Keeping My Pack (32 page)

Grandfather frowns at me. “They’ve had their mid-day meal, yes, but why are you going out?”

I frown back at him in confusion. “To get the bedding, I just told you.”

“
It’s not a good idea for you to leave the property, My dear. You put yourself at risk and the others with you when you leave. I know you have not seen it yet, but there are those that will wish to keep you for themselves if they can get to you.” He warns me.

Reed sighs behind me. “I didn’t think about that. He may have a point, Kitten.”

“
Then who will go with you? Won’t you in danger if you leave, you’re an Alpha after all. More important than me.” I ask.

Reed chuckles. “Because I’m an Alpha they will want to stay away, but besides that, not too many wolves try to mess with a changed wolf. We’re stronger than them. I’ll just grab a couple of the volunteers to come with me, no biggie.” He wraps me in a tight hug and places a loud smacking kiss on my cheek. I giggle as there is a chorus of “Ewwww” from the boys.

“
Okay, but hurry back,” I tell him.

Grandfather puts an arm around my shoulders as I watch Reed leave. “Don’t worry too much about him; he’ll be fine.” He consoles. “I see you’ve marked the last of your mates, any hope of getting started making tiny Ivaskovs’ anytime soon?”

I pull away from him in shock. “Grandfather!” I exclaim, not believing that he’d ask such a question.

He just chuckles and sits back down in his seat. “What? You can’t blame an old man for asking. I’d like to see my great-grandbabies run around here soon. I didn’t get the opportunity with you or your cousin. Katerina would have loved grandbabies, and great-grandbabies too.” He says with a wistful sigh.

I take a seat in the plush chair by the fireplace so I can watch Mikey and his new friends Morris and Perry. “We haven’t talked about kids, well, not really anyway. There hasn’t been much time for it, and I don’t think any of us are in a hurry.” I tell Grandfather.

“
Hm, does that mean you don’t want them?” He asks.

I shrug a shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t even know what kind of world I’m living in anymore; what kind of world I’d be bringing them into. And we still don’t know if it’s a possibility anyway. Why try for something only to be disappointed?”

He nods his head thoughtfully. “All of that is true, you and your mates have plenty of time for all of that, it will happen when it is supposed to. That’s what your grandmother always said.”

I agree with him there; we have plenty of time. Though babies are super cute and I would love to see what baby Kellan’s and Logan’s looked like, and the rest of them too.

“
How come there are children here? I thought it was difficult for wolves to have children, that they were considered precious and protected at all costs. And where are their mothers?” I have to ask.

“
Wolf pregnancies are complicated. Most of what we know about them is just guessing and experience. Things have changed so much since ‘The Suffering’. Those boys there are half-bloods with wolf daddies and human mothers. Some of our males are still able to conceive with humans, but once they find out about the wolves, they tend to run and leave their ‘monster’ children behind. It rarely happens, as the relationships themselves can never last, so most don’t even try it, and they have to leave the pack to do so as well.” He tells me.

“
So their human mothers didn’t want them?” I ask.

“
That’s right. And since they are half-bloods they won’t shift until puberty, unlike born wolves, who are literally born as wolves. We have some of those as well in the pack, but Marcus demanded to have a chance to breed any female who proved herself capable, so that’s how the remote villages were started. They hide both our females and our young there.”

“
That’s horrible.” I shudder in disgust. No wonder there aren’t any women around here.

Grandfather grunts. “It certainly was. I suspect that we will be seeing them soon enough, though. Now that our Alpha’s are mated, and there’s a female ruler, there is no reason to hide, and they will want to seek safety with the pack again.”

“
If they are safer here, then they
should
be here. Could you let them know that they are welcome here for me? We can put all the children and families with women and girls on the floor right below ours. They’ll be as safe as ever there.” I tell him.

He smiles at me in approval. “Of course, my dear. I’ll make the calls myself. You really are a lot like your father, you both have generous hearts and level heads.”

I continue to watch the kids playing, not knowing what to say about my father when I still see him as the man who threw me away. A few people have spoken about him, and from what I gather, he doesn’t seem like the type of person to do that, or at least they don’t think he was.

“
Wait. You said wolves are born as wolves. How is that possible?” I ask, a horrifying image of a baby wolf clawing itself from its mother comes to mind.

“
When a female wolf gets close to giving birth, she’ll shift into her wolf form and remain as one, until about after a week after her pups are born. The pups themselves stay wolves for at least six weeks, and can shift any time after that.” He explains.

“
Oh. That must be difficult then. Babies turning into little wolf puppies whenever they feel like it and all.” Nursing must be very complicated, scary even.

Grandfather laughs. “It can be, yes. But as infants, they pick up on their parents’ energy and learn to shift when they do quite quickly. It’s the toddlers you have to watch out for. The stubborn ones can be hard to handle. Your father liked his fits when he was younger; he’d feel as if some great injustice had been done to him and remain a wolf for days at a time.” He smiles at the memory. “All I wanted was for him to take a bath or eat his vegetables usually.” He adds with a chuckle.

I laugh too, glad that Mikey can’t shift, but he’s pretty easy going as far as kids go. I know some of it has to do with his past and the punishments he received for acting out at home.

Grandfather and I talk for a little while longer, about everything and nothing really. Soon though, I decide it’s time to get back to work and leave the kids with him and the other man, who never looked up from his book.

We get the beds situated with the help of most of the pack, complete with sheets, pillows, and blankets. It’s a heck of a lot of work, but it’s worth is. Once the beds are made though, it still doesn’t seem like enough. I just keep telling myself that it will take time. I had told Remy of my offer to the women and children and how we might be needing space for them, and he agreed to keep the floor below ours empty for now, except for the few children we have already, until we see how many there are. He also suggested that their floor have security as well, and that would give us double the protection, so it’s a win-win.

T
ristan had managed to get his hands on a couple of box trucks, so he and a bunch of others had taken a trip to a Club store to stock up on groceries and personal items. We may be eating a lot of macaroni and cheese and ramen noodles for a little while until we can get the rest of the stuff for the kitchen we need. But that’s okay with me, as long as everyone gets fed that’s good enough for me. And Tristan makes fantastic macaroni and cheese.

I
had been up on our floor for a while before the guys started to return. I had to put Mikey to bed, and I didn’t want to leave him up here by himself, so I grabbed the Harry Potter book Finn and I were reading and read ahead to keep myself entertained. That, and because I was quickly becoming addicted to them. I read at an average pace, though, so I wouldn’t get too far ahead.

Logan and Jace were the first ones back, and they were happy to grab the laptops and sit on either side of me while I continued to read and they shopped online for clothing for the men in the pack. I took a quick shower, and when I returned, Finn had the book and was catching up where I had left off. Logan must have gone to shower too, as it was just Jace and Finn.

“
How was your day?” I ask him as he sets the book aside.

“
Long.” He replies with a smile, bending down to give me a kiss. “I think we’ve found classes for most everyone that won’t be too far out of the way. There were a few people who asked about nursing and cooking classes, but I told them that Kellan and Tristan could probably teach them better than any school. So that helped cut down some of the need. Others were interested in carpentry and mechanics, so I told them the same about Remy and Ash. If they’re dead set on degrees, they can still go of course, but as it is, we’ll have to spread the enrollments out to not draw attention to ourselves.”

“
That does sound like a busy day.” I hug him to me and run my hands through his shiny black hair. He sighs and nuzzles my neck in thanks. “I bet people were excited. You did a wonderful thing today Finn.”

About that time, Remy strolls in, looking beat. He gives me a hard kiss on the mouth and messes with Jace’s hair before he heads straight for the shower. Reed follows shortly after with Tristan right behind him, Kellan and Ash being the last ones in. Each of them gives me kisses or hugs before showering or snacking on the chips Tristan brought with him.

“
And how was your day, Shadow?” I ask Ash, having already asked everyone else.

He snorts as he sits heavily on the floor in front of me, leaning his head back into my lap. I play with his long locks as he answers. “It was a fucking nightmare.” He starts, craning his head back to look at Remy. “Did you know that they have no training facilities to speak of? Those shit trailers were placed where their field used to be, and the new barracks are where the training center was on one side and the other used to be stone barracks that matched the house.”

“
So where do they train?” Remy asks, his rumbly voice sounding tired as well.

“
They don’t. That’s my point. This army that’s supposed to scare the living shit out of all other armies hasn’t trained since the fifties. They rely on their parents or other soldiers to show them a few things. Most of those men haven’t ever touched a sword or a gun.” Ash huffs, closing his eyes as I use my nails to scratch lightly at his scalp.

“
What about the commanders we met today? What do they do?” I ask.

Ash snorts. “Apparently nothing. They are mostly secretaries and make the schedules for patrol and security. These people are lucky no one has come for them in a while; they couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.”

“
You telling war stories again?” Logan asks as he saunters back into the room, shirtless. He catches me staring and winks at me before collapsing on the couch.

“
I wasn’t talking to you, Fucker,” Ash responds.

“
You know you love me, Fatass. Don’t act like you don’t.” Logan calls out playfully. Ash just grunts, pushing his head into my hands as I momentarily stopped scratching his head.

“
Are we sleeping out here again or in our room tonight? I’m beat, so I’m heading to bed either way.” Reed asks.

“
I’m going to stay up for a while and work through some of this list,” Jace tells him.

“
Yeah, I’ll help you with that.” Logan offers. Jace nods and tosses him the other computer.

“
I guess it’s rooms then,” Remy answers the question.

“
You ready for bed, Babe? Or are you going to stay up too?” Reed asks me.

“
I’ll come to bed. Goodnight guys.” I tell the others as my rounds to give them each kisses. They tell me goodnight back, and then I head off to bed with Reed. He still has his white cloud bed, but he chose to hang paintings up this time, including the finger-painting I did of the guys with the heart around them. And instead of the all-white furniture, he went with pale beech wood this time. I loved his other room, but the new décor seems more like Reed. Laid back and relaxing, just like him.

Reed turns the lights off and slips under the covers with me. I snuggle in, feeling the mating bond rise to the surface, the electric sparks buzzing softly along every surface of my skin touching his. I kiss his neck before finding his lips in the dark. He kisses me back with a passion that only Reed possesses.