Changes

My wolf woke to the smell of bacon frying. Untangling myself from the puppy pile, I trotted over and grabbed my bag before heading to the bathroom. Emerging clothed in shorts and a T-shirt, I walked into the big kitchen where Margaret was cooking up breakfast. “Good morning,” I said sleepily.

“Not a morning wolf, are you,” Margaret teased as I wiped the sleep out of my eyes.

“No, but I never sleep through a meal. Can I help?”

“You can take over pancakes,” she said. I started making platefuls as I chatted with the other women helping out. Olivia joined us, pitching in with eggs. Honestly, I was surprised Margaret was here at all. I would have thought she’d be with Joseph or her family. “How are you feeling?”

“The wound tingles, but no fever yet,” she said. “Is there anything you need to prepare?”

“Ice. Lots of ice, and if you have a bathtub-sized cattle tank or tub, that would be good. It’s better to do this outside on the grass.” I talked through what would happen during the change; one way or another, it would end tonight. “I believe that those who make it through the change do so because they are too stubborn to die.”

“You’ll want to, trust me,” Olivia added. “I had a daughter to live for, and my mate was there. I didn’t know how important that was, but my new wolf did. It was the most painful experience of my life, but it’s like having a child. As soon as I was in my wolf, I didn’t mind the pain anymore.”

Margaret nodded her head at the thought. “Joseph isn’t my mate. I could see it in his eyes; his wolf wants Fiona, not me. He’s going to leave me.”

I put my hand on her shoulder. “Perhaps, but your family is here. Your son and daughter will find their mates, and they will give you grandchildren. Your mate is out there, waiting for you. Today doesn’t have to be the end. Make it a new beginning.”

She nodded. “They’re beginning to wake up.” There was no way everyone could eat at the table, so instead, the food went into warming trays on it. As people came through with their paper plates, they would find a place inside or outside to eat. I kept making pancakes with the other women until Margaret stopped me. “Grab a plate; we need to talk.” She asked my Mom and Leo to come with her, ending up in her sitting room with our food on the small table. “I want to talk to you about Fiona,” she said.

“Why?” Fiona was still chained up in back, and Amy had taken her some food.

“What is she like?”

I told her what I knew about her. I talked about Fiona’s degree and service, her retirement from the Secret Service, her time as my bodyguard, and her family. “I think she came along because she was frustrated,” I said. “Imagine going to gatherings year after year to find your mate, and it never happens. All she had was her work, and the girls and I became her family to protect.”

“She sounds like a tough woman,” Margaret said.

“She is. I know she regrets what happened. It wasn’t you that she was mad at, it was Joseph. She thought he rejected her without giving her a chance.” It was a crappy situation all around.

“I don’t want Fiona to die,” Margaret finally said. “Even if I don’t make it, I don’t want you killing her on my account. It’s bad enough Joseph loses me; don’t take away his mate, too.”

“That isn’t how it works,” Leo said. “We have laws on this.”

Margaret laughed. “Laws? What laws of yours apply to an isolated group of werewolves who had no idea what mates even were?”

“Fiona knows the laws,” Leo said.

“And I’m the one she harmed. I forgive her for what she did, and I’m asking you to show her mercy. Surely she deserves that after the life she’s lived for others.”

I looked at Leo, glad that I wasn’t the Alpha who had to make these decisions. “You’re a good person, Margaret. You’re going to be a better wolf.” We saw a shiver run through her; the fevers were coming. “You should eat all you can now as you’ll need the energy for later. Go, be with your family.”

She wiped the sweat from her forehead and got up, taking her plate with her. When the door closed, I turned to Leo. “Can you reduce the sentence?”

“I’ll have to talk to Steven first, but yes. As long as the Council is not involved, there is flexibility with this.” We didn’t talk for a bit as we finished our plates. “This is only the start of the problems. Margaret and Joseph are willing to let each other go, but what happens to the husband who chooses his mate, and his wife doesn’t want the change? What do we do then?”

“I could ask the vampires to help. Wipe their memories?”

“I don’t know how that would be possible,” Mom said. “We’re not talking about removing a single memory from something a person saw or did. We could be talking decades of living with and among wolves. What are we going to do, wipe out everything back to their high school days? And what about their families? Everyone knows who they are and who they were married to.”

It was a dumpster fire. “We’ll deal with that later. We’ve got a whole group of people out there who don’t even know what an Alpha is.”

“Or a Pack,” Leo said. “You are right; mates can wait. Forming a Pack out of them is a higher priority. I think we should demonstrate by bringing you girls into the Miesville Pack again.” My eyes got wide. “Alpha Steven suggested it, and it makes sense. You and Nicholas may end up being Alphas here, but you have other commitments. I agreed to stay down here and help get these wolves settled. I can bring them into the Miesville Pack for now, and you or another Alpha can split off with them later.”

It solved a lot of problems that I’d been unable to resolve. “Thank you,” I said as I hugged my Unky Leo. “Nicholas isn’t ready to be an Alpha yet.”

“I’ll keep him with me while you continue on your tour, and he can learn as we go. We should get going,” he said.

I made sure Margaret was getting what she needed first. Her daughter Bonnie was using cold rags to help her since drugs didn’t work on this fever. Mom volunteered to stay with her, while Craig was setting up a cattle tank outside and filling it with water. Olivia would be able to listen in on our training through the link and keep the two updated.

One of the cousins had collected every Esky they could find before heading into town for ice. With everything set and the morning dishes cleaned, Leo gathered everyone in the back yard for class. I noticed that Joseph was sitting alone, keeping himself between the families and Fiona as he scratched her neck. He’d made his choice.

Leo started with the stuff I learned as a pup. “Leadership in a Pack flows from the Alpha,” Leo said. “The Alpha has the power to bind the Pack together, to enforce discipline, resolve conflicts, and to keep everyone working together as a unit. Packs have a minimum of five members, with the largest Packs having close to five hundred. My Pack, the Miesville Pack, is a common size with about a hundred members.”

“How many Packs are there,” one of the young men asked.

“Over two hundred in North America, each claiming an area of land as their own,” Leo answered. “Another eighty-seven scattered across Europe, Russia, and Asia. Each Pack governs itself, but the Alphas elect a Council to resolve conflicts between them, set and enforce laws for the Packs, and protect our secrets.”

“Membership in a Pack is a mutual agreement between the wolf and the Alphas,” I said. “Movement between Packs requires relocation, so it isn’t something done on a whim. Most transfers happen when mates find each other, and the female goes to the male’s Pack unless she is of higher rank. You can also transfer because of school, jobs, or a desire to move. I grew up in Leo’s Pack, then transferred to Alpha Steven’s Three Sisters Pack when I started college.”

“Is Nicholas moving to the United States with you,” another asked.

I blushed. “We haven’t decided. It’s a unique situation because there is no Pack or Alpha in Australia yet, and Nicholas has school and family here.” Nicholas smiled and reached for my hand as I continued. “Do you know how your wolves can talk to other closer family members in your minds?” The wolves nodded. “That is the family link, but it fades out with relatives that aren’t close, which is why you don’t have it with everyone here even though you all descend from the same person. The next kind of link is the Mate link, which Nicholas and I formed when we claimed each other by biting necks. It is the strongest and most powerful of all links; not only can you talk, but you can feel each other’s emotions, even project images and memories across it with practice. The Pack Link is a broader version of the family link; once the Alpha brings you into the Pack, you can communicate mentally with any other member of the Pack who is nearby, whether related by blood or not. Having that communication allows the Pack to coordinate efforts and work together despite the numbers involved.” I used my mate link to get Nicholas’s permission for the next part.

Leo continued. “To demonstrate how this happens, I am going to bring these four ladies and Nicholas into the Miesville Pack. Alpha Steven has already agreed to the transfer.” With that, he did the short ceremony and brought the five of us in. “Welcome to the Pack,” he sent us.

“Wow,” Nicholas said. He tested the link with all of us, then individually. “It’s true; I can link to all five of them now instead of just Vicki.”

“Do we HAVE to join a Pack?”

“No. There are pack-less wolves, and we call them rogues. Some were kicked out of Packs and not accepted into others, while others choose not to accept an Alpha. It isn’t normal or healthy for a wolf to live this way; they end up going feral, and Packs have to hunt and eliminate them before humans get hurt. The stories the humans have about bloodthirsty werewolves come from such rogues. A rogue is also killed on contact if they enter Pack lands.”

“That explains a few things,” Ian said. “We don’t do well away from our families. A few have headed into the Outback and never returned.”

“The natural place for a wolf is in the Pack structure. It’s how we are to live,” Leo said. We talked and answered questions for another hour before Leo offered up the chance to join his Pack. Not all accepted; three families left, and a few married couples left with them. For the rest, it was like an altar call you’d see television evangelists do; a line of people heading up, Leo laying his hand on them, and they walk away happy and crying. Not everyone chose to do it yet, but three dozen did.

I left Nicholas in the classes and went to see how Margaret was doing. She was in a swimsuit in the tub, with ice covering the top. “How is her temperature?”

“Hundred and two,” Mom said. “The first wave is just starting.”

I pulled Craig away to talk to him. “How are YOU doing,” I asked. These events had all had to be a shock to him.

“I’m barely holding it together,” he confessed. “I’m mad at Dad for dumping Mom, but then I wonder how I can be mad at him for finding his mate? I can tell how much he loves her, how his WOLF loves her while he just put up with Mom. I look at Nicholas and see how happy he is with you, and my wolf wants HIS mate too.”

“There will be time for that, I promise you. We need to help your Mum pull through.” She’d need something to hold onto when things got bad, and Joseph wasn’t it now.

“I know.” I helped him carry another Esky from the garage before going to help with lunch. They were doing burgers and chips, so I volunteered to work the grill. Leo and I alternated teaching through the day, and by the end of dinner, another ten wolves had joined the Pack. One of them was Joseph.

Not everything went smoothly. With all the wolves descended from a Beta rank, the Pack didn’t have the spread of dominance you’d have in other Packs. The wolves started to jockey for position, and challenges not won with stares and intimidation turned to tooth and claw. Leo officiated many a battle as wolves found their place in the hierarchy.

Only one thought to challenge Nicholas, and others thinking about it changed their minds after his shift. Nicholas’ wolf was half again as large as they were now, and dominance rolled off him in waves as he stalked towards a distant cousin. Wisely, that wolf rolled on his back and exposed his neck. With a grasp of his neck, Nicholas had won his spot in the Pack below Leo.

The girls and I had to be back in Melbourne tonight, but I couldn’t leave until Margaret’s fate was known. She’d made it through the fevers and was now on a blanket suffering through the bone breaks of her first shift. Her family gathered around for support as she screamed in pain with each one. “She’s lasted longer than anyone I’ve seen before. Previous bites haven’t survived the fevers,” Ian said over the Pack link.

“Her wolf is there, and Leo is calling it out,” I said. “That’s the difference; without an Alpha, the human and the wolf fight each other until both die.”

It wasn’t easy, but two hours later, a small black and white wolf lay on the blanket, panting to catch her breath. Leo brought her into the Pack, and we all welcomed her while she recovered. I had Craig feed her some raw steak he’d cut up for her while he scratched her ears.

I was happy as we drove back to town, knowing the death penalty for Fiona was off the table. I promised Margaret that I’d help her find her mate while her divorce was going through. She didn’t want to stay in Melbourne; she wanted to see the world. Her mate was likely to be older, perhaps widowed, and that narrowed down the possibilities.

It had been a long day, I thought, as I fell asleep in my mate’s arms.