Jeremy came to get me as I came out of the room. I let him lead me into the room we'd given him, the old master bedroom with the two french doors onto the tiny balcony, and Jeremy shut the door behind us. Maybe it would make a nice nursery. I didn't have time to think about that though.
"I sent the video to Antonio. Of your twins. I wouldn't normally interfere but-" He smiled somewhat. "-sometimes I'm his best friend before Alpha. I hope you don't mind."
I shook my head. "No. I don't think I would have even thought to do that. Did he like that?"
"He was hoping that twins were a werewolf thing. I didn't tell him what was in it and it was one hell of a boost for him to see it." He patted the seat beside him as he stood. "It's crazy. Twenty years ago I was trying to get rid of Elena because we had a rule stating that no pack member would have a girlfriend. I assumed that meant I'd never have a lover, that there'd be no children, and now..." Jeremy shook his head. He sat beside me on the desk, gazing out the window. "I don't think I realised how unhealthy the pack was with just male werewolves. Like a pack of male wolves who had no mates to hunt beside, who stole pups then had no clue how to raise them. Our history in that book-" He nodded at the Legacy which was on the desk beside him, "-shows that nearly all the time the pack suffered for it."
"Like socializing dogs. I grew up with dogs. My parents bred them sometimes." He glanced down at me as I spoke, slowly, carefully, still respectful that he was the alpha. "When people took a puppy away too young, or didn't expose them to all kinds of things in the world, they were aggressive, nervous, and more likely to bite. Their mother and their siblings were the most important ones to teach them boundaries and exposure to the world, to children, to cars, to trains, to the world, made them face it with confidence. So my parents would only release the puppies to their owners when they were ten weeks old after four weeks of gradual exposure to the world. They had a reputation for breeding the most reliable working dogs. Not pets, not lapdogs, dogs that could work as guide dogs, or cattle dogs, or other jobs where they needed to be steady and follow their leader."
Jeremy nodded slowly. "It might be a little like that, as little as I want to compare a wolf to a dog, needing to change the way we interact with the world. But speaking of a new world, you said you studied hypnotherapy. Do you think, even without finishing the course, you're able to do it?"
The change made me blink and I nodded. "The last few modules were on running a practice and health and safety. Important stuff but not about the basics. I could do it."
"I've ordered them to bring back the other mutt alive, if possible, which may mean they'll have to drive a good five or six days to bring him. I'd like for you to demonstrate on him, get information out of him, and then Clayton will use his tools to test that."
"Usually it's memories I get. Sometimes not even the ones you want. Sometimes they're memories he needs to revisit." I wasn't sure if I could use it like that, in other words. That was probably one of the unethical things they'd cover in Health and safety.
"Could you get memories from the time he had in that pack?"
I nodded slowly, thinking it over. "I could probably direct him. It may just take a while. As a practitioner assisting with healing, I shouldn't do that with clients, but this isn't the same thing."
"I have very little sympathy for werewolves that behave as he did, so no, it's not the same." His fingers tensed around the desk. Jeremy glanced at the phone as it started to vibrate. "I'll meet you downstairs."
Downstairs, Jamie was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee, chatting with someone on the phone. Her agent, from the sounds of it, something about a contract. Six in the morning and they were already contacting her? Shesh. I remembered that here she was famous somehow. It sounded like it was almost time to return to filming a show. That'd make it difficult with the twins, if she had to go, they adored her and seemed less anxious about how long their parents had been away. They didn't like it, like any five year olds wouldn't, but they accepted it with their Auntie Jamie in the house.
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Hunter - Book 2 of the Hunted Series
FanfictionAnne, an Australian, has escaped and has started to heal. Even now though that werewolf, who calls himself Master, who bit her and tortured her for almost a year is close on her tail. She doesn't know if she's hunting him or if he's hunting her. S...
