by CJ Cooke
Coby fell silent, but I could tell there was something else he wanted to say, he was just working up the courage to do it. I’d wait. I had all the time in the world for these kids.
After a moment, with his eyes fixed firmly on the wall in front of him, he finally said, “She hurts me.”
My wolf slammed into my senses with an intensity that almost felt like he was going to burst free. I’d never felt him react to anything so strongly before. It took me a few breaths to get him under control and quite a few more so I wouldn’t flip out when I spoke.
“Are you saying it wasn’t your dad who hurt you?” I asked him gently.
His shoulders shook, and I gently put an arm around him, waiting to make sure the contact was welcome before I pulled him against my side. “They both did, but she… she was the worst.”
We sat there on the floor while Coby wept for the loss of a mother who didn’t give a shit about him. I felt my fingers shift to claws and then back again as I struggled to keep the shift at bay. All I could do was try to comfort this little boy who’d been betrayed by the two people in the world he should have been able to rely on the most.
“They will never hurt you again, Coby. We won’t let them. You’re safe here with us.”
He sniffled and swiped at the tears on his cheeks when he saw Abby coming back to find him. It was almost like she’d known she was needed. She didn’t say a thing and just crawled up against his other side and snuggled in against him. I could hear the soft little kitten purr coming from her as she held her friend.
“You don’t go with her,” she finally said in her little voice. “Calli is your new mummy.”
It should’ve been a child’s way of trying to make her friend feel better. A little girl offering the only other mother figure she could think of. But for some reason, it sounded like she knew. Like she already knew it was going to happen, and given the fact I’d seen her and Jacob wake up a fully healed Jean, it didn’t feel all that far-fetched.
“You wanna go play with the twitch?” she asked, looking up at him with her big green eyes. “Jacob is stealing us some more cookies.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t make me an accomplice little cherry bomb!”
She grinned up at me, and my heart melted. We had no chance with this little girl in our midst.
As they both ran off to the stairs, they met up with Jacob giving out some kind of maniacal laugh, I hauled myself up off the floor and went in search of the others. I’d need to fill Grey in on what Coby had told me, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.
I found most of them sitting in the library. We only seemed to be missing Hunter and Cassia, Blake and Jean, and Nash. Everyone else was either in the armchairs or at our old dining table, which had somehow made its way here.
“Well, don’t you all look studious,” I quipped.
“I think I have something,” River gasped, holding onto the book in front of him like it held the answers to all our problems—hopefully, it did. “This says that a wraith’s strength can be gauged by the number of shadow demons it has linked to it.”
“Okay,” Grey said, his forehead scrunching in thought. “That doesn’t help us a huge amount, though.”
“Assuming they draw their strength from the shadow demon, the opposite would be true that if we could remove the shadow demon from the link or destroy it somehow, it would weaken the wraith,” Calli filled in.
“I suppose that takes us one step closer to a solution, but it isn’t a complete solution. We still need to find a way to take out the wraith,” Grey added sceptically.
I looked at Maverick, who was sitting at the table with a shocked look on his face.
“Don’t look at me. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that demons exist. I haven’t even managed to get to the point where they’re after us yet,” Maverick said with his eyes bugging out of his head.
It was kind of funny in a tragic way, but being the grown-up I was, I managed not to laugh even if the smirk on my face probably gave me away.
“Before we get any further into this and lose the night, we need to have a pack meeting and get some kind of order going on around here. We’re all working separately, and we’re just treading water. We need to start working as a unit, as a pack,” Grey said, getting up from the table. “We meet in the dining room in ten minutes. Aidan, can you go and tell Blake and Hunter that they’re needed. If Cassia and Jean are up to coming, I’d like them there, but I understand if they’re not. River, can you find Nash and Holly?”
River squinted awkwardly but got up anyway and went to find our pack mate who would one hundred percent be up to no good with his lady love right now—definitely the worst job of the lot.
“I’ll go and get some drinks sorted out for everyone,” Calli offered.
We all started to drift out of the library, and I followed Calli into the kitchen to steal a few minutes alone with her. It had been a busy few days as usual, and she was starting to look like she was flagging a bit.
I caught up with her when she stopped in the middle of the kitchen and surveyed the chaos we currently had going on with the extent of groceries still piled around the room. With a shrug, she went to grab a case of water but I grabbed hold of her and spun her into my arms instead.
Calli giggled at the sudden rush of movement and then stared up at me with nothing but love in her eyes.
“Stay with me tonight?” I asked. “Not for any of the fun stuff, but just because I want to make sure you sleep. You look tired, my love.”
“I am,” she admitted. “We’ve got a lot going on.”
“Well, how about after the meeting, you go and relax in the bath, we’ll sort the kids out with food and then we can chill out tonight. Maybe pop some popcorn and curl up with the kids for a movie.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea,” she conceded, leaning heavily against me. I wouldn’t be surprised if she fell asleep in that bath.
Grabbing the case of water Calli had been reaching for, we started to head back to the dining room. It wasn’t chilled, but it was better than warm beer, and we didn’t really have much else within reach at the minute.
Considering we’d only been gone for a few minutes, I was kind of surprised how organised everyone was.
River must have found Nash and Holly, based off the red-faced River and an annoyed Holly who were sitting at the table next to a very amused Nash. Grey was already sitting at the head of the table with a space on either side of him, and Maverick had awkwardly sat himself in the middle, not seeming to know what to do. Hopefully, over time that awkwardness would lessen until he felt like he was one of us. He needed some alone time with Calli too. Until they bonded, he was always going to feel like he was on the outside looking in, and there was no way they were ever going to bond if they never had the chance to get to know each other.
I sat down on the right-hand side of Grey as per my position as his beta, and Grey steered Calli to his other side. I doubted she had any idea of the significance of where she was sitting, but it was only fitting that she sat to his left.
Aidan, Blake and Hunter joined us a few minutes later.
Grey looked ever the professional with the iPad in front of him as he scrolled through his notes, waiting for everyone to take a seat. We’d never done this before, but maybe it was something we should think about making a regular occurrence. The pack needed consistency, and now we were growing bigger, we needed to make sure we all stayed in touch with one another.
“Right, let’s quickly work through the easier stuff first,” Grey sighed. “Because the big stuff is kicking our ass at the minute.”
Everyone murmured in agreement but quickly fell quiet, waiting for our alpha to speak. Grey’s alpha power filled the room with a comfortable hum of his energy, and every shifter in there showed the glow of their wolf in their eyes in response.
“Cool!” Holly murmured.
“Firstly, Calli and Nash will be spending the next couple of days get
ting a system put in place to get the pack more organised and connected. Most of that will be centred in the library, but I’d like to see everyone with updated phones and connected software if possible.”
Calli nodded in agreement and pulled out her phone, making notes. Seeing her do it, everyone else followed suit. It was a smart idea.
“We’ve got more furniture being delivered for the library throughout the day tomorrow, so I’d like someone to make sure they stay at the packhouse to help Calli with it because I need to be in the garage tomorrow.”
“I can hang out in the library,” Nash said a little too quickly, making Blake chuckle in amusement.
“That’s fine with me, Jean is close, and I don’t want to be away from her for too long. She actually asked me to talk to you about that, Calli,” he said with a wince.
“Me?”
“Yeah, she wanted to know if you would mind being with her during the birth,” he asked.
“Oh, of course I can, that’s fine. Who’s her midwife?”
“Erm… you?”
“What! I don’t know how to deliver a baby!” Calli said, panicking.
“It’s okay, Jean delivered Coby. She knows what she’s doing, but Kelly was supposed to be there to help her, and now that definitely isn’t happening. She just needs you for moral support,” Blake reassured her, not that it looked to be working.
“Okay, I suppose I can do that,” said a very pale looking Calli.
“Do we have an estimate on Jean?” Grey asked, concerned.
“Any day now.”
Grey winced, and I was right there with him. The last thing we needed was for someone giving birth in the midst of all this, but it couldn’t be helped.
“I thought she had a few months left,” Calli said in confusion.
“Yeah, so did we, but she’s getting some contractions, and she’s adamant that it’s coming. And given the way she’s pacing the room and growling at me like a tiger every two seconds, I think she might be right,” Blake shuddered.
“Okay, so Calli stays close by in case she’s needed then,” Grey said, looking all too satisfied with that outcome. “Now, the pups, we’re thinking about pulling them out of the town school and homeschooling them for a couple of years until everything calms down. I’ve briefly talked to Calli about it, and I think it’s a good idea. With things with the Council as they are, we need to be prepared to up and leave at a moment’s notice if needs be. I don’t like the idea of the pups being tied up in school if that happens.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, and Holly shuffled awkwardly in her seat.
“Holly, you can speak if you have anything to add,” Grey reassured her.
“I think that’s probably for the best too. I’ve heard some of the teachers raising concerns about Coby,” she winced.
“No one’s mentioned anything to me,” River cut in.
“No, they weren’t sure if they should raise it with you or with the principal directly because of how close you are. Apparently, he can be quite combative in class sometimes, and he isn’t forming any friendships with his classmates. They’re worried he’s keeping himself sectioned off away from everyone.”
River nodded in agreement. “It would be typical behaviour for a child who’d been through the abuse he has.”
Holly’s eyes widened in alarm, and I realised she probably didn’t know about this bit yet.
Glancing at Nash, he raised his hands in defence. “Hey, I got in trouble last time I shared. I was waiting until I was told I was allowed to.”
Grey nodded in thanks and filled Holly in. “It has come to our attention that Kelly and Wallace were physically abusing Coby in their home without any of us realising.” His teeth gritted as he spoke, and I knew how hard it was for him to admit it. It was hard for all of us. How it had gone on for so long literally in our backyard without any of us knowing? It just seemed impossible.
“I also want the kids to start receiving some lessons on magic,” Calli added, quickly changing the subject. “I want them well versed in the fundamentals. Trust me, I’m regretting not doing the same when I was their age now.”
She was beating herself up about not being an expert in her magic. I hadn’t even thought about how she must be feeling about that. It must be hard to feel like she needed to be doing more but not having the means to do it. Hopefully, Cassia would be able to help her. The rest of us here weren’t exactly going to be much help.
“I can file the paperwork at school on Monday for you,” Holly said quietly. “You can withdraw them straight away if you want.”
“I think that’s for the best,” Grey nodded. “Calli, how long do you think it would take to get something set up here for them?”
Calli looked shocked at the question but then her forehead wrinkled in thought. We needed to stop thinking she had all the answers to the kids just because she was a woman.
“We could probably download some things for them which would make do for this week until we researched a proper curriculum for them.”
“Okay, can you do that after the meeting so we can make sure we’re ready? I don’t want them missing out because we’re not organised.”
Calli nodded and made some more notes on her phone while Grey continued to talk.
“Nash, I’m assuming River filled you in on what I want you to do?”
“Yeah, I might be able to get something sorted out quite quickly, but I don’t see how we’re going to get Kelly and Wallace to sign over custody.”
“Leave that part to me. I have an idea,” Grey said offhandedly. He did that whenever he was up to something he didn’t want anyone to know about.
“First big problem, the vampires and their wraith problem.”
“Which has now become our wraith problem,” I pointed out. I didn’t like how Grey seemed unable to accept it was his ass this bullseye was on this time.
“We’ve made a small amount of headway into the research, but we need a more solid plan. I want to set up a schedule for people working through the books in the library. The more eyes we have on this, the quicker it will go. Tanner, how busy is the garage?”
“We’re pretty slammed for the entire week from all the work we pushed back when we last closed,” I admitted. This wasn’t good. “We’re going to need at least three mechanics in, if Maverick can cover the office again. Otherwise, we need all four of us.”
“I can cover the office,” Maverick immediately said, surprising us all. “If that’s okay with the alpha,” he added on sheepishly.
“That would be a great help, thank you,” Grey nodded at him in perhaps the politest he’d been since he arrived. “Well seeing as Blake needs to be with Jean that just leaves me, Tanner and Aidan, to cover the garage.”
“When Cassia is back to full strength, I’ll be able to help out too,” Hunter added. “I know my way around an engine enough to do general maintenance stuff.”
“Thanks, Hunter. Calli, you said you were going to get to Cassia tonight,” Grey asked.
“Erm, yeah,” she sighed, picking up her phone again and filling that in as well.
“I think we might be pushing a bit too much onto our mate,” I pointed out, fully aware she seemed to be getting the brunt of most of the jobs for some reason.
“I can take the homeschool stuff off your plate,” Holly offered. “My mom homeschooled my sister and me, so I have a good idea about what you’re going to need and what paperwork to get filled.”
“Thanks, Hol,” Calli sighed, impossibly looking even more tired than she had before we entered the room.
“We need to get a schedule set up for the house and the pups to take some stuff off Calli’s plate,” I added, all too aware we’d talked about it before, and it seemed to be something that was going to get missed out yet again.
“If the pups are going to be homeschooling, that pretty much keeps them occupied for most of the day. If Holly can set up a schedule of what a typical day looks like, we can see who can fill in where. In te
rms of the house, Blake, can you get some kind of schedule in place?”
“Sure, I’ll work on it tonight with Jean. It’ll give her something to take her mind off murdering me in my sleep for folding the laundry the wrong way,” he laughed.
“How do you fold the laundry the wrong way?” Nash asked, genuinely curious.
“Dude, I have no idea, but if you don’t see me tomorrow morning, it’s definitely because I’m dead.”
“Well, maybe you should put a ring on your baby momma’s finger to make her a bit happier,” Holly said, looking up at the ceiling as if to pretend she hadn’t said anything in the first place.
“Don’t you start as well,” Blake warned.
“Let’s get back on track before we have rampaging pups invading us,” Grey cautioned. “The witches seem to be laying low for the time being, so while we’re dealing with the wraith issue, I’m going to suggest we stay alert but that we don’t need to make any active investigations into them.”
We all nodded in agreement and, even if I was only talking about myself, felt more than a bit of relief.
“Which just leaves the Council,” Grey sighed. No one turned to look at Maverick, but we were all dying to. “Stone is trying to make moves against us, and we expect some form of retaliation when Maverick doesn’t follow through on his plan. At the moment, all I can say is stay alert. There isn’t much we can do to prevent it, and we simply don’t have the allies to stand against him yet. Wells is an unknown at this stage, as is the rest of the Council. If any of you see or hear anything, I want to know immediately. Even if it seems inconsequential. Calli is going to…” Grey sighed and looked at Calli with a pained expression on his face, realising that, yet again, this was another job for her. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”