The blood pack (book six)

Chapter three

~Paul~

I wiped the sweat from my brow as I looked up at the late afternoon sun. It may be freezing out, but me and Jonny had been hammering away at old Mrs.Cloughton’s roof all day, trying to get the last of our jobs completed so that we could start to focus on the lone wolf shelter. Construction was hard work, but I appreciated the distraction it gave me, this new big project would work wonders. Me and Jonny had a habit of working so hard, we were too exhausted for much of anything else when we got home, making sleeping alone that much easier.

“That should just about do it.” Jonny smirked as he tacked on the last roof tile. “Mrs.Cloughton will be nice and toasty throughout the winter.”

I nodded my head, stuffing my hammer back into my utility belt before slowly crawling along the edge back to the ladder. Mrs.Cloughton was one lucky old lady. Jonny had grown quite fond of the old girl, offering for us to clean out her gutters and cut her garden last week before we moved on to the job we were actually getting paid for. It was nice that, for once, a human did not judge us because we were different, and instead used her kindly smile to ‘suggest’ the odd thing that she could use a hand with, since her husband had passed away a few years back.

As if she could sense our movements, the woman herself came out, a large coat wrapped around her that dwarfed her fragile old frame. “All done?”

“Yes Mrs.Cloughton.” I smiled, dusting my hands off on my jeans, Jonny walking to my side and smiling down at the woman.

She gave us both a nod. “Thank you so much.” Her eyes misted up slightly. “It has been hard going since my Henry, god rest his soul, passed away so suddenly. He was a real D.I.Y. man, would have chatted your ear off with all his technical know-how and probably would have watched you tack on every damn tile.” She chuckled slightly before letting out a long sigh, her breath visible in front of her face. “Anyway, let me go and get my purse and the two of you can be off.”

Mrs.Cloughton headed back inside while me and Jonny started to load up the truck. We were just about done when there was a group of howling sounds, me and Jonny looking at each other and rolling our eyes, knowing they came from no wolf.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” A small group of guys came round the corner, the same group that had been harassing us since we first came here. “If it isn’t Blood Pack constructions. Where is the old dear then? Are you going to huff and puff and blow her house down?” His friends laughed slightly, nudging each other as if to make sure they all got the joke.

For humans, the four of them probably came across as intimidating, but for werewolves, they were nothing but an annoyance and Jonny had made me promise not to get involved and to ignore the idiots until they went away. “Hey mate, show us what your wolf looks like.” Another of the four shouted.

“Careful what you say, they may try and mount you if you say the word mate.” A growl escaped me as the four laughed again, a small oo leaving them as they got a rise out of me.

“Paul.” Jonny warned, sending me a stern glare, although I knew that their words got him annoyed as well, he was just better at controlling and hiding it all than I was.

The front door to Mrs.Cloughton’s house opened up again, her smile dropping as she looked past us to the four men standing on the sidewalk. “Scott Pemberton.” She hissed out in a stern tone, her eyes narrowing as she hobbled down the garden path. “Are you here bothering these nice young men again?”

“No Mrs.Cloughton.” One of them quickly answered, his posture going straight as the others seemed to hide behind him like a human shield.

“Good, because it would be such a shame if I had to tell your grandmother what a disrespectful and narrow minded young man her dear Maisy had brought up.”

“N-No Mrs.Cloughton.” The man stuttered out again, looking at us as if begging for our help. “Come on guys.” He waved to the others, the four of them quickly carrying on down the street and out of sight.

As soon as they were gone, Mrs.Cloughton turned back to us with her kind smile back in place. “I will never understand why people of his generation are so prejudiced. When I was a girl, and we first found out about all the supernatural people who had been walking amongst us, I was excited. The thought of finding a mate, meeting a vampire or even going to a witch for a spell was like something out of a fairytale.” She shook her head. “Some were not as open as me, but they soon saw the light and now you would think that we could all learn to get along.”

I kept my mouth shut. It was not common knowledge what we had been fighting against for the last few years. Tallen Corp was a massive company and even though its downfall was big news, no one knew that we had a hand to play in it or that it had been run by a man not so different to Scott.

Mrs.Cloughton handed over the money she owed us, offering us both a cup of tea before we went back on the road which we declined, although we did leave our card in case she needed us again in future. Jonny and I hopped in the cab of the truck, turning up the heating before we drove off, waving goodbye to Mrs.Cloughton as she headed back inside.

“You need to try and keep your cool better.” Jonny said after a long silence between us. “I know it is hard, and we are both struggling at the moment, although the others don’t see it.” He let out a long sigh, his eyes glued to the road. “At least this next job will be for shifters, but with the publicity of the shelter, we may draw the odd protester or i***t and we have to stay calm.”

I knew he was right. We could not afford to give the shelter a bad name before it even got off the ground. There had already been a few articles written about it, stating how house prices in that area were plummeting due to people thinking lone wolves were nothing but murderers and rapists. Although some were, and had been kicked out of their packs for good reason, others were like Niomi, and just had no place to turn. That was the type of person we were building the shelter for, and the sooner the humans realised that they were no different from them, the sooner they would settle down, which meant that we needed to keep our cool, as Jonny said.

A ringing sound filled the car, Jonny hitting the answer button on his steering wheel as Alpha Ash’s name flashed up on the radio screen. “Alpha.” We both answered immediately.

“I take it the two of you finished off with the roofing job.” Alpha Ash stated, his voice sounding a bit fed up.

“Yes Alpha.” Jonny replied, looking over to me for a second before his eyes went back on the road.

“Good. I’m sorry to do this to you when you could probably do with a good night's rest but I received a phone call earlier on today from the witch that helped us to locate Iona. She wants to see us now.”

“Why would she want to see us?” Jonny asked, his voice a half growl.

Alpha Ash sighed. “Ste reminded me that he made a deal with her for the information about Iona’s location, and it seems that she is ready to collect.”

“We are on our way.” Jonny answered before hanging up.

“What deal did Ste make with her?” I asked as we turned off the main road and started to head more towards town.

“He promised her a favor. Two favors to be precise.” Jonny answered with a sigh. “He was desperate, and we had yet to hear anything from her. I honestly had forgotten about the whole thing.”

I remained silent as we made our way through street after street, ending up outside a tattoo parlor. “Head back to the pack, I will get a ride back with the other.” Jonny nodded as he got out, throwing me the keys. As I got out, a jeep pulled up alongside us, Ste, Theo and Alpha Ash getting out, giving me a small nod as I got into the driver's seat. It was times like this that I was secretly happy that I was no longer an enforcer and no longer had to worry about things like this.

~Jonny~

There was nothing I wanted more than a hot meal and a warm bath, but instead I was heading up the narrow steps behind Ste and Alpha Ash, Theo bringing up the rear. As soon as we reached the top, I was enveloped in a range of different smells, my wolf snarling in my head, not liking the invasion of our senses.

“You took your sweet time.” Diana tutted as she walked across the room and stood in front of us, her hair in a messy bun wearing a tye dye dress like she had googled ‘witch’ and bought the first outfit that came up.

“You asked to see us, and we are here. What do you want?” Alpha Ash grunted, none of us sure what her favour, or favours would entail.

“Now, now. The last time you came here asking me for my help, and I was accommodating, not asking too many questions about the lump of flesh you left behind either.” Diana sneered, her eyes moving to Ste. “You promised me two favors, and it just so happens that now you have something I want.”

“Fine.” Ste sighed. “What do you want?”

Diana smirked, “That is a little better.” She walked over to the small round table, pulling out a seat and gesturing to the other for Alpha Ash to take a seat. He sighed, nodding to me and Theo to hang back while he stepped forward and sat down. “I have heard a lot about this new shifter shelter that you are building.”

“We are helping to build it, yes, but we do not own the shelter. It is for lone wolves, not pack use.” Alpha Ash explained.

“Yes, but you are the ones who will be working on the site, and I am sure that you would not mind some lone wolf involvement, given that that is who the shelter is being built for.”

“What are you asking Diana?” Alpha Ash pushed.

“I have two friends, they are lone wolves. I want them to have a place at the shelter, and, I want them to work alongside your strapping Jonny and his friend in whipping the place into shape.”

“You want both of them to work on the shelter?” Ste questioned.

Diana shrugged. “Two friends, two favors.” Her eyes moved from the two wolves in front of her to where I stood near the top of the stairs. “I trust that I can count on you to take care of them.”

Alpha Ash looked over his shoulder. “There are worse things that she could ask for, but it is your choice.” He sent me through the link.

I had looked forward to throwing myself into the shelter project, but now it seemed I would have to teach two new apprentices how to operate the machinery and use a f*****g hammer. “Fine.” I gritted out. “They can join us.”

“Good.” Diana smiled. “I will send them to the site first thing tomorrow.”