Arrival of the Prophecy (27 page)

“Who’s gone? Calm yourself and talk correctly,” Anthony senior
ordered, getting to his feet.

“The
wereboar’s
have left the outer
regions of our land,” one man explained, bending over to catch his breath.

“Did you check the caves?”
Adella
asked,
snapping her fingers at the cleaning woman behind her that quickly rushed out
of the room.

“We watched from the hill across the way as one driver came in and
two hours later they had everything loaded and every vehicle on the move,” the
other man replied.

“Did you or did you not go in the caves?” Anthony senior demanded.

“No sir, we feared they may have set traps.”

“What’s this all about?” Anthony junior said running into the room.

“They claim all the boars have left,” his grandfather explained,
lifting a glass half full of his blue tonic.

“How much of that have you had, Grandfather?”

“No, it’s true. We have seen it with our own eyes.”

“Peter, are you sure?” he replied grabbing the man by the arm.

“Yes sir, very. We stayed until there wasn’t even dust left in the
sky.”

“Did you check the caves?”

“They have the balls of a musk rat,” his grandfather spouted off,
sitting back down in his chair.

“They are known for setting traps, my Lord,” Peter said, going down
on one knee, as the other man came up. “Forgive me my manners.”

“Have my car brought around, and have Carter meet me out front,”
Anthony said, turning to go tell Sky that he was driving out to the caves.

“Carter is still with the sister-in-law,”
Adella
reminded him.

“Damn it,” he slammed his palm down on the back of the chair closest
to him. “Call him. I want him back here, right now.” Then he left the room.

He went up and explained what was going on, and Sky got up and began
getting ready. He tried to talk her out of it, but soon closed his mouth as she
ignored him and changed anyway. An hour later, Carter stormed into the house
carrying several bags under his arms with Tiffany on his heels complaining how
he could have given her a few more minutes since she didn’t have half of what
she needed. He was rolling his eyes as he came up the staircase, meeting
Anthony halfway up. Tiffany was talking so much she didn’t see him stop and ran
right into the back of him, knocking herself backwards and right into Parker,
who was carrying just as many bags as Carter. He went backwards, losing his
footing due to all the bags, and slid back down the stairs on his back with
Tiffany and all of her things on top of him.

“Get off of me,” she started swatting at him.

“I believe that you’re on me,” he yelled back, shocking her into
shutting up. “Now you get off me.”

“Well you don’t have to be so rude about it,” she tried pushing
herself up.

“Yeah, I do.” Parker reached up and shoved her backwards, causing
her to scream out and fall over one of the bags.

“I’ll come back down and help you in just a minute for that,” Carter
laughed, then hurried the bags he was carrying to the guest room.

“I really hate you,” she said through clenched teeth.

“You’re no day at the river, yourself,” Parker snorted, as he began
picking up her things.

“I think you mean,
park
,”
she sarcastically added, snatching one of her bags out of his hand.

“No, I meant
river
. You’re
a brat. And, if you want to be that way, then carry this crap up to your room
by yourself.” He dropped what he was holding then he turned and walked down the
hall, until he found the back balcony.

“What a stupid jerk,” she whispered, picking up all the bags she
could fit into her hands.

It wasn’t the weight of the
bags,
it was
the awkwardness and shapes that made them hard to carry, especially when one
had so many. Tiffany tugged and yanked all the way up the very long, curved
staircase, hitting the family portraits along the way.

Carter was about to head down the stairs when he saw her struggling
her way up and stepped back and waited.

She made it to the top, before he acted like he was just returning,
and asked if he could be of service. She glared slanted eyes at him, and then
slowly walked past taking her eyes off of him only after her head wouldn’t
follow him any longer without turning her body or stopping. Carter’s lip
twitched, but he held firm, until she turned into her room, then he ran as fast
as he could down the staircase, slipping on the well waxed floor at the bottom
as he gripped the banister, and swung himself around like a child on a skate
board.

Carter was wiping the tears of laughter off of his face when he
stepped out onto the balcony, where Parker was fixing himself a mix drink. “Please,
and make mine a double.” Both men were drinking the last bit in their glasses
when Anthony came out, and told them about the boars, and the fact that they
would all be going to the caves. He felt it was important to try and find out
why they had left, and see if Parker could find any reasoning behind what he
may find once there. Not to mention, help search for any of the traps that may
have been set on the boar’s way out.

“I have no idea why they would take off so fast, not without a
direct order from,
Harbra
,” Parker explained, dumping
out the ice in his glass into the small bar sink.

“Any thoughts on why
Dillan
would move his
men?” Anthony asked, taking Carter’s glass and doing the same thing.

“Not only his men, sir. All of them,” Peter interjected, stepping
out with another man, named Michael.

“One would think surrender,” Carter said, reaching in the small
black front cooler, and taking out a soda pop.

“It’s a damn trap I tell you,” Anthony senior proclaimed, as he and
Adella
came out onto the balcony. “Those Panthers will
always come at you from behind.”

“Father, don’t you think you need to go lie down?”
Adella
asked, shaking her head lightly, looking at her grandson
who was smiling back at her.

“Leave me be woman! I still have years of fight left in me,” he
murmured as she walked up to Anthony junior.

“Panthers?” he asked.

“You were too young when they made their way through here—for the
third time. It was a small discrepancy every time. They are a quiet people, and
simply wish to be left to themselves, but they also have to make their way into
other parts of this country for breeding reasons.
Just as you
had to go outside the clan to find your queen.”

“I forget there are so many of us in the world,” Anthony looked down
at the ground.

“You will make a great king, my son. I stand proud to call you my
own. The journey will be long and hard, but one that will bring our worlds
together with the combining of a great many packs and clans. People of all
color
, race, and breed living without fear of the other,”
Adella
adequately replied, going down on one knee.

“Grandmother, please,” he said, swallowing hard.

“You must be what you were born to be,” she replied, as Carter and
the rest walked over behind
Adella
and took a knee.

Anthony stood with more pride than he had ever felt before that
evening, being a father, then having his peer’s show how strongly they felt for
him, gave him the want to change the shape shifting world once and for all. He
did something that shocked them all, he got down on his knees, and began
reaching out touching all in his reach, and the ones he couldn’t touch, came
closer so that he could.
Adella
leaned into his
chest, and wrapped her arms around him as he wrapped his arms around her. The
others came closer until they all touched the two. Sky walked out onto the
balcony, and dropped her hand bag thinking something bad had happened.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in a soft shaky voice.

“Damn panthers are on the loose,” Anthony senior shouted out,
causing the group that was crowded around each other to begin laughing.

“There’s a panther running around?” Sky asked with excitement, lowering
her shoulders, and looking out over the balcony.

“No love, I’ll explain everything in the car,” Anthony junior
laughed while helping
Adella
to her feet.

Adella
stayed home
to put her father to bed, while the rest took the two large cars to meet the
other ten enforcers that had left a few minutes prior. When they arrived at the
entrance of the land that was considered ‘no man’s land’, the gate was knocked
over and half the fence on their left had been run over as if the boars were in
a hurry to get out. Anthony motioned for the enforcers to move forward, and
then his vehicle rolled over the broken gate. The other vehicle that had
followed, moved through, and then the second truck, took the rear. Anthony was
treating the situation like everything had the possibility of being a trap for
a surprise battle. His fear was so deep that he left his strongest and largest
number of men back at the estate, ready for any form of action that could
possibly come up.

Henry had been talked into staying in the safety of the secured
portion of the upstairs area of the Michelle estate, along with Bonny and
Tiffany, while
Adella
and her father locked
themselves in the attic loft. It was an area of the house that had been remodel
for Anthony senior, to give him the privacy that all men needed. It was fixed
up in the same fashion as the rest of the elaborate estate, but it gave him the
freedom of coming and going at will.

Dillan
had Thomas
and Charles bring three dinner trays up and leave them outside his father’s
bedroom door. He then told him he would be down after his sisters had eaten and
gone to bed. He was on a quest to find the weapons that took his father twenty
years to create. Not because he wanted to force a war of mass destruction, but
because he had a love of the art, and knew they would come of good use if his
people were to fall in battle.

Cara and Tara were sitting in the middle of the bed, facing each
other, pushing each other’s hair back and admiring the other. With their hair
dry, sticking out like a worn scrubbing pad and in every different direction,
making them look almost comical, giving
Dillan
the
thought that they looked as if they were on fire.

A knock on the door scared the still skittish girls, making them
leap off the bed, scrambling to the corner, knocking over the bedside table. They
proceeded to cram as much of themselves as they could into the ‘V’ shape of the
wall.
Dillan
jumped to his feet the moment they
moved, not knowing what to do, other than hurrying and get the door so they
wouldn’t knock again. “I have excellent hearing, next time just say my name,”
he whispered, then closed the door.

“He didn’t hear us coming down the hall,” Charles whispered, setting
his tray on the floor, reaching for one of the ones that Thomas was carrying.

The door opened back up. “I heard that,”
Dillan
smiled. “Now go.”

“Sir, yes sir,” Charles replied, setting the tray down so fast that
he almost spilt the glass of milk.

Dillan
took the
last tray from Thomas, who was smiling from ear to ear.
Dillan
smiled back, but quickly lost his when Charles turned around. The two men left
as
Dillan
reached down and picked up the second tray.
He turned to find the two girls shaking, holding each other like they were the
first time he had seen them, and his heart felt heavy in his chest for the
second time.
What did she do to you?
he
thought as he set the trays on the bed. “Alright, there’s
no need for you two to do this anymore. You don’t have anything to fear,” he
said as calmly as he could, kneeling down next to them.

“She will come,” they said in harmony, blinking tear filled eyes up
at him.

“I give you my word…she will never take another breath,” he gently
coaxed them out of the corner. “Can you smell those potatoes?”

“I smell meat,” Cara replied, sticking her nose in the air,
then
made her way up onto the bed.

“Chocolate?”
Tara
asked, smiling with her eyes.

Dillan
smiled over
at her with a sharp nod, and on the bed she went. Both girls stood less than
five feet, and weighed no more than seventy pounds. Where as he stood over six
feet tall and weighing a good two hundred pounds, maybe more. They had been
mistreated in the worse way. They were uneducated, malnourished, bruised from
the chains, and left in the darkness of their confinement. Still they were two
of the most adorably beautiful young girls that he had ever seen in his clan. He
craved brushing out their hair, just to see the silky waves that he knew would
grace their backs. He had no idea if they would grow after the torment that
they had endured, but he knew with good care, they would gain weight, and in
time become educated as to who and where they came from, excluding any talk of
the families mother and once manic leader.