Iron Heart

Chapter 1 - Andre,

    I led Cersy through the halls of the packhouse towards the meeting room, I didn’t miss the look in her eyes as she took in our modern style home. We accepted human luxuries, and many of our pack had actually gotten jobs in the human world of some kind. Many worked part-time for me, but certainly not all members. They probably think their pack jobs are enough service, which is fine with me.

    I had heard that Ironfang had been living a more...rustic lifestyle, Alpha Cain had certainly seemed that way. But Paleclaw had always adapted to those around us, finding it was much easier to blend into the crowds than purposefully separate ourselves.

    When we got into the meeting room, Cersy stared at the TV we use for presentations like it somehow confused her, “You okay?”

    She nodded, but kept her eyes on the screen, “Do you have magic users among you or..?”

    I couldn’t help but laugh, even though the look she gave me made me feel like an ass for doing so, “No, no, Paleclaw has always integrated with human society, so we reap the benefits of their technology. It’s called a television, or TV.”

    She nodded, though still looking a bit dazed, it appeared she’d rather not ask questions. She looked at the long wooden table that took up the length of the room, “Where should I sit? I don’t want to disrespect anyone on my first day.”

    “You already warred with us, some people are going to hate you for a bit regardless, or be jealous..”

    “Jealous?” She screwed up her face in confusion, and I never thought I would think a barbarian with the moniker Ironflayer- was cute, but that certainly was a cute face.

    “Favouritism, people will claim that because you’re my Mate, I showed more kindness to you and your Kin than I should have.” Which was fair, if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t usually make a habit of freeing war prisoners on the first few days they were captured. Let alone having them join my pack.

    “I suppose, but how will they know I’m your Mate? We haven’t agreed to anything on that..” There are those hard eyes I was waiting for, I sighed as I walked over to the chair that is usually reserved for the Luna of a pack. It hadn’t been touched since my mother had passed.

    “Because I will be using that fact as a defense for the onslaught of questions about my decision about you and your Kin. And you’re seat will be here, nice and close to me.” I gave it a joking pat and smiled at her, but she failed to return it.

    Cersy put a hand on the chair, pulling it out from the table, I couldn’t help but note that it seemed rather small for her. Hell, I felt a little small for her, it was like being paired with a giantess. “You know, most mates meet in private when they find each other. Not hold large meetings.”

    When she said that, as if on cue, the others spilled into the room. Cersy’s Kin seemed to have taken after her size, for the most part, was something in the water of Ironfang or something? I did note that they took seats organized by a colored stripe on their armor, it must designate the different units Cersy had mentioned earlier. Though calling Wolves dogs still felt like an insult to him, her Kin obviously didn’t mind. Every member seemed proud of the color they bore, I was more surprised when a she-wolf with a red mark smiled brightly at Cersy, the others with that color seemed to be much more...subdued.

    “Maven Firetongue, my lead Drakai..” Cersy felt the need to whisper to me, was she embarrassed of her friend? That was interesting, Maven was on the lean side when compared to her companions, but was still taller than the average. With hair black a night, and eyes a warm blue. I suppose Cersy wasn’t much for open affection, friendship, or otherwise, Maven seemed unbothered by Cersy’s cold shoulder, and in fact, took the seat next to her. The other Drakai following in suit down the line.

    Everyone was still standing until every seat was claimed, my ranked members sat to the other side of me in order of their ranks. I looked out over all of the wolves in the room, we were certainly outnumbered, that was for sure. But if all goes well...Paleclaw will certainly have a fierce addition to our ranks.

    With a hand motion, everyone took their seats, I stopped Cersy from taking hers as I still stood. “ Cersy Ironflayer Gythor, and I Andre Ravenstare Krialsi have come to an agreement. From this day forward, Cersy and her Kin are members of the Paleclaw pack. And as such you will all be expected to take on pack duties. But for now, you all will be joining my Beta Eren in training with the regular pack members. Cersy will also be helping with the integration, you are all well-trained warriors and we hope to share knowledge and bond as one pack. Beta.” Eren nodded to me, most packs required their full name to be announced with official business, but I always gave my pack the option of being known by the name they preferred.

    Eren stood, looking like a puffed-up rooster with how he stood, “Training begins tomorrow at 9 am, come prepared to display your specialty.” As Eren sat back down, I didn’t miss how Cersy’s Kin looked to her as if confirming this was all okay.

    “I’m sorry,” A she-wolf spoke out, I looked to see Zoe, I sighed before even hearing the rest of what she had to say, “But why are we accepting the Fangs in our pack? I didn’t know we accepted Wolves we fought with into our packs so easily, or so quickly. And why is that b***h sitting in your mother’s chair?”

    With that choice of words, every wolf was standing and looking about ready to rip out Zoe’s throat, and the wave of anger that washed over me surprised myself. Before I knew it, the room quieted and all I heard was my own growl as both my hands pressed into the wood of the table. “Cersy Ironflayer is Andre’s Mate, Zoe.” It was Hawks that spoke, a hand on Zoe’s shoulder, though it was a rather tight grip. His eyes were looking back at me worriedly, I looked down to see I had clawed the table accidentally in my anger.

    “That’s ridiculous! You can’t give special treatment to a whole war party, just because you found out the leader was your mate!” That was it, I slammed my fist down on the table.

    “Enough! Cersy is my Mate, and she and her Kin are members of this pack. Now, if you disrespect me or my mate again, we’ll be in a ring sorting this out like real Wolves. You got that?” All eyes were on me, but as I burned holes through Zoe, they all watched as she sat down slowly. Clearly startled by my reaction, but even she wasn’t stupid enough to challenge me into the ring.

    When I calmed down, the look in the eyes of Cersy and her Kin was different. As if I just passed a test, and I swear Cersy smiled at me for a moment. “Now, back to business, Fallen here will organize your housing arrangements. We have quite a few empty homes, but many of you will probably need to share homes until we can arrange it differently.” Fallen raised his hand awkwardly to show who he was.

    It was Maven who raised her hand, I gestured for her to speak, “ May I request we are split into housing by our units? So that we may continue our bonding exercises as usual?” That confused me a bit, bonding exercises? You’d think they’d still want to live separately as possible, but I suppose not. I looked to Fallen.

    “Unfortunately there probably won’t be enough room in the houses for your full unit, but I don’t see why you can’t split the houses among you as you see fit.” Maven seemed satisfied with the answer Fallen gave her, and the other wolves seemed to relax a little. It made me rather curious what these ‘exercises’ were that they were so nervous to be separated.

    “Now, with that business sorted, what else needs dealing with?” And with that, both Cersy and I sat down, and the meeting went by in the usual boring way, dealing with small squabbles or issues. Anything bigger would be brought to my attention later in my office, with just my ranking officers. For example, what we’ll be doing about Cain.

    “Dinner is at 6 pm, not all pack members like to eat in the packhouse, so don’t feel bad if you’d rather take the time to settle in.” The others nodded, and with that, the meeting was over, and wolves were getting ready to leave. Fallen was leading the Fresh Bloods out the door when I had to stop Cersy from leaving with them.

    “And where are you going?” I asked jokingly, though Cersy did seem a little startled when I grabbed her arm to stop her.

    “Going with my Kin to find housing?” This wasn’t even a sassy remark of resistance or anything like that, she was genuinely confused.

    “I’m sorry Cersy, but you’ll have to put up with sharing the packhouse with me,” I noted that it was only 4 pm, so we had plenty of time before dinner to get to know each other.

    Cersy gave me the most devious smirk I’ve ever seen and picked me up straight off the floor bridle style. I was so stunned I couldn’t speak, “Aw you look so cute startled,” she started carrying me out of the room with ease, “So, where are we going?”