Mated to the Pack Ch. 31

I turned away from them both. "I want to go home. Do my parents know I'm alive?"

"I informed them," Gerhard said. "They're waiting to hear from you."

"Do they know I'm a Were now?"

"We haven't informed them of that, no," Gerhard said. "It was touch and go if you'd live after you were bitten. Baby steps."

I hugged my grandfather. "Do the police know about Weres now due to what happened at my house?"

"Quinn notified the Feds immediately after we received your alert, and they took over the investigation very fast," Rene said. "They'll say what needs to be said to keep the locals as happy as they can. The Feds were pissed about all of it, but we blamed it on Canadian wolves, which all but Darrell were. We made it right."

"Some rogue named Remy said wolves were crossing the border from all over the country."

"Hundreds of them, Wolf Daughter," Flint Spear said. "I've never seen anything like it. You'll see a lot of your old friends when we get back to the vehicles. It took a lot of wolves to pull this together. The squad cars, the construction equipment, the cars in line blocking the traffic. There wasn't a single human involved in this, except a few strays using the roads. We couldn't afford to involve them."

"Where do wolves get squad cars?"

"Their normal jobs. Some wolves work as police, firemen, EMT's. We had to rent some of the construction equipment. If they'd driven close enough, they'd have seen that the squad cars were from more than one place, including some park ranger vehicles. We make good park rangers. We appreciate the wilderness, the way humans don't."

"Are Sean's two children okay, mine and Lenore's kids?" I asked Rene.

"They're with Lenore and Sasha at the wolf compound," he said. "We've held off on Sean's burial until we could get you home. Maria as well. I thought you'd like to say goodbye to her."

"I do. She fought hard for my family. How bad is my home?"

"It will take some time before it's right again. The Feds wouldn't let anyone in to clean it up or repair it until the investigation was over."

"Does shifting ever get less painful?"

"No," Gerhard said. "You just get used to it."

"That sucks."

Gerhard laughed. "Shifting does have benefits, granddaughter. I won't lose you too soon anymore. You'll live longer than I will."

I started my change. It seemed I was a little faster, like maybe ten seconds faster, but it still took too damn long, and hurt too much. With my shift, we headed back to the cars.

*****

When we got back to the vehicles, all evidence of a road construction issue had vanished, though there were still several vehicles parked on the little dirt road detour. After shifting back to a human, I was warmly greeted by Takoda, from Arizona, who'd first named me Wolf Daughter, Arturo and Julie, the Grand Junction, Colorado alphas, Hotah and Makawee, my South Dakota friends, and Gregory, alpha for the southern Wisconsin pack, and Sven, his primary hunter. They'd all gotten dressed again, not needing to shift some more. Also present were some other wolves from the New England pack, Alicia, Rafiki, Nathaniel, and many others I'd met.

All of them had met Sean and expressed their sympathy at the loss of my mate. I cried a lot for the first twenty minutes. I was given some clothes, and we began driving, Rene, Gerhard and Brigitte with me, others heading for other vehicles and leaving. Only one other vehicle went our way, the rest dispersing to their own territories and packs.

"I feel so badly," I said. "It looked like the police were going to arrive before Gretchen died, but she was such a great artist, and now she can't paint, unless she learns to paint left handed."

"Jess, how did Gretchen lose her arm?" Brigitte said.

"A wolf bit it off," I said.

"You want to think about that a bit. She's probably been going through the same thing as you did last night."

"You mean she can regrow her arm?"

"It will take a lot of shifts to wolf and back, but eventually, yes, her arm will be back. Her new genetic DNA remembers what was there, and replaces more and more with each shift, like anything else where you're not actually dead. Your pubic hair has regrown, your tattoo is gone now. Every time you shift, you're repairing. You'll find that birth control won't work anymore. You'll need to be careful to avoid pregnancy."

"Are we driving back to Maine?"

"Too far, and too long. We're driving to Minneapolis and flying home," Rene said. "Gerhard wanted to go back to Wisconsin, but even that is a much longer drive, and we wanted to get you back home as soon as possible. We'll stop in Thunder Bay to sleep though. I can't imagine you got much sleep while you were taken, and none last night. You're a member of the New England pack now since Quinn bit you, so I told Gerhard to shove it."

Gerhard laughed, then turned serious. "How often were you raped?"

"Every time we stopped for more than a few minutes. I think seven times, but I was half asleep much of the time from the running. For what it's worth, I think Darrell saved the children. Vasilly would have killed them, since they weren't puppies, but I told them they were his grandchildren, and he'd never have any others, since he also killed his son." I started crying again and Brigitte put her arms around me and held me.

"What happened to Darrell? Why was he killed in St.-Félicien?" Brigitte asked. "We didn't understand what happened."

"When they found out I was Wolf Daughter, Pierre, whose house it was, told them to go, that they were all dead, and now him too. Vasilly shot him. I'd convinced Darrell that if he let me go and let you know they'd let me go, they might have a chance to run and get away, but as long as they held me, they were dead within the week. Darrell made the case they should let me go. A wolf named Enrique agreed with him, and Vasilly shot him, then Darrell, because he thought Darrell was too dangerous to let live and fight him on every decision. He believed I made a more valuable hostage because I was Wolf Daughter. They split up and ran again, but none of the other wolves met up at the next rendezvous. They knew they were dealing with an idiot who was as dangerous as the wolves chasing them. I think Salvatore would have fled if he had a chance. Vasilly was totally out of control at that point.

"Darrell didn't care if Vasilly raped me, or maybe he realized he couldn't stop him anyway, so let it happen, but I felt he would have otherwise protected me. I believed I was dead or worse, once Vasilly killed him.

"I keep thinking of all the choices we made that might have changed things. Flint Spear asked Quinn to help him track the Hudson Bay rogues, but we went on the cruise instead. I feel like we chose fun over duty, and it led to my losing Sean, and now my child. I can't raise him anymore. Someone else will have to adopt him. Maybe Lenore will do it, but she's lost her love and Master as well, and has another child to raise all by herself."

"Lenore will continue receiving help from the pack," Rene said. "Sasha's grandchildren will be taken care of, Wolf Daughter. You don't have to give up your son immediately. You still have some time to be with him."

I started sobbing some more, eventually falling asleep on Brigitte's shoulder.

We got to Thunder Bay around eight AM, and ate a lot of food for breakfast. I was famished and I think I ate the equivalent of two breakfasts, gobbling up protein like a wolf. I was a wolf now, and all of that protein was necessary to support my ability to shift. I took a room with Brigitte, Sonya, and Alicia while Flint Spear, Gerhard, Rene and Conor took an adjoining room, with the door left open between us. I sought comfort in the arms of my bodyguards, past and present, which they provided, bringing me to orgasm several times before I slept the rest of the day away.

We had another large meal that evening, followed by a quick nap, before checking out for the drive down to Minneapolis to catch a flight around eleven the next morning.

On the drive, I had more questions. "Can someone explain to me why I don't have a scar? The only weapons Vasilly had were silver? When he cut me open, it was with a silver knife."

"You weren't a Were when he did it. You were still human. We treated you as a human at first, until we knew it wouldn't be enough to save you. That's when Quinn bit you. Whatever properties silver has, only affects Weres. If you'd been a Were when he sliced you, you'd have a scar."

"The puppy I was carrying?"

"Dead," Rene said. "If he weren't inside of you, the knife would have done more damage to you. You might not have lasted until the full moon that night. His life, saved yours."

"The ultrasound indicated he was a boy. Was he a son?"

"Yes."

More death to hang on Vasilly's miserable hide. I'd always tried to avoid becoming too close to the puppies I'd carried, as it made it easier to give them up, but you can't help feeling something for a life you carried for nine months.

Another thought. "The puppies I've already had for the pack. I can be their mother now, can't I?"

"Yes, Wolf Daughter, you can," Gerhard said. "You've lost your son, but gained three other children to take their place, children who will outlive you, and not one you'll see die well before you do."

A ray of sunshine in the rain. I slept some more.

I finally called my parents while we were waiting for our flight at the terminal. They were both on speaker, I was not.

"How are you?" Mother asked. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm doing better than I have any right to expect, given what happened." Which brought up the other point I needed to make, but not over an open telephone line. "Do James and Sue know what happened to Gretchen?"

A very cautious, "Yes."

"The same thing happened to me."

Mom gasped. "Oh, baby. I'm so sorry."

"It's got its good parts, as well as the bad."

"Does that mean....?"

She couldn't say it. The ending just hung there.

"I'll have to give Matthew Thomas up for adoption."

I started crying again, and so did Mom. I realized that when I gave him up, they might lose him too, depending on who adopted him. My life was so fucked.

"Do Sean's parents know what happened to him?"

"They know he died, but not by who."

I looked at Rene, who was watching me. God help me, they needed to know what had happened to their son. They needed to know what was going to happen to me and their grandchild. They needed to be told about wolves.

"We obviously have a lot to talk about when we get home. Why don't you all meet me at Rene's place tomorrow morning at ten AM. I'm still pretty beat. Invite Maggie, Gordon and Karina, but not Devin to come with you. Warn Sasha so she can make arrangements."

"We will."

"Thank you, Mom. I love you both."

"We love you, Jessica," both of my parents said.

I cried some more, enough that total strangers came up to me and asked if I was okay. I told them my husband had been murdered, and I was going home for his funeral. It was all they needed to know. I took comfort from the friends and family around me. They took turns sitting on each side of me to hold me.

******