Hammers in the Shadows

Part Two: Hammers in the Night - Chapter Fourteen

Several days later, after lunch, Anna took the cubs, including Tanya, who still wasn't all that comfortable with her, and Kat to go visit the Hot Springs while I sat in my office and contemplated the phone in front of me. I knew that I had to make these phone calls, but I wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, looking forwards to them. The first call that I had to make was to my cousin Alexander at Ice Lake. While he wasn't Alpha, but instead a Second, his mother had informed me that I was now responsible for what happened to him, and with his Alpha gone for the time being I knew he needed some oversight and assistance.

"Mark? To what do I owe the pleasure of a phone call?" He asked, and I could easily tell that his voice had some degree of stress in it.

"I'm just checking up on you Alex, I know you're a grown man but you know you mother feels about this move? How are you doing? You sound a bit stressed." I replied to his question by asking one of my own.

"Why in the name of the Goddess would I be stressed? My Alpha's down south playing around at our main pack. I've had to get my bonds to Westbank released, something I'm really not too happy about, though I do have to admit that my wolf likes this new challenge. My training for this is nowhere near complete, and I have a mate that I'm only just starting to get to know." He told me roughly.

"Alex, you know that Zane is still Second of Wild Valley, and he's not going to give that up, indeed I expect him to do precisely what he's doing right now by making you his new Second. When you are sufficiently trained, he will probably leave you as Alpha to Ice Lake, though I do suspect that will be a fair ways into the future."

He growled slightly before another voice came onto the line, and I could tell that she was still learning English. "You are Alexander Cousin?"

I spoke slowly, though I suspect that Alex was helping her understand by translating what I was saying, either by speaking to her, or by mind speak. "Yes, though technically I am his mother's cousin. His grandfather is my father's older brother." I told her, "I am of Silver Peak, formally Blackwater." I said, glancing down at my phone to double check and confirm that this call was indeed unsecured hence my discretion at not saying too many things that could be construed as revealing what we were if this call was intercepted.

"How are you what you are an not one of us?" She asked, probably having been warned by her mate to speak in generalities instead of specifics.

"That's easy," I replied, "Alex was the only one of our family up until eleven years ago, that was different. The rest of us were born human, and had no knowledge of the truth of myths however that changed when I was attacked and turned." I told her, letting Alex fill her in on the rest, since I'd told him a good deal about my turn and most of the rest was common knowledge among the more up to date Packs and Prides.

Alex spoke up after a few moments, "Song still doesn't fully understand Mark, it will take time but I will make sure that she does. Like most of the wolves here she still doesn't like or trust cats, I think it will be a long time before that will have any chance of changing."

"I understand Alex. The old Alpha of Ice Lake had a long time to make sure that almost all of his people viewed us the way he wanted to." I replied, leaning back in my chair to take a sip of my drink. Ever since I'd become a cat I'd learned to appreciate a smooth vodka, but I still had a marked preference for a full-bodied whiskey.

"That isn't everything Mark, I have a note here on my desk from Midnight Forest... it is asking for money... money that we don't have as well as territorial concessions for the sacrifices that they made in that attack on Blackwater three months ago." He told me grimly.

I placed my fingers on the bridge of my nose and gently massaged myself between my eyes. "For fuck's sakes..." I exclaimed with a bit of a growl. "They gambled and lost and now they want you to pay for their bad play? What about the other group that was involved?" I asked.