She found Marcus’ territory was in Utah and Trey and Santiago’s packs were both located in Colorado. She had plenty of questions for the men and to her surprise they didn’t hesitate to answer any question she asked. She had tried to ask her dad questions over the years but he often put off her questions for when she was older. She stared around at the area they were in, burned out houses, trees on the ground, also burnt. Shattered buildings were under repair. The place looked like a cross between a natural disaster and a war zone. The men told her a small fight had taken place a few days earlier between the witches and the shifters. Her dad had never talked about witches but apparently that was due to a curse from centuries before causing shifters to forget witches existed. The stories the men had told had confused her to the point she stopped asking questions about it.
She noticed Samson hadn’t answered her so she turned to look at him. They had made it to Marcus’ territory late in the evening the day after the rescue and Marcus had invited them to stay the night. Everyone had accepted the invitation except Santiago’s men, they said they were too close to home to stay. When she asked Samson weren’t they close enough to home to leave also his answer had melted her heart. He had put the needs of the children above his own desire to return home with her. He had told her he thought taking the trip in stages to let the children rest would be better than hurrying home, even if hurrying meant baths and a permanent place to stay. So he had taken Marcus up on the offer to stay. Now they were standing near Marcus’ house watching Gammon and his men sort out the children.
“Samson?”
“Hmm?” he looked down at her. Chris and Sammy were still asleep in one of Marcus’ spare bedrooms. Krys had offered to watch for them to wake up so the two of them had gone outside to enjoy the chilly morning.
“I asked why Gammon doesn’t take all the children? They sorted through the children and he took some and he left some. The men said his pack was a safe haven for our females and he took all orphaned females to his territory and kept them safe until they were old enough to choose to stay or get help finding a mate. But he left some of the girls. Why?”
“Because they are human. Gammon is a bit of a, what would you call it, a speciesist? Maybe that is not the exact word I want. He doesn’t necessarily think shifters are morally superior to humans so much as he doesn’t trust them to have shifter’s best interest at heart. He won’t have them in his territory, not even the children. He doesn’t think it fair to raise humans with shifters. At some point the children will grow up and it can only go a couple of ways. They could grow up an resent the shifter children for abilities they don’t have, or they grow up and see the shifters as family and would never betray them. Resentment leads to bad decisions and bad decisions lead to death. Gammon wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone if he thought his pack were in danger. He refuses the take in people he may have to kill later. I asked the same question when I found out he wasn’t taking all the kids.”
“So what will happen with the human kids? Where will they go?” The information Samson gave her disturbed her but she tried not to let it show. She knew she wasn’t successful when he wrapped an arm around her and rubbed one of her arms.
“Honey, it will be fine. Marcus’ pack has humans and shifters. Several of his men married humans. They make them family and they will happily take the human children into their pack. The baby is human and Krys wants desperately to raise her as her own. Children are rare for shifters so far from having a problem finding families for the kids, they will probably have more families wanting to keep the kids than there are kids. The human kids will have more family than they know what to do with and they will never lack for love. Marcus doesn’t see things the same way as Gammon when it comes to what makes a family. But then again, Marcus hasn’t lived as long as Gammon or seen half the horrors the humans can inflict on shifters. That last is my personal opinion.”
“What kind of horrors do humans do against shifters that can be worse than what shifters do to each other?”
“Baby girl, have you never seen movies? Humans hate those that are different and fear those they would see as animals. If they knew about us they would call open season on our kind. Most of the men who take our females don’t do it out of hate or malice, they do it because they want a female of their own. That they don’t take into consideration what the female wants is what makes their actions so horrific to us. We see females as precious and rare. We want them to have the freedom to find love and happiness. But in some ways we are no different from the men who would take you against your wishes. We take also. We didn’t enter that prison with the thoughts of freeing any of you to find your own way in the world. We could find females and free them and give them the money to start fresh somewhere else, but we don’t. In our own way we hold the female captive just as firmly as the rogue males. But what matters, what makes us different, we hold them until they can choose their own path. And except for the rare ones who true-mate when we find them, we let them choose the path they would take. Gammon has females at his compound who are single in their thirties and older. They are content to wait until a male brings a female there and the mate bond flares up, or a male is born into Gammon’s pack that would be their true-mate. We live hundreds of years and the females are fertile well into their fifth century. Why rush to find a mate when a hundred years could make the world a safer place? I asked one of Gammon’s men what they would do if the female wanted to go out and find a mate. He said they have had two in the last fifty years who wanted just that. The men said they took a vacation with a team of men to protect the female and traveled through Canada where they knew of a few packs and then down into the States. They only need to get the female to enter the territory of the male for the wolf to sense it’s mate. A mature female is the same at finding her mate as the male. So they don’t need to approach any packs, merely get close enough. In both cases the female felt her mate and told the men. Instead of the men approaching the Alpha of the pack and risking their lives and the life of the female they found a campground near the pack and waited. Within a couple of days the male would come searching for his mate. Having her surrounded by males caused a few problems with one of the matings, but the male will listen to his mate and she was able to calm him and explain to him what he needed to do to win her.”
“What did they have to do to win her?” Nicole listened to the story in fascination. She was eager to hear what a male needed to do to win his mate.
Samson started laughing, “He had to go to Gammon and request the hand of his mate face to face. Not many men will face Gammon willingly.”
“But if the female was old enough why did she need Gammon’s permission?”
“Oh sweetheart, she didn’t. He did. Gammon grills people and investigates people like nobodies business. He is not going to keep a female safe for thirty years and turn her loose in a pack only to have her mate destroyed as the others fight for her. No, they have to prove to Gammon their Alpha is worthy of having the female in the pack and can keep her safe.”
“So what happened? Did he let them mate?”
“Baby girl, he couldn’t stop them from mating. That can’t be stopped or changed.”
“And? You can’t stop with that, what happened?”
“Well, Gammon gained an accountant and I believe a computer specialist or something having to do with computers.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The Alphas are the ones who did not pass inspection. The males wouldn’t want their mate endangered anymore than Gammon. One of the males knew his Alpha wouldn’t be able to keep the pack together and his mate safe. He went to his Alpha and revoked his oath and left with the men who had his mate. He requested the right to join Gammon’s pack and swore oath to him and his. The other man was not so eager to leave his pack from what I understand. But by the time Gammon was done with his investigation there was no pack for the man to go back to. But the male will always follow the female if it means keeping her safe, even if
he has to leave his pack behind. The mate bond comes before the pack bond and mates will always put each other before the pack.”
“So the male has to live where ever the female wants? Always?”
“Well, no, it doesn’t work that way. In theory that is how it should be, but I talked a long time with these guys last night while you slept, catching up on things in our world since the last time I was home. Jaden, the Beta of this pack and Marcus’ brother had a time with his mate. His mate, Trina, is twin to my Alpha’s mate. She insisted, demanded Jaden move to Trey’s pack and become part of it so she could be close to her twin. He said that caused a massive argument between the two of them before he told her what would happen if he was so stupid.”
“What would happen?”
“Well Trey, that is my Alpha and incidentally my older brother, is young, and he doesn’t have the power he may one day command. Jaden is older and more powerful so his wolf, Jaden’s that is, wouldn’t willingly follow Trey. He would end up challenging Trey and Trey would lose his life and his pack. That would probably kill Gabby, Trey’s mate, which means Trina would lose her sister. The pack would hate her for causing them to lose their Alpha and she would have lost her sister and a pack to love her because of her selfishness. She backed up pretty quick on her demands. Then we get to Trevor, shifter from Australia who was here a few weeks ago. Trevor found his mate and his mate’s best friend is in Marcus’ pack. Long story short, she demanded he move to the States and he agreed. Trey had to put a stop to that.”
“Why did Trey stop him?”
“Darling, he is the Alpha of the pack. If he had agreed to move to the States his entire pack would have to move. Can you imagine the immigration nightmare of getting that many people into the States with them buying enough land for the entire pack to be in one location. Just the mass movement of so many people from one location in Australia to one location here would have been a logistical nightmare, not to mention the government investigation that would have occurred.”
“So why would she ask an Alpha to move? Didn’t she know anything about packs?”
“She had gotten hurt or something and the man was desperate to promise her the moon and stars if it meant she would feel better. Trey said it was funny as hell and he let it go on for as long as he could before he put a stop to it. Wish I could have been there. The guy was so far gone with worry over his mate he forgot to tell her he was the Alpha of his pack. Damn I have missed so much these last three months.”
“When did you talk to your brother? Did you tell him about me? Did you tell him about Sammy and Chris? What did he say?”
“Last night, yes, and yes. My brother is happy I found you and he can’t wait to meet you. He is excited about Chris and Sammy. I called him last night to let him know we were back in the States and staying here. Marcus’ people had already called him when we got to Drac’s to tell him the mission was a success so he knew you were safe and he knew I was safe. The guys told him I had been up since the day I called him and that I was sleeping so he didn’t give me too much grief about waiting so long to call in.”
“And he doesn’t mind you bringing three people when he only expected you to bring me?”
“How could he mind. I am bringing my family home. If that family is one mate or a mate and her family it doesn’t matter to him. His pack has increased by three. He said he hadn’t called Mom and Dad and told them anything yet. He didn’t want to them to stress and worry when he didn’t know if the mission would be successful. He said it was enough his mate had to watch him pace the floor and stress and worry for three days without making others worry with him. He did admit if he didn’t have a mate he probably would have paced and stressed at our parents, a burden shared and all that. He also told me our sister is expecting a boy. He isn’t happy about that at all. He said it makes him feel like a failure as an Alpha and he is worried others in the pack will feel the same. And he invited us to stay with him while we wait for the weather to fair up enough to build a home. He thought we might not want to stay at Mom’s house due to the child they are adopting. Which is a new one on me. He wouldn’t tell me anything about the kid except that I should wait to meet her for myself. I did ask if she was of an age to play with Chris. He said, physically but refused to expound upon that statement. He didn’t seem too terribly happy about the adoption. Which isn’t like him at all. You know, I never asked you, when do you turn twenty-one?”
“What’s today?”
“Hmm, I think Friday, maybe Saturday? No, wait, let me see, they took you Tuesday and we got you back Thursday, made it here Friday night, so yeah, Saturday. Why?”
Nicole started laughing. “No, silly, I mean, the date. What is today’s date?”
“Oh, I don’t know, let me see.” He pulled out his phone and powered it on.
“Why do you power your phone down every time?”
“Habit I guess. We can’t take the risk on a stakeout that someone will call and the phone call will be intercepted. They have equipment out there that can tune into cell phones and the person can listen to everything. So rather than take the risk of getting or receiving calls we learned to keep them off except in an emergency.”
“But what if something happened, I mean back home while you are gone. What if something happens, how would anyone get in touch with you?”
“Our organization monitors certain sites on the web. We use cryptic messages that wouldn’t mean anything to anyone outside the organization. If something happened back home then my Alpha would contact a certain number and relay the information and the person who took the call would place a message on the message board. It wouldn’t be immediate, but we would know within a few hours. If you are that far from home you couldn’t do anything in those few hours anyway.”
“But, I mean, what if you had to rush home for an emergency or something? It would be hours before you knew anything and those hours could make a big difference.”
“Sweetheart, if the emergency was so critical my presence was needed by the time I got the message arrangements would have already been made. All I would need to do was show up at the pre-determined destination to catch the next flight home. Why so many questions? What has you so worried?”
“I am scared. You are going to leave and we won’t know where you are and no way to get in touch with you.”
“Nicole, look at me.” Samson tilted her face up and kissed her nose, “You do not have to worry about that. Mated men don’t stay in the organization, not true-mates. A true-mating is so rare, and the consequences should something happen to the male are so far-reaching we don’t take that risk. That part of my life is over. The organization will recruit another single shifter male to take my place.” He felt the tension leave her body and realized how worried she had been about that aspect of her future. He shook his head, he was going to have to sit down with her some time soon and discuss their future and what she wanted. He looked at his phone and turned it around so she could see it. March sixteenth, so now, you still haven’t told me, when is your birthday, your twenty-first birthday?”
She pointed to a date. He looked at her then back at the phone. His voice filled with disbelief he asked, “Seriously? Next Saturday? Like, seven days from now?”
Her lips quirked up in a smile as she nodded.
He whooped and picked her up and spun her around. A couple of early morning risers looked their way and smiled. Krys came running from the house with a worried look on her face. She grinned when she saw Samson whirling Nicole around in circles. Nicole was squealing and laughing.
“Put me down, you are making me dizzy. Put me down.”
Marcus was walking back with Jaden from seeing Gammon and his team off. At Samson’s shout the two men had broken into a run. They slowed back to a walk as they saw the commotion was not one of danger but of happiness.
“Did you finally get her to agree then?” Marcus asked.
Samson lowered her to the ground and grinned. “Agree? She all but agreed before
we left Mexico. No man, she just told me when she turns twenty-one.”
“And that made you this happy? When is the magical day?” Krys asked.
“Saturday!”
“Saturday? You mean next week Saturday?” Marcus turned to look at Nicole who nodded.
“But, I thought,” he paused before continuing, “With what happened I thought you probably had a few years to go.”
“Why would you think that?” Nicole turned a confused face toward Marcus.
“Well you were getting married and— oh for fucks sake man, shift back.” Marcus shook his head when Samson lost control of the wolf at the mention of Nicole’s former engagement.
Samson shifted back and picked up his clothes, face red.
Nicole had squealed and jumped away, startled at the sudden shift. Now she said, “Oh, is that why all of you wear those funny clothes?”
“Our clothes are not funny.” Indignation dripped from Samson’s voice as he velcroed his clothes back on. He snarled at Marcus, “We do not discuss that shit without prior warning. The fuck is wrong with you?”
“I think it’s funny as fuck myself.” Jaden offered.
Nicole and Samson both glared at him. “No one asked you Fido.” Nicole finally said.
This time it was Jaden who glared at Marcus, “Really man? You gotta tell everyone you meet about that? Aint you never heard of pack secrets?”
“Pack secrets?” Marcus snorted, “She named you that in Trey’s territory in front of multiple people from three different packs.Which pack is suppose to keep that secret?”
“What the fuck ever, man. One day, I swear one day!”
“Which reminds me Samson, keep control of your wolf when I say this next part. You got him locked down?”
Samson nodded at Marcus.
“Good. My men have been working with Jeffery to find and secure the bodies of Nicole’s parents. The good news is, the ex-fiance had scheduled a trip as an alibi for the night in question and the house was still just as the kidnappers left it. Jeffery was able to get the ball rolling to secure the bodies for transport back to the States as United States citizens. Oh, and he said you need to leave your cell phone powered on if he is going to be running errands for you. He called in some favors and got the paperwork going. He said he has the truck with all their family’s possessions in route to the States and he managed to clean out Nicole’s personal belongings before he got others involved. He also got your people to do a deep clean on the house. The ex-fiance and his trip? The good ole United States of America was his destination. He was working on securing the property Nicole’s dad had in New Orleans when our people tracked him down. Your buddies have him now. Rimi said he tastes like shit. I thought those fangs were for, well it doesn’t matter. The thing is your friends have him and they are having a ball seeing how much torture the man can bear. I told them to leave some for you.”
Nicole Page 14