It took a week to get the packhouse ready for my team. We had to adjust and move warriors from the packhouse into our house on the border to make space for us. Moving one person at a time was painfully slow, but necessary. We had to get Nathaniel here and set up first so there was only hours of downtime from surveillance, not days.
After several arguments, I also gave up my room on the third floor. I rarely used it when I was here and I’m not interested in falling back into old habits of all the guys in my personal space all the time. My winning argument was that the whole leadership team needed to be moved into the packhouse. The twins could go back to sharing a room, someone could take the spare, the media room could be turned into a room and then one of them could have my room. They are the leadership and all the guys are transitioning into their roles right along with the twins, they aren’t just here to hangout and sleep on whatever flat surface is available. It’s real life now.
Thankfully having Mateo and Sam on my side helped. The twins don’t care about Oliver’s opinion at the moment and he and Sam think it’s hilarious. Mateo is better at hiding his amusement.
My whole team has taken the second floor. Jena, Lil and I are sharing a room as usual and Wyatt and Nathaniel are sharing which leaves the largest room for Alpha Reggie and Luna Anne when they get here, a room for Xander, Mina and Oscar and two rooms for their warriors.
Just organizing all the people in this house has been exhausting and we still can’t get a read on the pentagram with our technology, which means we are going to have to do it the old fashioned way and search each and every house and building in the territory. At least Jena and I have a real idea of the size and scale so we can strategically choose places to look. We set warriors on the hunt as a part of their patrol duties. We divided the entire pack territory into a grid system on a map hanging in our mak-shift war room. Wyatt is leading that project.
Nathaniel is basically at everyone’s beck and call, but he is focusing on Kevin, who is still missing, and anything happening outside the pack borders. Alpha Reggie should be arriving tonight so he is using this opportunity to make sure that we can still actually see outside our borders, not just what is shown to use by the magic from the pentagram.
It’s been two days since we have moved back in and I haven’t seen Ava at all. I didn’t expect her to be hosting and throwing parties after losing Lucas, but I am worried about her. Jena, Lil and I were talking about her last night and wondering if the mate bond break was worse than she let on at the hospital. I haven’t seen Brett either, so I assume or hope that he’s with her, helping her process all of this.
I have never witnessed a matebond break, so I don’t know what to look for or how to help and it makes me feel terrible for her, but I also can’t focus on that. I have to trust that Brett has her and focus on the Mike and Kevin and Kaley problems.
We know there is no way Kevin just vanished. But if he’s using magic, he could be hiding in plain sight. Kaley has been less hidden, but she at least took my threat seriously, for now. She walks by the packhouse regularly now, but without her little minions, or really any pack members, she just looks ridiculous. Everyone who is still here is a warrior, all of our Omegas, pups and elderly who shouldn’t be fighting were taken by boat two hours down the coast and then driven the long way around to Alpha Reggie’s territory. Lenny stayed with a couple other Omegas to work the kitchens for us, but they are all well trained and can protect themselves.
Kaley, quite literally, has nothing to do. No one is at the school and she doesn’t fight so we didn’t even pretend to put her on a patrol. She would just get someone hurt protecting her. Although, all the warriors are aware of her homing beacon stunt and I don’t think any of them would try to protect her after that level of betrayal.
Jena, Lil and I walk into the kitchen where a buffet style breakfast awaits us. When I look around and don’t see her, I say, “I hope Lenny is getting some rest, she has been going at this nonstop for days.”
“I know. She mentioned Mateo’s birthday tomorrow and Sam’s is in a couple days too.” Lil says filling a plate.
“I feel bad. Turning eighteen is supposed to be fun and exciting and none of these guys will get that experience because of this war.” Jena follows behind.
“The problem is, if it wasn’t our pack, it would have been someone else’s and they might not have fared as well as we have so far. I just hope Sierra is able to come for Sam’s birthday. I still haven’t heard from her since she left and that freaks me out a little. My tornado friend is not one to go dark. I would expect that from either of you, but not her. I just hope these guys can find their mates soon with all of this sh*t, they need their partners.”
“Even the twins?” Lil raises an eyebrow at me.
I look away from her. I’m still processing the info Ava an dLucas gave me and I don’t know if I believe it or not. Part of me wants them to find a mate, just to prove everyone wrong so I can move on. Another part of me rages at the idea of anyone else filling that role.
I avoid her question and ask my own. “Should we do something on Sam’s birthday? Xander, Mina and Oscar will be here and we can celebrate Oliver and Mateo too.”
“What about Cameron and Dakota?”
“What about them?”
“You are really so angry with them, that you would celebrate the rest of the guys’ birthdays and not theirs?” Jena scoffs.
“Yes. No. Maybe. But I figure now that they are Alpha’s, it would probably be a whole pack thing anyway.” I shrug. No I don’t think anyone deserves to have their birthday completely looked over and avoided. It was done to me for far too long that I couldn’t inflict that on anyone, not even the twins. But, I am sure as hell NOT going to be the one to suggest or plan anything. That, they don’t deserve.
We head out to the patio to eat. It’s really weird to actually have time together. Not running patrols and training is just strange. We still have a full day though. We decided that the school is going to be our next area to search since Kevin had unlimited access and there is plenty of space to easily hide something the size of the pentagram.
Just as we were washing up there was a bang at the front door. We all jumped and ran.
“Honey, I’m home!!!”
“SIERRA!” I ran straight into her arms.