Company Comes for Dinner

    “The Alpha would like to see you both immediately. The Luna is busy, she’s going to ensure that dinner will be ready for everyone on time. So, please say your pleasantries and we’ll let her be on her way.” Helena frowned at Nathan’s rudeness. These were respected members of their pack, and people she’d grown up with. All thought of leaving left her mind at that.

                 “It’s very nice to see you once more, Helena. I see you’ve grown up nicely.” Brian leered at her. His thumbs slid into a couple of his belt loops like he needed to force himself to keep his hands to himself.

                 “What my brother is saying is you’re a sight for sore eyes. Now come down here and be the hostess we all know you are.” Christopher all but ignored Nathan’s words. Instead, he and Brian focused on her completely, like the predators they were.

                 “I don’t know what to say to that. I haven’t changed all that much since you saw me last.” They didn’t move in the same circles often these days. Pack events took up most of her time. Overseeing the traditions involved with those events kept her from participating as she’d like. The St. James brothers would either act as security for some events or they’d kick back and enjoy the event. It was something Helena often regretted and missed about growing up and taking her mother’s place. She’d loved her mother and envied her the relationship she’d had with her father. Now she was told that bond would never happen for her, if her father had his way.

                 After using this time to compose herself, Helena carefully made her way down the stairs. The floor plan hid the kitchen door under these very stairs, so she didn’t have a choice but to move toward these imposing figures. Their stares made her even more aware of how she moved. Between those stares and the scent, she picked up her head, threatened to spin.

                 All eyes were on her. The St. James brothers’ eyes admired her from head to toe, while Nathan glared at her. Glaring at Helena did nothing to intimidate her. She dealt with worse each day when mediating pack disputes. Technically, Nathan couldn’t tell her what to do. His station within the pack lay a level below her. The only weight he had literally been his weight, age, and battle experience. She’d never learnt much more than defence basics because it wasn’t her place to enter battle. Her size also made it impractical. She was unusually small and dainty.

                 “So, as Nathan said. I must oversee last-minute changes to dinner tonight, and we’ll expect both of you to attend dinner tonight. Therefore, I will see both of you then.” Even with her heart fluttering in her chest in reaction to the scent of oak and cedar wafting off these two, Helena kept her cool, and pasted a serine smile on her face. “Both of you need to see the Alpha. Don’t keep my father waiting. You know better.” Helena took several steps toward the kitchen before turning around to say one last thing. “I hope you are more reasonable about what insane plan my father has cooked up. See you both later.” Then she disappeared into the kitchen.

                 Helena leaned against the door wide eyed and panting. Goddess, the two of them were too much for her to deal with. Which one would be her mate and the new Alpha? That wasn’t fair. How did she figure this out?

                 “What are you panicking about?” Jillian looked up from where she rolled out biscuit dough and frowned in Helena’s direction.

                 “Jill, you won’t believe this. I need a drink. No several drinks. Oh, geez.”

                 “Calm down and start from the beginning. Who’s at the door?”

                 “Chris and Brian St. James. But I’ll get back to that mess at the end of my explanation. Promise not to tell anyone about what I’m about to say.”

                 “That goes without saying. Go on.” Jill put the rolling pin down and went to grab a couple of beers from the refrigerator.

                 “My father called me in to tell me he’s dying. He wouldn’t tell me what was making him ill, only that nothing the doctor could do to change or alter the outcome. Then he made a point of saying that the pack and I are in danger from other packs.”

                 “What are you going to do?”

                 “It’s not my business, it appears. My father called the St. James brothers here to choose one of them to lead the pack. They’ll be here for dinner too. So that’s two more mouths to feed.”

                 “Delightful. What are you going to do about it?”

                 “There’s nothing. My father has it all planned that I’m to mate with the new Alpha, whichever brother that maybe, and produce the next generation’s Alpha. Continuing our family’s leadership of this pack.”

                 “I don’t envy you, girl. Drink up. We have work to do on this dinner then and plans to make.”

                 Together they planned the meal, called in for help, and let the pack know that there’s an impromptu banquet. All must attend to hear the announcement. An announcement Helena was dreading to her core.

                 Hours later, the women of the pack bustled in and out of the kitchen, putting the final touches on the dining hall and food. People began filing in and taking their places. Helena sat there lightly buzzing from the beers she’d drank while trying to figure out what she’d do about this mess. Did she state her father wasn’t dying and able to make this decision? Or just go along with this and avoid mating until her father died?

                 To her surprise, her father entered with the St. James brothers and Nathan. Everyone sat after Vincent announced the banquet started. They ate and drank, confused about why they were there.

After the main course ended, Vincent stood up and announced to the pack the reason the St. James brothers sat on either side of Helena throughout the banquet. “Gentle folk, lend me your ears. I have grave tidings and a hope for the future. Sadly, I will not be long for this world. I will join my sweet Martha, Helena’s mother, and my original Luna in the next life. But as a responsible leader, I’ve selected two potential replacements. In the coming days, they will have tests and one of them will become your next Alpha and mate to my daughter, your Luna, Helena.”

                 Silence reigned for a heartbeat before individuals clapped. Vincent took his leave to return to his room to rest again.

                 “This is ridiculous. These two know nothing about running a pack. I should be the next Alpha. I know what I’m doing, and I have the experience.” Nathan announced to nobody and to the pack at large. Few people announced any support of his declarations. “I’m not standing by and letting this farce happen.” With that, he stormed from the room.

                 Helena and the St. James brothers answered questions and calmed the worried pack members. Time passed and as dessert ended, Christopher said to her. “Our Alpha and his Beta both have perfect ways to incite drama and panic. I hope we won’t have that problem with you, my sweet.”

         Suddenly, over the noise of the gathered shifters came the sound of shattering glass. Screams erupted throughout the hall as bodies broke through the door and came toward the main table. Reacting on instinct, Chris and Brian, stepped in front of Helena to ensure she didn’t end up breaking the person’s fall and they took the brunt of the person’s landing.

                 Those words made her take a double take. Christopher’s words were oddly compelling and confusing at the same time. But before she could ask him to clarify the meaning of his words. The alarms that signalled an attack went off, and the room became a madhouse of fighting. The noise, the gore, people shifting from one form to another before Helena’s eyes. She couldn’t understand what was happening or why. What caused this chaos? Who? How?

                 Wolves piled in through all doors and fighting began quickly. Bodies continued to shift between human and wolf. Tattered clothing was trampled under everyone’s feet. Christopher took up directing the pack in battle. Brian, however, enveloped her in his arms, plucked her from where she stood, and removed her from the chaos. All the while, Helena kicked and screamed her protest as her pack needed her.

                 “We don’t have time for a tantrum. Get yourself together, Helena, hon. You need to keep your head about you.” Several strange wolves padded out of a doorway, blocking their path. Where were all these wolves coming from? These weren’t wolves Helena was familiar with. They were ragged and unkept in both forms. No pack she knew of maintaining such low standards. Blood and gore spattered their clothes and hides. The angry sounds coming from them were hate-filled and frightening to Helena.

                 Brian reacted by putting Helena down on her feet behind him. He shifted into an enormous, silver-white wolf. That’s not what anyone expected, and Helena could tell the strange wolves hadn’t expected a wolf this large, let alone a legendary ghost wolf in all its glory, to be a roadblock between them and their mission. Brian released a hair-raising howl that overrode the sounds of battle. As his hackles rose, Helena couldn’t help but feel her fear overwhelm her. Brian determinedly stood his ground, ready to take on all comers. It didn’t matter to him they were cornered.