* * * Eve's POV * * * “Attention everybody” commands Alpha Charles, “I have called you here this morning to inform you that we will be hosting an inter-pack meeting for the council. N……” Alpha Charles stops due to the excited whispers within the crowd. “SILENCE” he orders, using his Alpha command. The noise instantly dies down; all the wolves are forced to submit to his command. It’s strange, I’ve no such feeling to submit. I force myself to lower my head, as the others have. “No more interruptions or there will be punishments. Now, as I was saying, we will be playing host to an inter-pack meeting for the council. I received a call this morning informing me that the meeting is urgent, and our guests will be arriving on Saturday, two days from now. They will be here for three days. As you can appreciate, this is short notice, so there will be extra jobs to be completed. Nobody will be spared additional duties, our reputation is on the line”, Alpha Charles explains and takes a brief

* * * Eve's POV * * * I’m a young girl, maybe five years old. I’m sitting on a man's knee, and he’s reading me the Wizard of Oz. I giggle as he sings in a squeaky voice “follow the yellow road, follow the yellow brick road. Follow. Follow. Follow the yellow brick road,” I’m happy. The scene begins to blur and then I’m in a pool. There’s a party going on around me. The birthday banners say, ‘Happy 6th Birthday’. There’s music and laughter all around. There are children and adults playing games. A man walks out with a cake, its candles lit. Everyone turns to me and begins to sing Happy Birthday. I know him, this man is my Papa. He looks at me like I’m the most special girl in the world. He loves me. Just as I spot my mother, the scene again begins to blur.I’m walking down a dim corridor holding my Papa’s hand. “Now that you are six and clever enough to understand, it’s time we visit the special library,” he says. “Does it have more fairy-tales, Papa?” I ask him, eager for more stori

* * * Max’s POV * * ** * two days ago * *We’re up shit creek without a paddle, without a doubt. We’ve close to absolutely nothing. To be fair to us, we had less than absolutely nothing when we first started out. So, I guess we’ve gotten somewhere in the brief time we’ve been together. But that doesn’t help me now as I sit looking at our finances. ‘Beta, please come here’, I ask. ‘On my way Alpha’, he responds.“Come in” I say tiredly when there are three knocks on my door. My Beta walks in, takes a look at my office desk and gives me a sympathetic smile. We’ve been friends for 12 years; we met at the Nights Watch. We don’t wish for our roles to come between our friendship. So, we use our titles only for any negative official business.“Tell me truthfully, Beta, do you think it was a fool's movement to try to set up this pack?” I ask him, feeling weary.“No Alpha. We all knew this would be difficult when we signed up for it. We were all made rogues, only you have the natural abilit

* * * Max’s POV * * * Last night’s meeting went very well, a general consensus amongst those who had attended. I feel such an idiot to have been so blind to the suffering of my pack. How self-centred am I to think it was only myself who has suffered with nightmares and struggled to accept what had been done. I feel it has brought the pack even closer if that’s at all possible. We had shared what haunts us, what we still struggle with daily and how it consumes us if we let it. I genuinely believe these meetings will help us begin to heal. The meeting had dragged up more memories than I cared to remember. Resulting in a more graphic nightmare, thanks to my pack members memories. But I had found it easier to accept although I couldn’t get back to sleep. The reassuring comfort of my pack, reminding me that we were in fact children. Forced into doing those things. I had actually awoken this morning feeling hopeful that together we can overcome our past. I had sent the councilman a text

* * * Max’s POV * * * We’ve spent the last 10 minutes in silence since Damian had woken me up from my dream. I’m working on composing myself, but I can’t shake my dream. The torture of Jasper was more graphic than usual, but the girl was new. It’s obviously a memory, but it’s the first time I’ve remembered her. I’m brewing a migraine and it doesn’t help that Nate is restless and pacing in the back of my mind. We pull up to the perimeter gate, there are two wolves present in the booth, "Names please" they ask, by way of a greeting. "Alpha Max and Beta Damian of the New Moon pack and councilman Fred", Damian informs them. The wolf at the booth window begins checking something, "I have a councilman, Fred, but I have nothing listing New Moon as a pack or as guests", he tells us. I can feel my anger rising. Who is this idiot? We have been a pack for five years and he doesn’t know who we were. This is his Alphas doing and it’s blatant disrespect. Before I can use my Alpha tone to put h