The Council Ch. 05

Alexei sighed seeing the glint in his twin's eyes. "Andrei, don't fuck with Caleb," he warned. "You know you'll lose every time. Demetri will side with him and you know it. Learn from Richard Graves' mistake last year."

His twin stood up abruptly and paced around the room slowly, a dark scowl crossing his face. "He's fucking with me, Alexei," he ground out angrily. "I've no intention of going head to head with him but I don't see why he thinks he can sit out this mess and watch everyone else twist in the wind. If he's so in love with the bloody Hanlon pack and wants them protected then he can damned well get involved and protect them himself."

Alexei's own frown deepened as he watched his brother. Andrei was deflecting which usually meant he couldn't see a way around a problem therefore he tried to deflect onto something else. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing most times but it was in this instance.

"You want an Ancient to sort out Council business?" he asked, managing to inject a healthy amount of incredulity in his voice. He saw his brother stiffen noticeably and tried to hide his smile. There were times when Andrei was just way too easy to manipulate and this was one of them. He couldn't allow him to get into a pissing contest with Caleb. The end result could be disastrous if Andrei pushed the Ancient too far.

Andrei knew exactly what his twin was doing and he let him do it. He wasn't thinking straight at the moment so any little help he could get, he'd take. "It's still prudent to talk to Nors," he said after a long silence, his tone clearly conceding his twin's point. "If he has the same issue you have then it gives me something to work with."

Alexei's eyebrow shot up at the 'you' reference. His brother really had no idea about his own predicament? He almost wanted to laugh but he didn't. When Andrei found out he had the same issue there was no telling how he would react to it. The way he was reacting at the moment didn't bode well for Loretta.

He knew he had to start the ground work, to help ease Andrei into his own revelation. It would be easier on his brother and ultimately easier on Loretta too. Cedar was particularly fond of the other wolf therefore he felt it was his duty to keep his brother in check until he came to accept what was happening, even though he'd never actually met the woman who was Andrei's mate.

"How's Loretta?" he asked as casually as he could.

Andrei halted his resumed pacing immediately and turned to regard his brother with a closed expression on his face. "Why do you ask?" he answered carefully as he took a deep breath and willed his body not to react to just the mere mention of the wolf's name. He kept his eyes pinned to Alexei's trying to read his expression to see if there was any hidden meaning to his unexpected question.

"No real reason," Alexei said nonchalantly, a small smile tugging at his lips. "I was just wondering if she was back yet from her trip. She's a friend of Cedar's so I was hoping to meet her. I didn't get to see much of her the night I got home, just a rather pleasing set of swinging hips as she left. I just thought she might have dropped by if she was back. You two appeared to enjoy yourselves a lot that night if I remember the scent in here correctly."

Andrei eyes narrowed at the mention of Loretta's swinging hips, a burst of anger pulsing through him that his brother had dared to look let alone mention it to him. His sudden anger surprised him but he didn't have time to really think about it because Alexei's words were suddenly registering in his brain.

Loretta was away on pack business? Was that why she hadn't come back after that night? He had just assumed she wasn't interested in another little dalliance with him but if the reason she hadn't come back was because she couldn't then maybe he would get a chance to play with her again?

Alexei was watching his brother intently, seeing the slight flickers of emotion crossing his face. Andrei would never be this unguarded in front of anyone else but then he didn't trust anyone the way he trusted his twin.

"You know, not only Nors and myself acted out of character that night," Alexei said quietly. "I saved the pack to the detriment of our people, Nors adopted a little orphaned wolf into his family. And then there was what you did, Andrei. You couldn't put a wolf out of her misery despite the fact she was dying. Instead you healed her, revealing more of our secrets."

Andrei felt a chill run though his body. What was he trying to imply? Was he trying to intimate that there was something more going on between himself and Loretta apart from a very entertaining evening of sex? If Alexei thought for one moment he was going to try and drag him into this whole mating with wolves shit then he had another think coming. They had had sex, end of subject. Fantastic sex but just sex none the less.

His eyes turned cold as he stared at his brother with a hard expression on his face. "If you want to mate with a wolf that is your decision. If Nors chooses to then that is his. Don't you dare try and make out that I saved Loretta for reasons that don't exist. Caleb said to find and aid any wolves around the back of the house. That's what I did. There was nothing more to it."

"Really?" Alexei asked softly. "Then why were you so twitchy outside the Council building today? Why did you get angry just now when I mention Loretta's very delightful little hips? Why did your eyes light up when I mentioned she was out of town? Answer me those questions, Andrei. Even better yet, answer them yourself and maybe you'll be surprised at what you discover."

If he thought to get through to his brother he saw that he was mistaken. Instead of making Andrei think about his reaction to Loretta his brother's expression tightened in denial. Andrei wasn't ready to be lead down the road to his wolf. Not yet.

"Don't you have somewhere else you have to be, Alexei?" Andrei growled in a low voice. "Some of us have work to do. I've got a club to get ready for opening time."

It was a clear dismissal and Alexei knew he would only end up enraging his brother if he continued to badger him He sighed deeply and stood up. He could only hope that Andrei would think about what he had said and maybe even answer the questions he had posed to him.

"You're right, I do have somewhere else I have to be," he answered with a little smile. "I've got a wolf to go play with, which is where I'm off to now. See you later." He left the office quickly, his mind already sliding away from his brother to focus on his woman. Cedar would be home from work soon and that was all the mattered to him.

He checked his phone when he got outside and frowned slightly as he read the text message from his wolf telling him that she was going to the compound after work and would catch up with him another time. His good mood evaporated instantly to be replaced with a cold, hard anger. Oh, she bloody well would, would she? He'd see about that.

Why she thought he would obediently sit around and wait for her to be available he had no idea. Had he ever given her the impression that he was some little lap dog who would patiently wait on her little whims? He was certain that he hadn't. With a determined expression on his face, Alexei strode over to his car. He had a wolf to go teach some manners to.

Andrei prowled around his office furiously. His thoughts were careening wildly around his head almost giving him a headache. He couldn't believe that Alexei actually had the cheek to imply that he would even remotely consider mating with a Were. He liked Loretta well enough and found her physically attractive but that was all there was to it. Nothing more.

Then why had she been all he had thought about the last week? He hadn't been with another woman, not since he had been with Loretta. That fact alone was a complete anomaly for him. He was never one to deny himself the pleasures of a woman but since he had been with the wolf he hadn't even considered laying with anyone else. When he thought of sex, Loretta invariably was the one who came to mind.

He threw himself down into his chair and fumed silently. He refused to believe that his lack of female companionship had anything to do with bloody Were mating rubbish. He was not the least bit interested in tying himself to a single woman let alone a bloody dog. Loretta had just been great sex, end of subject.

Hell, sex was too polite a term for it. She had been a great fuck. That's what they had done, fucked the living daylights out of each other. No emotions, no tenderness, just a straightforward, lusty fuck. He sure as hell didn't intend to tie himself to her and he most definitely was not going to allow her to bloody infect him with her wolf gene. The idea was ludicrous.

Feeling better now he had quantified their encounter in his mind, he headed upstairs to find Pietro. He found his bar manager already preparing for the coming night, stocking the bar and making sure there were enough glasses.

"I'm heading home for a couple of hours but I'll be back later," he told him brusquely. "I'll be upstairs tonight. If Marcia comes in before I'm back, tell her I would appreciate her company tonight."

He saw Pietro's hazel eyes sparkle with amusement but he ignored him and turned and walked out. Marcia was one of the few vampires that Andrei indulged himself with from time to time. He usually only asked for her when he needed to work off some pent up aggression. His mood tonight called for her inestimable skills. Once he'd had some fun with Marcia, the little brown wolf would be forgotten completely.

He smiled as he headed over to his car, satisfied that he was in complete control of everything.

*****

Loretta hurried up the steps into her Alpha's home relieved to finally be back home. It had been a long week, and not a very fruitful one either which had made it particularly hard being away. All she had been able to think about was Andrei, the way his lips felt on hers, the touch of his hands on her body, the feel of him driving himself deep inside her. Trying to research when in almost a constant state of arousal was the pits. It made it impossible to concentrate.

Now she was home and she could see him again. She wondered if he had missed her. He'd probably hadn't even noticed she hadn't been back. He was not going to be an easy mate to lure to her and she knew it. She was in for a tough time with him but her wolf relished the challenge.

The sound of raised voices coming from the study surprised her and she paused in the hallway and turned her head in the direction of the room. One voice belonged to Jared and the other....the other belonged to Caleb! She frowned slightly as she listened. She couldn't hear what was actually being said but the words were most definitely angry.

Loretta knew that she and Andrei were the cause of the argument going on between her Alpha and his vampire best friend. She regretted she was the cause of any discord between them but she refused to regret her feelings for Andrei. He was her mate and there was nothing she could do about it. There was nothing any of them could do about it so arguing seemed to be a waste of time.

She turned and headed into the sitting room, finding Millie and Rhianna sitting on the sofa each cradling a baby in their arms. She smiled a greeting and headed over to them. This was the first time Caleb and Rhianna were meeting the babies in the flesh. They had been away in Europe when they were born but she was sure Millie had sent her sister plenty of photos.

"I see you've fallen instantly in love, Annie," Loretta laughed softly, seeing the look of adoration on the petite vampire's face.

"How could anyone not?" Rhianna laughed softly, her rapt gaze never leaving the face of the child she cradled so tenderly. "They are the most beautiful, perfect little things in the whole world."

A loud bang from the study startled all of them and they all turned to the door with frowns on their faces. Millie's eased first and she turned back to her friends.

"Just Jared thumping the desk," she smiled reassuringly, a hint of amusement in her voice as she checked down her mental link with her mate just to make sure everything was okay. "He's got to be able to shout at someone to satisfy his wolf. He's opted for Caleb rather than you and Cedar," she told the Beta.

Rhianna cocked her head to the side briefly and similarly checked her link with her vampire. "Thankfully Caleb is willing to put up with it," she said with her own little laugh. "He feels kind of responsible for not warning Jared last year when he realised there was a potential issue with the Romanovs. He's letting Jared work it out of his system." She smiled at Loretta. "Don't fret so. They'll work out their little disagreement. They always do."

The fact Rhianna and Millie appeared so unconcerned that their mates were arguing settled Loretta's discomfort slightly. She poured herself a cup of coffee from the tray laid out on the table at her side and settled down to drink it just as the study door opened and the two men came into the sitting room as if they hadn't just been verbally tearing lumps out of each other.

Caleb automatically gravitated towards his woman, coming to perch on the arm of the sofa at her side and gaze down at the child she held in her arms. He had never seen such a tiny little thing before in his life. He had had no contact with children over the years, avoiding them like the plague. He sheepishly admitted to himself that he even ignored the pack young, not deliberately, but just out of habit.

Now he stared down at his woman tenderly cradling the little baby in her embrace and he was struck by how natural it looked for his Annie. He felt a sharp burst of discomfort deep inside. Because of him she would never know the joy of having her own child. He had never even stopped to consider it when he had granted her request to be Sired to the life of a vampire. Children had meant nothing to him so he hadn't considered the possibility that they may be something she had hoped to have in her life.

Now that he was thinking about it, he was surprised to realise they had never discussed it. Annie had never brought it up even when she had learned Millie was pregnant. Maybe children had not been part of her life's goals before she met him. He would ask her about it later, when they were alone. He didn't like the thought that he had denied her the chance of being a mother with no thought to how that could affect her.

The child in her arms stirred and opened her eyes wide and appeared to stare straight at him. He was at once enthralled as the deep blue eyes met his and her tiny mouth seemed to smile up at him. Curiously he leaned closer, a large hand reaching out hesitantly to touch the soft, light dusting of little black waves on her head.

"Which one is she?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"Alicia," Rhianna smiled, her eyes intent on Caleb's awed face. He had been ready to have a heart attack when she had first told him that he was going to be an uncle. The pained expression on his face had set everyone laughing that night despite the dire situation they had been in. She had known that he would doubt his capacity to adapt to babies suddenly appearing in his life but one look at his rapt expression and she knew her beloved vampire was falling helplessly in love with his nieces.

"Do you want to hold her?" she asked softly, offering up Alicia to him. For a moment she thought he was going to refuse but then he reached for the baby and cradled her rather awkwardly in his arms, as if afraid he would hurt her. She showed him how to hold her gently but securely as Alicia gurgled with delight, her little hand waving in the air as if trying to reach for him.

Caleb was stunned at how fragile the child was in his arms, how beautiful and perfect the little image of Millie was. Because she was Millie's image, a tiny replica of her mother. He turned his gaze to look at Mina who was nestled against her mother's chest. She had the same black hair though it wasn't wavy like her sister's. Millie and Jared shared the same colouring so their children did too, but Mina had more of a hint of Jared in her facial features, though a more feminine version.

"They're prefect," he whispered softly, smiling as Millie and Jared beamed at his praise. Never having been a parent himself he couldn't understand the level of pride they were displaying but it appeared his words had made them happy. He had only spoken the truth. The babies were prefect and they were part of his family.

Caleb Cullen smiled ruefully as he looked down at Alicia as she managed to latch onto a lock of his hair which had fallen over his shoulder. No one would ever harm a hair on either of these two little angels' heads. Not as long as he lived. They had stolen his heart in an instant and would be under his protection from this moment on. He looked up as Jared started laughing.

"They do that to everyone, Caleb," his friend smiled. "They're going to be the best protected little girls ever to walk the planet. They have an entire pack watching over them and if that isn't enough, they have their vampire family too."

The front door opened and Cedar breezed into the sitting room with a cheery hello. She was obviously just back from work because she was still dressed in a dark blue business suit and her hair was artfully arranged on top of her head. She spared Caleb a quick glance to see if he was angry with her and then sighed with relief when he smiled rather ruefully as he said hello.

She sat on the sofa next to Loretta with a warm smile for her friend. They would need to get together and catch up now she was back. Her attention was diverted when her Alpha cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"I assume you didn't turn up anything of note about any previous Vampire/Were connections, Loretta?" Jared asked.

"Nothing," the brunette answered with a frown. "If a mating has occurred before we don't appear to have anything in our archives to suggest it."

Jared hadn't really expected her to find anything but there was no harm in checking. He turned to ask Caleb if the vampires knew anything when a sudden thought occurred to him and he frowned deeply.

"When was the last time Ashleigh was at the compound?" he asked, his missing pack member coming to mind. She was currently living with Nors Eriksson, Caleb's friend and fellow Ancient vampire. He had adopted her into his family after the war when the little wolf had struggled to come to terms with the death of her entire family.

She was on the mend now, appearing to be almost at the end of her grieving period judging from the Alpha's last couple of meetings with her. He hadn't given her relationship with Nors a second thought before now but suddenly it appeared prudent to question it. "There isn't a chance that Nors' interest in her is romantic?" His question was for Caleb.

The vampire frowned slightly and shook his head. "I was with Nors today and asked after Ashleigh. He said she was doing very well, that her time spent running Annie's bookstore while we were away had been a great confidence boost for her. I saw no indication that he thought of her as anything other than a friend."

He had barely finished speaking when he heard a delicate little snort from beside him and his woman mumbled under her breath something that sounded like 'Men!'

All eyes swung to Rhianna and she rolled hers in response. "Seriously? None of you pay any attention to what's going on under your very noses?" she laughed softly. "None of you questioned why Nors was able to cut through Ashleigh's grief? Why he even cared enough to do so? Ashleigh's wolf instinctually called to him in her time of need and he immediately answered that need by protecting her. Just because they haven't done anything about it yet doesn't mean they're not mates and it isn't going to happen."