Treasure

Alpha Michael waited nervously back at the old Pack compound. The place had always given him the creeps. Knowing what had happened in the safe room and how many had died on this very ground made his wolf uncomfortable. It felt like hallowed ground, and he retreated to his Jeep to wait for Rori to return.

It hadn’t surprised him when she bolted. The number of shocks to her system was more than any person could be expected to withstand, and he had been expecting a breakdown to come at some point. Two weeks ago, she was a ‘human’ girl hiding out among the bikers and working on her fighting and her art. Now? She had connected to her wolf, recovered from a serious injury, met and mated the man fated for her, emerged a dominant Alpha and established her own Pack, all while on the run. “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” He laughed at his little joke, sometimes the hits just kept on coming.

She was a strong young woman, and Chase was the perfect anchor for her as she adjusted to her new life. He had promised Colletta before they arrived that his Pack would aid the transition in any way they could.

He busied himself with work, using the spotty cell reception to send emails and check on the status of the Pack businesses and investments. The businesses were fully staffed by Pack wolves and worked over the mail to limit human interactions. The investments were just that, although a Pack member might be in charge. They had to be careful as their lifespans and lack of aging were not easy to explain to workers.

The sound of footfalls interrupted him as the wolves raced back. His head turned their way because it sounded wrong. His sharp eyes picked out the movement through the trees, and when he saw four wolves instead of three, he was instantly out of his seat. “Something is wrong, there’s a strange wolf with them,” he sent to his mate and his Betas.

“On our way,” his Beta replied. He watched as the four ran into the clearing and up to his SUV, stopping and shifting so they could pull on their clothing. He ignored the Alphas and focused on Coral and the man with her; she pulled on a flannel shirt that must have been his, while he dressed in jeans and a wifebeater T-shirt.

“Alpha Michael, may I present my mate, Keith Sexson,” Coral said as she wrapped her arm around his waist.

“A pleasure, sir,” Keith said as he held his hand out.

Michael shook it, a little shocked as he picked up his scent. “I’ve smelled you in the area before, but never caught you,” he said.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I come every year to pay my respects on this day.” They gave him the condensed version of who he was and what had happened, and he called off the cavalry that was on its way from Oxbow Lake. Finding your mate was a cause for celebration, and he didn’t feel any danger from him. “Now that you’ve run all that energy off, have you thought about what you want to do with your territory?”

Rori looked around at the ruins of the old compound. “I can’t rebuild here… I just can’t do it. It feels like a graveyard, not a place for a Pack to live.”

Chase nodded. “I have to agree. I’d like to bring in fill, cover it up with grass and gardens and turn it into a memorial park.”

Keith agreed, then added more. “The electrical feed to this area is gone, thieves stole the power lines and the transformer years ago. You’d have to run new from the road, or along the lake. The septic and well would have to be replaced anyway after all this time, there’s no way they meet the new code, plus the wells have all been sealed up,” he said. They looked at him funny. “Hey, I’ve dealt with construction and permitting in my job too.”

“It’s time to scout out a new location,” Michael said. “Why don’t we walk around a bit? I assume you want to keep the lakeshore nearby.” They started down the hill towards the large lake. Most of their territory was rolling woodland, but this was the best spot to live. The territory included the whole west end of the five-thousand-acre lake filled with walleye, northern pike and smallmouth bass. The rest was filled with vacation homes, and in the summer the lake filled with boats and jetskis. The location they stood on had been chosen to keep a thick band of trees between them and the water, allowing wolves to run free as they left. “Building a huge Pack House will attract attention, that isn’t the way this lake is developed.”

“Perhaps we need to rethink the whole pack house thing,” Rori said. “I’m not used to everyone living in the same place. In the Clubs I stayed with, they had apartment-like rooms for guests and single people, but the married couples and their families all lived in homes nearby. I was thinking more like lakeside cabins and docks. It would look more like a vacation resort or timeshare for anyone who flies over or is on the water.”

“That makes a lot of sense now that there is Google Earth,” Michael agreed. “It’s scalable, too. As the Pack expands, you keep building cabins farther along the shore from the main house. You could make the main house look like a restaurant, maybe have a gym back in the woods.”

“What about changing to wolf form? How do we hide that?”

“Changing houses farther back in the woods, you could even put a pool there. Make locker rooms with doggie doors out the back for the wolves to enter and exit.”

“If you do a pool, you’ll want an inside one,” Keith said. “The outside pool season this far north only lasts about four months. Put an indoor pool room off the back of the Pack House, and build it with sliding glass panels or operating windows so we can keep using it in the summer. Add offices, guest rooms and dorm rooms, storage and maintenance areas to it, and you’ve got a great start.”

“Bunk rooms are a great idea for when Packs come to visit. With all this land, we could add smaller cabins or make camping areas, too.” Rori was almost bouncing with excitement.

“When we get back, we should call the other Alphas and ask for help,” Michael said. “There must be architects, construction teams and general contractors among the Packs who are familiar with our unique needs. If we can make it seem like another resort property, it would be no problem employing local labor to build it come spring.”

“Yeah, not much can happen before winter except covering this area with dirt,” Keith said. “You can take the time for design, permits, utilities, and ordering supplies. Come April we should be able to break ground if the weather cooperates.”

Rori looked out over the water, excited at the prospect of living next to a lake. She had grown up with humans, so she didn’t share a desire to hide herself away from them. “I like it here,” she said. “Let’s scout out a good spot for a new Pack House first, then we can see where everything else would land.”

They spent an hour, the couples walking hand in hand along the unspoiled lakeshore, until they agreed on the one spot that called to them. The wide point jutting into the lake had lots of natural pebble and sand beaches and good building sites. Due to its inverted-U shape, the Pack House and training buildings could be built in a central location, keeping it convenient to the houses. Thick woods ran from the thick forest and extended into the base of the point, giving good cover for their wolves to enter the remaining land through a natural draw and streambed. “It would be fairly simple to bring the access road down here and make a one-way road that would wind around the back sides of the houses and separate them from the central buildings,” Michael said as they stood on top of the hill in the center of the point. “There is enough elevation change that the houses below, if you keep them to two-story, that they won’t spoil the natural views from the Pack House. It would look like a luxury timeshare resort."

Rori couldn’t get the smile off her face as she imagined what it would be. They walked down to a spot at the tip of the point that she had fallen in love with, and she spun in a circle on it. “I want our house to be right here,” she told her mate. “It’s so beautiful.”

He looked at her red hair blowing in the wind off the lake and had to agree. “We can get some planners together, talk to the other Pack members about what they want to see and lay it all out. I agree with you, this spot is perfect for us,” he said as he pulled her tight to him.

“I want the spot to the right of you then,” Coral said as she pulled Kevin towards it. “That beach will be amazing in the summer.”

“I’m kind of jealous,” Michael said as they walked down to the places they had picked. “You won’t have any problems attracting members in this place.”

“We’re not taking in just anyone,” Chase said. “We can’t. The women we have taken in have been abused or enslaved. I won’t allow anyone in our Pack that has ever abused a woman, and anyone joining who is not a mate will have to be accepted by us all,” he said.

“What about mates? Your Pack only has a few mated pairs, and that includes Colletta and the two Omegas who found their mates yesterday and haven’t come out of their rooms yet. The rest are all women and Omegas. By tradition, if they find mates, they will all leave.”

“That won’t happen,” Rori said. “What if their Mate is in a Pack that tolerated abuse, or if some of their abusers are in the new Pack? They would never join that Pack, they couldn’t, and their mates won’t hurt them by doing so,” she said. “I will make an appeal to the other Alphas, just like I will appeal to you to let the four who found mates in your Pack transfer once we move here.” There was no point doing it before then since they were all living together anyway. “What I would like to do is to have a social event for unmated males to come and meet my Pack on neutral territory, somewhere they feel safe. If they find their mates, given our situation, I will ask their Alphas to let them transfer to our Pack regardless of their rank.”

“That would be a change,” Michael said.

“I think I can convince them,” she said.

“I’m not convinced our women are all Omegas either,” Chase said. “Some are showing courage or leadership well above that level. I believe they have muted their dominance and their wolves as a survival mechanism in their old Pack. I’m pretty sure one is a Beta rank if only she would let her wolf out.”

“We shall see what happens. It would not surprise me if the Bitterroot Pack is dissolved completely, and who knows how many might want to get out of the Casper and Donner Packs,” Michael replied. “You might not have been paying attention when the tapes were being played, but there are a lot of wolves in the audience who are disgusted by what happened and might request transfers.”

Rori bent down, grabbing a rock and skipping it out onto the lake. “We won’t take just anyone, but we do need an infusion of people to make this work. Lucky for us we have time, since we won’t get any construction done before winter. The homes won’t be ready to move into until late summer.”

“Maybe earlier,” Michael said. “If you focus on the homes and bring in a bunch of crews you can get people moved in by summer.”

“It’s going to make some fun work this winter,” Rori said as she walked back up to them. “I can’t wait to have my parents up for the summer. Mom misses Minnesota, especially the North Shore, even though she doesn’t miss the winter down in Orlando.”

They walked back up the Jeep and drove back to the Oxbow Lake territory. As they got out of the car, a mournful howl rang out over the hills. It made Rori’s wolf feel sad. “Who was that?”

“My mom,” Chase said. “I’m shocked it took this long for her emotions to break free. Mates can be away from each other for a longer period of time if the relationship is solid and they are connecting, even on the phone. The bond adapts until they can come together again. When one mate rejects another like my Mom did, the bond fights back. It pushes the wolves to get back together, to resolve the issue keeping them apart. Colletta is fighting that now. Her human side is disgusted by what her mate has done and wants to be free of him, while her wolf wants her mate back. If it goes on long enough, the wolf can go feral.”

“Feral?”

“Yes, a state where higher thinking functions are pushed aside, and the person shifts into a beast, ruled by hunger, lust and anger. It’s very dangerous, and the wolf has to be put down before it can harm humans or other wolves.”

“And Will is affected the same way?”

Michael shook his head. “He’s probably worse. His mother has two of her children and a Pack, all anchors she can cling to while she tries to deal with the separation. Will has gone rogue. He has no one and is estranged not just from his mate, but all of his children. To make it worse, he’s angry because he didn’t make this choice. Colletta did this to him, Chase did this to him, Sawyer did this to him, and in his mind if you all would have obeyed him like you should have, things would be fine. I’m glad he’s a fugitive, because the longer this goes on, the greater the chance he loses his humanity.”

“Wow.” Rori took Chase’s hand as they walked towards the Pack House. The place was packed with visitors and would be until the trial, so there was probably not a room open for this. “Arrowhead Pack, please meet us out in front of the Pack House to meet our new member.”

There were squeals of excitement as the women started to gather around them. It was obvious from their arms around each other and the joy in their eyes that Coral had found her mate. Soon, their Pack had been joined by most of the Oxbow Lake and many other Packs as the front yard filled up. “Today we welcome Keith Sexson to our Pack as our Beta Male. He and Coral found each other today on Arrowhead Pack lands. Although he was not a member of the Arrowhead Pack when it was destroyed, his parents were both killed there along with his half-sister. He shared in the same loss we all did, and now he will join us as the Pack rises again. Please congratulate them as you introduce yourselves and may those of you who want mates find them soon!” There was a cheer that went up, and they moved out of the way, so people could introduce themselves and take each other’s scents.

“Alphas?” Connie, one of the Omegas that had been enslaved for years and had been so helpful to them, was almost shaking as she got their attention. “Can we talk in private?”

“Of course,” Rori said. “Come on, we need to change for lunch, I got lake water and mud all over my jeans,” she said. They led Connie back to their room, where Rori ducked into the bathroom and came back out wearing sweats. “What’s going on?”

“I found my mate,” she said.

“That’s wonderful!” She saw the look on her face, it wasn’t nerves, it was fear. “Who is it?”

“Steven March, Beta of the Casper Pack. The one you had beat up.”