Chapter 79

Chapter 79

Marcus

Looking around the room I didn’t know exactly how to tell my family the story that had me deceiving my family.

“Listen, I know that you all do not need to believe me or trust me but I need you to listen to me.” I began.

“Son. You better start telling us something because right now, I think this entire room is about to explode.” My father said angrily.

“When Antony called to have us move back, I was upset. I didn’t want to disrupt my family and uproot them. We had a very set routine and we had really worked hard to get to our positions. Especially Mari. I couldn’t expect her to give up everything she busted her ass to achieve.” I began.

“Like none of us didn’t” Abel barked back. “I gave up my martial arts tour.”

“I gave up tenure.” Alec stated. “We all had something to give up to come home but we fucking did it Marcus.” He sneered at my name like it was poison on his tongue.

“I get that and I am not saying that it was easy for any of us. But with the kids and Mari, I didn’t know what I was walking into. For all I knew Dad just wanted me home to take over. I didn’t know what to think. Okay?” I asked.

“Marcus, I would never have called you home. You had your life, your family.” My father said, his expression told me just how disappointed he felt.

“Why the hell would he call you home to run the compound? I was here, Levi, hell even Gabi would have taken over if Dad could no longer run the place. Even Cain and Abel would have come back to take over. Your ego is astounding.” Antony rebuked.

“Its not fucking ego Antony. Will you all sit down and let me tell you what I have know?”

“Everyone sit down, shut up and listen up. I want to know where the hell my Nieces and nephew are.” Gabi commanded the room and all at once everyone including me sat down in our seats and mouths locked shut. “Shit. Sorry Marcus, stand up and explain.”

“Thank you Gabi.”

“Don’t thank me just yet, I haven’t yet figured out how I feel about any of this.”

“Fair enough. So, after I got here Dad told me about Gabi and the full story behind her wolf. I left the minute after finding out. I swear Gabi. I made it back to the Black Stone pack in record time. When I got home I walked in telling Mari to get ready we were leaving that night. But…” I said before I was cut off by Mari, slowly rising to her feet.

“He walked into my biological father ordering me to return home. He stated that with me being the first born I would be better suited to take over with his preselected mate for me. I told him to fuck off. But he never did faire well when others would tell him off. So, he retaliated. He always has a contingency plan. The man was built on contingencies. He had one of his men pick up the children from school and daycare. Once he saw Marcus walk in he knew who he was related to.” Mari explained.

“He made it a point to call me the Hunt boy. The rogue. The mission of going home to collect my family and moving back to the compound took a back burner when I walked in to Mari crying on the couch sporting a nice big black eye. I was greatly outnumbered in the room, so I took the diplomatic approach. I attempted to reason with the man.” I explained.

“He knew there was activity going on in the academy and wanted Marcus to spill. He tied Marcus up to one of our kitchen chairs and beat him till he was bloody. When that didn’t work he brought out the wolfsbane and silver. Yet, Marcus still wouldn’t break…” Mari said before her sobs consumed her.

“They raped Mari in front of me. When they were prepared to start taking limbs and her life I told them limited details. Told them I didn’t know much more and wouldn’t until we moved back home.” I explained.

“So they are holding Travis, Daisy and Tyler until you what, rat out your family?” Gabi asked.

“Until Mari agrees to move back home and take over. Then I will be granted custody. Or if I deliver him the ultimate news. I wasn’t going to tell Gabi. I have been dropping insignificant information. Only that all my siblings had found their mates. How we were building upon the Alpha Academy, building a teaching hospital for supernaturals, even opening up a rogue camp and pre-k through highschool. He still doesn’t believe me. He wants to know more. He swears that there is something more that we are hiding. That was the conversation that Dad overheard. He heard me telling him I had nothing to give him. I love my children Gabi, but I wouldn’t risk this. I will figure out another way to get my kids back.”

“Okay, so we move up our time tables. Lucy, Savenia do you think that you will be ready to move at the end of this week?” Gabi asked. Confused, I looked at her and the rest of my family.

“What are you thinking about Gabi?” I asked her, voicing the same question that everyone else had on their mind.

“Well, I will give you 12 hours to inform her father and get your kids back. But do not do it over the phones. Tell him to meet you in the village. With the kids. Then once you have the kids in hand I will put out the command that we are holding a ceremony for the rising of the queen. I will order all Alphas to the compound for the ceremony and to find those that will bow down and those that will fight. This means that we need to narrow down our main laws. Alec, are you prepared to reopen the Alpha Academy? We don’t want to turn our big brother into a liar now do we?” She asked, pointing the question to him.

“Savenia and I were just discussing the curriculum and have many ideas that we would like to implement but will need a bit more help in the combative course.” Alec said, looking at Cain and Abel.

“We should be able to help you out with that. Reign and Remmie even offered to help teach weapondary and treat injuries with homeopathic means. So we can take over the SERE’s portion of the course.” Cain stated.

“Okay. Marcus and Mari, where are we at, at opening the teaching hospital? Are we prepared to take on a couple of applicants?” Gabi asked, redirecting the conversations back towards us.

“Sorry no. We haven’t had much time to shift through the applicants but we can have you a list of potentials tomorrow. We do have a nurse that is a vampire that hasn’t been a part of a den and would like to go to medical school. We thought about moving him into a leadership position and having him suss out potentials for us. He can be very discreet.” I stated.

“Good, use him. I know that he would like to go to med school and maybe in the future that could be a possibility but for now I think if you place him in a higher educational and leadership role he could like that better.” She said,

“Gabi?” Alec asked standing up to address the room.

“Go ahead Alec” She said.

“With us moving up our timeline I would like to request on the behalf of my mate and Lucy that they recieve one on one training from you. They need to be able to protect themselves. I would like to also request that they receive individualized training with their magic by Celeste. Maybe find a way to enhance their magic and train with it.”

“Celeste, do you and Amethyst think that you can comply with this request?” She looked at them.

“That should be no problem.” Celeste's sweet and calming voice rang out.

Standing up Reign and Remmie also looked between Alec, Lucy, Savenia and Gabi. “We would also like a chance to train with Savenia and Lucy. We can also help with concealed weapons. Weapons that do not look like weapons but could be used. Reign would also like to train with homeopathic medicines to treat their injuries and illnesses. They may be able to help treat the other women in the cells with things that can be found around the cells. We can also find a way to smuggle in herbs to help aide them.” Remmie stated.

“I think that would be a great idea. Thank you Reign and Remmie. Cain, Abel I would like you to also assist in training. I can almost guarantee if they meet with an adversary it will not be with a woman. You two will have the best hand to hand for their size and for the space that they will have to work with.” Gabi stated.

“Okay. Well I think that we have that pretty well taken care of. Training and Patrol scheduling. With the secret getting dropped before the ceremony we are going to need to step up the patrolling and guard on the compound. Samuel, would you like to take over?” She asked, sitting back down and allowing her mate to take control.

For the next hour we debated and negotiated the scheduling of the patrol and training schedules. With the fact that two of our members would be taking individual training time we had to work a very delicate schedule. By the time the clock struck 7pm we had hashed pretty much everything out that we could and everyone in the room looked well exhausted.

“Okay everyone. Thank you for a very good and productive meeting. Tomorrow those that are not on patrol are required to be at the training field at 5 am, unless they are medically exempt. That will be the only excuse for missing. I want all men, women and children from 10 on up that are able to be standing tall and ready to train. We will break the groups up based on their level of fighting. The advanced warriors, I would like them to start training in working against dark magic and demon fighting. For the rest they will continue to work on the basics until proficient. We will reconvene the meetings at 9 am to discuss laws. Alec, I would like to see a copy of your curriculum for the academy as well as applicants for the academy. Marcus and Mari I would like to see the hospital proposals and applicants for residency and internships. Till then this meeting is adjourned. Everyone gets good sleep because we are going to be speeding things along for the next few weeks. G’night everyone.” Gabi said as she stood up with her mate.

As everyone began to file out I stopped Gabi and Alpaha Samuel from leaving.

“Gabi, Alpha Samuel?” I asked hoping they would stop from leaving.

“Yes, Marcus.” Samuel sneered out as Gabi asked sweetly at the same time.

“I am sorry. I am sorry for the crap that I dropped at your doorstep. That truly wasn’t my intention. I was hoping to find another way to get my children back. I was truly never going to do anything to put anybody's life at risk. I truly do not know if he is capable of hurting the kids. They are after all his grandkids. So, I was trusting that he wasn’t capable of hurting the children.” I said.

“Please, we really didn’t know what to do. We were told that he would know if we told. We didn’t want any trouble. We would understand if you would like to cut us from the council.” Mari stated taking my hand in support and solidarity.

“You two put more lives at risk than anything else from not trusting….” Alpha Samuel began to growl out.

“Oh hush up Sam. Marcus, Mari I understand the difficult position that you were put in and I am sorry that it came to be this way. But I will not remove you from your positions. You are just going to have to prove to everyone there in that room what I already know. That the hospital couldn’t be in any better hands than the ones that I put it in. Marcus, you are my oldest brother. I would never think that you would ever betray me or this family. No matter what Dad thinks. Just take the night to be with Mari and prepare for war. I have a feeling we all need to prepare for the inevitable.” With that Gabi squeezed my arm and pulled Alpha Samuel out the room leaving both Mari and I staring at her eyes and mouth gaped in shock of the trust Gabi had in us.