Joshua and I walked through the first floor and straight to the kitchen to see Diane first. She looked up at me from the extra-large kitchen island where she was prepping dough. Her face was covered in flour, and she was smiling from ear to ear.
“You look happy,” I smiled back at her.
“I am. I used to run the pack house kitchen for Alpha MacKenzie, but when I got pregnant with Angelica, he basically fired me. He said she-wolves should be home raising their pups and not working,” she scowled.
“Don’t get me wrong, I loved raising Angelica. It’s just I enjoy making food for everyone. It makes me happy.”
I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face. Seeing pack members happy and loving their work would increase my own happiness tenfold.
Two young men came in from the kitchen side door carrying bags of groceries.
Diane looked up and said to them, “Line the counters, boys. I’ll unpack them in a few minutes.”
I tilted my head as I ultimately watched four different young men bring in more than fifty bags of food and fill the countertops. Diane glanced at me and then explained.
“The four guys are line cooks from the chow wagon for the ranch hands, cowgirls, and cowboys that run the cattle. They have a huge set-up out there, like a cafeteria, for feeding all ninety-six of the ranch’s employees.”
“Gabriel sent me out there to meet them last night, and the head chef loaned these four guys to me for the next couple of days. I gave them a list and the credit card Tristan gave me to go into town and buy what I needed to stock the pantry.”
I was very impressed.
“We’ll have to make a list and get on a regular order system to have things delivered in the long run. I have a ledger here where I’m going to enter the receipts until you and Tristan decide on a budget for the main house pantry.”
She turned back to the boys who had finished bringing in the bags of food by this time, “Can you gentlemen start clearing out the Great Hall of furniture and take it to the storage warehouse? We need to get some tables and chairs in here.”
“You got it,” one of the guys said as they headed out.
“It looks like you have things well in hand here,” I said to her happily, and then, “Diane, do you have an approximate breakdown of who David will be bringing to us? Avery said it would be somewhere around five hundred people.”
She dusted her hands on her apron and then walked over to a counter set up a bit like a desk with notepads, notes, and pencils everywhere.
She shuffled through the small stacks. She found what she was looking for and came back with a sheet of paper.
“I made you a list of general numbers and demographics. This is both David’s and my families. There are twenty-one heads of household, but as you can see most of the adults have mated and are now having children. I’ve made note of families and a few unmated wolves, whether they’re male or female, and so on.”
I looked down at the list thinking that Diane was an impressive organizer, and no one could pay me enough to fire her from any job in my household. Alpha MacKenzie must be a foolish man.
I quickly scanned the list: twenty-one heads of house plus their mates, children, children’s mates, and grandchildren. The total number of wolves in their families was 456. Beneath that was written “+53” and the total circled was “509”.
“What’s this plus fifty-three?” I asked.
“Avery added that. When Tristan told her your story and what happened to you both after you found out you were mates, she told him about these wolves. These are all the wolves in her father’s pack who have no families and are treated like slaves. Many of them are orphans who have no blood relation to us. One of the things she and Tristan asked David to do is to bring as many of them as possible. David had his uncles gather them secretly before they left MacKenzie’s territory.”
My chest felt tight, and my eyes filled with tears. Who knows what kinds of horrors these pups had suffered. I felt so touched that Avery and Tristan had done this. No wonder he had been so happy when I told him I wanted to make sure no one was ever treated like I was. He was bringing to me a lot of wolves that would need this thoughtful care.
I swallowed and blinked away my tears before reading the final breakdown of wolves: 75 mated pairs, 41 unmated adults, 288 children living with parents, and 30 orphan children.
On the back of the page was the household breakdown of how many people per family unit. Diane noted that she thought the best idea was to create a bunkhouse for the kids and have a few adults staying with them to care for them, like a sleep-away camp. Then, we can bunk several adults to each bedroom temporarily if necessary.
“This is a great idea, Diane.”
She nodded and continued, “I also made note that there are two bedrooms on the ground floor, and thirty bedrooms on the second floor. They all have private bathrooms. Additionally, since we are converting the Great Hall into a dining hall, the formal dining room on the ground floor could potentially be partitioned into two additional bedrooms if we can clear out the furniture. That gives us a total of 34 bedrooms we can use.”
“I know Avery and Angelica are moving up to the third floor with you and Tristan for now. David and I will take you up on the offer to stay in one of the other bedrooms if that suits you.”
I nodded, “Yes, please do. You will both be working hard to help us get everyone settled. You need a good bed.”
She nodded gratefully, “Thank you, Luna.”
Joshua had been looking over my shoulder as I went through the numbers and spoke with Diane. He was making notes on his pad. He glanced up at me and saw me watching him.
“What have you noted there?” I asked.
“You’ve got your unmated adults and children that can sleep in bunkbeds for now. That’s 180 bunk beds that will sleep 360 people. We just need a place to put them all.”
“Let’s plan on 160 bunk beds for the children. I have another idea for the unmated adults.”
I started thinking about where all these bunks could be placed and realized we had the perfect spot.
“Come with me, Joshua,” I said with excitement.
We left the kitchen and walked down the south-wing hallway. At the end of the hall, a pair of ornate double doors were covered in dust and looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in ages.
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“What’s this?” Joshua asked.
“It’s a ballroom!” I revealed as I threw open the double doors.
Joshua opened his mouth in shock, “I had no idea there was a ballroom here!”
“Gabriel told me that the year the house construction was completed, there was a vampire council ball, and he was the host. That’s why he designed the house with an extra-large ballroom and so many bedrooms. It was essentially built to host the council’s celebration that year.”
We stood in the doorway, looking into the massive space. From this vantage point, it seemed like it could fit a football field inside of it.
I stepped in and looked beside the doors until I found two panels of switches. I flipped up all the ones on the panel labeled “lights.”
Examining the second panel labeled “shades,” I also decided to flip all of these up. A soft humming noise began to echo across the ballroom as we watched all the blackout shades rising along one wall.
This turned out to be an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out into the forest. It was breathtaking.
Once the shades were fully open, I turned to survey the ballroom, which was now flooded with light. It smelled a little musty, and the floor was covered in a layer of thick dust.
I walked over to the windows, and as I got closer, I noticed a larger panel with one big switch just to the right of the window wall. It wasn’t labeled, but I flipped it up to see what it would do. The sound of creaking mechanisms echoed through the ballroom as the wall of windows began to retract.
The process was slow, and the windows took about three minutes to open fully. Just outside the ballroom, a flat stone patio had been laid in a decorative pattern. The stones went right up to the edge of the forest.
The sudden influx of fresh air lessened the heaviness of the ballroom atmosphere.
I glanced around, taking in the details of the modern-style ballroom. It reminded me a lot of the garage, with thirty-foot-tall cedar-planked ceilings and massive iron chandeliers of a simple, clean design.
The floors were polished concrete with a beautiful, scrolling design stained across it. There was a luxurious fabric wallpaper along all the walls that didn’t contain windows. It seemed to be made of some kind of linen in a dark charcoal gray color. Vampires and black seemed to be a theme.
Joshua called, “I’ll be right back!”
He jogged down the hall and out of sight. I walked the room and took in the fine details as I waited for him to return. He reappeared in less than ten minutes with a measuring wheel, which looked like a single wheel on the end of a stick.
Joshua placed it on the floor in one corner of the ballroom and jogged the length of the space while rolling the wheel along between him and the wall.
As he worked, I stepped outside the ballroom back down the hall and observed two more ornate doors on either side of the hallway with signs reading “Gentlemen” and “Ladies.”
I knew the bathrooms were built for the event. I stepped into the ladies’ room and saw it was massive. There was a sitting area with plush furniture in shades of brown and gold. Past that were sinks, mirrors, and a few vanities. Walking further into the space, I counted thirty toilet stalls and, past that, a door with frosted glass. It read “Showers” in the middle of the frost.
Curious I opened the door to this space and saw a sauna, a dozen shower stalls and another door, also frosted, that read “Pool.”
This surprised me as I didn’t know the house even had a pool. I pushed through this door and was enveloped by a pleasant warmth and an indoor pool of Olympic size. There were lounging chairs surrounding the large space on either side of the crystal-clear water. And again, there was an entire wall of windows with mechanical shades. The extravagance and opulence of this space seemed out of line with Gabriel’s character, but I knew from our conversation about the council’s events that these words were synonymous with typical vampires of great age. It was obvious to me he had built it for the gathering.
I retraced my steps, exited the ladies’ bathroom, and crossed the hall to walk through the door labeled “Gentlemen.” This bathroom was a similar setup, but with urinals added in place of the vanities installed in the ladies’ room. This gentlemen’s space also had showers, a sauna and a smaller room that had a half-sized pool and hot tub.
With the dustiness and disuse of the ballroom, it was a surprise to see these pool rooms so well kept and I wondered about them being part of the housekeeping or gardening chores of the ranch staff.
Heading back to the ballroom, I considered how converting it into a children’s dorm gave the kids easy access to these facilities. It was very convenient, but I might decide to lock the pool rooms unless there were adults present to supervise the children.
I arrived back in the ballroom just as Joshua jogged back towards the door.
He looked down at his paper and said, “We can fill it with bunk beds along this longer empty wall across from the windows. At the far end, I suggest erecting a few cubicle walls and placing beds and dressers inside to house any adults or parents who are willing to stay and oversee the children.”
“Perfect,” I replied.
Joshua looked at me and then asked curiously, “How do you know so much about the house already?”
“Gabriel gave me an overview yesterday evening along with the architecture plans. I studied them briefly last night while I waited for Tristan to finish his meeting, but clearly, I didn’t read them in great detail.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“There are two indoor swimming pools attached to the shower rooms in these bathrooms,” I gestured out into the hallway.
Joshua grinned, “I’ve heard about them, but I haven’t been there. The landscaping staff maintains the pool areas, but no one dares to use them without permission.”
I nodded and Joshua continued, “Do you have any additional ideas for this children’s dorm?”
“Maybe keeping the central space open for a play area? I’m not sure about the size of the bunk beds, but will they all fit?”
“They’ll fit. I have some ideas for that,” Joshua replied confidently.
“It’s a lot to build,” he continued. “This will go faster if we pull some ranch hands, cowgirls, and cowboys over to help.”
“Including partitions for the ballroom, twelve queen beds and dressers, 160 bunks, a dining room partitioned into two bedrooms with beds and dressers, I think we can do it in two days if we have enough hands.”
I sighed with relief, “Then go ahead, please. I’ll have Diane send the boys from the Chuck Wagon over to give the ballroom a good clean now while you’re working on gathering supplies and people. You get it done, and I’ll get the mattresses and bedding ordered for when the beds are complete.”
Joshua replied, “Hold off on the cleaning for now. We’re going to build the beds right inside the ballroom, so it’s best to let us clean up after the builds before the mattresses come in.”
“Great idea, thank you.”
Joshua nodded, then pulled a cell phone out of his pocket to call the shop, “Excuse me, Luna.”
I nodded and began to walk down the hallway away from the ballroom. I could hear Joshua’s conversation as I walked.
“Vera, get everyone down here to the south wing ballroom inside the main house - the whole shop. Call Easton down at the hardware store in town and tell him we want every two by four, four by four, and sheet of sanded plywood available in the state of Montana...that’s right, all sizes. We’ve got some work to do, and I need all hands-on deck,” Joshua was saying into the phone.
The ballroom would temporarily sort out the children and twelve mated couples. That left us with housing to prepare for 41 unmated wolves and 63 mated couples. We had 34 bedrooms once the dining room was converted. So that left us with a need for 70 beds still.
As I headed into the main area of the house, I mind-linked Angelica to meet me in the downstairs library to report on linens and towels. I stopped off in the kitchen with Diane to ask for something to keep the receipts in. She happened to have a medium box with a lid that was the perfect size.
When I got to the library, I saw Angelica seated on a comfortable sofa in a seating area arranged by the fireplace. She appeared to be deep in thought, tapping on her notepad with a pencil.
I walked in, and she looked up at me.
I grinned, pulled the black card out of my back pocket, and said, “Online shopping?”
Her face broke into a huge smile, “Now you’re speaking my language.”
I pulled out two of the ranch’s laptops from a bottom drawer in the large central desk in the room. Gabriel had told me about the many ranch laptops in the manor and where to find them.
I handed one to Angelica as I settled on the sofa next to her. I put my feet up on a small, cushioned ottoman and opened my laptop. They were not password-protected and were already on the ranch’s wi-fi network.
We talked about our game plan then got to work ordering mattresses, pillows, sheet sets, blankets, towels, washcloths and rugs. We focused on stores that could get the items to us the next day or within two days tops.
Three hours later, we had found enough items to make the house livable for all the wolves we were expecting.
After completing the orders and printing receipts to place in our box, we both stood to stretch.
“Let’s get some lunch,” I said, and my stomach growled at the thought.
We headed to the kitchen for lunch, where, hopefully, Tristan and Avery would meet us to give us an idea of how much housing was available outside the main mansion.
I felt satisfied with a meaningful morning’s work and couldn’t wait to meet our new pack members.