian, would take over.
Morvenna continued: “Before we visit the neighboring packs next week, I wanted to pronounce the incantation you wanted, so that you are protected and only those who desperately need your help can find you. This means that every request doesn’t have to be sorted out, leaving more time to help people. Now that you’re here, I thought we’d have some fun tonight. Right? Or should we make an appointment in a few days?”
“No, come on,” said Nasim, an Egyptian with curly black hair, a tightly trimmed ring beard and dark hazel eyes, also the smallest of the four men at just over two meters tall. “I have already received so many requests by email, it takes me days to read through them all.”
Morvenna took a bowl of water, then, to represent the element of earth, she placed three different stones near the fire: Celestine for an easy connection with angels and a safe environment, Labradorite, also for protection against negative energies and to make contact with the subconscious, intuition and mediumistic gifts, stronger and Crystal to strengthen the effect of the other stones. She hung a wind chime to represent the element of wind. Morvenna sat down on the floor with one hand on the floor and the other on her heart. “Would you also like to close your eyes and bring your attention to your heart? Try to keep your focus there until I tell you to open your eyes again.”
They agreed and Morvenna closed her eyes. She breathed in silently for a few minutes, then she spoke:“I call upon all of you: God, Moon Goddess and Freya, Mother Earth. Use Your powers, wisdom and love to protect the members of Pax and only allow those to come to them, who are sincere and truly cannot do without Pax’s help. Also ensure that those who can do without it realize this and receive insights. Surround them with light, love, truth and wisdom for the highest good of the earth and all involved. Thank you all, that’s how it is and that’s how it will be! Just open your eyes.”
Morvenna put her hands together in front of her chest. When she opened them and held them apart, a ball of light formed between her hands in a beautiful, bright, white light with the colors of the rainbow circling through it like threads. She raised her hands holding the orb that was growing larger and let go of the orb. The sphere grew so large that it radiated over Pax’s members like a dome. Ian and Caitlyn were also covered. This continued for several minutes as the light flowed over and through them, sinking to the earth and dissolving.
Morvenna took Colt’s hand that was on her left side and her right hand took Caitlyn’s. She took Ian’s hand, Ian took Lev’s, Lev took Nasim’s, Nasim took Kajika’s, Kajika took Tear’s, and Tear took Colt’s. They sat there for a moment, enjoying the fire and the feeling of being connected to each other. Until Kajika, an Indian woman with an athletic body and smooth blue-black hair that reached her waist, softly broke the silence: “My grandmother was a shaman, she had a strong bond with mother earth. She also did something like you sometimes, without the light. It felt kind of the same, but a little less powerful. I want to thank you, Morvenna, because this feeling of being connected to my friends feels so fantastic and so strong, so powerful and conscious. Even stronger than the connection with a pack. It also makes me feel like our work is now blessed. I hope that feeling remains that way.”
“It may be a little less present because you are busy with other things, but as soon as you focus your attention on it, it is there again.” They expressed their surprise and gratitude. “You’ll see it, Nasim, in your emails. There will be a lot less, I think,” Morvenna predicted.
Colt threw another log on the fire and stoked the fire a bit. Morvenna went to get some hot chocolate. Tear, a very naturally muscular Scotsman with his beautiful, red, wavy hair tied loosely at the base of his neck with a piece of leather, walked with her and came out with marshmallows and sticks to hold in the fire.
“If we are free next week and you don’t miss me, I would like to go home again.”
“We always miss you, Tear,” Kajika said. Tear smiled sweetly at her.
“Pax knows that I go home regularly. My parents are giving a friend’s daughter a safe haven after she had to flee when a large part of her wolf clan, her parents, the pack’s Alpha and Luna, and probably her brother as well, were murdered by a power-hungry neighboring pack,” he explained out to Morvenna, Ian and Caitlyn. “My parents want to visit my grandparents regularly, but that is near Ylva’s massacred clan. Now she is safe with the Beta of our pack, but my parents are a little less worried when I am there too.”
“Why isn’t she safe then?” asked Ian, a tall, slim man with short, dark blond hair.
“The Alpha of the neighboring pack wanted to claim Ylva, but her parents did not like him and she was still far too young, only fourteen at the time. That sowed bad blood, no reason for his action, I think, but there is something loose with that man. He attacked, drugged and killed the Warriors, as well as Ylva’s parents. The survivors are now oppressed. Unfortunately, we don’t know what happened to her brother. He was not at home, but playing with his friend. Ylva has no interest in becoming an Alpha. She wants, as she says: find out what happened to her brother, save the oppressed pack members and finish the Alpha, as soon as she gets her wolf when she turns eighteen, which will happen in about four months.”
Tear chuckled at the memory of killing intent she showed when she told him.
“Why haven’t the surrounding packs done anything yet?” Ian sounded surprised.
“Because he threatens to kill everyone from the Gealach Dhearg pack, Red Moon pack, as soon as they come close. Also, the surrounding packs can only spare a small amount of Warriors. The packs have not been this large since the English murdered many clans and their clan heads in 1746.
My parents tried, but they couldn’t get enough Warriors together to defeat the relatively large enemy pack. Then you get a snowball effect and more and more people drop out.”
“She doesn’t want to take over her parents’ job and become Alpha of her pack, you said?” Colt wondered why on earth not, it is a wonderful task which softened the heavy responsibility, also because you were not alone.
“She has Alpha blood, but the intention was for her brother to take over, so she probably doesn’t have that ambition, it can still change when she turns eighteen, but she wants to do what we do, so who knows, she can strengthen us, she is a very good tracker and a very strong Warrior, she trains with my father and with me every day, when I am there and then I have difficulty beating her.”
“That’s not that hard,” Kajika coughed behind her hand, which earned her a hard poke in the ribs. “Phew,” she supported.
“Then,” said Lev, “I like the idea that when we’re done with this, over, I don’t know when, we’ll leave for Scotland. What do you think about that?”
“Agreed,” Colt said. There was nodding in agreement.
“Guys, that would be great, didn’t want to ask, but I’m very happy with it. I’m leaving tomorrow and want to be back in about four days, so I can also see my parents.”
“It’s now Saturday, so if I’m going to make appointments for… Monday, a week from now? Can Tear take a little longer and Nasim and I have a little more time to organize it,” said Colt. “Let’s start with the pack furthest away from here. We’ll take those prisoners with us and then Gamma Jones can bring the others when we get to the other packs. Everyone agree?” There were corresponding sounds. “Nice, arranged.”
They continued talking about anything and everything and there was a lot of laughing until Caitlyn stifled a yawn. “It’s time for me guys, it’s been an exciting few days.” She and Morvenna had only just recovered from the effects of being kidnapped by Hans Petersen.
“For us too,” said Nasim. He looked around.“Where can we sleep, Morvenna? Here by the fire? Do you have sleeping bags or do we sleep in wolf form?”, he asked the others.
“What kind of hostess do you think I am? No, I made a nice spot there.”
She pointed to the side of the house where suddenly a large log cabin stood that looked just as big as her sweet house. How come they were still amazed at what the greatest sorceress in the area was capable of, but their jaws dropped again. Morvenna grinned when she saw their faces.
She went ahead of them, opened the door and led them in. It was a fully furnished log cabin with five doors leading into the living room, where they assumed there were bedrooms and a bathroom. There was an open kitchen and the living room was comfortably furnished with a sofa and several armchairs. There was also a roaring fireplace in the corner. “Wow, Morvenna. Unbelievable...” Kajika couldn’t say anything more. The others also remained very quiet. Colt wrapped an arm around the waist of his soulmate.
“You got them quiet, little witch,” he chuckled. “That doesn’t happen often. I was also wondering where you would let them sleep. But this is really cool.” She gave him a kiss.
“Well, I would say, sleep well.” Morvenna laughed softly.
