by C L Amos
Julia shook her head, “It’s not for me to say!”
Sasha jumped up, “I thought we agreed no more secrets! We have to trust each other.”
Julia stood up, “I can’t tell you, it’s not my secret to share.”
Sasha lashed out “Then who the hells secret is it?”
Suddenly Sasha became aware of another person within their midst as she heard a familiar voice coming from behind her, “It’s mine!”
Book 3
THE RISE
OF
THE SOW
THE FLEDGLINGS’ MENTOR
Chapter 1 Secrets
Sasha turned on her heel, her face shocked and surprised, “Pete! Wait!” She checked her phone…nothing! “How the fuck did you get past the perimeter sensors without tripping the alarm?”
Pete’s face dropped, “Oh shit!” He looked around frantically, “Are they on their way?”
Sasha felt her heart racing; someone could be watching. She lunged at Pete, attacking him full force, “You can’t be here, they might be watching.”
Pete raised his hands in submission as she tackled him to the floor, “There is no one hiding in the bushes and I didn’t set off the perimeter sensor… it was a joke.”
She pushed his hands back, pinning him to the floor… “How can you be so sure?”
Pete laughed, “Because… I never actually left the property.”
Tom placed his hands on Sasha’s shoulders, “Pete is right, the pack has been sweeping for intruders. We won’t be caught off guard again!”
Sasha stood up visibly angry. “No more secrets, hey?” She folded her arms and stormed off.
Julia cried after her, “Wait, Sasha… come back here.”
Sasha just flicked her hand back at them.
Pete shrugged, “Shit, I didn’t mean to piss her off, sorry guys.”
Julia shook her head, “It’s my fault - I slipped up about you and her mother… the last thing she needed right now was another big surprise.”
Tom shrugged, “We both promised her no more secrets… so we are both at fault.”
Pete placed his hand on Tom’s shoulder, “It’s no one’s fault, she has been through a rough couple of days and we just need to give her time to process the changes in her life.” Pete shook his head… “If anybody needs to apologize to her, it’s me!”
Julia piped in, “Have you spoken to aunty Janey yet? Does she even know Sasha is here?”
Pete ran his hand over his head, “No! I haven’t spoken to her since I moved in here, you know we don’t see eye to eye on any of this and throwing Sasha into the mix will only confuse matters even more – this whole mess has the Faction divided right down the middle.”
Tom snapped, slightly annoyed, “All these secrets have been lying dormant for way too long! Look around, Pete! They are exploding all around us and the longer we leave it the worse it will be. I think it’s time to rip off the band aids and let people start hurting so they can start healing. We have just over a month to get this right – we can’t afford for there to be any unsettled emotion or this would have all been in vain.”
Pete shrugged, “And we can’t afford to fight both the High Council and the Faction… we need to play this carefully and gather as many allies as we can.”
Julia stepped in, “I don’t mean to change the subject, but have you thought about what you are going to tell Sasha? She is going to want to know the truth.”
Pete looked off into the forest, “It depends on whose truth you want to believe… as much as I would like to, I can’t give her all the answers she needs!”
A cold wind blew over the three, “One of us should probably go find her… the sun is setting quickly and it’s going to be freezing in the woods.”
Chapter 2 Lies
Sasha stormed off into the woods; she needed to calm herself and focus, and she needed space from everything and everyone right now. Suddenly, her phone began to ring, and as she saw Jim’s name her heart stopped, He knew, he must know… why else would he be calling? She looked around, trying to see if she could pick up anyone moving towards her as she answered nervously, “Hi Jim.”
As usual, Jim began rattling off, “Sasha, I need you to get me a sample of Julia’s venom, we need to run tests on it to see if she is progressing at the same level as Tom.”
Sasha replied, “How fresh does it have to be? I have a few dead mice from our training session earlier.”
Jim put the phone against his chest and spoke to someone else in the room before coming back to her, “That should be fine, but we are going to need them asap. Can you fly them over to the lab a little later?”
Sasha replied, “It might be a little tricky, but I will make a plan to get them to you before sunrise.”
“Good, I will leave instructions for security.” And with that he hung up.
Sasha locked her phone and placed it back into her pocket. Her stomach felt queasy and she vomited into a bush of ferns. This was all too much, she felt dizzy and made it to a small rock under a tree and sat down… the tears streamed down her cheeks as she finally opened the floodgates to all the years of suppressed emotion. Not only from her past, but her present and assumed future were all taking a heavy toll as she tried to come to terms with the person she was now… with no wall… no filter...no protection… and worst of all, she didn’t know who to trust. Everyone had secrets and everyone had agendas. She just hoped that she wasn’t being played for a fool.
She heard footsteps approaching behind her, “Sasha!”
She recognized his voice and wiped her eyes clean, “Leave me alone, Tom.”
Tom continued walking, “Can’t leave you alone out here, it’s going to be dark soon and the wind’s picking up.”
Sasha glanced up at the clearing through the trees; the wind had picked up and she could see a few thick clouds coming over the mountain, “I’d better get to the city before that storm settles in.”
Tom looked confused, “What’s in the city?”
Sasha ignored him and began making her way through the forest towards the barn.
Tom ran after her, “Tell me - what is going on?”
She stopped and turned on her heel, “Where should I start, Tom? The fact that you and Julia have obviously been keeping secrets from me, you know what happened to my mother and on top of it I find out that you are in bed with Pete…who is a member of the Faction… how do you think this makes me feel?” She waited for an answer but as he started to reply she cut him off and carried on walking, “Used Tom, I feel like you guys have been playing with me the entire time and having fun at my expense.” She stopped and turned to him… “I keep having to convince myself that I can trust you. I don’t know why that is proving so difficult.”
Tom jumped in front and stopped her, “Listen to me; there are still a lot of things you don’t know, but it’s not because we are keeping them secret, they just haven’t come up yet. There is so much to tell you, things that we have forgotten about because this has been building since Julia got her gift at 11. Although we didn’t know you, you have kind of been a part of our lives for a long time and we didn’t even realize it or how deep the connections would actually be until she first shifted into wolf. That’s when her visions became clearer and we called in Uncle Pete.”
Sasha ran her hands over her face and into her hair, “Uncle Pete? This just gets better.”
Tom shrugged, “I told you earlier I don’t even get it; sometimes I think this whole thing is ridiculous, but even you pointed out earlier that it is actually true.”
Julia’s voice seemed to come out of nowhere as she suddenly joined them, “We are all going to have our moments of doubt, it’s only natural, we just need to be there for each other, and we need to support each other.” She hugged Sasha, “I am sorry about what I said earlier. It’s not that I was trying to keep a secret, it’s just that it wasn’t mine to share with you. Once you here what Uncle Pete has to say you will understand that it wasn’t my place.”
Sasha shrugged, “Again … Uncle Pete? Uncle Faction Pete?”
Tom smiled, “You have never asked us about our parents! Let’s go back to the house, have a cup of green tea and I can fill you in, the weather is turning nasty out here…”
Julia piped up, “and Pete can fill you in on the blanks from his side.”
Sasha looked up at the weather; the storm was coming in quickly and she wouldn’t make it to the city right now, so she would have to wait for it to die down.
Chapter 3 The Approaching Storm
Jim stood in his office and stared over at the mountains in the distance. He saw the clouds pulling over and buzzed James, “Any word from Sasha?”
James came back, “Not yet, but Marcelle has just buzzed in at security.”
“You can let her straight in, James. I will see you in the morning.”
“Understood, sir. Have a good evening.”
He opened the door and went to pour himself and Marcelle a drink before settling down on the couch.
Marcelle walked in, took her jacket off and hung it on the rack, “I see you have let James off for the evening?”
Jim smiled mischievously and tapped the seat next to him, “I didn’t want us to be disturbed.”
Marcelle shook her head, “I can’t stay late, Bernard is waiting for me.”
Jim smiled and kissed her on the cheek, “Can’t we ship him off to some exotic island with his wet nurse again?”
Marcelle took her fingernail and pushed into the hollow of Jim’s neck, and slowly traced a path down to his already hard cock, “If you bring down the Faction, I will fuck your brains out for an entire month!” She stuck her hands down his pants and grabbed his cock in her hand
Jim shrieked with anticipation.
She leant in and whispered in his ear, “Do you want a little motivation?”
Jim took a deep breath, “Oh you are such a tease…” he grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap.
Marcelle resisted, “I can’t just let you get your way with me…How will I ever get you to do what I want then?”
Jim dropped his head in submission, “Ahhh, but I always do what you want.”
Marcelle fixed her skirt, “Any news on Pete?”
Jim sighed, “He has gone underground again, but as soon as he resurfaces, we will get him.”
Marcelle raised an eyebrow, “And how can you be so sure?”
Jim raised his arms and pulled Marcelle onto his lap again, “Because we have the fiveling?”
Marcelle smiled, “Oh yes, you are using little Sasha to rope it in, she ended up being a surprise…” She paused and thought for a second, “Did you ever figure out who her father was? … I was just thinking… I know you suspected Pete for a while…” She smiled as she ground down on his hard cock and bit her lip … “Wouldn’t it be fun if she killed her own father?”
Jim pulled up her skirt, “It would be, but he is not her father.”
Marcelle took his cock and slipped it into her pussy. She took a deep breath and started squeezing his cock with the walls of her vagina, and once tense she slowly started to pull up, and as she reached the top, she relaxed her muscles and slid down his little pole, she knew this always drove men insane… “Oooh… do tell.”
Jim touched his nose, “I have a suspicion,” He grunted as she began riding him, barely managing to finish his sentence, “I’ll have to wait… for… her autopsy report… to prove it though, ahh!”
Chapter 4 The Calm
They sat in the lounge by the warm fireplace, and Tom made sure everyone was comfy, “I’m not sure where to start…Our father fell in love with a young bear changeling,” He glanced over at Pete, “You should probably tell this part of the story.”
Pete sat forward, “Let’s take it back a little. I was contracted to kill a very wealthy and powerful businessman… in fact, he was on the High Council and had been giving Marcelle and Bernard a few problems about their ’Youth outreach program’ - AKA training children to be assassins. I only found out later that he was one of the biggest supporters in favor of disabling the program. But I digress; I returned to Jim’s office, smug in having completed my final mission. I would now be a free agent and thought I would make a ton of money, while I waited for your mother, Janey, and my sister, the twin’s mother Alice, to win their freedom too. We were all around the same age and had no idea our careers were meant to come to a screeching halt.” Thinking of Alice always brought a tear to his eye and he took a moment before he continued.
Sasha used the pause in the story, “So, my mother’s name is Janey? Were you two dating? Are you my…”?
Pete raised his hands, “Not biologically no, but I raised you for the first three years of your life - but we will get back to that. So, I got to his office and he had a drink waiting for me. I will never forget it - he looked almost as happy as I did. In any case, I finished my drink and as he handed me my check, he started laughing… I couldn’t lift my arms and realized the bastard had drugged me. That’s when he told me that the only freedom an assassin gets is the blade; he couldn’t have an army of ex trained assassins running free giving birth to souped-up progeny… it posed too much of a threat. Marcelle walked into the room. Strangely the cunt saved my life; as Jim reached down to slit my throat, she grabbed him like a horny goat, and he missed slicing through my carotid. He summoned his previous secretary, Mike, to remove my body; the drug had taken full effect by then and for all intents and purposes I was dead. I woke up in a gutter three days later, the water triggered my alligator…. luckily!! Because that is how I managed to survive. Within the next two days I had managed to convince this young wolf busking in the subway to help me free your mom and aunt, and they literally left their flats with a handbag and spare pair of undies.”
Sasha looked a bit confused, “How did you remove their trackers?”
Julia unable to hold her tongue for another minute piped up, “Our Dad was a medical student and stole some things from the university.”
Tom clarified, “The technology 28 years ago wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now… the chips were just inserted under the skin in their necks.”
Sasha nodded, “What happened to them?”
Pete ran his hand over his head, “Well they settled down here on the ranch, right in the shadow of the High Council. Alice became Betty Blackberg from the Elon clan in New West Virginia. She lived under the radar right here for 8 years, until one terrible day she went into the city as she had done a thousand times before…” Tears began to roll down his face… “We never found out what happened to her, she just never returned. Their Dad wanted to go look for her but was afraid that he would attract attention to the kids, and so, according to the official records, Betty Blackberg died falling from her horse a few months later. Her empty grave sits in the cemetery on the South West of the property.”
Sasha was almost in tears as she listened and watched the twins’ reactions; they were still gutted… “What happened to your father?”
Julia replied, “Oh he is still alive, he lives with our stepmom and our younger brother in West Virginia. Dad always feels hopeless when he returns to the farm… he never really got over mom. Tom and I lived on that side of the world with them till we turned 16. We chose to come back to the farm… Grandad was getting on and needed a bit of help and company around the place, and we needed to be integrated into the pack so Tom could reclaim his birth right to be the Alpha.”
Sasha finally turned to Pete, “My mother - is she still alive?”
Pete nodded, “Yes, she… or should I say we? …Still live together in a small town on the East Coast. We left Alice here with the twins’ Dad, and we headed south to Texas. We found out shortly afterwards that she was pregnant. We did the math and it wasn’t mine… but I raised you as if you were… that is …”
Sasha asked calmly, “Till what; how did they find me?”
Pete shook his head, “I was working on an oil rig out of town. The hours were long and the pay de
cent for someone who wanted a job with no questions asked. I was at work. I only came home every third week and your mother chipped a tooth and needed to go to the dentist. We left you at home with our neighbor who, unluckily for her, looked very similar to your mom. The assassin sent in butchered her before he set her body alight on the bed…” Pete paused to clear his throat … “And obviously that’s when he took you; we didn’t know if you were dead or alive. We only knew who was responsible…Jim.”
Sasha shook her head, “How do you know I am that little girl?”
Pete pulled a picture from his wallet, “You have the same name, you are the same age and you look just like your mother.”
Sasha took the photo. The woman in the picture had the same eyes, same build and same facial structure; it was either her mother or her doppelganger. Tears began to stream down her face, “But that doesn’t make sense. Marcelle and Jim fetched me from my room, they told me later that they picked me up from the orphanage – surely they would have known it wasn’t Mom?”
Pete shrugged, “Whoever killed that poor lady was on a blood lust, like I said her body was butchered and set alight. Jim probably only saw her charred body, but your mother’s scent would have been all over the house.”
Pete saw how intently Sasha stared at the photo, “You can keep it till you get your own.”
Sasha looked up, “Thank you! Have you told her about me yet?”
Pete took in a deep breath, “We haven’t spoken in over a month… we don’t quite see eye to eye on my nephew and niece and she thought me being here would endanger both the twins and the Faction.”
Sasha nodded, “Well she wasn’t far off; Jim suspects the Faction is merely interested in the twins, but what happens when he puts two and two together?”
Pete shook his head, “They are on his hit list whether I am here or not, and at least with my help we stand a better chance.”