4 Family Meeting

SILVER LAKE PACK

The following morning Celeste refused to go for a run or even to the training ground to beat up her brothers, even after Sirius pointed out that it would be her last chance for a long time. Instead, her oldest brother crawled into the twin bed beside her and held her close as she waged her internal battle. She knew that she would be breaking her family’s hearts, and that was not what she wanted.

Always the protector, he had said that she would be staying at his house for a few days knowing that she would be leaving before that time frame was up. But with their parents believing that she was there, they would not question her sudden disappearance from the family quarters of the pack house.

However, they may notice her silence from the family and pack links. Now with the fight between her and her parents yesterday, it would simply be chalked up to anger.

“I feel guilty,” he whispered to her brother, pushing long black strands away her eyes and wiping her tears.

“You shouldn’t,” her brother assured her.

“Not enough to stay,” came the soft admission. “But maybe enough for some cookie dough ice cream.”

“Laura is making cookies. Does that count?”

“Only if she saves me some cookie dough.”

Chuckling, Sirius reached his wife through the mate link and then kissed his sister’s hair. “She has some set aside for you.”

When she had decided that the pity party was over, Celeste took a shower and ate the lunch Laura had made, along with a few cookies and a spoonful of cookie dough.

Sitting at her brother’s home office desk, she tried to write a goodbye letter but couldn’t. Nothing came. How could she explain that the death of her oldest sister at the hands of her fated mate terrified her of what her own might do. Only weeks after they buried Aria, Sky had been attacked at the Hunt in the West Winds pack and was now afraid of her own mate.

Celeste finally wrote two simple sentences in bold block letters on the elegant paper with the pack crest embossed at the top.

TELL THEM THE TRUTH

I LOVE YOU ALL

She sealed it in an envelope just before Sirius took her to the recruiting station in the human town. He hugged his sister and kissed her forehead, bestowing the blessing of the Alpha on her.

“I love you. This is the bravest thing I’ve ever seen you do. And I’ve seen you do some brave things. Some pretty damned dumb things, too.” Laughing, they hugged each other even tighter. “Now go find the biggest, baddest motherfucker and go kick his ass.”

Chuckling, she agreed to do just that. A few minutes later, she was in the car with her recruiter. And then… she was gone.

Sirius waited until the day before the other packs would begin arriving for the Hunt, coolly refusing to answer his father’s demands to tell him where Celeste was. He might not live in the pack house, but since he had turned twenty-five last year, he was the Alpha. No matter how much Malachi demanded, ordered or threatened, his son would no longer bend to his will.

Celeste had been gone for nearly a week, and would already be on Parris Island. She was on her way to becoming a Marine. Not even their father had enough power to stop that now. It was all up to her.

Laura had gotten a babysitter for their pups, insisting on being there to support her Alpha as any Luna would do. She would support her husband and his sister. The Goddess knew they both needed it.

“Where is she?” Malachi asked when he did not see Celeste with the couple as they entered the family quarters of the pack house.

“Is the rest of the family here?” Sirius asked, going to the living room.

Looking around, Sirius saw his divorced grandmother, mother and all but two of his siblings as they sat in confusion. He had called them all. One after another. They needed to have a family meeting without the youngest generation. It was important.

Now they all sat there, from nine-year-old Portia, all the way to twenty-five-year-old Phoenix. The only ones missing were Celeste and Aria. One was at Marine boot camp and the other had died after being sent back to her mate in Mexico. Sirius noted that each of his mated brothers held their mates in a loving embrace. Sky flinched every time her mate barely touched her. Andromeda, or Andi to family and close friends, sat alone.

All eleven of these siblings were a perfect blend of their parents. Bright with amber-colored eyes from their dad and pale skin with a dusting of freckles from their Irish mom. Their hair ranged from mahogany to dark honey, all with red undertones. The brothers were all around or above six feet, even twelve-year-old Leo already stood at six feet even.

They all looked like their parents. Like each other. But the sibling who was missing looked nothing like them. She had been marked by the Moon Goddess to stand out from the others in her family.

“Andi, where’s Drew?” Sirius asked. He could have reached out through the pack link but preferred to grant his siblings and their spouses privacy in their relationships.

Her eyes glazed over for just a moment before saying he was nearly there. A few silent and tense minutes later, Drew entered the house and came to find his mate. He kissed her gently before picking her up and putting her on his lap as he sat down.

“Everyone is here.” Malachi snarled. “Where is Celeste? The ceremonies for the Hunt start tomorrow. We have packs arriving at sunrise.”

“That’s your concern? The damn Hunt?” Sirius asked.

“Our pack was chosen to host. I do not intend to look like a fool,” their father snarled.

“For the past two years, your daughter has been telling you that she’s scared of the Hunt. And what have you done?”

“We gave her an extra year. Told everyone that she wanted to do the Hunt when we host. Now for the last time, where is she?” Malachi snarled, and Sirius’ wolf, Ranger, offered a low growl in their chest as a warning. The older wolf and former Alpha of the pack, Brutus, whined in submission even as the man refused to back down.

“That was so kind of you to give her a year to get used to the idea that she might be raped. So noble.” Sirius sneered at his father, standing tall and fighting to keep his composure. Since Sirius had ascended to the position of Alpha, he was the only one who would dare to speak to Malachi so directly. He dared a lot lately.

“Sometimes the males get so excited that they can’t control themselves.” Aislinn said, trying to soothe the situation. “I’ve tried to prepare all the girls for this.”

As it clicked with his brothers and the other males what she was saying, there were low protective growls filling the room. Sirius could only hope they remembered this anger when it was time for their own daughters to go to the Hunt. Generations ago, when the Hunt started in Rome, all the unmated females were forced to attend. Now they were sent out of tradition and honor, often against their wishes to prevent their family and, by extension, their pack from looking weak and breaking tradition. It was the one thing that he had no control over as an Alpha. If the father decided that his daughter was doing the Hunt, the Alpha could not interfere.

Shaking his head, he walked over to where Sky sat. He knelt in front of her and gently took her hands in his. “Sky, my beautiful brave sister. Will you tell me what happened at your hunt?”

She looked at her mate warily.

“He won’t hurt you. And if you don’t want to go back home with him, you can come and stay with us. But he needs to know what he did to you. He doesn’t know how he hurt you. And he needs to understand.”

She sighed and then spoke so softly that they could barely hear her, even with super sensitive hearing. “I was excited at first. Mom always said that I’d meet my mate at the hunt. And I was excited about it but afraid if I didn’t find my mate, I would be one of those wolves that goes crazy. We were running through the woods when I felt the first tingle, and I knew my mate was there.”

Nodding, Sirius encouraged her to continue. He too had heard the stories all of his life. If you did not find your mate, your inner wolf would become more and more beastlike. Unable to control. For the lack of a better description, they would become feral.

Sky let out a shaky breath. “Then, suddenly, I was face down in the dirt. One hand was holding my head down to the ground. It was hard for me to breathe. With his other he ripped my pants off. Then my leg was twisted and pulled out of socket.”

Joseph sat stunned. He remembered catching her scent. And then the next thing he remembered was the howl that he made just before he went to claim her, but she was unconscious. When she came to, her parents had given her a change of clothes and her suitcases. Three years later and he had yet to claim her because any time that he got near her, she would have a panic attack. Now, he knew why. She saw him as a monster and not a mate.

“Aminah told me that he was our mate, so she wouldn’t fight back. She was too weak to fight back, even if she wanted to.” Sky said softly of her wolf with a tremor in her voice and body. “Before … before the Hunt, we were, we were given a drink laced with,” she closed her eyes and swallowed hard, “with wolf’s bane. She was scared.” Her voice became even softer. “We’re still scared.”

Sirius brushed some tears off her cheeks. “Tell me the rest.” He knew that some packs still subdued the she-wolves before the Hunt with wolf’s bane that weakened the inner beast.

Nodding, Sky told the worst part of her story keeping her eyes closed, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. “Th-th-here… there was a tearing pain, down…” she shook her head, and Sirius squeezed her hand to remind that she was safe, “there. And again, I…I…I tried to call out, but there was dirt in, in my mouth. S-s-some st-started going up my nose. The pain was unbearable.”

Tears began to fall heavily from her closed eyes as her head hung in shame. “Now, not only was I being…I was ripped, but I was being hit too. Over and over and over.” Her voice rose as panic set in along with the shame. A sob racked her trembling body, and she lifted her fist to bite her knuckles before returning to a softer voice. “The pain… It hurt so, so bad. It all became too much to bear. I couldn’t breathe. It all went black.”

When I woke up,” her voice was accusing now, and she looked at her parents with hatred and anger. “When I woke up, mom gave me a set of clean clothes. She told me that she was so happy that I had found my mate.” She spit venom with her words and Sirius saw their mother flinch.

“I tried to tell her what happened. How much it hurt.” She sneered at her mother. “She didn’t care. And she just told me that sometimes the first-time hurts.” Sky’s anger was now directed at their father. “Neither did dad. He was only concerned with what other packs would think of us. And how we upheld the damned tradition.”

Guilt filled Aislinn’s face, and she could no longer look at any of her daughters. Malachi seemed unmoved. But Sirius saw the slight tick in his father’s clenched jaw that appeared when he was angry. Or when he was uncertain of his decision.

“Then dad said that my suitcases were in his cabin, and I needed to go to him. I tried to tell dad about it, and he just told me it was a good match… And then, then…” her voice softened and her head dropped again as her shame returned, “I was sent away. A painful sob was ripped from her chest. “Nobody loved me enough to listen.”

Sirius gathered her in his arms and sat on the floor rocking her in his lap. “I love you, Sky. I will always love you. I’m listening. We’re all listening now. Go ahead and cry. You cry as much as you want.”

“I am the monster of her dreams,” Joseph said quietly. He got down on the floor and looked at his beautiful mate. “I never wanted to hurt you. I don’t even remember anything. I remember catching your scent and then finding you. The next thing that I remember is howling, and I was going to mark you. But you had passed out. So, I took you to the first aid tent.” He was the one crying now. “They said that your hip was out of socket. That you may have fallen and that the fall probably did it. I am so sorry. I’ve never wanted to hurt you. I just want to treasure you. You are my mate, my soul. You are the best part of me. I love you so much. And now that I know that I caused this… this pain for you... Oh, goddess. I would completely understand if you wanted to reject me.”

“How about if she comes and stays with us for a while,” Laura suggested. “ You can come see her and maybe you two can start over. When Sirius and I first met, he always brought me coffee in the morning. I fell in love with my mate over really bad coffee.”

Sirius gave a little laugh remembering all the coffee he had bought and made. He did not drink it himself and did not know that there was more to it than ground coffee beans and water. His wife, a self-proclaimed coffee snob, drank the coffee because of the man who brought it.

“Does that sound good to you?” he asked his sister, and she nodded and sniffled.

Joseph started to reach out to touch her cheek but he stopped with his hand raised only a few inches away from his wife and unmarked mate. Sky reached out and touched her fingertips to his and gave a small smile.

Hope overtook him.

The rest of the room remained silent for several more minutes.

“I was afraid that it would happen to me.” Elisabeth, Phoenix’s mate said. The other women in the room agreed.

“It’s not like a female can reject a mate as easily as a male can.” Laura said and, when her father-in-law questioned this, she gave a small smile. “If a male rejects a female, everyone points out all her flaws, justifying why he rejected her. If a female rejects, they still point out all of her flaws and his attributes, telling her that she just screwed up her life and will never get a better mate.”

“Even if he’s a monster that beats her,” Malachi’s mother, Bridget, admitted.

“This is why Celeste didn’t want to do the Hunt. She was terrified of what would happen to her. She tried talking to you over and over and over again. But you two never listened.” Sirius told his parents.

“Where is she, Sirius?” his grandmother asked quietly.

“She's gone.” He turned to look at her. “There’s nothing that can be done about it.”

“Is she safe?” his mother asked.

“I’ll check on her,” he answered. Although Celeste had blocked the pack and the family, she left her connection to her eldest brother.

Sirius reached out through the mind link before answering, “She’s fine. She said so far, she’s liking boot camp.” He smirked, “The humidity sucks.”

“Where is she?” Malachi demanded. “And why can I not reach her?”

“She’s at Marine Corps boot camp and she blocked the pack.”

“Boot camp?” Aislinn asked. “When did this happen?”

“She signed up in November, after her birthday. She left for boot camp two days after you slapped her.”

“Did you know?” Malachi asked.

“She went with my blessing.”