This is a work of speculative fanfiction. No profit was made nor was intended to be made. All rights to to Twilight and it's sequels and prequels belong to Stephanie Meyer and Little Brown Publishing company. I make no claim to ownership on any of those rights nor to any intellectual property of Stephanie Meyer.
AN: Thank you to those who have read, reviewed and/or added this story to their favorites. I enjoy hearing what you think, so feel free to review. Another delay... I know, but real life with two children and school has been taking precedence over writing. Even though sometimes chapters may take me a while, this is a story that I have every intention of finishing. I must extend my thanks to MelWolfgirl and Midnitestarr for plot hunting, Hilja for her encouragement when I wanted to take this chapter and light it on fire and as always may I heartily recommend the betaing services of Pippynz. One last note, the Sami, who are referenced in this chapter are a semi nomadic tribal people who live in the extreme north of Scandinavia. They hunt caribou and some maintain wild reindeer herds. They are considered to have an unique cultural persepctive in the countries that they live in.
Chapter Six:
The autumn brought, as it always did, a gathering darkness to the Fenrir. As the days abruptly grew so short, the desperate training of the new phases ground to a halt. The fresh faces were put on patrols, their untried strength replacing those who were still newly in their graves not quite a year. The cold burned their paws, snow already on the ground. The wolf blooded, both young and old sharpened their weapons. Rural packs made sure every home, every family was prepared to defend themselves if they had to. Urban packs tightened their alliances, patrolled with constant vigilance. Mates and imprints of wolves took their places, some with weapons, some with medicines, some with other gifts and other skills. Every single Fenrir greeted the autumn with defiance, ready to face the coming winter with everything they had. The Fenrir were warriors, not one of them would yield... not ever.
In the northernmost territory held by the Fenrir, the Jarl Pack already faced increased vampire activity. Soon they would find themselves embroiled in Winter War. For now, they concentrated on beginning the evacuations of the most northern villages. The people who lived there made a brisk living on caribou herds and fishing during the spring and summer months... but come autumn, it became too dangerous for them to live in their ancestral homes. Some of the villages were in territories that became so inhospitable that not even the might of the Jarl could keep the inhabitants safe come the cold and the dark. So they were evacuated to more southern towns, every year some of the people would stay, declining to return to their homes, would start new lives. Lives that were less chained to the whims of armies they could barely understand.
The Jarl's beta, his son Magnus, sat at the window in the main hall of his pack's home. They lived communally in a great stone manor, built 800 years before by a previous Jarl. A fallen Jarl, one eventually executed for his crimes. The irony in that made Magnus smile without a shred of mirth. Everyday was a tightrope, everyday he tried to help his father lead their people, everyday he tried to mitigate the influence of his stepmother, the bolverk Dagmar. Everyday he failed just a little bit more than he had the day before. Everyday he missed his twin and wished for her to come home. And everyday none of what he wished for or worked for came to pass. Sometimes he thought he was becoming used to failure.
Magnus and Ingrid used to say that they had been together from the moment they were conceived, and that they would be together till the day they died. Then Magnus had become a wolf... and Ingrid had not. On that day, somehow he know she would never phase, everyone thought she was just late, but he knew... somehow, he knew. It was a frightening thought, knowing that someday he would be without her. That one day he would look back, centuries from now, and think that his time with her passed in the blink of an eye. That perhaps... one day... he would be the only one who would remember her tale. It made him pensive, sad... and determined. Determined that she would not live a life trapped and bound to anything she didn't want. He knew if the situation were reversed, she would do the same for him. So he had argued with his father, damn near challenged him for her right to leave. In light of what had subsequently happened, to say that he regretted that was an understatement of somewhat epic proportions.
His twin sister was now an imprint. Tied to a strange wolf, in a foreign pack, in a land not their own. None of it sat right with him or his wolf. Not only that, but the wolf who had imprinted on her was of low enough rank that he would never have been allowed to pursue her if he were Fenrir. They would be expected go their separate, if friendly, ways. The lowest rank allowed to court a wolf blooded daughter of a Jarl, was third. One of many reasons he was doing his level best to keep this information from his father. As the years had gone by, Gunnar had become unpredictable. There were more than a few probable ways he could react to the news of his daughter's imprint bond and absolutely none of them were good. So he hid it, tucked it away when phased, never spoke of it to anyone save for the one pack mate she had told on her own. Enni.
Enni was one of the pack's she-wolves. She was originally from an urban pack in Stockholm, Sweden, but had traveled up here 30 years ago to join the Jarl pack. When Ingrid started training the two had struck up a fast friendship. The she-wolf may have been 60 years old but she didn't look a day over 25. The three of them along with Dagnet and his family had formed a tight knit group among the pack. So it hadn't really surprised him when Enni had come to him a few days ago and told him that she knew... and that she was having a hard time keeping it a secret. Thus she had become his patrol partner until Magnus could figure out a way to let his father know, without causing what he was starting to think might become the wolf version of an international incident.
Magnus was pulled from his reverie when he heard footsteps, swinging into the hall came Enni, her short blond hair looking a little wind blown. She was whipcord thin, not as athletic looking as the rest of the pack, but her eyes shown with intelligence. Her laptop was at her side and she was talking into her cellphone. Enni always had some piece of tech attached to her. Magnus had joked once that if she ever figured out how to use her iphone while in wolf form, she could rake in the money from all the Fenrir.
She snapped her phone closed and looked at Magnus. "Freya's here and she looks pissed. She headed directly to Gunnar's quarters, so you might want to be prepared to do damage control. I was just on the phone with her pack's beta and she wouldn't tell me what's going on. Just inferred that Freya is about at the end of her rope."
Magnus looked heavenward and knocked the back of his head against the stone wall. Just what he needed, a pissing contest between the most dominant wolf and the oldest wolf amongst the Fenrir.
"Freya's been at the end of her rope with my father for almost my entire life. What makes you think this time is any different?"
Enni put her computer on the table. "Because." she replied "This time she decided to come up here at the spur of the moment, at a run, to tell him how much of an asshole she thinks he is. That's... a bit much, even for her."
Magnus chuckled. "Never let it be said that that old warhorse has ever done anything half assed. Dagmar will shit herself with the way Freya talks to my father."
Enni chewed her bottom lip. "Freya cares as much about what Dagmar thinks as she cares about my theories of digital satellite integration with the various governmental space agencies. Which is to say, that she cares not at all."
Magnus laughed softly again. Freya was old... so old that she didn't even know how old she actually was. That gave her a certain amount of leeway that no one else among their people had. She had watched Jarls come and go. She had watched this hall be built 800 years ago and back then she had been old. It was said that she was that Freya. The Queen of the Valkyries, the one who the myths of Freya, Odin's wife, were based on. The old wolf would snort when that was whispered around her. To her credit, she had no patience for her hype or her fan club. All she would ever say, when asked about her long life, was that she was waiting for something to finally be deadly enough to kill her. An intimidating statement that did absolutely nothing to dispel the hype she had so little patience for.
The beta went over to his 13th ranked pack mate. Enni was not dominant at all, but she had something else, she was by far the smartest of his wolves. Magnus never let an asset lay fallow, he had recognized something that many of his rural brethren had not. The 21st century was something to be embraced, not run from. He encouraged his wolves to get educations, to learn about the world around them and then to bring that knowledge to the fight they faced each year. He never turned away new strategies simply because they were new, he turned them away if he knew they wouldn't work. Merit and success were the things he cared about.
"How goes the evacuation planning?" he asked.
Enni opened her laptop and pulled up a spreadsheet. "I've got a good schedule made. As long as nothing interferes with the implementation, we should have everyone out before winter comes. All the towns and halls have been notified that will be receiving the Sami. As long as your stepmother follows this, she should be fine."
It was the bolverk's duty to run the evacuations every year. Since Marit's displacement and then subsequent death, Dagonet and then Ingrid had run the mass exodus of the Sami from their territories. This would be Dagmar's first showing, she no longer had anyone to do her duties anymore, not without people questioning her ability to hold her position. Magnus prayed that she was up to the task and once again felt himself wanting to go and collect his sister. She was a far better bolverk than Dagmar could or would be. It felt deeply wrong facing their world without her.
Enni continued getting his approval for her various projects when they both damn near felt the need to go to their bellies. Gunnar was furious... and in his fury was practically forcing his pack to the floor. Magnus instinctively knew that every wolf and perhaps a good half of the wolf blooded in his pack were on their knees right now. Enni was on hers, bracing herself with her hands on the stones, attempting to not go to her belly. Freya's anger swept out over the pack as well. She was so old and so adept at working the mental bonds that held packs together that she could effect whoever she wanted with just about whatever she wanted. This was yet another reason why no one liked it when the Jarl and the Eldest fought.
Magnus came over to Enni and gently placed the palm of his hand on the back of her neck then he pulled her in to his side. She almost hid there for a minute, her whine of distress coming from deep in her chest. For the more submissive wolves, this level of aggression flowing through the pack, when not directed at their enemies, was very difficult to take. Magnus kept her pressed to him till the whining stopped and then looked at her.
"Hey, it's okay, you're good, you're not the one they're angry at."
Enni took a deep breath and nodded, then she stood up and shook herself almost like a dog trying to get something nasty out of her fur. "Whatever the hell they're arguing about... it's bad. I wouldn't want to be in the room with them right now. Not for all the money in the world."
Magnus was about to say that he didn't have that luxury, when they heard the door slam with a resounding boom and quick, angry footsteps coming their way. With the tightening in their chests both Magnus and Enni could tell that one of the verbal sparring partners was headed their way.
"Oh shit." Enni breathed. Then she plastered herself to the wall and looked at her feet, desperately trying to make herself unnoticeable and not important.
Freya stormed into the room like a hurricane about to break on the stones of the hall. Her dark blue eyes were damn near flashing and every muscle was tense. Until Magnus one day assumed the mantle of Jarl, he was not dominant enough to contain Freya, all he could hope to do was stand in the wake of her anger and not get swept under. So he stood and met her eyes, but he made damn sure that every other part of his body language radiated that he was aware that she was more dominant than he.
The Eldest Fenrir looked the beta over, huffed and walked close to him. She spared a quick glance in Enni's direction and made a calming noise in her throat to calm the skittish she-wolf. Then she turned her attention back to Magnus.
"I go back to my pack unsatisfied with the Jarl's answers... again. Someday beta... someday his actions... or more appropriately... his inaction, will cost him." Freya's voice was tight, angry... and it made his hackles freeze. She was a dangerous wolf to make an enemy of and it seemed that today, Gunnar was bound and determined to make her at least his adversary, and at worst... his enemy.
As abruptly as she came into the hall Freya swept out of it. Leaving a wide eyed Enni and a momentarily speechless Magnus behind her.
"Well" Enni drawled. "That went... well... that went shitty."
Magnus took a deep breath and then looked down the hall towards his father's quarters. He could hear his father growling and knew it would only be a matter of time before he would be called to wait upon his needs.
"Enni, unless you think you're up to dealing with an angry Jarl.. I'd go find someplace else to be. He's about to hit the roof again." Magnus' voice was damn near exhausted. He was so tired of smoothing things out for his increasingly erratic father and his father's always erratic wife. It was never ending and he was quickly finding it hard to recall a time when it hadn't always been like this.
Enni didn't need to be told twice. She gathered her things and hightailed it out after leaving her laptop with Magus so he could show the evacuation schedule to Dagmar. Then she was out the door and gone to her own quarters, as far away as she could get from the Jarl's family drama.
Magnus on the other hand started counting, he only got to four before his father bellowed for him. As he walked down the hall to see what he wanted, Magnus wished... for about the 57th time... that Ingrid had never left. As dominant as he was, he just wasn't suited to dealing with all of this without her. And he feared that said more about his ability to be a good beta than it did about anything else.
XXXXXX XXXXXX
Seth was... content. He was sitting on his sister's living room floor with Quil and Embry. Ingrid was making popcorn with Leah in the kitchen. Her burgeoning friendship with his sister was working out to his advantage. He got to see Ingrid without it being so awkward. Seth was trying to do what Leah had advised him to do and accept that his imprint did not want him romantically. It was hard though, the pull was still there and it seemed like it was trying to tell him something, something about what it was that she needed. But he couldn't figure it out and so had just settled into a strange sort of tense friendship with her. It wasn't perfect, but it was what it was and he was trying not to pretend it was something different. Like Leah said, Ingrid might never be able to accept him and he, for his part, had to be ready to acknowledge that.
Tonight Leah had decided to host a movie marathon. Seth, Quil and Embry were fixtures at these things. Collin and Brady were on patrol with Jake. While Sam, Emily, Jared and Kim were hanging out at the Uley house together, having dinner. In the past year Paul had become a fixture at Leah's movie marathons as well, a development that had surprised everyone, because up until then, they were busy threatening to kill each other every other day... and bumping each other back and forth in rank almost as often. In fact, he had bumped her 5 days ago and was third again. Seth figured it would last, at most another day.
Speak of the devil, Paul arrived with an armful of dvd's. "Who's the jackass that put 'Annie Hall' on the list? The clerk was looking at me like he thought he might want to give my description to his gay cousin or something!"
Embry looked up. "That was me, I love that movie."
"Are you sure you're not gay dude?" Paul's eyebrow was raised.
Embry looked long suffering, very long suffering. "Positive, you asshole."
Leah popped in. "Assholes? Who's asshole are we talking about here... because I have a theory about some of you, you know."
Paul, Embry, Seth and Quil groaned. They had heard her theory before. It was some bizarrely long thing about heterosexuality and imprinting and gay wolves. And really, it took about an hour and a half and three bottles of scotch before Leah had run out of steam. It had made absolutely no sense to anyone but her and no one really wanted to hear the theory again.
Seth threw a magazine at her. "Lee, I will pay you not to tell anyone that theory ever again. Hell, I will pay you never to think about that theory ever again."
Ingrid sat down in a chair with some popcorn. "I wanna hear the theory. Maybe I can use it the next time one of your council members calls me up to 'discuss'" She used air quotes "my imprinting. Might get them to shut up."
Seth looked at her. "Who's been giving you trouble."
"They mostly give my answering machine trouble." Ingrid said. "I have caller ID and have memorized their numbers. They haven't actually talked to me in about two weeks. We'll see how long this stretch can go."
It had been a little over three weeks since Seth had taken Ingrid home after she lost it in that bar. She still rebelled against almost everything he said, but now at least she seemed comfortable enough to be around him without practically climbing the walls. And whether she wanted to admit it or not, she had spent too much of her life in a pack to not enjoy at least a few of the social benefits of having wolves around her again. She always kept herself on the outskirts of the group and never let Seth talk for her, but nevertheless she was there. It was a small comfort to her imprinted wolf, but he was taking what he could get.
Two hours later, after 'Annie Hall' was finished and Paul and Leah were finished making fun of it, they put in the action movies. Leah's movie marathons were heavy on the explosions and the one liners. Everyone settled back and began to drink beer and take in the mindless entertainment. Two things became abundantly clear. The first was that yet again, they just didn't have the money that it would take to get themselves drunk on beer. The second was that Ingrid could drink like a fish, she had drunk enough that any human her size should have been intoxicated. But she seemed only mildly buzzed.
"Ing, maybe you should slow down on the beer." Seth sounded worried and everyone except for Quil groaned; G-d forbid an imprint have any fun that might possibly not be perfectly healthy. Their wolves started to become constipated mother hens when they did.
Ingrid looked at him. "Wolfblooded, I can't drink as much as you guys, but I can drink a lot without becoming drunk. Besides, we Fenrir like to um... celebrate? Wine, sex and song.. mead, ale... we all have the tolerance of your average burly dock worker. Wolf, wolfblooded or normal human, drinking is a talent for us."
Seth rolled his eyes. "Of course it is, why would you have normal hobbies?"
"Do me a favor kid." Paul said "Shut up and let her fucking drink if she wants to. What do you think she's gonna do... moon the Cullens with her naked ass?"
Embry and Quil laughed and then Quil offered to pay Ingrid money to do just that.
"How much are we talking about here?" she asked.
"Um... twenty five bucks?" he replied.
Ingrid looked like she was thinking and then shook her head no. "Sorry Quil... my naked ass is more expensive than that."
Leah looked at Seth's frown. "Hey at least she has standards." She was barely containing her laughter.
Seth just grumbled and watched 'Die Hard 2' with everyone else. Everything was going fine and then the twins showed up. They had just been relieved by Sam and Jared and had decided to come over and watch the last two movies of the marathon before hitting the sack. The thing that people always forgot about the twins was that Collin and Brady, though they looked about 25 years old, were only 18 and even though life had forced a bit of maturity down their throats, it hadn't magically made their brains and sense of restraint 25 years old... that was still firmly in the teenage years.
They were looking for a place to sit and noticed that all the higher ranking pack members had taken better seats, so they looked at Ingrid and went over to where she sat, to take her better seat. They weren't trying to be rude, this jostling just came with being around a pack. There was just one thing that was different, for a human, Ingrid was pretty damn dominant. As they went to move her, she snapped her teeth at them and stared hard at the two, stared them down, then she snapped her teeth again. Collin and Brady reacted the same exact way, as though they just been chastised by a higher ranking wolf and backed away from her with their eyes down and found other, not as good seats.
Everyone else stared at the three of them. They had never seen a human try to make a wolf acknowledge said human's dominance and win. Ingrid saw them staring and looked at her beer.
"I outrank them, I'm more dominant. In my old pack, dominant wolfblooded had ranks and some of us were more highly ranked than a few of the wolves at the bottom of the totem pole. In case anyone cares... if I were actually in your pack, I would outrank Quil too. But not Jared, so I'm not ridiculously dominant." Her voice seemed strained.
Seth looked at her, studied her. Everything about Ingrid spoke of being stuck halfway between being a shapeshifter and a normal human. She was very tall, towered over Emily, Kim and Sue at 5' 11" but she still had to look up at the shortest wolf; Leah, who stood at an impressive 6' 1". She was dominant and aggressive, normal humans tended to stay out of her way or else they seemed to understand instinctively that angering her was a bad idea, however all but the more submissive wolves were not intimidated by her. One moment she would be with them, seemingly at one with the wolf social structure, and then she would tear herself out of it and reject it with a fiery anger. He wasn't sure if it was being wolfblooded that made Ingrid so contradictory or if it was just who she was.
The silence was thick when Embry decided to be nice and break it. "So, now that we know that Red over there can make Quil, Brady and Collin her bitches, which I say is sort of awesome by the way, can we please finish Die Hard 3? McClane hasn't said 'Yippie kiyay motherfucker!' yet and I'm not leaving till he does."
Leah threw some popcorn at him. "Bitch, you aren't leaving till we finish Die Hard 4. Revenge of the plotless movie!"
Ingrid settled back and smiled at Embry, then lifted her beer to her lips. Seth absentmindedly nodded towards Brady.
"Hey, is Jake coming or not?"
"He went to check on his dad and then he's headed over. Looks like you got everyone except Sam and Jared tonight Lee." Brady replied.
Leah shrugged and looked at the floor for a minute and then went into the kitchen to get some more snacks. Paul looked at Brady and frowned.
"Brady, we all know that Sam never comes to these things and we all know why. How's about we stop bringing up the obvious." Paul's voice was tight, but it wasn't with anger.
Brady slumped under the weight of the more dominant wolf's disapproval. "Sorry, Jared rarely comes either... though that may have something to do with the prank she played on him last time. Look I just wanted her to know. I'm sorry, I won't bring up Sam on movie marathon night, okay?"
Paul nodded and then nudged some food over to Brady. A wolf coming off of patrol was a hungry wolf. As Brady reached for the plate of snacks he knew that he was forgiven. Collin soon joined him and they began eat with the speed of starving shrews.
Leah came back with sandwiches and then Embry pressed play. Within ten minutes McClane said his famous line and they were just putting in the next dvd when Jake and surprisingly enough Charlie came in. That was, more than a bit unusual. Sure, Charlie was in the know ever since Jake had phased in front of him those years ago, but that didn't mean that he attended pack meetings or did a lot socializing with them outside of things that involved Sue. He kept them informed of suspicious happenings in the area and they in turn would give him information on any human criminal activities that they came across on their patrols of the rez. That was the extent of it, so Charlie being there with Jake on movie marathon night was a surprise, to say the least.
Everyone tracked them as they walked back to where the food was, gathered some and went out onto Leah's balcony and shut the door to talk. Paul and Leah looked at one another and got up in unison to see what was going on. But when they got to the sliding glass door, Jake turned and shook his head, effectively stopping them mid stride, then he made a hand gesture that clearly said 'No listening in.'. So they went back to the living room and turned up the volume of the TV. No one really cared about Die Hard 4 after that except maybe the twins, who had never seen it before. It irked Paul and Leah that they had been dismissed, and for a moment they were third. Sometimes this happened when they were equally distressed, they would share rank, for a minute or two. And right now they were third and they wanted to support their alpha. But they were not beta and so at this time he did not call for them.
Their anxiousness reached reached Jake's nose even through the glass and he turned again and looked them both in the eye and nodded. Acknowledging their worth to him and his need for them, but that right now, he needed them to keep the pack from listening in. Body language conveyed so much when it came to the pack and Jake's needs were perfectly conveyed to the third and they turned. However, in that turning, they slipped out of place with each other and in doing so, Leah settled into the third rank and Paul settled into the fourth rank. As usual, the pack shifted slightly when it happened and then everything went back to normal.
About an hour later Charlie opened the door and said his goodbyes to Leah, Seth and the rest of the pack. Then Jake flopped done on the recliner that had been left empty as soon as he had arrived, it was the best seat after all.
"So, has he said the line?" Jake wasn't going to tell them what was going on and that was fairly obvious. Which was unfortunate, because sometimes his pack could be like a sorority with how much they talked to one another. And tonight they were less than subtle about their curiosity. Finally after the fishbowl effect had been going on for far too long Jake took pity on them.
"You will all find out tomorrow. So watch the damn movie and attempt to enjoy the rest of the night. I want a beer and some popcorn and at least one hour of mindless entertainment."
And so that is exactly what Jake got. And afterward as the pack got up to leave he stretched, popped his knuckles and ankles and walked out the door with a pithy look to Leah and Paul, muttering about how he should just start calling them "Leahpaul, seeing as how they're starting to share rank more and more these days."
Neither one thought that was amusing and Paul left two minutes later muttering "Asshat..."
Ingrid, who had stayed quiet and utterly still for most of all this stood up, blinked and turned to Leah as she and Seth were cleaning up.
"Can I sleep here tonight? I think that last beer was one beer too many and I don't want to drive impaired."
Seth looked at her. "I can take you home if you need. It's no trouble."
Which was sort of an understatement. Seth was a loving boy, who had become a loving wolf, who had matured into a loving man. He wanted to help Ingrid, do things for her... not that she let him. So little things like giving her a ride home, or picking up something if she dropped it were a big deal to him, because it was sort of the only thing, outside of giving her space and just being a casual friend to her, that he could express any sort of bond to her.
Ingrid shook her head. "Normally I'd say yes, but you have patrol in about three hours, you need a nap before you go running around daring vampires to take a chunk out of you."
Seth began to open his mouth when Leah cut in. "Sure, I'll get a pillow and blanket for you from the hall closet."
Seth took a long look at Ingrid, said goodbye and left. As he went, Ingrid passed her hand over a ring she wore. Nothing special, just a small pearl ring, but it was her mother's and she wanted so badly to have her mother there with her right then, they way she used to be. Happy, strong... alive. But somethings cannot be no matter how hard we want them and Ingrid turned to the sofa and tried very hard to not think about being alone and afraid in a closet, holding onto her brother as her mother died for her children and their father was nowhere to be found and probably wasn't even thinking about them. She tried very hard, but failed miserably. Like her brother, she thought that she was getting used to failure.
XXXXXX XXXXXX
Magnus was in the hall's kitchen. A giant, stone behemoth of a kitchen, two hearths and an enormous wooden table. He had had an early morning patrol, or what passed for morning in the autumn, and had missed breakfast. Missing breakfast had meant that when he woke up it was with his stomach wrapped around his backbone. The act of eating an omelet that was a bigger than his head had a certain appeal to it and that was exactly what he was doing. One ten egg omlette later he was leaning back on the bench and enjoying being full when a rich throaty laugh rang out, one that made him take a deep breath of the scent that denoted the one who laughed.
"Yvanne" He said simply.
He opened his eyes and looked at her. She was an older wolfblooded, starting to age, with a few lines that told the people around her that she had life experiences, if one wanted to learn them. Her grey eyes were sharp, she never missed much and she had a tendency to laugh at it all. Something about life being too long to spend it being morbidly serious. Her slightly tanned skin was a bit flushed from being outside, her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that was coming a little loose in light brown tendrils. However, her toolbox, with stickers of pithy quotes on it, hit the table as she tossed it and then she leaned over and snagged the last bite of his omlette.
"You know, people usually ask before they filch a beta's food."
Yvanne nodded. "They do, I don't. Not with you anyway."
She ditched her coat on the table and then perched in front of Magnus. "So... I fixed the plumbing issue that we were having, but if they break one more time, not even I can finesse those suckers into lasting one more dark season. I'm gonna need PVC and in all honesty, I want to make a large order because I might as well start replacing all the stressed pipes now instead of later."
Yvanne was an engineer and she was the one who had finished modernizing the hall. A project that had taken almost 30 years. It was not easy dragging an 800 year old stone structure kicking and screaming into the modern world, but Yvanne had managed to finish it when no one else could. She could fight if she had to and was known to take sentry duty close to the hall, but her primary function was to keep the Jarl Pack's home in working order. A huge job that required her to have a staff and an endless supply of patience and creativity. Also, a sense of humor; as she would say, once you've had to wade through the waste disposal area for a pack of wolves... nothing really gets to you anymore.
Magnus reached out and and tucked a tendril behind her ear. "So... are you done stealing my food?"
He had a soft spot for Yvanne and found her very intriguing. Yes she was older than him, both in actual years and in appearance... but he didn't really care. She was the only person in this pack who openly laughed whenever she goddamn felt like it. Wolfblooded didn't live as long as the rest of the pack, he had limited time to know her, to be around her. So that tended to make him a bit territorial about his time with her when he knew that she would age and die most likely centuries before he finally slipped the mortal coil.
She leaned into his touch and perhaps things might have progressed a bit, if Enni hadn't come careening into the kitchen.
"Magnus! We got injured coming in here! Dagonet and Hilde were patrolling with Sindre, they caught a group of vampires trying to get south of us. No vampires survived, but... Sindre is hurt pretty badly. He got bitten, really good... it's venom Magnus, a lot of it!" Enni's voice was tight with worry for her pack brother.
Yvanne was already up and running before Magnus even said anything. "I'll get Karolina."
Within moments Dagonet and his longtime mate Hilde, the fourth ranked wolf in the Jarl Pack came in with a seizing Sindre. Sindre was a member of the northern Sami people and had been a wolf for 5 years. He had an excellent nose, and was one of the pack's better trackers. As Dagonet held him in his arms, Hilde swept the table clean and then the four of them attempted to hold his body down while he jack knifed and ground his teeth uncontrollably. Venom was poison to them, the great equalizer. Vampires and shapeshifters were equally strong, equally fast for the most part too. But the packs were able to smell them and hear them in ways that vampires just couldn't touch, their senses gave them an edge. However, the vampires had an edge too. Bite a wolf and let enough of your venom leak into their bloodstream and they don't turn, they just die noisy, painful and slow.
Magnus, Dagonet, Hilde and Enni looked at each other over Sindre's heaving body. Enni began to hum a popular lullaby that the Sami sung to their children in an attempt to calm him. Dagonet leaned over and his deep baritone voice helped the young man to focus.
"My imprint is coming, Karolina will know what to do. Your only job is to hold on until she gets here. We will help you, let us help you."
Hilde's voice was rough with worry, but she spoke to him from where she held down his left leg. "You fought well today, you made kills for your people, now just let us take care of you."
Magnus intoned the prayers to Fenris to help one of their pack stand strong in the face of an onslaught. It didn't really matter that the onslaught wasn't the field of battle, it was a makeshift medical table in a kitchen. Battle was battle, large or small.
Yvanne came running in with Karolina in tow. The younger woman cast one worried look at her two mates who were holding their patrol partner down and for the barest moment the pack's primary medic's heart clenched and she thanked Fenris privately that it wasn't either of them on the table. It could so easily have been.
She quickly told them to make room for her and she reached into her bag and drew out what looked like a carved bone scalpel. Shapeshifters had neigh unpreneterable skin and it was hard as hell to find or even make surgical instruments that would cut on them. One day, long before Karolina had been born, someone realized that the same material that they used to make weapons for the wolfblooded would work for the medics. Vampire bones. So the smaller shavings left over from the making of weapons were then made into scalpels and such.
Karolina cut into the flesh where Sindre had been bitten and the scent of the venom burned into the four wolves' noses. The flesh had turned black. She squeezed the muscle and it bleed a sickly blackish green. The medic closed her eyes, back before she had done this so many times, she would have tried futily to save him and done nothing but prolong his agony. There was no way to save him, once the flesh itself wept venom from deep within the muscle tissue, there wasn't anything anyone could do. Sindre had been too far away from help to save him, the venom was completely throughout his bloodstream.
She looked at Sindre and touched his forehead briefly. "Go before us and welcome us when we arrive."
Then she turned to Magnus. "I'm sorry beta, but there's nothing I can do, nothing anyone can do. Now... he only suffers for no good reason."
There was a time when this was the Jarl's job, to give the mercy blow that would end a venom infused wolf's life. It wasn't a dishonor to die in this way. The complete opposite in fact, to die, in battle against a great foe; well, for the Fenrir, there were few deaths that were more honorable than that. But just because something was honorable did not mean that it was pleasant. Magnus could remember the pain in his father's eyes the first time he watched Gunnar do it. Then... things had changed.
Dagmar felt the practice was barbaric, that mercy killings were the mark of a savage people and that instead every effort should be made to save a wolf's life. An easy thing for a woman without medical training to say. And for one winter her word had been law because the Jarl had made it so. And for one winter Fenrir had lain screaming as they died in crippling agony that could have been ended. After that winter the wolves of the Jarl Pack came to their then beta Dagonet and demanded something be done. To save a wolf from that death was a blessing, but when it wasn't possible, to let them linger was a massive cruelty that no pack mate wanted a brother or sister to endure. Dagonet had presented Gunnar with his pack's resentment and eventually a compromise was struck. Dagmar refused to even hear of her mate participating in what she was convinced was a terrible sin. So Dagonet had taken over this duty, when Magnus became beta, it became his duty. No parent should ever force their child to do something that they themselves will not do. No matter who is pulling their strings.
Magnus nodded at Karolina and watched the medic stand near her sister-wife Hilde. Then he took a deep breath, out of the corner of his eyes he saw Yvanne leave the room for a moment and come back with a long box in her hands, then he leaned over and cupped Sindre's face.
"You have done well. You have run with us and fought with us for five years. You have made your pack stronger and made your people safer with the strength of your body and the strength of your spirit. Your fight is over now and it is time to go and wait with Fenris for the day that he is unchained from Yggdrasil and the last battle is fought. Are you ready?"
Sindre made the enormous effort to look his beta in the eyes, he heard Enni humming, felt her, Karolina, Hilde and Dagonet holding him to the table, holding him steady. He locked eyes with his beta and nodded. He was ready.
Magnus swiftly jerked Sindre's head to the left and slightly upwards, breaking his neck and ending his brother's suffering. Stepping away from his pack brother's now empty body, he too felt empty, felt his pack rearrange itself to deal with the vacuum that Sindre's death had left. The four wolves felt their pack mates phase and howl, one of their own was dead. It was time to mourn, however briefly autumn would let them. The first casualty, there would be more in the coming months.
Yvanne and Karolina began to unwind the white clothes that they would wrap him in. Dagonet, Hilde and Enni held the body up and the two women swiftly covered him. Magnus left to go to his father's quarters. He needed to know who was going to go with Gunnar to inform Sindre's parents that their son had died. As he walked he felt a rage that was so white hot that he needed to stop and lean against the wall for a moment. Sindre deserved to sent to Fenris by his alpha, not the poor substitute of his beta, it wasn't right, he had deserved better.
XXXXXX XXXXXX
When Ingrid woke up in the morning she blearily stumbled into the shower and got ready, then she walked into Leah's kitchen where Seth greeted her with a bowl of cereal.
"When did you get here?" she asked.
"While you were in the shower. Did you sleep well?" he replied.
Ingrid began to eat Lucky Charms and gave a short laugh. "I slept the deep sleep of the tipsy with a comfy pillow. So... yeah."
Seth smiled openly at her and ate a mixing bowl filled with cereal. He still didn't know how he felt about Ingrid, deep down. But he knew that he liked eating with her, laughing softly to himself he wished she could cook a bit more, but hey... he liked spaghetti and meatballs as much as the next guy. The conversation was light, he asked her what she was doing in the coming week and she told him that she was working on a commission for another brochure, this one for the Makah rez. It would seem that the goal for the tribes of this area was to lure eco tourism into the area. If it worked, it could solve a lot of issues that the tribes were having in this economy. While the talk between them wasn't intimate, he still enjoyed the look on her face when she talked about using some new lens filters that she had recently bought.
Leah literally stumbled in soon after and got herself the ridiculously unhealthy breakfast of a Snicker's bar and a cup of coffee. She looked at Seth and shrugged. "I don't cook breakfast, never could figure out what exactly I'm supposed to do with an egg."
Ingrid laughed. "Jesus Leah, even I can scramble one."
As soon as she saw herself being easy with Seth, laughing, leaning a bit towards him, she mentally chastised herself. 'This isn't real, he has no choice, if there's no choice... and you get comfortable, then you're no better than Dagmar.'
That thought had the immediate effect of her suddenly pulling back and paying close attention to her overly sugared breakfast cereal.
Seth made to follow her but Leah subtly caught his eye and nodded no. He wanted to though, even though he knew that she would react badly to it. If imprinting was supposed to level a wolf out, make him blissy and in touch with his inner om... he wanted to know where ulcers came on that list, because he was pretty sure that he was forming one. An angry one.
As they were finishing up their breakfast, Jake, Sam and the rest of the pack came inside. They sat around Leah's table and started helping themselves to the food. Sam looked around her apartment, he always did when he was here, not that was an often occurrence. He always seemed to find it lacking, like it could be, should be... better.
Leah huffed. "So are you ready to tell us all what the hell was going on with you and Charlie last night? You totally froze me and Paul out."
Jake smiled warmly at his former beta. "Yeah, that's why we're here actually. I would have brought them all to Paul's place, but he doesn't have any food."
Ingrid sat and watched them all, silently spooning cereal into her mouth and attempting to go unnoticed. Going to a movie night was one thing, but pack meetings tended to leave her feeling spiky and unsure of herself... not to mention homesick. They all seemed to settle into spots in a way that reaffirmed their dominance and submissiveness. Ingrid was left to sit between Lean and Seth, and quietly she watched them as they spoke about the cult that seemed to constantly come back up, like a bad penny.
Jake started. "According to Charlie the state police found a body that washed up on the bank of the Hoko River. The body was identified as Jonah Soren. The last his parents heard from their son, he was going to live with that cult north of our borders. Charlie got in to see the body and noticed a bit of chewing that looked familiar to him, from when those nomads blew through Forks years ago."
"You think that the newborns who went through there decades ago are back?" Jared asked.
"I don't know." he replied. "Whatever is going on, Charlie has reports sitting on his desk from people trying to get in contact with family members up there. He tries to get them to come down to the station, but they refuse. He can't do anything because they're all 18 and over so they aren't missing or minors, so his hands are tied."
Sam sighed. "So what does that have to do with us? I mean, it sounds like a human problem. I sympathize with the people who can't get their family members away from the cult, but I don't see what it has to do with us."
"Something about that place has Charlie on edge and it had Carlisle on edge too. The Cullens are visiting in Denali and aren't around to do anything about it. So that leaves us."
Jake seemed almost eager to help Charlie. The man was an important figure to Jake and like it or not, one of the last concrete connections that he had to Bella. It may have made his pack uncomfortable, but Jake's love for Bella had been very real and while it no longer held him to her like a lost puppy the way it had, there were some times when he thought back on what had happened and wondered what his life would be like right now if she had chosen him instead. Those times were less and less though, it had been five years. But still, when the chance came to reconnect with the Swan family, he always took it. He knew nothing would change, knew that Bella was a hard, cold leech and that she was happy with Edward, he knew that and he accepted it. He just had to get his mind to relinquish the last few fantasies that it kept in there.
Embry looked almost excited, there had been very little action in the area lately. It's not that he was an adrenaline junkie by any stretch of the imagination, but when you can throw yourself off a cliff, miss the water, hit the rocks... and not die, it changes you. He enjoyed his life on the rez, having a place, a niche that was something that made him feel whole. The pack did that for all of them, but still... they were warriors and at some psychological level, almost spiritual level, they needed something to throw themselves at, to combat and hold the line against. That part of them could only remain contained for so long before it leaked out, sometimes in unhealthy ways, so Embry, along with a lot of the rest of them, looked somewhat eager to have a possible enemy again.
"One of us could go in, pretend to join the cult, sort of undercover I guess. Take a look at what's going on. It's not like anything could happen to us." he said.
Quil immediately jumped on board with that plan. "Yeah, that's perfect, whoever it is can look around, get info, figure out what the hell is up with that place."
Collin agreed. "Every time I pass by the northern boundary I feel like something's just not right with that place, you agree Brady?"
Brady looked thoughtful for just a moment. "I don't know, it may be that we feel that way because we know what happened there... and saw the pictures. Maybe it's just a freaky cult and even though it's creepy, nothing dangerous is going on there and well, people have the right to believe in freaky cults if they want to."
"True," Jared said. "But what about that body, Charlie isn't a jump the gun kind of guy. He always assumes that whatever it is that he deals with is human in nature and approaches it from that angle before he comes to us or the Cullens. For him to bring this to us in the first place makes me think something's going on up there that's more our department."
Seth looked at Jake. "Either way, I think we have to find out one way or the other. If I'm correct, Charlie can't get anyone in there in any sort of undercover capacity for two reasons. First, everyone, knows the four cops who work with him. There's no way anyone would believe that they were random people who decided that their lost souls needed to commune with G-d at a cult. Secondly, I don't think that he has probable cause. Just circumstantial evidence and if it is supernatural... what the hell is the justice system going to do with that? If nothing else, we can rule things out for him."
Sam listened to everyone before he gave Jake his opinion. That ability to listen to each individual's point of view and weigh it in his mind before coming to his own conclusions was one of the things that made him the superlative second in command that he was. Jake could always count on the fact that Sam never did anything by the seat of his pants.
"Jake, they're right. It may be that this is nothing. Or it may be that we're about to relive what happened there in the 1930's. We all know that there are families with children and pregnant women up there and none of us want see a repeat of what those pictures showed us. We have to get someone in there, if it's nothing, great. But if it's not, we need to be prepared to deal with it."
Jake nodded and looked around. "Okay, who goes in? Brady and Collin are a no go. You guys have school and quite frankly, your parents will string me up by my balls if you two don't graduate."
The twins looked disappointed. One of Jake's first acts as the alpha of the reunited pack had been to grant an exception to their parents. It was getting close to impossible to keep the secret from them and Mrs. Redclay had been about to call the authorities because of all the time her underage sons were spending in the woods with grown shirtless men. To say that they hadn't taken it well had been an understatement of almost divine proportions. But after about a week of panic attacks, the Redsclay's had become sort of parental figures to the entire pack... and Janice Redclay had been known to attack the alpha's ear when she thought he wasn't listening to the people he should be listening too.
Then Jake looked at the rest of his pack. "Sam, you just don't look the part, neither does Leah, you're both too... grounded to even come across as the type who would belong to a cult. Paul, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you have the patience for this type of thing."
Paul had gotten much better from his days of furploding at the slightest insult, but that didn't mean that his was a perfectly even keeled mentality... it wasn't. He wasn't suited for this sort of thing and Paul himself knew it, so he didn't push it, merely nodded and agreed.
Ingrid watched all this and and finally rolled her eyes and snorted. "Oh for the love of Yggdrasil... I'll do it."
Seth immediately stared at her. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Jake was a bit taken aback too. "I'm sort of with Seth on this one Ingrid. What makes you think you should go in there?"
Ingrid pointedly looked at each of them. "Because each and every single last one of you would stick out like a sore thumb there. You couldn't blend in if you tried and if there is something supernatural going on up there... they'll damn near smell you coming! Hell, if it is supernatural, they already know about you."
She then looked at Leah. "The shortest one of you is six feet one inch tall. The rest of you are taller, muscular guys that look like the picture of health and really... the only thing less subtle then the lot of you would David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust period, and Lady Gaga, but that's it!"
"That's all well and good, but why in G-d's name would we send you?" Sam asked.
Ingrid rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. One, I can get rid this accent of mine at the drop of a hat and sound like a born and bred American." And as she spoke all trace of her Norwegian accent disappeared. "Two, give my hair a dye job and a bad haircut, put some old clothes on me, and I can pretend to be a cult's favored acolyte... the homeless drug addict. Third, you will need actual surveillance, that kind thing requires equipment that you don't have and that Charlie can't lend you without documenting it and having a damn good reason why he's letting you use it. I on the other hand, have a lot of that stuff and know how to use all of it. And lastly, I've done it before and I can tell none of you have."
"What do you mean you have that kind of equipment?" Seth's voice was tight and he wasn't sure that he liked that his imprint seemed eager to throw herself at an unknown, possible enemy. Scratch that, he knew he didn't like it.
"Well, I have video equipment that looks like buttons and such. Also I have very small cameras that I am well schooled in getting clandestine shots from. Plus I know how to place larger video equipment to get large area surveillance." Then she shrugged. "And I know how to be unobtrusive and just blend into the background, get into places and look like I belong."
Jake looked at her, considering her. "How do I know that you can do what you're saying you can do?"
"Jake, you can't!" Seth's voice was angry, he couldn't believe that Jake was actually considering this.
Sam immediately turned to him "Seth, watch yourself."
The younger man growled at his beta. "You're the one who damn near got in a fight with her because she wanted to go to a bar and you wanted her to go be Betty Crocker in your kitchen with Emily and Kim!"
Seth could be forgiven for growling at Sam, he was stressed and it was revolving around his imprint so Sam gave him a bit of slack, which was why he didn't truly go at him for trying to act dominant with him. However, that didn't mean that he was letting that growl go.
"First of all Seth, don't growl at me. Secondly, after watching her kick the crap out of three lumberjacks, without breaking a sweat, I'm inclined to think she's not exactly a damsel in distress."
Seth snorted at him. "If it were Emily you wouldn't be so zen about this and you fucking know it Sam!"
Sam sighed. "But it isn't Emily and whether I like it or not, the more time passes the more I am forced to admit that your imprint isn't like mine or Jared's. Ingrid isn't Emily or Kim and quite frankly, it would appear that she's capable of things that they just aren't."
Seth loudly snarled at Sam in a very challenging way and things were about to get ugly by the way Sam was staring him down, when Jake's voice boomed out.
"THAT is ENOUGH!" The alpha command rippled through the pack and there was silence. Jake rarely used this ability of his, only when he felt it was truly necessary.
The he turned his gaze back on Ingrid. "You didn't answer my question."
Ingrid pulled the left hand sleeve of her shirt up, exposing her pack tattoo. "This is how you know. This isn't some advertisement of my bloodline, or that I'd make good breeding stock. This tells everyone who knows what to look for that I am a ranked member of a pack. Wolfblooded have to earn these. They are not simply given to us after we finish training and a few of my kind never receive this particular tattoo. Having this ink in my skin tells you all you need to know."
"I need more than that Ingrid. Have you truly done this before?" Jake asked.
"Yes. It was my primary function in my pack. I'm very, very sneaky and very, very stealthy. My father and brother have used me for recon purposes for years. I know exactly what I'm doing." she replied.
Jake looked at her cell phone that was lying next to her cereal bowl and reached out and flicked it towards her. "Call your father or your brother, I don't care which one, I need to hear it from one of them before I send you in there."
XXXXXX XXXXXX
Magnus stood in his rooms, staring out the window and mourned the loss of his pack brother. Sindre had been a good wolf and a better man. Having to put him out of his misery twisted his gut and left him feeling like he was adrift. He couldn't go to his pack mates though, they depended on him to be the stable rock they leaned on, especially in the wake of what Gunnar had become ever since he imprinted. Even Dagonet, Hilde and Karolina, whose family comprised a sort of support system for him and his twin, relied on him for this. Not as much as the others though, but Dagonet had done this for years without complaint, Magnus couldn't lean on his third ranked for this. To do so would be a mark of disrespect to the man. So he just leaned his head against the cold glass and listened to the wind swirl angrily outside. He liked to think it was because the sky itself was angered that the first Fenrir had fallen to the enemy this year.
A soft knock interrupted his thoughts and as he approached the door his nose told him who it was. He opened it and drew her inside.
"Yvanne." He ran his nose up the side of her neck and inhaled her scent deeply. If he was honest with himself he would admit that his encounters with her were far from casual, but he refused to be honest with himself when it came to her. It was safer not to.
She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly. Everytime he had to do this since they had begun whatever it was that they were to each other, she had come to him. Became what he needed, to get through the night after ending a pack mate's life.
"I know that it hurts, let me make it better Magnus." Her eyes crinkled at the edges as she looked at him, not with pity, but with understanding.
Sometimes Magnus wondered if doing this meant that he was using her, other times he just felt that being with her, being in her, was where he was supposed to be. Especially after something like this. His hands drew her closer to him and as his lips met hers, she murmured that she had him and that it would be alright.
It wasn't romantic and it wasn't slow. He hurriedly brought Yvanne to the bed and quickly divested her of her clothes. And while he loved the taste of her skin and liked to linger there with his tongue, tonight he contented himself with a few licks, a few small tastes. When he wrapped her legs around him and entered her, she arched herself up to him and held onto him tighter. And when he spilled himself over the edge, she came with him soon after, panting out his name.
The second time however, the second was slow and it was lingering. Magnus watched her stretch and whimper beneath him as he rubbed on her. He loved the way she looked like that and had no idea why no one else in the pack had claimed her as their mate by the time he grew interested. When he eased himself inside her, his wolf rumbled in his head in contentment. He liked it here... with her, wanted her. But Magnus was busy not being honest with himself about Yvanne and quite frankly, so was his wolf a lot of the time. When she was shaking, crying out as she came, he watched her face contort and once again thought she looked beautiful that way. Then he didn't think much about anything because he too was following her over that edge again.
Afterward as he lay there with her, wrapped around her with her head tucked under his chin, he reflected that he preferred she wolves and wolfblooded lovers to normal humans. With the first two he never had to worry about them getting too hot, he could hold Yvanne to him as long as he wanted and not worry about anything. With his nose buried in her hair so that her scent could calm him further, he began to go to sleep, she had fallen asleep a few moments before and her breath was steady and even, as was her heartbeat and he let the sound lull him. Right before he was about to slip under he peered through one eye and saw a silver hair of hers amidst her brown ones. He decided that he liked that hair, it represented just one more story of her life that he wanted to learn.
He was more than halfway asleep when there was a booming knock at his door and his father's voice startled him to an immediate sitting position.
"I'm coming in there Magnus so you better be awake!"
Gunnar's voice sounded less than pleased and Magnus could smell Dagmar with him. He looked at Yvanne who was sitting up next to him and then he growled slightly. He had learned long ago that it didn't matter if Dagmar learned of his more casual sexual encounters, but the ones that had meaning, the ones that he had an emotional tie to, those he didn't want her to find out about. He hadn't had a lover other than Yvanne for two years and the day he had realized that he felt more than he usually did with his encounters, he had actively hidden it from his father's imprint. Dagmar had always enjoyed having leverage over her mate's children and she was less than subtle about using it. So the twins had begun hiding things from her and by extension their father when they were still children. But now, there was no choice and Dagmar was going to see Yvanne with him, naked, in his bed and Magnus could only hope that she wouldn't think too much of it.
As Gunnar came striding through the door, Dagmar right behind him, Yvanne pulled the the blankets over her breasts and Magnus couldn't stop himself from angling his torso in front of her, shielding her from the view of two people that very sadly he had come to view as adversaries.
Dagmar's eyes slid over that gesture and looked at the older wolfblooded for a a second or two. A second or two that Magnus did not like. The she turned to Magnus.
"I just had the most... enlightening conversation with Enni, well more like I overheard her leaving a message on your cell phone and then got your father and we both had an enlightening conversation with her. You and your sister ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Your father loves and cares for you both and you intentionally go behind his back and hide things from him. You set a bad example for the rest of your pack." Her tone was the epitome of condescension.
Magnus inwardly winced. Enni was no match for Gunnar, and Dagmar damn well knew it. He hated the way she would use Gunnar's dominance over the more submissive members of his pack. He wasn't sure what he hated more, that she used Gunnar like her own personal weapon or that the Jarl let her do it. A small part of his mind briefly lingered on the fact that he barely even referred to Gunnar as his father these days.
However he didn't get any more time to contemplate much as his father growled at him. "You KNEW that you sister had been IMPRINTED on by a foreign wolf and you DELIBERATELY kept this from me!"
Gunnar was furious and the way he was staring at his son, all naked aggression, had Magnus tilting his head and baring his throat. He could feel the waves of anger flowing over him, but with Yvanne behind him he refused to whine or go to his belly to appease him.
The Jarl strode over to Magnus' pants and grabbed his phone and thrust it at his son. "Call. Her."
His voice was all business and it was more than a little amazing that the demand wasn't an actual alpha command. Magnus closed his eyes, he had been trying so hard to keep this from happening and now it was out of his control. Now the Jarl had control and whichever way that he handled it, it wouldn't be good for Ingrid.
"Father... maybe you should wait until you're..."
He never got the chance to finish because faster than he could blink, his father had his chin in his hand and was forcing him to look up at him.
"Get on that phone and call Ingrid. Do you understand me?"
Gunnar had Magnus' chin in such a hard grip that Magnus could barely nod. When he let go, the beta spared a glance Dagmar's way and saw the woman looking... pleased. It was times like this that Magnus agreed with what his mother had said the day this nightmare had started. His father was dead and what was walking around now was just something had replaced the loving man he had once known.
He was about to dial her when his phone rang. Both he and Gunnar could see that it was Ingrid. Gunnar just jerked his chin towards the phone, his message was clear. Answer it.
So he did. "Ingrid, funny that you should call."
He had no idea how to tell her what had happened.
Ingrid cut him off. "Hey Magnus, the alpha of the La Push pack needs to talk to you or our father and I chose you."
"Ing, wait." Magnus spoke over her.
"Put her on speaker." Gunnar's voice was like ice, there was nothing warm about it at all.
Magnus did as he was told and when he did Gunnar looked at the phone like he could ignite it with the power of his gaze.
"So you decided that you could just be imprinted on and not tell your father, your alpha?"
Ingrid's voice came through the phone, tight with anxiety and even Magnus could tell that there was a little bit of fear.
"Oh shit..."