Stonehaven, the Pack's official home, was off limits.
Forestwatch- my home that was already full of five immature minds- three one month old babies, one six year old and Nick- was suddenly full of Pack. Everywhere. This proved to be a problem, somewhat, as far as sleeping space went. In other ways it was fantastic. The adults seemed to know how to behave around babies that were tired, even sometimes willing to pitch in, thanks to Clayton and Elena having already had twins five years before. Only Daniella flat out refused to do anything related to babies.
With a ton of laundry and cooking no one argued with her.
Unfortunately, the kids didn't know and they often forgot, so when Matt had Logan and Kate around, it worked him up, so that the three ran around the house and yard screaming in some fantastic game that no adult could really figure out. Kids screaming usually woke babies until we had to leave them upstairs in the nursery virtually all the time, carry around the baby monitor, and listen obsessively to it in case a soft noise from one or all of the babies turned into a cry.
The tent idea proved to be a hit though. It was put up in the backyard, somewhat in the shade out of the warm sun, and the kids almost moved into it, dragging everything they could from Matt's room inside. That freeded up one bedroom, at least.
While they entertained themselves we somehow managed to prepare for 'operation asshole hunt'. Well, that was what I called it, Jeremy probably had a more elegant phrase in mind, but I figured this was the perfect way to descibe it. I was eager to get on with it, get him out of the way, and get on with being a mum.
For me, that meant more training with Clayton and/or Elena, which meant I needed more naps which I honestly had no time for, and had more sore bits and bruises, and half the time we'd be running instead of learning techniques. I didn't like running as much as they did. My hip always made that part difficult but apparently that was exactly why I should push it. Even if I wasn't fast, endurance was apparently important, so I focused on it. Endurance and agility.
Nick tried to join in but he couldn't pretend that he was more interested in looking good rather than actually being muscular. He might not have been as obsessive with my looks, although he did continue try and dress me up in clothes he liked, but when it came to his own appearance he was downright obsessive. Between that and babies, I couldn't cook any more, I'd be falling asleep all over the place. I sat down while I was waiting for spagetti to soften and fall into the pan, fell asleep, and woke up to find the edges of it hanging out of the pot and on fire. Woops. I also fell asleep while trying to do a laundry load, trying to hang out washing, while feeding babies, while cleaning the house, my domestic skills a flat out disaster.
Elena spent half the time with Jeremy, the two of them on the phone with Antonio, because apparently Jeremy bounced most of his ideas off Antonio that way. This wasn't new for us, he did spend a lot of time in the den anyway working, but now it seemed to be reaching fever pitch with the invasion along the edge of our property.
Elena and Clayton had confirmed our findings- that it had been a three day old set of tracks preserved by the warm sun and dry weather. Corpses not eaten, just killed and left there, something that baffled and irritated Clayton more than anyone else. Wolves didn't kill for pleasure. They killed for survival. He was attacking our prey and leaving it to waste and upset the rest of the animals in our land.
It was while we were distracted by this that the alpha finally made his move. And he didn't have to lift a damned finger to do it.
We didn't even realise it was him at first. One minute the twins and Matt were sleeping outside, the next they'd vanished on their bikes in the direction they were allowed to go. Not near the road-side of the property, it was very clear that was off limits, as were the borders of the lands, but they didn't go that direction. Being curious kids who'd heard Stonehaven was now off-limits they did the exact thing kids did when they heard they couldn't go somewhere.
They went there.
Reece and Jeremy agreed to do 'baby duty' so the four of us went after the kids, finding their bikes on the edge of the two properties, the gate in the fence wide open, Stonehaven's forest a bit too thick in that area for kids bikes to handle.
Nick lifted up Matt's bike off the mud, muttering about how it was brand new, resting it on the fence. Clayton didn't seem to care as much, he was still stunned that his kids had learnt how to ride at all, but he didn't like them wandering away too far like this.
"Should we chase them as wolves and herd them back? Or go as humans and carry them back over a shoulder?" I offered. Nick almost seemed tempted by the first choice.
We were already heading through the gate and into the property. Elena's cellphone rang, she ignored it, reaching down to inhale the scent of her kid's tracks, handing it to Clayton. He opened it.
Then suddenly everything happened at once.
She tensed, as if she'd smelt something she didn't like, Clayton's voice going "Wait, Jer, slow down...", and Nick fell back against the fence for no apparent reason. Seconds later, as Elena went to stand, she too suddenly was knocked backwards off her feet into the dirt.
Clayton dropped the phone and dragged her and Nick backwards, behind the fence, back behind the trees on the Forestwatch side of the fence. I grabbed the phone, hearing feet running, and slid backwards as well, behind my own tree, hearing Jeremy's voice calling for someone to pick it up.
"What's going on?"
A crossbow bolt slammed into the tree behind me, inches from my shoulder, and I froze. Eyes snapping across to where Clayton had dragged Nick and Elena, some five metres away, their faces white. Blood dripping on the ground. I could smell it, smell his rage at it, hear Jeremy's voice trying to get someone to answer as I held the phone against my ear in shock. Clayton was tugging off his shirt and ripping it, pressing it against where the scarlet of blood was shining in the sunlight.
"Is anyone there?"
"What's going on?" I snapped into the phone.
"Anne? Stay off the Stonehaven property. Don't cross into it." Jeremy spoke but I cut him off.
"It's a bit late to tell us that!"
"The kids are in there." Clayton called, softly, flinching as he heard something slam into a tree nearby.
"The kids are in there, Jeremy."
"I know. Come back to the house."
"They're shooting at us!" But, I realised, not at us. There was the occasional crack of a bolt into a tree, the tremble of a heavy branch as the force of it struck it, but it wasn't near us at all. It was a warning. Panic was starting to rise, panic for the kids, for Nick, for Elena, the stench of their blood and fear filling my nostrils like a drug. "What about the kids? Nick? Elena? They're hurt! I don't know if we can mo-"
"Come back to the house." An order, not a request, and one that my instincts wanted to obey. Follow the alpha. Listen to the alpha. No more needing to panic. "We move from there."
Clayton had heard it too, even from that distance, gesturing for me to come across. I resisted a moment, fear throbbing through me, fear of those deadly little black things, but when it looked like he was tempted to drag me across himself, I finally skidded across the clearing, expecting to be struck, but the bolt again went wide, missing me by metres, another warning shot. Stay off the land.
"Can you lift Nick?" He asked, already lifting Elena, who cringed at the movement. There was something sticking out of her hip. Clayton's eyes were almost pure white and blue, like his pupils had shrunk, his nostrils flaring as he stared at her blood. He was calm. Extremely calm. The kind of scary calm you'd expect before a tornado came and whipped your house to Oz kind of calm.
I lifted Nick as an answer, arm under his shoulders, his groan making my blood run cold. He had something stuck in him too, in his leg, in his shoulder. It showed that they expected him to be the better fighter than Elena, disabling his limbs instead of hers. I kissed his arm, getting a tense smile in return.
Clayton said, louder, to the still open line, "We're coming, Jer. We're leaving the fence." It was probably also to whoever was shooting at us. He hated it, I could see it in his face, hated that he was being forced to leave the challenge. But an order was an order and he didn't disobey his alpha any more than I could. It would just make him more frightening for them in the lon grun. I didn't pity them in the slightest.
All my instincts screamed at me, as I tried to follow Clayton, tried to walk away from the fence, my back such a wide open target that it almost started the change. Almost. Nothing was right about exposing the vulnerable back like this. I had to cringe, almost duck, as I felt or heard the whoosh and clunk of a bolt into a branch as we tried to hurry the first hundred metres away from the fence. Only Nick kept me from loosing it completely, somehow managing to be an emotional support for me while I held him up, his voice soft as he spoke to me. I didn't understand a word of it now, it was just sound, but it helped.
It was a half hour walk back, at least, but we hurried. We hurried faster when Nick slumped unconscious, Clayton lowering Elena down so that he could lift him up, so that he could move ahead. I helped Elena, lifting her up fireman style, and tried to hurry after him, but his endurance was definitely ahead of mine. He was already ahead of me five minutes by the time we got to the house. Elena had to keep reminding me to stay calm, and it helped, until I could finally understand what she was saying again. Then when I was calm, I saw her own panic rise, the roles swapping. They had her babies. And nothing I could say could calm that.
Jeremy rushed out to help me bring her in. I saw it before Jeremy did, the cringe in her body, the wince in her face, and knew that she was going to do what Nick had managed to stop in me. The only natural response a werewolf had to direct threat against their pack. Against their mate or their offspring. They changed into their stronger faster self.
I tried to hold her still, as she fought. She wanted to go back now, injury be damned, wanted to go find them, all rational sense faded when Clayton vanished out of her sight. And she was beyond stopping. Jeremy yelled for Clayton, who was already halfway out the door, the two of them grabbing her out of my arms and dragging her inside. Down to the cage.
I was going to follow but I heard Nick's groan, smelt his trail of blood, distracted by that. I followed it, the scent rising into my nostrils, finding him on the couch and Reece waiting for Amar to come back with medical equipment out of his RV. Nick was bleeding everywhere, his skin going white again, my heart rate increasing as well.
"Relax, it's all muscle." Reece called, eyes seeing my panic. "Our friendly doctor can handle it. Come here." He jumped across the coffee table and closed the gap in a second to grab me in an embrace, feeling my tenseness, and refused to let go till I calmed down. "Shh, it's all right. He's fine. They didn't shoot to kill, just to disable."
It fucking hurt though, I could see it in his face, as he stared at where one of the black bolts stuck out of the thick strong thigh muscle. I swore I could feel it too. Feel it in my own thigh. Those muscles were huge and crossbows weren't gentle objects. Bad muscles to hurt. I relaxed, Reece let me go, and took my hand as he led me over to Nick, keeping me calm with that simple contact.
"You touching my woman again?" Nick pretended to glare at Reece, yanking me down, but the movement made him groan. "Shit. Gotta rethink that."
I slid down to sit beside him, touching his arm, seeing it in the shoulder muscles too. I tried to joke, tried to relax. "You really want to have manly scars, don't you? Always getting injured."
"They look good though, don't they?" He grinned, or tried to, cringing as he rested back against me, so that his head could rest in my lap. "Ow. Where's Elena?"
"Cage."
He didn't seem surprised by that, although Reece did, clearly understanding her reaction as much as I had. Even the most controlled and experienced werewolf could loose it if their child was hurt, I suspected, fall back to their strongest instincts. I reached down to stroke his face.
Jeremy came up before Amar returned, a scratch down his face, breathing hard.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, snapping a bit more than I liked, this attack so sudden. "Who's in Stonehaven?"
"He called me just as you were crossing in. The alpha of the rouge pack. He has the kids. He made it clear that if we came onto Stonehaven's land, we'd be shot at. If we came near Stonehaven the boys would be gladly killed and he'd vanish with Kate." He hesitated, as if he wasn't telling it all, but that was enough for me for now. "I called you as fast as I could."
"What do we do?"
"Get Elena and Nick cared for. He won't harm them for the moment." Jeremy was in full on alpha mode, probably to keep us calm, showing full confidence in himself, no doubt at what he was saying, and it soothed me a little. Maybe he was right. Matt, Logan and Kate would be safe as long as we stayed put. The alpha wouldn't let go of his three most prized bargaining chips. He leaned across to inspect Nick's wounds. "They're not short range wounds and in muscle only. Good shots though."
I realised he was right there. When Antonio had been shot from less than a metre away it'd gone right through him. Nick still had them in him, sticking out, so they must have been a distance away.
I had to go upstairs with Reece to help with the babies, the next round of baby duty taking over my fear for Nick, and focus on caring for them. Again Daniella vanished when we needed her into the laundry to wash another load. I felt a bit angry then, a bit resentful, but they were my babies. Not hers. She didn't have to help. It just would have helped right now.
Reece headed downstairs to check on Nick and when he returned, just as I was dressing the last of the three, he sighed.
"Bad?" Panic flared up, Lily's eyes widened at my expression, but he shook his head.
"Just that you're to stay up here for now. With the babies. Get a nap. Nick doesn't relax when you're watching him in pain and they're some big ass muscles he's got to relax before they pull them out."
I stiffened and he held up his hands. "Hey, come on, it's true. I'd freak out if Daniella was hurt. Get some rest, we'll need it for whatever Jeremy wants us to do."
Much as he annoyed me, he was right. I sighed and nodded.
"Daniella okay? She keeps vanishing when the babies appear."
"She's got ..." He hesitated. "Well, she can't stand looking at any baby. It isn't personal. Don't take it that way, please, just that she can't do it. Can't even wash their clothing, I do that for her."
"She hates babies that much?"
"Hate and love are close than you'd know with her." He didn't seem to want to say any more so I let him leave, didn't probe deeper, my own curiosity provoked. Reece tugged me into his lap beside Nick, I didn't resist, his body snuggling into mine as I tried to stay calm.
I was bewildered by this. Was the alpha at Stonehaven then? Had he killed the workers? But what did he want? Elena? Me? Both of us? Would he return Matt and Logan in exchange for us? I suspected he would. But what about Kate? I'd gladly give myself up to get her the fuck away from him. She was just a kid. She shouldn't be anywhere near him.
I got my answer when I went to open the laptop and to email Pav and Vi about what'd happened. There was a strange name there from a person who'd sent it half an hour ago. Aaron Monsanto.
'Elizabeth,
You've earned your freedom and I offer it by my side. So long as your pack doesn't approach Stonehaven, there'll be no more bloodshed, and we'll leave peacefully in twenty four hours, with or without you, taking whatever captives are left.
Come to the border between Stonehaven and your property, approach peacefully on your own, and we'll return Matt and Logan. We'll also not target any of your children as long as they live and remain within your territory. Call me and I will ensure that they meet you at the border.
Elena is offered the same exchange with her daughter. I don't need a five year old pet.
Fail to come and I will leave with the children. Come with the North American pack and there will be bloodshed. Your pack may fight with teeth and claws but mine also has alternative forms of combat and are not ashamed to use both.
My phone number is …
Aaron Monsanto, Alpha of the South American pack.'
Aaron. Such a simple, common, everyday name, it almost didn't seem to match him. He should have been some evil sounding name. His last name was much more evil sounding to me, as I knew about the company Monsanto, but I doubted it was connected.
He was the South American pack? When did that happen? I thought he was a 'rogue' pack. It almost sounded like he'd given up on trying to conquer North America and had his eyes set on somewhere else instead.
I sat back, staring at the email, frozen. Stunned by how polite it was. How straight forward. I go there, he sends Matt and Logan back. And what if I could get him to send Kate back as well?
I didn't want to go. But at the same time, I knew I had to. It was the only way to get close enough to rip his balls off him and feed them to him. I shoved my phone into my pocket, slipped downstairs into the kitchen, and made sure the baby monitor was on the counter. Nick would hate this. I wondered if he'd realise what I was up to, that strange connection between us probably going to rear up at the worst time, but that just made me move faster.
I slid outside and slipped away into the forest. And the further I walked, the more I separated myself from my pack, the more terrified I felt. Oh sure, I wanted revenge, but I liked them. Their company. Their support. Their teeth. Every inch of me shook. I wanted to do this with people. Somehow though I felt like I had to do it. Had to be the one to do this, to attack, to ... he was too close to us, he had Matt, he was minutes from my babies...
Every step made the fear and panic rise. But I did it anyway. I was sick of running from him.