Cry wolf! (Sequel of 7 mates for 7 brothers)

Drama?

Blissfully unaware of his emotional turmoil, Abigail continued cross examining her father. "OK; so I can camp, how else have I been trained?"

Her father scoffed. "You have learnt three different kinds of self-defense. You have various medals for gymnastics and you are doing very well in your drama classes at school."

"Drama?!"

Abigail was not the only one whose mouth was hanging open and Henry laughed out loud at the unusual sight of seeing his daughter speechless. "Yes, drama. In this line of work it is potentially dangerous if you are not able to act."

His words were echoed by a very low growl as Quinn's arms caged her protectively against his warm chest. When he was in control of himself once more, he gave Abigail a tight hug before releasing her from the safety of his arms. It ached inside of him to do that, but he knew he had to. He could not allow her to think he thought she needed to be coddled. Thankfully she did not move off of his lap. She let one hand rest lightly on his shoulders as she faced her father.

Henry was astute enough to know she wanted him to continue. "In addition to your formal training, you also have extensive knowledge of the inner and mysterious workings of any kind of computer allowing you to access any kind of ... 'information' you should need." He smiled at her, grinning broadly. "And you are the only one I trust to service my vehicles. That is if you don't steal them and go joy-riding."

Abigail had the grace to blush at that, but she still sent an impish smile to her dad. "At least I know not to take the ones with tracking devices anymore."

"And I am so grateful for that, it cost me an arm and a leg replacing all the ones you disabled."

Marion decided to join the discussion. "Honey; you had a most unusual upbringing during your vacations. The only times we did not do anything during those times was when your father and I had to attend to matters or meetings. We went to a lot of trouble to make sure that you would be able to take care of yourself in nearly any situation. That includes surviving in the wild; getting any information you might need up to being able to hotwire a car if you needed to get away in a hurry. You also know about at least three caches of money we keep in in the area in case of an emergency so that if anything 'happened'; you would have some cash to smooth you along your way."

Thinking about what her parents had just shared with her she had to admit that their family 'recreational' activities were rather unusual. Strange that it had never occurred to her that it was not quite as normal as her other school friend's activities were. "When were you planning on letting me in on this?"

"Normally, this would only be revealed after graduation, but your mother and I had already agreed to let you know during your last school year Abigail. Most of the young adults that decide to actively join us go to an exclusive 'summer camp'. Almost all the kids end up going, or are persuaded to attend so that they are better informed to make a decision. There they have the opportunity to meet with other young adults who have also just been let in on their family's business. Their skills are assessed and additional training is provided in certain areas as needed. The whole infrastructure is explained to them and if there are any of the kids that are not interested in actively participating, they are encouraged to seek jobs in positions that would help in keeping this all secret."

Quinn and Mandy were listening in shocked amazement, but Tyler was growing more and more concerned as the details were shared. Just as Abigail drew a breath to pop out yet another question, he spoke.

"Are we the first shifters to find out about this 'group' of yours?"

Henry and Marion shot each other quick glances. They shared an intense silent conversation that ended with Marion shrugging and Henry wincing. Taking a slow and deep breath, Henry turned his piercing gaze towards the three shifters. "There are only a very few of your kind who know about our existence. And the only reason they know is because we came to their ... rescue ... when we had to take drastic measures to prevent the regular population from finding out about werewolves. Although, I must admit that most of the close calls happened during the first part of what I understand your kind refers to as 'The Rogue War'. The rogues' never cared if their ..." Henry raised his eyebrows in thought; "... activities ... came too close to humans." He gestured to them as he continued his explanation. "It was only after the Grey boys grew up and became involved and then later had a leading role in ending the rogue situation that things quieted down for us."