The Wolves Ch. 008

She stands at no more than five feet tall, if that, and has long red hair. Her face is oval shaped and from a distance it seems like she has blue-green eyes. There is a small smattering of freckles under her eyes and on her nose, with the latter being slightly upturned. It suits her face well. She has the pale skin that you would usually associate redheads with having. She is also rather gifted in the chest department. Her tiny waist flares out to a very nice set of hips. I couldn't see her ass since she was facing me, but with those hips it must be amazing.

She looked towards me at that moment and I immediately averted my gaze. I ended up looking over to Anja and Sonja who both had knowing smiles. I'd been busted. I heard giggling coming from beside me. I looked over and all three of my sisters shared the same kind of look as the twins.

"Who is that?" I whispered.

"Syndras Gidres," one of them whispered back. "Known on Earth as Tessa Stewart."

"Ah, you're here!" I heard Alexandra call from behind me. "Jonathan, come over and meet the Stewarts.

I turned around and started walking over to them. As my eyes fell upon Tessa, I caught a tiny smirk that quickly disappeared.

"Jonathan, this is Thomas Stewart, who was a family friend of your father. Beside him is his wife, Claire, and beside her is their daughter Tessa. Thomas, Claire, Tessa, meet Jonathan."

"Nice to finally meet you, Jonuth Kidravia. I'm sorry about your mother and father. Your father and I were friends from childhood, and were intent on remaining friends for a very long time. That bastard Kaldrus Dhir ruined all that with his thirst for power," Thomas said, offering his hand.

I accepted his handshake. "Nice to meet you as well, Thomas. I'll be looking forward to hearing about my parents from one of the people who knew them best."

A broad smile appeared on his face. "I can certainly do that, young man. I can certainly do that." He turned to his right and stepped aside. "This is my wife, Claire."

"Nice to meet you, Jonathan," she said, offering her hand.

Rather than shake her hand, I raised it to my lips and kissed the back of it. It seemed like the right thing to do. "Nice to meet you, Claire," I replied, before releasing her hand.

"And this is our daughter, Tessa." Thomas said, as Claire stepped to the side and Tessa walked over.

She was even more beautiful than I thought. She did, indeed, have blue-green eyes. They're very rare on a human, and even though she can change her form at all, she still looks breathtaking.

She too, offered her hand. "Greetings, Jonathan."

"Greetings, Tessa," I replied, kissing the back of her hand, before releasing it.

When the greetings were over with, Gabriel bid us to sit around the table. When we were all seated, Gabriel turned to Thomas. "Thomas, would you like to inform Jonathan on why we're here?"

"Right to the point, eh? Alright, then," he said with a chuckle. He looked over to me and then started. "After you and Tessa were born, your father and I came to an agreement. The agreement was you and Tessa would be wed when both of you came of age. In return, I would put all of my vast fortune behind the throne, strengthening it for generations to come."

"As I told Alexandra and Gabriel earlier today, I'm not going to hold you to that agreement. My wife and I would be very happy if you both married, but we're not going to force it. I will, however, put all my power behind you, so you can take back your throne."

"When the coup happened, I learned too late to do anything about it. I was even forced to flee Scyftan space when a strike wing jumped to one of my mining operations and attempted to arrest myself and my family. We managed to escape and traveled to what is now Alliance space. The Alliance is made of of nearly all the species, and other ones, that were once part of the Scyftan Protectorate."

"Kaldrus Dhir didn't manage to have my funds frozen in time, so I was able to take most of my fortune and invest it with many of the races that broke off from the Protectorate when they learned of the coup. For the last fourteen hundred years, I had been growing my fortune to the point where I could finally put it in use for something substantial."

He pulled a tablet out of his inventory and continued talking. "About twenty years ago, I took the vast majority of the money I made and used it to place an order with the Warvyn family. The Warvyns are some of, if not the best shipbuilders that I know of. For the past twenty years, they've been building these to Tich Igdaris' specifications," he said, sliding the tablet over to me.

I looked over the tablet and was amazed at what I was seeing. There were detailed specs to over a dozen different classes of ships, and the number of each class of ship that were built. In total, six hundred ships were built, not counting any transport ships or fighters.

I looked up at him with my mouth gaping open. He smiled and then continued. "Those ships are now under your command. As soon as you order it, they can be to Earth in less than two months. They won't be crewed, but I think the Adventurer's Guild can figure that out," he finished, looking over to Alexandra and Gabriel. It looked like neither of them knew what Thomas was talking about, so I slid the tablet over so they could read it.

Alexandra looked up with a shocked look on her face. "Why would you do this, Thomas? This is trillions of credits worth of ships."

He shook his head. "Quadrillions, actually. They're state of the art. I did it because Derech was like a brother to me, and I'm not about to let Kaldrus Dhir destroy our people in his ineptitude. Our people already had to flee our home once. I don't want them to have to flee again."

"I don't know how to thank you, Thomas," I said. "As for the marriage thing; as beautiful as your daughter is, it's not up to me."

He had a confused look on his face. "What do you mean it's not up to you? All you need to do is say yes or no."

I shook my head. "It's not up to me, it's up to her. Neither you, nor I, will force her to do something she doesn't want to do. If she wishes it, we'll see where it leads, but as I said, it's not up to me, it's up to her. How would you feel if your wife ended up resenting you after a few hundred, or thousands of years of marriage?"

"I see your point, young man." Turning to his daughter, he asked, "Well, Tessa, do you wish it?"

She seemed quite speechless, so she vigorously nodded her head, instead.

"That's settled then," he said with a laugh. "So when would you like the ships arrive? As I said, it will take them less than two months to arrive once you give the order."

"I don't know," I answered. Looking over to Alexandra and Gabriel I asked, "When do you think they should arrive? People have to be trained and drilled, right? So sooner would be better than later."

"Soon would be best," Alexandra replied. "Where do we put them, though? They can't all hide behind the moon. I doubt most of them can even land on a planet, right?" she asked, looking at Thomas.

"Ah, that's the beauty of these ships. Remember I said that they're state of the art? All six hundred ships are all equipped with shroud generators. They can sit in plain sight and even the most powerful telescope won't be able to see them."

"Well that makes it easy. Order them to be underway as soon as possible, then. When they arrive, Tich will take command of the fleet. I guess we'll have just under two months to find crews to man them, right?"

"Shouldn't be too hard, I'm sure a lot of humans would kill to get the opportunity to go into space," Alexandra said. "Gabriel and I can get started on that when we're done here. That being said, there is one more thing. Abi! You can come in now!"

I looked over the door, expecting it to open. Instead, there was a small flash of light directly in front of me and a small white crystal appeared, and was hovering in the air.

"Jonathan, meet Abi. Abi, meet Jonathan."