Seven mates for seven brothers

34- You're the boss

Lee, Rudi and Dinah wished them a goodnight as they reached their house, Lucy, hand in hand with Ethan, went to the pack house with the rest of them.

“Well,” Conrad said as they settled around the kitchen table with some coffee and cookies, “that could have gone a lot worse.”  He peered at Alex over his mug, “Are you going tell us what this story is about mom?”

Alex grimaced, he had thought about letting his brothers in on Cassy’s suspicions, but did not want to risk getting their hopes up if it all got to be nothing.  “It was something that Cassy thought of; and the only reason why it even crossed her mind, was because her mother died doing exactly the same thing.  She saved their pack during a rogue attack by getting them to chase after her.”

Conrad broke the stunned silence first, “Wow, that is something else.  They were lucky that their plans worked out.  Or else they could have sacrificed themselves for nothing.”

“Yes, it was a risk.”  Cassy admitted.  “But they had more in their favour than against them for that to have worked.  Just take yourselves as an example, how much do you enjoy running down those little animals you flush out when you are on a run?  It is part of our nature as wolves to hunt and kill, and for a rogue who has lost the biggest part of his or her humanity; it is so instinctive they struggle to control that urge.”

“So do you really think that is what happened, or is it just wishful thinking?”  Brian kept a blank expression on his face as he waited for Alex or Cassy to respond.

“Cassy showed me a lot of the records that mom kept.  The type of records and how she analyzed it all, made us doubt what has been said about her.  Now that we know more about the events that took place that day, we are even absolutely convinced that mom saved them all.”

Under the table, Cassy put her hand on his thigh, squeezing it lightly under the table.  He smiled at her appreciatively.

“But if that was the case, surely dad should have known that.”  Carter objected.

Alex sighed.  “I am sure he did.  But think about it this way; what would you do, if you just lost your mate after something like that had happened, and the people whose lives she saved, completely disregarded her brave actions?”  He shrugged, “Also keep in mind that he did not take the full four part oath when he took over from his dad.  That would also play a role.”

A discussion broke around the table, most of it speculations on whether the pack will be getting bigger the following morning.  Cassy also made arrangements with the three girls to come in early to help with preparing breakfast for everybody.

Brian muttered something about feeding the enemy, and Cassy retaliated by saying that no matter what might happen, it was the right thing to do when you had visitors that early in the morning.  After the kitchen had been tidied, Ethan walked Lucy to her home and they all went to bed.

*****

The next morning Cassy had the guys take out her brand new bain-maries and set them up.  The girls were super busy and Lee dropped in to help them too.  To Alex looked as if it was pure chaos, but Cassy assured him that it was a controlled type of chaos.

Eventually everything had been set up, and Tina and Lucy were putting the last of the cups and saucers down when they heard the first cars arriving; and they all went to the clearing to wait for all their guests to arrive.

Alex watched carefully as the crowd grew and noticed that they were rather quiet compared to the evening before.  Yesterday they had been loud and arrogant; today they were quiet and reserved.

Once again Duncan stepped up as spokesmen on the behalf of the towns’ people.  He looked flustered and his mouth kept twitching to the one side.