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  • Factors of Change Ch. 08

Factors of Change Ch. 08

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*pops out of nowhere* Hey!

A lot of you had given up on me, I know. But when I say I don't give up on a project, I mean it. Life was hellish and I needed time to clean it up, but I never gave up on Gabriel and Leah.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who wrote kind messages, reviews and feedback to me. They were much appreciated in a difficult time. Some others were mean and selfish, but I hope they will one day understand that sometimes, Life is a royal Bitch; she just throws everything at you all at the same time, and it takes a long time to fix it.

I was a bit rusty and this chapter wasn't edited—it's been such a long time that I haven't dared reaching out to my former editor (that's my own fault, not his—he's wonderful), and I really wanted to get this out as soon as possible for you guys. So hopefully there aren't too many mistakes. *bites lip* I'd suggest a re-read of Chapter 7, just to remind yourselves of what happened.

Enjoy!

~~~

Chapter 8

One month later

A dim morning light barely lit the bedroom when I opened my eyes. Gabriel was still deeply asleep beside me, so I moved as slowly as I could as I got out of the warm bed, so not to wake him up. I picked my nightdress from the floor with a smile, pulled it over my head, and wrapped myself in a light night robe before sneaking out into the corridor. The whole house was silent and the floorboards seemed to creak twice as loudly as usual as I tiptoed my way barefoot, down the two flights of stairs to reach the hall, pulling my heavy curls up into a loose bun as I walked. I went to the patio doors to the veranda, and padded down the wooden steps to finally reach the dirt path that led over to the lake.

It was early July and a warm summer breeze blew gently, rustling the leaves in the tall trees that surrounded the house behind me. The air was hot, but it still felt wonderful against my skin and ruffled my hair, blowing a stray black curl from its loose tie to hang in my face as I walked all the way to the end of the wooden dock.

I sat down and let my legs dangle over the edge of the dock to dip my feet in the blissfully fresh water, then let my gaze travel over the calm, placid lake in front of me, reflecting the trees and the paling sky like a large mirror. The hot air was thick with humidity, even this early in the morning; although I had just come out, my light clothes already stuck to my skin, and the back of my hands glistened with sweat. I closed my eyes and welcomed a second gust of soft winds. Moments when I could be on my own had gotten rare in the past few weeks, and I intended on making the most of each of them. Dawn was the best, I found: everyone was still asleep. Even the lake had not awakened yet, it seemed, aside from the occasional trout swimming up and breaking the smooth surface of the water to catch an unfortunate low-flying insect.

So much had changed in the past month, since the morning Gabriel and I were mated. In the week that had followed, I had emptied my apartment, and my cat and I had moved into the Alpha's flat in Westmount. I had also given my notice to M. Beaulieu, who accepted it without great surprise; no one expected the Alpha's mate to work as a lowly clerk. But still, I had not hated my job, and the prospect of greater responsibility, paired with the fact that I had absolutely no idea what to do with it, made me more than a little nervous.

No one asked me anything yet, so I naturally followed my mate around, listening. Learning.

I was given an opportunity to change things. I was a Turned wolf who had found her mate in the first Turned wolf to become Alpha. We were the first ... of everything. I wanted to do this right.

These weeks spent with Gabriel had given me more time to get to know the people around my new mate. I already knew Cedric, Isabelle and William, of course, but the other three members of the Six had been a mystery to me until I was mated to their boss.

Elise, the tall redhead, took her job seriously. We didn't talk much, and I had yet to learn how she had become friends with Gabriel, but she was a peaceful presence in the group. Mark was the eldest. I had no idea what his real age might be, but he was old enough to have grey strands streaking his pale-brown hair. He was deeply respected by everyone, especially Gabriel, who told me the old werewolf had been one of those who had been most welcoming to him in the pack when he was Turned, and a big supporter when he became a candidate during the Alpha elections. "Big" was the right adjective for him, I thought; he was just a tall as Cedric and William, but at least sixty pounds heavier, with a ridiculously large set of shoulders that contrasted with his gentle, diplomatic nature.

If Marc was the elder, Thomas was perhaps the child of the group. It was hard not to find him likeable, with his easy-going attitude, his endless optimism and the permanent smile etched upon his face. Barely ever serious, he made up for it with his charm and his handsome features, and could be counted on to lighten up any atmosphere.

Not exactly my best friend before the mating, Cedric had warmed up considerably to me, and I to him. We both knew how important the other was to Gabriel. But when he learned that we thought I had been bitten by his older brother gone rogue, he shut like an oyster and reverted to his former silent, brooding self, and had barely looked me in the eye in the past few weeks.

And then there was Joseph MacKenzie.

Joey was my responsibility. He had been transferred to the lake compound after getting out of the hospital; everyone was helping him, of course, but Gabriel had asked me, in private, to keep an eye on the poor man, as I had been Turned in circumstances similar to his.

To be honest, it felt quite painful to watch him and be reminded of a time when I would sneak out into the woods during the weekend to let my wolf out. It wasn't the same for Joseph, though; I had been on my own, but he had some help and, here on the compound, his wolf was free. Only four weeks after becoming a Were, he already had pretty good control over his wolf form, and remembered most of what happened whenever he shifted. But while he could now shift on his own when he wanted to, strong emotions or bursts of adrenaline still triggered his shifting at any given moment, without him being able to contain it. Until he controlled that, there was no way he could be let back to his home to live in the city with hundreds of thousands of humans.

He understood that, of course. But his human wife obviously couldn't be allowed into the compound, and he had trouble coming to terms with that.

As far as everyone in the pack was concerned, this new pack member was a poor random human who had been attacked by a rogue. No one but the Six and I knew of his long-term friendship with Gabriel, let alone that Joey—and his wife Marie—had known, for the past thirty years, of the Weres' existence. Everyone naturally supposed that Joseph would leave behind his family, as all Turned Weres did after their transformation—as I had done.

But Marie did know about Weres and she knew what her husband had become, and Joseph would never agree to leave her behind. There was no keeping her from her husband's side, either, and Joseph was getting increasingly frustrated with being kept from her. This delicate situation was only making it harder for him to control his shifting, but that fact didn't seem to occur to anyone but me.

Both of them had asked Gabriel, several times, for Marie to be Turned as well. Their children were grown and didn't need them as much anymore, they argued; they could tell them they moved to Florida like a lot of retired people did, and slowly disappear. But Gabriel categorically refused to hear a word of it.

Nothing else was heard from the rogue wolf who had bitten Joseph. It didn't mean that it was over, though. It was rather easy to connect the attack on Joseph to the possibility of Weres who were against Gabriel's nomination as Alpha still roaming the countryside. I knew the idea that a random pack of rogue Weres might be prowling around his territory haunted Gabriel. It haunted me, too.

The distant, muffled sound of rumbling thunder shook me from my daydreaming. I tilted my head towards the pale sky and noticed grey clouds darkening it at the west, but I still had a bit of time before the storm came and I would have to go back inside. I pulled my feet out of the water and crossed my legs to sit Indian-like, straightened my back, and closed my eyes to concentrate on the still slumbering pack.

There was nothing at first, and then the members of the pack slowly appeared behind my closed eyelids, one after the other; bright sparks of life that lit the darkness, surrounding me like the Milky Way. They were dim and immobile, still sleeping, and I watched them fondly, reaching out tenderly to them with my mind, wondering who each of them was, how each of them was doing. I was curious to know which one was Laurie, whom I used to camp with on the other side of the lake; I hadn't spoken to her in quite a while, and the thought made me sad. Would I eventually be able to tell which spark she was?

Gabriel had taught me everything he knew about the Alpha bond, and how each of the sparks was a member of the pack. With almost the whole pack here at the compound, it looked like a beautiful starry night. From afar, they all seemed the same, but I had learned that they varied in colour and energy, taking the shape of a candle flame up close, and was slowly learning to distinguish them when they moved closer to me. I started slightly as the wooden mosquito screen door creaked from the veranda of the house, far behind me. Someone walked out and came down the stairs, but I didn't open my eyes, trying to figure out who it was first. It wasn't Gabriel, that much was obvious to me—our powerful mate bond made it easy to find his light, much brighter and stronger, in the multitude of the pack. The visitor walked down the path, their feet crunching the gravel beneath, but they suddenly stopped before they stepped on the deck, apparently waiting for me to look up.

I smiled and concentrated harder. The Six had been doing this for a week now: giving me time to identify them without seeing them. It looked like a game, but I knew how important it was that I actually mastered this, before I tried stretching out my superpower to the rest of the pack. I briefly studied the flame flickering about fifty feet away: large and bright, with a yellowish tint I attributed to his warmth and good nature. "Tom," I said, and opened my eyes to look up to find him smiling at me. "Good morning."

"You can do it from further and further away each time," he pointed out, looking impressed.

"Not enough yet," I answered as I got to my feet to walk back towards him.

He waved it off as if it didn't matter. "Everyone is getting up in the house," he said, and I looked up at the big white cottage. "Are you coming in?" I nodded.

"Yes. I'll go start breakfast." I glanced at him to find his smile had widened; cooked breakfast was probably what he was hoping for in the first place, even though he would not straight out ask for it. "Crêpes? Everyone likes those."

***

The thunderstorm that hit us by midmorning aside, the day was rather uneventful, and I drew the short straw for doing the dishes after dinner. I was alone in the kitchen, peacefully dipping the dishes in the soapy water as I listened to the others' distant conversation in the adjoining dining room, when warm hands snaked around my waist to pull me back. I smiled and leaned against Gabriel's strong chest, shutting my eyes in bliss as he hugged me, dropping light kisses behind my ear. "Need some help?" he whispered, tightening his arms around me. He moved forward, pressing me against the counter.

"Depends," I breathed back with a chuckle. "Is this your idea of helping?"

"Mmmh," he simply replied, nuzzling my hair. "Maybe."

I shivered and gave in for a few moments, shutting my eyes and holding on to the edge of the water filled sink as he kissed and nibbled his way down to my shoulder. His hands weren't idle either, roaming down my sides to my hips. His right hand bunched up my summer dress to reach the skin of my thigh, and I gasped as I reached down with a wet hand to stop him. "What are you doing?"

He scoffed against my neck and freed his hand from my grip, inching it higher under my skirt. "What does it look like I am doing?" he whispered back.

I let out a breathless chuckle and vainly tried to push against him, but his hand crept up and under my panties. I gasped, surprised, and let out a breathless giggle. "Gab," I breathed. "Everyone's right outside the do—oh!" I squeaked, rather loudly, as his hand found its way to cup my mound. He let out a soft, victorious chuckle against my ear, and his other hand gently cupped itself over my mouth.

"If you keep silent, they will not think of coming in," he pointed out. His deft fingers slipped into my warm folds and I instantly stopped struggling, melting against his chest. I tightened my grip on the edge of the sink with a shiver. He took his hand off my mouth to wrap his arm around my waist, and I reached back with a trembling hand to touch his hair, tangling my fingers in the soft blonde locks as he nuzzled my neck.

"Oh," I breathed, and bit hard on my lower lip as he caressed me. I kept my eyes shut tight, trembling; he knew exactly how to touch me. His own desire flooded our bond, merging with mine and making me dizzy with wanting. It was a matter of minutes before I came in his arms, tensing and arching my back against him as wave after wave of pleasure washed over me. I bit my lip hard to keep silent until Gabriel's hand cupped my cheek and tilted my face to his, his lips crushing over mine in a deep kiss. "Mmm," I let out against his lips, breaking the kiss after a moment to look up into his eyes. He had taken his hand out from under my dress and laid it simply on my hip. I reached for it and laced our fingers. "What brought this?" I whispered to him.

"I felt like it," he whispered back with a smile, pecking my lips again. He moved to step back but I turned around to face him and wrap my arms around his neck.

I stared up at him; we hadn't spent a lot of time alone together in the past week, besides sleeping in the same bed, and I studied his features for a moment. His hazel eyes were bright as he looked back at me, his lips quirked up into an amused smile, but I reached up and ran a gentle hand down between his eyebrows, where a tired line would appear whenever he was stressed or overworked. He shut his eyes as I let my finger travel across his cheek to trace the line of his jaw, and back up to his ear to tuck back his pale, soft hair. "You need a massage," I whispered.

He chuckled and opened his eyes to narrow them at me. "A massage? That is not what I had in mind."

"No?" I cooed, tilting my chin up to kiss the line of his jaw. "Don't say no. You'd regret it. I might want to repay a favour."

He laughed softly, hands tightening on my lower back. "Oh," he let out. "All right, then."

"Later," I said, moving my lips to his ear. I gently sank my teeth in his earlobe, and was rewarded with a shiver that echoed all the way through our bond.

"Later?" he replied in a husky tone. "Why not now?"

"Because I need to finish the dishes first."

He laughed and pulled back, eyeing the pile of dirty dishes behind me. He arched an eyebrow at me, but reached out for the folded dishcloth on the counter. "Let me help, then," he said with a smirk. "It will be over faster."

***

The fire burned like an inferno, I could feel it on my face and arms. I should have moved back less I got burned, but I kept sitting there on the ground, my eyes on my hands as I worked a bloody kitchen knife against the long stick of wood I held in my left hand, slowly sharpening it into a five-foot-long spear.

I had no notion of why I would make such a weapon; only that I must.

The forest was silent around me and the night sky ebony black above my head. There were no stars nor moon to light my work, only the light from the flames, and somehow I knew I should worry about that. But I would worry later. I had to finish the spear first. I needed it to protect...

There was a rustle in the trees around me and I looked up, alarmed. I was supposed to be alone.

There was a loud crash close by and I stood up abruptly, dropping stick and knife as I looked around me, trying to see through the branches. I could feel the coolness of the woods around me, a sharp contrast with the infernal heat from the fire beside me. I squinted, trying to see, straining to hear as the woods came alive around me, creaking, rustling and growling coming from everywhere. The fire was growing stronger, the heat of it now painful against my skin. "Who is there?!" I yelled angrily, balling my fists at my sides, and was answered with a pained shout that echoed through the forest, in a familiar voice I recognized all too well.

I awoke with a gasp, as if I had just fallen back into my body. My eyes flashed open to look up at the ceiling, the scream still echoing in my head. I still felt feverishly hot and I sat up suddenly in bed, half-expecting the whole bedroom to be on fire, but the air was blissfully cool around me, the bedroom dark and dimly lit by the moonlight from the windows. My heart still pounding from the unusual dream, I smoothed my hair back from my face, swallowing hard, before I dropped my hands into my lap with a sigh. What a strange dream, I thought, watching as the trembling of my fingers slowed. I felt ... drained.

Gabriel stirred with a groan next to me and I turned my head to look down at him. He was restless, frowning in his sleep, and I wondered if my strange dream had anything to do with him. Could we share dreams through our mate bond? "Gabriel?" I whispered, and reached out a hand towards his bare arm. "Gab, baby, wake up."

My fingers had barely brushed his skin that he nearly jumped out of it, sitting up with a choked sound and startling me as well. He closed his eyes tightly again, obviously trying to slow down his breathing, keeping a tight grip on the sheets.

I opened my mouth to apologize for startling him when he suddenly shoved off the bedcovers. "I need air," he mumbled. He stood up from the bed and reached the French doors in a few long strides, roughly opening them to disappear out on the balcony.

I frowned and got up as well to follow him. I found him outside, leaning against the railing, gulping the night air like a landed fish. I placed a hand on his bare shoulder and was surprised to find his skin to be cool; I had somehow expected it to be burning. He hung his head but didn't flinch away, so I ran my fingers up his back to gently squeeze the back of his neck. His hair there was damp with sweat, but he relaxed slightly under my touch. "What is it?" I whispered, inching closer to him. "Are you all right?"

He shook his head. "Something is wrong," he replied in a hushed voice. "Can you not feel it?" He turned his head to look at me. "Something is burning."

I did still feel extremely hot, but I could see no fire around the lake, nor did I smell smoke. "Nothing's burning here, Gab."

"Then it is burning somewhere else." He shut his eyes again to try and focus on the pack. Just as he did, though, the heat around us faded, slowly replaced with the fresh, cool night wind. I suddenly shivered.

"It's over," I tried. I could feel Gabriel's anguish through our link, though, and I cursed myself for nor having worked more on my Alpha bond. "Isn't it?"

"No, no it isn't," he said, and pursed his lips. He sighed and turned, took my hand, and led us back inside the bedroom.

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