Chapter Twenty Six
*Time skip till arrival at North Carolina*
We pull up through the metal gates of the Skyline Clan. The Clan is pretty big for a North Carolina Clan; usually they're quite small to avoid detection here. North Carolina is one of the states with a large amount Shifter Extremists. Hopefully we won't run into anymore extremists after last time.
Rocco gasps "Holy fuck."
I ask not seeing what he's seeing as I'm in the back alongside Loki and Roxy "What?"
Rocco announces "They're whole house is inside the fucking mountain cliff face."
I comment leaning forward so I can see out of the windscreen "You're fucking kidding me right."
I gasp out a curse as I see that Rocco is right. They've built their entire house right into the mountain face. Now that is definitely impressive. I never thought I'd ever see anything like it, it's pretty breathtaking. You can see the balconies lining the cliff face alongside all of the windows that those balconies belong to. Some balconies are lined with flower pots or the occasional potted tree.
We pull up into their underground garage where seven Shifters approach the cars.
I get out of the car and out into the unfamiliar territory. Everyone else jumps out of the cars as well so I return to complete alertness.
A tall muscular black haired man announces "Welcome to the Skyline Clan. I'm Scott Powell the Alpha here. This fine specimen to my right is Romana my Mate."
I turn my attention to a rather small perky blonde haired woman. She flashes everyone an individual smile before turning her attention back to her Mate and lightly giving him a smack on the arm.
She smiles warmly "Hello everyone. I hope that'll you'll enjoy yourselves here."
Scott announces "On my left is my Beta Male Joseph Monroe with his Mate and Beta Female Sarah Monroe next to him. To the right side of my Mate is our Head Enforcer Perry Ayres. Behind me the left is Flynn Barker an Enforcer and my right is Sebastian Barker another Enforcer."
I run my gaze over the other five Shifters. Joseph is a tall muscular brown haired man. He's pretty bulky probably meaning he has a bulky animal hiding away. His mate is just as tall as their Alpha female but has dark brown hair and isn't as tanned. The Head Enforcer is a ginger haired male who is tall and incredibly muscular. Flynn and Sebastian look almost identical both having black hair and both being incredibly muscular. I can only tell them apart as Flynn has a scar under his left eye which looks like it was once a nasty wound.
Morgan steps forward with Roxy beside him. The Beta pair take position on either side of Morgan and Roxy. I take my position next to Aaron with Loki deciding to stand beside me. Rocco and Raya are on the other side of Quinn leaving Jett to stand behind.
Morgan announces "I'm Morgan the Alpha Male, next to me on my right is Roxy my Mate and Alpha Female. To my left is my Beta Male Aaron Storm. On the other side of Roxy is Aaron's Mate the Beta Female Quinn. Next to Aaron is my Head Enforcer Brooklyn Kelly with Loki Laufeyson next to her. On the other side of Quinn is Rocco Austins and Raya Knight both of which are Enforcers. Behind me is Jett Matheson who is also an Enforcer."
Scott greets firmly "Nice to have a name to the faces of all of you. I will have Perry, Flynn and Sebastian show you to your guest rooms in our home. I expect you would like to rest before talks begin. I will have them come get you for when dinner is ready as well which will be in roughly five hours time."
Morgan nods his head then comments "Thank you. I'm sure we'd all do well with a few hours of proper sleep."
With a nod between the two Alpha Males Scott turns and leads his Female and Betas up the stairs into what I guess must be the house.
Perry comes forward and requests "Follow me and I'll show you to your rooms. May I know how many rooms you'll need?"
Morgan replies without a pause "Five bedrooms. We'll manage with whatever size beds that entails."
Perry smiles warmly "You'll have to suffer with queen size beds for the time you're here."
Rocco jokes "Damn how can we cope with such space to spread out. I mean I was looking forward to topping and tailing."
I comment "You can still top and tail with Jett if you're all that eager to Rocco."
Perry and the two Enforcers chuckle loudly and continue leading us to our respective rooms which I hope will be close together for my sake.
We come to a stop in a rather small corridor which ends in a dead end. Doors line the walls of the corridor on both sides. Perry opens up five different doors then comes back to the group.
Perry notifies "These rooms will be yours for the time that you are here for. It's separate from the Clan members of my Clan so you have your own space. You may choose which rooms you have although they're all pretty much the same."
Roxy smiles warmly "Thank you. I'm sure we'll enjoy having a bed to sleep in instead of a car seat."
I comment "You can say that again. I thought I wouldn't be able to move after sleeping in a car seat for so long."
Sebastian asks "How long did it take you to get here?"
I announce "Around three days."
Sebastian fakes fainting and is caught by Flynn, who slaps him around the back of his head. I burst out laughing.
Flynn comments "I apologise for my brothers' idiocy."
Roxy smiles "Don't worry about it I've had to put up with my brother's bullshit all my life."
Rocco curses "Fuck you Roxy. It's more like I've had to put up with your bullshit."
We all burst into laughter. This trip might not be so bad after all. It's a good opportunity to meet new Shifters of similar interests.
Perry announces "We'll let you all have a rest now."
Morgan comments "Thank you."
I wait for Perry, Sebastian and Flynn to leave before I turn to look at the Enforcers. Rocco and Jett will have to bunk together as Raya won't have anyone in with her and I've got to stay with Loki.
Roxy announces, "I want to have a nap so me and Morgan will be taking this room."
She points at the nearest room and practically drags Morgan into the room, shutting the door behind them both. They'll play burying the bishop before having a nap that I can already tell.
Quinn yawns loudly and Aaron picks her up. She slaps him across the chest growling. He quickly puts her down not wanting to anger his mate any further I'm guessing.
Aaron suggests "Maybe you should go to sleep babe. You didn't sleep in the car for a very long time."
Quinn grumbles between yawning "Maybe you're right."
Aaron leads Quinn into the next available room then comes back out.
Aaron suggests "Brooklyn it might be a good idea to make sure we're all awake in four hours at the very least. I think the Alpha's might get us before they've actually made dinner."
"Alright. I'll make sure everyone is at least awake for six."
Aaron nods then stalks back into the room he put Quinn into.
I turn to face Rocco, Jett and Raya. They look at me waiting for me to tell them the arrangements.
I announce "Alright we'll take turns in guarding the hallway here. We'll take hour shifts only so we have at least three hours of sleep between us. Rocco you're on first watch, Jett you'll be after him, Raya you'll be after Jett and I'll be last. Wake me up immediately if you think something is wrong. I don't want to take any chances here. We're outnumbered if they decide to attack in our sleep I don't want them to take us by surprise."
The Enforcers nod their heads their gazes turning hard and going into Enforcer mode. Rocco moves so he's near to the entrance to this hallway. Raya goes into a nearby room with Jett going into the one next to it. I stalk towards the last available room with Loki following behind me. Once inside the room I wait until Loki has entered before shutting it tightly behind me.
The room is a large area full of somewhat light coloured furniture, I mean the front of the furniture is white but there is visible dark wood. The bed is indeed a queen sized bed which is covered in white bedding with the occasional lilac sheet. There are two bedside tables on either side of the bed. The bed leans up against a lilac coloured wall. There's a shelf on the wall directly above the bed. There is what I think could be a small table at the bottom of the bed. There's a wardrobe across the room and next to that there are a tall chest of draws. There's a small cupboard along a wall near the bed that has a variety of vases on it. There is a mirror behind the cupboard.
Loki breaks the silence asking "Am I to get up with you when you go on guard?"
I shake my head no commenting "No you don't need to."
I fling my bag onto the floor near the bottom of the bed and pull out something to sleep in. Loki lightly puts his bag next to mine and does the same. I quickly get changed and jump into bed. Loki gets changed all the while trying to hide from me.
I announce "Loki you do realise I'm not watching you getting changed so you can stop trying to hide yourself."
Loki comments "I'm still getting used to changing in front of you it's not something I'm used to."
I smile "Well get used to it as you'll have to get pretty exposed if you want to become an Enforcer if you get accepted into the clan."
Loki asks "Why would I be exposed?"
I explain "When you shift forms you'll have to make your clothing rip otherwise it won't be realistic."
Loki asks "Isn't there any other way?"
I notify "The only other way is to take off your clothes. You've seen how I shift. Take that as an example."
Loki nods his head looking slightly uncomfortable with the idea of being so exposed still. Don't get me wrong it took me a good while to become fully comfortable with being so exposed around the other Clan members but I'm an actual Shifter so naturally got used to it pretty quickly after bonding with the Clan members' animals and with their human sides.
I turn over in the bed so my back is fully facing the wall. I feel Loki get into the bed beside me. He fidgets in the bed eventually knocking into me. He quickly moves away.
"I'm sorry Brooklyn."
"What you saying sorry for?"
"For knocking into you as I did."
"Don't need to apologise for it."
"Did it not annoy you?"
"Not everything annoys me, go to sleep Loki."
Loki falls silent so I close my eyes once more and try to go to sleep.
I'm awoken abruptly by someone shaking me awake. I open my eyes and stretch out before looking to see who's awoken me. I see Raya standing there looking tired as anything.
Raya announces "It's your turn to keep watch."
I nod my head and Raya quickly leaves allowing me to jump out of bed. I quickly get dressed into a simple pair of black jeans and a black vest with black button up shirt. I quickly brush my hair then head out into the hallway to take up my position keeping watch.
Ten minutes pass then Loki suddenly appears as he drops down beside me as I sit on the floor.
I ask "What you doing awake?"
Loki admits "I woke up and found you gone. I decided to come looking for you."
I ask "Didn't you remember that I would be keeping watch after three hours?"
Loki shakes his head then explains "No I did not realise, not until now but that changes nothing as I'll remain here with you until your hour is up."
I suggest "Go catch up on sleep. You'll need it."
Loki shakes his head again before arguing "It's not fair on you if I have more sleep than you."
I comment "It's in my role as Head Enforcer to keep watch in foreign territories during times of rest."
Loki retorts "Just like it's in your role as Head Enforcer to keep an eye on me. How can you effectively do that if you're not in the same room as me? I'm unattended in there I could be up to anything."
I argue "Or nothing at all. I know you well enough now to know you won't do anything."
Loki comments "But that could be all an act to make you to trust me so that you'll let your guard down."
I ask "Do you want me to keep trusting you Loki? Because you're going the right way to make me not trust you right now."
Loki notifies "That's not my intent at all. I want you to trust me."
I ask "Then why have you been suggesting that you're trying to make me let my guard down with you?"
Loki admits hesitantly "So that I can stay out here with you without you trying to send me back into the room."
I announce "I wouldn't force you back into the room Loki. If you don't want to sleep then don't sleep, you'll come to regret it sooner or later."
Loki scoffs "I highly doubt that, I'm used to not sleeping for long periods of time."
I sarcastically reply in question "Is that why I can never get you to wake up without a fight in the morning?"
Loki huffs out in slight annoyance "You do not have to fight me to wake me up. I just prefer waking up when I want to and not being made to wake up because of another. Anyway I'm not that bad."
I chuckle "Is that why I had to throw a glass of water over you the other day."
Loki argues "I wasn't used to having to wake up at that time."
I roll my eyes and go back to watching the hallways in silence. Loki falls silent as well but I can feel his gaze upon me. I spare a glance at him and catch him on the act, he quickly looks away but his gaze soon returns to me when he thinks I'm not watching.
I ask "Why do you keep staring at me? I'm not going to suddenly combust into flames if you take your eyes off me you know."
Loki stutters for a few seconds before collecting himself and asking "Am I not allowed to look at you?"
I notify "You can look at me yes but staring at me is another thing entirely. What are you looking for fleas or something?"
Loki responds immediately disgust laced in his voice "I would be looking for no such a thing. You would not have fleas upon your body."
I remind "You still haven't answered my question about why you've been staring at me."
Loki is silent for a moment before admitting and avoiding the question again "I was just looking at you at didn't realise how long I was watching you for."
I ask "Why did you look at me to begin with?"
Loki opens his mouth clearly unsure how he can get away with not answering my question for whatever reason.
I grumble "Answer my question Loki."
Loki blurts "I was admiring how you look."
I comment "There that was simple wasn't it."
Loki falls silent for a few seconds then asks "How are you not reacting to what I said?"
I explain "I've already said my peace with you over what I feel. You're mine. I may not claim you but you're mine."
Loki falls silent again and we remain that way for some time.
Time skip
We'd been summoned to the Skyline Clan's kitchen a while ago and had arrived not even five minutes ago. I wasn't expecting to have all the clan in here with us. It's either the Alphas way of showing that we're outnumbered here or that they're trying to welcome us here. We'll see how they react to us as to whether they're trying to be welcoming or not. I'm not really in the mood for confrontation so I'm hoping that they'll be friendly.
The Alpha Male, Scott Powell, comes forward smiling "Thank you for coming here so quickly. We were worried we'd have to wait and let the food go cold."
Morgan smiles "We like to be as quick and organised as possible in all situations."
Scott chuckles "So I've heard. You and your Clan are well known throughout the Shifter Community for being exceptionally talented at defending your own and known for something else entirely unusual."
Scott takes a glance at me and I bite my tongue to stop myself from growling.
Loki whispers "What's he talking about? What's unusual in the Clan?"
I explain quietly "I'm the unusual one because of my Telepathy."
Morgan responds quickly "Our Clan and no one inside of it is unusual. I'll admit we've got a few people with varying degrees of sanity but I'll let them decide how they want to come across to others."
Scott looks at Morgan differently, he almost looks impressed.
Scott stands aside notifying "Let me not distract you from food any longer, you must be hungry. We'll continue our formal talks later so for now let us make friends."
Scott goes to sit with the Alpha Female, Romana and begins to dig into a plate full of food which Romana had obviously prepared for him while he was talking to us. We all find a chair at a long table which is almost full of different types of food. A tall long brown haired woman approaches us. She seems friendly from the look on her face but I know that looks can be deceiving.
The woman notifies "Hey I'm Amanda I'm the Healer here for the Clan and I've cooked the food here tonight. I hope you guys enjoy the abundance of food especially after your long travels."
I look at her surprised. I've not seen a Healer for a long while. I'm quite taken back by how forward she is about being a Healer. Healers are sometimes treated like Feral Shifters in the fact that it's not incredibly common to find one. Seers are treated even worse simply because of their ability to see what might come about. In their own Clans Healers and Seers are or should be treated equally, it's just the Shifters who aren't used to them that treat them like absolute shit which has resulted in most Healers and Seers being almost reluctant to talk about their abilities. I mean like I know they're treated a fuck ton better than I ever have been treated what with me being a Feral and having Telepathy to match but they get a great deal of bullshit thrown at them.
I comment "I'm surprised you're being so open about being a Healer, especially as we're not your Clan members and we've only just met you."
Amanda smiles "I thought you would all be understanding towards me. I know who you are Brooklyn Kelly so I know that you would be understanding so why should I think that any of your Clan members would be any different. I honestly wish I had your abilities they'd be so useful what with being able to read someone's thoughts you'd be able to tell if someone was going to attack or not. You can stop warring from happening all I can do is sort out the aftermath of it."
If only she knew the truth of that. I can't fucking control the pissing ability, I'm no use to anyone at all.
Roxy comes to my rescue so to speak as she announces "Yeah Brooke has helped us out on multiple occasions."
Amanda smiles warmly "I'll leave you alone to eat now, if you ever need my services I'm more than happy to help."
I watch as Amanda walks away and goes to sit down next to a muscular black haired male, her mate I'm guessing by the way the male turns to look at her. I turn to begin grabbing food before Rocco takes more than he actually needs. Loki waits for me to finish getting my food before he begins to get his own. I quickly tuck into my food which is delicious in its own right. I chose the tortellini pasta with some form of tomato sauce. Loki chose the same as me and seems to be enjoying the meal as he's eating it almost as quickly as Rocco.
I smile cheekily "Slow down Rocco its not going to disappear anytime soon you know."
Rocco grumbles "Piss off it tastes really good alright. Anyway it would be rude not to eat it."
I respond "Yeah but you weren't a hover the last time I checked although your nose is looking a bit long."
Rocco stops eating then touches his nose before his gaze fixes on me while he curses "Fuck off."
He goes back to eat while the rest of us just laugh at him. He begins top laugh too after a few seconds of sulking.
We eat our dinner without incident and stay sitting around in the kitchen for a time.
Scott approaches us with Romana by his side. Morgan, Roxy and me stand up to welcome their approach and to be ready in case of a sudden attack.
Scott asks "Do you want to start the talks now? I suspect you'd rather get them over with so you don't need to be away from your territory for too long."
Morgan notifies almost instantly "That would be most agreeable."
Scott requests "If you would like to follow me then, I'll take you to one of our meeting rooms that we'll be using."
Morgan turns to me as Scott begins to walk off and instructs "Send Rocco and Raya to look after Loki while we start our talks. We can fill them in on the events afterwards."
I nod my head and begin to walk as we all follow Scott and Romana.
I announce quietly to Rocco and Raya "You two are to keep an eye on Loki while we're in the talks. Do whatever you guys want to do but don't let him out of your sights."
Rocco nods his head before commenting "Understood I don't think he'll do anything stupid but you can never be too certain."
I notify "I don't think he'll do anything other than try to come into the room with me."
Rocco asks "He does know he can't go in there right?"
I comment "He should do. I'm pretty sure I told him."
I hear Morgan call my name so as I begin to walk away I comment "Thank you Rocco and Raya."
I quickly head over to Morgan, Roxy, Quinn, Aaron and the Skyline Alphas, Betas and Head Enforcer. I nod my head at Morgan who turns to Scott and ushers for him to show us the way to his office or meeting room wherever this more than likely boring, long, more than likely pointless talks will take place.
We arrive in a room which is filled with sofas, bookshelves and a desk in the middle of the back wall looking inwards. Some form of library or office I'm going to guess. Sitting at that desk is this scrawny looking black haired Shifter. He's obviously submissive given the look of terror written across his face at the sight of five new dominant shifters entering pretty much unannounced.
Scott announces "This is my research room. This is where we're going to be holding our talks for an alliance between the both of us."
I ask voicing my concern "Who's this sitting at the desk? He looks like he'd be rather anywhere else but here. What purpose is here for? I don't recall seeing him at dinner."
Scott turns to face the now shocked looking scrawny Shifter then urges "Please answer Brooklyn's question."
The Shifter stands up then explains rather quietly "My name is Josh Hayes, I'm a Red Fox Shifter and my role here today is to write down all that is said during the events of these alliance talks."
I comment satisfied with his answer "That's a pretty useful role."
Scott comments "I know it's pretty unusual to have a meeting like this written down as evidence like this, but we've had issues in the past where some Clans have denied what was agreed to. With this type of evidence in play it's less likely to happen again."
Morgan notifies "That's understandable and completely agreeable."
Scott moves his arm to the side offering silently for us to sit down. Everybody takes a seat on the varying sofas.
Scott asks "Shall we begin?"
Morgan agrees "Let's begin."
And here starts the long process of forming an alliance between two very different Clans.