Treasure Ch. 56-60

"I never asked for this," she said as her head fell to the ground. "I'd give it all up to have my parents back."

"We can't change it now, all we can do is make them proud of the Alphas we become. I will be at your side always, but you are the dominant one in our pairing. It will be your Pack, and you will make it great because you are so much stronger than us," he said.

"Together," she said. "Always together." The two nuzzled each other, eventually dropping into a light sleep as the sun warmed their bodies.

Ch. 59

Luna Colletta hung up the phone, having just talked to her son. He and Rori were planning to mate as soon as they found a secluded spot, ensuring she was no longer available as a forced mate with the fertility blessing. She understood what was happening and why, she supported them in it, but she wished things were still normal. She would have loved to have Rori find him at their Pack, where her family could meet her and help her adjust to her new life.

She could do one thing for them, and she was happy to do this. They needed allies, and quickly, plus they were planning on bringing the Arrowhead Pack back to its old territory. She had met Luna Margaret of the Oxbow Pack dozens of times at Council functions, they were friends but not close. She volunteered to make the contact in person, even though she was technically still a rogue.

They had arrived in Two Harbors late last night and found a hotel room overlooking Lake Superior. The morning was cool, their breath turning to fog as soon as it left their mouths, and they had to take a few minutes to defrost the windshield of her SUV. She plugged the address of Margaret's Pack House into her navigation as they waited. "Shouldn't we call first," Patty asked. She was nervous, she didn't have the courage or the dominance for this. Going into another Pack's territory as a rogue was a good way to end up dead.

"The warnings are out, I'm not sure I want to give them a chance to call anyone," she said. "I've known Margaret for years. My rogue status isn't widely known, although they will smell it as soon as I show up. I don't want them calling Alpha Will before I get there." The Pack scent she'd had for almost two centuries was gone now, a wildness replaced it, something that Pack wolves would recognize immediately.

The drive took about an hour, moving up and away from the cold lake and into the pine and birch forests of northern Minnesota. They turned off the country road, driving along a gravel driveway for a quarter mile until a man stepped out of a small guard shack, the gate behind him closed. His eyes went wide with shock as she rolled the window down and her scent hit him. "Luna Colletta," he said, recognizing her from previous events. "Is that a rogue with you?" He had already linked the Pack, and she could sense more wolves rapidly approaching.

"Warrior Patrick, I seek an audience with Luna Margaret to discuss the Arrowhead Pack. I have come alone with my assistant as an envoy of the Alphas. I would appreciate it if my presence was not disclosed to anyone outside your Pack."

"I'll have to clear that with my Alphas," he said. He linked them as he checked the vehicle, ensuring no one else was there. Patty was shaking, and Colletta had to take her hand to calm her when every instinct she had was to run. "These wolves will escort you to the Pack House." He opened the gate, and a large black wolf led the way. Two more trailed behind, and one on each side.

"It's quite the welcoming party," Patty said. "Are you sure we did the right thing?"

"We'll find out soon. Stay behind me and keep your mouth shut unless directly asked a question or I tell you to talk," she told her.

"I can't just stay in the car?" Colletta squeezed her hand. "Crap."

They pulled up in front of the Pack House, which had gone to a war footing by the number of wolves positioned around the house and the Alphas. Other than the Luna, standing with her mate at the top of the steps, no other children or females were present. Colletta sighed as she turned the engine off, knowing they had sent them to safe rooms.

Warriors surrounded the car, and one opened the door for her and helped her up. Another was helping Patty out when a howl was heard from the tree line, and a large grey wolf ran towards them at full speed. The warriors surrounded the two women, but the attacking wolf didn't slow as he ran to the passenger side, knocking the guard down along with Patty. She fell back onto the grass lawn as the wolf pinned her down, his front paws on his shoulders.

Then he licked her face and sat back, shifting into his human form. "MATE," he said as he looked at her in wonder. He was an older wolf, his black hair tinged with grey. "I had given up hope, where have you been hiding my love?"

She just stared at him until he reached forward to help her sit up. As soon as their hands touched, tingles went up their arms and a moment later she was in his arms, kissing him senseless. She was wrapped around him like a Koala bear as he stood up, not even breaking the kiss as he started walking her up the stairs. "Congratulations, Walter," Luna Margaret said as they passed. "You are relieved of your duties and we will have meals sent to your room." He must have linked the answer because she turned back towards Colletta, happy in her Pack gaining a new member soon. "Well, that was exciting. Welcome to the Oxbow Lake Pack, Luna Colletta."

"Just Colletta now, Margaret, as you probably figured out already." She walked with her escort up the stairs, where she shook hands with Alpha Michael and hugged Margaret. "It's a long story, one that needs to be told to you immediately, along with your leadership."

"I've heard rumors of Rori King being found, but no one has talked to us directly and that upsets me," Alpha Michael said. "She is our niece, after all. We are family."

"And I am now too, in a way. Is there a place we can talk?" She was escorted into a comfortable sitting area, where she was given a chair of her own. The Alpha pulled the Luna into his lap in another chair, and she smiled at his possessiveness; when faced by a potential threat, they didn't want their mate outside their touch. They were joined by their Beta and Gamma pairs. "I apologize for showing up unannounced, but things are very fluid right now and there are some people we cannot trust. I am coming to you because we share something now, something truly special. Rori King is now mated to my youngest son, Chase Nygaard."

"What?"

"It is a long story, most of which I've learned only in the past few days. The story is why I am here, why I am no longer part of the Cascade Pack, and why your help is needed."

"I knew something was terribly wrong," Alpha Michael said. "The Council has kept all this very close, and I was shocked when I tuned in to your daughter's trial. I've not felt we were getting the answers since that night her brother was killed."

"That seems to be as good a place to start as any," she said. "You watched the trial, there was no doubt of Alpha Todd's guilt, but the Council never took it the next logical step. Someone wiped them out, but they didn't look very hard to find them. They could have interrogated lower-ranking Pack members of every Pack, for instance, taking away any Alpha commands. Yet they didn't."

"You're right, even my pack which was closest and the most logical, the investigation was perfunctory." Michael was rubbing his hand on Margaret's leg to calm down. "No one even followed up on the lost child."

"Alpha Todd missed his chance, he wiped the Pack out and didn't find Charlotte in the process. He couldn't tell anyone that, of course, and he had to head back home before it became obvious he was the attacker. What we have since learned is that Alpha Todd had help in this, help in high places." Colletta took out her phone. "This recording was made by Ron Carlson, the former Beta of the Bitterroot Pack. Ron is a good wolf, on loan from the Banff Pack, and the behavior of Councilman Forrest was questionable. It picks up after the trial and after they excoriate the lawyer for the shoddy indictment, one the Council themselves did while he was out of town. I warn you, this is bad." She clicked play.

Five minutes later, the Gamma was holding the door open so an angry Alpha pair, a pair that had shifted and torn half the room apart, could get outside without further damage. The Beta pair shifted to follow them and make sure the Pack stayed out of their way. "It will take them a little time to run that off," the Gamma female said. "Why don't we move to the conference room and let the Omegas start cleaning this mess up."

"I did warn you," she said.

"There is no way to adequately warn people that the wolves they respected and trusted were complicit in the murder of her brother and a Pack we had many connections with," she said. "I had a cousin in the Pack, and many friends. The loss is still being felt, and this news has torn the old wounds open. How are you coping? This can't be easy for you either. Your own mate is part of this, but I didn't catch how."

"He lied to protect Alpha Todd. When the original investigation occurred, he told the Council that Alpha Todd and his Betas were tracking down a rogue on neutral territory in Montana. Their two stories matched up, and both Packs were eliminated from consideration. Now we know why the Council didn't push too hard, their end game was to get the estate. Millions of dollars will go to them in three years if Rori doesn't claim it. Until these past few days, she had no idea of what she was or where she was from."

They talked for almost an hour until the Alpha pair returned to the house, running straight to their room and dressing before joining them in the conference room. "My Gamma informed me of the highlights of your discussion, so just so we are on the same page, may I summarize?"

"Certainly," Colletta said.

"Alpha Todd wanted Joanna, but her parents refused and let her find her true mate. He waited until she had a daughter to carry on the line, then made a deal with the Council. He would wipe out the Arrowhead Pack, leaving the estate for the Council to claim in twenty years, in exchange for their help in covering up the crime. He wanted to capture our niece and raise her in his pack to be mated to him, but he didn't find her. Alpha Will gives him an alibi and the Council doesn't work too hard to find a suspect. Fifteen years later, she is located in Minnesota and Todd tries twice to capture her. His Betas are killed by police, and everyone recognizes them so the Council sweeps in and wipes out Todd and his leadership."

"All correct so far," she said. "Her grandfather follows her to Florida, worried that her wolf is coming out and she knows nothing of our kind. He gets her onto Adirondack Pack lands where she shifts but isn't communicating with her wolf and runs the next morning. She thinks she has avoided three kidnap attempts. Charles and Martin are called before the Council, who take over the search and fail again. It is after the last attempt, when the girl now named Rori King is almost killed, when she is found by my son at a human mental hospital."

"Oh Luna, the poor girl has been through so much," Margaret said.

"She is released, is hurt by a bear protecting her human parents, and is taken to hide with her motorcycle club with Coral and Chase. Coral is kept by the Council as bait, but escapes with Sawyer, and you leave your mate after finding out what he has done to your children. Now the Council has issued an arrest warrant claiming they are planning to expose us to humans." Colletta pauses to make sure they've caught up. "It's a lot, I know."

"We're on Rori's side on this, whatever she needs she will get from us," Michael said. "It is time for the Arrowhead Pack to rise again, and those who have enabled Todd must pay for their deeds. You plan to take down the Council?"

"Yes, but we need two-thirds of the Alphas to vote to disband. That has to go first, before we can bring them up on charges, or guess who arbitrates? The Council."

"How many Packs do you have already," Michael asked.

"Adirondack, Banff, and Oxbow Lake now that you are aboard," Colletta said. "Their Alphas are seeking out others, talking to them personally so we keep this quiet. If my son Sawyer wins his challenge against my mate, then the Cascade Pack will vote to remove. We'll know more by tonight, but we should have at least six solidly in our corner soon."

"How many solidly opposed?"

"That's tougher to say. We won't even approach the Donner Pack, that's Councilman Forrest's son that he wants to give Rori to. Even without that, there's no way he gives up his father. The same with the Casper Pack, where Councilman Waterman is from. We can't lose more than two more, maybe one."

"What do you mean?"

"There are a few questionable things with this arrangement, according to my lawyer son. The Bitterroot Pack is technically being run by the Council, so if it comes to a vote, we will challenge their eligibility as a conflict of interest. The Arrowhead Pack has an Alpha pair and a Pack now, but the Council bylaws talk about new Packs being recognized formally before being eligible to vote. Obviously, they won't do that."

"They never went away, not as long as their Alpha lived," Michael responded. "Who else is in her Pack?"

"Chase's twin, Coral, is the Beta, and a bunch of Omegas from the Bitterroot Pack, at least as soon as Rori can accept them."

"Those Omegas were abused in that Pack, weren't they? Oh Luna, Patty was one of them too?" Margaret was horrified at the thought; she was clearly an older wolf, and her eyes had that distance to them when they first met.

"They were, and she was," Colletta said sadly. "She never found her mate because her Alpha would never let a female Omega search for hers, knowing if she did, she would leave them. He'd rather keep them around as near slaves."

"I wish we could kill that man again." He pulled his mate closer to him. "How many Omegas are we talking," Michael asked nervously.

"All of them, and they are all female," she said as their eyes got wide. "Three had left the pack earlier, the other twenty-six left late last night. All are heading for Two Harbors, where I've set up temporary residence while we wait for Rori to arrive." Their eyes widened again, most Packs had a dozen or fewer female Omegas and a couple male ones. "They want to be in Rori's pack; Coral is a hero to them, and Chase helped many start to recover from the abuse when he worked at the Pack. They deserve a fresh start, away from all the reminders of their abuse."

"Leaving them there with their abusers didn't make sense," he said. "We should have volunteered to take more of them in."

"It wouldn't have mattered, unless there was a family tie Forrest wasn't letting them go. The Pack had lost too many people already." She looked out the window, it hurt her too that they hadn't done more. "Well, I'm going to look for a hotel or apartment with enough room for them until we can build something on Pack lands," Colletta said.

"No," Michael said. "Two Harbors is neutral territory, and if the Council refuses to recognize them they are rogues. With the arrest warrant and reward announced today by the Council, you can bet there will be Pack wolves staking out the old territory, waiting for you."

"Then where? Rori has to meet with the lawyer, and her Pack needs a safe place to get established."

"Here," he said. "We have room for all of you, and you would be protected," he said.

"Yes, please. Stay with us. We can hide you from the Council and help your son and Rori get established. She's family, she always has a place here."

"Our location will have to be kept from the Council."

"My Pack will not divulge your secrets, especially not given what has happened. We have carried the pain of that night ever since. Our desire for justice is as strong as your own."

She thought about it, if they had room it was a much better solution than hiding amongst the humans. "Let me talk to my Alphas, at least the ones I plan to take. My son is completed the mating this morning, and with Luna's favor she will be pregnant. I can't wait to be a grandmother, my other two sons haven't found their mates yet."

"Maybe Patty is just the first of many?"

"I would hope." She pulled out her phone to call her youngest son.

Ch. 60

The snap of a branch jolted Chase awake from his slumber. His knot has receded, and they had separated as they slept. He moved his head over her shoulder as he sought out the source of the noise, then he scented the air. "Humans," he thought. He nuzzled her chin, pushing until she stirred and started to stretch on the bed of grass they were on. "We have to go, there are people on the trail," he said.

"Now?" He got to his feet, watching her get up and stretch herself out. He could feel her soreness through the bond, not just her leg but her core as well. "That was amazing," she said. "Can we do it again?"

"When we get back to the RV, and in human form with a bed under us this time," he said as he shook the leaves off his fur. "Follow me, they are on their way down to the river, we have to loop around them." They moved through the trees, trying to stay hidden from the man and woman walking down the trail. They were almost back when what they heard made them both freeze.

"Frank, look! Two wolves, right there." Her whisper may as well have been a shout to their wolf hearing. "They are beautiful, such coloration. Take the shot, they would look great on our wall."

"Don't move, dear. I can get a good shot before they get spooked." He opened a case he was carrying and reached inside for something.

Sunlight glinted off the glass, spurring them to action. "Run," Chase said as he placed himself between Rori and the threat. They took off through the trees, running back up the hill as fast as her body could handle. He heard the clicks and relaxed a little but didn't let up. Their wolves were much larger than normal wolves, and they didn't like to be photographed. He was just glad it was a camera and not a gun; it was hunting season, and all they needed was one guy taking a potshot at a wolf.

They were out of sight before they got back to where his clothes were hidden, and he quickly shifted and dressed. They were lucky; no other cars were in the lot, and he opened the RV and let her in. She jumped up on the bed and immediately shifted. "That was close," she said.

He came over and kissed her. "Get dressed, I'm getting us out of here before they come back to their car," he said. He was back on the road, and she grabbed some waters and snacks out of the refrigerator before coming to sit with him in the passenger seat. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore, but good. Mom was right, it was painful at first but soon it was anything but," she said. She smiled as she leaned back and took a drink; the bond between them hummed with love and she was so happy she felt like she might burst. Everything she had dreamed of as a child, everything she feared she would never have as a teen, it all paled in comparison to the reality of the mate bond. "Do you think I got pregnant? I don't feel any different."

"It's too early, it takes a week or so for your wolf to know," he said. "Females of our kind can go for decades with no success, so don't be disappointed if it doesn't happen. I love you," he said.

The phone rang, and he answered it with the hands free. "Chase, it's Mom," they heard over the speakers.

"Mom!" Rori's voice was a little bit of a shock to Colletta, as was what she called her. It was a first for her, to have a son mated and gain a daughter.