The Guardian

The Tour

Jenna POV

We entered what must have been his office. Massive desk and chair, Comfy looking sofa, lots of shelves loaded with books and pictures and filing cabinets behind his desk. He gestured to the sofa “please take a seat Miss Michaels” “Jenna please” He smiled and set a coffee on the little table in front of me before going to sit behind his desk. “So Jenna, my daughter has asked me to consider placing you under the packs protection, Has she explained to you what that means?” I took a mouthful of my coffee. “Not exactly she explained how it happens and that it’s rare but not what it would mean for me exactly” he sat back in his chair crossing his ankle over his knee and placing his hands in his lap. “Well, it’s fairly simple despite how rare it is. You would be given housing within the pack grounds; I will become responsible for your wellbeing, and you will become part of the pack. However, as you are not a wolf you won’t be included in all the activities around here but for the most part you will. Should there be something suitable you will be offered employment within the pack, I understand that you are currently attending the university, you can decide whether to continue or whether you’d like to find a position immediately. There is a ritual, and the only thing we expect from you in return is your discretion and loyalty to this pack. You should also know that I will expect you to obey me. Not blindly, but you must trust that should I ask something of you there is a reason, and you are of course welcome to ask me why but there is a time and a place. I expect you to follow commands immediately and should there be the need for a discussion I can promise you that it will happen, but Maria explained to you that some wolves do not accept humans into our world, and you need to understand that your life means nothing to some of our kind. I can only protect you if you allow me to. I need to be able to trust that you will not put yourself in direct harm.” I took a deep breathe and carefully began to speak as he drank his coffee “I can promise you that I will not put myself in harm’s way. I assume that Maria mentioned I have 2 sons. Does this change anything?” his eyes widened slightly for a brief second, had I blinked I would have missed it. Maybe Maria didn’t mention the boys. There was an excruciating 60 seconds of silence before he spoke again, my heart was pounding in my chest “No she didn’t but no It changes nothing except the house you will be given should you accept our offer and there will be some other decisions for you to make, for example would you want your boys to attend the packs schools? We will also need to discuss who may be coming onto pack land to visit them for instance, I assume there’s a father?” I hesitated but decided that honesty would be best “Well actually no. We moved here a week ago and Jamie skypes with his father once a fortnight, Jackson’s father isn’t in the picture and never will be. My mother is staying with us while we get settled but she’s going back to England in 2 weeks. I’m studying business administration at the uni because I never qualified but I have extensive experience so if a position becomes available that I am suited for I’d be more than happy to work for the pack” He came over to me and stuck out his hand for me to take. I took his hand and stood up. “How about a tour Jenna? And then after breakfast we can come back to the office and talk further. “Ok that sounds good” “fantastic I’ll have Kara & Maria show you around”

The girls met us in the main hallway and the Alpha left us to it. “Ok so we thought we would show you the grounds and housing first then see what time it is?” Kara was practically jumping up and down on the spot. I laughed at her excitement. “Ok someone’s happy ok lets go” We walked out of the pack house and down towards a large building. “Ok so this is the gym, there are 6 floors. The top floor is a soft play area for the kids totally manned so anyone that wants to attend the gym has somewhere for the little ones to exhaust themselves. On the 5th floor is a multisport court, the 4th floor is the fight training area, we have coaches that specialising in every kind of contact sport from kickboxing to MMA and jujitsu. 3rd floor there is a dance studio, 2nd floor is cardio equipment 1st floor is weightlifting equipment and on the ground floor There’s a reception area and changing rooms with lockers and showers and unfortunately despite Maria’s multiple suggestions it’s not unisex” We all laugh at that and Maria looks like as though that is one her greatest failures. “Well, I doubt that anyone is interested in seeing me so that’s all great. Will I be allowed to use the gym area? And will I be able to join in with martial arts training?” They both looked a bit taken aback. “Yes, to using the gym and you’ll have to speak to dad about the martial arts training, I don’t see it being a problem though”

They went on to show me the housing sections of the land, it’s kind of set up like a festival, there are flats in one section for any unmated pack members, There is a small village type area on the opposite side of the land, apparently this area is for Mated couples and families and is positioned away from the younger unmated wolves to keep things calmer for those starting a family which according to Maria happens fairly quickly once a wolf finds their mate. “Yeah, us wolves aren’t so big on contraception. Obviously, there are those who choose to wait a while but for the most of us when we find our mate it’s all systems go” We were heading round the back of the packhouse now, I couldn’t see anything ahead, so I took the opportunity to ask some questions “So tell me more about this mate bond? In the books a majority of the time anyone can have a soulmate, but only supernatural beings have the ability to recognise theirs, is that true?” Maria seems to decide this is an important conversation so she pulls us over to bench under the treeline behind the pack house. “Yes, any species can have a soulmate, We have over 700 members in our pack, we are a medium sized pack, there are about 200 mated wolves living in the family area with about 80 kids, Maybe 300 unmated wolves in the apartment buildings and maybe 150 Older wolves living in the bungalows. So, there are more mated wolves here than unmated, not including the minors. I think out of those only 6 have human mates and all of those couples I believe are in the bungalows bar 1 who are in the family sector and they have 2 children. We don’t mix as much with humans as we used to. We have seasonal mixers, where the king and queen and the council hold a ball for all the unmated wolves to attend and have a chance to find their mate. The only requirement to attend is that you are unmated and have been through your first shift. It isn’t compulsory, I shifted for the first time about 6 months ago but I didn’t want to go alone so I’ve been waiting for Kara. Now she has shifted we will go to the next one together” We stated walking again and I was thinking about what she had told me “So as a human within the pack I assume this is one of the activities that I will not be invited to attend?” “That’s another one for my dad. I think if you wanted to go and he felt you were ready to be in that sort of environment then yes he would allow you to go but he would need permission from the hosts, When he said they’re were activities you wouldn’t be included in he meant things like compulsory fight training which all pack members attend, or full moon runs which we do as a pack every full moon. Lets show you the bungalows and then we go for breakfast.” We walked for about 5 more minutes through some trees and a gorgeous floral tunnel and emerged in a a massive clearing with about 100 bungalows, surrounded by trees. The bungalows were a decent space apart and all seemed to have much more privacy than you would expect in such a space. “so us wolves are very s****l creatures, We like to make sure everyone has privacy because we love to run and after a shift, as you’ve seem we return to our human forms naked” I laughed at the memory as we turned and head back towards the main house. “Right breakfast and then you have to meet with dad again while we have training.”