We arrived at our childhood pack and there weren’t many people hanging around the pack house. I told them to all go home and wait for me at the pack, but they were clearly in their homes and not here.

Jane and I took the kids up to my bedroom, which seemed to have been cleaned up thoroughly since I disappeared that day almost a year ago. It smelled like my mother.

There was a knock on the door, and I answered, “Come in.”

The door opened slowly to reveal my mom. She appeared much older than the last time I had seen her. She somehow looked like she had faded. All of the vibrancy and pride she carried previously was gone.

“Tristan,” she started but her voice cracked up and tears fell down her cheeks.

Jane was closer to the door and rushed over to wrap her arms around my mother in an act of kindness so generous that my mother clung to her, and she began to sob in earnest.

I walked over to them and wrapped my arms around them both. Soon after, Selly was trying to wrap her arms around our legs and Amy was gripping the edge of my t-shirt.

I started to laugh, and Jane looked up at me with a smile.

My mother sniffled and pulled away, looking at Jane with guilt clear on her face, “Jane, I...”

Jane held her hand in both of her own and said, “Shhhh. It’s forgotten. Now! I’d like you to meet your two granddaughters. This is Amy and this is Selly.”

“Girls come meet your grandmother,” I said to them.

My mother’s eyes widened, and she looked at both of us in surprise as the girls stepped closer.

“Hello, I’m Amy,” she said from a bit of a distance.

Selly walked right up to her and said, “Hello, Grandmother. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Selly and I’m four years old, but I’m almost five years old. My birthday is next month. Will you come to my birthday?”

My mother crouched down on a level with Selly and said, “My what a friendly pup you are. I would love to come to your birthday.”

She looked over at Amy and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Amy. How old are you, dear?”

“I’m six,” Amy said simply. She wasn’t as talkative with people she didn’t know well and liked to say less and observe more.

“Let me show you ladies and your father to your rooms,” my mom said as she stood up.

It suddenly made sense why my former room smelled like her. She had been living in it.

“You switched the rooms around, mom?” I asked.

“You two are the Alpha and Luna now, you will use the Alpha’s quarters. I’d been living in your old room since you left, anyway. I didn’t move just because you said you were coming,” she explained.

She must have been really angry with my father to have moved out of their rooms when I left. That somehow gave me a little bit of satisfaction that he had suffered a bit from his actions. Other than the me killing him part, that is.

We arrived at the double doors at the end of the hall, and my mother opened them then stood to the side for us to enter.

I hadn’t been in here since I was a child. The rooms had been cleaned and freshened. The only scent that lingered was my mother’s. She must have made it ready herself.

The doors opened into a little entry way that my father had used to strip off muddy or bloody clothes before taking the door to the right which was the bathroom.

There was a large shower big enough for four people and a giant bathtub I used to think I was swimming in when I was a pup.

Past the bathroom door was a sitting area with a fireplace and two comfortable armchairs nearby. The other shelves were lined with bookcases full of novels and history books. My mom was an avid reader and my parents had spent a few evenings here each month when there was nothing pressing in the pack.

Through the sitting area was a single door that led to the bedroom. It was huge, with a larger-than-king-sized custom four poster bed. It had clearly been fitted with a brand-new mattress and linens.

There was a walk-in closet to the right, that also connected with the bathroom behind the sitting area.

A large window to the left had a window seat beneath it and the curtains were open, allowing sunlight to flood the room.

On one side of the window was another single door that led to another bedroom which had been the Luna’s room way back when packs tried to emulate Europe’s lavish aristocracy where the lord and lady of the house kept separate beds. To my knowledge, my parents had never used it.

My mom walked over to the door and opened it.

“I did clean this room and dress the bed although I didn’t think Jane would want to use it. I’m happy I did, since it will make a good space for the girls to sleep.”

“Thank you, mother,” I said.

“What would you both like for dinner?” she asked.

“Not everyone eats at the pack house anymore. They got out of the habit, trying to avoid your dad and his bad temper,” she frowned.

“That explains why there aren’t as many people around,” I replied.

“What do you usually have for dinner, Luna?” Jane asked her.

She waved her hands in front of herself, “You’re the Luna now, Jane. Just call me Mom. Or Beverly, if you prefer.”

“Ok, Mom, what do you usually have for dinner?” Jane repeated her question.

I smiled with pride at my Jane. I never expected her to forgive my mother. Or even be anything more than tolerant of her presence while we sorted out the business of these pack lands.

She was extending her not only forgiveness, but an invitation to be a part of our family. That was something even I couldn’t do. It had to come from Jane, but I never expected or hoped or even imagined it would occur.

The girls were getting bored standing there listening to the adults and so I took their hands and led them into the Luna’s bedroom through the door.

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There was a queen sized four poster bed that was a smaller version of the one in the main bedroom. There was a large window here that faced the same direction as the one in the Alpha’s room and the back wall was lined with bookcases full of books. There was also another walk-in closet that connected with the Alpha’s closet and through to the bathroom.

The girls ran over to the bed and pulled themselves up. Amy stretched out her feet with her hands behind her head, and Selly began jumping on the bed, jostling Amy about.

I smiled down at them and then let out the playful growl I give when we play Daddy’s-gonna-get-you, and the girls both squealed and jumped off the bed and started laughing and running about looking for places to hide.

Amy discovered the walk-in closet and grabbed Selly’s hand and they took off through the closet back into the Alpha’s room for a quick escape.

I gave them a ten second head start and followed them through the closet and popped my head out on the alpha’s side, just as they ran out of the suite’s doors and into the hallway.

Jane and my mother were still discussing menus and how many people usually came to the main house for dinner.

I stalked the girls out of the door and down the hallway. I could scent that they had gone left where two hallways intersected, and so I took the left corridor and stopped in my tracks.

The girls were standing in the middle of the hallway looking up at my cousin, Jessica, who was sneering at them as if they were a couple of filthy pets.

I guess she wasn’t one of the ones who moved out of the pack house, unfortunately.

I walked up to the girls and crouched down next to them and said, “Let’s play later. Why don’t you run back to mommy and grandmother for now, ok? Maybe you can get them to make you some cake with dinner.”

Selly’s eyes lit up and she started tugging on Amy’s hand to go back the way they had come, “It has to be chocolate cake, Amy! Hurry we have to tell them!”

Amy followed Selly but watched us with a frown, until they turned the corner back towards our rooms.

I stood up and looked down at Jessica. I had always been taller than her but now I towered over her since receiving the Alpha Mantle.

The sour look on her face changed to a fake smile as she whined out, “It’s good to see you, cousin. We missed you so much.”

“Cut the bullshit, Jessica,” I replied.

Her eyes widened and she replied, “What’s the matter, Tristan? I haven’t seen you in almost a year and I don’t think I’ve done anything to warrant such a hostile greeting.”

“Haven’t you?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

She began to look nervous and shuffled her feet.

“I suggest you pack your bags and find somewhere else to live. I’m not kicking you out of the pack yet, that will be up to Jane to decide. But you can’t stay at the pack house anymore,” I said in a serious tone.

Jessica squeezed a few fake tears out of her eyes and whined, “What have I done to offend you? Surely my stepdaughter wouldn’t want her own mother to be homeless. I’ve hardly been in the same room with her since she was a child!”

“Your Luna knows about the witch and how you had her wolf locked away. Guess what, Jessica? The wolf is back,” I finished with a humorless grin.

Her eyes went wide with shock, and she hunched her shoulders for a moment before she turned and ran back to her bedroom, to pack her bags.

“Be gone before dinner,” I called after her.

I went downstairs to my father’s old study. His scent lingered here. No one had touched it since he’d left, and it was starting to gather a layer of dust.

There were papers strewn over the desk and filing cabinets bursting with documents.

I knew there was also a safe behind the large portrait of my father and mother on the wall behind the desk. My father had given me the combination on my eighteenth birthday. I wondered if it was still the same.

I walked around the desk and sat in the large worn leather chair and looked at the papers lying across its surface.

There were invoices for kitchen supplies and letters from other packs.

I picked one up and read the letter. Then picked up another and another. These were between my father, MacKenzie and the other three alphas that had invaded my pack territory. He hadn’t even bothered to hide them. The hubris of that old dog was astounding.

I gathered all of the ones between the five alphas and made a pile. I would read through them in detail later and see if there were any clues as to where MacKenzie might have gone.

For now, I sorted thru the other piles of paper on the desk and found several unpaid and late invoices for supplies to the pack.

Curiously, I flipped on my father’s laptop and waited for it to boot. When the password screen came up, I entered the password my father had always used for everything, and it still worked.

Opening the web browser, I typed in the name of the pack’s bank and logged into the accounts using the same login and password my father used for his laptop. It worked, also.

There were seven accounts under this login and six of them were in the red, overdrawn and gathering thousands of dollars in fees.

The seventh account had over a million dollars in it and when I clicked on it, I could see that it was my mother’s trust account. Her father had given it to her when she married my father, and it hadn’t been touched.

Clicking on that account I could see that while this login had access to view the account, there wasn’t anything that could be done with it. All of the action buttons like “transfer funds” and “order checks” were grayed out and unavailable.

I was sure that if they had been available this account would also be in the red.

I clicked on the overdrawn accounts and viewed the transactions. There were several relatively large amounts paid out every year to the council. Packs weren’t required to pay this much for council membership or maintenance. This amount was more than one hundred times what was required.

Why did my father pay so much to the council? Were they bribes? I now knew that the way my father and MacKenzie ran their packs was outside of the guidelines the council had set for acceptable pack operation. Were they able to do this because they’d bribed the council?

It wasn’t just the pack council, either. He was also paying large amounts to the vampire council, as well.

What was my father neck deep in? I suddenly felt like I’d just stepped into a whole lot of dog shit.

I wished Gabriel was awake so I could talk to him about this.

There was a knock on the door, and I sighed heavily. It was former Beta Edward Douglas.

“Come in,” I called.

He stepped into the room, closed the door behind him and then got on his knees on the floor with his head down.

“Douglas,” I said.

“Yes, Alpha,” he replied, his head still bowed.

“Why was my father bribing the councils?” I asked simply.

His was startled into looking up at my face. He didn’t know about this.

“You didn’t know?”

“No, Alpha,” he looked back down at the floor.

“What do you know?” I asked.

“Not much. Your father sent me off for six months capturing rogues and their families. He built a prison camp for the families, and I was in charge of that. The rogues were brought here for training.”

“Where is this prison camp?” I asked.

“In the mountains of Arizona,” he replied.

“The pack council is in Arizona. Did you see the council while you were there?”

“Yes, Alpha,” he answered.

“Douglas don’t make me ask specific questions. Tell me what you know,” I warned.

“Three members of the pack council were in charge of inspecting the prison camp. Alpha Martin paid for the camp and was allowed to use it to house the rogue’s families. Once we were...done with it...it was going to belong to the council.”

“So, you’re saying my father spent every dime and then some of this pack’s money to build a prison camp with the council so that he could hold rogue families hostage. Then he forced the rogues to go into battle against their will, to enact his revenge against me.” I summarized.

“Yes, Alpha,” he answered honestly.

I thought for a moment. Douglas had released the hostages upon my orders and shortly after the rogues had left my pack territory and disappeared.

I knew now that a lot of those rogues were unjustifiably exiled from my father’s and MacKenzie’s packs. They shouldn’t even be rogues in the first place.

“Douglas,” I said quietly, “get up.”

He stood up but kept his eyes on the floor.

“You are no longer Beta of this pack. The Beta of my pack is Avery MacKenzie. That being said, you need to inform everyone to be at the training arena tonight at 8pm after dinner. Everyone. I want every single pack member in attendance. Clear?” I said.

“Yes, Alpha,” he said.

“You’re dismissed,” I said, and he left quietly.

Jane and I needed to make some decisions. This pack was without funds and therefore was dead. I would put the territory up for auction with the council to pay off the debts accumulated at the bank.

It was the corruption of the councils that gave me pause. This would need to be handled carefully. I had more than enough proof in my father’s office to make accusations and bring them to trial, but it wouldn’t be an entirely safe endeavor.

The only other thing to do immediately, was to decide who would come with us to Montana and who would be cut loose.

It was going to be a long few days. I looked forward to getting back home as soon as possible.