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Chapter One A History Lesson for Little Pup
"Warrick," he heard his father call as he tiptoed down the stairs.
"Dammit!" He thought to himself, looking first at the temptation posed by the front door and then at the hall leading towards his dad's study. Without a second thought, he continued tiptoeing towards the door and freedom. Just as he had placed his hand on the doorknob, he froze, hearing a chilling voice just behind him.
"Warrick Aibne Mungo!" The voice was quietly menacing. "Were you just going to ignore me and leave?" Then after about three seconds of silence, "Answer me!"
Immediately snatching his hand away from the knob, Warrick straightened and turned around. The power of the Alpha Rex tone is ineffective against those with the Alpha Rex gene, and he had long ago learned how to be creative with the truth and avoid disappointing his parents. "No. No! Of course not. I just thought I heard someone at the door." People were always coming and going from the Pack House, and he actually had heard someone pulling into the drive just as he reached the door. With any luck this partial truth, plus the Alpha Rex gene, would get him out of trouble.
Watching the harsh frown disappear from his father's face, Warrick silently congratulated himself on his rather brilliant falsehood, which might get him out of yet another lecture on "authority" and "respect" during the last month of summer before his senior year in college.
Just then, someone tapped at the front door with what sounded like a foot. He swung the door open and cringed. "Hi Mom. Let me take those for you," he said, hastily relieving the grocery bags that concealed even her face, and making a break for the kitchen before his father could chide him for making his mother wait outside.
********
"Are you in trouble again, Little Pup?" teased Stephen, when Warrick arrived in the kitchen.
Warrick snorted, dropping the grocery bags onto the kitchen island and walking over to stand closer, forcing Stephen to raise his eyes. Weres with the Alpha gene topped out at about 6'5", like Stephen, but the Alpha Rex normally averaged around seven feet, like their father. Warrick was something altogether different. "Little Pup?" he asked, quirking a brow. He palmed the top of his eldest brother's head from where he towered above, intentionally making a mess of his ever neat brother's hair.
"Hey!" Stephen protested, smoothing his hair down and turning to begin emptying one of the bags. "I still don't understand why Mom insists on doing this type of thing by herself. I mean, she could have any member of this pack...any or the packs, really. Working in this household would be an honor."
"It's the same reason why we have always had to make our own beds, the same reason we live in a pack house, and only work at the Palace," Warrick stated, placing the milk inside the refrigerator.
"Omegas work in the palace, not in my kitchen," they finished together, laughing.
"Warrick!" called their father.
His smile disappeared abruptly, as his head turned swiftly towards the door.
"Go on," Stephen told him. "I'll finish up here."
Nodding his thanks, Warrick headed towards his father's office.
***********
Raymond Niall Mungo, Alpha Rex of the Wolf Shifters, turned to his Regina, Candace, and placed a kiss upon her small hand before using it to lead her down the hall and into his office. Once there, he again called to his son, "Warrick!"
He sat in one of the arm chairs in front of the hearth, pulling his wife down onto his lap and kissing her on the cheek.
"You called, Dad?" Warrick asked, walking into the open doorway.
"Yes. You can leave the door open. Stephen's coming. Just have a seat. We have some things to discuss."
Warrick closed his eyes in dread. He knew that this discussion would most likely involve one of three subjects: his lack of responsibility, pack business or finding his mate. Neither subject appealed to him right now. His thoughts were far away, on run through the woods or in the sparring ring with his friends. He walked slowly to sit in one of the arm chairs circled around the unlit fireplace.
"Warrick, an honored guest will be arriving to stay with us in our home, soon."
"Huh?" he asked, startled.
"Well, I should actually say guests," Raymond mused, the merriment in his eyes shining out at Warrick as he enjoyed his youngest child's look of shock. It was true. His mate did not normally allow visitors to stay in their private home, though they called it the Pack House. "Guests stay in the Palace," had always been her firm rule, and everyone knew that Warrick was the most popular member of their family. If any of his brothers were on their way for a visit, he would have been the first to know.
"Well, don't keep me in suspense. Who's coming?"
"We're so glad you asked," Candace chimed in. "It's my god sister Elly's baby girl. She'll soon be turning eighteen, and she's heading off to Wolfpax U!"
"You mean Sandy the Super Brain?" Warrick asked, incredulously. Didn't she already graduate when she was, like five?"
"Four, dear, and her name is Thandie," Candace corrected. "Thandie Ferris.
"She'll be bringing with her fifty enforcers. They will be divided between the ten barracks, and not less than four will sleep here, in the house."
"Isn't that a bit excessive for a personal security force?" asked Stephen, frowning as he walked through the office door.
"She's a special case," Raymond stated cryptically. "She will be arriving one week before school begins. Warrick, you will organize the sleeping quarters, and place the men into the training rotation. An advance force of twenty will arrive in one week. Give them your full cooperation. I have already shared your information with James Talvel, your counterpart with the Talvel pack. The black file on the table contains everything you need to know about him, and the red file contains the necessary information on Thandie."
"Stephen, you will be coordinating with the Palace staff and the University, to ensure that the Enforcers receive any assistance they may require. In addition, you will be handling the diplomatic portion of this, determining whether there is anything specific that is required by the pack to make her feel more comfortable. All of the details about who you will need to contact are in the green file."
"This is top secret. Do Not disclose the information to anyone outside this room. Make sure that, after you review the files, they are secured at all times."
"Yes, Sir," they immediately agreed.
"Dad, what kind of 'special case' are we talking about" asked Warrick, sitting forward in his chair.
"She's a born were. That's in her file. You know how rare it is to have a female."
"That's true. Most are adopted and then turned on their tenth birthday, but that still doesn't explain the draconian security measures."
"You don't understand. Her line, whether the child is male or female, has at least one female for each generation," responded Raymond gravely.
"That's, that's unheard of. Even the strongest families have only sons, and besides, Aunt Elly was adopted by the previous Alpha. She's bla- uh, I mean African American," exclaimed Warrick, cringing at his mother's admonishing look.
"Her parents were killed protecting Elly, when a rogue Alpha tried to kidnap her as a child. We were about thirteen at the time. There have been several attempts over the years, beginning with one of the midwives when she was born," Candace shared. "That's actually how Elly met Eli. How we all met, really."
"Hold on. Wait," insisted Stephen. "I am 696 years old, and this is the first we're hearing of this story?"
"Yeah, what happened to the whole '[w]hen I saw you there, sitting in the Central Courtyard bit?" asked Warrick skeptically.
"Well, it was in the Central Courtyard. At midnight," explained Candace. "Elly and I were sitting at one of the tables by the fountain, talking about life. You know how invincible you feel in college. I looked up and there was your father walking with this very tall, handsome and muscular dark skinned man."
"Hey!" admonished Raymond.
"You see where I get it from?" asked Stephen in an aside to Warrick.
"Well, he is quite handsome. Besides, you were standing mostly behind Eli. I could barely see your face, let alone your eyes."
"Yeah, but when I stepped up front..."
"You were it for me," they finished together smiling at one another fondly.
"So, boys, where was I, again?" she asked.
"Apparently falling in love with dad," answered Stephen wryly.
"Well, what your father and I didn't realize was that Eli and Elly were having the same experience right next to us."
"So one minute, I'm falling into your mom's eyes from across the courtyard, and the next she's being grabbed from behind. Eli and I, well, let's just say that this was one group of kidnappers that wished they had never thought of that plan."
"I don't get it," Warrick said, perplexed. "I understand that born females are rare, but so what? Why would that make them more likely to be kidnapped?"
"Think about how many men we have who still need to find their mates," Raymond began. "We have coordinated introduction sessions for young people, all over the world, and some of them still aren't matched. They just know that she's out there, somewhere among the billions of humans in the population. Some men never find them, and those are usually the ones who are easy to persuade that more should be done to ensure a larger population of available female weres. It's a philosophical thing, and for some it becomes an obsession."
"If you had a family in your pack that was guaranteed to produce female pups in each generation, whether that offspring was male or female, do you understand the power you would wield in the were world? You could demand any concession for giving them in marriage or worse, for just breeding them with various pack members in the case of male offspring. No adoption. An increased chance for successful pregnancies. An increased chance for multiple births. Stronger pups that could be as much as double the strength of an average Enforcer pup. Converted were mothers have one, maybe two pups at a time. Born were mothers have two to four pups per pregnancy. These days it's even more dangerous, because of in vetro fertilization and sperm banks. How much money would you pay to have eggs fertilized with your sperm and implanted into your mate, to ensure that at least some of the children of your line would be girls? To have sperm available to impregnate female adoptees? You could build a super army. There is only one problem."
They looked at him, curiously, but it was Candace who answered.
"The female offspring of a born female were will only be able to become impregnated by their true mate. Male offspring are able to impregnate a she wolf who is not their true mate, but only with normal, male, pups. All others are genetically incompatible. We have put that information out there, but it's considered to be an urban legend because, as you know, coming into contact with a born female were is so rare that most do not have one in a pack. Having one in the pack is a sign of great wealth and military might."
"So, tell us more about the turned females," requested Warrick, who, in that moment, wished that he had paid more attention during these segments of Were History.
Candace began. "A human female who is destined to be the mate of a were has a very distinctive scent. That's the reason why we have weres working in every school, day care, adoption agency and department that deals with children and families in the country. It's the reason why we are always in hospitals and prevalent in city, state and federal law enforcement, as well as in the armed forces."
Raymond picked up the story. "In the old days, when they were found, they were taken. Point blank. Now, unless they are available for adoption, in an area that is unsafe for human habitation, or being abused, we simply watch from a distance until they are of age."
Stephen nodded, as Warrick looked at them in horror.
"You just...took them?" he asked, incredulously.