by Wen Spencer
The pack had felt the old marquis die. They knew from frantic phone calls that the new marquis was on his way home. They waited in the street to meet him, visibly distressed.
"Who are all these people?" Ewan cringed back.
"I told them not to do this." Seth struggled not to be angry. He needed to be the calm one.
"They're scared," Cameron whispered. "They need to see that we'll be okay."
"They have each other." Seth fought to keep his voice neutral. "This is not the time to be putting stress on Ewan. It will take him longer to find his balance."
Cameron nodded. "I'll deal with them. Ewan lives..." He stopped as he realized that everything had changed during the morning. "Oh! He'll take over Sire's place."
"Not yet. It needs deep cleaning, especially the bathrooms. The scent of another alpha in his sleeping space will unsettle him even when he doesn't understand what it is."
Cameron took a deep breath, bracing for the emotional landmines of having to clear out his grandfather's private areas. "I'll see to it. Ewan is in the bachelor house." He pointed at house that they'd parked in front of. "Second floor. The bedroom with all the books."
Seth waited for Cameron to start the process of shooing away the pack.
"Who are they?" Ewan asked again, louder.
"That's your family. You know them all very well. You'll remember everything soon. Until then, you need to be patient."
The bachelor house had all the slightly chewed on marks of being home to male wolves too old to live at home with their parents but who hadn't found a mate yet. Decorations were nonexistent. The furniture was battered. The downstairs was crowded with games that could be played by teams. Darts. Billiards. Foosball.
The house had three bathrooms total. Ewan found and used all three without realizing that he was marking his territory.
Upstairs four of the six big bedrooms showed signs of being inhabited. Seth identified the owners by their scents. Cameron's room had a Giants poster and a desk scattered with engineering text books. The man seemed to be going to school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Seth wondered if it was where Cameron wanted to go or if he had wanted to go to MIT and wasn't allowed. Cameron seemed old to be college student; maybe he was a professor.
The other two housemates were the males that had quietly sided with the brothers; Seth hadn't caught their names. There was no sign of Dan and his supporter. They must live elsewhere. Seth felt relieved that Ewan could sleep without fear of attack.
Ewan's bedroom had floor to ceiling shelves crowded with books.
"Wow!" Ewan ran his hands over the spines as if they were made of gold. "I love to read."
"Yes. You do." That was obvious. "This is your room."
"It is? Awesome!"
Seth opened up drawers of the small chest looking for clothes and clues to who the inner Ewan really was. "Here. Get changed into your own clothes. You'll feel more comfortable. We need to get you reacquainted with yourself."
* * *
Ewan liked cotton boxer briefs, blue jeans and red flannel shirts. Ewan owned a wide range of books. He leaned toward mysteries but his collection was heavily seasoned with science fiction, epic fantasy, westerns and historical non-fiction. He liked Celtic Rock, which Seth hadn't known was a thing. It featured electric guitars, violins and bagpipes. Bagpipes?
While Ewan seemed willing to settle in and read everything in his bedroom, Seth moved them downstairs.
"Your grandfather might have explained things to you. He might not have. Either way, you're not going to remember anything for a while, so I'm giving you a crash course."
Seth put the empty rack on the billiards table. "This is your territory. The Marquis of Albany."
Seth picked up the cue ball and put it on the other side of the table. "And that is our king, Alexander. He's not contained within a rack. He controls the entire world. What I don't have here are all the other territories; all the other racks. Each territory---whether it's a marquisate like Albany or a little barony out in the middle of the nowhere like Juneau, Alaska---exists with or without wolves."
Seth put the solid yellow number one ball into the rack in the point facing the cue ball. "Over three hundred years ago, the king tapped your ancestor, Aillig Keir, to be the first Marquis of Albany. This morning, your grandfather died and you became the Marquis. Through you, all the other members of your family share the power that is Albany." Seth avoided the word "wolf" since sometimes newborns forgot the existence of werewolves. "It's a hierarchy of power. The king. You. Your family."
"I don't get it. How does the king figure into this? He's outside the rack."
"Because the rack is part of the whole that is the pool table. Think of all the green as one massive power source. The rack only limits what part of the green that the alpha can access. The king protects you from being overwhelmed by all the other green by limiting your connection to just this one area."
"Should I be taking notes?"
Yes? No? Seth hadn't written down anything his father told him. He'd been a quiet man, deeply etched by grief. Seth always sensed that if his father bothered to say anything that it was important. Alexander had merely told Seth to give a newborn alpha a sense of self, a structure to connect new power and abilities to. He'd warned Seth that people being what they were, there was no one-size-fits-all framework.
Seth compromised on, "If it makes you feel more comfortable, yes."
Apparently written words made Ewan more comfortable; the new marquis went off to find pen and paper. Then paper towels and another pen, as Ewan snapped the first one in two, causing a sudden flood of ink.
"You're stronger than you were before," Seth warned. "It's going to take a while for you to get used to that."
Time that Seth didn't really have to babysit a newborn alpha. He'd forgotten to tell Jack where he was going. He still had Jack's phone, so he couldn't call his cousin. Jack was in a car with the Grigori close at hand, traveling toward Seth. Maybe one of the Thanes had told Jack where Seth was headed.
For reasons Seth couldn't guess, Joshua was painting Decker's kitchen. Seth could understand the Grigori hiding a newborn wolf with the vampire; that made sense given all the available options. Painting the vampire's kitchen? That was a total WTF: vampires didn't eat.
"I still don't get it." Ewan's confusion pulled Seth back from Boston. "The king is the felt and the cue ball?"
"Here, give me the paper." Seth wrote down "King" and circled it. "See, this is Alexander. Under him are all the alphas." Seth created only four triangles under it. "There's you and your three nearest neighbors. To the east, Prince of Boston. Me. To the north is the Viscount of Burlington. To the west is the Baron of Syracuse. There are hundreds of other territories all around the world. Each territory has an alpha and we're all connected to the king. He is our alpha. We get our power from him."
"I thought we get our power from the territories."
"But he is the territory, just as you are Albany. He is the world. You are Albany."
Ewan frowned at the paper for several minutes. "Okay. Is marquis stronger or wimpier than barons?"
"Stronger. Much stronger. The order is King, Prince, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron, Baronet."
"Wow, so Syracuse is a complete wimp?"
"Yes. But don't ever say that to the baron's face. Unless of course, he's being an asshole. Part of being a good alpha is learning not to be a jerk just because you can. You can't lead with fear. It gives too much free rein to your beast. Anger becomes your automatic response."
The doorbell rang. It was the three other Albany bachelor housemates with a stack of extra-large pizzas.
"I know how much newborns can eat." Cameron held the boxes out as an offering. "It's like they're black holes. Sire used to say that they were eating for two. I got Ewan's favorite. Paesan's."
The smell of hot cheese and savory meats made Seth's stomach growl. It was dusk and he hadn't eaten since breakfast.
"Please, we need to talk
," Cameron said.
Seth wished he knew that he was doing this right. Alexander had only given him rough guidelines on helping a newborn alpha. He wanted to believe Cameron would keep his little brother safe. "Where's Dan and Keagan?"
"Keagan lives at the dorms at RPI. Dan is kind of married. He knocked up one of our second cousins in high school. That was back when our Uncle Wynford was heir. All of us had our lives put on hold after Uncle Wyn died. Dan and his wife have been on and off since then. She blames Dan for jumping the gun. She's worried that the king will move her and their boys to Boston. Nothing against you, but it's not home. Everything she knows is here in Albany. Dan will come around eventually once he realizes how screwed he would have been if he'd gotten the alpha."
Seth hoped that Cameron was a good judge of character. "Come in, but no 'you remember when' or 'don't you remember so and so.' Just keep to the moment."
Cameron glanced to his cousins. "We understand."
* * *
Ewan's favorite pizza had sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs smothered under cheese. Hidden jalapenos were little notes of heat nearly lost under the mountain of meat. The cousins turned out to be named Drustan and Tadhg.
Cameron waited until they were on their second slice of pizza before launching into the real reason the bachelors had showed up in force. "Thane Silva called asking if you were safe with us. I told him that you were. They're still hunting Wickers in Utica. He made it sound as if they intend to drag you back to New York City, whether you want to go or not. They can't really do that, right? You're a prince."
No, Isaiah couldn't make Seth do anything directly but he could threaten to create massive collateral damage. "The king ordered them to make sure I'm safe from the Wickers."
"Wickers wouldn't be so stupid as to..." Cameron stopped in mid-sentence. His eyes went wide. "Shit! I just remembered! Aren't you like just fifteen? What the hell are you doing in the middle of this mess?"
"You're fifteen?" Ewan cried. "I thought you were like twenty-five."
"I'm sixteen. I'll be seventeen at the end of the year."
"Seventeen is still---wait---how old am I?" Ewan asked.
"You're twenty-one," Cameron supplied. "You're the bachelor house baby."
"I'm twenty-one? I'm an adult then. He's just..."
Cameron caught Seth's flash of annoyance. "Ewan! Don't---Don't go there. Please."
"But he..."
Cameron held up a hand to try to ward off Ewan's attempts of finishing the sentence. "Please. Please."
Drustan distracted Ewan with another piece of pizza.
"Why are the Thane being such jerks?" Tadhg was the eldest of the four and thus the one most likely to view Seth as a child. "If you get an orphan puppy dropped on you, you don't pull the crap they're doing. They tried to trash talk to Sire about you when we first showed up at the hotel. The phone call was more of the same. What the hell is that about?"
"When Isaiah becomes Prince of New York..."
"According to Sire, that's an 'if' he becomes." Tadhg proved that the cousins had all overheard the supposedly private conversation.
"In this case, it's 'when.' New York doesn't have a pack beyond the Thanes. When Isaiah or anyone else becomes prince, the only people he'll have at the start will be Thanes that the king gives him. As luck has it, the ones that will most likely stay with the king are the most dominant Thanes. His lawyer Bishop. Devi. Nakamura. Beridze. Cook."
"Oh, I see," Cameron said. "Low rung people get an instant kick up to top rung the moment Isaiah becomes prince."
Seth nodded. "But only if Isaiah asks for them to stay as part of the New York pack. If they remain with the king, then they'll shift to wherever the king sets up residence next---which might be Tokyo or Karachi."
"Where?" Drustan asked.
"Pakistan." Seth wondered if their grandfather had taught them anything. In his defense, the old marquis probably had focused on his sons who were now dead. "It's on the coast of the Arabian Sea."
"Talk about leave everything you know behind!" Drustan muttered. "I'd suck up to Isaiah too."
Tadhg smacked his cousin.
"Ow!" Drustan grabbed another piece of pizza and moved out of range. "You don't have to be a jerk to suck up to someone. There's suck up and then there's suck up. You set your limits and keep to them. Have your principles. I thought the Thane were supposed to be the best of us. The all-stars. The king's voice."
"The ones he actually sends out to be his voice, yes," Seth said. "They're all handpicked and trained. They're top rung. They'll go with the king when he shifts residence. There's about a dozen, though, who were yanked out of their pack because the king didn't want them taking the alpha. Samuels was one; he was fine with the demotion. Some of the others are bitter because they could have been top dog."
"They're not even near the top anymore," Cameron said.
"Exactly," Seth said. "None of the Thanes at Utica have ever been sent out as the king's voice. They normally do things like work the carpool, clean the Castle, take suits to the dry cleaner, and guard the doors."
"We're not going to let them take you," Tadhg said firmly. "This is the safest place in the state beyond the Castle. We need you here. They would never try this if Ewan was up to speed."
"I'm Ewan in this story, right?" Ewan tapped his chest.
"Yes," they chorused.
He pointed to his brother and cousins. "You're Cameron, Tadhg, and Drustan and our family sucks at naming people. You," he pointed at Seth. "You are really scary when you're mad. And I'm not following this at all. What's your name again?"
"Seth Tatterskein. I'm the Prince of Boston. Your neighbor."
Drustan snorted at Seth's choice of words. "Sire always said that you should keep a close eye on your neighbors. When their shit starts to fly, you're the first to be hit."
"Drustan!" Cameron smacked his younger cousin. "How long will Ewan be this way?"
"It depends," Seth said. "If we keep him from being stressed out, maybe a week or two. My grandfather died last Wednesday. His heir only suffered a few hours of amnesia."
"What about breaches?" Tadhg asked. "We always have more when the king is out of the country. We had one just this weekend. My little sister Bryg was dragged under and nearly killed. Sire always finds the breaches and closes them. How soon will Ewan be able to do that?"
What did Seth tell them? That he had no idea because the king never let him near one?
"I don't---I don't know how long it will take him to learn how to close them. It took me two months just to be able to pinpoint them on a map."
"Close what?" Ewan said. "What are we talking about?"
The three cousins looked horrified. They'd lost fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters to the monsters spawned by breaches.
"What are we supposed to do?" Cameron asked.
Seth wished he could offer his help but he was running blind in Albany. "Until Ewan can handle it, the king will close any breaches that open."
"But he's in Europe!" Drustan cried. "How soon does he get back?"
Alexander couldn't be in two places at once. If he had to choose, the king probably would protect the two million people of the Serbian city over the tens of thousands in Albany.
"I don't know," Seth whispered.
27: Decker
Decker woke knowing he'd made a horrible mistake.
He'd forgotten what it was like to be alive. To move around while he was awake instead of lolling in his bed, wanting oblivion to take him again. To live instead of merely existing.
He'd forgotten how quickly he became hungry. For a decade, he only had to feed once every week or so. The months he mostly spent sleeping, he could go for weeks. On top of being wounded, he'd spent the nights cleaning and shopping. He'd burned through his reserve.
He had to feed. Now. Before he lost control completely.
He hurried upstairs. He needed Elise. She would keep humans safe from him if he lost control. He didn't want Joshua to realize how w
eak his control...
He stopped in the kitchen door, surprised. Joshua had obviously spent the day painting.
Nude.
Well, not completely nude. He was wearing white briefs and a pair of blue jean shorts that were threatening to fall off. It showed off the fact that his martial arts training had given him chiseled abdomen muscles. Sweat gleamed on his bare skin. The dark stubble on his jaw suggested that he'd forgotten to shave in the morning. Thankfully he'd covered the wide front window with newspaper, or the entire neighborhood would have been treated to a show.
He turned, saw Decker, and blushed. "I was going to wait for you but I was impatient to see what it looked like. I was just going to do a little. What do you think? Elise said your favorite color was teal blue. Is this okay? It's called ocean blues. I thought it went well with the white cabinets."
"What happened to your clothes?"
"I kept getting paint on me and then I stepped in the paint pan." Joshua pointed at one of his sneakers, its sole covered in teal paint. "I'm starting to see why my mom never would let me---Decker?"
Without realizing he was even moving, Decker had crossed the room and wrapped himself around Joshua. He tasted as good he smelled.
"Did---did you just lick me?" Joshua asked.
Oh damn it all. This is not good.
"I'm hungry." He forced the words out. "This is very bad."
Joshua shifted into a now familiar judo hold, but he didn't follow through. "We agreed on no biting!"
"Joshua, I'm sorry," Decker panted, trying to keep hold of the urge to feed. "If I do not eat, now, I will kill the first human that I cross paths..." He was suddenly on the floor with Joshua straining to hold him pinned. This close, he could not help but feel the power inside the warm body. "This is really not helping."
"Will you kill me if I let you feed?" Joshua growled.
Could he keep in control? "I-I-I think---I think you'll hate---feeding---"
Joshua tightened his hold to punishing. "Focus, Decker! Will you kill me?"
The monster wanted it. "You will hate..." Me.