Aaron’s POV
I am in a complete nightmare and I cannot escape it. I woke up to find that not only was it not a nightmare, but that I lost not just my son, but my mate too. I am so angry at Austin for going off into the woods. I told him how dangerous vampires were just last night after he heard me speaking to Eloise before I left. I warned them both to stay in our apartments on the top floor. I had brought their food up personally for them, so they had no reason to leave the Alpha floor. That way I knew they were safe. I knew he was willful and disobedient, he was his mother made over. But Goddess help me, I loved them both so much. I know that Eloise was all over me to announce to the pack that Austin would take over for me, as the next Alpha. She wanted that for him so badly. But he was not going to be a good Alpha.
I was never going to take it away from Trevor. He was a considerate young man, with a good head on his shoulders. He thought things through and made good decisions. I missed getting to see him when he lived with us, but secretly I was glad that Reagan did that power play she did 5 years ago. I saw what Eloise did, I saw her with my own eyes shove my son down the stairs. She wanted to hurt him and she shoved him hard when she did it. It was absolutely disgusting, and I have been disappointed in her from then on. I knew that she played innocent and nice in front of me, but was a vicious she-wolf to others. Our daughter is much nicer, and I feel so bad that I am going to have to tell her that her mother and brother were not going to be coming back home.
I knew when I woke up and both Darren and Clive were in my room that it was going to be bad. I assumed it was just Austin, and I remembered that he had been attacked. I was fighting to get to him, but the man I was fighting was strong. A lot stronger than I thought that he was going to be. I have never had to fight a vampire before, and I didn’t know a lot about them. We are going to have to learn about them quickly. We need to move forward with a plan, but we don’t have any time to get things done. It will be dusk in less than 2 hours and my room is silent. None of us know how to prevent another attack that we all know is about to be coming our way. They have been here the last two nights, there is no way that they won’t try it again. We are easy to be picked off, and I felt like they were toying with us last night.
I am ashamed to admit how upset I am about all of this. I am disappointed at my lack of knowledge on how to fight them. We have never had an issue with them here at Blood Tracker before. Frankly, I have no idea how we are going to be able to defend ourselves from them tonight. I am trying so hard here to come up with ideas, but I am in so much pain from losing my mate and child. I am sick with grief and all that I feel is anger. I just want to kill them. Trust me, no one here wants them dead, more than me. I can hear my son's screams of pain and terror in my mind, just like it was happening right now. I will pray to the Goddess that will end, as that is not a memory that I want to keep. I would rather remember him when he was happy. My mate as well. I want her to stay in my head in positive ways, not bad memories.
I see Clive sit up about 10 seconds before we heard a knock on the door. That means Reagan is coming, he already knows her scent. Sometimes I wish that she loved me as much as she loved him. I lied when I said that I would never make her my Luna. I would have. She is smart, beautiful, and strong. But she is in love with him, and that would have never worked. I will defer to him on this because it was her choice, not his that got them to this point. I found my mate, and that helped, but I loved my time with Reagan. I was surprised to see several of my strongest warriors enter the room ahead of her. She moved right to Clive and he gave her a kiss. I can see that the men have sheathed swords, and pointed stakes with them. They have been really busy today, and I am proud of their initiative to get things taken care of, I do not want to lose anyone else here at Blood Tracker.
“Jeremy, great job on getting this together so quickly. I am glad that we are getting a plan together. What have you decided on to help protect the pack?” I asked him.
“Actually, Reagan made up the plan. I would rather you heard it from her” Jeremy told me, and I was stunned. Since when did my men take orders from her? But I realize that she is surprisingly calm. Like she is not bothered at all by the looming threat of the vampires returning here to attack us again.
“I took the youngest to the daycare and the oldest with me as we checked books and the elder's online information and manuscripts about vampires. We all learned a lot today and Trevor contacted a business about 40 minutes away that had some of what we needed. We also got the things that Martin, the woodworker told me we needed. We managed to get a total of 7 canes made of very hard wood, called Hawthorn. It is alleged in the books and manuscripts that we read to be the best to make stakes from. It is supposed to have been advised as having holy properties from the human deity with it. We managed to find 7 canes today made of this wood. We got a total of 21 stakes made from those canes. They are all ready to be used. We also stopped in that town and bought all the swords they had, so we have 6 of them right now. The stakes are not noted as being 100% on killing them, but cutting their heads off was. I want to stab them with the stakes, and then while they are incapacitated, remove their heads. I also got some holy water. Anything that I could get my hands on today, to prepare us for tonight, I got for the pack. I am worried about our pack members. I came up with a plan for tonight, but we came here to run it by you for approval” Reagan said in a confident tone. She seems fearless, but I know that she did this to protect our pups.
I looked at both Clive and Darren. They are just as stunned and impressed with her, as I am with what she has done today. She just took over and got things done, while we were trying to figure out a plan of action. The fact that our children helped her makes me proud. I was very happy that she gave Trevor the nod of getting the ball rolling, I know that she is just as proud of him, as I am. He will be a good leader here at Blood Tracker and I was glad that she was as effective as she was with getting everything prepared.
“OK, I am very glad of all that has been done to this point. What else did you have planned for us to stay safe tonight? It will be dusk in less than an hour and a half. There is not much we can do to protect the pack” I told her and she nodded and Jeremy motioned to her to take the lead on it. Apparently, that was her idea too. I can see that we have greatly underestimated her, and her abilities. She has been getting everything done on her own. I am pretty surprised that the men took orders from her though. She still had that stigma of being a breeder on her, and that was a big reason why she stayed to herself. A lot of she-wolves judged her for her title. It didn’t matter that she had no choice in it. Tabitha and Jennifer had friends and family in this pack, and Michael did too. They were pissed at what happened here 15 years ago. Even though they had been in the wrong, and Reagan was clearly the victim. The families of the three people killed for attacking her still hated her and blamed her for the whole thing.
“That is where you come in. We need the pack members to get blankets, sleeping bags, and things they can easily carry from their homes, and come to the packhouse. We need to put everyone on the top two floors. They will not be able to reach them there. We will have the doors and windows boarded up on the first 2 floors. We need to take all the warriors off of patrols, and use them to secure the packhouse, the hospital, and our home. They will be boarding up the windows here at the hospital, and at my house. We can take in people there too, we have plenty of room there too. That way we can be safe overnight until the sun comes up again. These three areas all have food storage already there, that way we can split up the warriors so they can sleep, and change shifts with each other to stay fresh through the night. I don’t think anyone slept last night. They will be coming back here, and soon. The men took several trucks and they should be back any minute. I was going to have the construction men help them to board everything up. They will board the building up from the inside to secure it. They will then stay where they were assigned. We have a total of 21 stakes and 6 swords. We will divide them up 7 stakes at each location, or we can take 2 less at ours, since our home is smaller, and you can have more at the packhouse, so the first 2 floors can be covered. The top two floors will be on lockdown. I believe that we can hold them off tonight, and then get more done and prepared for tomorrow” Reagan said in a matter-of-fact tone, and I am really impressed with her thought process on this.
“That is brilliant, beauty. I am so proud of you” Clive said. I happen to agree with him. She is acting like a true Luna. I hate to say it because my heart hurts to even think it, but I know that Eloise would have fought her tooth and nail over this plan. She would have been mad that she hadn’t thought of it herself and dug in to prevent it from happening. She would have been wrong for it though. Luna’s are supposed to do what they can to help protect the pack. Reagan was stepping up in a big way to do so, and she was totally correct in what she thought. It was an excellent plan, and it was very well thought out. I was proud of her too. I know how much she worries about our children. She protected them with her plan. It also protected our warriors, who I was terrified were just going to be picked off a little at a time until they all ran off. She thought about our pack members too, even though they have never been welcoming to her.
“I am impressed Reagan. I will do what you said now. For a night or a few nights, we can do this until we can neutralize the problem. Once we kill them we will get that wall built so we won’t have to worry about this kind of attack again. I am willing to get the same pressure plates that Blake has now too. We need to know when someone comes into our land, I see the value of it now. We will get an alarm, so we can let all the warriors know where it was tripped, so people can be looking out for the trespassers. That way we don’t ever get caught unaware again. We will start getting things done again first thing in the morning. We can good to other cities and get the additional supplies we need. We can get a list made up tonight. We can get it taken care of quicker with more hands on deck. Thank you for thinking of your fellow packmates in keeping us all safe. I know that some of them still give you a hard time. I know that I speak for all the Blood Tracker pack members when I say thank you” I told her. She blushed a little at the compliments that I gave her. But she deserved them, all of them.
We will all make it through the night, because of her. I got up out of bed and was momentarily dizzy because the punch I received from the vampire I fought, had shattered my eardrum. My wolf, Roman, was healing it, but it was a hard blow, and it was taking time to heal. I know what strong fighters those vampires are now, they are no joke, as Clive and I are two of the strongest fighters in the pack, and we were about equal to them. Neither of us was gaining the upper hand until Eloise screamed, and I looked over at her to see what had happened. The next thing I knew everything went black. I am lucky that he didn’t take the opportunity to kill me right then or feed off of me. But I am ready to deal with them, as soon as we are in a position to be successful against them. That meant having a plan, a very solid plan in place to beat them because I do not think that we will be given another chance to do it. I believe that they will get even more aggressive after they find out that we will be fighting back.
“We can split the difference and just do the packhouse, and hospital. That way we only have to secure two buildings” I suggested. I see Clive and Darren shaking their heads at me, I must have missed something.
“No, we will need as much space as we can get. We have a lot of pack members. You will only be able to get between 350 and 400 people to sleep on the top two floors. My home is large, and we can get at least 100 people in there, besides our family and the warriors in mine, it won’t be optimal, but as long as they can be safe, we will have to make it work. We can have all the children sleeping in our room with us. The warriors will need to take turns on watch during the night. They can be stationed at every door and window. We can limp through tonight, with the plans that we have in place. The rest will have to stay at the hospital, which will be the worst sleeping arrangement, as the floor is hard and cold. But again, Goddess willing, one night, maybe two, while we get a plan in place. I am positive that they will be coming back. That guy Clive fought came back last night. I saw him after I tried to call my parents and couldn’t get through” she told us.
I tried to keep my guilty expression off of my face when she told me she tried to call her parents. From what Clive has told me, they always answer her. So even with being worried about her parents, and her children, she still managed to put together a great plan to keep everyone safe. I need to tell her, but this is not the best time. I know that I would put it off for a while if I could, but if I did, she would be even more upset.
“Reagan, I need to tell you something, and I need you to stay calm,” I told her trying to keep the guilt I was feeling off of my face.
“Aaron, what is going on? You are clearly keeping something from me. Did something happen to my parents? Are they OK?” Reagan asked me.
“I came out to tell you last night, but I needed to know if you knew anything about what your dad was doing first. Blake is furious, and he asked me to see if you did know what he had planned, or had put your dad up to it. He feels you might have known and just didn’t say. I knew from what you said last night that you didn’t know anything. I was about to tell you what had happened, but then Austin came running out of the woods, and all hell busted loose” I told her.
“Aaron, you can just tell me what stupid thing dad did to get in trouble. I am quite sure it was just him. Mom never did anything that would warrant her getting in trouble. I would apologize for it, but I don’t know what he did just yet. I have a feeling that mom may need to come and live with me, here at Blood Tracker. If you are OK with allowing her to do that. I am sure that dad might be put to death. Blake is not known for letting a punishment pass” Cheryl said and I see Clive’s arms tighten around her. Clive already knew, I told him after he broke the news of Austin and Eloise to me. He needed to know, so he could help Reagan get through this.
“Your dad has gone too far and is currently in the cells at Black Moon, Reagan. I would have let your mother come and live here, but I am sorry to tell you that she is dead, she was killed yesterday” I said as gently as I could. I hope that she can hear the sympathy in my voice.
I see Reagan start to slide down to the floor as she passed out from the shock of hearing that her mother was dead. I tried to tell her as nicely as I could, but it is a great shock to find out that your parent was killed. I hit the button for a nurse to come and help Reagan. I feel terrible for her. I wish her dad had left it alone like she had asked him to, but I know Graham. He doesn’t listen to anyone. I had heard what happened and Graham deserved to be killed, and in a very violent way for what he had done. But even I knew better than to do what Blake had done, on both counts. How could he have cheated on his mate like that? Forest and Kevin looked so much alike, other than their coloring. How could Blake have even thought Kevin didn't belong to him? It was clear to me that he was the father of all four of their children. I just don't know how he was able to cheat on her, knowing that she would feel it. That was the only thing she could not come back from. I have to say I was very disappointed in him. But he asked me to ask Reagan, he knew I would know if she was lying, and she wasn’t. She didn’t know what her dad had been up to at Black Moon. I still need to tell him that, and I will, right after I make sure that my pack members are all safe and secure for the night.
Reality Settles In