The Council finally called in the wee hours of the morning. Benedict expected his phone to ring and perhaps Ran’s. Not Ebony’s father’s, Magnus, and Con’s phones as well. The Council wanted him to show up as soon as possible with added demands. Benedict must appear with his prospective mates or mate in tow. The Council representative didn’t want to know about his loss of Peter or that Franco had left him. One or one hundred possible or current mates and pups must appear with him. The only issue was they must be with him. There were more demands, and Benedict wasn’t sure how he was supposed to achieve one of them. He must arrive with proof of his blood ties to the pack. A human DNA test would work if they had time, but they didn’t have that time. He might have a week or less. They wanted him to give them a list of his skills, education, and work experience. They wanted to know what his hobbies were. “I feel like I’m applying for a job, not verifying who I

They left the colorful swirling void through an icy blue portal. It closed behind Con with a snap. With only six people using it, the mages didn’t need anyone present to manage keeping the opening open for everyone. They stood there in a stone cave where a carved entrance stood. “Well, this is the home portal for the pack. We have a cave system that runs through the mountains that border our territory. The packhouse is not far, and we aren’t deep in the cave.” Magnus said as he watched the light of the mage portal close behind him. “I guess this is one way to keep the portal quiet around here.” Ebony said as she looked about what appeared as a cave that someone worked the stone into an almost hidden room. “Oh, they’ve used this long before we settled here. No one at the University could tell us who built it. That somehow became lost to time. So don’t listen to anyone if they try to tell you the Fae built it. They never needed these thing

“Don’t worry Benedict. This will not cause any problems worse than we’ve met in the past. If anything, I can finally tell the story of how we met and not heavily edit it so your father doesn’t look like an evil monster.” “Me! You’ve been lying to me and everyone for decades, Loni. How am I the evil monster? I would have been out there ready to rip him apart. Gone to war with whoever harboured him.” “No one harboured us. He kept us moving around and in territory assigned to lone wolves. He had a fear of any type of pack organisation. I think the loneliness made him take his life in the end.” There was a silence in the room for a while before Hayle spoke. Hayle blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “Of course, he did. The selfish prick. He couldn’t allow her to leave, even though your mother was my fated mate. Something wasn’t right in his head, Benedict. I’m sorry. I don’t know if you have some kind of bond w

The large screen television masqueraded as a painting over the fireplace in the study, now held several images of the Board members of the McConnell packs. They headed the McConnell Clan around the world. These were elder McConnell pack Alphas. One of which was Hayle, Benedict’s father. Now he saw why no one feared what would happen to him. They had someone on the inside with a personal stake in his survival. But it explained why Hayle didn’t want to let his indiscretion become known. He’d found and lost his mate. Now he learned he’d fathered a pup who stood there as a lone wolf. His parents didn’t look good because he wasn’t that small pup anymore, nor had he been for many years. “So, you’ve gone by a false name for most of your life and you were unaware of your connection to the pack. Is that what you would have us believe?” “Sir, I don’t know what else to say about that. My father, or whoever he was, never told me we were members of the

Ebony watched Benedict sit at the dinner table and realized that he wasn’t used to this kind of thing. Sitting down with family wasn’t something Benedict had any experience with. She’d grown up with family coming in from all over the place. Some days, it felt like they came crawling out of the woodwork like a cockroach. Not a description she’d say to Benedict or use it to describe family. He’d run for the hills in seconds. But here he was with his little sister, chattering away to him about who knew what. She was a pup still. So much of what she said didn’t pertain to anything based within reality. Ebony thought she was speaking about a television program or something from the internet she saw. Benedict tried to stay patient and polite as she spoke to him. He didn’t understand. He could ask her to stop. His brothers may have had something to do with encouraging Sofie to talk to him like this, because they were sitting there pretending not to listen