Crossing Paths With The White Wolf

Helios P o V

I smiled like an i***t as I walked down the hallway to get changed and gather the rest of my clothes. She was giving me a chance and she wanted me to move into her room. We would earn her love and trust and then we would ask if she would let us mark her. I gathered all of my clothes back into a duffel bag. I hadn't bought much since I was rescued and all of my clothes had gone up in smoke when the house exploded. Theo had bought these for me when we got back.

I would need to buy more things before the council arrived. I would have to meet with them, considering I was a new Alpha and we were to be a new pack. I wasn't sure how it would all work just yet, but I was trying to deal with things as they came. Selene never warned me about all the paperwork.

I walked back towards Natalia's room when I heard her talking to someone. I walked in and saw Gonzalo sitting on the computer. He noticed the duffle bag and smirked. "I'm forwarding the security feeds from the new office. I want to see if we can figure out who's been helping the black market use our imports to bring in shifters. I have a theory I want to check," he said.

"Do we need to worry about that? We technically brought down the entire US branch," Natalia asked.

"I want Evergreen to put his malware on the culprit's personal phone. I want to make sure we get all the loose ends. We can't give them any stumps from which they can rebuild. Those shifters downstairs....No one should go through what they've gone through..." I could see the vein in his temple pulsing.

"Run with it. Whatever you need. They can't get away with what they've done. We'll make sure what happened to those people never happens to anyone again,"I told him. I dropped my duffel bag in the closet.

"That should give me access from my computer. I'll get out of your hair." he stands and starts walking towards the door when he turns and addresses Natalia. "Nice to see you up and well, Luna." He winks at me and walks out. I turned to look at Natalia who is looking flustered. She was wiping her hands on the side of her pants as if she didn't know what to do with her hands.

I sighed. "Just ignore him. We're all learning what it means to be a pack. He was trying to be encouraging, not overwhelm you. You don't have to be Luna yet." I walked over to her and kissed her forehead. I don't want her to get overwhelmed and push me away again. "It's just going to take some getting used to," she said, and wrapped her arms around me. I gave her a quick full body squeeze before I let her go.

"Let's go see the shifters," I said. She nodded and we headed downstairs. We passed by Celeste and Camila talking in the kitchen. Camila was on her tablet making notes, while Celeste was talking about something with fire damage. Celeste was making sandwiches for lunch. Camila stopped talking the moment Celeste greeted us. I thought it was weird, since she'd been nothing but friendly since that first night, but maybe the hormones from her pregnancy was making her anger flare up. I let the thought flutter away when I saw her smiling at us.

Celeste winked at me when she saw my hand around Natalia's waist. "Perfect timing. You guys can take their breakfast sandwiches down. They are used to you, Natalia, and since Markus will only let me go down with 5 warriors, they are not as comfortable talking to me yet. Nat, if you could talk to him for me. I am not made of crystal and they will never trust us if I always have an army around me."

"I'm not getting between a pregnant Luna and her Alpha mate Celeste, but maybe you can come down with us. Helios has his Alpha aura. He can make them stop if things get out of hand and your Luna aura is pretty strong," Natalia suggested. Celeste looked contemplative and then her eyes glazed over. A minute later, she huffed and crossed her arms and I could guess how the conversation went. Less than a minute after that, Markus walked in. He didn't look very happy. "Let's go," he said.

"Markus, I can take care of myself," Celeste growled.

"I know Tuli, but I would feel more comfortable if we went together. They need to trust us both, don't they?" He asked, shooting me a silent plea of help. I would have laughed if I didn't have my own stubborn mate now. "Well, if that's settled, let's go feed some hungry shifters," I said. Celeste growled lowly but decided not to argue.

We grabbed the trays of food and headed down the steps. The basement was big. Markus told me it was part of the warrior's suites before he had expanded the packhouse and built the warrior's apartments adjacent to the packhouse. It had sat mostly empty for about 2 years before he'd brought in some couches, movie screens and some TVs with game consoles for the teens to have a place to hang out after school and on the weekends. The newer wing in the basement had been turned into a gym. Currently, most of the rooms were occupied by the rescued shifters. While they weren't prisoners, some of them were prone to agitation and I had been told of a few pack members that had gotten hurt trying to get them to calm down. They were not allowed out of the basement unless accompanied by a warrior. The couches and TVs remained, but he had removed most of the weights and heavy equipment from the gym side to make room. He'd left the treadmills and cardio equipment and placed some dining tables. We all knew this couldn't go on for a lot longer, but we needed them to calm down first. Markus and I had spoken about putting them in a couple of houses once the therapists found it appropriate. We didn't know how long they would have to remain here. Thankfully and unfortunately, after freeing Celeste's people from Blood Moon, they were probably the pack best equipped to deal with people with trauma. They had two pack therapists and medical professionals with experience of bringing abused and malnourished people back to health. The level of empathy and patience that the girls and women had shown towards them contributed a lot to how well they were transitioning back to normalcy.

There were about 10 people on the couches watching TV. Some of them were a few that the therapists said could be moved out of the basement, but they had chosen to stay to help the others. We were splitting them into groups of 4 to go take some walks around the pack and these guys helped keep them calm to prevent them from trying to run away. Markus had vehemently opposed the council's recommendation that we put the problem shifters in the cells.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

We took the trays of food over to the tables for them, but no one seemed to bother with them. They all swarmed towards Natalia and I stood defensively in front of her in panic. More shifters came out of their room and approached as they heard the commotion. They stopped, feeling my Alpha aura spread through the room. I still needed to learn to control it a bit better and Ezequiel was not helping by growling in the back of my head.

"We would just like to thank her, Alpha. We mean her no harm. She sacrificed her own health for ours," one of them said as they bared their necks to me.

I felt Natalia's hand on my back and my stance relaxed. "Just...not all at once. She just woke up." I said and moved to her side. One by one, people came over and thanked her, asking her if she was alright. She was getting a little flustered, so I ran small circles on her lower back to soothe her nerves. I saw Celeste walking over to one of the women. She was huddled in a corner. She bent down and spoke to her for a while while Markus waited behind her. When she got up, the woman hung to her waist as Celeste walked with Markus towards us.

"Would some of you like to join us on a walk in the grounds? The council is coming to help you find your way back home, so we would prefer you don't try to run away, but it's a beautiful day outside." Some of the shifters looked interested and a few looked our way hesitantly. Celeste's and Natalia's eyes glazed over, clearly having a conversation together. I didn't know they had gotten close enough to Natalia's gift to allow them to mind link.

"Why don't we all have breakfast outside? There's some nice tables in the back yard?" Natalia said, and the shifters looked more excited at that. We grabbed the food and drinks and made our way up the stairs. A few Crescent Moon Pack members were surprised to see them coming out of the basement and gave us a wide berth. Celeste asked a few people to join us, who hesitated but obeyed their Luna. Their trust in her was absolute. I mind linked the boys to join us.

Marie and Maya joined us a little while later, all three children in their strollers. Markus didn't allow the kids to wonder, but allowed the shifters to approach once he was satisfied that they were calm. The children had an immediate effect on most of them, drawing smiles as they coo'd and babbled. I did see one crying silently at the table and I heard her tell Maya that when she was taken, she had a cub. She was one of the few shifters that had been caged the longest. For about 7 years, she had felt her bond snap 5 years ago. She didn't know what had happened to her baby.

I could sense Celeste's Luna aura blanket the shifters anytime that she sensed someone becoming agitated. It soothed and calmed them, often enough recognizing her energy and sending a grateful look her way.

About an hour later, two wolves came up to us on the table. I could tell by the way the others quieted down expectantly, that this would be important.