Chapter 26: Quadrupled

I stayed there with Vicki sleeping on my lap until I saw the pair coming back out of the trees. “Our lovers have returned,” I sent to Mike and Anita.

“Good thing, dinner is almost ready,” Anita responded. “Liv shouldn’t shift back yet, and Brent won’t change until she does. I’ll get Vicki, and send help to get you back down here.” It was time for Vicki to wake, so I gently woke her and showed her how her mother was coming back with Brent.

“She looks happy,” Vicki said as she watched her Mom nip at Brent’s back leg.

“We’ll have to teach her how to link,” I told her. “I have to bring her into the Pack first.”

“How?”

“She submits to me as her Alpha, then I’ll be able to open up a link to her wolf. After she can hear me, we’ll teach her how to talk with everyone else.” I had an idea. “You’ve got a family bond with her, can you try and send her a mental message? Can you tell her dinner is almost ready?”

“I can try,” she said. She closed her eyes and concentrated. I could tell it worked because Liv’s body froze, and she fell to the ground, sliding across the snow-covered grass. She looked up at the window as Vicki waved to her. “It worked!”

“Nice job,” I said. Anita came in and picked her up, and she told her what she’d done as they walked out. Mike and Larry came up to get me. “I can hop down, just hold my bad side,” I said. Larry wrapped his arm around my waist, and I held on to the railing as I went down. Mike set up the wheelchair in the kitchen, and I sat down in it. My useless left arm kept me from moving. “This is ridiculous. I need to rent a powered wheelchair.”

I heard a squeal from the hallway, as Vicki appeared, driving a red-colored powered scooter. “Look, Unka Leo!” She smiled as she steered past me into the dining room, taking a lap before she stopped next to me. “We got you a scooter!”

“Thank Luna for that,” I said. She hopped off, and Mike helped me into it and showed me how to use it. I drove it to my room, where I was able to slide off on my own and use the bathroom before dinner. I drove back to the dining room, where Liv and Brent were sitting to the side in wolf form. “Did you two have fun,” I asked.

Liv woofed, and came over to greet me. She licked my neck, exposing her own neck to mine. My wolf pushed through, accepting her submission and bringing her into the Pack. “Welcome, Liv, to the Miesville Pack,” I sent to everyone.

As soon as the link opened, Brent, Mike, and Anita were able to establish their own mind-links with Liv and add their greeting. Vicki heard them all, and she was hugging her Mom’s furry neck. “Thank you, Leo. This is so cool!”

My eyes got big as I realized she’d mastered how to talk back over the link. “Vicki taught me while we were waiting for you,” she said.

I scratched her ears, then gave Vicki a hug. “Nice job, Sharkbait.”

“Mommy wants to watch one of my shows. She doesn’t know what an Oceanic White-Tip looks like.”

“After dinner, and only for an hour. The doctor doesn’t want you sitting in front of a TV that long,” I said.

“Everybody, sit down for dinner,” Connie said. She pointed her ladle at me. “Not you two. You’ve been petting a wet wolf, so go wash up again.”

“Come on, Sharkbait,” I said. I drove us to the bathroom, where we both washed our hands before driving back out. They’d left a space for me, and Vicki climbed up to her chair, which was higher so she could eat normally. Connie had made sausage and four-cheese lasagna, garlic toast, and a salad for us. “What else has happened today,” I asked.

“We’ve had six people from the Welch pack stop by, asking to join your Pack,” Larry said. “All of them have already cut ties with Alpha Todd. I explained what was going on, and they agreed to stop by again tomorrow morning.” He passed me a list of names; my eyes got wide. Four didn’t surprise me based on their text messages, but two did. All were mated wolves with families. “Going after a child didn’t go over well with them.”

“They are all good people,” I said. “I have no problem with any of them. If they want to join, have them come over now,” I told my father-in-law.

“Are you sure?”

“They are vulnerable as lone wolves, and I won’t leave them out there to be picked off by Todd or anyone else,” I said. “Call them now.”

He got up from the table and walked into the living room to make the calls. “It’s so nice to see you being yourself again,” Donna said as we continued eating. “I was worried we’d lose you too.”

“You were going to lose me until I found a reason to get up in the morning again.”

“You’re still young enough to find love again,” she told me.

I just shook my head. “Love is a young man’s game,” I said. “I had the best woman in the world for twenty-five years. I’ve finally made my peace with her being gone, and I’m moving on again. I’ll watch over my Pack members as they find their mates and raise their families.”

“And what will you do?”

“I’ll lay there on the porch and keep an eye on the young ones as they play in the yard or the pool. I’ll soak up the sun as the younger ones grow and take over,” I said.

“You’ll be watching your own kids out there too,” Liv said. “You’re too good a man to stay single, now that you’ve stopped hiding in a bottle.”

I shook my head. “Even if I wanted to find one, it’s not going to happen.”

Donna just laughed. “You forgot, didn’t you.” I looked at her funny. “You’re going to have to go to the Alpha Summit. You’re not mated. Guess who is going to the scratch-and-sniff?” My jaw dropped, and she started laughing at me. “Who knows, maybe there is a she-wolf out there who doesn’t mind a slightly-used Alpha with some tread left on his tires.”

“Oh, Luna.”

“I’d love to see you get another mate. To watch as you catch her scent, the way your wolf just KNOWS she is the one. You look around frantically, needing to find her and have her in your arms. To feel the tingles of a mate when she touches you, and your souls connecting as you come together. Yes, I hope and pray I get to see you happily mated again.”

The Summit was on the weekend after Valentine’s Day every year, giving me about six weeks to recover from my injuries. My shoulder would take two weeks, the ankle a month. By the time I arrived there, I’d have Todd’s pelt on the wall. I looked over at Liv and Brent; Liv was staring at him, he was nuzzling her neck, and they were having a deep conversation over the bond with each other. Everyone else stopped talking and looked at them, knowing what was happening. Her wolf hadn’t told her, but her human side was starting to put all the clues together. They had a LOT to talk about.

“Leo, we’re going upstairs. I’m still exhausted from the change,” Liv said.

“That’s a good idea. In the morning, we’ll talk you through changing back.” I watched her come up and lick the side of Vicki’s face, then she went up the stairs alongside Brent.

I sent a mental message directly to Brent. “She wants you up there?”

“Her wolf and mine are ready to mate, but she hasn’t accepted me yet. Her wolf wants me there, so yeah, I’m going to stay with her tonight.”

We finished up the dinner, and Vicki clapped when she saw the dessert was chocolate cake and ice cream. I was cleaning up her hands and face when Larry told me the first people were arriving. “Bring them into the living room,” I said. “Can someone watch Vicki for a while?”

“I’ll take her down to the theater to watch a movie,” Donna said. She took her down the stairs just before the first person showed up.

I smiled broadly as Luis Hernandez, and his mate Maria came in the door, their four children among them. Luis had run the drywall and roofing crews for Volkov Construction. “Luis, Maria,” I said as I drove over towards them. “Welcome to my home.”

“Oh, Leo, what did he DO to you,” Maria said as she rushed over to check me out.

“He sent my truck on a ride to the bottom of the ravine,” I said. “A few weeks, and I’ll be back to normal.” I got a big hug from her, and a handshake from Luis. “I recognize Carlos and Juan, they’d be eight and six now, but who are these two?”

“Esmerelda is three, and Ernesta is eighteen months old. Girls, this is Alpha Leo.”

The girls came over and looked up at me; I reached out and touched their faces with my hands. “You make beautiful babies, Maria,” I said. They exposed their necks to me, and I accepted them into my Pack.

The door opened again, and this time Rufus Washington and his mate Kinesha walked in, carrying a baby. Rufus was an apprentice plumber when I left the company behind. “Rufus,” I said with a smile.

“You went to the scooter store already, Leo?” I laughed. “Damn, it’s good to see you again.”

“You too, Rufus. Kinesha, you look radiant! Who is this one?”

“This is our son Ron,” she said as she leaned over. I accepted both of them into the Pack before she handed their five-month-old to me.

“He’s almost perfect,” I said. Kinesha looked at me, a little wide-eyed. “Too much of Rufus’ face, but you know.”

She smacked me as she laughed. Paul and Lois Temple came in next; both were in their sixties and were retired schoolteachers and coaches from the Hastings district.

Brian Knight was next, with his new mate in tow. Brian was in the Marines when I was Alpha, and I’d never met his mate, Carla. He leaned down and embraced me, then introduced his mate, a nursing student at Winona State University. “What are you doing now?”

“I left the Marines after two tours in Afghanistan and got a job working security at the nuclear plant,” he said. “I needed insurance while Carla was going to school, and Todd didn’t have any openings.” I welcomed them all to the Pack, and we chatted while waiting for our fifth pair to arrive.

It wasn’t long before Nick and Jenny showed up. Nick was a veterinarian in Red Wing, and Jenny was his assistant. Having them switch Packs was a big deal because many Packs did not have a doctor. By convention, Pack Doctors were untouchable and could travel between Packs with safety. It was also our custom that any injured werewolf could be transported to another Pack’s land under a truce agreement. “You’ve been busy,” I teased as Jenny came closer. “How far along are you?”

“Six months, with a boy,” she said. I quickly brought them into the Pack, bringing it from five to twenty in less than an hour. I filled them in on everything that was happening. “Liv and Brent are upstairs resting after her first shift, and the rest are downstairs with Vicki. Now that you’re all with me, I expect some of the people from Winona will be heading back to their normal duties. I have a few extra bedrooms that will open up when that happens, or you can stay in your homes.”

“We can stay here if you have room, Alpha. We were living with my parents,” Brian said.

“Jenny can stay here, and I’ll come after my normal working hours on weekdays,” Nick said.

“Paul and I can be here whenever you need,” Lois said.

Rufus and Luis both had their own homes, and with their families, they would stay in place. The men would take shifts working security at the house when they could. “As long as we can protect this building, we’ll be fine. Liv and Vicki won’t be going anywhere until the funeral, and we’ll have police protection for that.” The FBI was going to be all over the funeral as it was the likely next place to attempt to capture or kill the two. I wished I could get around better. “Why don’t we call everyone from downstairs and meet the others.”

Vicki was thrilled to have kids near her age to play with, and my living room with the big fireplace worked out well for an informal party. It was a perfect night, and I couldn’t be prouder of my Pack. They had stood up for what was right, even at the cost of their Pack position, and now they were mine.

Two couples from Winona returned home with my thanks, opening one room for Brian and Carla, and another for Paul and Lois. Both couples left to pack up what they would need for a week or so. I waved goodbye to them from the door, then drove back to where Vicki was sleeping on the couch. “I’ll watch her, you get some sleep,” Donna said.

“Thanks,” I said. I managed to take a shower and get in bed on my own with the scooter’s help. It was a good night.