Chapter 1
The tension in Paul’s shoulders lessened by only a fraction as he rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m waiting for the healers, as soon as they finish with him we will have news. I know that it’s not something I can keep away from the world, mother” an exasperated sigh left his lips as the pounding in his head returned at full force with the incessant yelling on the other side of the phone. He risked a glance out the window at the darkening sky trying his best to not focus on his reflection, the cold blue of his eyes once brought him pride, a distinct feature of his clan, but after last night, seeing the same blue eyes of his cousin stare back at him void of any spark, of humanity and even of his wolf, he couldn’t look at himself the same way.
“Trust me, mother, Marcus isn’t in a good place right now, when we found him...” his voice betrayed him, giving way to some of the emotions he was trying so hard to hold back for the sake of his aunt more than his mother. From the moment his cousin had been taken, Carolline’s eyes were always full of tears and he hated each moment of making her feel worse.
He reflected on the bad luck following his family, tuning out his mother comforting the grieving woman next to her. His elder sister and younger brother died in the last war against the vampires, some of the deaths that pushed together the packs to unite under the Shallows Pack, forcing Claudius, Marcus’s father to become alpha king in order to stop the threat of extinction.
After decades of peace, almost a year ago, his cousin’s hunting party got attacked. The royal guard wolves were raised for strength and to have eight of them die and lose their new king, it took precision, an even bigger party of vampires and someone giving them information from the inside. With that thought nagging at him, Paul tried his best to calm down, so many sleepless nights and days trying to find who did it and how, to have only a few days ago find a lead with the help of a witch.
“Paul?” his attention snapped back to the phone, the soft voice so different than that of his mother “Will...will he be alright? It’s been so long… I need to know”
“I know auntie, I know. He isn’t well, we can’t link to his mind, even his wolf is all wrong, it’s worse than being feral, not even some instincts” Ignoring the sharp intake of breath from the two women he went on, they were family and they needed to know “His body was full of silver rods, and we smelled wolf’s bane and nightshade on him. The healers are doing what they can right now and we must pray to the Goddess, she will see him through. I will call back once I get news, some other things need my attention now.”
“Of course” his mother’s clipped answer was the only goodbye he got as she hung up the phone, leaving him feeling empty. Paul would be a fool to not admit that jealousy bit him hard in the ass, his own mother more worried, emotional, and subservient to his cousin, as ever, instead of her own son.
Locking away the green-eyed monster deep into his heart he steeled himself and opened his mind link to the pack “Come in, Chris.”
His second in command shuffled in awkwardly refusing to lift his eyes to face his leader “I’m sorry, I got here earlier” he bowed his head lower, holding out the large files with reports.
“It’s not a problem, I’m the one that told you to come as soon as you found out more about the Pact” the blue of his eyes darkened as his wolf, Fien synced his spirit with his other half, bringing both beings to attention.
Compared to Paul, who was tall, pushing 6 feet 2, with wide shoulders, thick arms and legs, Chris was lean and fit, while not as strong as his chief, he was fast, agility that stretched towards his mind and the way it worked.
“They were right, Alpha. There’s no way for us to avoid our duty, they don’t care that we have complications right now, we already agreed to this and it’s signed in blood, it’s our turn to host the delegation and the preparations have been made with the pact currently hosting them. Are we even allowed to tell everyone who is coming? If it got found out by other … unsavory creatures we could be facing war again” letting out a frustrated breath he collapsed into the chair, tugging at his hair “We have the king here in a really bad shape, the other packs wont come to our aid, not without orders from the king, which is ironic in itself. We can’t tell them Marcus is here or in the shape he is, because others will come and try to kill him to take over his title.”
Paul looked defeated at his beta, the exhaustion obvious on his face “We’re in a really bad spot right now” passing this “duty” to the next pack on the list would be a sure way to lose all credibility in the eyes of the elder council, putting even more pressure on the royal family. “We will tell the pack that we’re expecting a non wolf delegation for now. When exactly did they say they will be arriving?”
“They didn’t, and from what that woman said on the phone, nor will they tell us anything until the last minute; distrustful piece of work that one. She’s waiting for our confirmation that they will be expected and will, to quote her `fly out as soon as possible`“ pulling a paper from the pile, Chris set it in front of Paul, pointing at their borders “She wanted to know in which part it would be easier to meet and asked you `kindly` to remake patrol routes to cover the whole lake”
“Demanding woman” Slight amusement flickered over Paul’s face as he traced the borders with his fingers, drawing in his map the patrol routes. The comment drew an approving grunt from his beta as he pulled out a few more papers
“They have some dietary requests, most of them will be easy to mask as our own, some we will have to get through other companies to keep things hidden, and they will require large quantities of sea salt, provided regularly”
“It won’t be a problem, we are doing rather well this year, we have the money to spare on their accommodations.” pointing at a spot on the map, farthest from the lake he went on “This point here, the pack will smell the difference in our guests, we will have to act fast and carefully with the ceremony of binding, it will keep our borders open since we will need all wolves present, and that’s dangerous enough”
Chris wrote down the details and coordinates for the spot “I don’t understand why we need a binding ceremony in the first place” even the thought of the upcoming event brought a foul taste to his mouth.
“It’s more for our guests than us, it will show them that we are dedicated to their cause and protection and that we have nothing to hide or keep from them, we really don’t need the council here until we get Marcus on his feet. It will be a pain in the ass to formulate the orders in such ways that no one will slip up, if outsiders ask we will need a proper answer.”
“They shouldn’t be so different from humans, maybe we can pass them off as such, they wouldn’t be the first humans we have here”
“It might work. I’ll think about it until tomorrow, have to finish the reports for our food supplies first, Carlos and his pups will be going fishing in a few weeks and we need to add the new requests to the list too”
The beta took that as his cue to leave and with a grin and small bow of his head he headed to the door “Don’t sleep in your office again, you make Agatha worry about you and Henry will smack you silly for making his mate feel that way”
Paul gave a snort, pulling the large file closer and leafing through it, the only person of contact was a woman, Alora Vala, and the only thing more striking than the tattoos covering her face and neck were her black eyes. Skimming over the information he added the fish required from Carlos, alongside a rough calculation of what they will need for the pack, fresh fish, smoked fish, fish they themselves will smoke, it was always tedious and hard to sum up what almost 400 people would eat.
A soft knock at his door broke him out of his concentration and he blinked a few times, trying to focus his eyes on the clock, he’s been working for only 3 hours after his beta left “Come in”
Maria, his head healer, came through the door, looking as tired as he felt “He’s stable” she groaned ,rubbing her back as she shuffled into the room and towards the bottle of whiskey “Bad news and good news but first, I need a drink” uncorking the bottle she put a generous amount into a glass and handed it to Paul, holding on to the bottle for herself. Maria was an old woman, well over 300 years from what elders told him, and she was damn proud of her age. She wore her long white hair braided and even if her back was slightly hunched she still walked with a certainty others would be jealous on.
“We’re cleansing his blood, it will take a while to get all the poison out, but thanks to that.. and you will not repeat this to her, witch, we’ll manage to get him on his feet. He’s malnourished, we’ll keep him on an iv until he wakes up and feed him well once he does. The bad news is” and she lowered her voice staring straight at Paul “we don’t know if it’s him that will wake up. We can’t find his wolf and we can’t link our minds to his either. “
Letting out the breath he was holding he wrote down some notes for himself “We have to keep him contained until he wakes up, and if he won’t be himself and we can’t fix it, i’ll ask Lillian for help again. Goddess knows I owe that witch my life already”
“You be careful boy. It’s not safe and good to meddle with witches” her tone held no bite as she placed a motherly hand on his shoulder “Now go to bed, we’re all tired and we have our work cut out for us”
Paul gave her a halfhearted grin as he closed the files in front of him “You have no idea how much that’s true.” They left the office behind as they headed to their houses, still talking about Marcus and the condition he was in.
