Real Love

by Sophie Martin

  “So, what you’re saying is we unknowingly moved into a territory claimed by an alpha. Because of that, we’ve got two choices. Either we pledge our loyalty to the alpha, or we need to move out of his territory?”

  “Yes, you summed it up nicely.” Jack nodded after taking a sip of his tea. “Unfortunately, we were unable to find another solution. We have already had this problem with some shifters who didn’t know about the clause. In the end, they did pledge their loyalty, but until then, they suffered some serious health issues.”

  “I see.” Brian paused and took a deep breath before saying, “Look, Mr. Robinson, I don’t mean any disrespect…”

  “I hear a but coming,” Jack said and smiled at the kid encouragingly.

  “But…” Brian smiled back. “Wouldn’t I, too, be affected if what you’re saying is true? And from what you’re saying, joining a pack is a pretty big deal. I don’t think I should be making such a decision lightly.”

  “You’re right of course. We’re not sure why it affects some paranormals stronger than others, but I believe it’s only a matter of time until you too get affected. And yes, it is a big decision to make. Normally a head of family would be the one to make it, but as you say your father doesn’t believe in paranormals…”

  “It has to be me,” Brian finished, and Jack agreed.

  “It has to be you. But I do not expect you to make this decision right now. I want you to seriously think about it. Also, I must discuss it with my alpha. He needs to be aware of your situation.”

  “Okay.” Brian was quiet for a long while. “Just to be sure, if I decide to pledge my loyalty, we can stay. But what if I decide against it? It’s not like I can just tell my dad that we need to move out because we encroach on a paranormal turf. He won’t listen to me,” Brian finished bitterly. Jack scrunched his face in thought.

  “I’d have to discuss it with my alpha then,” he finally answered. “We’ve got several choices to make, none of which can be done without the alpha’s permission. I’ll talk to the alpha, and we’ll let you know what your options are. Just know that if you do decide to leave, the pack will help you in any way we can.”

  “Okay.” Brian released a pent-up breath. It was evident that their talk was taking its toll on the boy.

  “Remember, we don’t mind what you decide. It is your choice, and, whatever it is, the pack will support you. We’re not monsters, and we don’t like forcing anyone. It is simply something that we have no way of avoiding.” Jack smiled then and lightened the conversation. “But if you decide you want to join the pack, I’m sure we can figure out ways to help you and your sister with your magic. Morton is a super smart guy. I bet he’ll help you.”

  Brian’s face brightened, and he looked excited.

  “You think? Ruby would be so excited. She loves learning about magic. Even when mother was mean to her, Ruby still enjoyed her lessons.”

  “And you?” Jack asked.

  “Me? No, I told you, I’m not a witch. I mean, I can learn all the rules and theory, that’s not a problem, but when it comes to casting spells, I’m useless. I must have some tiny amount of magic since you said that I smell like a witch to you, but I can’t actually use it.”

  “Oh.” Jack wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t know that much about magic, but maybe Morton can help you with this. He might know some spells that don’t require much magic.”

  “Do you really think so?” Brian’s voice was hopeful.

  “I don’t know.” Jack shrugged. “But it can’t hurt to ask, can it?”

  “No, it can’t.” Brian smiled and got up from his chair. “Thank you, Mr. Robinson. I’ll think about all that you said.”

  “No problem.” Jack waved the kid’s thanks away. “We paranormals are so few that we must keep together.” Brian chuckled, and Jack smiled. As the boy turned to leave, Jack remembered something else. “Oh, and Brian?”

  “Yes?” the boy asked, looking over his shoulder.

  “It might be a good idea to take your sister for a weekend trip somewhere. Possibly at least fifty miles away from this town, huh? The change of scenery could do her good.”

  “Oh.” Brian’s eyes widened when he caught Jack’s meaning, and then he grinned, showing off his straight white teeth. “Thank you, Mr. Robinson. I’ll ask my father if we could go visit grandparents for a few days.” Brian nodded and left, a new spring to his step. Jack smiled wistfully seeing the kid go. It had to be nice to be so young and hopeful. Jack felt old, jaded. He felt much older than his thirty-odd years. Jack sighed loudly and started gathering his things. He had to go home and tell Jason all about this new development. The alpha was sure to be pissed. Jason hated that he had inadvertently forced people to either join or skip the town. Jack smiled again. Jason was a good alpha. Jack couldn’t dream of a better one. While Jason had never wanted to lead a pack, he stepped up when it was time and did an excellent job. It helped that his pack was a rather easy-going one. They didn’t bother the alpha with every small thing. They mostly treated Jason like a good friend or older brother to whom you could go for advice. Of course, they also listened to his directions whenever shit hit the fan, which seemed to be a lot lately.

  After Jason had rescued Jack from the brothel, when the demigod and his friends came for a fey friend of theirs, they offered Jack a safe place to stay in Jason’s house. Jack had thought that it wouldn’t do him much good. Unlike other shifters, cuberows died when they didn’t have pack ties. Jack hadn’t managed to figure out a reason for that. The regular Abyssinian wolves weren’t any more or less connected to their pack than other canines. They lived in small, family packs just like grey wolves. So why their shifter counterparts died without a pack was anyone’s guess. Still, aware of that fact, Jack had shared it with Jason. That was when Jack’s life became even stranger.

  Jason, who possessed the power to change reality with his words, had lost control of it and made Jack a part of his pack. That made Jason—who previously had had no idea paranormals even existed—the alpha of that pack. In the months that followed Jack’s life changed from strange to stranger. From meeting Eric, Jason’s father and a god, to Dominic who was an alpha wolf shifter without knowing it. From pixie twins who proved to be princes of their realm, and involved in an ancient prophecy, to learning that the person behind the trafficking ring was a fey. From meeting Ross, an owlcat, to members of Jack’s old pack attacking them on Halloween. It seemed that they simply couldn’t get a break.

  Jack went to the counter and paid for his order, then marched back to his car. He wasn’t looking forward to telling Jason all about Brian’s problem. The alpha was stressed enough with the missing teenager from Jack’s old pack. He wasn’t going to be happy there was more trouble.

  Chapter Three

  “The boy isn’t affected, but his sister is?” Jason asked after Jack had explained the situation to him. “And their father is human and doesn’t know about paranormals?”

  “Yes.” Jack nodded and took a bite of his dinner. They were all seated around the table, eating the meal together. It was as good a time as any to discuss Brian’s situation.

  “Doesn’t it strike you as odd how many paranormals are suddenly arriving in this area?” Toby was the one to ask. They all looked at him, and Toby shrugged. “I mean, you all said there aren’t that many paranormals, yet we’ve got them popping out of the woodwork. Our pack aside, we had that crazy fey after us, then her gang of paranormals attacked us. As soon as that calmed down, Ross and his brother showed up. Then we’ve got an invasion of baby cuberows. Now the witches. It seems like an awful lot of paranormals in one place.”

  “It does seem a bit weird,” Jack admitted. “But there may be many reasons for that. Jason’s territory expanding for once. That fey’s involvement with paranormal trafficking brought a lot of them to us. Or maybe it’s all just a coincidence.” He finished and looked around.

  “Yeah, right.” Tyler expressed everyone’s scepticism. “I don’t believe in coi
ncidences, at least not when it comes to paranormal matters.”

  “I know what you mean.” Jack sighed and put away his fork. “I don’t really believe it either. I was just throwing ideas around.”

  “Well, it doesn’t really matter,” Jason said, looking thoughtful. “We should focus on the problem at hand. Accepting these young witches into the pack will be tricky if the boy decides he wants to join. We’ll need to find a way for them both to meet me. And I don’t want to be suspected of being a creep, getting the children away from their father. We better come up with something and quick.”

  There was a long silence as they were all considering that. Finally, Toby spoke, gaining everyone’s attention.

  “Oh, I know. What about the open day in the shelter? We have some presentations, and anyone can be a volunteer for a day. Jack could announce it at school, spread the word for a good cause. Then Jack could ask Brian and his sister to come to the shelter, even drive them there and back. You could speak to the kids while walking some dogs or something.”

  “That’s a great idea, Toby,” Jason praised his mate, and Toby beamed with pride. Jack was once again shocked with how easy-going and well-adjusted the young man was after all he had been through.

  “Yeah, I can speak to other teachers, ask them to announce it as well. I think it’s an excellent way to give back to the community. I should have thought about it anyway.”

  “Great, so we’ve got it covered, if Brian wants to join the pack. What if he decides against it?” Jason looked at both his mates and Jack. “Any ideas?”

  “Well as I see it, we’ve got two choices,” Jack started. He had thought about it, and that’s what he came up with. “Either we make the father aware of the paranormal world, force him to believe, if necessary.”

  “Or?” Jason asked, raising his brows.

  “Or we use persuasion to make him move out of the territory,” Jack finished.

  “And by persuasion you mean…”

  “We could ask Mark to enthrall him. Or Morton could put some spell on him or something.” Jack shrugged. He knew basics about magic and spells, but he wasn’t a witch. He was sure, though, that Morton had spells that could convince someone to do something.

  “Mark has his hands full with Leanar. Apparently keeping an eye on the fey proves to be a full-time job,” Toby said, shaking his head. “But I’m sure if it came to it, he could spare a moment to enthrall a human.

  “Hey,” Tyler suddenly interjected, “if we decide on option A, can I be the one to prove the existence of paranormals to the guy?”

  “You just want to scare the shit out of him by changing into a tiger in front of him,” Toby snorted. Tyler grinned and winked at his smaller mate.

  “You betcha! Scaring people is always fun.”

  “Can we not put the cart before the horse?” Jason said calmly. “We don’t know what the kid will decide. It’s good to have options, but we don’t need to iron out all the details just yet.”

  “Which is Jay-Jay’s diplomatic way of telling you ‘no, you can’t.’” Toby stuck his tongue out at the tiger. Tyler shrugged.

  “Oh, well, it never hurts to ask.” Then the big shifter smiled at Jason. “A cart before a horse, huh? You highly educated man, you, throwing around sayings and proverbs like that.”

  Jason rolled his eyes at his mate’s teasing. Jack smiled. It was such a homey atmosphere. The teasing, the jokes, it was all full of love and in good fun.

  “Did you hear from Eric, yet?” Jack addressed his alpha after a moment. “Does he know any way of avoiding the territory clause?” Jack asked as he got up and started gathering dishes, then placing them in the dishwasher.

  “Yeah, he skyped me yesterday.” Jason joined in the cleaning.

  “Skyped you?” Jack couldn’t help his surprise.

  “I know, right? One would think an ancient god wouldn’t be so tech-savvy, but I swear he knows more about today’s technology than I do. He sends me these texts that I need to go online to decrypt. I get LOL’s and smiley faces and ROTFL, but what does AAMOF or AAR8 or AEAP mean? I swear he’s worse than a teenager.” Jason rolled his eyes and sighed. Jack only chuckled. He had grown used to the quirky god’s strange ways.

  “What did he skype you about?” Jack asked, trying to steer the conversation back on track.

  “Right.” Jason frowned as he turned to Jack. “He told me there’s no way of avoiding this clause. It is one of the very fundaments of paranormal world and is meant as a protection to all non-humans. It saves us from disputes within the community that could lead to paranormals being discovered by humans.”

  “That’s what I suspected.” Jack sighed. “But I thought he might know more, being a god and so old.”

  “Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Jason agreed. “But he not only told me there’s no avoiding this thing, but he also warned me against trying to use my power to change it.”

  “Oh?” Jack was curious. “Did he say why?”

  “For two reasons. One, changing such a fundamental law could lead to chaos in the whole paranormal world. Consequences could be devastating.”

  “That sounds fair,” Jack said as he had already suspected it could be the case. “And the second?”

  “Once again, the same thing he had told me before. I shouldn’t use my power, or at least save it for emergencies. Some people would be decidedly unhappy if they learned about me, and it could put me in grave danger.”

  “He did not specify what he meant, did he?” Jack asked, but from Jason’s expression he already suspected the alpha’s answer.

  “No, he didn’t.” Jason’s nostrils flared, his jaw clenched, and there was a spark of annoyance in his eyes. Jack grimaced in sympathy. “He sticks to those cryptic little warnings instead of telling me the whole truth. I don’t know if he doesn’t trust me, or maybe he thinks he’s protecting me by not giving me details. But one thing is certain, he’s annoying the hell out of me whenever he does that.”

  “Yeah, I understand.” Jack nodded. Eric’s behaviour could be truly exasperating. They finished cleaning up, and Jack declined Toby’s offer to watch a movie with them and went to his room instead. He had some lesson plans to prepare and then wanted to work on his paranormal textbook.

  * * * *

  It was a week later that Brian gave Jack his answer. The kid stayed after class to talk to Jack.

  “I’d like to meet the alpha, speak with him, and then ask to join the pack,” the boy blurted out.

  “That’s a smart decision,” Jack praised. “You’ll be able to make your own mind about the alpha, not rely solely on my opinion. You heard me talking about the open day in the local animal shelter?” When Brian nodded, Jack continued. “Alpha Jason suggested you meet him there.” Jack chuckled at Brian’s confused expression. “The alpha and one of his mates work there.”

  “The alpha works in a shelter?” Brian’s voice was full of surprise. “Isn’t his job to be the alpha?”

  “Being an alpha is not a full-time job, you know. There aren’t that many pack members, and they don’t need much from their alpha. They can call and ask for his advice or if they need any help, but besides that…” Jack shrugged.

  “Oh, okay.” Brian nodded, taking Jack’s explanation in stride. “So, I go to the open day, then what?”

  “Well, we thought you and your sister might want to join the ‘one-day-volunteer’ program. Alpha Jason would be the one to show you the ropes then. You’ll walk some dogs, get a chance to talk freely, and he’d answer any questions you might have. If your chat goes well, he will accept you into the pack, and there, job done.”

  “Just like that? There isn’t like, a magical ritual or something?”

  “No, Brian.” Jack chuckled and shook his head. “There’s no rituals involved. He just needs to consciously decide to accept your pledge of allegiance.”

  “Huh,” Brian mumbled, and it was evident from his frown that he had something on his mind.

  “What is it?” Ja
ck asked and then elaborated when the boy looked up at him. “I can see something is bothering you. You can tell me. We want you to have all the facts you need to make an informed decision.”

  “It’s just…” Brian hedged. “It all seems so, normal, you know. Kind of suburban picnic instead of a mystical, paranormal ceremony.” The kid shrugged then explained. “When Mother did magic, it was always so elaborate and intricate. This doesn’t seem so.”

  “Well, I can’t tell you about magic, I don’t know that much about witches, but when it comes to the pack joining, I can give you an explanation.” Jack noticed Brian’s curious face and continued. “The territory law is one of the very foundations of the paranormal world. As such, it needs to be clear cut and obvious. Involving some complicated rituals would be counterproductive and could muddy it. Because the very existence of paranormals depends on hiding from humans and the territory clause is supposed to ensure that, it is better that it’s so easy to implement.”

  “When you put it like that, it makes sense,” Brian said thoughtfully before changing topic. “Meeting during the open day is a good idea, but I’m afraid my father won’t let me go with Ruby alone. I know he’s gonna be working that Saturday though.”

  “Well, I’ll be going anyway, so I’m happy to take you both. Talk to your dad, ask his permission. I’m sure he won’t mind you going since I’m your teacher.”

  “Oh, that would be great, thank you. Seriously, thank you for everything, Mr. Robinson. I don’t know what I’d have done if you didn’t let me know I could talk to you.”