The Pack Home

This chapter is a little bit of a break from the pattern. It is from Isaac's POV. I hope this doesn't upset anyone.

From the back of the room where he could see both his alphas and their mates, as well as Chris Venator who he still didn't trust, Isaac watched as they plotted and planned the final downfall of Gerard Argent. Isaac was still stunned at the extent the man was willing to go to destroy the packs. He could even, on some intellectual level, understand the man's hatred but he could never see how someone could be so focused on the destruction of another group that he would be willing to harm and even kill innocent children.

Ames stepped closer, scenting him gently and then snuggling closer into his embrace. Stiles still looked pale, or paler, with too much white showing in his eyes and a small tremor in his hands that let Isaac see just how much he was affected by Chris' revelation. His coming back had taken courage, to both face his fear and also own up to his mistake of running away. Derek's mate had a powerful will.

After getting all the information about Gerard's likely hiding places from Chris, Laura motioned to Boyd and Jackson who stepped forward to lead the three of them, Chris, Alison, and Scott who wouldn't leave their side, to another location where they would be under constant guard.

Isaac nodded toward Chris as he passed by feeling just a hint of respect for the man. It took a strong minded person to be able to turn his back on a lifetime, no generations, of hate and decide that he wanted more for his daughter. He risked everything to give her a chance at a cleaner, better life.

Once they were gone and the door shut behind them, the alphas and their mates huddled their chairs together to plan their next attack. "We've been stuck reacting to his attacks. It's time we were more aggressive in the removal of him as a threat." Laura's voice was harsh and strident; she still hadn't been able to let Max out of her sight and still touched him as if to reassure herself he was still beside her, the fear she suffered by his almost death still evident in her actions.

The group looked slightly ridiculous with the conference table hanging out of the wall as they sat in a rough circle. "We need to think about the rest of the children in the Pack Home before we concentrate all our energy on hunting down Gerard. Is there some way we can help them?" Stiles said, guilt tinting his voice with a pained quiver. Isaac could almost see the young human trying to blame himself for not thinking about the other children during the hell his last week had been.

Isaac found himself stepping forward. "Alphas, I can make some calls and start gathering staff that are able to cope with the children still at the Home." Laura and Derek both smiled their gratitude.

"Thank you Isaac. You have our full backing behind the relocation and treatment of the children. Do whatever you need in order to help them."

"They're going to be afraid of you but give them time. I was afraid at first but as soon as I met an actually werewolf and not one of those turned bullies; I knew I could never be afraid of you again. Be patient."

Isaac nodded before grabbing Ames hand and heading off to make the world a better place for a bunch of children. Neither of the wolves had much experience with children aside from being one but that was quite a few years ago for both of them.

"We could get the children presents, something that would remind them that we werewolves are not so bad." Ames linked her fingers with his and squeezed. Isaac couldn't help but smile down at her; she always made his troubles seem lighter.

The next day broke bright and early. Isaac, even with his healing factor, had the worst headache he had ever felt. Considering he had never had a headache he knew he didn't really have much to compare it too but the pain made his head spin and the light seemed to stab into his brain.

But the children would be receiving help by the end of the day. He and Ames had called all the packs within a day's reach of the Hale territory and asked for help. Their response was immediate and heartfelt. Over twenty packs had already sent help in the form of medical doctors and psychologists as well as financial aid. Hundreds of wolf families had offered to adopt or house the children should any be willing to live with them after being told so many lies over the years.

Laura had stepped in at that point and made sure that all the other packs knew that these were damaged and abused children and that even though they had the potential to be an alpha's true mate they should be kept away from all influence to form a bond until they were of age and cleared by their medical staff.

Isaac could hear the truth in the packs' heartbeats as well as the packs' offended voices as they swore that they wanted what was best for the children only and if that meant they would never bond with an alpha, then so be it. It felt good to know that for every monster like Gerard in the world, there were hundreds of caring people ready to try to fix the wounds he caused.

Handling all the different packs, the doctors, and the staff that watched over the orphans at the pack home had been a drain. Even with Ames' constant help he was barely able to coordinate all the people that were needed to help with the issues at the Pack Home.

Just as he was rolling out of bed, Ames walked through the door bringing her wide smile and breakfast. "I got a call from the nurses at the Pack Home. The first wave of doctors and physiologists has arrived and it looks like good news."

Isaac tore into the stack of waffles as she continued. "It seems that Gerard only started to kick up his plan in the last year so none of them have been conditioned for longer than that. Many of them have been in his training program for less than six months and the doctors say that is cause to be hopeful."

He relaxed for the first time since Laura gave him the job the day before. He had been worried that those children, now his responsibility, would have been broken by Gerard beyond repair.

"Did we get the housing units finalized last night?"

"I just got the confirmation call before I came up here to feed you. There are fifteen homes ready to take in groups of children and their guardians. We are trying to keep age levels and friends together so that they have the support of their peers. I called the head nurse at the Home and they have the children packing as we speak."

"I'm worried that we are moving them too fast." Isaac nibbled on a piece of bacon.

Ames shrugged her shoulders. "I would think that they would be more than ready to get out of there but with all those doctors hovering around them, I think that if there is anything we're doing that would cause them emotional harm they would let us know. Or, scary thought, let Laura know who would then give us disappointed alpha eyes."

"Let's not let that happen." Isaac knew that Laura had more than any one person should have on their plate at one time. Even with Derek heading up the hunt for Gerard Argent, Laura was left with the fallout from all the attacks and dealing with frightened humans as well as the unending tide of reporters that managed to get passed their guards to hound her with questions and demands for answers as to her plans to help rebuild, protect, reassure, or whatever else they wanted her to take care of at that moment.

Knowing that his work at the Pack Home would relieve some tension from his alpha's shoulders, Isaac scarfed down the rest of his breakfast and quickly changed. "Did they get the stuffed animals we wanted?" Isaac called out from under the heavy spray of water. Ames walked in instead of yelling her answer from across the room.

"They had to clean out every toy store in the city but they got what you wanted. Rachel even went to a pet supply store and picked up collars for all of them, in all different colors. I'm sure they are perfect."

Stepping out of the shower, Isaac wrapped a towel loosely around his hips before leaning in for a kiss. "I'm sure they are. But we better hurry."

Ames smacked him on the rear as she left the bathroom. "I'm not the one who was still in bed," she teased. Isaac laughed but hurried to pull on one of his nicer pairs of pants and a dark blue button down before following her.

He felt like an idiot. Across the large cafeteria sat the remaining children, those that had been coded orange, the ones that Gerard didn't think were moldable or trainable. These were the children that had been beaten and abused while Gerard whispered in their ears that nobody, especially the wolves, cared what happened to them.

Isaac had seen red the day that he heard just a fraction of what was done to Stiles in this hellhole and now he was faced with forty-seven of them sitting in long rows around lunchroom type tables, their eyes never leaving him for a second.

Forty-seven, he counted them twice, children. The number was smaller than he had imagined and yet so much bigger. Seeing them all in person, being aware of the space they took up, the way they flinched slightly as his eyes passed over them, and the way their cloths were too loose for their frames made his stomach clinch.

But worse than the fear and obvious malnutrition was the underlying scent of pain that filled his senses. He could smell the bruises and the healing wounds, the heavy calcium scent of bones slowly healing, and the acidic stench of old terror.

Ames sat tucked against him so closely that he could feel the outline of her ribs and the box that he had been so proud of before sat in front of him, the colorful collars mocking him from the interior. He was an idiot to believe that a stuffed animal could heal the damage done to these children. It was like placing a Band-Aid on a shark bite.

One of the care takers, an elderly human with greying hair and laugh lines around her expressive eyes walked over and sat down beside them. "It might help them feel a little better around the two of you if you spoke to them. I took the liberty of ordering enough pizza for the whole group. It will be enough of a novelty to them that it will break the ice but after that it's up to the both of you to make them feel safer in your presence."

Patting him on the shoulder the care taker stood and headed over to a table where a group of older boys sat. They all looked just a little bit younger than Stiles and Isaac's heart seized in anger that, if not for Stiles' stubborn streak and a bit of luck, it could have been him sitting over there with a mix of defiance and fear on his face.

A boy, dusty blond hair with blue eyes that were striking even from across the room, locked his gaze on Isaac as the woman leaned over to speak to him. One eyebrow disappeared into the boy's bangs in a way that reminded Isaac of Derek. With a soft smile the woman ruffled the boy's hair, which he half-heartedly batted away, and went back to her seat in the middle of the room.

The young human sat there, eyeing Isaac and Ames while his friends whispered to themselves. Isaac could have listened in but felt that in order to gain their trust he had to show them that he respected them, including the right to have conversations without his ease-dropping.

The male surged to his feet and strutted across the room. Isaac could smell the unease, hear his heartbeat picking up but outwardly the boy was fearless. Once at the table, he made a big deal out of going through the box of stuffed wolves picking out all the ones with pink and purple collars on them.

"Did you know Stiles?" Ames asked quietly keeping as still as possible so as not to startle the young man.

The young man paused his search through the box to look up, meeting Ames in the eye without flinching. "We were dorm mates. He always watched out for the younger kids, gave them extra food when the rations were tight and always did a little extra so the weaker ones didn't get punished. He was a good guy."

"You know he is with us now? He's the true mate of Alpha Derek Hale. He's the one that helped bring down Gerard Argent and uncovered what was being done here."

The human smiled bitterly. "Uncovered huh? You say that like Old Man Asshole was hiding what was going on in here. All you wolves ever needed to do was actually LOOK at us but no, all you did was get blinded by the show he put on for you, eat a specially prepared meal, and drive away in your fancy cars. If any of you had ever really paid attention, you would have seen what was going on here and Stiles would have never needed to 'uncover' anything."

"You're right. We should have seen what was going on before. I can't change the past but I can try to make today better and I can damn well make sure that your tomorrow gives you ever opportunity you're willing to reach for."

Isaac wanted to hear the blonde's response but the pizza boy showed up and there was a mad rush for the food. At first Isaac was worried that the bigger children would horde all the food and leave the little ones out but was relieved to see the bigger boys and girls passing out slices to the youngest first and waiting until everyone had a slice before taking one of their own.

Seeing the wolves peeking out from under the arms of the smallest children made Isaac smile and start to relax a little. The young human had passed them out as each child had come up for a slice of pizza.

So engrossed in watching the smiling faces of the humans, enjoying the feel of them now that they were getting over their fear of him and Ames, Stiles didn't even notice the approach of a young girl.

She had copper colored hair and pewter colored eyes with a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Tugging on Isaac's sleeve she pulled him downward until they were both eye to eye. "When you turn into a wolf do you still like pizza or do you hunt rabbits?"

Ames made a choked sound as she stifled her laughter. "I don't turn into a wolf. I'm not that kind of werewolf. Only a few of us have that ability, because it's very rare. But even if I could turn into a wolf, I would still eat pizza. I think rabbits are cute and I would never, ever eat one."

It seemed to be the right answer because the red head climbed into his lap, dragging her pizza and her pink collared wolf with her. "I'm Sarah. When I lived with my mom and dad I had a brown rabbit named Brownie. He used to eat carrots and rabbit food that smelled like old grass. Brownie was afraid of werewolves because he thought they would eat him all up during the full moon so I always kept him in my room and closed the curtains so he wouldn't have nightmares."

Isaac was amazed that a human, or anybody, could say so much without taking a single breath. Sarah peeled the cheese off her pizza and ate the bread part by itself. Her fingers and therefore Isaac, the table, and her wolf were covered in red sauce by the time she was done.

Licking her fingers she looked up at Isaac and his heart about melted. He couldn't understand how Gerard could look at this precious girl and think she was something to be rejected but on the other hand, being here was somehow the better of the two choices in this house of horrors.

Sarah slid off his lap and skipped back to the table to rejoin her friends. Slowly as the mountain of pizza was devoured, the box of wolves were taken up by small hands, their fur lovely stroked and petted, noses pressed to their backs while soft voices whispered secrets into their cloth ears.

When there was nothing left but empty pizza boxes and full tummies, Isaac knew it was time to leave. The children no longer huddled as far from him as possible but sprawled out across all the tables including his own.

"Hey, wolf boy." Isaac turned to see the young blonde breaking down pizza boxes and helping the adults throw them away. "You coming back?"

"I can. The pack is trying to find homes for all of you but until then I can visit a few times each week if you would like."

The blonde tilted his head as he thought about that before nodding. "I think the little kids would like that. You guys aren't so scary and it's important to teach the rest of them that Argent was a liar and nothing he said should be believed."

Isaac could taste the pain of that last statement as it hung thick in the air. He could just imagine the terrible things that Gerard had told these children to keep them afraid and helpless under his abuse.

"I can come back Friday. I'll bring a bunch of movies and tons of popcorn. We can have a movie marathon."

"Better bring a TV too." With a wave the blonde headed off. The rest of the orphans soon followed, a few stopping to hug him and Ames as they filed out of the cafeteria. The box of stuffed wolves was mostly empty, just a few last stuffed animals at the bottom. Isaac reached in and pulled out the last three wolves. He handed one to Ames and decided to keep the one with the light blue collar for himself.

The last wolf, with a rich brown collar and a small defect in the stitching around one of his eyes that made him seem to wink, that one he would save for Stiles. He would give it to him when he told him about the smiles on the children's faces and the way that they remembered him, as someone that could be trusted and would offer protection, even after all the time he had been gone.

Isaac hugged Ames close. "They've had a bad start but I swear I'll make their future better."

"I never doubted." Dozens of hands waved from windows as they pulled away. Glancing back in the rear view mirror, Isaac could swear that the air seemed brighter around the Pack Home; as if the very walls knew that there were better days to come.