HOMECOMING

Chapter 6

When I finished writing, I looked up and saw my parents staring at me. I had to think of something fast to explain what I had done. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, Ms. Rankin, or should I now say my birth mom spoke. "What made you do that, Ellie?"

I gulped, and looked down at the letter now resting on Dad's desk. 'Tell the truth', I heard Jade whisper. "When I read the letter a second time, it just seemed to me that some of the words had a green glow. They still have that glow, see." I lifted the letter and held it up to my parents. All three of them looked closely at the paper in my hands. The only one other than me that could see the glow was Ms. Rankin.

"Oh my goodness", she gasped. "I see what you mean, Ellie. Your Fae abilities must have started to develop. That is the only way you will be able to see this message". Ms. Rankin then proceeded to read the exact words I had seen glowing.

‘Our princess open the second letter magical envelop princess grows into powerful queen’.

Ms. Rankin sighed, then said, "John, Lila, I agree with Ellie. She will have to open the second letter today. I believe the contents will fully explain the message given in the first letter. It's clear that Alpha Conrad opened and read the first letter. Hopefully, he thinks it is just a message of love from a father to his daughter. Let's hope he doesn't understand the significance of the first letter".

Saying this, she turned to me and continued, "Ellie, before you open the second letter, there are a few things you need to understand. As you have learned in our Were classes, wolves are able to find their fated mates as young as 16, while other Weres are often 18 or older before they can recognize their fated mates. Your father and I discovered we were fated mates on my 16th birthday, when he and his Alpha father were visiting from an allied pack. Like you, I completed high school at 14,so there were no obstacles to keep us apart. . I moved to his pack in the Annapolis Valley the next day. I completed my Education degree at the local university in Wolfville, and had started teaching in the pack's school. Your father, the heir to the Alpha, was a genius. His IT skills were well-developed, and he had completed his Computer Science degree at the same university. The pack's business was Cybersecurity, so his degree proved to be a blessing, as you will see.

Your father and I loved each other very much, and were both excited when we found out I was expecting you. We didn’t tell anyone we were expecting until I was almost 5 months along. Being a hybrid wolf, fae, witch meant I would have a full 10-month pregnancy. This was a well-talked about event as you would be the heir to the pack after your father. Shortly after the news got out that I was expecting strange things began to happen."

"What do you mean by strange things" I asked.

Ms. Rankin, my birth mom, went on to explain. "The week after the news got out, Alpha Gabriel Savage, from the Savage Moon pack, a non-allied pack, showed up requesting to be an ally. This was odd, as he had rejected an alliance in the past, stating they were a large and powerful pack and didn't need to ally with a small, insignificant pack such as ours. His current approach regarding an alliance was highly suspicious.

He now proposed that to secure the alliance, he would take our child as his chosen mate when she reached age 16. We immediately declined his proposal, saying we did not yet know if you were a male or female, so no decision would be made until your birth. At that point, he pushed to know your due date. Sensing something was off, we told him you weren't due until the end of February of the following year, though you were actually due in late December. My husband's father, Alpha Rankin, then shut down the alliance discussion by saying he had a scheduled meeting he had to attend and had the Beta walk Alpha Gabriel out, and off our pack land. Before he left, he asked us to keep him updated in the event we chose to know the gender before the birth.

Once Alpha Gabriel left our territory, we had our security team sweep the Alpha office, and everywhere else, Alpha Gabriel had been as his visit and proposal was highly suspicious. Three listening devices were found, one in the office under the chair he had sat in, one on the credenza outside the Alpha office, and one in a vase of dried flowers in the entryway. At that point, our Alpha ordered our IT department to secure all computers and make it impossible to hack into any of our systems. At the same time, one of the IT specialists developed what we call our 'cloaking device' which is able to protect specific areas from spying.

Then a week later, our hospital IT staff advised that someone had tried to hack into my medical records. Fortunately, due to our IT security system, the attempt was unsuccessful. Then we had wolves with medical records expertise apply to join our pack and work in our hospital. Alpha Rankin declined, citing there were no openings at the hospital, and the pack had put a hold on accepting new members, or allowing visitors on pack land. By mid-October, the pack experienced incursions by rogues trying to enter the pack's land. Due to the strength of our IT security system along the pack border, no attempt to enter proved successful. All of this pointed to Alpha Gabriel trying to gain information.

Alpha Rankin, Alexander and I researched the significance of our expected child. We discovered that you would be one of ten hybrids that would have the combined blood lineage of wolf, fae, witch, dragon, and bear. The other nine hybrids were all males. Legend said that it was the female that would hold unlimited power once she mated. Alexander and I knew then we would go to the ends of the earth to protect you from Alpha Gabriel."