Rose Ch. 68-74

"What did your mommy say?"

"She said we haz to eat, but I want to swim!" The young girl loved to swim, in human or cat form. They had to practically drag her out of the pool last night, after they arrived in time for dinner. They were staying with us for a week, until we all went to the Gila Pack for the big Memorial Day get-together. "Mommies are always right, you should remember that," I said. "Do you want to sit next to me? You can hold one of the babies if you stay still," I said.

"OKAY!" She sat down, and I was passed Allison. I talked her through holding the small baby, and she kept her attention until her parents sat down and put the plate in front of her.

"Can I hold her for a bit," Linda asked. "No swimming until you finish your plate," she said.

She reached for Allison and held her expertly while she tucked into her eggs. "Thanks again for inviting us, this place is amazing," she said. "I love the landscaping you've added." She looked out at the back, where the pool and rockwork had been improved. Tall poles around the outside supported retractable awnings for shade during hotter days, and portions of dead trees had been reinforced and set into concrete posts. These gave the many cats in our Pack spots to climb, play and nap, or just keep an eye on the kids. The huge outdoor pool and waterfall were not as practical in the Colorado mountains.

"It's been fun, and all the cats love it. Did you try the Challenge Log yet?" The log was in three parts, stretching between two of the newly installed cat trees. The end were fixed branches, allowing cats to climb easily towards the other side. When it got over the deep part of the pool, there was a foot-thick log section set on ball bearings. If you were careful, you could move across it without falling off, but what was really fun was trying to knock others off. It was kind of like log-rolling for cats, with claws instead of shoes.

"Not yet, but it was a blast to watch," she said. We sometimes had tournaments on weekends because we liked it so much. "I think we need to build a pool like this for our Pack, but I think we'll do it inside."

"Maybe we can work something out with movable walls or something to make it all-season," Joe said. "We have the money to do it."

Charlotte looked across the table at the Nightmare Pack Alphas. "Alphas, if you had the choice, would you rather be a panther or a wolf?"

Linda knew she was being turned soon, so the question didn't bother her. "Unlike Ella, I haven't been both, but each one has its good and bad. I love being able to climb, to swim, and from what I have seen, childbirth is much easier. Panther kitts can shift at birth as you know, and that plus being able to give birth in panther form is a real advantage if you plan a big family."

"On the other hand, the wolf is fast and can run for hours. There's nothing like being on a Pack run, or the feel of the Pack on a hunt together. Cats hunt in a completely different way, more solitary," Joe added.

"It is personality as well. I think cats are natural loners, they will tolerate being around others but appreciate solitude. Wolves are naturally social, they always want to be together, having physical contact and doing things together. They are naturals at Pack rankings, while cats can struggle with fitting in. You know, dogs have masters and cats have support staffs." Linda laughed a little. "Since turning is best done during sex, wouldn't that be a little weird having your Mom bite you instead of Josh?"

She flushed and looked down, embarrassed. "His wolf is having trouble holding back, if it wasn't for Alpha command he would have done it already."

"That's natural, he's your mate. Unless you have your heart set on being a panther, I wouldn't take the honor of turning you from him. It's a memory you'll have forever," she finished.

We finished breakfast and I looked around. "I think I'm going to go cat and lay around with my babies before it gets too hot," I said. Plenty of people joined me as I walked out back to the pool. Pulling off my sun dress, I waited until the girls undressed my babies and set them on a blanket before I shifted into my cat. As the babies saw me, they shifted into their fuzzy little kittens and ran towards me, their comically big paws dragging the ground. I led the four to the water; the girls were all spotted, while Bruce had the jet black solid coloration. Laying down in a few inches of water, the babies started to climb around my legs and onto my neck.

It didn't take long before the whole Pack was out there along with our guests. I watched the older kids playing volleyball as the younger ones played with the fountains and slides in our end, watched carefully by a dozen adults. I watched Gunny leap up onto one of the artificial trees, moving out on a thick branch over me. In moments, he was asleep, his four legs hanging down around the branch.

"You sleep, I'll watch over the little ones," Linda told me as she walked naked to the edge of the pool. I nodded my head and then she shifted, as my eyes closed I saw her panther move into the shallow water behind me.

Life was perfect.

Ch. 71

Frederick Memorial Hospital, Western Maryland

President Hank Kemper's POV

Six Months Previous

I opened my eyes, the lights blinding them. People were touching me, yelling, and the pain. The pain in my head was beyond anything I had experienced.

I heard a loud pop, like a gunshot, then more and more as my body tried to withstand the pain that was racing through it. Everything hurt, nothing was right, and a voice in my head was screaming at me to get up. The noises finally stopped, the pain abated, and I opened my eyes as people screamed and ran out of the room.

I looked up, everything seemed different; my vision was sharper, but colors less vivid. I looked down at my paws, then up... wait a minute, PAWS? I tried to sit up, but something was wrong, my arms didn't work, and I felt myself rolling off the bed and crashing to the floor. Pain ripped through me again, my ribs on fire. "GET UP!" The voice was insistent, so I tried to, but I couldn't make it happen. "Relax and let me do it," the voice said. "Just trust me."

I pushed back the pain and the thoughts and just stopped trying to think. My body started to respond, I got up on four legs and steadied myself. I could see my reflection in the stainless-steel cabinet doors, I was a huge wolf, my shoulders were above countertop height. I was black with a streak of white running between my eyes back over my head, another white patch on my chest, and white patches on my front paws. "Who are you," I asked the voice.

"I'm your wolf, I'm with you always now," the voice said.

I thought back, remembering the attack, the crash. "We... where is Tammy?" I panicked, looking around I knew that if I was here, she might be too. I tried to yell for her, but what came out instead was a frightening growl. I willed my legs to move, slowly for the first step but then I was moving faster, crashing through the swinging doors.

The hallway was chaos. I looked around for Tammy, growling loudly, as people ran for the exits. I looked at Robert, one of my leading Secret Service agents; he had his gun drawn, pointed towards me, and his face showed shock and fear. He was looking behind me and finding nothing. "Mr. President," he said shakily.

"Back off him slowly and evacuate this hallway," a female voice said.

I looked over at her. "Lisa is here, she is Alpha, you are safe," the voice said in my head. I looked past her for Tammy, then made a break for the doors. Instead of moving out of the way like everyone else, Lisa jumped on my back as I went past, her arms around my neck. We crashed to the ground as she wrapped her legs around my stomach. I struggled to get free, trying to get my claws to her arms, but she was as strong as I was, and she knew what she was doing.

"Hank, she's gone." I stilled. "Tammy died in the crash, she was dead when I pulled you out, there was nothing I could do. I'm sorry." I heard what she said, and it took a moment to wrap my head around it. My Tammy, my wife and love, was gone. The grief hit me like a wave, knocking the energy out of me. I relaxed in her arms, raising my head I let out a mournful howl to the now-empty hall. "I need you to shift back, to be human again. You're the President, your wife wasn't the only one killed. You have to be strong, the man in a crisis we all know. Think of yourself as a human, think of your hands, of standing on your feet, and let your wolf go back."

"Trust her," my wolf said. I thought about fingers and toes, and a moment later I was lying on the floor next to her, naked and sobbing.

"ROBERT, come in now, only your agents," Lisa yelled down the corridor. Robert burst through, two other agents right behind him. They saw me crying into Lisa's arms and lowered their firearms. "Guard the doors, no one gets in. Someone grab him some clothes," she said.

"Archer is safe, Archer is safe," Robert said into his communicator. "Guard the doors, and send in a doctor and some clothes." He looked at Lisa. "He's all right?"

"His wolf integrated with him, he's not an immediate danger, but he's going to need to come with me. He needs to be with Pack, to learn what it means to be a wolf with us. If you take him back to DC, he could shift and lose the control he has." Robert nodded and walked off to arrange things.

A doctor came through the door, nervously looking at me. "Mr. President? May I examine you?"

Lisa helped me stand, and I took the athletic shorts that were handed to me and pulled them on. I looked at my stomach, it was covered with blood but no open wound. "I think I need a shower first," I said. He did a quick examination, shocked at how healed I was, then agreed I could go to a normal exam room instead of the surgical ward. The agents had cleared the hallway and elevator, and we walked out onto a different floor as he led me to the private exam room. He told Lisa to wait outside, but Robert and I overruled him. My wolf needed her, hell I needed her with me. I felt like I was an inch away from breakdown.

The exam showed that my stomach wound had been completely healed by the change, and my suspected concussion wasn't there. I wasn't even bruised. An hour later, against his advice to stay for observation, my staff had arrived and I needed to get to work. "Take him to Camp David again," Lisa said. "My pack adjoins it, we can help him through this while you keep him protected."

"Not until I see my wife," I said. A few phone calls were made, then I was escorted to the morgue. A half-dozen body bags were on the tables, and the staffer nervously led me to one.

"Mr. President, it's not pretty," she warned me. "The fire..."

"I've seen the dead before," I said, thinking back to my tours in Iraq. "I need to see her." She zipped down the bag, and the scent of burning flesh assaulted my sensitive nose. She had been badly burned, and her neck gaped open from the wound that killed her. I leaned forward, kissing her forehead, as my wolf sat back. "Not mate," he told me. "She was a good woman, a good mother," I told him back. I stood up and allowed her to zip it up. I learned the names of the others who were killed, some I knew well, others I didn't. As we walked out, I grabbed my Chief of Staff. "I want to speak to their next of kin after they have been informed," I said. "Gather the Staff, have them meet me at Camp David. I need to go out and let people see I survived," I said. The Secret Service didn't like it, but they agreed to have me do a quick press conference in the hospital conference room with a few select reporters. Quick didn't happen.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States."

I walked into the room and stood at head, staring at the half-dozen cameras that had been allowed in. Gesturing for the reporters to sit, I stood there in my hospital-issue scrubs, my face resolute. "My fellow Americans, today another attempt was made to topple our Government and end my life. Thanks to the brave pilots of Marine One, the Secret Service and the members of a nearby Werewolf Pack, my life was saved, and they have my eternal gratitude." I stepped back for a moment as Lisa blushed and the press applauded. "The attack was not without losses. Six Americans, including my wife and first lady Tammy, were killed. Their death will not deter us, it will drive us to remove these Cartels from the face of the earth. No longer will a gang of criminals be able to influence the workings of a State. I am declaring a national day of mourning Friday, Federal offices will be closed, and we will see my wife laid to rest. Thank you, and may God Bless the United States of America."

I walked out, escorted quickly to the waiting motorcade. Security was incredibly tight, roads had been shut down, I was put into a backup limousine without the Presidential seal and flags, and we had a strong military and law enforcement escort. It was more like a parade than a motorcade, with helicopters and jets overhead. I made it clear Lisa was to be at my side, for my safety and theirs. "What now, Alpha?"

Lisa took my hand. "We need a few days to give you a werewolf boot camp- how to shift, work with your wolf, use your new senses, and how Packs work. We can do it around your other commitments, but it will take longer."

"My wolf is restless, he wants out," I said. "He's furious at the attack, at the loss of my friends and my wife. He wants their blood on his teeth, and it's scaring me a little."

"It's to be expected," she said. "What did your wolf say about her?"

"She wasn't my mate," I said with a sigh. "There's someone else out there for me. I'm not ready for that."

"You may not find her quickly. Don't worry about that, it will happen, or it won't. Robert, what do we need to do to get my mate and a few other wolves onto the grounds? Unless you'd let us take him to our territory."

Robert laughed. "My bosses are a little risk-averse right now, anything short of wrapping him in bubble wrap and putting him in a high-security facility is not acceptable now. Give me the names and I'll see what I can do."

I wrote down a few names and gave them to him. We were all on our phones until we arrived at Camp David again, and we were escorted straight to the Situation Room. "What do we know of the attack," I asked my Homeland Security chief.

"It's definitely Cartel-sourced," he said. "One of the attackers is a known Zeta, the others are from Honduras. The missiles were Stingers, identified as being sold to the Mexican military in 1998. The machine gun was mounted on a stand in the back of a full-size pickup that had been reported stolen three days ago. It was also from the Mexican armory."

"Options?" I looked at the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and my CIA director.

"Limited, sir," the General said. "We have assets, but not targets. Our ships and aircraft have been banned from Mexican territory, and our military was expelled from the country. Give us a target and permission, and we will hit it, but right now we don't have anything."

The CIA Director nodded. "We know that the Operations Chief of the Zetas, Colonel Trevino Morales, survived our initial attacks. He's smart and he's paranoid; always on the move, never sleeping in the same bed twice. We think he's mobilized his headquarters, using the vast jungle of Tamaulipas to hide from our satellites and drones. The area he is holed up in is completely controlled by his Cartel, police and military have been neutralized. Even before our drones were banned from their airspace, we had difficulty there."

"Ground assets?"

"All have been killed. We stopped sending teams in after three were lost. The only one who's had any success in those conditions is Black Ker." He explained a little about her, that she was a panther shifter with experience as a thief and an assassin. "I can try and make contact. She's not a US asset, so there would be deniability."

"If she is caught, you would be outed as employing a known criminal assassin to operate in a foreign state," my Secretary of State added. "After the last attacks, this would ruin us for decades in the region."

"What we need," I said, "Is someone with the experience to go down there and take him out, without ties to our government, and for their own reasons."

"I may know someone, but don't say anything," I heard in my head. "It's the Pack bond, you bonded with me in the hospital so we can speak to each other using our minds. Finish the meeting and we'll talk." I spent another hour with them, going over the limited options we had, then I left for my quarters.

Lisa followed me in. "What do you know," I said.

"Look, this whole thing started with a plot by the Zetas to spring a war between the Government and the Werewolves. You are treating this like you are the only player. The Packs have assets you don't know about, and it's better that you don't. Just get me the usual."

"A Presidential pardon and look the other way on some monetary transactions?"

She laughed. "Not to sound like a broken record, but yeah. Sign it and leave the names blank, we'll hold it for when we need it."

An hour later I signed the forms and handed them to her. "Thanks for not killing me with that drone, by the way." Her face dropped, there was a brief flash of recognition before she gained control again.

"Mr. President, I had nothing to..."

"Don't lie to me, Lisa. I understand what you did and why. It was genius, really. The FBI was shocked that a loose wire kept the charge from detonating, but I figured out you did it on purpose. In the end, we both had the same enemy."

"We do, Mr. President. If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my Pack. Our Lead Beta, Ron Washington, just arrived and will help you with anything you need until I can get back to you. It might be a few days, so my mate, Alpha Ross, will direct your transition help."

"You'll have everything you need, Lisa. Just kill this bastard."

Guns and Roses Pack House

Six Months Ago, Day after Assassination Attempt

Gunny's POV

"Lisa, what a surprise. I didn't know you were coming." I opened the gate and gave her a quick hug. "Are you here to check on Patricia?" Her mate's sister Patricia was still here, as we were waiting for an Alpha Council trial on his involvement with the Zetas and the attacks on the Packs.

"Actually, I'm here to see you and Rose," she replied as we walked towards the house. "Josh too. This isn't a social call, I've got to fly back to DC soon."

I sent to the two over the bond to meet me in the command center downstairs. We had been watching the coverage of the assassination attempt on the President and knew Lisa had changed him to save his life. I opened the door for her and stopped in the kitchen to grab some snacks and drinks, since this sounded like it would be a while.

"Hi Lisa!" Patricia came rushing in from the pool area, hugging Lisa and scenting the familiar smell of her Pack and brother on her clothing. "What a surprise!"

"And I'm not here," she said quietly. "Come on, let's get started." Patricia started to follow, and I shook my head no at her. Josh was already in the room with Rose, so I locked the door behind me and activated the anti-eavesdropping features. I wasn't sure how it worked, but Josh said it disrupted attempts to monitor the room from outside.

She sat at the table as I pulled Rose into my lap, my hands automatically going over her pregnant belly. "What's going on, Lisa?"

"The President knows we were behind the drone attack," she started. My mouth dropped open, along with the others. We had done everything possible to insulate ourselves from that and the expected investigation, which was going to be intense.