by Unknown
Chapter 22
"Okay, so here is where we stand. Adian is helping look for the missing members of the Fae. We know that Roarke is somehow involved, but we have no idea where he is at right now. Argus is going to begin making contact with all the leaders of the rest of the magical community. And the rest of us need to get our things up and running so we can be in touch with as many people as we can. The word is spreading, just not fast enough.
Anyone have any suggestions?" Quin said.
Trace spoke up, “On the reservation, if we needed everyone in the tribe to get a message in a hurry we used a phone tree. Can we set up something like that?”
“Good idea Trace, would you work with Argus on that?” answered Quin.
Blaine stood up and said. "Kira, Dalton, and I are having strange visions about the future; some are clear where some are faded, like they can change at any moment. I think that we’re going to have to take this step by step, because each decision, we make, is affecting the next. Surya left me a note in her papers. I wish I would have looked sooner, but I didn't. It says that the visions that we have are ever changing. The most-recent vision that we had, it shows that although Shea is making contact with the humans and setting up meetings, that Roarke is somehow working in the background to undermine it all. He also wants Hope. For some unknown reason, he is convinced that she is the key to winning the battle that will take place."
Cami growled at the last statement, and her mates put their hands on her shoulders to keep her from running out and getting their daughter.
Devon spoke up. "I can tell you we have more Enforcers, Warriors, Witches, and others joining the training. We are scheduled for months out in the camp. Sid and I were thinking that we were going to have to go and help them in a few weeks."
Darien spoke up. "Once I take my test, I can come and help too."
"Me too.” Teagan said and then grinned when his mate growled. "Of course, we’ll go at different times. I have to help Cloe with the babes and also help cover shifts at the clinic."
Cloe grinned and said. "Yes, my mates are going to be my official medical assistants/Enforcers."
Reggie and Casey both said at the same time. "We have the money sorted." The room laughed. Casey coughed and said. "And we can begin helping others start communities."
Lacy looked at her mates and nodded. "We are setting up a crisis center. Sevi and Shawn got our first couple who were miss-mated. It was a shifter who had come into her store on the last day of work in Louisiana. Shawn had tracked her down, and the cat was being severely abused by her mate. They had taken the woman from her town and brought her here. Currently, she was working in the store in town as a cashier and working with Lacy daily with her issues. Adele was trying to find a way to remove the claiming mark the wolf had given her, so she could find her true mate."
Lagon sat forward and said, "The children are all beginning to manifest their power.
And I’ve been able to get them to communicate with me. Hope knows that Roarke is going to try to get her again. I have worked out an escape plan for all of us. My caves are well hidden and have enough room. I have put provisions in place in case of need."
Trinity smiled and put her hand on her mate and said. "I’ve had many requests for recognition of new communities. Blaze and I are going to start checking the leaders out first, and then we’re working with Reggie and Casey to get them some help. Once the buildings are all done here, we will be able to lend them construction support too."
Trace held Bama's hand a smiled. "And now that I’m officially part of the Council, I have made contact with some of the elders of the Old Council and will set up a meeting with them for next week. I am going to be asking them in as an advisory board to help with some of the older communities who have not been as accepting to us as we had hoped."
Argus added, "In conjunction with Trace, I’m also trying to contact those leaders I have documented in the communities I know of. So far, I have received some replies, and for the record; I have identified a few other communities that we were not sure were still around. Uh, we are gonna need a few days to research some things"
Cami rubbed her hands together and said, "Any fun ones, I so want to meet some new people I know that we haven’t seen all of them yet. And research my ass, Skye told us what you did, boys you are lucky you still have your nuts after the tirade she just went on."
The room laughed, and Quin shook his head and said. "We have to act like grown up for now."
Cami growled at him and then winked. She loved it when she irritated her men. Cami was thinking another girl's night before the big ceremony was going to have to happen.
The guys had just gotten too complacent again, and they needed to shake things up.
Besides, Cloe really needed a fun night out, but still close. A party at the Pack house where the babies could be close would be the best idea; she thought and then opened her mouth to give the option when there was a knock on the door.
Jaden stood and answered it. Tripp was standing there waiting impatiently when Jaden finally swung the door wide open.
Chapter 23
Kira and Dalton had sat in the meeting and listened as their mate had once again expressed his disappointment in himself for Surya, and they were sick of it. It was time for their mate to stop this self-blaming bullshit and get back to reality.
They both knew he had been wallowing in it for the last few weeks, and they had tried to talk to him about it. But if they did, it only got worse. When he found the letter, the old Seer had left him, he had been angry. Kira and Dalton were forced to sit a listen to him rip himself apart while refusing to listen to them or allow them to comfort him.
Well, that was going to stop now. They both had made sure that Blaine was going to be back at the house soon. They told the Alphas of their plans to finally confront him about his guilt. They had agreed that Blaine was stubborn he wouldn’t talk about it without them taking drastic measures.
Kira had done the only thing she could think of that would piss him off for sure. She rearranged all the kitchen cupboards and then moved on to the living room, where she had taken all the books off the shelf and un-alphabetized them. Her mate was a neat freak.
Dalton had helped her by moving all his clothes around in the closet, since they had been color coded now they were a miss mash of clothes, like any normal person would have. Then she had sent Blaine picture of what she had done on his cell phone.
She had heard his roar all the way at the house, and that was saying something since at the time, he had been in the Pack courtyard. She looked at her watch and then waited as Dalton walked back through the door from the bedroom and said. "I just called and dad is holding his own. My mom is there with him now, and will stay with him until he wakes up. I told her I would be in when we got all this settled. She agreed that Blaine needed a little kick in the ass."
Kira glared at Dalton, she knew his tricks. He was always the peace maker. "Where is the gift?” she said and held out her hand.
Dalton had enough gall to actually look offended that she had asked him that. "Really,"
she said and rolled her eyes, and he reached into his pant pocket, pulled out a small nicely wrapped present, and set it in her hand. Kira raised an eyebrow at him.
"Diamond studded money clip," he said sheepishly and Kira laughed and put the present on the table and looked at her watch again. Five, four, three, two, one, and...
The door flew open and Blaine strode into the room with a thunderous look on his face.
"Why?” he gritted out.
Kira looked up at him with innocent eyes and said, "What?"
Blaine growled and looked around the room, "Why on earth would you make this mess?"
"Because we want our husband back Blaine; you have been beating yourself up for over a month about Surya and there is nothing you could have done. How many times have we told people that when the spirits call them home, it is a gift? Don't take that away from her with your guilt. She deserv
es so much better than that." Kira said softly, and her mate sat down heavily and sighed.
"I’m just having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she died and passed her powers to me because of that asshole. She could have lived for many more years and helped us." Blaine said.
"You don't know that, she could have gotten sick, hit by a truck, or even fallen down the stairs. She knew she was dying. I spoke to Jean Paul again, and he assured me that she was so happy for us. She spent her last moments with her favorite grandson, and his new mates telling them the visions she’d had about their futures. She’d seen them playing with their children. She was ready to go waited peacefully for our claiming to be complete, happy in the knowledge that she was close by and able to pass on her gift.
Nothing in this world is guaranteed I thought we had already established that a long time ago." Dalton said. "And by the way, the present is from me."
Blaine laughed and looked up at his mate. "Money clip?"
"How did you guess?" Dalton said grumpily.
"Only thing you haven't given me," Blaine said and then looked at Kira. "I guess I’m just second guessing everything, look at what Jordan found. We were not even reading the visions right."
"Uh no, I beg to differ on that. It was Surya who was all cryptic and other worldly. You, Dalton, and I always try to make sure we are clear before we tell anyone. We didn’t tell anyone about Jordan did we. We waited, because we didn’t know what it meant. Now I think we’re doing a great job, and if anyone would like to have these crazy-ass visions because they think they can do better, then more power to them. Until someone else takes over, we are it." Kira said firmly. "In the immortal words of our fair Alpha female,
'suck it up cupcake’ and let's move on."
Dalton and Blaine laughed, and Blaine nodded. His face grew very sober, and he looked at her and said. "Who is going to clean up this mess now?"
"I bought the present." Dalton said and sat down on the couch and put his feet on the table and closed his eyes.
"Whatever, Blaine go into the bedroom and see what he did to your clothes." Kira said, and Dalton jumped up in a panic.
"That was totally your idea," he cried and ran for the bedroom.
Kira laughed and rubbed her stomach. "Oh, I’m so tired; all of these extreme emotions have really taken a toll today."
Blaine frowned and looked at her, she did look tired. "You just lay there and relax; we'll get this place cleaned up in no time. Everything will be right."
She leaned back, closed her eyes, and smiled when Dalton groaned from the other room.
"I promise, on the next Saturday super clean-up day, I will be ready."
Blaine smiled and set to work, he loved his mates, quirks and all. He wasn’t sure how he got so lucky to find them, but he was not going to argue. They were his world. They would get through this, so long as they were together.
Dalton and Kira had blasted him out of his funk today and he and Kira had been there for Dalton while he worried about his dad. That is what mates did, and he loved his with his whole heart.
If they could just make it through the whole birthing thing, they would be good. Blaine was not looking forward to the chaos in the delivery room, especially if she insisted on having all the girls in there like Cloe had.
That was scary. None of them could be serious about anything when something like that was going on. Looking over at his now sleeping mate, he decided to vacuum later when she woke up. She needed her rest.
Chapter 24
"We, who have gathered in this circle, are now privileged to witness and to take part in a ceremony celebrating the public acknowledgment of a love which each of the Chosen and their mates has for each other, knowing that by our presence here with them, we are saying that they, together, are loved by many others. We have come to surround them as they stand before us, where now the Chosen and their mates in essence say, Welcome to our marriage! Welcome to the Celebration!" Ryan and Ariel spoke and then held out their hands to the Officiants and stepped back. The traditional part of the wedding went off without a hitch. Everyone said prayers for the tri-mates and wished blessings upon them. Now they were at the vows and exchanging of the rings which Griff had spent so much effort creating for each of them.
I promise to give you the best of myself and to ask of you no more than you can give.
I promise to accept you the way you are.
I fell in love with you for the qualities, abilities, and outlook on life that you have, and won't try to reshape you in a different image.
I promise to respect you as a person with your own interests, desires, and needs, and to realize that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own.
I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my personal world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting.
And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how ... completely and forever."
The men spoke quietly and deliberately as they looked into the eyes of their mates. They had been practicing for weeks to make sure they said it in unison.
The girls had all stayed the night at the Bed and Breakfast, so they could get up and get ready today. Their custom-made dresses were delivered a week ago, and Willow had been helping fit them to the ever-growing number of pregnant women on the Council.
Each of them wore shades of white because Bama had insisted on it, even though Cami and Jo wanted to wear red, and their mates had agreed but only if they wore horns too.
They all decided to show their unity by keeping their dresses as much alike as possible while still showing their varied body shapes off to perfection. While some were simple and elegant columns of material, like Lacy and Trinity, others were certainly more extravagant with longer flowing skirts, like Bama's and Cami's.
The last weeks went fast, Bama planning the wedding, and people arriving for the births of the newest members of the Pack. Lacy and Kira smiled at the cradles under the shade that held their sets of twins. Blain’s mom was watching them thrilled to be a grandparent four times over. The other children were being held by various members of their families.
The wedding consultant was busy outside making sure that everyone was where they were supposed to be. Only the families were witnessing the wedding, which was a very large group. But the party afterward would be enormous. Bama had planned it that way because there was no way they would be able to fit all those people in the courtyard. The good thing about technology was the four tents that had been set up in the open part of the compound were having video of the wedding streaming in.
It had been Bama's idea, so they wouldn’t lose the intimacy of the wedding. The tents did not lack for decoration; they were filled with flowers and twinkling fairy lights of white and peach.
Their mates were all dressed in traditional tuxedos. Each one standing in place creating a half circle around the Gazebo where the Officiants were going to be. Twelve flower petal strewn aisles of flowers like the rays of a sun were leading to the gazebo for each of the brides to walk towards her mates. No one ever heard of a wedding with twelve groups getting married. It was crazy; Bama and the wedding consultant had been busy.
Their hair and makeup were done by members of the Pack who owned the spa in town.
There was so much activity, they were all glad that they had a special dinner last night with all of them. Thank goodness, the girls all behaved, but Bama threatened a scary kind of torture if they did not.
Then the time came for the women to make their vows to their mates.
"I promise to give you the best of myself and to ask of you no more than you can give.
I promise to accept you the way you are.
I fell in love with you for the qualities, abilities, and outl
ook on life that you have, and won't try to reshape you in a different image.
I promise to respect you as a person with your own interests, desires, and needs, and to realize that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own.
I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my personal world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting.
And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how ... completely and forever."
They were finally almost to the part that they all looked forward to; the kiss that sealed them together in front of their families and friends. After today, they would all be members of the Council, with everyone claimed. They only waited for the children to be born, but they all agreed the trying was the best part.
"You may now kiss your brides.” Ryan said and then clapped as they finally were joined together.
Chapter 25
Griff carried Shea over the threshold, then turned around, and handed her off to Lev, who then also carried her over the threshold.
“Aren’t you guys going to carry each other over the threshold too?” She asked her mates.
Griff smiled at her and said, “We will, honey, when our new house is built, and we’ll carry you over that threshold too. Only right now we really can’t afford to risk a pulled muscle. We really desperately want to take you to bed and claim you.”
Lev closed the door and then turned to his mates “You are first handsome; Shea and I decided that we needed to claim you first, and I agreed.”
“You both agreed huh?” And he grinned then leaned over to give Lev a smacking kiss.
Turning to Shea, he picked her up and swung her around. “When did you decide this, my little mate?”