Sapphire jumped when a polite knock sounded at her door. “Come in…?” She didn’t remember anyone ever politely knocking at her door in all her life. It was as foreign as the room. She didn’t know what to do with all the space.
She’d just thrown her bags into the bottom of the closet and left them there. In case she needed to run fast.
Sarah Ann came in with an arm full of things. “I’m back. I have clean sheets and a change of clothes. I hope I have the sizing correct. They came from the stockpile out by the kitchen door. You know how the young are. Go out for an impromptu run and forget to bring their clothes with them. Anyway, once we have your sizing down, we’ll see what we can order for you.”
Sapphire followed Sarah Ann, who dropped the tray off in another woman’s arms before showing her down a hall and to a large room. “This is the dining room. We eat most of our meals here and some of our informal meetings are here. Formal meetings and celebrations are in the entertainment room or ballroom. I refuse to call it the ballroom, as we don’t hold any balls. Now there’s Alpha Magnus. I’ll leave you with him and then get a couple of things done quickly before the meeting. You’ll probably see me at the back of the room. Good luck dear.” Sarah Ann walked her to Alpha Magnus’ side and then left her there with a wave. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her and she was sure there were several people whispering about her. Magnus’ attention quickly shifted from what he was do
Hayden barely caught his new Luna as she collapsed. He held her as he looked to Magnus for direction. Several people cried out as they watched her collapse. “I think this was all a little too sudden for her Alpha.” Magnus came over and took her limp form from Hayden. “It shouldn’t surprise me. The man raised her completely inappropriately. That changes now. I’ll take her back to her room and we can let her rest there. Then we can finish this meeting.” Magnus left the room, carrying his mate to her room. The pack talked behind him, but he didn’t listen to it. He’d deal with it once he had her safely tucked away in her bed. Sarah Ann can monitor her while he finished the meeting. Sarah Ann was ever on top of
“Hayden, before everyone leaves. Please make arrangements for an enforcer meeting later. I’d like to go to the security protocol with them. Also, write up something reminding everyone how to react when they are in town. I’d like to avoid as much conflict as possible. Also, when do we expect the next group to roll in?” Magnus went into business mode now and began instructing Hayden of their next steps on rolling into town and endearing the locals to them.“Yeah, sure. I will gather you want the groups coming in to get the memo too, so we don’t have any problems with them?” Magnus nodded as they moved from the dining room and upstairs to his apartment.“Yes, please. There are notes on the next steps to our plans on my desk with the reports you left there for me. If you put those into action, I believe that today’s been a rather good day. Now I want to get cleaned up properly. I smell like that cowardly wolf.” Ma
Sapphire found herself in the dank basement of the packhouse. Someone locked her in again and they’d taken the lightbulbs to make her suffer. They all knew she hated the dark. She could hear the movement of something or someone moving around. Now she anticipated where the person or creature was. The closer they came, the sooner it would hurt her. Sapphire jumped every time she heard the tiniest scuffle. Desperate not to give herself away, she bit her lip to prevent herself from making a noise. Tears streamed down her cheeks, stopping them was beyond her control. Now she crouched there as still as a deer in headlights. Listening in the dark, trying to track whatever prowled around down there with her. She could feel the cold cracked concrete under her bare feet and work-worn hands. Sapphire could taste her own blood from where one of her teeth bit a little too deeply into her lip. She desperately tried not
Sarah Ann quietly closed the door to Sapphire’s apartment behind her and she looked sternly at her Alpha. “Sarah, what was that? What happened in there?” Magnus couldn’t reconcile what he saw. “Alpha, you, yourself, said she’d experienced such poor treatment for so long. But I can’t understand what she saw in her dreams until I talk to her. Your pacing out here is scaring her more. So, you need to go do something productive and get your mind off her. All you’re doing is scaring her out of her wits.” “She lied to me about her dreams. Why would she do that? Who does that?” Magnus couldn’t keep the disbelief
Sarah Ann returned to Sapphire’s room in time to see Sapphire scramble self-consciously from the bed. “Dear, you’ve just had a terrible shock. Relax, don’t overdo it if you don’t have to.” “Oh, I’m good. Um… What’s going on?” “That’s the point. Everything’s quiet. Tonight, another convoy of pack members will be here and lots of getting reacquainted will happen, and it’ll be good times.” “What am I supposed to do?” “Dear, you just need to be your sweet self and get to know everyone. Let them know you.” Sarah Ann’s heart almost broke at the lost
Hayden watched for a bit as Magnus prepped to work on one cycle that just came into the shop. It was just the groundwork to prepare for the more artistic work. It was a full restore and customization detail. “We need to make sure everyone is on board, with Sapphire being my mate and Luna. I don’t want any decent in my pack. I don’t want that pack’s reputation damaging hers. She’s been through enough without needing to deal with anymore shade or backstabbing.” “I’ll try to stop it if I see any of it go down. But unless it happens, I don’t see us being able to avoid these problems. Sarah Ann’s always got an answer for things like this.”
Magnus got the pulmonary work done well before dinner. He wanted to do more, but the day got away from him. Hayden stayed in town so he could meet the next round of pack coming in. Their businesses were at different stages of being moved and they didn’t want to overwhelm the town with their numbers all at once. So this was the second stage coming in. The first came in to start building up the territory to their needs. Updating utilities and the like. Tonight, after dinner, Magnus needed to tour the area and see how things were going. Sarah Ann was right. If Sapphire was his mate and their Luna, she needed to be with him and just as interested. But before that, he needed to shower and get cleaned up. Have dinner with her and get to know her more. What Sarah Ann didn’t tell him was how to get to know her. It’s not li