-Seth-
Thankfully, Dad and Benjamin are the first ones to arrive for the meeting. I saw them talking to Andrew last night. Neither of them bothered to link me and let me know. It took every bit of self-control and a bit of Molly blocking the door to keep me from going down there.
I was excited to have kids. I was thrilled it was twins. I knew, though, that one day I would have to tell my son the truth- that his grandfather had killed his uncles. There’s no way around that truth when you’re to be the king. Benjamin’s request not to tell them until they were older was a blessing. Unfortunately, I still view Andrew as a child, and this has been hard. I can’t imagine the questions he had for them.
As always, he did exactly what Calvin would have done. Andrew listened to them, stood up, and walked away to absorb what was said. I knew it was hurting him because he didn’t immediately have questions. Then, he went to Grandma Cora’s house.
His growing relationship with his great-grandmother wasn’t something I could have ever anticipated. She’s an old woman who talks in circles. I love her, but I’m not sure she’s the most stable influence in his life right now. Or, maybe, it’s helping take some of the pressure off of him. She’s calming, and he needs that.
“He talked to Mom last night,” Dad tells me as he takes a seat.
I nod. “I watched him walk toward her house. I halfway expected them to go back to the wolfsbane grove.”
“You’ve got to strip down to get in it,” Benjamin smirks. “I don’t think he wants to do that and crawl behind Grandma.”
I blink a few times, making a face. As much as I love her, I don’t want to see her naked, wolf or not. I’m aware that’s not a very kingly series of thoughts, but no. I don’t want that at all, and I’m sure Andrew doesn’t either.
“Is he OK?” I ask the men.
Dad frowns as he looks at me. I know this was difficult for him. All the kids, but especially mine, view him as a hero. He’s the former king. He lives in the palace and is their fun grandpa who swoops in when Mom and Dad are mean. He had to look my son in the face and destroy the image of himself he had created because he had made a massive mistake. It was a mistake that hurt people he now loves and changed the course of their lives.
“He’ll be fine,” Benjamin says, since Dad won’t say anything. “He understands why he can’t tell the other kids. It’ll be awkward for a bit, but he’ll be fine.”
Dad shakes his head. “He won’t understand until he makes a mistake he can’t fix. But I think he understands to stay away from prophecies.”
I nod. At least that’s been taken care of.
Everyone else begins to file into the office and sit at the conference table, and then the couch and chairs nearby. Calvin and Anthony stand in the back, because while this space was once big enough for a family meeting, it’s not anymore.
The last to arrive are Robert and Andrew. My son looks as serious as ever, and I’m sure he’s been speaking with his uncle about something. It wouldn’t have been about Dad, though. Did he go to Molly’s brother about what we told him about Jacob?
“So who is running this training?” Anthony speaks up, getting things moving.
I sigh. “Me?”
Dad laughs a bit. “We all will be.”
“We’re moving here?” Robert asks.
I shake my head. “That’s what we need to figure out. We need to decide what age we’re starting at for them to stay. Obviously, we aren’t sticking with the traditional age of fifteen. Only Cora and Andrew have reached that.” They’re also the only kids we allowed in the meeting.
“You want Katya and Robbie to stay now, even though they’re only fourteen?” Ada asks.
“Yes, I think they’ll both be fine. I think twelve is a good age if you all are agreeable,” I tell them. “And if you don’t want them here and would prefer the traditional alpha training, that’s fine. I’m not going to be offended.”
Robert scoffs. “Anything would be better than that. Are you going to actually be tough on them, Uncle Seth?”
“We will be, but within reason,” Molly speaks up. “Mom and David are moving back here and will help with their schooling. These kids will understand the physical requirements, but also be able to read a law book and understand it.”
Carrie leans forward. “Why are we here? We waited to have kids until our pack was stable. Our oldest is only ten.”
“Because I think that weekend trainings for the younger ones will be helpful,” Molly says. “They’ll get a little training before they move here. It should make it easier for them to adjust.”
Calvin looks unsure, and I know what he’s thinking. He’s the best fighter out of all of us, even his dad. Is this the best training for his kids?
I meet my brother-in-law’s eyes. “You can come train them, too. Michael will be helping with that, even before Olivia reaches the age for training.”
He nods, acknowledging the other man. “Olivia will be training?” Oliver asks.
I thought I had been clear when I asked them to join us. “You’re family, Oliver. Olivia is family, in more ways than one. She HAS to be trained.”
Everyone here knows how Olivia got to Oliver and Michael. I’ve been lucky enough to perform a few blood adoptions, and don’t get me wrong, I adore Katya. I think Olivia’s was my favorite, though.
Ada and Anthony’s older sister, Dorothy, called to tell me she was pregnant. She had been messing around with her gamma, but he went to help a border pack and died in an attack. She didn’t think she could handle her duties as Alpha and successfully raise a child, and asked me to help find someone to take her pup.
I was sitting in front of Michael when she called that day, and while I didn’t want to separate a pup from its mother, I could think of no one better than he and Oliver. While the two work in the palace, Olivia joins my own kids for school. She is a part of this family, and we love her dearly.
Oliver is a chef, and Michael is a guard. But Olivia was born of an Alpha and carries that gene. There is a large chance that when Dorothy passes, her pack will fall to her biological daughter. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s a possibility. It would be a disservice not to train her and have her prepared for the possibility.
“So we agree, kids twelve and older get to stay?” Robert asks. “Because Ryan will be pissed he’s being left out. Don’t let him wear you down.”
I smirk. Ryan is a handful. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he was Benjamin’s offspring, too. The kid is sneaky and mischievous. He’s also strong.
“Twelve is good,” Andrew says firmly. “Where are we going to stay?”
Celeste smiles. “You’ll be moving into platform tents soon. The girls will be separate, but you’ll all be in tents unless the temperature drops below freezing.”
Andrew nods, but Cora looks at us in horror. “You can’t. Does Katya know about this?”
“She’ll know soon,” Ada laughs. “You girls need to learn. You will survive it.”
“What about a bathroom?” Cora asks, her bright green eyes so wide.
Benjamin wraps an arm around her and smiles. “You’re getting a brand-new latrine.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “You can’t do this to me.”
Molly suppresses a giggle. “You’ll get to come into the palace every other weekend, and we’ll have the smaller kids out there instead.”
We call the rest of the kids into the room and explain the very vague plan to them. Atticus smiles bigger than I’ve ever seen from him, but Randy frowns.
“Why do I have to go to training? I’m not the oldest,” Randy says from where he stands beside his dad, Robert.
“Because you are strong,” I tell him as Olivia climbs into my lap. “There are alphas that do not have an heir to take their pack. Some Alphas will eventually need to be removed. The alpha bloodline is weakening throughout the kingdom. You lot are stronger than most. I don’t know what we will do, but I need to know that you are strong enough to take a pack if it becomes necessary.”
“Even me?” Olivia asks, looking up with her big hazel eyes.
“Especially you,” I tell her. “We have some pretty strong alpha shewolves now. There’s no reason to stop that when it’s working so well.”
Aksara