The Crown Hackura Prince and His Dragon Princess

The Fixer Pt. 3

The weeks passed by and I was on a mission. I was going to go home and see Melanie and Alexander get mated. She was coming home and having dinner with them the day after her birthday. I’d be there faded back to watch it all go down. Then I’d ask her questions myself. From what Levi had told me she was a s**t liar so we’d get some answers.

I was technically out on a mission, but I’d wrapped up. Lincoln and Maddox found me at a bar. I asked, “What brings you here?” Lincoln answered, “I told Maddox you’d have wrapped up and be out and about biding your time to come home. He did some computer deal and found you here.” I snorted, “That’s using the technology division resources wisely.” Maddox winked, “I’m just a low level guy there.” He dabbled in many things, one was technology.

I said, “If you wanted to be more, you would be.” He shrugged, “I don’t like to be tied down to one thing. I have a broad range of skills and I like it that way.” I put a hand on his back and we all ordered shots.

Maddox asked, “So, how are your cousins?” Lincoln said, “Screw being subtle, has Alexander popped his cherry yet?” I rolled my eyes, “You need to stop giving him s**t about that. I’m hopeful circumstances may have him doing that as early as tomorrow.” Lincoln clapped his hands together, “Hot dog! You know I will shake the woman’s hand and bow to her greatness.” Maddox shook his head, “I wish he was kidding.” I chuckled at them both.

Pain hit me so hard I slid off the barstool. Lincoln grabbed me in a second. The bartender said, “You’re cut off, man.” I wasn’t drunk. I couldn't even get drunk. Maddox asked, “Who?” They’d know it was pain. It was hard, but it was my core family. My siblings were feeling it and so were my parents. I had too many damn connections.

Before I could isolate who it was, pain lit across several bonds and every Werewolf, partials included, went down in the bar. My Aunt Haley’s panic and concern slammed into me harder than anything I’d ever felt from her. It felt like other than the time when she was kidnapped by Damon when I’d truly felt all of her complex emotions. It told me that my cousins were down.

The bartender yelled, “s**t! Call 9-1-1!” I went over to the Alpha that had been in here. His entire pack leadership was down. I told Maddox, “It’s my Aunt’s family.” They were wolves. I asked the Alpha, “What’s wrong?” He was having trouble breathing and wasn’t able to answer me.

Emergency personnel flooded inside and I heard screaming outside. I jerked my head and Maddox went to see. The Alpha took a deep breath and sat up quickly. I grabbed him, “You’re alright.” His eyes were wide with panic. He glanced at every Werewolf in the bar. The Paramedics took some that had fallen and hit themselves, but everyone else was fine. The Humans were disturbed, but the Supernaturals were more so.

Someone had just taken down multiple Werewolves and I wasn’t even on the same continent as my cousins. Lincoln and I went and found Maddox. We portaled home. I asked, “What the f**k was that?!”

Chester was waiting for me. He answered, “Every Werewolf in the country went down.” I asked, “Why?” He answered, “No one knows.” I said, “Someone was hurt first in my bonds. Who was it?” He answered, “Alexander went down first.” I asked, “Who hurt him?” Lincoln said, “I’m getting the sense we don’t know.” I didn’t care for that at all.

Ithios faded in, “Nothing happened to him. His guard was there, so was Haley’s. He was hitting the heavy bag and then he went down in so much pain it took Eric down to his knees. All their kids went down screaming. The only person who didn’t was…” I cut him off, “I am fully aware of how well my Aunt handles pain. I know she didn’t go down and was taking care of everyone.” I portaled away from them.

Chester and Ithois came. I asked, “What are you doing?” They said we are all with you tonight.” I nodded. Maddox and Lincoln came through. Lincoln warned, “Don’t you portal away from me during the crisis of the century.” I ordered, “Run a perimeter. Take anyone into custody who looks at you wrong.”

I walked into the packhouse knowing my Aunt would be there. She was taking care of everyone so I waited her out. When she walked by me I pulled her into a room. I said, “You are allowed to have feelings about this.” She said, “Elise went down and isn’t here. Everyone is scared and I’m the former Luna. My husband is the goddamn head of the council.”

I repeated, “And you are allowed to be confused, angry, hurt, and really goddamn angry about this. You’ve gone into survival mode and shut down. Don’t do that.” I felt the walls around her lift. She evaded the subject, “I know they shared that about the bounty Hunters because of you.” I simply stayed there quietly standing there with her.

I pulled her into a hug and she burst into tears. I said, “It’s going to be ok.” She asked, “When? When the f**k will this be ok? Someone just took down my entire family and pack. My kids. They hurt my kids! Alexander was never supposed to know that much pain. He felt it worse than everyone else. Eric wasn’t supposed to know that type of pain. I wasn’t supposed to let someone get to them like this. Was it a goddamn test? Is it going to happen again? What the f**k do we even do about that?”

She sobbed, “Something is going on with him already. He’s going through so much and won’t ask for my f*****g help. No one will. Sometimes I think they all see me as some helpless little broken doll when I’m right f*****g here. Did I make a mistake being honest and telling my own f*****g children about my past? They don’t see me the same anymore and they are all shutting me out.”

I was stunned. I pulled back, “That’s not what this is about.” She whispered, “It feels like it is. I feel like I take strides in opening up, we all f*****g do. Then something happens and we shut the doors. I know I f*****g started it. I know it’s my f*****g fault, but I don’t know how to stop. I have all these degrees and I continually advance my education and knowledge in the field of Psychology but I can’t fix our f*****g family because I broke us all.”

I knelt down and looked into her eyes, “You did NOT break us. Maybe we haven’t figured out how to navigate it all. I agree. There is work to be done, but you are NOT broken. Nor are we as a family. You know it can get hectic when things change. Maybe it’s easier to shut out those that don’t live in our realm. Maybe none of us knew how to handle the stark difference in how we envisioned you being in our realm.”

I encouraged her, “You could tell them you feel this way.” She shook her head, “I will not emotionally manipulate anyone into telling me s**t. I won’t make Alexander feel like that.” I sighed, “Just because Alania and Cassandra were f**k ass horrible bitches doesn’t mean it’s manipulative to share your feelings. You are not asking them to change their minds and tell you. You are opening up to how it makes you feel. They don’t know because you can lock down the bond.”

I added, “You got really good at it for a while, but you backslid when you got pregnant with Angela. I get it. Truly, I do. Alania’s f*****g notes and sending people at her was designed to bring up your insecurities and push you into your shell. I should have said something then, but honestly we still suck at calling you out like we do everyone else.” She agreed, “You do but I don’t call you on that s**t either. I use it to my advantage on occasion. Truthfully, I didn’t notice until I went into the damn Ribbon. Other versions of you guys call me on my s**t. Aiden and Arion do too.” I hugged her, “Just think about it.” She nodded.

I could tell she was going to, but I knew the damage Alania did to her. I knew that Cassandra brought all that back up. I should’ve killed her when I had the chance. In truth, I had more than one and I should’ve taken it. She said, “Everyone’s spending the night. It would mean a lot if you could too.” I nodded, “I’ll stay.”

She left and Chester faded in. I winked, “If you’d like a distraction could you please tell Jocelyn I changed my schedule. My Mexico trip is getting bumped up. Then I’m touring the realm to look for my mate with Maddox and Lincoln.” He groaned, “Yeah I’ll tell her.” He faded back and I smiled when a portal opened.

Jocelyn came through glaring at me. She said, “When you make changes you HAVE to tell me so that I can manage everything. Don’t think I don’t know you decided this a while ago and just told me.” I winked, “Maybe if you were less like a Dragon I’d have told you.” She snorted, “You need me to be a Dragon. I’ll fix your schedule and set up the appointments. If you do this again, you’ll be left in a bind doing it yourself because I’ll take a leave of absence.” I agreed, “Fair enough.” She nodded, “Good. Now, go settle the family one by one as you do.” She winked at me and I set off to find one of my cousins to discuss their feelings about today.

In this chapter we really see how differntly H will be as a ruler. He's ready to make the hard calls and get what he wants. He has more of balance with Haley than her brothers do. I love how he trackd her down and talked through her reasons for going to the human realm for college. I loved the slight glimpse of Maximus (Logan's oldest child not with Katie if you forgot) here. It was small but he was here!

We also see after all the progress she made in the earlier books what event caused her to hold back. All Alania's notes about Angela. Then there's the fact she's not sure how to express her feelings without making her kids feel like she's manipulating them because we know she has strong feelings about that. FOILED BY COOKIES! Haley asked the right questions and so did H. Now we know why his trip to Mexico changed, he was looking for his mate in the Hackura realm with his buddies. Do you think Teserki will be a problem at some point in the series? It's heartbreaking writing the different perspectives on when the Werewolves went down because our characters don't know why but we do. I love how H rallied and went to his family though.