Eudora's Baby

Chapter 5: Caleb\'s Mate

After breakfast Lori appeared in the doorway, her moon face split in a wide smile showing her uneven teeth.  She wasn’t an attractive girl, but her joyful nature was beautiful and contagious.  “Miss Jasmin, Miss Jasmin!  I got a surprise to show you!”

Jasmin looked to her Alpha for permission to be dismissed.  She had not forgotten that she was here on official pack business.  Jericho waived her away absently.  “Go ahead.  We’re just going to be working in the office.”  There was a faint hint of bitterness in his voice, and Eudora had a look on her face that said the office was tantamount to visiting a torture chamber.  Jasmin was ever grateful that she was not a ranked member, and she would never be confined to a desk.

She slipped away from the table and let Lori hold her hand.  Lori always wanted to be touching – not in a creepy way, but like a small child, constantly looking for that connection and reassurance from an adult.  Jasmin had zero experience with children, but she was quickly getting used to Lori.  Lori dragged Jasmin back through the maze of hallways to the doorway that lead to the basement and the gym.

“I told the beta, just like you said, and he made them come and clean it.  Come and see!”  Lori said proudly.  Although the room was still dismal and the equipment was outdated, all the dust and cobwebs were gone, and the room smelled faintly of disinfectant cleaner and fresh sweat.  A rack of fresh towels was set up by the door, along with a few water bottles. 

The salty odor of sweat was coming from Beta Caleb, who was already on the rowing machine.  Judging from the dark wet V that stained his grey t-shirt, he’d already been at it awhile.  He nodded a greeting to Jasmin, but didn’t break his rhythm.  “I thought I was the only one masochistic enough to hit the gym right after a day of training.” Jasmin said airily.

Jasmin hadn’t brought her gym bag down, but she decided that what she was wearing was good enough.  She needed the release that could only come from a good, grueling workout.  She climbed onto a bike, and took out her phone.  She selected her favorite playlist of kickass workout music.  Out of the corner of her eye she watched Lori struggling with the elliptical machine.  The orbital movement was difficult for the awkward teen, but Jasmin watched to be sure she wouldn’t hurt herself.  Before she stuck her earbuds in her ears, she turned to the Beta and assaulted him with an unexpected question.

“Caleb, why don’t you have a mate?”

That was enough to make him pause the motion.  He stopped and rubbed at his chest as though the words had caused him physical pain, but he kept his face perfectly neutral.  “She rejected me.”

Jasmin gasped.  “Oh my Goddess, I’m so sorry!  But… why?  You seem like a totally solid guy.”

Caleb shrugged and took a swig of water.  “I was late, and she was a few  years older than me.  I came back from college, and by the time we found each other, she had already fallen in love and gotten married and they had a kid on the way.”  He scrubbed his face with a towel.  “Rejecting me… it was the only fair thing for everyone.”  He picked up the handle bar and went back to pulling.

Jasmin’s face was screwed up in a look of consternation.  She kept quiet, so as not to interrupt Caleb’s flow any more, but her mind was busy.  She stuck in her earbuds and started to peddle, but she couldn’t get the thoughts out of her head.  She’d grown up hearing the Luna say things like, “The Goddess never makes mistakes.” And “Everything happens for a reason.”  And sometimes, it played out.  It had taken Jericho 10 years to find his mate and settle down.  Everyone thought he would get himself killed before Eudora came of age.   The two of them were an undeniably perfect match.  But why then did other people’s fate seem to get all twisted and screwed up?  Why would a nice guy like Caleb have to endure the pain of rejection and a life alone just because of lousy timing?  And what about a girl like Lori?  Because Werewolves were strong and genetically resilient it was pretty rare for a child to be born with the kind of disabilities that Lori had.  Would Lori have a fated mate?  And would he accept her?  It seemed highly unlikely.

And what about her, Jasmin?  She never asked to be what she was, but she’d known since puberty that she wasn’t like the other girls.  While her friends from school were crushing on boys, she’d been crushing on a pretty girl from the track team named Mary Goggins.  She had hope though… she’d heard of other same-s*x couples that were fated mates.  Surely it could happen for her too.  She’d been holding on to that hope for a long time, but being alone was getting… old.

She turned up the volume on her phone, and cranked up the resistance on the bike.  She would work herself to the point of absolute muscle fatigue, and then she was sure these disturbing thoughts would go away, and life would go on.

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Eudora sat at the head of a conference table surrounded by ranking members and a few of the pack elders.  “I’ve called this meeting to discuss the state of the pack’s finances.  I have spent the last week pouring over all of the financial records I could find, however the record keeping under Sakwa… left a lot to be desired.”  She nodded to Caleb, who was standing aside.  He brought a stack of print-outs and began handing out a packet to each person sitting at the table.  “I’ve prepared this report… if you will turn to page two… you can see that the pack’s liabilities far out-weigh our assets.  Many of our investments have had negative returns, and we are way over our heads in debt.”

Some of the elders clucked their tongues and shook their heads in disbelief.  The Black Crow pack had long held the reputation of being the largest and strongest pack in the North East.  But on paper, they were almost bankrupt.

“On page four, you will see the plan I have outlined to try and rein in this run-away horse.  You will see a list of the items I intend to liquidate… many of which are personal items which Vincent Sakwa accumulated using the pack’s wealth.  I think we can all agree that our pack has no need of a speed boat, the snow-mobiles, or the three Harley Davidsons.  We will also reduce the pack’s vehicular fleet to a more manageable number.  There is also a lake-front property in Ontario, and this trucking company which the pack owns…”

“I didn’t even know we had a lakefront house…” Caleb grumbled.

“With the sale of these items, we should be able to pay off a considerable amount of our debts, and bring all of our bills current.”

The elders nodded.  An aged she-wolf, who had once been a ranked member under Eudora’s grandfather, tapped the paper.  “What about our satellite packs?  Word is that they are restless and angry.”

Eudora sighed and rubbed at her temples.  “I have meetings scheduled all next week with our sister packs.  I believe that the larger packs that have the capability should be given back their autonomy as individual packs separate and apart from Black Crow.”

That caused some grumbling around the table.  “Most of these packs were forced into submission, either through brute force of financial warfare.  I think we can all agree that Vincent Sakwa’s need to control and dominate did not represent the best interests of Black Crow pack, or our neighbors.”

“There is nothing wrong with a strong pack growing.” A middle aged man complained.

Eudora stared him down.  Once she had been a timid girl, but no more.  “There is a way to grow that is right, and organic.  The largest tree in the forest will shade out the competition unless the competition finds a way to live symbiotically in its shadow.  But then there is the bully who comes with a chainsaw and cuts down the forest without regard to natural systems that tie everything together.”  She pushed back away from the table and stretched out her lower back.  “This meeting is adjourned.  If there are any other further questions, concerns, or advice, please feel free to email me and I will take it into consideration.  Otherwise, thank you for your time and your patience.”

When the elders had shuffled out of the conference room, Jericho wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed the end of her nose.  “You handled that beautifully baby girl.”

She wrinkled her nose and snaked her arms around his rock-hard torso.  “Lets go take a nap…”  She was tired.  She had been faithfully going to training every morning, although she was modifying her workout these days to accommodate her growing belly.  And Jasmin and Jericho had both forbidden her to participate in any of the contact-exercises.  But nothing drained her worse than pouring over all this dreadful paperwork, and having to weigh all these financial decisions, and the heavy responsibility of all these souls that were trusting her (or not trusting her) to lead them out of the darkness and back into the light.  It was beginning to feel like mission impossible.

Jericho, who could feel some of her aches and pains right through the mate bond began to massage the tight muscles in her lower back.  She moaned and leaned into him.  Not only was his touch relaxing her tense muscles, it was also sending sparks up her spine that made her tingle with desire.  Jericho could smell the shift in her hormones, and he growled appreciatively.  He scooped her up and headed back toward the guest suite.  A nap would come later.