Keeping My Pack (31 page)

“
Speaking of the soldiers,” Logan speaks up. “Those uniforms have to go. They are ugly with a capital fucking. I’ll design new ones, better ones that actually match, but in the meantime, they should burn those things.” He says adamantly.

“
Not possible.” Charlie, another commander states with a shake of his head. “Once you become a soldier in the army, gray is the only color you’re allowed to wear. It’s all they own.”

Jace turns to Logan before he can voice his outrage. “Do you think you can get them measured and get me a list of their sizes?” He asks.

“
You know it.” Logan answers.

“
Good. Then I can take care of getting them new clothing. The former camp members will be needing it as well.” Jace replies.

“
That takes care of that then.” Remy nods in approval. “Kellan, if you could see to the health of the pack, that would be a big help. I know born wolves are immune to some illnesses, but not all of them and some of them have been in horrid conditions.”

“
I already put an order in for supplies. I’ll be starting with the children.” Kellan informs us.

Reed raised his hand as he senses the meeting is about to be over. “I just wanted to add that while the soldiers have shelter, someone ought to look into whether or not they have everything they need out there. Heating, beds, running water and the like. There’s no telling what’s going on inside of those buildings.”

“
Good idea Reed, thanks for pointing that out.” Remy clasps him on the shoulder. “So, there are several things to be done, and I’d like to get these handled asap. Those of you without specific jobs, just jump in with one of the others. I’ll ask the rest of the pack for volunteers after the ceremony. Any questions?”

Nobody has any, at least for now, so we finish up with our quick breakfasts of eggs and toast and head down to the biggest ballroom.

Grandfather joins us with Mikey in tow, and he takes over leading the ceremony for us. My guys pledge to take the Ivaskov name as their own and to defend and guide the pack to the best of their abilities. In return, the rest of the pack pledges to obey and honor the Alpha family. It’s short and to the point and I have a hard time believing that the larger ceremony Albert spoke to me about would have taken over two hours. At the end of it though, there was a blood sharing custom where each of my guys provided a drop of blood to every pack member, excluding me, as a symbol of their willingness to bleed for the pack. Each person then gave them a drop of blood back as a symbol of their willingness to bleed for the Alpha family and their children, which also allowed the guys to recognize them on a magical level that only Alpha’s ever obtained. I didn’t understand that part of it, but I guess I didn’t have to.

That was supposed to be it, but before announced the ending of the ceremony, Remy gave a speech stating that their mate, me, will be given the same respect as them and that they would be ruling by side, not in front of or behind me. They are so sweet to me. It was all over after that. They were supposed to be crowned, but no one wanted uncle’s tainted crown, and there are eight of them anyway. Ash told me yesterday that he didn’t even want one, but when Logan begged him to make them, he reluctantly agreed and said he’d get around to it eventually.

With our volunteers in tow, we quickly got to work. I had started out with Logan, who was measuring people to get their clothes sizes. It went alright with the kids, but when it was time for the men, it became apparent that me helping wouldn’t work. The men were afraid to get too close to me, and I simply didn’t want to touch them, which made it more than a little difficult to get the measuring tape near them. Instead, Logan taught his helpers how to get the right sizes, and I took over making the list.

I was surprised to learn that we all have the same last name. I mean, I know the guys took my name, but I had thought that was because there are eight of them and one of me, and I couldn’t possibly take eight last names. But nope, everyone took the Ivaskov name when they joined the pack or were born, according to Ray, who was a size medium. He said that was why our scents were so important. You could tell who a child belonged to or who a female was mated to by the scent they carried. I’m still figuring out the whole smelling thing and what each smells means to my wolf, so I have no idea if that’s true or not.

Eventually, my hand started to hurt from all of the writing, so I handed over the list to Ray, and he took over that job. With a quick kiss to a busy Logan, I sought out another of my mates and came across Finn, who had set up a sort of office for himself. There was a line of people outside of his office, waiting to speak with him about job opportunities or school enrollment. When I went in to see if I could help, I saw that he was talking to each person one on one and trying to find the right classes at the nearest schools. Most of what he was doing was taking place on the computer, so I doubted I could help with much of that. Finn took the time to walk me back out the door though, and gave me a kiss, telling me Jace could probably use my help.

I walked around for a while, trying to figure out where my golden boy might be, but I couldn’t find him. Eventually, I remembered my cell phone and had to call him.

That’s how I came to be out here, looking through the trailers and apartments with Jace. We only looked through a few after getting the permission of the residents first. They had running water and heat, but the apartments were only single rooms with a toilet and a sink. There wasn’t much to them, just blankets to sleep with and personal items. Other than heating and a toilet, these guys didn’t have it much better than the people in the camps. The trailers were a little better, with actual furniture and bedrooms and a small kitchen area, though everything was old and rundown.

“
I don’t understand why no one has replaced anything. It seems as though everything in these trailers was bought around the same time.” I confide to Jace.

“
I don’t think they get paid, so nobody has any money to buy new things when something breaks or falls apart.” He tells me.

The man who’s home we’re in speaks up to answer me. “Alpha Jace is correct, Princess. We serve the army in return for meals and housing only; we do not earn money.” He tells me.

“
So you guys in the trailers were at least fed regular meals then?” I ask, thinking that’s at least something.

But the man shakes his head. “Maybe many decades ago, when the barracks were first replaced, and these news ones were bought, but by the time the trailers were brought in, Marcus was already siphoning most of the pack money for himself or his friends.” He finishes bitterly.

I offer him a sad smile. “I’m so sorry you were treated in such a way, and by my own blood. It won’t be like that anymore; we’re going to try and fix the mistakes and make it better for everyone.”

“
Yes, my Princess. I do not mean to complain, forgive me.” He says with a bow.

I share a look with Jace, then look back to the man. “What’s your name, Sir?”

The man falls to his knees so he can now bow so deeply his head rest in the snow. “Please your Highness, I meant no disrespect. I am happy to have all you provide me.” He begs.

I stare at the man in horrified fascination, but luckily Jace speaks up. “Please stand, or else my mate is going to start crying and trust me, no one wants that.”

The man stands cautiously, brushing off the snow. “Of course, Alpha.”

Jace leans against the porch railing, relaxing his stance. “I’m not much for titles, never have been. The Princess was only asking for your name so she may know who you are, that’s all.” He explains.

“
My mane is Henry, Princess.” He answers me.

“
Hello, Henry. It’s nice to meet you. I won’t punish you for your opinions on my uncle, I don’t hold any affections toward the man. I actually ordered his death.” I add.

“
Furthermore,” I continue. “I was just going to tell you that if you have any issues, like if your heat goes out, or the water stops working, to let one of us know, or Albert so that we can fix it. There’s a lot to be done, and it will take some time to get to the point where we can start replacing items, but we want to make sure everyone has what they need and are not left in the cold. That’s our priority.” I tell him firmly.

“
Thank you, my Princess. I will keep this in mind for the future. And I apologize for my unfair judgment of you. I will have to remember that you are your father’s daughter and not your uncle’s niece.” He says with a grin.

I’m confused by his meaning, but Jace thanks him for letting us look around and ushers me back to the house. “Sorry, but if we didn’t leave soon, we would’ve ended up in a thank you war, and we have other things to do today.” He says.

Jace leads me up to our floor and finds two laptops for us to use, setting them on the coffee table. We take seats on the floor in front of them, and I stare at him, wondering what we’re doing.

“
Alright, so I’m just going to have to assume that the dimensions are the same throughout the barracks and the trailers because I don’t have time to look through them all. Let me just text Remy really quick and we’ll see where the children are going to end up and also ask Logan if there are any unusually size men in our ranks.” He tells me as he pulls out his phone.

His phone beeps with incoming messages, and he sets it aside. “Alright, Funsize, looks like we can go with full-size mattresses for the barracks, extra-long twins for the trailers and queens for the bedrooms in the house, with a few exceptions, given the height of some people.”

“
Okay,” I say, still having no idea what we’re doing.

He types at his computer and I push the button to turn mine on. It’s Finn’s, so the password screen appears. I don’t know the password. I tap Jace on the shoulder and point to my screen. “Oh, right. Sorry about that. It’s IloveKiTTen4L1fe. He’s a bit of a dork that way.” He rolls his eyes. “I’ll get you to the right sites, just see how many mattresses they have available in their stores in the sizes we need.”

For the next two hours, we clean out every mattress store fifty miles of here. Jace eventually has to call some of the stores to arrange payment and schedule pickups, but most of the shops allow us to pay with his credit card that we pass back and forth. Between furniture store and department stores, we manage to find most of what we need. Jace told me that we could probably locate the rest once we went looking, not every store has a website, I guess.

“
Time to see if Ash came through with the box trucks or not.” He says, taking out his phone again. After a short chat, it turns out Ash did come through, and the trucks were already here. He then texts Reed to ask him to meet us up here.

“
What’s up dude?” Reed asks as he jogs in into the family room. “Oh, hey, Babe, long time no see.” He jokes, coming to me and giving me a long, passionate kiss.

“
Just pretend I’m not here, go ahead.” Jace drawls.

“
Sorry man, you know how it is.” Reed winks at him. “What did you need?”

“
Do you think you can stay here with Kitten and get working on ordering the bedding and such while I go with Ash to pick up the mattresses? I figure by the time we’re done getting those; you guys will have finished, and we can head right back out.” Jace asks.

“
Sure, no problem, man. Tristan has enough help down there now, anyway.” He shrugs.

Jace comes to me and gives a lingering kiss as well. “Be back soon, Doll. Do try and behave yourself.” He tells me with a smirk.

“
Okay, I will. Don’t be gone too long.” I say back, waving before he turns to leave.

Reed rubs his hands together, taking Jace’s vacated seat. “Alright, alright, let’s get this show on the road ladies and gents.”

I giggle at his enthusiasm and go back to some of the sites where I saw bedding available. This proves a bit more difficult because the only options they have is shipping it to our house or buying it in the store.

“
We’re going to have to go get these if we want them here tonight.” Reed comes to the same conclusion as me.

“
Yep.” I agree.

“
Grab your coat and that credit card, Babe and we’ll see what kind of vehicles are left,” Reed instructs me.

Downstairs is organized chaos as Logan finishes up his measurement list and Tristan teaches a crowd of people about food prep. Remy is also there, speaking to a different group of men about what kind of construction skills they might have to help with the new building. I check in with Mikey before we leave and see that he’s a couple new friends, and they’re playing in the living room with their new toys. Grandfather sits by, keeping an eye on them as he watches the news, and the reading guy is there as well.

“
Everything going okay in here?” I ask Grandfather as I walk in.

He smiles as he stands to greet me. “Oh yes, they’ve been at it for a while now. Apparently being wolf shifters isn’t cool enough for them, they have to pretend to be superheroes as well.” Grandfather shakes his head in wonder.

“
Okay, I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be going out with Reed to find bedding. Jace is already out getting the beds. Do you mind watching him a little longer? Has he eaten lunch yet?”