Dean stood at the head table within the Pack’s Dining Room as his Gammas entered and took seats. Like most meetings, they took their time filtering in and grabbing a coffee and snacks to eat as they listened to him address them. He did this because it lowered the number of interruptions from people discussing what he was trying to say. He did a quick head count, and it appeared as if almost everyone was there, and he didn’t have time to wait any longer. Time didn’t fluctuate, so he was losing it. Several commented on how he was dressed. They rarely saw him dress for business. But Ambassador Wolversen clarified they must present themselves as wealthy and successful. Which meant Cal was standing there in a suit, and he felt he was going to suffocate in it. “Alright, I have to make this quick. This is a rather unplanned meeting and I’m sorry for that. I’d like to thank you for attempting to attend. Now here’s what the issue is. I’ve been receiving messages abou

Tara sat and watched the elders’ reactions and Cal’s disinterest in their thoughts and opinions. He was angry and frustration. This meeting was for him to vent, and later he’d talk to each one of them individually about his decision of who would stay. It felt good to have someone on her side for once. Though right now she was preoccupied with the image of herself in the mirror and how uncomfortable this suit was. She didn’t recognize herself once she’d finished dressing. Cal hadn’t said anything about how she appeared, so she figured that meant there was nothing wrong, or anything special to remark about. Though she’d been wrong about other things, she could be wrong about this. His hand hadn’t left her shoulder once since she sat down. It was like he was telling her to stay put and stay quiet. Well, he didn’t need to communicate it without words, because he’d already used words to tell her just that minutes before they entered here. Tara couldn’t t

Cal sat there and listened as the famous Wolf of Bay Street, Alpha Richards, introduced the Fox of Bay Street. A colleague of his who has become his mate and is a fox shifter. Many of the shifters thought it was funny as the humans responded a little uncomfortably to the jest. Though there was one snide comment that Allan Wolversen had to explain. “He’s scrapping the bottom of the barrel for a mate and crossing species.” Eventually, the journalists worked their way down the line of Toronto Alphas, and they got to Cal and Tara. He needed to take her hand and hold it as he could feel the anxiety bleed off of her. She wasn’t prepared for this, and he’d not anticipated that she’d have a response like this. But he should have. All her worries and emotions were large and full-bodied. He whispered to her that everything was fine, and she’d be okay. The first journalist, who stood up with his questions ready, paused when he saw the exchange, and sm

“I apologize about leaving you hanging like that so suddenly, Alpha Nichols. That wasn’t planned but if I and my crew caught any of that, my boss would have my head and I’d be looking for a new job. Did you understand what they were talking about?” “Sadly, yes. It’s a horrible disaster that we thought had been prevented a very long time ago. Long before I or you were born, the creation of a Lich was criminalized and banned. They hunted down what they believed were all the existing ones. I’m not sure if this one was an ancient one, or they somehow managed to make themselves into one. But they had an agenda that I don’t know the particulars about. It took humans and supernatural creatures through various devious methods. Experimented with them in unimaginable ways. There’s no way we can know how many supernatural or humans were harmed over the time it was active. It’s been destroyed now. Those that could return to their families and wished to, were given help to go bac

Lately, Cal couldn’t help but think someone more powerful than him was in control of his life. Before the Lich issue, life and leading his pack were easy. The wolves sitting around at this table right now were his biggest concern, with human interference as a minor annoyance. Now everything was like a drama on steroids. Nothing was straightforward and twisted. The Toronto Council of Alphas was sitting for the first time within a venue owned by humans. If that wasn’t crazy enough, the humans were aware of what was going on and what they were. The conference and interviews were going to come back to haunt him. He was sure of that. He could feel Tara’s discomfort and fear throughout the entire event. Now he had to leave her alone for this. At least Jaxon was there, with most of his security, to look after her. “The Fae look like they’ve broken up their hunts and formed several nests. We don’t know how many, but we know we found one and we have reports