A Decade Past
Chapter 1
Hope watched her mother and step-father work alongside one another, fixing storm shutters onto their home. Her Uncle Elijah had compelled some unsuspecting human's to affix the shutters to the windows of Hope's other, much larger, home the day before.
Uncle Elijah had offered the do the same for Hayley and Jackson, "for Hope" but as always, Hayley refused his offer. Hope was beginning to understand, at 11 years old, that this refusal came with some reluctance on her mother's part.
She could see that her mother's marriage was not the same as the marriages of the other wolves in her pack, nor even the same as the strange relationship that had existed between her Papa and Camille for as long as Hope could remember.
This marriage was happy, productive, a strong force politically. It had even produced an heir to the Labonair line, Hope's 9 year old brother Oliver. But her parents didn't look at each other the way Cami and Papa did. They didn't hold hands as they walked down the streets of the French quarter the way Didier and Juliette, two of the many wolves in the sprawling Crescent clan, did. Hope had not thought much of this until a classmate had not offered her a "Ninja Turtles 2025" valentine last year, but instead had drawn a crude wolf and presented it to her personally at lunch.
Her awareness had shifted in that moment. People who were couples where supposed to feel something special, something only for their pair.
Oliver was definitely not a surprise baby. Nor was he a miracle, unless you were to ask the wolves in Hayley and Jackson's pack. A real marriage, as it turned out, was less about love than about loyalty, and most importantly, progeny.
Mobile, Alabama was close, large enough to have a good hospital, and ordinary enough to have OB-GYNs who had never thought of vervain as anything other than a folk remedy to promote lactation. Hayley's hybrid nature had preserved her ability to re-produce. It never got more romantic then that.
Hayley and Jackson's relationship was more congenial then Hayley and Klaus'. But then again, who really shared in congeniality with Klaus? The Marshall home was as happy as any home regularly beset by supernatural horror could be. And that was the result of a decade of hard work on behalf of Hayley and Jackson on their marriage.
They had defeated Esther, Dahlia, vengeful Guerrera cousins, survived minor falling outs between Klaus and Kol, Klaus and Marcel, Marcel and Rebekah, Rebekah and Hayley, and any combination of Mikaelsons and tangential relations possible.
That marriage could not defeat what was coming with the storm.
Jackson and Hayley had lived in the quarter for 5 years. The better relations between all factions of being meant that many wolves felt safe enough to move back into the city. The wolves who had stayed in the swamps where mostly odd and some old; very few really, few werewolves made it to 'old'.
When the hurricane season came, the Alphas would send an envoy to their rural brethren, requesting their presence in the storm-proofed houses of the quarter. This year the envoy returned with the usual stubborn refusals of a solid roof. He also returned with unsettling news that needed the attention of the King and Queen on the crescent wolves. In the bayou, some strange wolves were making their presence known. It started with small, dead animals. This was not particularly notable for people living in the wild surrounded by animal predators, most of whom where those very people. But then, there where the dogs.
No wolf leaves a dead dog on his neighbour's porch.
"Has anyone thought of changing, and then simply following the scent back to whoever is doing this?" Jackson was mildly annoyed that threats in the form of four dead dogs had been lobbed at his pack and no one had bothered to tell him.
"I could smell them without changing. I thought it would be best if one of our Alphas did the spy work."
It was one the few old wolves. This one was never outright insubordinate, but always without patience for the young Alpha.
"Thank-you, Hayes. Yes, why don't you just wait around for one of us to acquire some prescient ability so we can know when there's danger 200 miles away. I get that you all want to live out here, off the grid, but it's only a 3 hour drive into the city. There must also be a few cell phones out here in 2025?"
"One of the dogs had this tied around its neck." A young girl stepped forward, holding a card. Jackson took it from her, nodding his thanks. It depicted a woman walking on water, with rays of light emanating from the sky onto her head.
"Does anyone know what the hell this means? Hayes, you've been around… what is this?"
The elderly wolf shrugged his shoulders and then walked back to his trailer with noticeable disinterest. Jackson knew these people were his responsibility but sometimes they drove him insane.
"Someone out here must know some lore or myth or superstition that can tell me what the hell is going on!"
More shrugging followed Jackson's outburst, so he turned around and headed back to his truck, his lieutenants following.
"You all know how to reach me if any of you decide to be the slightest bit useful!" He waved his cell over his head, climbed in the truck, and began the long drive back to the city and home.