Please remember to go to Lit to vote and comment. Thank you to everybody who helped me, especially my editor hcsd1719. To see pics of Alpha Parr and Dr. Parr, please go to the page - "Those Important to the Pack".
Forty minutes later Joe and
Victor were pacing frantically back and forth in the waiting room of Doc’s
clinic while Annie and Alberto were in the examination room with Maria. Joe could feel his agitation rising with
every step he took…that was HIS daughter in there and he didn’t like the
feeling of being replaced, pushed aside, usurped by that…
“Joe, your daughter wants to
see you,” said Doc motioning for Joe to follow him.
“About fucking time somebody
remembered I was here,” muttered Joe angrily as he hurried after Doc.
Victor sat in one of the
hard-backed chairs and said, “Sal, we
don’t know anything yet, Doc just came to get Dad, Maria was asking for him. I’m really worried.”
“You want me to come there? Everybody else went home, Madame Gina says
they’ll do the safe room tomorrow, but the family is here,” replied Sal. “Mom and Dad were waiting to hear from your
parents.”
“Maybe Aunt Rose, Uncle Frank and you,” said Victor. “I think Dad’s about to lose it, when we
were here in the waiting room, he was so angry I thought he was going to pop a
vessel.”
Sal quickly relayed the
information to his family and before he finished his mom and dad were running
out the door. “We’re on our way; see you in a couple of minutes.”
“Sit down, Joe,” said Doc as
they walked into the large examination room.
He nodded his head but first hugged his daughter and seeing her holding
hands with Alberto, he felt the anger build up in him again as he thought that
should be him comforting his daughter.
Annie could feel her mates’ agitation and gently rubbed his forearm to
try and calm him down.
“I took three x-rays and they
show Maria has a Class IV Monteggia Fracture and I recommend she have Open
Reduction Internal Fixation Surgery,” said Doc as he looked at Joe before
pointing to her x-rays.
“Doc, I don’t understand a
fucking thing you just said,” said Joe as he started getting upset again.
“Basically, the first break
to her ulna wasn’t fully healed and when she fell, the stress re-fractured the
bone and caused the radius to fracture and dislocate at the elbow. I feel surgery to insert two titanium plates
would give the bones extra stability while they healed,” said Doc as he pointed
at the x-rays. “Once the breaks are
fully healed, she would need another surgery to remove the titanium plates.”
Joe looked at his daughter
who was hooked up to an IV and appeared to be resting and said, “Can you do the
surgery here?”
“I could do the surgery Joe,
but I’ve only ever done one like this before and that was in Med School Union Memorial Hospital
“How soon can he get here?”
asked Joe as he winced when he saw Maria’s face grimace in pain.
“Alpha Parr has a helicopter
so they can be here in less then an hour,” said Doc as he adjusted the drip on
Maria’s IV, and then was silent for several moments. “Carlo said they’ll be here in less then
forty minutes, they left when he contacted them and they are bringing a
surgical team with them. If you’ll
excuse me, I need to finish getting the operating room ready and then I’ll come
in and finish prepping Maria.” He nodded
at them and quickly left the room.
Joe continued to stare at his
daughter and then abruptly got up and left the room returning minutes later
with Frank and Rose. He told them
everything Doc had said and the two brothers stared at each other and Frank
said, “What do you need us to do? The
youngsters are at the house with Ric, Rocco and Luc so they’re fine.”
“There’s nothing to do, my
baby’s getting operated on and there’s not a fucking thing I can do. I’ve never felt so damn helpless in my entire
life,” said Joe grabbing his hair as if he was going to pull it out by the root
a handful at a time.
“Dad, I hate bothering you, but how’s Maria doing?” said Vin and Frank could hear the concern in his
voice.
“They’re getting ready to take her into surgery, we’re
waiting for the surgeon to arrive from Parr Ridge Pack and I have no idea how
long the surgery is going to take,”
said Frank to the youngsters. “She’s on some pretty strong pain meds so
she’s pretty much out of it now.”
“Do you need us to do anything, Dad?” asked Vin worriedly.
“How are Uncle Joe, Aunt Annie and
Alberto holding up?”
“Your Aunt is calm, Alberto is holding onto Maria’s
hand with a death grip and your Uncle is losing his fucking mind,” said Frank as he glanced at his brother who sat
staring unblinkingly at Maria. “I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon
as we hear anything else.”
Seeing Maria grimace again,
Joe jumped to his feet and ran to the door shouting, “DOC, GET YOUR FUCKING ASS
IN HERE NOW.”
Doc hurried in and
immediately went to Maria’s side and checked the pulse in her broken arm and
the monitors before looking around and asking, “What happened?”
“SHE’S IN FUCKING PAIN, DO
SOMETHING,” shouted Joe as he waved his hands in the air.
Maria exhaled loudly and said
with her eyes closed, “Calm down Daddy, you’re making me more nervous. I’m okay, it just hurts when I move it when
I’m sleeping and it wakes me up.”
“Joe, I can’t give her any
more pain meds. I don’t want them to
interfere with the anesthesia,” explained Doc while he checked the IV line
again.
“Well, where the fuck are
they? They should have been here by
now,” Joe said angrily as he waved his arms in the air again.
“It’s only been twenty
minutes Joe, they’ll be here soon. Now
I’d like everyone to leave the room, except for Annie and Rose. We need to start prepping her,” said Doc in a
firm voice.
If possible Joe got angrier
and said, “WHY ANNIE AND ROSE? WHY CAN’T
I STAY? I’M HER FATHER DAMNIT, I WAS
THERE WHEN SHE WAS BORN, I FED HER, I CHANGED HER, I TAUGHT HER TO RIDE A BIKE,
WHEN SHE WAS SCARED AT NIGHT SHE RAN INTO MY ARMS, WHEN SHE FELL DOWN AND GOT
HURT I KISSED HER BOO-BOOS AND MADE IT BETTER.
SHE’S MY DAUGHTER FOR FUCK’S SAKE.”
“Joe, you need to calm down,”
said Annie in a soothing voice as she rubbed her hands up and down his
forearms.
“Fuck calming down, they’re
trying to take my daughter away from me,” Joe said angrily as his claws started
to extend.
“Joe, you’re losing it baby
brother. Nobody is trying to take your
daughter away, they need to prepare her for surgery,” explained Frank in a calm
voice. “She’s a teenage girl, she’ll be
uncomfortable with you in the room when they undress her to put on a hospital
gown and I’m sure you’ll see her before the surgery.”
Before Joe could reply, Carlo
walked into the examination room and said in a calm firm voice, “They’ll be
landing in fifteen minutes, Frank, Joe and Alberto will you accompany me
outside? We need to check the helipad
quickly to make sure it’s safe for them to land.” When Joe made no movement to follow Carlo’s
instructions, Carlo said in a firmer tone, “JOE.”
“Huh?” Joe said as he looked
at his Alpha, noticing him for the first time.
“He’s losing it Carlo, look at his eyes,” said Frank as he continued to stare at his brother
whose eyes were flickering between green and amber. “Come on baby brother, we need to make sure
it’s safe for the helicopter. Let Rose
and Annie help get Maria ready and by the time we’re done she’ll be changed
into a hospital gown and you can come back in.”
“I’ll be fine Daddy,”
whispered Maria as she slowly opened her eyes and nodded her head.
Joe looked at Annie and said,
“You promise she’ll be here when I get back?”
“I promise Joe, now go,” said
Annie as she hugged him tightly.
When the men got outside,
Carmelo, Angelo and Vinnie were walking around the helipad. Seeing the angry look on Joe’s face, the men
didn’t ask about Maria but glanced at Frank who shrugged his shoulders as he
turned his head to look at his brother who was staring off towards the top of South Mountain
“I’m glad we installed the
helipad when we built the Clinic,” Carlo said as he glanced at his watch. “Remind me tomorrow to buy a fucking
helicopter, we should have one here at all times. Dante can help me pick one out.”
Frank looked at Carlo and
nodded his head and then said, “Where is he?
I just noticed he’s not with you.”
“He’s in the Archive Room,
said he needed to look something up,” said Carlo with a shrug. “The whole way back from your house, he kept
muttering something about myths and legends.
I asked him what he was talking about but he said he had to make sure
before he said anything.”
Frank glanced at Carlo with a
questioning look but shook his head as if to clear his thoughts before looking
at Carmelo as he asked, “Were the safety checks done?”
Carmelo nodded his head as he
glanced at the checklist in his hand and said, “The area has been swept, we
checked the surface and there is no debris, Vinnie checked the windsock on the
roof to make sure it is free to move around and the perimeter lights are turned
on and are all functioning.”
The men got quiet as Carlo’s
phone rang, “Rossi here…five minutes…the helipad is ready for you to land…we
will be waiting.” He glanced at the men
and said, “You heard my part of the conversation, Joe go and see Maria.”
Joe spun around running into
the building and he noticed Victor and Sal in the waiting room. Seeing the concerned look on their faces he
motioned with his head for them to follow him and they ran down the hall to
Maria who was now lying on a stretcher, her hair in a surgical cap and she was
wearing a hospital gown.
Frank glanced at Alberto and
walked over to him saying quietly, “Let Joe have some time with Maria and then
you can go in. He’s not upset with you;
he’s worried about his daughter.”
Alberto nodded his head and Frank looked at him and smiled, “You think
you’re protective of Maria now? Wait
until you find out she’s pregnant and when the little one gets here, you’ll go
nuts worrying about everything. As they
get older the worry never goes away, you just get used to it.”
“They’re coming,” said Vinnie
as he pointed to the top of South
Mountain
“Doc, they’ll be here in a couple of minutes,” said Carlo as the men moved into the back door of the
Clinic so they would be out of the helicopters rotor wash. Within minutes the helicopter landed and out
stepped three men and three women who grabbed bags before ducking and running
into the building.
“Where is the patient?” a
tall black haired man with light brown eyes asked in an arrogant tone as he
glanced at his watch and shook his head.
Seeing the look of anger
starting to build on Carlo’s face, Frank said, “I’m not sure if you remember me
Eric it’s been several years, I’m Frank Carlucci and the patient is my niece Ma
…”
“Kindly address me as Dr.
Parr and I know who you are and I don’t care, now take me to the patient,” said
Dr. Parr as he interrupted Frank. He
sighed loudly before narrowing his eyes as he glanced at his watch again. “I want to get the surgery done as soon as
possible and get out of here; I have tickets to the Symphony tonight, this
couldn’t have come at a worse time.”
Frank took several calming
breaths and said, “Please follow me and I’ll take you to my niece.”
As they walked into the room
Doc Sullivan came forward and said, “Thank you for coming Dr. Parr, this is
Maria Carlucci, she is the daughter of…”
“As I mentioned to the other
one, I don’t care who she is the daughter of.
Let me look at the x-rays then I would like to scrub in,” said Dr. Parr
before moving to the wall where the x-rays were illuminated. Hearing movement behind him, he turned and
saw Carlo, Alberto and Alpha Parr walk into the room and seeing Alberto go to
Maria’s side and hold her hand, he said, “She’s awfully young to have a mate.”
Alberto stood up to his full
height of 6’5” and said angrily, “I am her intended mate; I made my declaration
weeks ago.”
Without acknowledging
Alberto, Dr. Parr turned to Doc and said, “Is there a history of violence or
abuse? The fracture doesn’t seem normal;
it’s almost as if there was a lot of pressure applied to the bone.”
Doc and Frank stepped in
front of Joe and Alberto who were growling angrily. Carlo strode forward anger apparent in every
step until he stood in front of Dr. Parr and he said in a clear commanding
tone, “She fell in front of young ones and her family while playing tag. Let me make this clear to you Dr. Parr, there
has never been and will never be violence against women in our Pack.”
“Cousin, if I were you, I
would stop the arrogant condescending attitude and do your fucking job,” Alpha
Savannah Parr said angrily, her light blue eyes flashing amber as she stood to
her full height of 5’9”. She turned to
Carlo and said quietly, “Carlo, Joe, Frank and Maria’s intended mate, I
apologize for my cousin and will take his attitude into consideration when we
discuss repayment.”
Dr. Parr rolled his eyes and
looked at Doc before saying, “I need to scrub.”
Without waiting for a response he walked out of the room, shouting
angrily to his colleagues to find out where they were.
“Again, I apologize for my
cousin,” said Savannah Savannah
Doc Sullivan came in the room
and said quietly, “It’s time to move Maria to the operating room now.” Annie, Rose, Frank and Joe leaned down and
kissed her and then moved back to give Alberto some privacy.
Alberto scented her neck
deeply and once he calmed down he leaned back to look deep into her emerald
eyes which were fluttering open and closed as she struggled to stay awake. His hand gently tucked stray strands of hair
into her surgical cap before moving down to caress her cheek as he whispered,
“I love you, Gattina.”
“You should, I’m fabulous,”
she whispered as she fell asleep with a smile on her face. Hearing Maria’s response to Alberto’s
declaration, the four elder Carlucci’s started laughing quietly while Victor
and Sal rolled their eyes.
As Doc and one of Dr. Parr’s
assistants rolled the stretcher out of the room, he stopped and looked at the
Carlucci’s and Alberto before saying, “I’ll make sure she’s well taken care
of.”
“Thank you, Doc,” said Annie
softly as she clung to Joe’s arm who continued to stare at his little
girl. He stepped out into the hall and
watched as they brought her into the surgical suite and terror gripped his
heart.
“They’re taking her into surgery now,” Frank said to the youngsters. “I’m
still not sure how long the surgery is going to be. Could you come pick up Victor and Sal? They don’t need to be sitting here.”
“Okay Dad, Dom is on his way,” said Vin as his twin grabbed his keys and hurried out
the door. “We’re gonna start supper; let us know if you hear anything.”
Ric, Rocco and Luc watched as
the youngsters finished cleaning the kitchen before Sophia looked at the list
on the fridge. Within minutes Vin and
Lorenzo were cutting bite size cubes out of several large pieces of venison,
while the other youngsters started cleaning, peeling and chopping carrots,
celery, potatoes and onions. As Vin and
Lorenzo cut the meat, Marcus dusted them in flour and assorted spices before
sautéing them and adding them to the vegetables in the two x-large crock pots.
“It says vanilla cake with
strawberries and ice cream for dessert, right?” asked Enzo. He saw Sophia nod and got the Kitchen Aid
mixer out of the closet as Michael came over with four boxes of cake mix and
two large sheet pans. Within thirty
minutes the cakes were in the oven, the stew was in the crock pots and the
strawberries were cleaned and soaking in syrup.
“Damn, these youngsters can
cook,” said Ric with a smile on his face which quickly changed to one of
concern as he saw the look on Damian’s face as he was staring out the back
windows. “What’s up Damian?”
Damian sighed and shook his
head as he said quietly, “It’s my fault my baby sister is in the hospital
getting operated on. I was supposed to
protect her and I failed.”
Vin came to stand next to him
and said, “Let me ask you a question…If Maria had been running in her wolf form
and fell into that dry well, what do you think would have happened to her?”
“She could’ve been seriously
hurt, maybe even killed,” said Lorenzo as he stood on the other side of
Damian. “We’ve talked this over before;
no one blames you for Maria getting hurt.
What you did to save her and Toni was amazing; you took the full brunt
of the fall, protected their heads, put Toni on your chest and held tightly to
Maria so she landed on you. What more
could you have done?”
Damian glanced at Vin then
Lorenzo and they saw the gleam of unshed tears as he whispered hoarsely, “But
she’s my baby sister, I should’ve done more.”
Lorenzo shook his head and
said, “It was only bad luck that you were in the front with Maria and Toni, any
of us could have gone down that well with disastrous results. What would have happened if Michael had
fallen down there with Cal and Brady?
They’re only six and Michael isn’t as strong as you.”
“Hey, I may not be as strong,
but I am smarter,” said Michael good naturedly as his family started to
laugh. “Damian’s the only one I know of
who had to retake his Italian language placement test, and that’s pretty bad
since he’s been speaking Italian since he could talk.”
A reluctant smile crossed
Damian’s face as he said, “I still say my answers weren’t wrong, they weren’t
prepared for my creativity.”
Vin started to laugh and
said, “When they asked him to translate the line I
dolci è meglio mangiare e gustare il sapore (Desserts are better left to eat
last and savor the flavor) do you know what this idiot wrote?”
“‘Leave
the gun. Take the cannoli’,” shouted the
Clan as they started to laugh.
“Oh,
this one was better,” said Lorenzo as he continued to laugh. “La famiglia è composta da molte persone che
hanno un solo obiettivo che è quello di amare e onorare l'altro. (A family is
comprised of many people who have but one objective which is to love and honor
each other).”
“This
dumb ass wrote, ‘Fredo, you're my older
brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the
Family again. Ever.’ Alpha Carlo was
laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe, but he still made him retake the test,”
said Gianni as he held on to the chair because he was laughing so hard.
Ric, Rocco and Luc were
laughing and Ric said, “They made you take the test again? I can’t believe that.”
“I know, I mean the answers
weren’t textbook, but the sentiment was there,” said Damian with a smirk as he
looked at Ric and then he smiled at Rocco.
“So, when are we gonna have a men’s night out, you know go to a couple
of clubs and stuff?”
“Uhmm…maybe when you’re
finally a man,” said Rocco with a straight face as the Clan burst out laughing.
“Oh my dear cousin, I could
show you things that Dad and Uncle Frank have no idea about, things that would
make your hair turn as gray as your brothers,” said Damian with a wicked smile.
Ric started to smile as he
said, “You scare me Damian, you really do scare me. You remind me of one of those people they
profile on that show ‘Criminal Minds’.
”
“I’ll take that as a
compliment,” Damian said with an evil smile.
“How about we go downstairs and play poker while we wait?” At his suggestion everyone smiled and headed
downstairs after checking one last time to make sure the house was secure.
*****
Dante had piles of historical
books on the table in front of him in the Archive room but he couldn’t find
what he was looking for, everything South Mountain Pack had dealt with North
American Pack life and culture as well as basic Were history. He did find several ancient texts that dealt
with the formation and history of Rossi Pack, but they were of no help. Frustrated he ran his hands through his hair
and getting his cell phone out he dialed the Archivist at Rossi Pack.
“Nick, I want you to send
everyone out of the library and lock the door now,” Dante said briskly. “I will wait until this is done before we
continue this conversation.”
“Yes Alpha,” said Nick
without hesitation. Dante heard several
people in the background muttering their displeasure until Nick told them their
Alpha had ordered them to leave. Minutes
later Nick was back on the line and said, “The library is cleared Dante, and I
took the precaution of moving into my office and swept it for bugs. What do you need me to do?”
“I want you to find all the
information you can find out about the lost line of Moray,” said Dante quietly.
“The Guardian line of
Moray? Are you serious?” asked Nick in
an incredulous tone. “They disappeared
around seven hundred years ago, and there have been hundreds if not thousands
of people looking for them ever since.
Their believers fall into two categories, the first - for them to be
found to lay claim to their rightful place as rulers of their land and the
second - for them to be found so they can be killed so they won’t lay their
claim as rightful rulers of their land.
Dante, anybody remotely linked to the line could be in grave peril.”
Dante exhaled loudly and
said, “I know what is at stake here and this has to be done in absolute secrecy
Nick, no one must know you are doing this not even your mate. Let me know what you find, call me anytime.” After he hung up, he went to the kitchen intending
to get a beer and return to the Archive room, but after glancing out the back
windows and seeing the beautiful mountain engulfed in fall colors he changed
his mind. He sat staring out the window,
slowly sipping his beer thinking, ‘If I am right, they are in even greater
danger then we originally feared.’
*****
They were in the staff break
room and Rose and Annie sat holding hands as they listened to the repayment
discussion which had been going on for at least thirty minutes. Carlo had offered to repay the fuel and other
costs for the helicopter and for the time and skill of the surgical team, but
everything Carlo offered Savannah
“I can’t believe I’m sitting
here discussing this when my baby is getting operated on,” Joe said
angrily. “Savannah
Silence ensued after her
announcement and Carlo leaned forward and put his forearms on the table and
said quietly, “May I ask why?”
“Can we talk freely here?” Savannah
“Let me start off by
reminding you that we have been sworn allies for over a hundred forty
years. When those bastards came for your
females, we were the first to come to your aid and fought alongside you when we
found where they were being held,” Savannah
“Your help was invaluable during
that dark time,” Carlo stated as he stared Savannah Georgia
“That goes without saying
Carlo. The treaty our great-great-great
grandfathers signed carries more weight with me, then anything the Alpha
Council has established,” said Savannah
“Go on,” said Carlo as he sat
back and crossed his arms across his broad chest with Frank and Joe
unconsciously mimicking his posture as they studied the female Alpha sitting
before them. Even though they had known
her all their lives and had become good friends at U of MD, when she was a
freshman and they were seniors, they could see the difference in her since she
became Alpha. She was more commanding in
her demeanor and exuded a quiet confidence but the look in her eyes definitely
said, ‘Don’t fuck with me’.
“I received a call from
Charles Davis last week,” upon her announcement, Carlo, Frank and Joe sat up
straight. “I thought it strange for him
to be calling me, I’ve never said more then ‘hello’ to the man, but
nevertheless I took the call…and I’m glad I did.” Savannah
“He said a new family was
coming into your Pack and asked if I could keep an eye on them because one of
the girls was his son’s mate. I thought
that was extremely strange for a couple of reasons,” Savannah
Carlo hesitated, choosing his
words carefully before he spoke, “As far as we know, none of the females are
mates of anybody from Davis Pack. In
fact the two oldest, have found their mates with Vincent and Dominic, Frank’s
oldest boys.”
“Congratulations to you and
your boys,” said Savannah
Carlo, Frank and Joe sat back
in their chairs and after several minutes Frank said, “You still haven’t told
us why you want us to train your Pack.”
“After I received the email
from President Roberts about the raids and thinking back to the conversation I
had with Charles, I called a Pack meeting.
We discussed what was going on and by unanimous vote agreed to honor the
treaty and come to your aid if needed,” Savannah
“Thank you for your renewed
support and you know we would do the same, old friend,” said Carlo
quietly. “Do you know if Charles
contacted any other Alpha’s, we haven’t heard from anybody else?”
“I don’t know, Carlo,” Savannah
Carlo looked at Frank and Joe
and they nodded their heads, “We will accept the terms of repayment, obviously
Joe will be busy with Maria, but Frank, Carmelo and Vinnie should be able to
start the assessments. Let me call you
later in the week once we get a schedule worked out.” Before Savannah
“Thank you, Alpha Parr,” said
Alberto as he glanced at Alpha Parr, but not making eye contact, before
glancing at his Alpha. “Do you know how
much longer it’s going to be? Have you
heard anything?”
“Nothing yet,” said Carlo,
motioning for them to sit down. “Doc, how are things going? Any idea of how much longer it’s going to be?”
“Dr. Parr said maybe another hour and a half,” replied Doc. “She’s doing well, we’ve fixed the
dislocation and are getting ready to set the titanium plates, the prep work is
almost completed. I set up the digital
recorder so I could record the operation and Dr. Parr will come back to take
the plates off when its time.”
Carlo relayed the information
and their talk centered on football and general Pack gossip for the next two
hours. Gabby leaned forward and said, “I
hope I’m not being rude Alpha Parr, but I love the name Savannah
“Thank you Gabriella, there’s
a lot of history associated with my name,” she replied with a thoughtful
expression on her face. “My parents
named me Savannah Georgia
Doc walked into the room and said quietly,
“She’s in recovery, the surgery went well and you should be able to see her in
thirty minutes. We’ll keep her overnight
and reassess things tomorrow.”
“Joe and I’ll stay here with
her,” said Annie quickly as Joe nodded his head.
“If it’s okay with you Mr. JC,
I’d like to stay too,” said Alberto quickly.
Joe stared at him with narrowed eyes for several moments before nodding
his head reluctantly.
Frank quickly relayed the
information to the youngsters and he could feel their relief through the
bond. “Annie, Joe and Alberto are going to stay here with her. Sophia, I’m not sure what’s in her ‘go bag’ but she’ll
need a big baggy t-shirt and some of those legging things, also bring whatever
you think she needs to stay overnight.”
“Okay Daddy, she’ll probably sleep better with
something of Alberto’s, I’ll see what she has,” she replied thinking if she was in the hospital,
sleeping in Anthony’s shirt would definitely make her feel better.
Twenty minutes later, the
members of Parr Ridge Pack were ready to leave.
Dr. Parr was giving last minute instructions to Doc and said he would
call tomorrow to check on her progress. Savannah
Five minutes later, Doc came
out and said, “Joe, Annie and Alberto, she’s starting to wake up and is asking
for her family…” Before he could
continue Joe and Alberto were racing down the hall to the recovery room, when
they reached the door both tried to get through it at the same time, after
pushing and shoving they fell through the door and landed on the floor. Annie calmly entered the room, stepping on
both of their backs as she walked to Maria’s bedside.
“As I was saying, she’s
starting to wake up, she’s groggy and we’ll keep her sedated all night to help
with pain management,” said Doc from the doorway as he waited for Joe and
Alberto to get up. “Dr. Parr says her
arm should fully heal in a couple of weeks, and he’ll be back to remove the
titanium plates.”
“Hi, Sweetheart,” said Annie
softly as she kissed her forehead.
“Momma,” Maria whispered
groggily before falling asleep again.
Joe and Alberto rushed to her
bedside and asked in unison, “Did she ask for me?”
“You know there ARE other
people in her life besides the two of you,” Annie stated as she rolled her
eyes. “And to answer your question, she
asked for me.”
“Are you sure she didn’t ask
for me?” Joe asked with a frown.
“Unless you changed your name
to Momma, then no, she didn’t ask for you,” said Annie before muttering with a
satisfied grin on her face, “You conceited ass.”
Hearing laughter from the
doorway, she turned and saw her family enter the room. “How’s she doing?” asked Lorenzo
quietly.
“Doc says she’s doing fine,”
Annie whispered as she turned to smile at her family.
Damian came to the other side
of the bed and leaned down kissing his baby sister on the forehead. Annie saw the guilt in his eyes and said
quietly, “Damian, it’s not your fault, you did everything you could to protect
her and Toni. It was an accident, plain
and simple and I don’t want to see you upset about this.”
“I know it was an accident
Mommy,” Damian whispered in full momma’s-boy mode. “But I still feel guilty…not enough to stop
teasing her and making her life miserable or make me be nice to her, but I still
feel guilty.”
Annie smiled at him,
“I wouldn’t expect you to stop the teasing or be nice, that just wouldn’t be
you.” She leaned forward and ran her
hands through his hair and said, “And I love you the way you are.”
“Good, I think I’m perfect
the way I am too,” said Damian quietly with a smile.
Joe shook his head, “Your mother never said you were perfect, she said she loved you the way
you are.”
“It was implied Dad,” Damian
answered with a laugh. “Anyway, we brought
Maria’s pillow, blankie, Alberto’s sweatshirt and some clothes. There’s dinner for you, Mom, Alberto, Doc and
whoever else is staying tonight in the break room. We made venison stew, homemade biscuits and
vanilla cake with strawberries.”
“We? I don’t remember you doing anything, and the
biscuits aren’t homemade, we popped a can,” said Vin with a laugh. “Though considering you could be the twin for
the Pillsbury Dough Boy, especially with that fat ass, I guess they could be
considered homemade.” Hearing everyone
in the room start to laugh, Maria stirred restlessly on the bed before settling
down again.
“Alright, that’s enough
everyone,” said Doc quietly as he injected some medicine into her IV line. “I want Maria to rest as much as possible to
start healing. Sorry.”
Frank stepped forward and
said quietly, “Why don’t the three of you go eat while it’s warm, Rose and I’ll
stay with her and I’ll let you know if she wakes up.” One by one her family came up and kissed
Maria on the forehead before they left.
Annie waited until they were gone before she put Maria’s pillow under
her head, wrapped her in her blankie and curled Alberto’s sweatshirt into a
ball and placed it near Maria’s face so she could scent it.
“I’ll be right back,” she
whispered to Frank and Rose who nodded their heads as they kept their eyes on
their niece. As she walked into the
break room, it looked like Joe and Alberto were having a race to see who could
shovel the most food in their mouths in the shortest amount of time. “Slow down guys, she’s asleep and her Aunt
and Uncle are in there watching over her.”
Joe got up and got her a bowl
of stew and some utensils before sitting back down. “I know, but what if she wakes up and we’re
not there.”
“Doc gave her some more
medicine, and she should sleep straight through until morning,” Annie said
between mouthfuls. “This stew is really
good; I can’t believe the youngsters made it.”
“I heard that Aunt Annie, I
can’t believe you doubted our culinary skills,” said Marcus with a smile as he
entered the room. “Wait until you try
the vanilla cake, we used a box mix but added vanilla pudding mix and some
ricotta, then we soaked the strawberries in simple syrup with a hint of crushed
mint. Delizioso.”
“Why are you still here? Everybody else left but the Moretti’s,” asked
Joe as he reached for another biscuit as Alberto got both of them some more
stew.
Marcus glanced at Alberto who
had started to smile and not wanting to throw Sal under the bus, he decided to
try Damian’s tactic, “Since Alpha Carlo cancelled the meeting this evening,
Paulo went over to the Millers with Vin and Dom to deliver their new computers
and update something in the security system.”
“That was a good idea, Paulo
and Annie were supposed to do it this morning, but helped at The School House
instead,” said Joe before raising his eyes to stare at his nephew with narrowed
eyes. “And you stayed to tell us this?”
“Uhmm, no. I ugh, was waiting, yeah I was waiting to see
if you liked the stew,” said Marcus as he flushed. “I think I’ll go now.” He turned around and hurried out of the room
to the sounds of his uncles laughter.
Annie started to laugh and
said, “Joe that was mean of you, you know Gabby is still here and Sal wanted to
stay with her.”
“I know, but he doesn’t know
that I know, so I finally have something on my sneaky sons and nephews,” Joe
answered with a smile before looking at Alberto. “And if you know what’s good for you, you
won’t say anything.”
“I have no idea what you’re
talking about Mr. JC, I just want to eat and get back to my intended,” said
Alberto as he reached for another biscuit.
“You know since you’re my
daughters intended, it’s about time you called me Joe, Dad, or Pop,” said Joe
with a frown as Annie started to smile.
Alberto replied with a
twinkle in his eyes, “How bout Poppa Joe?
It’ll be a good name for the little ones to call you.”
Joe choked on his stew and
Annie whacked him on the back much harder then needed as she smiled. “Don’t let him give you a hard time Alberto,
I got pregnant the first heat after he graduated,” said Annie with a
smile. “If it was up to him, we would
have had little ones the first heat after mating.”
“You can calm down Poppa Joe;
I know Maria wants to go to college so when we have little ones it will be up
to her,” Alberto stated as he continued to eat while staring at Joe. When he saw Joe start to calm down he
finished, “But when she says it’s time, whether she’s eighteen, twenty-one or
twenty-five you can bet you’ll be a grandfather before you even know it.” Joe’s face turned red again and he opened and
closed his mouth several times without saying anything.
“Well, I can’t wait to become
a grandmother, it can’t happen soon enough for me,” said Annie happily as Joe
turned to stare at her like he had never seen her before. “Of course after she comes of age, you’ll
move into the house like all youngsters do for the first couple of years. We’ll have the wedding as soon as you
graduate from college, having it before then would raise too many eyebrows in
the human world.” She nodded her head
agreeing with herself and then said excitedly, “Ooh, Joe on weekends you can
start work on converting the attic into a little apartment for them, I can see
it now…a kitchenette, a living room, a couple of bedrooms all decorated in warm
soft earth tones. Oh…and the nursery…the
nursery we could decorate it in the Berenstain Bears, I’ve always liked
them. Oh, I’m so excited, I can’t wait,
and we’ve got a lot of planning to do…I’ve got to call Rita and we can get
started picking…”
“Are you out of your fucking
mind?” Joe interrupted his mate and seeing her glare at him he sighed
loudly. “Okay,” he said begrudgingly,
“We’ll build them a little apartment, but not until she is older Annie, much older
like a month before her eighteenth birthday.
I can’t take too much more, she only turned fifteen a month ago and
you’re picking out curtains. I can’t
handle this, I’m only thinking as far as getting through tonight without
tearing something apart if I see my little girl in pain.”
Annie leaned over and patted
her mates hand and said, “I know, your poor little brain can only handle so
much.” Alberto started to choke and Joe
leaned forward and whacked him really hard on the back and leaned back with a
smile on his face. “Are we done? Rose said to leave the dishes and they’d
clean up.” She got up and made her way
to Maria’s room sensing Joe following her.
“She hasn’t moved much,” Rose
said quietly as Joe and Annie walked to Maria’s bedside. “Doc was just here and said her vitals looked
good.”
Annie smoothed the hair back
from Maria’s forehead as she whispered, “Daddy and I are back sweetheart. We’re going to stay here with you all night
and so is Alberto and we want you to sleep sweetheart so you can get better.”
Moments later Alberto came
into the room and Frank and Rose moved out of the way so he could stand on
Maria’s other side. He leaned in and
scented her neck and said quietly, “I said bye to my folks, Dad’s gonna deliver
some pizzas to Mr. C’s house later this evening.”
“Speaking of which, we’d
better get home,” said Rose with a grimace.
“The youngsters have been left unsupervised long enough, and I don’t
consider Ric, Rocco or Luc proper supervision.
Damian is probably planning who knows what and the youngsters will go
right along with it, especially since Vincent and Dominic aren’t there. I already let them know they’ll be staying
with us tonight, it’ll be easier since I have to cook breakfast anyway.”
After kissing Maria goodbye,
Frank turned to Joe hugging him tightly and said, “Baby brother, let us know if you need anything, no matter what time it
is I’ll be here for you.”
Joe nodded his head, “Thank you big brother, I don’t know what
I’d do without you. Knowing you’re taking
care of my boys lets me concentrate on my little girl.”
“Do you remember the vow you made to me the day
Vincent and Dominic were born? ‘I’ll protect them like they were my own, until
I draw my last breath’,” said Frank
as he stared into his brothers eyes. “And we renewed that vow every time one of
us was blessed with little ones, in eighteen years nothing has changed brother,
your family is mine, and my family is yours.
We protect them like they were our own.” Joe nodded his head and
took a deep breath before moving back to Maria’s bedside.
Frank was quiet the first
couple of minutes on the drive back to their house and Rose feeling his anxiety
said quietly, “What’s the matter?”
Frank looked at his mate and
grabbed her hand, “I’m sorry my love, my mind was going over everything with
Maria and the Pack. I should be
concentrating on you, its not often we’re alone.”
Rose giggled and said, “Did
you read the newspaper yesterday? Longmeadow
“We went there a lot when we
were dating, but I don’t remember seeing the movies,” said Frank with a
smirk. He glanced at his mate and tried
to hide his smile as he said, “If I remember correctly, as soon as the previews
came on, you would jump me and I spent the rest of the movie fending you off.”
“Francesco Carlucci, I can’t
believe you said that,” Rose swatted him on the arm and said in a huff. “One time, one time I pounce on you and you
act like I was some deranged nympho trying to steal your virginity.”
Frank growled low in his
throat, “I loved when you would jump me.”
He glanced over at his mate and growled again before saying, “I have no
idea how I waited all those months to claim you, especially when you would
deliberately tease me. You drove my wolf
and I crazy with how much you made us want you and twenty-three years later you
still make us crazy.”
“We were allowed more freedom
back then, we could go on double dates and our parents considered that enough
protection. If they knew what we were
doing, they would never have allowed us out of the house,” Rose smiled at she
looked at her mate with a twinkle in her eye.
She got quiet for a moment before she said, “Sometimes I think we’re too
restrictive on the girls, and I think in our need to protect them, we’re
actually hurting them.”
Frank looked at her and
shrugged his shoulders and said, “It was a different time, things changed after
Alpha Roberts daughter was murdered and when his son took over as Alpha Council
President he changed the laws. If those
laws had been in place to begin with, his sister might be alive, but then again
she was killed by the Second in Command’s son, who was supposed to protect
her.” He got quiet for several moments
and said, “When it comes to our daughters Rose, a father can’t ever be too
protective.”
“And a mother will do
everything within her power to protect her youngsters,” Rose responded quietly
as Frank pulled in front of the garage.
He watched her closely as she crossed the driveway to enter the mudroom. As much as he wanted to know what was going
on, he knew she would tell him when she was ready.
*****
Thirty minutes after he
arrived at the Millers, Paulo finished installing the computers in Todd and
Papa Mike’s office. Vin and Dom were in
the kitchen talking to the Millers about Maria and spending time with their
intendeds and he could hear their laughter from down the hallway. Sitting back in the leather chair, he rolled
his shoulders and took a deep breath before calling everyone in so he could get
their retinal scans added to the database.
As soon as they came in the office, he showed them how to use the
retinal scanner, which was by a series of right and left clicks of the mouse
and within minutes they were done with the scans. “Give me a sec, I’m almost done,” he said as
his fingers flew over the keyboard opening and closing screens faster then
anyone could see or understand what was going on.
“Okay, now for the website,
after you do the scan, you need to log on with the password set up for your
name,” said Paulo as he laid a piece of paper on the desk. “Once you log in, you’ll need to change the
password so only you know it.” The
Millers nodded their heads as Paulo continued to explain, “Make the passwords
something easy for you to remember but something that isn’t obvious. We generally use our twins/mates favorite
food, color, school subject or something like that. If you mess up and enter the wrong password,
you have one chance to re-enter the right password, if you try again you’ll be
locked out and only I or Alpha Carlo can get you back in. Understand?”
The Millers nodded their heads and within twenty minutes the family had
logged in and changed their passwords as Paulo instructed.
“Now here is where the
security takes place and I need you to listen carefully,” said Paulo as the
Millers stared at him. “If somebody
forces you to log onto the website put ‘01’ after your password, as an example
if your password is ‘Cheese’, you would put ‘Cheese01’. This sends an alert to Alpha Carlo, Uncle
Frank, Dad and me that you’re logging on under duress, and you won’t be able to
log on the first attempt, so when you re-enter it the second time, simply use
‘Cheese’. The site that’ll come up is
fake, but it’ll allow us time to take counter measures.”
A smile spread across Todd’s
face as he said, “Is there anything you guys don’t think about when it comes to
security?”
Paulo shrugged his shoulders
and said, “Dad and Uncle Frank try to keep up as much as possible, and I handle
all the electronics, speaking of which…I have laptops for each girl and new
cell phones for the whole family.” Vin
nodded his head and he and Dom went to the truck and brought in two boxes and
Dom handed the laptops to the correct girl as Vin handed out the cell phones
according to the names on the boxes.
“They’ll need laptops for school and they’ve already been loaded with
the programs they’ll need. The cell
phones have been programmed with all the emergency numbers, a number for every
family in the Pack, and of course your home phone and each others numbers. I set up a Wi-fi so you can access the
internet from anywhere in the house, it’s set on a scrambler so nobody can
access it.”
As the Millers looked at
their new cell phones Paulo said quietly, “Mr. M, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d
like to have your old phones after you transfer what numbers aren’t already
programmed. I want to see if there are
any tracking devices in there.”
“Dad and I were the only ones
that had phones,” answered Todd. “I have
some work contacts in there, it shouldn’t take me but a minute and the same
goes for Dad.” Papa Mike hurriedly got
his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through and wrote down several numbers
and handed it to Paulo and Todd did the same.
“Now here is something new
and I’d like to try it out,” said Paulo excitedly. “I added a feature to the phones, if you hit
‘star000pound’ it’ll link into your security system and lock down your
house. After we try it out and makes
sure it works, I’ll link an alarm so Alpha Carlo, Uncle Frank, Dad and I’ll get
an alert that your security system was emergency activated. So it’s only to be used in an emergency
situation, okay?” The Millers nodded
their heads and Paulo smiled, “Try it.”
Maeve raised her hand and
asked quietly, “Daddy, can I do it? I’ve
never used a cell phone before.”
“Sure cupcake,” answered Todd
with a smile. Maeve smiled widely and
hit the appropriate buttons and they watched the security monitors as the house
was quietly locked down.
Holly looked up and asked
Paulo, “When would we need something like this?”
“If somebody got into your
house and you couldn’t activate the system the normal way, if you didn’t have
time to activate the system while you’re running to the safe room. There could be any number of reasons,” Paulo
said as he shrugged his shoulders. “The
most important thing to always remember is to get to safety first.”
Todd nodded his head and
said, “How much do I owe you for all of this?”
“The computer equipment and
phones were paid for by SMI, you’re responsible for the phone plan, and I
signed you up for Verizon, it’s got the best coverage,” said Paulo with a
smile. “Oh and last thing, if people try
and retrace any emails or websites you were on to get your IP address, I’ll get
an alert and it’ll send them on a trip around the world.”
“Daddy, can we go in the
family room with our laptops?” asked Fiona as her sisters glanced at their Dad
waiting on his answer.
Todd nodded his head and
said, “Yes, but I think you should thank Paulo first.” The girls giggled and a chorus of “Thank you’s”
rang out as Paulo started to blush. “How
much more do you have to do?” asked Todd as he watched his daughters, Vin and
Dom run out of the room.
“Since the emergency
activation works, I need to upload the link to the system, and I need to
install a computer in the family room for Mrs. M and Nana Ellen,” said Paulo as
his fingers were flying over the keyboard.
“So about twenty thirty minutes I should be done.” He looked up and seeing the girls, Vin and
Dom had left the room he said quietly, “I installed a tracker on each laptop so
you can monitor what websites they’re going to and their activity online. Only you have control of it, and I’ll show
you how to access it.” Todd moved over
to the desk and Paulo showed him where the program was located and in real time
he could see what the girls were doing.
“The program allows you to see who they’re sending emails to and who
they receive them from, but it doesn’t allow you to see the contents.”
“How did you learn how to do
all of this,” asked Holly as she sat on the sofa.
“I’ve been playing with
computers since I was a toddler. It’s
something natural for me; I read programs like other people read books. I like to take machines apart, figure out how
they work and figure out a way to make them work better,” said Paulo with a
shrug. “Okay, the link to the alarm for
the security system is up and running, now onto the computer in the family
room.” He picked up the box near the
desk and followed Papa Mike into the family room and started putting the system
together. Fifteen minutes later, he was
done and helping the younger Miller girls with their new laptops while Vin and
Dom concentrated on their intended mates.
“Boys would you like
something to eat?” asked Nana Ellen with a smile. “We have leftover pork loin, mashed potatoes,
and green beans. For dessert we have
blueberry lemon pound cake and ice cream.”
Twenty minutes later, the leftovers were gone and the boys were
finishing the rest of the pound cake.
Todd was laughing as he said,
“Your Dads were right, you boys eat a huge amount of food. The grocery bills to feed all of you must be
huge.”
“Mr. M, we’ve already eaten
dinner, that was a snack,” answered Dom with a smile. “I have no idea about the grocery bill, but
we do go deer hunting every year. Even
mom, Aunt Annie, Sophia and Maria bag deer, so we eat a lot of venison.”
“A snack? That was about five pounds of meat and about
five pounds of mashed potatoes,” said Todd with a laugh. “If the two of you are going to be eating
dinner with us we’d better cook more food.”
Vin laughed and said,
“Whatever you normally cook for your family, double it.”
“Daddy, can we play a game
before the boys have to leave?” asked Brianna as she smiled at Vin.
Todd glanced at the clock
before saying, “Sure, clear the table first.”
The girls, Vin, Dom and Paulo cleared the table while Maeve got a deck
of Uno cards out of the closet. For the
next hour they played and the adults smiled while they watched TV in the family
room as they listened to the youngsters laugh and holler at each other.
Papa Mike glanced at the
clock and said, “I figured Matt and Phil would stop by tonight, have you heard
from them?”
“I did, they’re having a date
night. Since the meeting was cancelled,
Matt wanted to surprise Phil and take him out to dinner and a movie,” said Nana
Ellen with a laugh.
Todd started to laugh and
said, “Holly and I could’ve gone out with them, we could use a date night
too.” Holly smiled at her mate and
glanced in the kitchen to check on the youngsters who had suddenly gotten
quiet.
“Uncle Matt didn’t want you
to know Daddy,” said Maeve with a giggle.
“He said he didn’t need a chaperone to block his action.” Everyone burst out laughing and Maeve started
to blush as she said, “Well, that’s what he said…whatever that means.”
“It means they’re gonna
kiss,” whispered Fiona as she started to blush which caused everybody to laugh
again.
The adults turned their
attention back to the TV and Vin said quietly, “Erin ,
as your brother in law, I gotta ask, what’s going on with you and Lorenzo?”
“Uhmm, I don’t know Vin,”
said Erin as she blushed. “I think he’s kinda cute but he’s really
irritating sometimes.”
“I’ll give you some advice,”
Dom said as he stared at her. “My cousin
is the most stubborn person I know and if he gets something in his mind it’s
almost impossible to change it. Right
now he says he doesn’t like you…” Seeing
her eyes start to tear up, he leaned forward and held her hand and said, “I’m
sorry, I don’t want to hurt you and I hate being blunt like that, but it’s the
truth. The best advice I can give you is
to ignore him. Don’t talk to him or pay
attention to him, unless it’s necessary like when we do training or
something.”
Vin took a deep breath and
nodded his head, “I’m sorry, but yeah he did.
Give him some time like Dom said to get over whatever is bothering
him.”
“Now let me add this, when
Sophia and Maria told him you and Caitlin were going on a date with Patrick and
Bob, he got so mad he bent his fork in half and wanted to know which one of
those bastards was taking you out, his words not mine,” said Dom with a
shrug. “I think he likes you, but he’s
too stubborn to admit it.”
“And you think I should
ignore him?” asked Erin with a puzzled look on
her face.
“Yeah, we do,” said Vin with
a smile. “When you have to talk to him,
be polite. I’m not saying you have to be
super nice to him, just don’t antagonize him and when you’re ignoring him,
don’t do it in a bitchy way. It’ll drive
him crazy.”
Paulo started to smile and
added, “What Vin and Dom didn’t tell you was Lorenzo is also one of the
bossiest people we know and he likes to tell people what to do and gets mad
when they don’t listen. If you watch him
and Damian together it’s really comical because Damian deliberately gets him
upset and then will say or do something to make Lorenzo laugh. They function by being dysfunctional.” He looked at the clock and said, “Guys, we
got to get going, I’ve got work to do for Alpha Carlo.” Vin and Dom nodded their heads and the three
boys went into the family room and said goodbye to the Miller parents and
grandparents.
“I’ll walk you out,” said
Todd as he looked at Brianna and Morgan who both blushed as they glanced at
their intendeds. When they got onto the
porch, Todd looked at Paulo and winked as he said, “I got a question to ask you
about the truck.” Paulo looked at him
questioningly until Todd motioned with his head towards the two couples who
were standing quietly near the porch steps.
As Paulo and Todd walked to
the truck, Vin and Dom moved their intendeds to the top step and the boys took
a step down so they were almost eye to eye.
Vin leaned in scenting Brianna’s neck and she started to giggle before
running her hands through his hair. Dom
stared into Morgan’s eye and whispered, “Zenzero, I’m going to lean against the
railing and I want you to scent me and do what you feel comfortable with, like
running your hands through my hair or rubbing my arms. I won’t touch you until you tell me to,
okay?” Morgan’s eyes were wide as she
nodded before leaning in and starting to scent his neck slowly like he had
taught her. When she started to rub her
hands up and down his arms, Dom could barely hold back his moan and his urge to
wrap her in his arms; instead he gripped the wood railing so tight he could
hear the wood creaking.
“What did you want to know
Mr. M?” asked Paulo as they reached Vin’s truck.
Todd started to laugh and
said, “It was an excuse to give them a little alone time. I can still see them, but at least they have
some privacy.”
Paulo glanced towards the
porch and started to laugh as he said, “You might want to tell the rest of the
girls then.”
When Todd looked to where
Paulo was pointing he started to laugh and said loudly, “You guys have an
audience.” As Vin, Brianna, Dom and
Morgan turned to the dining room windows they saw the rest of the Miller girls smiling
at them. When Vin and Dom started to
laugh, Maeve and Fiona made kissy faces before Holly came to the window and
made them leave.
“Daddddyyyy,” Brianna and
Morgan cried out which made Todd laugh louder.
“It’s okay, we have to
leave,” said Dom quietly. “Is it okay if
I scent you before we leave?”
Morgan answered in a voice so
quiet Dom barely heard her, “But I wasn’t done yet, I wanted to scent you some
more, it makes me feel all good inside.”
Hearing what his intended
said, Dom started to groan and tilted his head so she could scent him. Knowing she had an audience Morgan was
hesitant but inhaled deeply several times before moving back and whispering,
“Okay, it’s your turn.”
Dom quickly leaned in running
his nose up and down her neck and said quietly, “Friday, when we go on our date
Friday, you can scent me all you like, okay?
Til then you can have this.” He
took his shirt off and Morgan glanced at his hard chest before blushing and
looking away. Dom laughed quietly and
said, “You can sleep in my t-shirt, its big enough you can use it as a
nightgown.”
Brianna glared at Vin
crossing her arms over her chest as she said, “You haven’t given me anything of
yours to sleep in.”
“But this is my favorite
t-shirt,” said Vin in a whiny voice before taking his t-shirt off. “I’m kidding, you can have this one and I’ll
bring you a sweatshirt too, it gets really cold here at night. Which reminds me… Mr. M, Dad said he’d show
you how to work the wood stove in the basement and Dom and I’ll be over on Sunday
to help you get your wood cut and chopped for winter.”
“I didn’t think we’d need
that, I thought it was for emergencies when the power went out and the heat
pumps wouldn’t work,” said Todd with a frown.
Vin and Dom started to laugh
and Vin said, “These old houses are great, but you’ll find in the winter they
don’t retain heat very well. The heat
pumps won’t be able to keep the chill out of the stone or brick enough to keep
the house warm. Don’t worry about it,
we’ll help you chop about five cords of wood, that should be enough.”
“We’ll go out in the woods,
look at the trees to see which ones need to come down and we’ll cut those. We still got about three months to get it
seasoned before winter really sets in,” said Dom with a shrug. He looked at his future father in law and
started to smile, “I hope those muscles are for more then show, because you’ll
be needing them.”
“Girls, I believe your
intendeds insulted me,” said Todd with a smile as Brianna and Morgan started to
laugh. “Let me guess, your repayment
will be dinner?” Vin and Dom grinned
back at him as they nodded their heads.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Some authentic Tex-Mex,”
said Vin as Dom nodded his head. “We
like Mexican food, you know tacos, burritos, enchiladas and that stuff, but
we’ve never had authentic Tex-Mex.”
Seeing Paulo pull his phone out of his pocket to check the time, Vin
said, “We’ve really got to go.” He
pulled Brianna into his side and whispered, “If you want to call or text me
later, my number’s already in your phone.”
Dom whispered in Morgan’s ear,
“My number’s already in your phone too and you can call or text me anytime you
want. Goodnight Zenzero, I’ll see you in
the morning.” The boys shook Todd’s hand
before getting in Vin’s truck and making the four minute drive to their house.
“Come on girls, we’re gonna
have a family conference,” said Todd as he ushered the girls in the house and
activated the alarm system. Everyone
gathered around the kitchen table as a list of household chores was divided
between the girls and then talk centered on what needed to be done to open the
bakery.
“Madame Gina is giving Maeve
the tour of the grocery store tomorrow morning, and then she’s going to show us
the property next to Matt and Phil,” said Holly with a smile. “We can either rent the property or buy it
outright. The rent is $1,000 per month
and Madame Gina said if we buy the property, SMI would hold the mortgage and it
would be $800 per month. The advantage
to renting would be if anything happened with the roof, electrical, plumbing or
something, SMI would fix it, where if we bought the property we would be
responsible for it.”
Papa Mike rubbed his neck and
said, “I think we should buy the building, we’re already going to update the
electric and plumbing and if anything happens we have an advantage.” He looked at Brianna and Morgan and said with
a smile, “I’m sure Brianna and Morgan’s intendeds can help with that.”
“If we have to pay them with
food, it’ll be cheaper to put them on the payroll,” said Nana Ellen with a
laugh. “Okay, so we’re buying the
building, now let’s get started on a menu and we need to figure out a name.” The next couple of hours they talked about
what items to have on the menu and also thought of names. Holly and Nana Ellen knew this was basically
putting the cart before the horse, but having this discussion got the girls
involved, they would figure out later what equipment they needed to buy.
*****
The Carlucci’s plus Ric,
Rocco and Luc were gathered around the kitchen table when Paulo, Vin and Dom
walked into the kitchen. “How’s Maria?”
they asked in unison as Rose looked up and smiled.
“She’s resting. Doc is keeping her sedated all night to help
in the healing process,” said Rose with a sigh.
“Are you boys hungry? The stew is
gone, but Carmelo is bringing pizzas over, Holly sent two cakes, the Whitmer’s,
Costello’s and Poffenberger’s sent two trays of sandwiches from Dom’s Deli, and
there’s about thirty casseroles in the fridge, plus more cakes, ice cream and
snacks. Sophia, did you make a list of
who sent what?” Sophia nodded her head
and pointed to a list on the fridge that had about forty names on it.
“We ate again at the Millers
but I could eat more,” said Paulo with a shrug.
“I got the computers hooked up, showed them how to access the site, gave
the girls their laptops and handed out the new phones and got Mr. M’s and Papa
Mike’s old ones. I also installed a new
program where their house can be locked down using their phones, so I’m going
to install it in all the houses.”
Frank looked at Paulo with a
frown on his face, “That’s new isn’t it?”
Paulo nodded his head and explained how it worked and Frank asked, “When
are you going to install it here?”
“I can do it now, come on,”
said Paulo as he led the way into his Uncle’s office. Less then five minutes later, he said to
Sophia, “Dial ‘star000pound’. I made
that the universal code, whatever home or business you’re in that system and
only that system will respond. Say Vin
or Dom are at the Millers and something happens, they can access the system and
lock the house down. But when we get the
alerts, it will tell us what house had the emergency activation.”
Everyone in the room turned
and looked at the monitors as they saw the steel plates sliding down the
windows, and the security systems come alive.
“Was this what you were working on today?” Frank asked as he looked at
Paulo.
“Yeah, I knew what I wanted
it to do, I just had to work out the kinks,” said Paulo with a shrug. “I think we can sell it to Dante for Rossi
International’s security division. I may
have to tweak it a bit more, but I can see a market for it.”
Ric started to smile and
said, “Yeah, Dante will want it. Home
security systems have been a big business for the last two years since 9/11,
even in Europe . There’s nothing on the market like that right
now.”
“SOPHIA, WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU OKAY?
ANSWER ME, DAMNIT,” shouted
Anthony frantically.
“I’m in Daddy’s study and I’m fine, what’s the
matter?” Sophia answered as she
looked at her Dad and said “It’s Anthony and he’s mad about something.”
“I just got here and saw the window guards down, why
are they down?” he asked
angrily. “Let me in the damn house.”
“Paulo installed a new security system, hold on a
minute,” Sophia answered calmly. “Daddy, please put the guards back up,
Anthony’s outside and he’s having a fit cause he thought something happened.”
Sophia, Gianni and Marcus
walked to the front door, and as soon as they heard the guards slide back into
place, they deactivated the alarm and Gianni opened the door. Anthony growled loudly as he rushed in and
pulled Sophia into his side scenting her deeply before saying, “I was going
crazy, I thought something happened to you, don’t ever do that to me again, I
had no idea what was going on, I thought you were hurt, maybe somebody attacked
you and had taken you away from me and I was going out of my mind I was so
worried.”
“Calm the fuck down Ant. Do you think
with all of us here, we’d let something happen to her?” asked Gianni as he
glared at Anthony.
“Don’t tell me to calm the
fuck down Gianni. When you find your
mate and you’re worried about her then you’ll know what it feels like to have
your heart pounding so hard in your chest it feels like it’s going to explode,”
said Anthony forcefully as he pulled Sophia even closer to him and scented her
deeply to calm himself down.
Sophia tilted her head and
calmly whispered, “Aletta, I thought you were coming straight over when you got
off work; I even saved you some cake.”
Anthony took a deep breath
before answering, “You know I have to work a certain amount of hours every
month, I figured I’d work a couple extra since we didn’t have anything planned
and you’d be busy.”
The sounds of laughter could
be heard from the kitchen and Sophia said, “Come on into the kitchen, Aletta
did you eat dinner?” Anthony finally
started to calm down and held her hand as she led the way into the kitchen.
“I had two 12” Italian cold
cut subs from Dom’s Deli during break, but I’m still hungry,” said Anthony as
he rubbed his stomach. “What do you
got?”
Sophia started to giggle as
she opened the fridge and said, “What don’t we have would be a better
question. We should probably eat the
sandwiches from Dom’s Deli first, they’ll go soggy if we leave them too long.” Anthony took both trays out of the fridge and
placed them on the breakfast bar while Sophia got dips, a veggie tray, macaroni
salad, potato salad and baked beans out of the fridge. Lorenzo went into the pantry and got plastic
plates, cups and utensils out while Vin looked in the fridge and got several
casseroles and put them in the oven.
Within fifteen minutes the
two large trays of sandwiches and everything else was gone and the boys were
pulling casseroles from the oven and putting them on the breakfast bar. Ric looked at the boys and said, “I never ate
like your boys, even when I was going through my growth spurt.”
Damian looked him up and down
and said with a smirk, “Are you sure you went through a growth spurt? You look like you stopped growing when you
were seventeen, you’re the same height as me…Wait a minute, I think I do detect
a growth spurt…around your waist or is that the start of middle age
spread?” Frank started laughing so hard
he was choking but Damian wasn’t done yet, “And I got to be honest, that grey
hair makes you look like you’re a hundred years old, you look like Grandpa from
‘The Munsters
Ric wasn’t sure if he wanted
to laugh or kill the boy, instead he said, “You know damn well, I’m not sixty,
I’m the same age as your father.” Rocco
started laughing which caused Ric to look at him and narrow his eyes, “Don’t
laugh, you’re starting to go grey at the roots.” Rocco’s eyes got wide and everybody laughed
as he jumped up and ran to the mirror in the hallway and started to look at his
hair.
“Ric, it’s good to have you
here,” said Frank as he slapped his cousin on the shoulder and he glanced at
Luc and sighed. “Even you Luc.”
“I could not sit at home
knowing my cousins were in danger,” said Luc seriously as he shrugged. “Nonna thinks it would be good to send the
women to Italy
Rose and Sophia turned their
heads to Frank and watched his reaction.
He shook his head but before he could say anything, Anthony stood up and
moved Sophia behind him as he shouted, “YOU ARE NOT TAKING MY MATE AWAY FROM
ME. HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES DO I HAVE TO
TELL EVERYONE THAT?”
Frank calmly said, “Sit down
Anthony, nobody is taking Sophia away from you.” He let out a long breath and continued,
“Carlo, Joe and I talked about sending them to Italy
“I’m pulling up to the house now,” said Carlo.
Frank got up and his family
looked confused until he walked into the room with Carlo, Dante and Gina. Anthony nodded his head at his parents and
said with his mouth full of food, “Wachya-doin’ here?”
“Anthony Eduardo Rossi, your
manners are horrible and I taught you better,” Gina said with a frown as Carlo
started to laugh.
“Sorry mommy,” Anthony
answered with a smile before shoveling another forkful of food into his house.
“Did you tell them yet?”
Carlo asked as he stared first at Frank then Anthony.
Frank shook his head and
looked at the male Clan members and said, “I need you to pay attention
boys.” Frank took a deep breath and
waited until he had their attention before continuing, “Carlo, Joe and I were
going to talk to you before the meeting but since it was cancelled the parents
are telling their youngsters tonight.
Last evening we came to a decision regarding the youngsters. We didn’t tell you because we wanted to
discuss it with our mates and make the final decision together.” He looked at his mate who stood up and came
to stand behind him putting her hands on his shoulders and squeezed them
lightly.
Carlo grabbed Gina’s hand
before looking at Anthony as he continued, “All the boys aged eighteen and
older are going to fight, those aged seventeen it will be up to the individual
family if they fight, those sixteen and younger it will be mandatory for them
to be in the safe room. No exceptions to
the age rules.”
“That means I’ll be able to
fight, because I’ll be eighteen,” said Anthony as Gianni, Marcus, Lorenzo and
Damian echoed in unison, “Me too.”
Hearing Sophia’s gasp, Anthony put his arm around her and pulled her
tightly to his side as she buried her face in his neck, muffling her quiet
sobs.
“Yes, you will be able to
fight, but you won’t be on the front line.
You will be part of the third line of defense,” said Carlo with a frown
at the look on the boys faces. “We will
work on the details later, and I don’t want to argue with the five of
you.” The boys nodded their heads,
determined to prove their worth in the defense of their Pack.
Enzo glanced at Gino, Paulo
and Michael and said, “What about us Dad?
We’ll be seventeen. Are you going
to let us fight?”
“No, your job is much more
important,” Frank said quietly, almost in a whisper, as he shook his head. As Rose’s eyes started to tear up, the
younger boys looked at each other in confusion.
“The six of you along with the other youngsters will have the ultimate
responsibility and one you cannot fail at.”
The six young boys sat up straight as they glanced at each other before
staring at Frank then Carlo.
Carlo cleared his throat and
said, “If we fail and they defeat us, it will be your job to protect the
Elders, women, girls and young ones. You
will be our last line of defense, and we are counting on you to ensure their
safety and the continuation of our Pack.
That means you have to get them to safety, by whatever means necessary.”
“We talked it over with Joel,
Jerry, Harold, Barry, Larry and Todd…they are counting on the six of you to
protect their youngsters and mates if something happens to them. Do you understand what this means? How much confidence they have in you that
they are placing their families in your care?” Frank asked quietly.
“Yes, sir,” the six boys
nodded their heads solemnly, knowing along with the other youngsters the entire
existence of the Pack rested on their shoulders. The Elders would be able to help but most
were in their eighties or nineties, and the women would be mourning the death
of their mates and family, so they wouldn’t be able to help as they normally
would.
“How do we do this? And where do we go?” Enzo asked quietly, his
voice shaking with the knowledge that this meant his father, uncle, older
brothers and cousins would most likely be dead.
Frank reached across the
table and grabbed his hand saying quietly, “You can’t think of what you may
lose son, you have to think about the future and the continuation of the
Pack.” The boys nodded their heads,
pushing their turmoil to the side as they listened intently.
“We can’t tell you where to
go, we can’t know that,” Alpha Carlo said gently. “In case any of us are taken hostage and
tortured, we can’t know of your plans.
All we can do is prepare you and make sure you have what you need when
the time comes. Paulo, we need you to
open new bank accounts, ones we don’t know about; we already have passports and
identifications under false names, but you will need to obtain new ones, so we
don’t know the names you are using; you will need to obtain vehicles, from
someone other then Vinnie, so you can escape.”
Dante looked at the boys with
sadness in his eyes, “One place that will not be safe for you will be Rossi
Pack that will be the first place they look.
The one thing I can do to help is have several of my planes at your
disposal. I’ll have them delivered to
Hagerstown Regional and you make whatever arrangements you need to hide
them. You would have to hire your own
pilots and have them on standby to take you wherever you decide to go, but
again we can not know the details.”
“No matter what we provide
for you, your greatest asset will be each other. We’ve taught you to love and protect each
member of the Pack and we are relying on you to do that after we are gone,”
said Frank in a calm soothing voice that was at odds with the sadness in his
eyes.
“We won’t let you down,” said
Michael quietly with tears in his eyes as the other boys nodded.
Frank swallowed the lump in
his throat and nodded his head, “I know you won’t.”
“How will we know when it’s
time for us to escape?” asked Paulo looking at his uncle as he tried to blink
away the tears in his eyes.
“If you hear the command
‘PROTEGGERE’ then you know it’s time,” said Carlo quietly. “You must ignore your grief when you feel
your family in pain or the family bonds breaking and if I fall, the transfer of
Alpha power from me to Anthony. There
will be time to grieve later, we need you to be strong for the Pack to
survive.” The six boys nodded their
heads in understanding.
Carlo stared at his son for
several minutes as the room remained quiet.
“Anthony, if you feel my bond break, you know that means you are now
Alpha. Lorenzo, Damian, Gianni and
Marcus if that happens it will be your responsibility to have a plan in place
to get him to safety. As soon as you are
able you will contact Enzo and tell him Anthony is secure and you will stay
there until either the battle is over or the command is given. If the command is given, Enzo will tell you
where to meet them so you can escape with the others. Enzo you must have this meeting place
arranged already, but again you can’t tell them until absolutely
necessary.” The Carlucci boys nodded
their heads as they looked at their Alpha and then Frank.
“I’m to run and hide? While you lay dead somewhere and my Pack is
still fighting? Shouldn’t I be leading
them?” Anthony asked as he stared at his father, his eyes filled with unshed
tears.
“No, you are to escape to
ensure the future of the Pack,” said Carlo with a firm voice. “After the battle, the remaining members of
the Pack will need somebody to guide them, to be their Alpha and that my son is
you. Don’t ever forget who you are, you
are a born Alpha…from the day you were conceived you were meant to one day lead
this Pack and they will look to you for guidance and protection. You can’t let them down.”
Carlo coughed to clear the
sudden lump in his throat and looked at his hand entwined with his mates,
before saying quietly, “You have the blood of countless generations of Rossi
Alphas spanning over two thousand years flowing through your veins my son, you
can’t let them down…you can’t let me down.”
Anthony took a deep breath
and wiped the tears that were threatening to fall as he said quietly, “I won’t
let you or the Pack down Dad. You and
mom have taught me well and I know my duty to my Pack and my family. I’ll make sure if anything happens to you,
South Mountain Pack will continue and a Rossi will be Alpha.”
Lorenzo looked at his Uncle
and nodded his head before looking at his Alpha and saying in a clear firm
voice, “And there will always be a Carlucci by his side to protect him and the
Pack.”
