Going home?

It didnt take long for the knowledge of the books or the fact that Ash was trying to study them to spread. The rumours that were whispered through the pack grew ever more fantastic with each passing day. Apparently, Loki told Ash with an air of mingled amusement and curiosity, someone had started saying that the books would show them how to become the most powerful pack to ever exist, or doom them to death by any number of horrible ways.

“Really? And you believe that do you?” Ash had laughed back, “you silly wolf. I wont know what information is in these books if I can’t convince them to talk to me” she finished with a small sigh.

Loki hesitantly edged further into the room, he had learnt that the magic in here was temperamental at best and not aways under Ash’s control “hey, dont be so defeatist, you’ll get there, you can do anything you set your mind to doing. We just have to make it work for you that’s all” Loki told her with a smile, nudging her shoulder with his hip as he sat on her desk.

Ash had been working on the books for nearly a month now. Her every spare moment was spent with one or another of them. The pack wanted to know about their history, so many of them came looking to know about their family.

Rowan was doing his best to keep the pack from harassing her but Ash had a list of questions and names longer than her arm already and not a single book willing to give up more than the time it was recorded.

She was starting to doubt her own abilities, how could the pack be expected to believe in her when she couldnt even believe in herself? She knew the time had come where she would have to ask for help.

Octavia had made this whole process seem so easy, just like reading an actual book, but what do you do when the magical book you need to read doesn’t want you to read it? There arent instructions that! And that is how Ash found herself faced with the toughest prospect she had ever met to date.

Opening a line of communication to her grandparents, by choice, and inviting them back, which would only lead to one thing, this god forsaken ball that Octavia was determined to throw for her regardless of any objection that Ash, Micah or Rowan came up with.

Ash sighed softly as she climbed into Micah’s bed, they both slept better with the other near by and even if Ash didnt go to sleep in his bed she often woke up there, or with him almost falling out of her bed. His arms snaked their way around his middle as always, pulling her against his body.

“What’s wrong?” Micah asked softly, his face nuzzling into her throat.

“Nothing…” Ash began, before suddenly sitting herself up and turning to face him “its the books, they wont talk to me, I don’t know how to get the information out of them like I can when I have recorded it… there’s only one person who can help me though and you know what will happen if I initiate contact…”

Micah nodded thoughtfully for a moment “but if she is the only person who can help you… and they seem determined to throw you this party…”

“its a fucking ball not a party! With a huge puffy dress and a tiara and a thrown and goddess only knows what else” Ash cut across Micah, who held up is hands in defeat

“well whatever it is, they seem determined to do it, with or without your co-operation so maybe it would be best to just get it out of the way and get the help you need too?”

Micah suggested calmly, much calmer than he felt, the idea of his mate being backed into a corner and made to do something that she didnt want too made his blood boil and Zander want to rip someone’s head off. He was actually rather proud that he managed to keep the growl out of his voice.

Ash’s hands covered her face as she sighed loudly. She could see the logic behind Micah’s words but couldnt accept it as the only way forward.

“But…. I mean…. I could…. maybe I could summon my mother’s spirit to help me?” She suggested quietly after a few moments.

it was Micah’s turn to laugh, a deep, throaty sound tha,t seemed to belong more to Zander than Micah.

“Oh my little Princess, if only it were that easy… the dead are notorious for not answering when they are called”, he replied with a smile in his voice, pulling his mate closer still and throwing his leg over hers. Ash settled against him, the weight and warmth of his body comforting her in a way nothing else could ever do for reasons she still didn’t fully understand.

***********

Travelling by portal was a feeling that Ash would never adjust to she thought, and how her grandparents could pass through one and emerge looking quite so unruffled was well and truly beyond her.

As soon as the tip of her boot had touched the edge of the portal, she was yanked forwards, off her feet and thrown head over heals repeatedly in the nothingness, or that was how it was felt. She could feel her insides rebelling at the sensation almost instantly.

The unrelenting silence felt almost oppressive against her ears, the pressure was almost painful with its absence of sound.

As suddenly as everything started, it all stopped. Ash found herself upright on the grass, the silence was replaced with the soft tweeting of birds and the chirruping of circadias, the distant rise and fall of indistinct voices.

Her legs however were not ready for this sudden change, Ash fell to the ground barely a step away from the portal, her stomach too revolted at the repeated sudden changes, heaving its contents onto the grass.

Ash let her body relax slightly, gravity took over and she fell onto her backside a little distance from the puddle of vomit just in time to see Kit emerge from portal with little more than a stumble on landing before the portal slowly faded, folding in on itself almost before it popped out of existence.

Micah and Mark were both fighting the pull of the magic in the air as it tugged on something instinctual inside them, pulling their wolves closer to the surface and almost forcing a change on them. Even Ash’s discomfort couldnt pull Micah back from the edge. Small ripples and eruptions of fur occurred over their visible skin as they fought the urge to shift.

An audience soon surrounded the group; many of the household staff stared openly at the wolves, and the guard held their weapons at the ready. Kit slowly pulled Ash to her feet, supporting her until her legs were able to hold her upright alone.

She headed straight for Micah and Mark, Kit following closely behind, ignoring the outraged and increasingly loud mutters from the audience who were quickly working out who Ash was.