“That isn’t what the Yanks believe. They are certain the prisons they found the girls belong to Avery. If even one member of the High Council can turn then none are safe.” Edward told him.
“I don’t believe them. I don’t doubt they believe it. They may even have evidence that links him directly to the prisons, but I don’t believe it.” Trevor paused for a moment and drew in a shaky breath before continuing. “I know both of you have heard about what happened at Marcus’ when I met Kate. I know the word about the curse spread like wildfire through the packs. I remember the words of the curse. I remember that day. Hell, it is seared into my mind as sharply as it is seared into my skin. Because of that day I have been more wary than most when it comes to, well, a lot of things. Let me ask you this; how carefully did you consider each word of the oath you swore to the High Council and through them to our race? I don’t mean did you think seriously about it, I mean did you turn it over and over in your mind for days, weeks, maybe months looking at it from every single angle? Because I did. I examined every word from every angle. As long as I keep my oath to the race the High Council can’t do anything that actively or inactively hurts my pack or myself, ever. But, you have to make certain, when interacting with them, that you phrase everything in such a way it can’t be twisted. Had I asked if a Seeker could turn rogue and left the question like that and someone on the Council wished to deal falsely, they could have told me it was unlikely, even if it was possible. But I didn’t ask an ambiguous question. I asked in such a manner that if there was any chance at all Billy could go rogue, they would have had to admit to a possibility. The answer was unequivocal. A Seeker can never, under any circumstances, even through the loss of a mate, go rogue. When dealing with the Council I make certain every word is as precise as I can make it with no possibility the answer can be twisted.”
“I haven’t had many dealings with the Council to be honest. They hold my oath to the race and to them and I hold theirs to me and mine but beyond that I leave them alone and they leave me alone. They must, it was part of the deal I made with them.” Edward said.
“Ah, well, that was probably a mistake on your part, but you must run your pack as you see fit. I use them to my benefit and to the good of my pack. I didn’t swear an oath to them for no reason. Think on it. Had I not bound them as tightly to my pack as they thought to bind us to the race I would not have made the connections to the Yanks I have made and you may not have found your Julie nor I my Dawn. Dennis might not have had his Trisah. I have known you for decades and I know you wouldn’t have let the Yanks close enough to even find out their business much less made the trip to the States and found your brother. No, I don’t let those ties loose. The same ties that bind me so tightly bind them. I have been working with William even before this latest trip to make the type of allies that can benefit my pack. And you, don’t tell me you sent Dennis to the States without the backing of the Council when he first met Julie.”
“I did, not that it is your concern. But I don’t involve the High Council in personal affairs. He went with my blessing to travel the States to look, not at the packs but at what was not seen. To find, if he could, a mate. A Beta would never intrude upon the territory of another, but he had traveled around our country with no luck at finding a mate. He has traveled many countries with no luck. What was one more to him or to me? If he felt a boundary he could, he would back away but by the time he retreated he would also know if his mate resided within and he could make note of his location and call me. I would have called the High Council and they would have arranged things for him. He found instead Julie and upon finding her he decided to ask my permission to mate without the bond. Maybe, even then something called to his wolf from her. Maybe something within her called to him as my Beta. No one can ever hope to understand the twist of a mate bond. Even now the mate of the child we will one day have remains in Gammon’s pack. But before he met Julie, before he understood what he felt for her was the protective bond of a male to the mother of his mate, before all of that his wolf demanded he keep Trisah safe. Trisah, who is nothing more to him that the sister of the mother of the mate that hasn’t even been conceived. Fate? Destiny? Who the hell knows? But I have my Julie and he has his Trisah and you have your Dawn because of things we can’t understand.”
“Wait. The mate of the child you don’t have is in your brother’s pack? And you left him there? I would have bound him to my pack.” Trevor laughed. “How did that go?”
“Doesn’t matter how it went. He is in Alaska and he will stay there until my future daughter is of age to consider his suit. Not one minute before. I have put my foot firmly down on that. He will not step foot in this country until my child, who hasn’t been conceived, much less born, is of age. He will not join my pack until my daughter is ready. And when she is, why then he will give me his oath bond. The female always chooses, and she will, I am sure, choose to stay with us. I can’t see a child choosing to leave her family to travel to another country especially not a place such as Alaska. I have done my research and you can be certain I will not speak favorable of the place no matter how much of my homeland it resembles. I have no worries that when the time comes my daughter will choose to stay here, with her mother and her father and her aunt and the pack she grows up knowing rather than uproot herself and leave all that she loves for a strange pack. You will see, my choice to leave Shiloh in the States will prove to be the best choice. It will also allow him to live longer. I can’t vouch for his safety if he were in Australia sniffing around Julie intent on keeping her safe while he waits for his mate to be born. No, I watched the drama that unfolded with my brother and his first mate and her mother. How Jutoh let him live after what he did was always considered a miracle.”
Trevor laughed again. “Well fate is a fickle bitch and I hope, for your sake you made the right choice but if I were honest, I would have made the same choice. So, enough of this, what do you suggest we do about our females?”
“I have been hoping they would grow slightly distant once they got here. If anything, they are growing closer together. Talk with your Council about the other packs here. Find out what you can, and I will talk with Julie and Trisah about what they want. Then I will consult my other females and find out their thoughts. Then, and only then, will I consult the males of my pack.”
“We already know what the females want. I don’t see that changing any time soon. We could hope that it would change when Dawn and I mate but I don’t count on it. I think for better or worse these damn Yanks are changing the future of our packs. Let us hope it is for the better. Now, about Dawn. I would like, and I have talked with her so be prepared.” Trevor gave an evil grin. “She would like to come for a visit to what will be her territory. She is of course well within her rights to come at any time. She is even within her rights to move at any time. I think sometimes my friend you forget she has no ties but friendship to your pack. Your two-hour limit to my visit today did not find favor with her, or me. It is time she meets the pack she will one day be part of, but she isn’t ready to move, yet.”
Edward grimaced. “I like your mate, but I admit I kind of hoped she would get sick of our pack and decide to leave to come to yours. Without her I think Trisah and Julie wouldn’t be so pushy about our packs becoming closer. She is almost twenty-one, she has what a month left maybe?”
“Nineteen days, nine hours and,” Trevor looked at his watch, “Twenty-two minutes.”
“Yeah, well, I will send her to your territory Saturday with a guard. Keep her as long as the two of you feel the need for her to stay, hell, keep her permanently if you can. If not, send her back with an appropriately large guard and my people will pick her up at the edge of the territory.”
“That works. Talk to your females and find out what they have in mind. I will get with William and maybe Bertrum on the Council and find out details on the packs here. I guess, if we want to take it to the next level we can consider getting some of the teams from the States to come down
and start training some of our people on how to search for females who may be outside of pack protection.”
“You’re pushing it, Trevor. You can do that if you want, but what do you do with the females when and if you find them? Others get word you are gathering females and your pack won’t be safe.”
“Edward, right now I am tossing ideas out and seeing what sticks.” He looked at his watch again. “I have to go.”
Edward and Dennis watched as Trevor walked back to his car and stayed watching until the car was out of sight. Edward scrubbed at his face before shifting to his wolf and heading toward the heart of his territory, Dennis close on his heels.
***
“So that’s it? You aren’t going to do anything?” Trisah stared at Edward in disbelief.
“I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth. I said I can’t do anything at this point. Trevor is in a position, with the Council, to do far more than I can do. When he gets more information then we can make some sort of decision. Until then we do nothing.”
“Doing nothing is what got the race in this mess in the first place.” She told him.
“No. A witch and a shifter mating then getting themselves killed is what got us in this mess. We have done the best we could do with the limited information we had. You have to remember until the trip that brought us all together, we didn’t even know about the curse. Until Trevor remembered it, we didn’t know a curse was stalking our people. We had no idea why we faced extinction. We can’t, I won’t, go chasing off without clear direction. Trevor and I are working on working together. You can’t ask for more than that. It won’t do you any good to ask for more than that. We can’t change our nature overnight.”
“I’m sorry, Edward. You are right. I know you are. Even Gammon didn’t change overnight. Hell, he had Gabby for four months and he only let Trey visit a couple of times during those months. It has been a slow process with him, and he still isn’t willing for others to come to his territory. But in his case, he has many more females to protect and no one to call for help if something goes wrong. Not because they couldn’t help him but because, well you saw where he lives. He hasn’t reached out to any packs other than the two his nieces are in and wouldn’t have allied to them if not for his mate. It is just so frustrating to see answers or possible answers only to have the Alphas say no because they are in over protection mode. I understand, but it doesn’t make it any easier on me or the others. We want a bit of freedom, but we all realize it comes at a price. We know better than most but at the same time the friendships we forge could save more than they cost.”
“Give us time. You are asking for, maybe not too much, but much more than I am willing to concede to at this moment.”
“You are going to let me go to Trevor’s for a day, right?” Dawn asked.
Edward laughed. “You could go live there if that were what you wanted. You are the one who wanted to stay here while you got to know your mate. Staying here means living with my rules. If at any time you decide they are too confining for you, you are free to leave.”
A barely noticeable slap sounded in the room and all eyes swung toward Edward who was staring at his arm where Julie had popped him. “Now baby, you know I am not running your friend off. If anything, I just assured her of how much freedom she has to leave when she wants.”
Julie’s lips were tight as she glared at Edward while simultaneously trying to shrink against his side. A smile crossed Trisah’s face as she realized how safe her sister must have felt to have gently slapped Edward’s arm. It was amazing how one simple action could paint such a picture of safety but no one, seeing it, could doubt how far Julie had come in the few short weeks since she met Edward. Whether Dawn returned after her day trip or stayed in her future territory didn’t matter because all three females were certain the bonds they had forged with each other would last, despite any protest the males might make in the future of how things should be because of how they had always been.
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Author note: Do not let an Aussie fib to you and tell you they have ketchup. What they call ketchup is what we Americans call tomato sauce that we use to cook with, not eat on fries. My team and I, I am a night owl, so I certainly have Aussies on my team because they are awake when my American team members are asleep. I digress. We sent pictures back and forth about food one day. They sent me a pic of their “ketchup” (I promise if it doesn’t say HUNTS and you are in Australia DO NOT BELIEVE THEM!) You can buy Hunts Ketchup in the grocery stores there. I sent them a picture of our tomato sauce and explained their ketchup was what we call tomato sauce. I was told it looked like soup because it was in a can. Well, we use it to make soup. But if you go out to eat and they tell you they have ketchup for your chips (fries) do not take it!! DON’T! It is tomato sauce with all the flavor you can expect from tomato sauce from a can here in the States. Except their tomato sauce comes in a bottle like our ketchup. If you go to Micky D’s to eat and order a burger you might have a bit of problems getting pickles on it. Do not think you can go anywhere else and get pickles on your burger. You may have a bit of problems getting cheese like we have here. They literally don’t have American Cheese and have no idea what an equivalent might be, I know, I tried. And if you go anywhere other than Micky D’s and you want a burger you best tell them no beets and forget getting a tomato on it. And the butter, it is also a thing. They use butter the way we use Mayo. It is sad. But 10/10 I would visit again even if I did have problems communicating that I wanted chicken. I mean, I didn’t know what chook was! But I love Australia, I love the people, but the food was so different. I will tell you now that the Australian food is very bland compared to what we are used to in the States. Wait, let me clarify, I am from Louisiana, so we have spicier food than up north. So, if you live south of the Mason Dixon line the food will be very bland. (But they don’t know that.) And cinnamon candy? Yeah, they don’t know that is a thing at all. So sad. But I wish I had a video of my friend down there trying it for the first time. That was hilarious. They don’t do spicy or hot. We found a shop in Harvey Bay that imported a lot of American candies and snacks called the Lolly Shop. I loved that shop. They had Dr. Pepper, root beer and cinnamon candy! None of which won any fans with my friends there. Did I mention don’t try the pizza? Yeah, no, don’t do it. Do try the various foods they have that we don’t. Proceed with caution with the foods they have that you might believe mimic our version. If you visit enjoy the things that are uniquely Australia but keep in mind some of the food you might think would be the same the world over, isn’t. Always take time to enjoy the culture of anywhere you go because you will learn so much and see so many beautiful things.
Introduction to Billy
This story will certainly contain spoilers if you are avidly reading the short stories because you got hooked and you still haven’t read the series. Hell, again the introduction alone will contains spoilers. I mean, so many spoilers. Proceed at your own risk if you haven’t read the books but you intend to as soon as you finish the short stories. So many spoilers. You should read Amber before proceeding with this story. Bit if you can’t wait that long, that is alright also, you won’t understand the spoiler contained in this short story until you read Amber and even then you might miss it. You do need to have read Julie before reading any further.
Billy, as you might recall if you read the short story Time for Change, is a Seeker. Seekers are relatively rare and until Trina they were thought to always be male. No one really knows what makes a shifter have the Seeker abilities and most packs don’t have one. Some packs, like Gammon’s and Marcus’s may have several. Which seems unfair to me, I mean for Gammon to have so many as isolated as his pack is. People can’t randomly pass through his pack on their way to somewhere else yet he doesn’t lack for Seekers. On the other hand, Edward, his brother in Aus
tralia, has zero Seekers. Until recently Edward and Trevor knew each other, they got along from a distance if getting along means they left each other alone, but they had no real reason to interact much. In fact, Edward is a bit like Gammon in that he doesn’t want other shifters around his pack. And that worked well for him until he had to make a trip to the States in the book Julie. He found a mate, his Beta found a mate, and Trevor found a mate. Edward also found the reason Shiloh was so attached to Trisah and later to Julie is because Shiloh will be the mate to the daughter Edward and Julie will one day have. But that is okay because Edward left him safely in Alaska where he doesn’t have to worry about it for many years. But right now they have another problem— Trevor’s mate isn’t ready to give up her friends to go to another pack. Not knowing the way the packs have been operating. This means if Trevor wants to spend time with his mate he has to do it in Edward’s territory. No one is happy about that. By no one I mean none of the males. The females are plotting though because they have figured a few things out. Step one, make the men get along. Step two, make the men get along. Step three, you guessed it, make the men get along. It hasn’t been easy on the females either but it has led to the males starting to share information. One bit of information recently shared with Edward was the existence of Billy. And one thing Billy had to say, to his Alpha, was something is off in Edward’s pack. But is it really? Or is Billy trying to stir up problems?
Billy
Billy stared around the grocery store, his narrowed gaze taking in everyone as his mum pushed the trolley. A few of the other men from the pack ambled along behind them, picking up a few items here and there. The store wasn’t packed, but it had more people shopping than he was comfortable having around his mum. His dad and a few of the others guarded the entrance to the store in a not so obvious way. Mainly by standing around outside and talking, passing time. The men grumbled about these trips but that didn’t stop them from volunteering to go. Billy had his own opinion about why so many of the males always volunteered.
Blood of the Wolf (Safe Haven Wolves Short Stories Book 1) Page 12
