Chapter 181
Raven’s POV
ONE MONTH LATER
The time is near, I can feel it coming. Like the Goddess is pressing on me that the attack is imminent. We have been doing a daily test this last week, for everyone that needs to get to the safe area to practice. The children all like it, but the adults can feel the stress of it. But it is smooth right now. Everyone is doing it, and the siren is loud, like a tornado siren, that Brandon had bought just for this use. He placed it in the middle of the packland. It is very loud, and there are two buttons to press to get the alarm to sound. One of the stations is at the guard's shake at the gate entrance, and the other one is in our room. Everyone is aware that they need to mindlink Brandon, or Justin to announce the fact that we were being attacked. We are good to go, just waiting on Graham to finally decide when he wants to move forward with the battle.
We are as prepared as we can possibly be, and frankly, I will be glad to get this whole thing over and done with. The threat of this has been hanging over our heads for a very long time now, too long as it is over half my life now. I have been praying to the Goddess for her to protect our people, my mates, and all of our children. I am hoping that she will give me, or Reagan, a sign to let us know exactly when they will be coming. I have faith in her that she will, I know that she does not support Graham, or what he is doing. He needs to be dealt with, but he is not a pushover. He will have made backup plans for his backup plans, and we will all have to think on our feet when he finally does show up. We are all a little jittery these days, not in fear, but in anticipation of this finally being behind us. We need it to be, and my dad can feel it too. A week ago he started having warriors dropped off here from Blood Walker, and the pack next to his, Blue Moon. They wanted to help because Graham had killed their patrol warriors during his escape from Silver Blade.
The council had sent some of their warriors as well to aid us in this. They would come in with an SUV full of people to drop off, and then exit the pack about 30 minutes later. It would not seem unusual to them as it looked like the same number that came in, also came out, due to the dark tint on the windows of the SUVs. No red flags to show anyone watching, and they were indeed still watching us from across the highway. This was the purpose of the extra packhouse. We were growing all the time, but it didn’t warrant a new pack house just yet. But we wanted the new one to be able to house the warriors that were coming to assist us with the battle. being able to bring in so many warriors right under their noses, was almost funny to us. We also built it to have the next Alpha quarters for Jaxon when he finds his mate and they take over the pack. It was designed tastefully and was more modern than the packhouse that we currently live in. In doing this, it allowed us to stay here, until all of our children had found their mates and moved on.
We headed down for breakfast, and I do not have pep in my step. I feel like a weight is pressing on me pretty hard. I grab a light breakfast, as I don’t know what is going on, but I am not the only one who is not really hungry. Reagan got a coffee and yogurt too, and when she saw me with mine and we both gave a little laugh. We knew right then that the other twin felt the same way. The kids were all eating fine, and so were our mates. Cheryl had come up with her children and Kevin and Robert ran to go grab their food and come back to sit at the next table with our sons. Cheryl just went and grabbed a small plate and some hot tea for herself.
The boys no longer looked like boys anymore, they looked like grown young men. They were all sitting at the table next to us as they were all pretty large and imposing. They needed the extra space from when we could all slide in together when they were younger. The oldest one was our son Jaxon, and he turned 18 two days ago, Stella’s son Blane was 18 today, and was sitting to the left of Jax. His younger brothers, Andrew now 17 and a half, and Aiden is about to turn 17, sitting next to him. The twins, Liam and Chase, are 17 and a half and they look to be the same size as Jax. They were sitting on Jaxon's right-hand side. Dex turned 17 three weeks ago and he is sitting next to them. Kevin was almost 17 himself, and Robert had just turned 16 about two months ago. Reagan’s son Henry who was a little over 16, sat at the end of the table with his brother Jon, who was almost 15. Her son Atlas was 15 and a half. The last two chairs were snatched up by Everett who was a little over 14 and a half, and Cyril who was 14 years old. They were proud to be included at the boy's table. Jax was excellent at making sure everyone was included at his table. Both my mates and I, could not be more proud of the men that our sons were all becoming.
The six youngest boys had all been pretty frustrated with having to stay behind and not participate in the attack. Instead of fighting, they will have to stay in the safe house with Cheryl. They were good fighters, just not great fighters yet and we don’t want them to get hurt in this. They were all pretty psyched up at the offer we made them. They will be staying with Cheryl, in their house. They will be secured with my younger children, and Reagan’s. Cheryl will be needing to take care of her babies, and quite a few children during the attack. She will be needing a lot of help, as she will have 16 kids under her roof for the battle. Emerson and Sasha are 16 and a half, and right at the cut-off on the age, and we had to make a judgment call. We decided that it would be best for them to help with the kids, as 16 children, not counting Cheryl's babies under one roof, was a lot for anyone to handle. We gave Reagan's oldest daughter, Tatiana, a choice on whether she wanted to fight or not. She was worried about her younger brothers and sisters and wanted to stay with them in the safe house. She was an excellent fighter and if worse comes to worst, she will be there to help fight right alongside Robert, Henry, Jon, Atlas, and our twins to protect the safe house, if it gets breached.
Seven of the children will be Reagan’s, four of them will be mine, three of them will be Stella and Truett’s, and one of them will be Lanie and Krew’s, child. The last three will be Cheryl’s, so a total of 18 children will be under one roof. That is a lot of children, and the remainder will be in the new packhouse, in the secure area. It is hidden very well and had its own heat and air system. It has been restocked and has food for a week's stay in there if it is needed. Brandon and Justin planned every single aspect of it, and they even have restrooms built in. It has an escape tunnel in case the new packhouse gets set on fire. The tunnel leads into the woods for the pack members to get to safety and out of sight of any attacking forces. They thought of everything from heavy-duty seals in the doors on the way to the safe area. They did that in the case of smoke bombs or gas, which is why it had its own air system.
When we put the cameras on the top of the fence, we had to do it during the overnight hours, as that was the only time they didn’t have men watching us. As those were being installed, Anton had cameras installed for their home as well. He wanted Cheryl to be able to see what was going on outside their home. He told her not to come out for anything, no matter what she saw. He had to remind her how much the babies needed her, and she agreed, but we could all tell that she didn’t want to. I know that depending on what she saw, it would be very hard to stay inside, especially if her son, or Anton, were put in danger.
Cheryl has been learning how to use the system, and she is pretty good at it, but Robert is the one who loves it. He is very good at running the surveillance system, and from how it is built, you don’t notice the cameras very much. You would have to look for them, but the only ones that are obvious are the ones on the corners of the home. Some cameras are on the home itself, and a few more are on the large trees near the home. A lot of them are fixed, and blend in so well, you literally cannot see them, until you are on top of them. He put the PTZ (Pan, Tilt, and Zoom) camera’s on each corner of the house, and on four of the larger trees around the home. Those eight cameras can be moved around to see what is going on outside. After seeing how well they did and what you could see with them. Brandon did the same thing, putting cameras around both packhouses. The big cameras on top of the packhouses can see for quite a distance. It does feel a little safer having them in place, to let us see what is approaching in the pack at a glance.
“You two are not very hungry this morning? Do you feel OK?” Cheryl noticed that we were not eating like we normally do and had to ask. Clive looks over to look at what Reagan is eating, just as Brandon and Justin do the same thing for me.
“I feel off, I am anxious like something is about to happen. I just have a bad feeling about today. I feel kind of off my game and I don’t know how to really explain it” I told her. I can see Brandon and Justin tense up in my peripheral vision. This was why I didn’t want to mention it. Now they are worried too. I felt odd like this on the days that the babies came, it is like a premonition of something big about to happen.
“I feel the same. Like something is making me antsy and I feel off. I agree with Raven, I feel like something is about to happen” Reagan said. I see Clive stiffen up and he looks over at Brandon.
“Did Reagan kind of know the babies were coming on the day when she went into labor?” Brandon asked Clive.
“Yes, every single time, she knew. She started feeling antsy like this about 12 hours before the baby would show up” Clive told Brandon. This is not good, I did too, so that is something else we have in common.
“When did you start feeling it, Raven?” Brandon asked me.
“When I got up at 6 am I felt it” I answered him. Brandon looked over at Reagan and she nodded at him and said, “Same, I felt it at 6 am.”
“OK, it looks like today will be the day,” Brandon said and Justin nodded.
“Seems logical that he would attack at nightfall. I will call Cole and give him a heads up so that he can come with the rest of his men, and Carter can lock down Blood Walker, just in case” Justin said to Brandon.
“I will call Alexei and let him know. That way he can get the coven locked down too. We will make sure everything is ready to go for tonight. I believe in their gut feelings, they are both descendants of the Goddess. I am willing to bet this is kind of a heads-up is directed from her to us, so we can be prepared. I agree with you Justin, his attacking at nightfall is very smart. He is probably hoping to catch everyone at dinner and catch them unawares. I will put out a mindlink that everyone needs to be here to get dinner at 4 if they want it. I want everyone to be secured in the safe area by no later than 5:15 tonight. I don’t think that this is a drill, guys. I think that this is the warning that the Goddess was sending us. We may get a confirmation later from Blake if he can safely do it, but I think that they will be here tonight” Brandon told us and we agree.
I can see that the boys at the next table are all silent. They heard what he said, and this is it. It is more frightening when it is in your face. The time is up, and we will have to engage them tonight. I want to wrap up my children in my arms and kiss them and tell them that everything will be fine, but I can’t, the words are caught in my throat. There is nothing that I can do other than kill Graham and make his forces falter without him. That won’t be happening. He is planning on bringing in rogues, both werewolves and vampires. He knew we have Anton here, and he is trying to make sure that he has him outnumbered. Fear is a real thing, and when it is your family at risk, it can break you down quickly. I am fighting to not let it swallow me whole right now. I can see the fear on everyone’s faces. Anton hurries in and heads straight for Cheryl. She must have told him what we suspected. It is true, I haven’t felt like this since my youngest pups were born. My “feelings” were kind of a teasing joke as far as inside our family. But Brandon and Justin were both aware that I have never had a “feeling” and something not happen.
They were willing to bet on me, and with Reagan having the same "feelings" it was as good as set in stone now. The best thing about it is that Graham is planning to attack at nightfall, and he thinks that he will be catching us unaware. This is going to backfire on him as we will all be in place by the time he actually shows up. It will also cause us some problems as well. Our sharpshooters will not be as beneficial to us at night, as they would have been in the daylight. The men will have to not be able to stay on the roof, but in the two towers, we built. These towers are much closer to the ground, at only three stories high. The vampires can leap that high pretty quickly. We are going to have to figure out some way to be able to protect them in the towers for them to take out the leaders of the attack. I am glad that we have some time to try to figure that out today as it is only 730 in the morning right now.
The tables are no longer full of teasing, and easy talking. It is serious now, and I know that I want to get to spend some special time with my whole family today, but I doubt that is going to happen. We are going to need to make sure that everything is in place, and that our men and women were armed properly. But I won’t let my children go from the dining room tonight without each of them getting a hug from me, and telling them that I loved them. I will see them again at 4 for dinner, but I am sure that we will be busy until then. It is down to the wire now, and I just can’t stop until everything is in place. I have more than just my family to protect as the Luna here. My job is also to protect my pack members, and I will make sure that all my decisions today are for the greater good. I absolutely hate that they are coming in at night. The children haven’t really trained to fight at night just yet, as we just trained during our normal hours, and never stopped this think about them coming in at night. It was brilliant on his part, and knowing what a piece of work he was, one of us should have thought about it. But there is no time for second-guessing what we have done. We just need to adapt and overcome now, because there is nothing else that we can do.
We have a strong pack, and we will be getting this done, tonight, Goddess willing. We will still have the element of surprise on our side. He thought he would be totally surprising us coming in at night, and he might have if we hadn’t had a little heads up from the Goddess herself. Now he will have the shock of his life when he gets here. We are not just going to let him come in here and hurt our pack and our family. He messed up by insisting to keep going whit his petty vendetta. We will be letting him find out just how much he messed up when Graham shows his conniving face tonight. It will be my pleasure for us to end him, and for us all to be free from his evil plans from now on. He has done so much damage to so many, I know for a fact that I will feel a lot better knowing that he is dead. No more waiting to see what he will do next to hurt me, or the people I care about. No more waiting on him to try to ruin another person's life because he felt slighted or insulted. No more bullying behavior, we will be free of that too. I am very thankful that he will no longer be a loathsome creature waiting in the wings to cause anyone pain and anguish ever again. We will be settling the whole thing soon. One way or another, it will all be finished tonight.