Free Fall: The Society Book 2

Chapter 1

Ivy lay awake staring at the growing stretch of light on the ceiling and listening to the twin snores filling the room. Curled up next to her, Russell snored loudly, the sound like a long, deep rumble. On the small dog bed by the door Bugsy, the part Staffordshire bulldog, part god only knew what, who adopted Russell as his big brother and default pack leader, echoed the deeper snore with a low rumble of his own. Ivy smiled and shook her head as she tried to decide if it was too early to get up. Her belly fluttered with nerves as she thought about what today would bring.

Since the collapse of the Shadow Council several months prior, Ivy began working her way through the pack. While Hackett, the former council representative for the shifter clans, originally asked her to create shields for the more at risk wolves of his and Russell's pack, the Council's demise changed things. While the most at risk were handled first, Ivy found herself moving from house to house, visiting any pack member who wanted protection against the coming unknown. The shielding kept her busy as it turned out that now that the pack had a mage they trusted, all of them wanted whatever protection she could provide.

In Wildwood, the property she now called home, Ivy helped with the family's own shields, but left a lot of the set up to her siblings. Alex, as both architect and contractor, supervised the on-going work on the house and outbuildings. Max took charge of the various cows, sheep and goats. Rose looked after the ducks, geese and chickens and Danny made certain that an irrigation system was in place for the various plants they would need to grow. Ivy knew that once the plants did grow, it would be her turn as she used them to create the various concoctions that Wildwood would create and then ship to both a high-end spa and a small store in town. The specific store in town had yet to be identified, but that task she passed to Melissa, Danny's new wife.

For now however, the protections took precedence. Between the five of them they covered all the elements, with Alex and Max as Earth mages, Danny as Water, Rose as Air and herself as Fire. While they were each individually strong, collectively they could produce shields that were virtually unbreakable, making Wildwood the equivalent of a magical bomb shelter. Hopefully, it wouldn't be needed, but Ivy had her doubts.

Even though things were quiet since the disintegration of the Shadow Council, it was a waiting kind of quiet. They all knew a storm was coming, they just didn't know exactly when or what form it would even take. The Chaos Years, as the time before the establishment of the Shadow Council was called, were dangerous and bloody. Entire bloodlines were wiped out and everyone lived in fear. Now the Vampire Clans and the Clans of the Fae pulled their support for the Council. With the Seers departing to hidden strongholds, three fifths of the Shadow Council no longer publicly recognized its governance and it was disbanded. Ivy and her siblings were from the Mage Clans and Russell and his family from the Shifter Clans. Thus far, the Shifters and the Mages agreed to hold to their alliance, even without the Council.

"Because they all know the history, " she reminded herself as she watched the golden shaft of early morning sun shift over the ceiling. Early in the Chaos Years each clan fought on its own. Alone each of the five clans was nearly the equal of each of the others and a bloody stalemate ensued with no one able to gain ascendency. When the Shifter and Mage Clans united they were able to turn the tide and force the other Clans to the treaty table, creating the Shadow Council and stability. Ivy knew several mages who believed their Clan to be better then all others, including the norms around them who had no idea of the hidden world that existed cheek by jowl with their own. She just hoped they had enough sense to keep their notions of superiority in check until the world was a little less volatile.

Beside her, Ivy heard the snoring come to a sputtering stop and turned to look at Russell as he shifted underneath the covers. His blonde curls were in disarray and where the morning sun shifted over them they turned from gold to bronze in the light. She still had trouble believing the wolf was hers. As she studied Russell, his green eyes cracked open. Seeing her watching him, his lips curved in a lazy smile.

"You think too loud, Ivy, " he told her sliding an arm over her and pulling her close.

"I think at the appropriate volume, " she told him with a laugh.

"Uh huh, that's why your thoughts woke you up. They were too loud, " he told her as he bent to nuzzle her neck.

"I woke up because you and your puppy were having a snoring contest, " she told him. Russell looked over at Bugsy who was contentedly snoring in his little dog bed. He was rolled onto his back, his four paws in the air wiggling occasionally as though dreaming of running. Russell dropped his voice low and leaned over Ivy's ear.

"As soon as he wakes up he'll want to run outside, why don't we try a little warm up exercise of our own before he does." Ivy smiled as Russell slipped a hand under her night shirt. Amusement quickly turned to arousal, although the amusement remained as they reminded each other to be quiet so as not to wake the sleeping dog.

Later as they fell apart, and Ivy tried to catch her breath, Russell looked down at her. "Now that's a nice way to wake up, " He said.

"I thought you considered that a nice way to go to sleep, " she reminded him.

"That too, " he said. A second later he jumped and let out a small yip of surprise. Ivy froze.

"Cold nose, " he explained. Ivy frowned puzzled, then catching his meaning she propped herself up on her elbow and looked over. Bugsy was no longer conked out in his dog bed. She could see the wagging tail, but his head was under the end of the blanket near Russell's feet.

"There are worse places he could have stuck his nose, " she reminded him with a laugh.

"True, " he admitted. Russell sat up pulling the blanket off of the dog. Bugsy looked at him with joy and adoration, his tongue already hanging out, his stumpy tail wagging. Bugsy barked once. "Ready to run?' Russell asked. Recognizing the question Bugsy went into spazams of doggie delight spinning around and wiggling in joy.

"I guess we are running then, " he told both her and the dog.

"Like you don't love it, " Ivy said. Russell gave her a kiss and slid out of bed. Bugsy raced to the door. Russell opened the door for them both and Bugsy took off like a shot down the hall. Russell, naked as a jaybird followed behind.

Ivy shook her head, knowing that reminding him there were other people in the house would do no good. Russell would just point out that he would have to take off the clothes when he reached the door so he could shift and run with the dog through the early morning, making clothing therefore pointless. While Ivy conceded that argument, knowing that more people would be up and about when the duo returned, she convinced him to stay in his wolf's coat until he retreated to the bedroom where he could put on clothes.

At the moment there was only one person nonplussed by the Shifters casual attitude towards nudity and that was Melisa, Danny's new wife. All shifters were male, the few females ever born to shifters couldn't shift although those were few and far between and usually the product of a shifter mated to a strong mage.

Due to the current situation Russell and his pack were frequent guests at Wildwood, sometimes in human form, sometimes as wolves, frequently sans clothing regardless of form. Ivy worked with the Shifters long enough that she no longer thought it strange. While her three brothers, who were mages and not shifters, remembered to wear clothing in public, they took the nudity in stride and Rose, who was only recently retired from a career as a ballet dancer was accustomed to costume changes backstage and odd moments of nudity. Melisa grew up as a norm and until she started seriously dating Danny had no clue that mages, shifters, seers, vampire and fae were anything but fairy tales. While she was doing fairly well adjusting, the nudity of virtual strangers still caused her to blush and turn her eyes to the ceiling. Many of the Shifters found it amusing. She was fairly certain her brother found it endearing.

Her thoughts turning back to the day's schedule, her nervous quivers returned. Ivy sighed and slid out of bed, gathered her clothing for the day and headed to the shower. The mating of shifters and mages was foremost on her mind, and not only because she was a mage mated to a shifter. Hackett asked her to move through the pack located around the town of Isliton, providing what protections she could. When fire was not the element for the job, she alerted the others and one of them took the lead. While Hackett's request led her to nearly every member of the pack, there was one member she had yet to visit. Although he hadn't asked for help, Ivy planned to use Hackett as an excuse to pay an elderly wolf by the name of Jerome Finch a visit.

Ivy showered and dressed, feeling her nerves jump inside her. When she was first introduced to the pack, Jerome made a cryptic comment about a man named William he believed to be her grandfather. As Ivy knew nothing of her father, the name of her father's father came as a bit of a surprise. Jerome did not realize she did not know of him, expecting Albert Winters to have told her of William. Realizing she didn't know what he was talking about, he scampered off and made himself scarce every time anyone went looking.

Since his statement, Ivy learned a bit more, although she hadn't told the others, and was planning to beard the lion, or wolf rather, in his den today. Even if she didn't learn anything, she hoped to put him at ease and let him know Albert finally told her at least his version of the truth.

"Which means I'll have to tell the others, " she muttered to herself as she tied her hair back and pulled a pair of socks from the drawer. One was pink and the other a neon green. She shrugged and pulled them on anyway knowing her shoes would hide the fact that they weren't a matched set. Even though she felt a little guilty about hiding information from the others, the truth was there really hadn't been time. Everything seemed to hit at once and in the ensuing maelstrom finding a quiet moment with just the family and not the family plus assorted pack members was difficult. She knew shifters thought of pack as family, but since the information she learned could have serious consequences within the pack, her mage born caution took over.

She frowned as she tied her hair back. "It would help if I understood shifter clan laws, " she muttered to herself. While technically all of the clans had laws agreed upon and sanctioned by the now defunct Shadow Council, all of the shifter clan laws she managed to come across dealt with finding a way to co-exist with the other shifter clans. While she could read about how disputes between the wolf packs and the feline intrigues were settled, none of the shifter clans felt the need to have any sort of formal statement of internal governance, at least as far as she could find. She had the sneaking suspicion the pack's internal rules boiled down to a simple, the strongest is in charge and if anyone hurts another member of the pack they are executed posthaste.

"Wolves do tend to favor a straightforward approach, " she reminded herself with a shake of the head. At times it was a refreshing change from the twists and turns inherent in mage politics, at other times it simply gave her a headache.

"Most of the emergencies are taken care of though, " she reminded herself, shaking off thoughts of pack law. With the perimeter protections set on Wildwood, everyone was starting to unpack and settle in to wait for spring and the work outside to commence. There were never any completely down times, but the frantic pace slowed to normal working rhythms. It may have been the calm before the storm, but she thought it was likely the only calm they would have for a while making it the best chance she had to discuss what she learned with the family.

"After I talk to Jerome, " she promised herself. Ivy tugged on her shoes and headed down to the kitchen.

Despite there being seven adults living in the house, Ivy quickly found out she was one of the only ones with any form of culinary skill and was voted unanimously as the kitchen manager. As working with fire in a controlled form energized her and smoothed out a lot of her rough edges, Ivy didn't really mind.

Breakfast was usually a muffin, scone or pasty type of deal; something that people could grab and eat on the go. Dinner served as more of a family meal. Lunchtime everyone was on their own and Ivy found if there was anything she wanted to save for dinner time she needed to put a note on it or there was a good chance it would disappear sometime in the middle of the day. The amount of food shifters could actually consume in a day was something she still found astounding.

"Like human sized locusts, " she muttered to herself as she reached for her mixing bowl.

As Ivy began to mix the batter for cranberry scones, she started to plan dinner so she could mark the items that needed to remain in the fridge. Not terribly long ago Ivy lived alone, forbidden from contacting any of her family by the ruling of the Shadow Council. Now she not only had to worry about her brothers raiding the fridge, but her mate Russell and any visiting Shifters as well. Worry about what to do with left overs was replaced by the worry of how to keep the fridge stocked when they were well over an hour away from the nearest grocery store.

Ivy knew once spring arrived things would get better. In addition to the various ingredients needed for the concoctions she was planning to make and sell at the spa and store, there were large gardens planned so vegetables could be paired with the animals the others raised.

"There has to be a finite about of vegetables even wolves can consume, " she decided. She chuckled at the thought of handing any of the wolves a head of lettuce or a bunch of carrots to nosh on between meals.

"It'll be better than the cookies." She glanced at the cookie jar placed on the end of the counter. No doubt it was already empty. Ivy always loved baking and growing up she routinely made a batch of cookies once a week to fill the jar up. Her grandmother considered the jar sufficient for the week and if they ran out of cookies before they ran out of week they would just have to wait until the once a week refill.

Here, Ivy pulled the cookies from the oven and set them too cool completely before putting them in the jar. By the time they were cooled enough for storage over half the cookies were gone. She was lucky if the remainder lasted the day. As no one appeared to be expanding their waistline, Ivy figured the batch was spread over a much larger group of people rather than a focused consumption by one or two people.

"And then they start with the eyes." She reminded herself turning away from the jar and continuing with her morning task. Somehow she fell into the habit of making cookies on Wednesday afternoons. It seemed that was generally when the lull in her schedule arrived. Picking up on the routine everyone passing through the kitchen took a moment to peep into the jar. Once the cookies were gone she was treated to doleful expressions of disappointment as they peered beneath the lid to find only crumbs.

"Followed by the slumped shoulders and heavy sighs as they slink away." She shook her head. "Who would have though Hackett would be the worst?" Hackett, the former council representative of the shifters and a wolf who seemed to hold some sort of high ranking position with the wolves of Russell's pack, always peered into the jar with the shiny eyes of an excited three year old. If the jar wasn't empty and he managed to extract a cookie from its depths he was jubilant enough that he practically skipped out of the kitchen. If it was empty, he looked crushed.

"Makes me feel like I kicked a puppy." Ivy sighed. She already increased the batch size twice with no actual change in results.

Ivy finished her mix and shaped her dough, slicing it into triangles, putting it on a baking tray and sliding it into the waiting oven. Breakfast was a much safer bet as far as food was concerned. Generally it was only those who slept under the roof that needed to be fed with a few others showing up and making the extra disappear well before lunch time. As the building was originally designed as a corporate retreat or high end hunting lodge with a spa, the kitchen was more commercial than she was used to.

'Of course it does let me bake more than one tray of scones at a time, ' she thought, sliding the second full tray into the oven. She knew the extras would not go to waste. She wasn't sure she could actually pull off feeding this many mouths routinely without the commercial kitchen and patted the range affectionately.

After cleaning up, Ivy grabbed her roll of masking tape and sharpie pen, preparing to mark certain foods off limits so they could be eaten at dinner time. As she reached for the fridge door, she heard barking and sound of nails on tile. Turning she saw Bugsy race into the kitchen, heading straight to his bowl and chomping gustily at the contents.

Following behind were Russell and one of his brothers, Eric. Both were six foot four in height, broad of shoulder and blond of hair. While Russell sported curls falling nearly to his shoulders and a full beard, Eric tamed his curls by clipping them short so his hair bristled up from his scalp and kept his face clean shaven. Both had green eyes and in Ivy's opinion even cleaned up, they resembled marauding Vikings more than anything else.

'All they need are horned helmets and giant axes, ' she thought with a smile.

Russell's curls were windblown and both men had cheeks red from the cold winter wind. They moved with the easy grace that seemed to be a natural part of Shifters and each looked as though they had just hurriedly thrown clothes on. As she was pretty sure the shirt Eric was wearing actually belonged to Russell, she guessed that Eric joined his brother and the dog sometime on the run.

Despite the fact that dogs typically reacted poorly to the presence of Shifters, especially of the wolf variety, Bugsy adored every member of the pack that came by, regarding them as his pack. Even though they grumbled about the insanity of a dog liking them, they all enjoyed his company. Even Hackett slipped Bugsy treats from the table when he thought no one was looking, despite grumbling the loudest.

"Good run?" she asked.

"Yup, " Russell answered. "Coffee?" he asked her.

"Sure, " Ivy replied. As she marked the off limits items in the fridge, Russell poured three cups of coffee and took them to the table. The table was a large wooden farmhouse style table actually big enough to accommodate all of them and their many frequent guests and contrasted sharply with the more industrial looking kitchen equipment.

When she was finished with the fridge, she joined the two men at the table. Having finished his meal, Bugsy moved to their feet and alternated between Eric and Russell, letting each one pet him for a while before running over to the other one.

"We spotted some deer by the pond, " Russell told her. "They were down wind so they got a good head start, but we ran after them for a while. Didn't catch any though."

"Please don't teach the dog to go after the deer, " she told him, visions of Bugsy dragging home his kills to place at the foot of the bed dancing through her brain.

"We won't kill them when the dog is with us, " Russell assured her. "We just like chasing them."

"Besides it's the squirrels you have to watch out for, " Eric told her as he took his turn scratching Bugsy's ears. "He loves them."

"Who loves what?" Ivy heard Rose say as she entered the room. The normally easygoing shifter tensed, his hand frozen a few inches above Bugsy's head. The dog swiveled as though looking to see what caused the interruption in his cuddling. He spotted Rose barked once and fairly bounced across the floor to greet her. Rose bent down and rubbed his head before straightening and walking over to the coffee pot. Bugsy then bounded back to Eric's side, confident that Rose was not a threat to his pack.

"Squirrels, " Eric said. "Bugsy likes ...um he likes to chase them, " he stumbled over his words. Ivy frowned at him, but saw Russell trying to hide a grin in his coffee cup so she figured it wasn't anything horrific. Ivy knew Eric often became tongue tied in her sister's presence, but when she asked Russell about it he just grinned and waved off her concern.

The oven timer dinged and Ivy retrieved the scones from the oven while Rose settled herself at the table. Russell helped ferry plates and scones to the table so the four of them were each supplied with breakfast. As they began to talk over their plans for the day, the others filed in, claimed a beverage and scone, and settled themselves at the table as well. Melisa, as an only child, was still adjusting to the large family dynamic, but seemed pleased that everyone was at least clothed this morning.

"Have you chosen office space?" Alex asked Melisa as she sat down. "We're going to start working on the workroom space soon and we'll need to make sure you have yours set up before we start with the extra rooms in this place."

While Alex didn't clarify the extra space, they all know what he meant. This project started not just because people wanted a more ready access to the items Ivy created, but because someone was hunting mage children born with strong abilities. Then of course, once she agreed to be Russel's mate, essentially marrying into the pack, she was told someone was killing strong shifter children as well. The large building originally purchased as a safe place for mage children to be trained and where they could learn to hide exactly how strong they were would also serve as protection for the children of the shifters who had the potential to grow up to be alphas. It was hoped that would cause fewer deaths. Ivy recalled the lists Albert passed to her before this project began and shivered at the number of dead it contained.

'Not all shifter children were targets, ' Ivy reminded herself. One of the pieces of information Albert passed to her during their clandestine coffee klatch was that the Intrigues, the shifter clan of cats rather than wolves, and the second largest of the shifter clans, was not affected. None of their dead fit the pattern. Suspicions abounded and it was something she knew she needed to tell Russell and Hackett.

"And your workshop too, Ivy, " Alex was saying. Ivy blinked realizing she tuned out of the conversation.

"Sorry, " she said shaking her head. "Yeah, I marked the space for myself, if you think it will work, great if not I'm open to another location." As Ivy's hobby, a hobby she put in storage when the family was split, involved glassmaking she wanted it in a place that wouldn't create a risk of fire damage to the house.

"I'll check it out, " Alex assured her.

"So what's on your plate?" Russell asked.

"I'm checking in with a few more people, but I think most of the emergencies are taken care of. At this point nearly every house in Isliton and the nearby surrounds has a shield tied to their deadbolts. In addition I got the blockers buried inside the perimeter, with a few extra surprises outside the perimeter for anyone stupid enough to be poking around. If anyone has a tracker attached to them prior to arriving, it will be null once through the gate."

Trackers were nearly invisible spells, impossible to detect by anyone other than the mage creating them until they were destroyed. Ivy figured out ways to identify and destroy them but that was on an individual basis. Asking every visitor who came to Wildwood to strip and send all of their clothing through the washer and dryer as soon as they walked in the door seemed like a bit much. While the blockers wouldn't eliminate the spying spells, they would go dormant while on the property. Ivy didn't mention that she added a little something extra to the blockers this time when she buried them in the ground. In addition to basic blocking, the spells she created would confuse the location of the blocking. No one would be able to tell where the spell became blocked. While Ivy knew there were simple ways to find out where Wildwood was located, it wouldn't be through looking for tracker's dead zone.

"Hackett wanted to know if we could set up a meeting space somewhere for pack business, " Russell said. "Having those blockers up and the ability to know that no one outside the room can hear what is going on is something he is rather keen on."

Ivy nodded and looked to Alex, as he was more or less in charge of space allocation. "Paranoia's already started then?" He said. Alex slid a small notebook out of his back pocket and jotted down the request. "I think we have a space that will work." He smiled and shrugged. "At least we have a large room with no plans set for it. I think it was supposed to be a bar or lounge area when this place was first set up. Plenty of space for shifters to argue with no one to hear them."

"Does this mean we won't get our own dance club, " Max asked. "I've been working on my moves."

"Please, " laughed Alex. "The only way you'd enter a dance club is if it was in the house."

"And if we promised not to make fun of your dance moves, " Rose added.

"Or turn on any flashing lights, " Ivy chipped in.

"And kept the music to an acceptable volume that wouldn't leave your ears ringing, " Danny finished.

"I'll have you know, " Max said to his laughing siblings. "It is not any of those things that keeps me out of clubs, it's the crowds. I happen to have a rather large personal space bubble." Max stretched his hands out indicating the space around him. "If people would respect my space bubble then I would go to clubs more."

"And you wonder why you don't get more dates, " Alex said.

"How about we let you use the room to dance in when the wolves don't need it for meeting then, " Ivy said smiling. "I'm sure Alex could work up a retractable disco ball or something and we can gradually increase the volume of the music and then slowly add in more people until you are used to the crowds and can be let out into a real one."

"Dance club therapy?" Rose suggested.

"Please, you all know that as we are all over thirty we are older than your typical club crowd. I'm not going to be the crazy older guy lurking in the corner."

"Complaining about your personal space bubble, " Danny added.

"I like my space." Max said decisively. He bit into his scone.

Russell laughed. "So what is it you actually plan to do today now that we are secure on the home front?" he asked Ivy, leaving aside the dance club debate.

"After my last few house calls, I'm planning to head back and actually unpack some of my storage before your sister-in-law decides to raid my boxes looking for books, " Ivy told him.

"Well, you shouldn't have mentioned you had history books that were different from norm history, " Russell chided her.

"I mentioned that to Sarah when she asked about our version of the witch trials, " Ivy reminded him. "It's Laura who wants more information."

"Lawyers, " Eric said with a grin having gotten over the latest knots to his tongue. "Watch out, she'll have even more questions after reading the books."

"Well, at least the library is finished, construction-wise that is, " Alex told her. "It's all ready for any books you feel like adding. Then you can just send people there instead of on a scavenger hunt through our warren of boxes."

"We have a library?" Rose asked.

"Did you not see the room with all those shelves in it?" he teased. "The one with the ladder on rails that goes around the room?" She frowned at him.

As she thought about it Ivy was not actually certain she saw such a room and trusted it did in fact exist. She hadn't taken the time to tour the house once the construction swung into gear. For all she knew there was an active dance club in the back of the house.

Alex laughed. "Besides, " he continued ignoring Rose's glare, "I know just how many of those boxes in storage are filled with books. I figured if we just set aside one room it would be easier for everyone to find things. And it would get the books out of the way so we could sort through papers."

The papers were the ones taken from their grandmother's house after she died and they were all hoping they could find some answers to fill at least a few of the gaps in their past somewhere in the paperwork. Recognizing it as the best opening she was likely to get, Ivy jumped in.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you all about that later today. I'm not sure what time I'll be back, but maybe at dinner or after dinner we could get together? Maybe sans extra pack members."

"You found something more out?" Max asked.

Ivy nodded. "A bit more and I'm hoping to add to that today."

"Am I considered an extra pack member?" Eric asked.

"No, you are fine, " Ivy told him. "I just want to keep a few things contained for a bit while we sort them out. Eventually, I'm sure the whole pack will know."

"We aren't terribly good at keeping secrets from one another, " Eric acknowledged looking pleased he wasn't considered an outsider.

"You are going to try and catch Jerome, " Russell said, guessing her intentions as his brother returned to eating.

"I am, " Ivy admitted. "After all Hackett did ask me to check in with all the wolves in the area to make certain they were covered as far as protections went. Thus far, I have yet to speak to the elusive Mr. Finch." She lifted her coffee cup in mock toast. "Here's hoping today is the day."

Chapter 2

Ivy bundled up more warmly than usual. She already had her emerald green silk long johns under her jeans and a thermal shirt under her sweater. She topped it off with a long thick scarf, wrapped around her neck a few times before being tucked under her heaviest jacket, a wool lined cap and her warmest gloves completing the outfit. Her feet were clad in a double layer of thick socks and shoved into her rubber rain boots. The boots were black with little pink skulls on them, rhinestones serving as the eyes of the skulls.

Ivy had heavier winter boots packed somewhere, but at the moment wet was more of a concern as the last snowfall was currently turning into slushy piles hiding what seemed like vats of mud under a thin crust of ice. As she emerged, wrapped up for her excursion Russell saw her, laughed and shook his head.

"Isn't that a bit much, " he asked as he followed her across the grand entrance hall. He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. The shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and she could see his white undershirt at the open neck of the flannel since he didn't bother to button it up all the way. She shook her head at his lack of cold weather wear.

As the building was designed more as a hotel than as a private residence, the entry area was more of a lobby than a typical foyer. Alex made it feel a little less commercial, partially by not installing a front desk for check-ins. While the area was just subfloor and bare drywall when they purchased it, now it reminded Ivy of a high end ski lodge.

Dark wood floors gleamed richly under the lights. Much of the light came from either the large windows or the extraordinarily large chandeliers. There were three. The largest was in the center and Ivy guessed it to be at least twelve feet in diameter. It was flanked by the two smaller ones, each of which boasted a six foot diameter. An enormous fireplace that looked capable of roasting an entire cow took up one wall and comfortable couches and chairs filled the space around it.

While each of them had their own separate suites so they didn't feel like they were living on top of each other, the central lobby area served as a gathering space. Not only did they gather together in the evenings when they felt like being sociable, but it served as a place for various invading pack members to gather without feeling like they were intruding on private family space. At the moment, Ivy was surprised to find it empty. After seventeen years of living alone in her one bedroom apartment, the overabundance of space and people often made her shake her head in wonderment at the turn her life had taken in the past few months.

"As Jerome has a habit of slipping away when someone comes to look in on him, I plan to wait for him to return, " Ivy told Russell. "For that I need to be ready to stay in the cold for a long time if need be."

Russell chuckled. "So we get to see if a stubborn and bundled up fire mage beats a crafty old wolf? Should be fun."

They reached the main doors and Russell gave her a toe curling kiss to keep her warm before sending her out into the cold world. Ivy trudged across the flagstone entry area and reached the end of the overhang. With a sigh she stepped into the slushy, muddy yard and trudged her way across to where her newly purchased pick-up truck was parked. Water seemed to be everywhere. It pooled in icy puddles and plinked in droplets from the eaves and the trees. The air was raw and damp. It was the sort of day designed to keep any sensible fire mage indoors.

"Not that a fire mage around wolves is allowed to be sensible, " she grumbled to herself.

Ivy made it to the truck, dry feet intact and climbed in. She carefully made her way to the main gate. Once there, she climbed out and unlocked the gate, feeling the extra perimeter shield disengage as she did so.

As the property now boasted much stronger, more permanent shields on the property, Ivy knew she could leave the gate open and nothing unwanted would cross into their property. However, their grandmother Elizabeth raised them to know that you could never have too many protections. After driving through the gate, Ivy got out again and latched it. The shield spell on the gate was broken into two separate parts, much as the lock on her deadbolt at her old apartment. It was also the model she used to protect every pack member's house in the area. When the gate was unlocked, the two parts remained inert. It was only when they were connected that the shield became active. When inactive, it was undetectable.

Many of the wolves had a sensitivity to magic and felt the shields at first making them uncomfortable with them. The fact that the shield could so easily be disengaged and reengaged let them work on growing accustomed to the feel of an active shield, like slowly entering a cold swimming pool instead of just taking a swift plunge.

"Of course many of them took the swift plunge approach, " she reminded herself as she drove through to the other side. With the council's disbanding, no one felt entirely safe. She slid back out of the truck's cab and locked the gate, feeling the expected and familiar power surge. For a second it seemed the scripted metal letters on the gate's entrance, Wildwood, the property's name, glowed before fading back into black metal.

Satisfied everything was in place, Ivy climbed back into the truck and headed off for Jerome's property. Oddly, as Jerome lived at the edge of pack territory, his house wasn't terribly far from Wildwood. While most wolves were pack animals and craved the company of others, Jerome was a special case. Ivy was still a little hazy on the details, but knew Jerome and William were once part of a different pack. William was the alpha that led that particular pack. Then something happened. Somehow too many of the pack members died and they were no longer able to hold their territory. They then came to join Russell's pack, although that was well before he was born, when his grandfather, Elliot, and not his Uncle John was the alpha in charge of their pack.

"I still have no idea how John and Hackett relate to each other in pack hierarchy, " Ivy said to herself. Not for the first time she wanted some sort of flow chart. Ivy shook the thought off for later.

From her conversation with Albert, she knew that Elliot, William, Jerome and her great uncles, Johnathan and Roger, all served together during the Second World War, but had no idea if the decimation of William and Jerome's pack had anything to do with the War.

"Since all shifters are male that could mean a higher percentage went to war at that time and didn't come back, " Ivy mused as her truck bucked and swayed like a ship in rough seas over the somewhat washed out gravel road. "Wolves do well as soldiers."

All wolves grew up with pack hierarchy, which was fairly regimented. Everyone seemed to know their place within their pack, even if she didn't understand it. The military structure was similar enough in nature to make the wolves feel somewhat at ease and many made a career out of it.

While in times of war, Mages, like her uncles, did serve, their normal mode of operation was to avoid any form of government agency. Most mages tended to view themselves as apart from the rest of the world, their homes serving more or less as their own small kingdoms. Unity was achieved only at the order of the Shadow Council or when a threat was greater than they could deal with on their own.

"And even when the threat is great, we tend to be highly selective as to who we join forces with, " Ivy reminded herself as she began scanning the densely planted tree line for the long drive leading to Jerome's house. "And now the Shadow Council is disbanded." The thought made her very uneasy.

Even though nothing seemed to happen as the Council was disbanded, Ivy knew something would shift sooner or later. Mages tended to be a volatile lot. Right now they were sort of holding their breath, waiting to see if the Fae or Vampires planned some sort of attack. Sooner or later, someone would lose their temper causing some sort of incident. Then they would start to realize that without the Shadow Council, there was no one to prevent their retaliation against whatever happened to irk them.

"And once one person gets away with something formerly prohibited with no official sanctions, others will realize they can too, " Ivy sighed and shook her head, easily seeing how things could easily spiral out of control. She was quite frankly surprised that in the past few months no one actually used the lack of council to settle old grudges, at least not that she heard.

"If I were planning an attack, I'd wait until we were fighting each other and then swoop in, " she decided. "The longer they hold off the attack, the weaker we will be." Ivy may not have liked the Shadow Council and all it stood for, but she understood the need for some sort of central government to prevent anarchy. She may have bent the rules and dealt with some of the grayer areas of their world, but she wasn't at heart an anarchist.

"And that's just the mages, " Ivy muttered to herself spotting her turn and flipping on her blinker despite being the only car on the road for miles. In her head she pictured the free-for-all that could very easily occur, a return to the Chaos years. "It wouldn't take much."

Ivy turned onto Jerome's drive and headed deeper into the woods. While the main road, such as it was, featured a dense tree line to either side, the winter bare branches overhanging the road like skeletal fingers reaching for each other, Jerome's drive was narrower. Here the bony fingers met, lacing overhead. Thick shadows dappled the roadbed and because it received less sunlight there was less melting.

"Of course there is less snow too, " Ivy consoled herself as she heard the ice crackle under the tires of her truck. "In the summer this is probably a dark green tunnel." Ivy could picture it in spring and summer and had the feeling this road remained cool even in the hot summer sun. The roadbed was even more pitted than the main road and she thought a long time passed since this drive last received a fresh load of gravel. Ivy was glad the truck she picked was higher off the ground than a sedan would be as she had the feeling the sedan would be scraping the ground in places.

"I wonder if Jerome even has a car, " she asked herself. Despite living outside of town, a vehicle wasn't always viewed as a necessity by most of the shifters she met. "I suppose if I could change shape and run that fast I might not consider it a necessity either."

After what seemed like an eternity, the drive ended in a semi-circular spill of gravel, wide enough for a vehicle to turn around, but not much else. On the other side of the drive was a small house. The house was a square, gabled structure that at a guess had four rooms with a bathroom shoehorned in somewhere unless someone did extensive modifications on the inside at some point. It had the sort of faux stone siding that was popular in the nineteen fifties and a seamed metal roof that looked new. The silver metal shining in the winter sun was nearly blinding after the shadowed drive and looked as though it could signal people from space.

Ivy parked and climbed out of the truck. She strode up the path to the two concrete steps at the front of the house and climbed them. Seeing no doorbell, she rapped loudly on the wooden door. Flecks of white paint drifted down from the impact of her fist. The door looked like it hadn't been opened in a while, oddly reminding her of her grandmother's house. Their front door was almost never used, the back door being their main one.

No one answered her knock and thinking of the back door the family used, Ivy walked around the side of the house to the back. She reached it as the back door opened, the springs on the screen door squealing loudly as it was pushed. Jerome was clearly getting ready to make a break for the woods.

"You know I'll just be here when you get back, " she said crossing her arms over her chest and startling the naked old man. He jumped in surprise and Ivy was glad the panel in the screen door hid the lower half of his body. As accustomed to naked shifters as she was, some things she had no desire to see. He swore to himself and Ivy thought she heard the word 'downwind' mixed into his comment.

"If a fire mage goes out in the cold and wet, I can guarantee the likelihood of them returning home without getting what they came for is slim to none, " Ivy continued. "We can continue this conversation out here in the cold or we can go inside and you can put on some clothes. Your choice."

"Are those my two options then, Ivy Chambers?" Jerome asked, sounding vaguely amused now that he was well and truly caught.

"They are, " She replied nodding. "Of course I should warn you, I dressed for the weather and will have less of a problem standing here than you will without your fur coat. In all fairness, I should also tell you that I managed to talk to Albert prior to coming here."

"You did?" He replied. His shoulders sagged with relief.

"Yup, " she said with a nod. "Who knew he'd be easier to track down? So if that's the reason you've been hiding from everyone, you can stop."

Jerome frowned and squared his bony shoulders as though trying to regain some dignity, pulling himself up to his full height. "I wasn't hiding. I've merely been preoccupied. However, you have caught me in a moment of relative quiet, so I suppose you'd better come in. God knows fire mages never go away when you want them to anyway, " he added his tone edging out of injured dignity and into grumpy old man. "Not once they've decided on something. Never could hide from Emily, don't know why you'd be any different."

He turned and resumed muttering to himself. While the screen door shut behind him, he didn't close the interior door and Ivy took this for an invitation, following him inside. The house was neat and tidy and smelled of lemon scented furniture polish and coffee. The rug showed spots of wear and the furniture looked comfortably worn in, but not worn out. The only furniture item that was edging into disrepair was an elderly recliner with a throw covering the worn back to keep it from looking entirely disreputable.

Jerome scooped up a pile of discarded clothing and Ivy assumed it was the clothing he shucked off in his attempt to run as it looked rather out of place in the well-organized space. She stayed in the living room as he receded into the depths of the house, no doubt to clothe himself. Ivy doubted he'd be sneaking out of the window. While awaiting his return, she occupied herself looking around.

The living room had the air of being used by someone who spent large quantities of time in his own company. The book cases were filled with books with additional stacks on the floor surrounding the reclining armchair with threadbare arm rests. The magazine rack was a part of the side table and was likewise full. Ivy smiled at the titles she could see. Jerome appeared to be an eclectic reader; Foreign Affairs, The Sierra Club, The Smithsonian, Pro-Bass Fisherman, National Geographic and Wired were all jumbled up together in the top part of his rack. Ivy thought she also saw a Vogue sticking out of the back, but decided not to pry that deeply. There was one she couldn't resist asking about though.

"Wired Magazine?" she asked as he came back into the room, barefoot but otherwise clothed. Nearly everyone in The Society, no matter which Clan they hailed from, Shifter, Mage, Seer, Fae or Vampire, were notoriously technophobic. When she closed down her post office box and required clients to contact her via e-mail there was a lot of confusion and mockery as to why a mage would even bother with norm technology. She didn't expect Jerome to be any different.

"Offend your delicate sensibilities?" He asked. "Suggesting norm technology might be useful to a member of The Society?"

"You mean beyond electricity and refrigeration units?" Ivy replied with a laugh. "I'm just surprised to find it here."

"That's right, " Jerome said settling himself into what Ivy thought was probably his favorite chair. She took a seat on the couch opposite him. "You made people use the e-mail to hire you."

Ivy smiled. "Paying attention?"

Jerome shrugged. "I like to keep an eye on things. Given your...background it seemed a sensible thing to do."

Ivy swallowed her mirth at the sly tone in Jerome's voice. Wolves were not known for being subtle and she had the feeling this was his attempt. "You mean due to William and Emily's offspring and their...peculiarities." Ivy wasn't certain if Jerome knew the extent of those peculiarities, but she knew he knew of the children.

Jerome smiled. "That they were each both wolf and mage." He completed the sentence, confirming his knowledge with a sharp nod.

"Most peculiar and most dangerous. Which is why they were hidden, on top of the whole alpha combat thing." She added.

Ivy knew that challenges involved fights to the death and that a rivalry could split the pack or worse, which is why William, a strong alpha who joined a pack under the leader of the strong alpha, Elliot, travelled a lot and kept his sons out of contention for pack leader. Admittedly, the fact that the wolves of William's line, including William himself, all married strong mages meant that there was plenty of magic in their blood as well. Traditional thought said that shifter blood canceled out the mage, but William's children proved them wrong, something either in their blood or in the balance of it, let them have the abilities of both.

"The fact that we were just mages must have come as a relief, " Ivy said.

"Yes and no, " Jerome answered.

Ivy looked him over and thought about what she learned. She knew that even though the packs merged, Jerome still looked to William as his alpha and a thought occurred. "Because it ended your pack, " she guessed having the feeling that Jerome was more than likely involved with William's sons even though they were never brought to the main pack. "When his sons married mages the balance shifted and we were all born mages."

"Mage blood trumping Shifter, " Jerome replied sounding somewhat wistful. "Not exactly pack."

Ivy felt memory tickle the back of her brain. "But you still kept an eye on us."

"Your career was hardly secret, " Jerome said with a laugh. "Especially after the family was split by the Council. All sorts of people started watching the lot of you trying to figure out why since you hadn't done anything obvious to warrant the censure."

"True, " Ivy replied, seeing a much younger Jerome in her memories. "But how many of them were friends with Father Francis?" she asked naming the priest and water mage from the church down the street who often played chess with her grandmother. She remembered a younger looking Jerome visiting with him a few times a year while they were growing up. Her grandmother always asked her to make an extra plate of cookies to send over for Father Francis and his guest. "You used to visit him when we were little."

Jerome opened and closed his mouth in surprise a few times as though unsure what to say. She saw color creep into his cheeks and realized she made the old man blush. "You weren't supposed to know that, " he said gruffly, sounding more embarrassed about being caught out rather than angry. "And William's children didn't develop their extra abilities until later. So you had to be watched in case a wolf was needed. Although your grandfather at least had the decency to have all sons. We didn't know what to think with the two of you being girls."

He sounded affronted by the fact, but Ivy didn't take it personally. Shifters were almost always born male. According to Russell in the last five hundred years only three females were recorded as being born into the packs. Having both her and Rose in the same generation must have come as an enormous shock.

"Girls, " he repeated. "Two." Jerome shook his head at the unbelievable. Ivy smiled and decided not to point out that she knew he visited Father Francis around the time of their high school graduation and had in fact seen him sitting with her grandmother and Father Francis at the ceremony. She was fairly certain he came by the house for cake later as well. As Albert's version of the story had William's children developing their mage abilities around the age of five, Ivy had the feeling that shifter or not, he still considered them part of his pack, or at least pack adjacent and worthy of at least some protection when they were younger.

Jerome finally got a hold of himself. "I suppose you have questions, " he said his tone rather grumpy.

"Several, but I'm not sure you'd answer them without running off, " Ivy answered. "Or becoming completely offended."

Jerome frowned, but couldn't sustain it. "Fair enough, " he conceded. "But I've been fairly caught now so you might as well ask."

Ivy looked at him and figured she might as well start at the beginning. "Well, I know you left your territory because there weren't enough members of your pack to hold it. Was there another pack encroaching and fighting you or were the numbers diminished...externally?"

Ivy knew wolves tended to be bluntly honest as they could all smell a lie, but asking directly about wartime deaths, especially since it was background to assuage her own curiosity, seemed a little rude. Most of the veterans she met who saw actual combat during their time of service regardless of the war, tended to be rather hesitant to talk about it. It was as if they put those memories in a box, closed the lid, labeled it war, whichever war it happened to relate to, and put it away to get on with the rest of their lives. She could understand the thinking and didn't want to pry open the box if it wasn't necessary.

Jerome's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but then he chuckled and shook his head. "Wolf or not you are of William's get." He sighed and he rubbed a hand over his face, his amusement fading. "I'm not sure how it began. We weren't there for that part, William or I. We were ...overseas with the war. Albert was with us, as were the Chambers boys, Jonathan and Roger, your great uncles I suppose. A lot of us fought of course, even without the draft wolves tend to sign up for wars, it's just our nature. Truthfully, many didn't make it back, it's probably why we didn't ask too many questions at first. We were just glad to be home and ready to put it all behind us. We didn't talk about the missing."

Ivy sat quietly as the old man paused, his eyes fixed on a far off place. The silence stretched, but she knew it wasn't her place to break it. Finally, he cleared his throat and blinked a couple of times as though clearing his vision. "People started getting sick and our ranks thinned even more. If there was a pattern, then we couldn't see it. Some thought it was an Influenza outbreak, but that generally affects our women and only occasionally our young and these were full grown wolves that were taken down. We had no idea what to do, so we did what we always did in such times."

"You called a mage, " Ivy said with a half-smile.

"Call the mage, " He repeated with a nod. "A tried and true method still used today. This particular one was named Billy Warren. Snotty little fellow, " Jerome recalled with a scrunched up face of distaste. "Still he came. He made it seem as though he was terribly put out by condescending to us the favor, but he came. Unfortunately, it didn't do much good."

"He couldn't figure out what the problem was?" Ivy asked.

"He never got the chance. He was mowed down by some idiot in a Packard out joyriding to celebrate the end of the gasoline rationing." Jerome shook his head. "Then there was Gerald Watson. He wasn't a bad sort, but I don't think he'd ever been out of the city. Kept looking around him like he expected something to jump out of the underbrush."

Jerome chuckled at the memory. "He wore a very snappy plaid suit, as I recall, and cut quite the figure despite the jitters. I escorted him around personally. We'd already lost one mage and weren't about to go risking another, " Jerome frowned, memory turning dark.

"I took him from house to house. He asked a lot of questions and took a lot of notes. With each house he looked more and more worried. When we reached the last of them he said he had to check on a few things so he could be sure of what he was seeing and the proper treatment. He said he'd only heard of something similar, but never seen it firsthand. He was a cautious fellow, despite the snappy suit, and didn't want to say anything before he was certain. Of course, someone who knew something was better than anything else we had at the moment."

Jerome sighed and favored her with a sad half-smile. "He met with William privately after that last house. I think he was afraid that if he spoke openly one of us would try some half-baked home remedy and make things worse. When they were done, William looked concerned and thoughtful. I was given the task of getting him safely to the train station so he could go research whatever it was that needed to be researched."

Jerome gave a dry humorless chuckle. "I drove like an ancient old granny on the way there. In fact we were moving so slow I think we were passed by an ancient old granny walking beside the road. But I wasn't about to let harm come to him on my watch. We got to the station and I waited with him. I watched him get on the train and then I waited at the station until the train actually pulled away. I even watched until it went around the bend and was lost to sight. Didn't do a lick of good though."

"Couldn't he figure out what was going on?" Ivy asked, leaning forward, caught up in the story.

"William said he asked for a week. We waited for a message, but the week passed. And then a second one. Finally, William got in touch with someone who could tell us something. Apparently, Gerald made it back to the city safe and sound. Once there however, he was run over by an idiot in a Packard. After that, William took us to join Elliot's pack. The deaths stopped and we never talked about it again."

"A Packard?" Ivy repeated, feeling cold all over. She leaned back in her seat. "Like Billy Warren?"

"Just like, " Jerome confirmed.

"Payoffs and automotive accidents, " Ivy said, half to herself thinking of the Shadow Council's two favorite ways of getting rid of people.

"Excuse me?" Jerome asked with a frown.

Ivy shook her head to clear it a little. "Two of the Shadow Council's three favorite ways to solve problems, payoffs and car accidents."

"Ah, " Jerome replied. "I knew it wasn't coincidence and I doubted it was an accident, but I hadn't gone that far with it. Why would the Council want one of the strongest packs taken out?"

"No idea, " Ivy replied shaking her head. "It doesn't make much sense. Of course very little really does at the moment."

"What else doesn't make sense?" He asked.

Ivy laughed, like Jerome's earlier laughter it was dry and humorless. "Well if you were worried about the whole shifter and mage thing it would make sense to go after William's sons and quite frankly it would make sense to kill me and my siblings as we carry the bloodline. It doesn't make sense to kill everyone else and leave us alive; Emily, our mothers and grandfather, our uncles, our grandmother. Although technically speaking, Emily would also be our grandmother."

Ivy shook the thought away. "I mean going after us sure, but everyone else? They had to know having all of them die in automotive accidents would look suspicious to someone at some point. You don't have every member of several generations of the same family die in car accidents without someone thinking something is up."

"Elizabeth died in a car accident?" Jerome replied frowning. "But she didn't drive and only ever got into a car when she was dressed for church on Sundays. Even then the church was less than a mile down the road."

"Exactly, " Ivy replied. "I can also tell you the family Studebaker had not a scratch on it when she died."

"Maybe it was meant to be suspicious, " Jerome asked thoughtfully. "Someone could have wanted them to look like an obvious set up so someone would investigate."

"Possibly, " Ivy replied, the thought never having occurred to her. Had the deaths been ordered and someone unable to stop them decided to make them stand out? "But why bother killing them at all? Their deaths still make no sense."

"That I can't answer, " Jerome said sadly. "Although, I do have something for you. Before he died, William entrusted me with a trunk. He asked me to keep it until it was time to pass it on. It was always intended to give it over to you lot, although as I've never opened it, I have no idea if it will be useful or not. Either way, it should go with you."

"You never opened it?" Ivy asked as Jerome pushed to his feet.

"It wasn't mine, now was it?" he replied, turning his steps to the back of the house. Ivy shook her head and a moment later he returned holding a small trunk. It was a flat rectangle about two feet long and maybe ten inches deep. It had a large, ancient looking padlock a fastened on the clasp. He handed her a large metal key for the padlock.

"I'll put it in the truck for you, " Jerome told her as she tucked the key into her coat pocket. Ivy had the feeling he reached the end of his social capacity and was ready to be alone again. Even though she still had more questions, she doubted he would be willing to answer them.

"Does your front door open?" Ivy asked. "Or do you just use the back?"

"It opens. I just usually don't bother much."

"Good, " Ivy replied moving towards the front door. "Then once the trunk is in the truck, I'll fasten the shield lock on your front door before I go."

"Shield lock?" Jerome asked, following her and carrying the trunk with ease.

"Yup, " Ivy reached the front door and unlocked it. She then tugged it open with a minimum of resistance. Apparently even though Jerome didn't use it much, he took care of the front door as he did the rest of the house. "Hackett asked me to make sure the pack had protections on their homes. I brought one with me for you."

"Like anyone is going to bother with me all the way out here, " he said. The tone was dismissive, but Ivy saw the edge of his mouth quirk up and had the feeling he was pleased by the consideration.

"You are pack, and I'm fairly certain our closest neighbor, " Ivy replied. "So don't try and fight me on this, you are getting the shield."

Jerome grumbled a little as he placed the trunk in the bed of the truck. Ivy retrieved her drill, box of screws and pre-prepared shielding lock set inside a deadbolt.

"Doesn't smell like a shield, " Jerome said walking over and sniffing the lock.

"That's because it's not active, " she told him. They walked back to the house and Jerome watched as she took off his old deadbolt and replaced it with the new one.

"Still doesn't smell like a shield, " he said when the lock was mounted in place.

"It's only active when it is locked, " she told him. She gestured him inside and they both stepped into the house. Ivy closed the door. "Ready?" she asked. He nodded. Ivy shot the deadbolt home and even though he was still in human form, she could swear Jerome bristled.

"That will take some getting used to, " he said running his hand through his thinning white hair.

"You will get used to it and you will use it, " she told him favoring him with the stern look she perfected over the last few months dealing with the rest of the pack.

"I doubt it will be needed, " he told her. "Especially, if they're after the pups. No children around here."

Ivy sighed. "You know, you might be at more of a risk."

"Why me?" he asked frowning at her.

"If the intent was to eliminate William's pack or bloodline, either because of the whole shifter mage thing or because of something that happened before you joined with Elliot, it makes no sense to kill the others. The only reason I can even remotely see for them to be targets would be if they knew something, something they might tell others. Something that as pack, you might also know. It could make you a target. You would be an even greater target if the epidemic that went through your pack was intended to take down that particular pack for some reason. You could be viewed as a loose end."

"I hadn't thought of that, " he grinned and looked as though he were eagerly anticipating a good fight. After so many years with those he cared about being sniped at from the shadows, she could understand the feeling, but didn't want to encourage him.

"You don't go looking for a fight and you keep the shield up. You are more important alive then you would be dead, " Ivy told him. "And now that you don't need to hide from the rest of us, I'll expect you to be stopping by like the rest of the pack. If everyone else is raiding my fridge I don't see why you shouldn't join them. When you show up, Russell or one of the others will show you the closet where we keep extra clothes. We have a couple of folks who aren't used to naked shifters and likely we'll be hosting children soon. You can either add some clothes to the mix for your visits or just grab what's there when you arrive."

"This is what happens when you throw a fire mage in with a pack. Suddenly, there's food and clothing, " he huffed as he unbolted the door and walked her back to the truck.

"Yes, we are monsters that way, " Ivy said. "And if you make it for Sunday dinner we tend to have a roast of some sort since shifters and meat go together like bread and butter, so I'll even inflict hot food on you. Although, how I can live with myself when I continually perpetuate such horrors, is a mystery even to me."

Jerome frowned and shook his head as she opened the truck door. "Shielding on, " she reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, " Jerome replied. "Fire mage." He snorted and turned back into the house. Ivy stood by her open truck door and a second after he closed his front door, Ivy felt the shield activate. She smiled, climbed behind the wheel, fastened her seat belt and turned the key in the ignition. She managed to get the truck turned around and after one last glance at Jerome's house in her rearview mirror, she headed for home.

Chapter 3

As Ivy drove back to Wildwood, she found she had more questions circling in her brain than she had when she left. "And I foolishly thought I'd actually get some answers, " Ivy said to herself as she drove, no longer noticing the bumps in the road as she tried to sort out her thoughts. "What was I thinking?"

Ivy arrived at Wildwood and parked, relieved to be going back indoors and not having to go back out again. "And I can get out of these long johns." She reminded herself, knowing that if she started unpacking boxes of books while wearing the thermals indoors, she would be a sweaty mess in under an hour.

She slid out of the truck and looked at the large trunk in the bed. Even though Jerome hefted it with ease, she knew it would be beyond her strength. Wolves, even older ones, tended to have a denser musculature than mere mages. They liked to point out that they were stronger and faster than any mage or norm; Often repeatedly and in a loud voice.

"And mages like to point out that we are smarter, " Ivy said to herself. "Still, " she continued, eyeing the box. "A little more muscle wouldn't be amiss."

"Please tell me you aren't trying to lift that on your own?"

Ivy turned and found her brother Max approaching. An earth mage by birth and a veterinarian by training, Ivy was fairly certain her brother could actually hear the thoughts of animals. She suspected that he could also communicate with Shifters when they weren't wearing their human form, but she never asked him about it. Somehow she had the feeling it would come up sooner or later though with so many shifters running around.

'I wonder if it's related to William's blood?' she thought.

"Earth to Ivy, come in Ivy, " Max said snapping his fingers.

Ivy shook her head. "Sorry just thinking. I don't suppose you could give me a hand getting this inside?"

"Sure, " he said with a shrug. "How heavy is it?"

"Not sure, " she replied. "Jerome Finch put it in the truck for me."

"You finally managed to track him down?" Max said climbing into the truck bed.

"I did." Ivy lowered the back gate of the truck.

"Well, if an elderly wolf can move it, I'm sure the two of us should have no problems, " Max said. He pushed the trunk to the edge of the truck bed with a grunt. Ivy grabbed the handle on the free end and with great effort they managed to get it out of the truck. Together they struggled to get the trunk up to the house, managing to keep it off of the wet ground. Once inside they set it down on the marble tiles of the front lobby.

As they stopped to catch their breath before continuing, Ivy marveled again that she was now living in what looked like a high end ski lodge. No matter how many times she went in and out the front doors, it still seemed vaguely unreal. The sound of men having a loud and somewhat angry sounding discussion echoed through the large space. She looked at Max who shrugged.

"Some sort of shifter thing sounds like, " he said.

"Yeah, " she replied. Ivy looked down at the trunk. Not knowing what it contained, Ivy wasn't ready to share the contents with the bulk of the shifter pack. In fact, knowing how the pack felt about William, she wasn't certain she wanted to tell them where the trunk came from. At least not yet.

"Think we can move this off to the side before figuring out that mess?" She asked her brother. Max nodded and again they hefted the trunk a few inches off of the ground. Together they half walked, half waddled to the corner where they deposited the trunk.

"Not ready to share?" Max guessed, seeing that the trunk was now in a shadowy corner and unlikely to be noticed by people passing through the space.

"Not until after our family meeting, " she told him.

"The one without extra pack members?"

"That's the one."

The sound of shouting seemed to grow louder. "Do we want to see what that's about or should we just say 'shifter thing' and let it be?" Max asked.

"It could be important, " Ivy said. She took off her gloves and hat and stuffed them in the pocket holding the large metal key. Curiosity filled her and she looked at the trunk.

"It could be, " Max agreed, both of them still standing by the trunk.

"Of course last week they used pretty much the same tone of voice when arguing over the last cookie in the jar."

"Didn't you end the argument by breaking the cookie in half, " Max asked, grinning.

"Yeah, it was a regular King Solomon moment." Ivy said unbuttoning her coat and loosening her scarf so it hung in looser loops around her neck. The argument didn't seem to be dying down. She decided to give in to the inevitable, leaving the trunk for later. "I guess I'd better go."

"Good luck, " Max said.

"You aren't coming?"

"Nope, " he replied. "I am only in charge of keeping the barnyard animals healthy and happy until you cook them up for dinner. This is all you." He turned and walked back to the door.

"Thanks, " she said to his back. Without turning or breaking stride, he waved his hand in the air and continued out of the door. Ivy couldn't blame him. Most of the family had introvert tendencies and like her, Max spent all of his adult life living alone. They were all adjusting, but sometimes it was harder to take than others.

"And I'm stalling, " Ivy reminded herself. She forced herself to walk towards the cluster of arguing shifters. She was surprised to see Russell and Eric mixed into the knot of angry men as she tended to count the two of them as among the more level headed of the bunch. Ivy frowned and moved closer wondering what the argument was about. To her surprise as she neared, she saw two very unexpected people sitting on one of the couches watching the shifters.

Both of the people were norms, Nikos, or Nick as he was now called, was a friend she made while at University. Most of the mages she knew were baffled as to why she would bother going to a norm university in the first place, believing there was nothing she could possibly learn from them. As those same mages tended to view norms as though they were still medieval peasants, Ivy didn't take their jibes personally. It did lead her to make more friends in the norm world than was typical, especially for a fire mage. Nick was one of the first she made outside of the insular mage world when she was still reeling from the forced separation of her family by the Shadow Council.

As Nick was a brilliant introvert who was hiding with his grandmother from his organized crime boss of a father, Ivy knew she was one of his few friends as well. She helped him out by using her magic to help hide them further from his father's attempts to find him and as he could do virtually anything on the computer, he occasionally helped her out.

At the moment he was sitting on the couch, a blank expression on his face as his eyes moved from one shifter face to another, a large file folder in his lap. Sitting next to him, a look of amusement on her lined face was his grandmother Irina. Born in the modern village of Delphi, Irina liked to play the fortune teller by reading the tea leaves. Her predictions were always vague enough to have the semblance of truth and the inability to be disproven. She wasn't a mage, but Ivy long suspected she was more than she seemed.

'And clearly able to get through my shields, ' Ivy thought, guessing that this was the reason for the argument.

One of the men arguing with Russell was Frank Ross. As Frank and his wife, Beth had five sons, all strong enough to grow to be alphas, his house was one of the first she shielded. As she drew closer, Ivy realized there was fear as much as anger on his face. She listened to a few of the sentences being hurled about as she crossed the open expanse of floor and formed her responses, seeing where his major concern lay. When they paused to take a breath, she seized the opportunity.

"They didn't break the shields, " she said loudly. Everyone turned to her in surprise. Ivy thought it might be the sound of a female voice throwing them off stride as she and Irina were the only women present. As they remained silent, she continued, driving to the heart of the matter quicker than she would with a mage discussion. This was not the time for deliberation and subtlety.

"The shields around Wildwood are designed to allow family and trusted friends through without breaking. Otherwise the pack would be required to request entrance before setting foot on the property. The shields on your homes must be disengaged to allow passage. They are just locks and not responsive as it was felt you couldn't live with the responsive shields. Nick and Irina are both trusted enough by me to allow them passage while the shields remain active."

Frank blinked as though the fight was just knocked out of him. "Really, " he asked as though unsure he wanted to believe her.

"Really, " she replied.

"Oh, " he said. Those who were on his side in the argument backed down, looking a bit sheepish as the discussion came to an end. "I apologize, " he told Russell. He looked to Ivy. "To you as well." He looked over to the seated Irina and Nick. "And to you."

"It has been a long time since I have had a group of handsome men fighting over me, " Irina told him with a grin. "It made me feel like I was sixty again."

"Sixty, " Frank repeated slowly.

"Oh yes, " Irina replied. "The fights that happened when I was younger all ended in bloodshed and are less amusing to think about."

Frank looked as though he was unsure how to reply. Ivy could see the shifters all sniffing the air, trying to taste the words to see if they were true or not. To her surprise, they seemed to find her words true.

"Oh, " Frank finally said. He blinked, but stood there as though uncertain of the proper response to such a statement.

"Perhaps you two would like to join me in the kitchen for tea?" Ivy said into the silence. Nick nodded and even though his expression changed little, she saw the tension leave his shoulders. While Nick was not a small man, his strength lay more in his mind than his body. His lanky frame added a slight paunch over the years and there were stands of gray mixed into his shaggy black hair. His olive skin looked a little sallow from far too much time away from the sun as he worked in his clean computer lab. Ivy knew he was not up to a physical fight with a group of shifters. She also knew if any of them made a move towards his grandmother, he would do his best to fight anyway.

He stood and offered his grandmother his free hand to help her rise from the low slung couch, the file held in his other. The men started to disperse, continuing with whatever they were doing before they joined the argument. Ivy shook her head, envying the way they could completely dismiss an argument the moment it was settled. While she knew she wasn't as bad as some of the other mages she knew, Ivy still held on to her anger and grudges longer then the wolves.

Ivy grabbed Russell's arm before he could leave. "I placed a trunk in the corner, " Ivy told him inclining her head towards the trunk she and Max brought in. "Could you get it to somewhere less public?"

Knowing where she went and where the trunk more than likely came from, Russell's eyebrows lifted in surprise. He looked towards the trunk in the corner.

"It's heavy, Max had to help me get it inside."

Russell nodded. "We'll take care of it." He told her. He walked over and said a few words to Eric. As Ivy led Irina and Nick towards the kitchen she saw the two of them pick up the trunk as though it weighed nothing. They moved easily across the lobby towards the area currently being used for personal storage.

'Wolves, ' she thought with a sigh.

"Let's get some tea, " she said to her guests as they continued back to the kitchen.