Fiona, Alexa's sister  and Alyssa's younger daughter above

Julius POV

"So what's going on? You look very unhappy," Danny says "And I'm worried, this hunter's incident seems to escalate."

We are sitting in the dining room of the packhouse, Danny is painting the mural and I've just finished a very tense meeting in the library regarding yesterday's incident.

"The rogues checked in the motel so Alexa and I came home, but something bothered me so I decided to take another walk around the town just in case, and I smelt the chase. Two rogues were chasing the third one, they got him in the middle of the swamp so I howl to make myself known to give them a chance to submit, and that's when one of them attacked me and the second continued attacking the chased one. I killed the first rogue and then the next one. The one chased was big but was lacking in skills that for sure, and was wearing a collar."

"Strange," Danny comments and I snort.

"Well, it turned out that the hunter was in the bushes and he called the third wolf "Ivory". He could've killed me, I was totally exposed. But he was only interested in making sure I don't get close to this Ivory. The third rogue jumped from the bushes so I had to take care of him and the hunter used the opportunity to disappear. End of the story." I say angrily.

"So what bothers you?"

"First of all it's now obvious that our hunter stays in the city my son goes to school every fucking day, second there is a reason why rogues move so much around the country, to not get the attention from humans and this Ivory is staying here too long and incidents like that attracts the attention. And third, we have no idea what's going on."

Danny reaches and squeezes my shoulder in a comforting matter and I feel calmer instantly. Truth be told I miss him in everyday life, I miss him so much.

"We have to go to the motel to stage everything as if they had run away because they didn't want to pay for staying, we checked their belongings but found nothing interesting but one thing. The poster with the photo of the girl" I pick up my phone and show Danny the photo of the poster. "There is also a name on the poster Pearl and that's it."

Danny bites his lips slightly and asks:

"What does it mean, the poster?"

"Rogues move a lot, so posters like that are usually distributed if someone from the pack wants to find someone unofficially."

"Which means that their intentions are not good since they chose to not contact their allies or use the official correspondence with packs" Danny finishes and I nod.

"And what about Trist? Has he explained himself?"

I sigh, that is another problem. Natasha and Alexa will make sure that Trist will be punished, but the fact that he doesn't want to say anything makes me worried. I've never had any problems with him and now this. Danny comes back to painting and I can admire his perfectly shaped ass in tight jeans and him in general. When he works he looks almost enchanted, so deep into his artistic world, so beautiful.

"Do you think it looks alright?" he asks as I move closer and wrap my arms around his waist and pulls him onto my lap, he squeaks as I push my wheelchair to the opposite side of this big room.

"Now we can admire it from the distance and it really looks wonderful," I say as Danny smiles.

We study his work, him still on my lap as I enjoy the warmth of his body and his wonderful smell. I don't want to ever let go of him.

"Well, what a lovely picture"

Fiona is standing at the entrance to the room smiling too sweetly. I unwrap my arms from around Danny's waist and he stands up from my lap slowly.

"Are you referring to my work or to Julius?" Danny asks, he doesn't seem to care that she saw us and that makes her lose some of her confidence.

So she looks a bit angry in the direction of Danny's work and I see that she is surprised and actually likes it, it's painted all over her face.

"I must admit, it's nice," she says and Danny smirks and starts talking with her about the murals and colors in general and it takes them some time because they actually talking. I sigh wondering who is the guilty one in this situation. I know that Fiona has been seen with Brandon from time to time but I'm not sure if he is cheating on Danny. And Danny keeps saying that everything is alright, actually since I move out Brandon finally seems to get his shit together. He seems dedicated both to his pack and his mate.

Danny stays to paint as Fiona offers to take me to the Infirmary since I have an appointment with Alyssa. She seems to be deep in thought as she says:

"You think that I'm evil but I love him, I love Brandon," she says sadly and I block my wheelchair and look at her.

"You are not evil Fiona, but Brandon and Danny are marked, true mates."

"It doesn't guarantee anything, you rejected your true mate."

I sigh once again, maybe I'm too harsh for her.

"Yes, but we weren't marked and since we mated I've never looked in the direction of another woman and Madison made my life a living hell. Fiona, Brandon made the decision. He marked Danny, he brought him here, they live together and rejecting a marked true mate is impossible. Brandon can't promise you anything. And Fiona you are twenty years old, your mate can be somewhere."

She avoids looking at me when she says:

"Many werewolves don't find their mates. My parents weren't true mates, your parents weren't true mates."

"I'm just saying that "what if" is still possible for you Fiona."

"But you and Danny..."

"I moved out Fiona, I moved out of the house because that was a decent thing to do. I gave them space, you should too."

As I enter the Infirmary I see there Natasha and Alyssa talking, they both look not happy.

"What's wrong again?" I ask and Natasha sighs.

"Chen officially informed me that he doesn't intend to lay claims to Alpha's position after my death. This means that the elders had to sit and talk and according to tradition everybody has a right to point a candidate and each candidate has to be given the chance if he has a strong enough wolf and at least three votes from elders and apparently Preston as an elder of the pack now managed to convince some of them to vote for Brandon."

"You are not serious?" I spit.

"Exactly my words," says Alyssa "And for sure Preston informed Brandon about that so that's why Brandon is behaving so perfectly recently. Well, stop with these dark thoughts. During the celebrations, the candidates will be officially announced and they will start the trial period. After that, the elders and the pack's officials will talk again and we will see."

Danny POV

Terry nods as I finish telling him everything I know about the current situation. I'm so grateful that he didn't shoot Julius, I...

"Don't worry Danny I don't kill if I'm not sure who I point my gun" Terry says but I don't feel any better.

"Nevertheless we need to stay low for some weeks," Aunty Mae speaks "I'm sorry but the girls won't be able to step a foot out of the house for some time and if we have another burglary you will behave like a normal citizen and call the police. The Howl Pack has increased the surveillance in our town so we must be extremely careful. But I really think that we should consider negotiations with them."

"Terry, you know that you can move with girls to the Black Moon, you all would be safe," I say.

"I don't want to, I can live close to werewolves but not among them and you know that. And I will not force girls into anything unless it will be lifesaving. Ivory managed well last time. Let's try lying low first, but I promise I consider sending them to Black Moon."

"You want them to stay with you," I say smirking and he gives me a look "Don't lie, you got attached and you believe nobody will be able to take care of them as well as you."

He avert his eyes, but I know I nailed it. It's actually funny to realize that Terry Nightingale is a living person, capable of emotions. Since I'm visiting them quite often I noticed that girls adore him.

"I want them to be safe, I'll get out of their lives when they will be safe. So what can you tell me about the Ravenswood pack?" he gives me a stern look.

"According to my father, the Ravenswood pack is located south, Black Moon doesn't have an alliance with them because they are too far away. But they have suggested recently quite a brutal policy for rogues to the Werewolf Council, but it was shut down. Their Alpha has a reputation for being tough and cruel, especially for rogues. His Luna died three years ago because of illness and that's apparently it. According to the records he has 5 kids, but 3 are listed as deceased.

"Pearl once said that her daddy had been angry because the stupid girls lived and clever boys not," he says bitterly and I nod.

"Rumor has it that after Luna's death, he lives in the packhouse completely alone and that is mostly it. None of his daughters has been announced missing. Of course, we don't know if the girls are officially his, many Alphas have children out of wedlock. He can be the one who is looking for girls through the posters. That way he can check almost the whole country."

"But the biggest problem is why? If his daughters are missing why look for them quietly? I don't like that situation," Aunty Mae says.

It worries me too, what the hell he did to them that Ivory had to attack and then take her sister and put themselves at risk so big. Rogues die quickly, and the chances of surviving for two girls, one of them being omega are less the nothing.

I sigh, I don't want to go back home yet so I go upstairs to sit with Pearl when Terry takes Ivory to the basement to train. Pearl hums as she keeps drawing and I can admire her work. She looks at me from time to time smiling brightly just like the small girl, she mentally is.

"Danny,  you think Daddy let us stay here forever?" she suddenly asks. "He said we can stay and I want to stay."

"Do you like Terry?" I ask her gently as she nods.

"Daddy likes Pearl, because he reads me, looks at my drawings, and bought things. And he listens, when I speak he listens and he never angry when I trip or drop something. First daddy didn't like looking at Pearl at all and he never listened."

"Do you miss your first daddy?"

"No, he didn't like me, said Pearl un...un... unworthy of being his blood. He must happy now, because Pearl is no longer his blood."

I blink because I don't understand what she means by that.

"Kiana" Pearls shows to her chest so I presume she refers to her wolf "Kiana feels Terry her real daddy, Kiana not connected with first daddy anymore and she doesn't want to be. And Aunty Mae better than other aunt. In pack everybody was telling Pearl to not get first daddy angry, and it was too difficult for Pearl."

"My first daddy didn't love me either, but my second does with all his heart so it's okay," I say slowly and she looks at me smiling even brighter than before.

"So it's not bad that Pearl doesn't love first daddy, it's okay that Pearl has second daddy now?"

"Yes Pearl, it's totally okay."

Later when I go to my car I think about that conversation, and really meant what I said. Blood is thicker than water they say and yet I know blood means nothing if you are unlucky enough to share it with an evil person. And it's very difficult to fight the demons that are caused by those who were supposed to love you.

It took me more time in the town than should have, so I call Julius and offer to pick Trist up from the school since I'm already here and the boy finishes his classes in an hour. As I park my car in front of the school and wait for him I wonder about all the secrets I keep quiet right now. Maybe that's why I have problems with sleep. Because I feel guilty?

Well, I feel guilty because I lie to Julius, I keep quiet about Terry so I lie to Julius. And I keep quiet about Drake moving without Julius's knowledge, so I lie about that to him too. I think about Drake, usually, he waits for me in the dark every single day. When I sit in the night on the porch I just know that he watches me. Sometimes he comes closer and I can cuddle with him, sometimes not. But even if I don't see him I know he is there in the dark. Sometimes he slowly leads me to the waterfall where he usually shows that he is in pain, I wonder what happened there but I don't dare to ask Julius.

I sigh seeing kids leaving school, I spot Trist but he doesn't go in the direction of the main gate but to the back, I wonder why so I step from my car and follow him. Behind the school's dumpsters is standing a woman and Trist comes to her, she hugs him and it makes me walk in their direction much quicker.

"Trist!" I shout and they both turn around and look at me as I inhale sharply.

 She is older than in the photo I saw but I'm sure I look at Madison, Julius's rejected mate. 

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