Chaos in a Fairy tale

Untitled Episode 4

The whole house has high ceilings and large bay windows. In addition to the rooms on the first floor, you have the parlor, living room and kitchen. I originally was looking for a smaller place. I was only looking for a 2 or 3 bedroom place, but as I said before, I was in love as soon as I saw the detail and interior structure. This place had been available for a long time, so the seller was very eager when I put in an offer. I don’t need 5 bedrooms, but it always felt right to have the space. While I'm no social butterfly, I do enjoy the company of family. I was adopted when I was a baby. There was no family history. I have no idea if I have any relatives, but I grew up with a wonderful human family. There were 9 children in total in the house after they adopted me. My adopted siblings keep in contact, we talk as much as life allows. Sometimes it’s just a quick check-in, but we make sure that at least once a month we all get on a video call to catch up and get in touch with mom and dad.

I’ve repeatedly thought about trying and hunting down my biological parents or any siblings I might have out there. However, I have no idea where to start. So I've decided to shelve the idea of searching for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day it’ll be worth the effort, but I love my family. With my breakfast finished, I headed upstairs to get some sleep. It’s now a little after 3 in the afternoon. If I lay down now I’ll probably be back up around 11pm. The best part about working for yourself is that you don’t have to go by anyone else’s schedule. After brushing my teeth and closing my blackout curtains, I climbed into my bed and let sleep overtake me.

Alpha Blake

I’ve been without a moment's rest since my nephew was found. We’ve been busy with the arrangements for the upcoming fortitude and warrior selection events. The past 2 days have passed in a blur of documents, phone calls, meetings and never-ending lists of warriors seeking admission to the election. I don’t think I’ve gotten more than 3 hours of sleep over the last 2 days combined. I’m just about to call for my beta. When he walks through the door, he’s looking at a folder easily an inch thick. “If that’s more candidates for the selection, I’m going to make you deal with updating the list of contestants.” He looks at me and shakes his head slowly, “Alpha, this is a report on the men that were captured from the warehouse and the driver of the transport van. They’ve all been questioned and while the driver still maintains that he was only paid to deliver Ashton to “his aunt”, he doesn’t have a name for the woman that paid him.” I take the folder from him once he’s reached my desk. “Were you able to get anything else from them? Did they say why she wanted him?” He shakes his head in the negative. “The only information we were able to get was that a woman paid them to retrieve Ashton, claiming she was his aunt. The thing that didn’t make sense was that they knew his name but were under the impression that he’d been taken from his “real family” and we’d been keeping him here against his will. Seeing him running from a group of children, some of whom are the size of older teen humans, through the forest in the late night probably didn’t help.” ”

“They’re all human. They wouldn’t have any way to confirm the information they were given. I also don’t think they really cared enough to ask any questions.” While still looking over the file, I asked, “Did we get the address the driver was headed to?” The address that he responded with sets off alarm bells, but I can’t recall why at the moment. It’s not an address I’m familiar with, but for some reason, it’s even got my wolf on edge. We go over a few more things that I either didn’t see in the report or the information was sparse. There wasn’t anything substantial that he was able to extract from the men we have in the cells. I decide that they’ll be released back to the humans, I’ll have to call a witch for a compulsion or memory charm. While we’re not afraid of humans finding our territories, it doesn’t mean we are careless. Why allow people who would do anything for money to just wander back here because we didn’t think about protecting our pack lands and supplies?

Alex was still flipping through the folder when I heard him say, “Have you contacted that photographer about the event shoot? We should have everything in order and all the details should be finalized at this point, right?” I hadn’t even let myself think about her with all the preparations and lists that needed to be reviewed and finalized. I reach into the left top draw of my desk and slide the business card across to him. “Please message her the details. Location, arrival time, remind her that she doesn’t need to bring anything but the equipment that she needs for the photos. Everything else will be provided for her as a courtesy.”

I caught the look that crossed his face and sighed, “Look, I know you think one of the pack members could do the photos and while normally, I’d agree. Which pack member do you recommend we exclude from every activity and photo because they have to stay behind the lens of a camera all day?” From the way his gaze is downcast I can tell I’ve driven my point home. “I hadn’t even considered that, but we could have the responsibility rotated throughout the course of the events.” With a shake of my head I remind him that last time we had multiple members responsible for photos and videos, the camera was lost 4 times. Half of the shots couldn’t be used because they were out of focus or blurry. “Right, I forgot about that. You have a point, but why would we have a human come here?” I feel that twist of curiosity again as I inform him that she’s definitely not human. The look of surprise that descended over his features was like a shroud. Underneath I see the uncertainty that he’s trying to conceal. I understand his disbelief, we’ve frequently shopped and visited that area, and I’ve never smelt anything that would indicate that there were any non-humans in that town.

I’m aware that the statement didn’t sound plausible to him. The warrior selection is in 4 days; the unity event is in 2 days. We want everyone to have sufficient rest before the warrior selection without having to choose to forgo the unity events. They are meant to bring everyone together and remind us that we may live in different areas, we are one community. It also gives everyone who has traveled long distances a chance to unwind. Everyone has already sent word that they will be arriving within the next 36 hours. Plenty of time to get the photographer here and let her get all of her gear set up. I'm not sure what all she'll have or what she'll want to do. We talked about a space for group and family photos, but we wouldn't need anything special for that. I look forward to a little rest now that most of the list and preparations are final.