This is a Mercy Thompson fan fiction that includes some other characters that while original, the origins spawned from Kresley Cole's amazing Immortals After Dark series. I make no profit off of this.

Un: Please No News Before My Coffee…

Samuel went down to breakfast bleary eyed, bare footed, and shirtless looking for the coffee that had roused him. Despite the lag, he was well rested and had slept like the dead. Even when his father came home he couldn't force himself to wake up enough to get out of bed and question him.

Along with the coffee, Samuel could smell Bran and Charles in the kitchen with pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Anna was oddly absent so Samuel was assuming this was a meeting to discuss where his father had been for the past two days and the murders that were multiplying alarmingly quickly.

Coming in he inhaled past the delicious smells of breakfast and grabbed onto a sour smell of that was radiating of Bran. He was shifting back and forth and wouldn't meet his son's eyes. This wasn't going to be good.

"Please not before a cup of coffee." Samuel growled and poured himself a cup, not waiting for a reply.

Bran and Charles began to talk about the murders again theorizing and going over the first victims. It was quite a compare and contrast and sometimes Samuel would assist them with a detail but mostly he just listened and ate.

The murders were being put on the back burner because they were not what had gotten under the Marrok's skin. The tension level in the air rose. It was so rare to see the Marrok out of control that Samuel was starting to get worried. He finished off his plate and rose for another cup of coffee.

When he was seated he stated boldly, "These murders aren't why you left with no warning. They aren't the reason I had to track you to Louisiana."

"Come again?"

Gwyn winced as the coat door slammed behind Ashton.

"I know your angry." This was the last thing that Gwyn wanted to deal with. Ashton the Huntress was not a person you wanted mad at you. Ever. Megan and Rayne both plopped themselves down on the stairs to watch the events unfold. Or course Rayne already knew how everything would go.

"You're damn right I'm angry." Ashton didn't yell, hell she didn't need to raise her voice, the deadly quietness of it was enough to frighten even the Gwyn the Queen. Lightning struck outside the window causing the electricity to flicker.

Gwyn watched as Ashton moved around the room gathering up her things; a book here, a shoe on the ottoman, a shirt hanging from the living room light fixture.

"You put us all in danger. Werewolves are unstable." Ashton sat down on the stairs trying to calm down and see reason. Gwyn was right to tell Bran everything but she still went through the motions of putting up a fight.

Alpha, or A-Dog, as Ashton sometimes called him, shoved his head against her shoulder. The bastard was huge and Gwyn could still remember the day half a millennia earlier when her sister brought him home. She had dragged her bloody beaten body through the door with the help of the hellhound.

The house had been more shocked seeing Ashton then they had been the dog. She had been missing for the better part of the century and even though they knew she was alive, Rayne was a soothsayer and would see her die, they didn't know where she was or how to rescue her.

The Huntress only told that story once, the story of how a general to a legion of demon's in the Underworld had her kidnapped to be his plaything, upon hearing of her strength, skill, and beauty.

He kept her and tortured her but he made the mistake of having the Alpha hell hound watch over her. She realized he was thirsty and hungry and shared what little food and water she got and one day a lesser demon came through and started to torture the hound, he never saw Ashton until she had snapped his neck off of his body.

Ashton had said that the punishment for that offence had almost done her in, even though it was really hard to kill an immortal. Not long after that the two broke away, 'finished business and left' as she put it.

There were rumors that she had went on a killing spree so viscous that none of the demons in the general's legion had survived. It could be true, because Alpha wasn't the only thing that Ashton brought home that night. She was wearing two fangs on a leather thong around her neck. Her personal katana was also adorned with suspicious looking horns but no one ever asked her. No one wanted to.

The hound that looked a lot like a werewolf size Doberman Pinscher sighed happily as Ashton rubbed him behind his pointy ears.

Rayne laughed and stood making her way down the stairs, she was off her rocker that one.

"It was going to be more dangerous for us if we didn't tell Bran. Remember what happened in a few weeks. Much better now that the wolves can help with that problem. And you will be able to help with one of their's. Don't forget to pack salt and charge you cell phone, of course I won't answer the first time you call me so just skip that one." Rayne rambled on as she walked out of the door.

"That's one coo coo Valkyrie, I'll go grab the twins from the pool." Megan said and went out the veranda doors.

Ashton rubbed her eyes, thinking that she might be getting a headache. "Guess I'll go home and pack." She muttered.

Pack and prepare, she had to prepare herself to see Samuel again, brace herself for his anger, which she deserved, and get ready for a long trip with their six year old twins.

She didn't know which one she was dreading more.

Once again I got the Valkyrie idea from Kresley Cole and the character Rayne is going to be loosely based off of her character Nix…every story needs its dull crayon right?