The Emerald Storm of Her Return

Chapter 5 Wolves for Dummies

I woke up the next morning feeling completely rested. This bed really was amazing. It was about 9:30 and I knew everyone would already be downstairs having breakfast. While I had been gone for a while, the pack routine was something I could never forget. All the men and warriors had training every morning at 7:30 until 9 and breakfast right after. Pack security is always a number one priority in any pack, so everyone is trained to some level in combat and defensive techniques. Wolves start as young as middle school in a training program that you graduate from once you graduate high school. Anyone who wishes to partake in further training or to become a warrior, can. This was mostly men, but there were a few she wolves that were badass warriors. Like Demi.

I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth and splash some water on my face. I threw on an oversized light blue “USC Soccer” crew neck sweater, some white Adidas shorts, a pair of white half calf socks, and my white Birkenstock slides. Throw my hair into a hair clip and head downstairs to the private dining room for the members that lived in the pack house.

I walked in and was met with a smile from everyone gathered at the table.

“Good morning sweetie, how did you sleep your first night in your new room?” Aunt Tia asks me.

“Like a freaking rock, I don’t know what that bed is made out of but it’s dangerously comfortable.”

Aunt Tia chuckled and smiled with pride.

“Oh I’m so glad, now go get yourself some breakfast.”

I head over to the table with all the food, which is where Vinny is no doubt getting his third helping of food.

“Finally, look who's up.” He says, teasing me.

“I let you sleep because it’s your first day back, and yesterday was a long day, but you’ve been gone for a long time, and you’re going to need to get back to training, to refresh and catch up. I won’t be there to protect you all the time and you’re going to need to at least be able to handle yourself.”

Man he wasted no time. He is getting ready to take over as Alpha soon, and Uncle Sam has him taking on the role more, handling certain Alpha responsibilities.

“Yes Alpha” I say sarcastically and begin loading my plate.

The spread in front of me was spectacular. The cooks here in the pack house have always been top notch. I sit down with my food in between Aunt Tia and Vinny. Charlie is sitting on the other side of Vinny.

“Good morning, Jo” Charlie smiles at me.

“Good morning, Charlie” I returned her smile.

“Sweetie, you are going to go with Charlie and I today and we’re going to begin refreshing you on wolf laws, our pack laws, and anything wolf related you may need catching up on. It’s been a little while and we want to be sure you’re well versed.” Aunt Tia informs me.

“Sounds good, I was going to ask anyway, I don’t want to look foolish.” I say.

“Oh, Demi will also be joining us.” Tia states.

Yay. I loved hanging out with Demi, I was glad Aunt Tia was helping us get time together. I knew she was busy being a pack warrior and didn’t want to bug her.

We finished breakfast and headed to Aunt Tia’s office to begin, Demi was going to meet us there. She wanted to shower after breakfast. As I began looking over some basic texts, I’m reminded how long it’s been since I even thought about this stuff. I realize how severely uneducated I actually am. I was good with our pack laws, but wolf law was tougher.

I brushed up on wolf rankings, pack members and responsibilities, our current allied packs and their ranked members, the Moon Goddess, the relationship between us and our wolves, and other basic wolf knowledge. As we went over the texts Aunt Tia grabbed from the library, they too realized how much I had forgotten. We began to go over what my first shift would be like. Charlie couldn’t believe I was 23 and hadn’t shifted yet. “Dang girl I can’t imagine. I shifted three days after my 18th birthday. I don’t know if my wolf would have waited until I was 23.” Charlie is 24, a year older than I. Aunt Tia reminded her that the purpose of me going to school was to remove myself from being a wolf for a little, to heal. And that my wolf would have known and respected that, since they are a part of us, they feel and experience everything that we do. Aunt Tia was very wise. Charlie just nodded in understanding and smiled at me. We had decided that the first time I would shift would be in a few days. It was a painful process and they wanted me to prepare myself before we did it. I was a bit disappointed, I wanted to see Lyanna. I knew she had to be getting antsy to show herself and let her legs loose. But I figured they had a good reason for wanting me to wait, so I agreed. We moved on to other topics.

“No offense Jo, but we may need to get you a wolves for dummies book.” She joked with me, and Aunt Tia chuckled.

I half smiled, but looked up at both of them in defeat.

“I know, I suck” I blurted out.

“Oh honey no, you don’t suck, you’re just rusty. It’s alright, we’ll just have to take some time.” She reassured me.

Rather than sit there and sulk, like I had always done, I decided to take a different approach.

“You’re right, I’m just frustrated with myself, but I’ll get it. I mean I’ve pretty much spent the last six years perfecting how to study well.” I say, trying to convince myself.

“Atta girl” Charlie encourages me.

“Now let’s get to a topic that's a little more fun shall we?” she says with a smirk.

“Mates.” she says.

“Oooo good idea” Aunt Tia agrees with a smile to match Charlie’s.

“Oh boy, I don’t know if I like the way you’re both smiling right now” I say to them with my eyebrows raised.

They both chuckled at my comment.

“I take it your mate wasn’t in attendance last night.” Aunt Tia says to me. “We would have definitely noticed that.”

She was right of course. I didn’t feel any kind of pull to any of the male wolves at the party last night. It wasn’t uncommon to have a mate from a different pack, so there was really no surprise I didn’t find him yet.

“Nope, nothing.” I confirmed.

“Good, no one in this pack is good enough for you.” Demi has now entered the conversation.

“Well no one that she isn’t already related to.” She mumbles to herself.

“Ah welcome Demi, please come join us.” Aunt Tia welcomes her with a smile.

“Hey Demi” Charlie says cheerfully.

“Hi Charlie” Demi says to her, less enthused.

This looked weird to me but I brushed it off, I had a lot to catch up on.

“We were just talking about mates.” Aunt Tia informs her.

“Cool cool. Sorry I won’t have too much to add considering I haven’t found my mate.” She says with a disappointed look.

“It’ll happen my dear.” Aunt Tia says to her warmly. “The moon goddess has a mate for everyone.” She says smiling.

“And when you find them, boy is it worth it. I still remember the first time I saw Alpha Sam. My knees had become weak instantly, and his scent nearly knocked me over. When we made eye contact, I had never seen a man walk across a room faster and with such passion in his face.” She was now completely lost in her flashback.

“When he finally made it to me and we touched for the first time, I thought my body was going to explode.”

She realizes where she is and who she is speaking to. The look on all of our faces told her we were slightly amused at her lapse of awareness, and began to blush.

“The fact that I still get the same butterflies after 27 years together should tell you how powerful the mate bond actually is.” She regains her composure.

I looked at Charlie, “is it really that intense?” I ask her.

“Not to gross you out, but, yes. The moment Vinny and I met, I was absolutely obsessed with him. I wanted…. No, I needed to be next to him, in his arms. Even now, I ache to be with him.” She says with longing in her eyes. “And when you mark each other” she points to the mark on her neck from Vinny located just under her right ear, “those feelings get even more intense.”

Aunt Tia hands me a small book on mates and I begin scanning it. One part in particular catches my attention and I ask to no one specific, “can severing the mate bond really kill you?” All three of their eyes darted to me with concern.

“Uhm, y-yes sweetie, not always, but it can, depending on how s-strong the mate bond is for them.” Aunt Tia barely gets out.

Why did all of their demeanors change all of a sudden?

“Why do you all look like you’ve just seen a ghost?” I say, determined to understand.

“W-well honey, it’s what killed your father” she says with a familiar sound of sympathy I had gotten used to.

“What?” Was all I could manage to say, or think.

Clearly wishing the conversation wasn’t going in this direction, Aunt Tia proceeded.

“On that horrible day, it was your mother who had been murdered. Your father was not even here, he was tending to pack business with your Uncle Sam.” I had blocked out that day many years before I left for school, it didn’t even occur to me that my father was in fact, not here.

“When your mother passed, it severed the very strong bond she and your father had. The pain of losing his mate, his Luna, his everything, the mother of his beautiful daughter….” Her eyes were now full of tears. Charlie and Demi sat there in silence, looking at the floor.

“His body and wolf couldn’t take the pain, and it killed him.”

I hadn’t even realized I was full on sobbing when she finished.

Not only was I totally unaware of the power of the mate bond, but it was so strong that it actually killed my father, a powerful Alpha. The reminder of that day sent me back to the sad little Alphas orphan, and I couldn’t control the hysterical crying that followed.

At this time Vinny and Max were leaving Vinny’s room. Max is Beta Dan's son. He was also Vinny’s best friend and future Beta. They were in the hall and came in through the opened door at the sound of Tia and I crying.

“What the hell happened?” Vinny asks Charlie and Demi as he rushed to my side and wrapped me up in a hug.

“We were discussing mates a-and…” Charlie started to say, she didn’t want to mention the next part. “And Jo found out that the power of the mate bond is w-what killed her father.” She finally spit it out.

He immediately hugged me tighter, knowing this was all he could do to help.

“Jo honey, I’m so sorry, I know this isn’t something you want to relive” Aunt Tia apologized after wiping her own tears.

I followed her lead and wiped my tears as Vinny released me.

“It’s not your fault Aunt Tia, it’s been 11 years, I need to be stronger.” I say, pulling myself out of this temporary funk. They all looked at me a bit surprised at how fast I was able to recoup. I was a stronger woman now, and they were all going to see.