The Lost Son.

Chapter 11

Alex had spent the day hard at work clearing out trees and bushes, stacking up the branches and other items that he wouldn't be able to use for either firewood or building supplies, on the porch of the cabin. He looked around and smiled at all of the hard work he had accomplished already. The place was already starting to look better. Tomorrow he would make a trip into town and get some much needed equipment he didn't get the last time he has there. Right now however he really wanted a shower and grumbled about not having one. He had however found an old bathtub in the bushes earlier and decided that a nice hot bath would be pretty nice too.

He dragged the old tub over to his tent and quickly wiped it out with his dirt shirt from the day. Then went about collecting enough water to fill the tub. When he had almost every available pot, bucket and water bottle filled with water he got to work starting a fire and boiling water. As he waited for the water to start boiling he did another once over of the tub and was surprised at how clean it actually became. He propped up the tub on a few large rocks and after making sure it was steady and finding an old rag to plug the hole, began to fill it with the boiling water.

Alex headed into the tent and grabbed a towel from his tent and brought it out to the tub and laid it on a chair next to it. Then he grabbed a shovel and moved some of the hot orange coal from the fire underneath the tub. It would help keep the water warmer for longer.

When the tub was full he stripped off his dirty, sweaty clothes and piled them on the chair he had placed his towel. Slowly he stepped into the tub and eased his sore muscles into the hot water hissing as his body was engulfed in steaming hot water.

"God this feels good," he quietly groaned to himself, laid his head back against the edge of the tub and closed his eyes. He was not a stranger to hard labor, actually he had done quite a lot of it in his younger years. He had spent his high school years doing construction in the summer. His family might have had money, but he had preferred to make his own. When he graduated high school he had spent a few years traveling around the world with a group of people building houses and schools for people in third world countries. He hadn't made any money doing it but it made him happy, then his father had gotten sick and he moved back home and started business school to make him happy. A month or two after he had graduated his father died and left him in charge of his estate and all of his businesses. He would have been completely overwhelmed if it hadn't been for his fathers most trusted advisor, Irwin.

Irwin had been working for his father since before he was born and after his mother had died Irwin had helped to take care of Alex, until he had become too much of a handful and his father had carted him off to military school. Which, after the first year, he had decided wasn't that bad and it helped him find a healthy outlet for the extra anger and aggression that he had been feeling. He ended up staying at the military academy through his high school years and graduated in the top of his class.

After his father had died Irwin ended up telling him that he was in fact adopted, and Alex spent the next couple years searching for any information about his birth parents he could find, but when absolutely nothing was found he gave up and poured himself into his father’s business. He turned is fathers multi-million-dollar business into a multi-billion-dollar business’s that was going strong on its own. Finally, he grew board of the suit and tie thing and decided to sell off everything, which ended up leaving his bank accounts astonish full and bought the largest piece of property he could get in the middle of nowhere and well that was where he was now. Soaking in a hot bath in the open air, starring out at the beautiful sunset as it faded from the sky.

Alex closed his eyes again and couldn't help but think about the beautiful blond women he had met. He knew that he had to see her again and started thinking about how he was going to go about seeing her again. After about an hour his coals finally died out and the water began getting cold. He quickly scrubbed his hair with the soap he had grabbed earlier and then slid under the water and rinsed off. He stood up and grabbed his towel and then stepped out of the tub. The night air was cool against is moist skin and he ran to his tent to get dressed.

********

Emera was excited when she saw Ernest pulling back up to the pack house. She ran up to the truck and called for the two closest wolfs to her to come over too.

"Drive it around to the back door Ernest," she called out as she and the two wolfs headed around the corner of the building. Ernest pulled up to the back door and parked as close to the door as he could get before jumping out of the truck and opening the tail gate.

"Ben, Tyler, you guys grab that side and Emera and I will take this side. We don't want to drop it so walk together,” Ernest mumbled as she slid his hands under the edge of the box. After a bit of finagling they finally got the dishwasher through the back door of the building and into the kitchen. They sat it on the counter and waited well Ernest looked around the kitchen area to see how he could get it to go in.

"Ernest, get all the help you need to get this thing running by morning," Emera smiled and couldn't help but think how much Cookie would appreciate this. Ernest nodded at her to show he understood and quickly set to work measuring things to find just the right place to put it.

Emera walked out of the kitchen leaving it in his capable hands and headed back to her office. When she rounded the corner of the hall way she was surprised to see Grant patiently waiting for her with his hands in his pockets. She had totally forgotten about having to meet with Grant today. There was so much going on that she had put his little outburst in the back of her mind. She walked by without saying anything to him and open the door and walked in and sat in her chair. Grant slowly walked in behind her and then closed the door behind him before sitting down.

They sat across from each other for a couple of minutes in and awkward silence the was almost suffocating. Emera felt like a school principle having to chastise someone. Grant still wouldn't look up at her. In a way she was the school principle, the police, the judge, and a ref too. She was the boss, the one that everyone went to for answers, for guidance, for everything. At that moment she couldn't help but think about how nice it would be to have someone else to go to when she had problems. She took a breath and started.

"So... What is your choice?" She looked at Grant and set herself up for the worst. She didn't want him to leave the pack. But if it happened she would make herself ready for it.

"Well, like you said I took a while and thought about it,” Grant started, "I don't want to leave the pack!" Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when she heard his answer.

"That's wonderful Grant, I am honestly happy to hear you say that."

"I also want to take this time to let you know that I don't want to go to school nest year."

"But I..."

"I want to become a member of the Elites!" Grant cut her off before she could try to convince him to leave for school. Emera sat there and just stared at him for a what seemed like forever. Grant began to squirm under her gaze.

"It's going to be a lot of hard work," she finally said.

"I know."

"Lots of extra training,"

"I know."

"And lots of self-control in both wolf and human form," she finished and watched his body language for a few moments. He seems to understand what was going to be expected of him and she could tell he wasn't going to waver.

"Are you sure you want this?"

"Yes, I am very sure!" Grant locked eyes with the alpha and she could tell he was dead set on this plan. She took a deep breath and couldn't help but feel both proud of him and scared of him at the same time. At that moment she could sense a change in him but could quite put her finger on what it was yet.

" Okay then! We start training tomorrow morning." Her elites were the pack pride and joy and she treated them like military team. Though she had wanted to join the military when she was younger, Vandalen, the former alpha, forbid her to do so. So instead she just trained harder and longer and decided to shoot for taking over as alpha a few years earlier then she originally planned.

"One more thing Grant," she called to him as he was heading out the door, " Get yourself and Ernest some dinner and then go help him in the kitchen until he is finished with Cookies new toy." Grant nodded and walked out of the room.

Emera was happy that Grant had decided to stay, she liked the kid and he would make a valuable member of the Elites, after ALOT of training. Emera looked at the clock, it was 6:30pm. Wow this day has flown by, time to grab some dinner. The rest of the night went by uneventfully and she decided to do the final check of the barracks after the girls all left tomorrow, there was too much for her to do to be able to go with them, and in a way she was happy about it. She headed to bed and set her alarm clock for the first time in forever. She normally didn't have to worry about it but the last two days she had been waking up late and didn't to wake up late of Grants first day of training. She quickly drifted off to sleep after he head hit the pillow and was soon sucked into her dreams.