Eudora's Baby

Chapter One: The Arrival

“This is the worst idea ever,” Eudora said, squirming nervously in her seat.

Jericho stroked her hand, “Relax love, everything is going to be fine.”

“Fine?  What’s fine?  These people don’t know me.  I don’t know them.  You think I’m just going to waltz in to the biggest pack in the Northeast and be like, ‘hey, I’m the bastard daughter of your dead Alpha, and I’m here to take over’?

Jericho frowned darkly and growled.  “Don’t call yourself that.”

Eudora rolled her eyes.  “Oh I’m sorry, is “illegitimate” more politically correct?” 

“Your father had an illegitimate marriage,” Jericho corrected, “If he’d had any choice in the matter, I know he would have been married to your mother, she was his mate.  Who knows what he intended to do before…”

“Before my uncle murdered him.” Eudora finished dryly.  She held her head in her hands.  “This is a disaster, Richo.  Lets turn back.”

“You can do this, baby.” Jericho stroked her hair.  “You were born for this, its in your blood.  You are the daughter of an Alpha.” He kissed her forehead, “and the wife of an Alpha.  I’m here for you, Dori.  Stay calm.”

Eudora didn’t feel like the daughter of an Alpha.  Up until a few months ago she had only been known as the ward of the town drunk.  People had called her trailer trash and mistreated her and said all kinds of other horrible things about her.  But then Jericho had found her and taken her away from that terrible life.

Eudora took a deep breath and tried to calm herself… but being in an airplane, far from the earth and the forest and everything that made her feel safe and comfortable was only adding to her anxiety.  “I wish we could have put this off a little longer… after the baby was born at least.” She rubbed at her baby bump.

That was the original plan.  The Black Crow Beta, Caleb would run the pack in her absence until she was ready to take the reins for herself.  She didn’t even want to take the reins.  She was more than content just to be Jericho’s wife and Luna in Tennessee.   But Caleb had called and insisted that she needed to come north urgently.  Her evil uncle had made a mess of everything, and she was needed to put out things in order and put out the fires the crazed man had left behind.

Jasmin leaned out the window, her hands gripped onto the arm rests, not in fear, but in hopeful anticipation.  Black Crow was a big pack, with dozens of satellite packs under them.  Maybe somewhere way out there in upstate New York, her mate was waiting for her.

Officially she had joined this journey as Eudora’s body guard and companion.  Unofficially… she was searching for that proverbial needle in a haystack.  The flight from Nashville to Albany wasn’t long, but for Jasmin, any amount of time sitting still was agony.  She tapped her feet, and twiddled her thumbs, and rocked in her seat like an overactive child.  When the plane finally came to a stop on the tarmac, she was the first to throw off her buckle and leap from her seat, knocking her head on the luggage rack overhead, and tripping over her seat-mate in her eagerness to get out of the confines of the small commercial flight.

Caleb was waiting for them at the gate.  He smiled eagerly, and bowed to Eudora, before he shook hands with Jericho and Jasmin respectfully.  “Alpha Eudora, thank God, I’m so glad to see you.  I hope your trip was comfortable?”

Eudora grimaced.  “You really don’t have to call me that.”

Caleb gave her a funny look.  “Of course I do.  I’ve got a vehicle waiting for us in the parking garage.  Do you have all your luggage?”  Eudora nodded toward the cart that carried their luggage.  She and Jericho had shared one large suitcase between them, plus Jericho’s briefcase.  But Jasmin had loaded on three more full size suitcases along with her carry-on.

Jericho sighed.  “I know I shouldn’t say this, Jaz… but you travel like a princess.”

Jasmin pulled herself up to her full, almost six-foot height.  “Who said I’m not a princess?”

“sss Princess.” Eudora quipped with a smile.  “Where is the bathroom?  I have to pee.”

That was Eudora’s new theme song.  The baby seemed to be sitting directly on her bladder, and she had the urge to pee ALL the time.  “Why don’t you pull the car around,” Jasmin suggested, “And I’ll take our little Alpha to the ladies’ room.”

After relieving her bladder, Eudora let Jasmin escort her out to the front doors of the small airport, where a sleek, black SUV was parked.  The luggage had been piled in the back, and Jasmin took shotgun so that Eudora and Jericho could sit together in the back seat.  The long drive gave Caleb a chance to catch Eudora up on some of the problems that were plaguing the pack.

“Most of the investments Vincent Sakwa made went sour.  We lost millions.  Sakwa made up the shortfalls by levying heavy taxes on our satellite packs, promising that the monies would be used to improve infrastructure and security and training… but of course he never followed through on any of it.”  Caleb tapped his fingers nervously on the steering wheel as he navigated out onto the interstate.  “So now we have several of our packs threatening not only to revolt, but to attack.”

“And what about the main pack?” Jericho asked, “How are they holding up?”

“They aren’t… " he glanced at Eudora in the rearview mirror.  “There are some who can remember your father, and your grandfather before him, and they are hopeful that you will come and restore peace and order and strength.  But many of those who have come of age during your uncle’s dictatorship… well they are tired and restless… the pack is splitting into factions.  I’m afraid its falling apart faster than I can piece it back together.” He looked a little ashamed.  “I’m sorry Alpha, it is more than I can manage.”

After what seemed like forever, the SUV rolled through the gates.  Jericho growled that the security was too lax, as the single gate guard motioned them through without even checking the occupants of the vehicle.  The pack house rose up in the clearing, looking rather harsh and formidable.  It didn’t look like a home, as much as it looked like some old institution.  There was no welcoming committee, there wasn’t even an omega to open the door.  Caleb pushed open the double doors himself to let them in.

“Let me show you to your rooms first, give you some time to rest and relax… then after dinner I will give you the full tour.” Caleb suggested.  He barked at someone who was lurking in the shadows, and a skulking omega came to carry their bags up the stairs.  “Traditionally the Alpha’s have taken the third story as their residence and offices.  Betas and Gammas on the Second Story.  The kitchen, dining room, entertainment and conference rooms on the first story.”

“Where do the Omegas live?” Eudora asked as she climbed up the stairs.  Eudora looked small, but she was supernaturally fast and strong.  She could have taken the stairs two at a time and left the rest of the party behind.  But she marched up patiently in step with her long-legged companions.

“The Omegas have cottages in the village.” Caleb said.  He glanced at the porter who was carrying the luggage up the stairs and added quietly, “Their living conditions are substandard.”

Eudora frowned over that as we made our way to the third story.  “No one has cleaned out the Alpha’s quarters yet,” Caleb explained apologetically.  “Please accept these guest rooms for now,” he opened the door to the larger guest suite for Eudora and Jericho, and across the hall a single room for Jasmin.  The rooms were clean, but somewhat outdated and worn.  Further proof that Vincent Sakwa had let things fall apart under his reign as the false alpha. 

As soon as she had seen the room, Eudora was backing toward the door.  This place unnerved her.  She imagined that once her father had walked in these halls.  Maybe he had even played in these rooms as a boy.  “Can we go outside?” she practically begged, completely forgetting that here she was the boss, and she could do anything she wanted, at any time.

Everyone present (except the Omega who was still huffing up and down the stairs with Jasmin’s excessive baggage) knew that Eudora needed to be near the forest.  Caleb lead them back down the stairs and out a rear exit that put them closer to the tree line behind the house.  Eudora made a beeline for the trees, ducked into the forest, and gave a sigh of relief.

Interestingly, the trees seemed to sigh back, an audible breeze ran through the tops of the trees… even though there was no wind.  Eudora wove between the trees, her fingers brushing over the needles of the white pine, the rough bark, even the naked branches of the deciduous trees.  She found a young birch, and wrapped her arms around it, leaning her cheek against the papery bark.  A small smile played around her full lips.

She looked up at her husband.  “It feels kind of nice, to be back in a place where all the trees are familiar.”

Jericho rubbed his arms against the winter chill.  He didn’t pretend to understand his wife’s supernatural attachment to the forest, but he accepted it as a vital part of her being.  She drew her power and her strength and even her confidence from the earth and the trees, it was part of some ancient generational connection she shared with her Native American ancestors. 

Finally she released the tree and breathed deeply.  “I feel so much better… lets go eat.”