MINE

~14~

"No...!? What do you mean?" Philippa tilts her head to the side.
"Just what I said. You three," he points to Jeremy, Heather and his wife, "all feel a bond with her, don't worry, it's different from a mate bond. I smell you," he kisses Philippa, "but not you on her. You don't have any living family left, except for that cousin that's human and I know, you know, that she never had a child."
"Elizabeth...."
We all look at our red, our new family member, in more ways than one.

"Wait! Mom. You never told us that you had a sister and a cousin two. How come? Is there more family that you are hiding?" Heather interrupted the silence.

"Well, it is a tender subject. Let's go home and I will try to tell you all about it. The walls have ears."
"I don't want to leave her."
"I know, Liam. We all want to stay, but she needs rest now, more than ever. Doc Martin said she is out of danger now." Philippa gives him a huge hug.

Jeremy mind links with someone. "Zach is taking over for Dave, he will be here shortly. I got Dave, Zach, Troy, dad and me on a six hourly rotation for security. We got her covered. Now let's go. I still need my beauty rest before my shift starts."
"Okay, let's go."

This cottage has its back nestled in the woods and the front left hand corner looks out on part of the pack house and pool that is almost done. The front has beautiful flowers and bushes, artfully arranged to make it look more like a picture home than the other cottages. Each has their own unique style and features to match their owners needs.
The vegetable garden is something that often brings in more visitors that want advice from Philippa, than we care to admit.
We wanted to make it easier for her, but we just messed up big time.
We asked every one to submit a written request for a appointment to schedule a time for her to meet with them.
Yeah, the paper work was worse than a hail storm. Within a week, Jeremy and I had to admit defeat. We apologized with a golf cart, customized to log garden tools around. Now she travels all over the pack and helps everyone that wants, or has a vegetable garden.
When we got there, all was quiet. The morning rush to work before it gets to hot to plant or replant flowers and vegetables has gone while we were at the hospital.
We all settled in the lounge with a glass of cold lemonade.

"Okay.... Where to begin?" Philippa place her glass on the coffee table.
"I think it starts with your father and I, when we first met. I just finished high school and he was still in training. It was the last day of school and Elizabeth's sixteenth birthday. I went into town to pick up the surprise birthday cake. Your dad was also in town to pick up supplies. We met right in front of the bakery. Me coming out and him coming in. Let's just say that the surprise birthday cake, came a bit later than planned. I don't blame your father for this. He knows that. Anyway, when we got to my old pack, Elizabeth had already packed a bag of clothes and was gone, no one knew about it until we came with the cake. There was no note. Her sent just disappeared seven miles from our home, in the middle of the forest. There was no water nearby to explain the sudden lack of her sent. The trackers went several miles from that point in all directions, but she just vanished. It was like she never existed.
My cousin moved to this town a month later. She did not take the loss very well. They were best friends, even though the age gap was twelve years. You dad finished his training and we came back here. Rouges came through my old pack. Killing almost half of the old Moon River pack. All of my, ...our family was killed." Silent tears ran down her face. "My cousin runs and owns this towns general store. You have a cousin, ones removed. Now you know."