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The Healing Souls
Morning Meeting
Morning Meeting2266words
Update Time2024-11-01 09:40:32
[Mike]After breakfast, we got settled in Trent’s office again. Daily morning meetings were the most tedious parts of being a ranked wolf. I wanted to do pretty much anything other than those meetings. We went over overnight changes, wolves born, border issues found, anything from Victor, and things like that. Then we talked about the pressing issues for that day. Today, we were dealing with the impending arrival of Beta Roald from the Polar Star Pack in Alaska. My parents were looking for a possible second chance mate for Carmen and told me this man had the highest chance of being her second chance. I didn’t know how they determined that. For all that they spent more time around her, I was pretty sure my parents didn’t know a single thing about Carmen. Sending her to Alaska couldn’t possibly help her. She needed to be near family. Carmen loved us and I didn’t think the goddess would send her away from the people she loved. Not somewhere we couldn’t come help when she had her pups. “The Beta will be here tomorrow. Is everything ready for him?” Trent asked. “We have a room set up in the packhouse. My parents wanted him to stay in their house, but I feel like this is the best option. If he’s not Carmen’s mate, then I don’t want either one of them being uncomfortable.” I replied. “Good plan. Your parents really think he’s her mate?” “They’re so sure of it that they’re already planning the wedding.” I chuckled. “They got that put together pretty quickly for a Beta couple.” “I don’t think he’s her mate. It seemed like Carmen knew who her mate was when I talked to her about it at your party. She’s never met this guy. I don’t think she’s his mate, but I’m not going to oppose this if you want to try. Don’t be disappointed when it turns out that he’s not her mate,” Ben said. “If he’s her mate, I’ll run through the packhouse naked. My parents couldn’t have picked her mate out of a stack of random unmated males any better than I could.” I agreed. We all laughed and got back to work. There wasn’t a lot at the moment. The contract with Victor and Queen Bellamy had been completed back in spring. The ones with the coven and the fae were still in the air. They had been mostly hammered out, but we were still talking about the needs of each group when it came to them. That could take a while longer, especially with how flighty the witches seemed and how hard negotiating with the fae was. There were a lot of rules for bargaining with the fae. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to collaborate, but unlike the rest of us, they were negotiating on behalf of many different species. While we were talking about the newest changes to the witch contract in terms of the warlock who we were basically ignoring, the door flew open. We all jumped up, ready to fight. Everyone knew you didn’t interrupt the ranked members unless there was a dire emergency.My father and mother came into the office. I rolled my eyes. They knew better than this. “Alpha, you have to help. The fae have kidnapped our daughter!” My father shouted as he barged in. I stiffened. Kidnapped? I knew she was going to a party. Did something happen? “She never came home, Alpha. Please, make them give her back.” My mother sobbed. “Mom, they told us the party goes on for a few days. There was a chance she couldn’t leave. She has to wait until she can tell Rock happy birthday or it’s considered rude. Didn’t they tell you that?” She sniffled. “No, the boys who took her told us they would leave around midnight. They said it was the minimum not to be considered rude.” “I talked to Queen Maeve myself, Mom. She said all unmated females have to go into the room he’s chained up in and see if they’re his mate. He can’t reach her and the process is completely safe. They use iron chains to make Rock weak. She probably hasn’t been called back yet. That was the earliest they could leave after she was tested,” I explained. My mom turned her face against my dad’s shoulder and cried. Sometimes I couldn’t believe they had ever held the same position as Beth and me. Mom used tears to get what she wanted a lot of the time. Dad was prejudiced against fae and didn’t try to hide it. Carmen didn’t really notice because she couldn’t see his face. If she could, she would have seen how he looked at her friend. He hated the idea of a troll having anything to do with my sister and even asked me about banning him from the pack lands. “You’re saying they’re going to test if my daughter is a troll’s mate? I wouldn’t have allowed her to go if I had known that.” “You had no choice. Carmen is an adult. You may be her parent, but you aren’t her guardian. If anyone is, I am.” Trent growled at my father. “Then you go save her, Alpha. My daughter didn’t come home last night like she said she would. It’s your job to find her!” “I’ll get you the number for Queen Maeve and you may ask her to look into it. As Beta Michael said, she may not have been tested yet. You will speak respectfully to Queen Maeve. And before you come back to me, you will remember that I am not a pup any longer. I am your Alpha and you will treat me and my supports with the respect we deserve. Now, come here.”Trent wrote Queen Maeve’s number down for them and handed it to my father with a warning glare. Our Alpha didn’t like people treating him disrespectfully. He glared as my father thanked him and left, pulling my mother along with him. “Sorry about them, Alpha,” I muttered. “This is a serious concern. Yesterday morning, your father linked me that your sister was saying things. He said she was going crazy and he was worried for her. I already decided to see what that was all about because he asked me not to believe anything she said, no matter how honest she ‘thought’ she was being.” “He linked me with something similar. It was weird because Carmen had never been anything but sensible and intelligent. My sister doesn’t do ‘crazy’,” I replied. “Except for sleeping with that troll,” Ben said under his breath.I turned on him, grabbing his shirt and pulling him nose to nose with me. Ben smirked. “Don’t even fuсking joke about that.” “I’m not joking. I talked to the people who saw your sister with the troll at the club, in the pack lands…. Before and after they spent the night together. You couldn’t honestly be as blind as your parents. Now, I’m betting the troll is her mate.” “You really want me to kick your ass, don’t you?” I growled. “For telling you the truth. Your sister went out dancing and came back on the back of his motorcycle. She went to his birthday party and disappeared instead of coming home at midnight. You said it yourself, they would have tested to see if she was his mate. What happens when a troll finds their mate on their birthday?” I let him go and sat heavily in the chair. “They spend the weekend secluded with their mate…. Oh, Goddess. Carmen’s mate is a troll?” Trent came around his desk and leaned against it. Ben sat back in his chair. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I tried to comprehend my sister being mated to a troll. Sure, I could have kept letting myself deny it, but I was never one to hide from things that upset me. Carmen was mated to a troll. That was why she wasn’t as upset when talking about being rejected. She closed her eyes so we wouldn’t see that she felt different from how we thought she should. She’d done that since she was a little kid. “Are you upset because he’s a troll or because your sister didn’t tell you about her mate?” Trent asked. “A little of both. Not for the same reasons my dad would be upset. Carmen used to trust me with everything, but if she was afraid to tell me this, I wonder what else she hasn’t told me. Did it start to happen when her first mate rejected her? Can a wolf and a troll be happy together? Will she be safe with him? I don’t know a lot about trolls except that they are huge, violent, and eat both people and animals,” I told him. “We can get more information from Maeve after we find out the truth. If the goddess put Carmen and Rock together, it had to be for a good reason,” Ben assured me. “That’s right, Mike, we can get answers. We should get back to work. If we’re right, we won’t hear from Carmen until Monday or Tuesday. Let’s wrap this up and have the rest of the day with our families. I bet Beth will help you work through this,” Trent said and went back to his seat. We worked through everything else on our docket for the day and broke shortly before lunch. -By Tuesday, I was a lot calmer. If Carmen was happy, I was happy. That was the point of finding our mates. Happiness. The goddess wanted all of her children to be happy and she selected the mates who would make them the happiest and grow the most. The phone on my desk rang after I returned from lunch. I picked it up quickly. “Mike Rosen’s office,” I said into the receiver. “This is Queen Maeve. I received a distressing phone call this morning. Are you aware of the situation with a werewolf named Carmen and one of our trolls?” “Were you called by a man named Matthew Rosen?” I asked. “I was this man is related to you?” “He’s my father. Carmen is my sister. He came to us on Sunday and said that my sister had been kidnapped by fae, which we knew wasn’t true. We gave him your number so he could reach out to Sean and Rosario to find out what was going on. I assumed the matter was settled,” I replied. “It most certainly is not! That man called me this morning and demanded his daughter. He threatened my son, which is not a healthy thing to do for him, or for our treaty. Your father said that the troll kidnapped his daughter and he wanted her returned by the end of the day ‘or else’,” Queen Maeve snarled. “My apologies, your highness. He is an overprotective father and my sister is blind, so it is even worse. His threat is empty, he no longer has the power over the pack that he once had. Contact Rock, please and find out if there is anything he needs from us. I will deal with my father.” “You don’t seem to be upset or concerned.” “My sister was rejected by her first mate, but never told anyone. I’m assuming she also didn’t tell anyone when she found her second chance. All of the ranked members of the pack are fairly certain Carmen is Rock’s mate. My parents are a little blind themselves. Especially when it comes to seeing that my sister isn’t a child,” I told her. She breathed deeply. “You have accepted him as your sister’s mate, even against the wishes of your parents.” “I have. My sister deserves to be happy and if the goddess felt that Rock was the best choice, then it must be so.” “Good. Their mating will solidify our alliance. Carmen couldn’t have mated into a better community. There are some whole species of fae who are blind, including a couple of races of trolls. This will show the fae here that werewolves aren’t so different and I hope it shows the werewolves that the fae are like them in that they love and cherish their mates. I know Rock’s mother and she has worried about him since he was born,” Queen Maeve confided. “Why would she worry about him?” “Rock is only half-troll. He is smaller and weaker than other trolls. Mind you, that still makes him several times stronger than a werewolf, but it is a hard life and a shorter one. It looks like the goddess gave him a mate who will live the same length of time, so he won’t have to worry about how she will survive without him. No matter the species, losing a mate is like losing a part of yourself. Leaving one behind is just as bad.” “I understand.” “I shall call Rock and see what he has to say. My son and his fiancé have confirmed that Carmen is Rock’s mate and they have marked each other. You should prepare your Alpha for whatever your father may say or do because of this. Good day, Beta.” “I’ll do that, Queen Maeve, good day to you as well,” I replied and hung up. Shaking my head, I went to Trent’s office. We needed to fix what my father had done. He put everything on thin ice and risked everyone’s lives by threatening Rosario. My father needed to be dealt with, or he could harm us with his prejudice.