Warming The Cold One - 11. Hi Mom, You're a Wolf...

The next morning, a rental car pulls up in front of a house in Sahuarita, AZ. Tala and Jay get out and go up to the front door. Tala knocks and Jay stays at the bottom of the three stairs up from the walkway to the porch. They wait about three minutes before the curtain moves and the door opens. “Hello Hank,” Tala says.

Hank looks angry. “Oliver, get off my property. Your mother doesn’t want to see you.” Hank looks over and sees Jay standing at the bottom of the stairs. “Take that faggot with you. He looks like nothing but trouble.”

Tala stands his ground. “No! I need to speak to my mother. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”

Hank laughs, “Are you serious? After the last fight you had on the phone with her. You dare to come to my home and tell me what you are going to do!”

Tala calmly stands there. “Yes. I need to see my mother and I’m not leaving until I do.”

Inside the house a voice is heard. “Who’s at the door Hank?”

“It’s nobody Karla.” Hank turns toward Tala. “They were just leaving.”

Tala yells into the house, “Mom! I came to talk to you.”

Karla comes stomping out to the door. “Well here I am. Have you come to your senses yet?”

“No Mom, I’m not ever going to be straight and I’m not going to do another movie.” Tala tried to keep calm in his voice. “I came because I needed to ask you something.”

Karla looked over at her son and sees Jay standing at the base of the stairs. “Why did you bring that faggot with you to see your mother. Is he your new top?”

Tala starts to let a little anger in his voice. “Stop it! Jay is here because of many reasons but mostly to support me emotionally right now.” Tala calms his voice again. “I wanted him to help me understand why we left the rest of the family and hid out here in Arizona.”

“We were not hiding out, and you know that.” Karla starts getting a little condescending. “Hank, your step-father, couldn’t find work and he got a job here. You knew we were going to follow him and support his decision.”

Tala starts again to hopefully pull out the truth. “No one told you that we were in danger. No one made sure we were not found here. You heard nothing from Lucas that he was in trouble.”

“What are you talking about?” Karla stammers for a second. “What delusions are you having now?”

Tala goes for broke. “I have met Uncle Alexander.”

Karla stops breathing for a second.

Hank pipes in now. “That good for nothing brother of hers? Did he want money?”

Karla turns to Hank. “Not now Hank.” She turns back to Tala. “What did he tell you Oliver?”

“Something I already knew by then. He filled me in on some details as well as his employer introduced me to someone, he thought I should meet.”

Karla asked her next question quietly. “He was there?”

“No. He died almost twenty years ago. I met his other son.”

Karla started to cry. She looked at Tala and motioned him to come in. “I think we do need to talk after all.”

They entered the modest living room and Hank sat down in his recliner and Karla in a wooden rocking chair. Tala and Jay sat down on the loveseat.

Karla looked over at Tala with a tissue still in her hand. “I guess you know what we are?”

Tala looked back at his mother and nodded. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Karla sobbed again. “I couldn’t. I was sworn to secrecy by your grandfather. He was so mad when I told him Lucas got me pregnant. I was forbidden to ever talk to Lucas again. He wouldn’t ever tell me why but when I met Hank, he made sure that we lasted. When times got tough, it was your grandfather that found the job for Hank here.”

Hank sat up. “That old coot didn’t find me a job. That trucking company got my name from a friend.”

Karla turned to him. “No Hank. It was all a plan to get Oliver here out of North Dakota.”

Tala looked at Hank for a second and something seemed different then the last time he was here. He turned to Jay and just leaned his head for a second and Jay nodded to him. He turned back to Hank. “Hank, how long has it been since you went for a run?”

Hank turned to Tala and laughed. “Boy, you were never funny. I don’t run. I run things over!”

Tala tried again. “No Hank, I mean when did you last sneak out and run in the desert.”

Karla stares at her son. “Hank doesn’t sneak out on me. He goes fishing, alone!”

Hank turns to Karla with a stare of ‘shut up’ but doesn’t say anything.

Tala turns to his mother. “He never told you he was like Uncle Alexander, did he?”

“Like Alexander?” Karla starts to put two and two together and gets a disgusted look on her face. “You think Hank has a dog fetish?”

Tala sighs. “No, I think he is a lycan. Aren’t you Hank?” Tala stares at Hank.

Hank starts to get a little uncomfortable. “I think I left something on in the kitchen.”

Tala keeps eye contact with Hank. “Hank, I think you need to tell my mother what you really are. It might be less painful for you if I don’t have to force you.”

Hank jumps up and gets in Tala’s face. “I was warned that you might come here but I never thought you would try to out me. You think I’m scared of you Tala?”

Karla’s face went from worried that there would be a fight to confusion. “What did you call him?”

Hank quickly replied, “Oliver.”

Tala smiled. “No, you called me Tala.” He saw Hanks face fall. “When did Faolán call you?”

“He didn’t.” Hank looked scared. “Master Taj called me directly. He’s my much older third cousin.” Hank covered his mouth. “How are you doing this?”

Tala turned toward his mother as he answered Hank. “Because I have an ancient alpha spirit. It is one of the many gifts I developed after I was turned.”

Hank sat down looking defeated. “I didn’t mean any harm to you ever. I did what I was told to keep you hidden from everyone and to make sure you never learned the truth. I failed.”

Tala got a gentle tone in his voice. “You never once hurt me. You never hurt my mother. I won’t hurt you as long you don’t work against me.” Tala stepped closer to his mother. “This is the reason I came to see you. I needed to know how much you knew. I see now that you were as in the dark as I was.”

“Oliver,” Karla started. “I mean Tala. I don’t know what to call you.”

“It’s okay Mom. It was a lot for me too. Call me whatever you feel most comfortable with.” Tala opened his arms to hug his mother. She stepped into them and they hugged tightly for a few minutes.

A phone rings in Seattle. “Good Morning, thank you for calling Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler, this is Marilyne, how may I direct your call?”

“Good morning Marilyne, is Fredrick available?” Toby quickly added, “this is Tobias Whelan.”

“Yes, he is Master Whelan,” Marilyne answered. “Please hold and I will connect you.”

About 30 seconds later, Toby hears the phone pick up and Fredrick comes on the line. “Hey Toby, what can we do for you today?”

“I am calling because I need to request an official audit of the Lycan Council records.” Toby replies.

Fredrick sputters for a second. “Come again? Did you say all the records?”

Toby replies confidently, “yes I did. I need all the records checked. I want the deep focus to be expense and stipend payments to council representatives and staff.”

Fredrick counters, “a request like that needs to come from a council writ of intent unless it is for tax purposes.”

Toby is not daunted by this. “Normally you would be correct, but I am making the request at the same time I am filling suit against the council for fraud. As your team is one of only two firms that can audit a spiderweb such as this, I want to secure your services first. I also do not want my accounts excluded from audit.”

“I understand.” In reality Fredrick had no idea what was really going on. “I will get a team together as soon as possible. I will require a copy of the legal filing as well to justify the records request.”

“Thank you, Fredrick. I will have my legal team send you notarized copies of all the fillings by the end of the week.” Toby finished with a few more pleasantries and hung up the phone. He then called the other council firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and spoke to a gentleman there by the name of Hans. The conversation went almost exactly the same. At no point did he tell the other that both were going to be auditing at the same time to see if they got the same results.

Next Toby picked up the phone to call his legal team. “Good morning Doris, can you let the team know that both audits will be started this week and they need copies of the fillings for record?” He waits for Doris to make the notes and thanked her.

About an hour later the secure line in Taj’s office rang. “Hello? Yes, this is Master Taj”

“Good afternoon, my name is Hans and I work for PricewaterhouseCoopers. We just got a request by another clan head to do a full audit of all the council accounts with a focus on expense and stipend payments.”

“Very interesting.” Taj started to get mad. “What did you tell this person?”

“He was told that we would need a writ of intent from the council to do that. We were then told a suit is being filed accusing the council of fraud and that copies of the fillings would be provided.” Hans sounded nervous. “He wanted to secure our services first because he believed the council would hide things.”

Taj’s anger began to boil a bit more. “Thank you for calling me. I’ll get our internal auditors to work creating a defensive audit. Make sure he gets the ‘correct’ information when you are done.”

Hans tried to make sure Taj knew he understood the request. “Yes sir, I will make he gets a very comprehensive and costly audit.”

Taj hung up the phone and then grabbed it back up and called his contact in the FBI. The phone was answered, and Taj didn’t even say hello first. “Have there been any sightings?”

The FBI special agent that answered responded quickly. “He landed in Arizona about an hour ago. We didn’t get a call from your spy, so I send a team of six to the house.”

Taj sighed. “That guy was always sketchy at best. Keep me in the loop.”

Once the Mother and Son bonding was over, they all sat back down and tried to figure out how to go forward. Tala was worried that Hank was going to hold things back. Karla was worried how far down the rabbit hole this was going to go. Hank just wanted to leave with his life. Jay was the most worried because he saw that this still could blow up.

Tala broke the silence. “Hank, how much are you willing to tell us?”

Hank sighed. “I’ll tell you everything I know. It isn’t much but I hope it helps you. I will use the correct names of the time so that your mom doesn’t get too confused. About a year after Oliver was born, I got a call from the current head of the Himalayan clan, Taj Feman. He told me to do everything I could to get and stay close to Karla. We happened to hit it off and when you were four, we were wed, and I tried to make us a happy family. Times started getting hard so as you know I took a job doing some short haul trucking. I was told that things were heating up because people were noticing Oliver was a bit different. At that time Taj made sure I lost my job and that your grandfather, John, was going to find me work somewhere else. Even I didn’t know we were going to Arizona. I would get calls about once a year after we settled down just to check up on us. When you took to acting, I was to make sure that you were signed to the correct agencies. That is really all I ever knew. A few weeks ago, I got a called from Taj saying I needed to be on the lookout for you coming back to talk to your mom. I was to make you go away if I could and to call in help if I couldn’t.”

Jay sat up for a second. “Did you?”

Hank looked at Jay. “I swear I didn’t. I never got the chance. They didn’t tell me what gifts you held, Tala. I swear on my life.”

Tala spoke calmy. “I know Hank. I believe you. I also know that they were watching the airport, so they know I am here.” He saw Hank starting to panic. “Calm down Hank. All is fine. I can see you truly didn’t know what all the facts were, and I know you would never hurt my mom or me. Thank you for your honesty.”

Karla turned to her son. “Will you tell me what the three of you already know. Please, son.”

Tala turned to his mother and took a deep breath. “Here goes the truth. I will keep it to the facts for now and Jay and I will answer question when I’m done. Everyone in this room is a lycan. Our family was the last of the true American Lycan Clan and right after the Civil War, there was a plot to kill us all. Instead of dying though, our family stopped shift to our wolf forms and soon the knowledge was lost. There are other clan that fought to keep the American bloodlines around and that is where the problems really started for you and Lucas. You were both born of two families, which was the tradition since the breaking up of the five families or clans. When you had me, it made me of four families. To this day it is illegal to cross more then three families. It used to cause weak wolves. It shouldn’t have been a problem normally because we did not shift. However, since Lucas did, I had to be hidden because our family is an ancient pack. They were afraid of a resurgence of the American clan. Their fears came true when a firebrand of a wolf put two and two together.”

Karla’s face had a moment of clarity. “That was Jake wasn’t it?”

Jay laughed. “Very good.” He turned to Tala. “She learns fast.”

Tala continued after a quick jab to Jay’s side. “Yes, Jake was the catalyst for this issue. In his search to turn me and add me to his pack, Jay here was hired by the head of his clan to follow me and keep me safe. He whisked me away to said clan head and was told the truth of our family. It was there that Jay and I found out we were true mates and he turned me that same day. Jake came for me but by then my gifts had started to develop and I repelled his advances to join him. That dust up caused a rowdy fight in the lycan council. We then met the then head of the senior council who tested me and found me to be exactly who I said I was. After that, I met with the council who proclaimed the American Clan was revived. I was also named the head of it. I then started to look for family and clanmates.” Tala took a sip of water.

Karla took advantage of the slight break to ask a question. “Where does Alexander come into this?”

Jay answered for Tala who was still drinking. “A large portion of the Boise Pack in Idaho are American clan wolves with at least 35% American blood. That is the pack Alexander went to and they are who turned him. He is currently one of the pack Betas.”

Tala put his hand on Jay’s to let him know he was ready to take back over. “The only issue was that Jake was from the Boise pack before he split off and tried to start his own pack. We knew going there was going to be messy, but it had to be done. In the end, we gained more than a great pack. I learned that Jake is Alexander’s son.” Tala put his hand up to stop Karla and Hank from reacting too much. “Yes, I know what you are thinking. He didn’t know before, but he was very upset when he found out. Taking care of that issue brought Jake back to his father. I also met a man that was hiding in the same pack that I hope you will want to meet someday.”

Karla didn’t skip a beat when she said the name Tala was about to. “I knew he had a son. My father used that to make sure I moved on from him and closer to Hank.”

“Well, he knew about you as well. His name is Haih Bia'isa, Hawk for short. I know he will want to meet you if you want to meet him.”

Karla’s eyes lit up. “I would love to meet him someday. I think I want to get to know my new son and catch up with my existing son first. One question I have is, will I need to be changed?”

Jay took the lead on that one. “That is up to you ma’am. No one will ever force you.”

Karla’s eyes burned for a second. “Did you just call me ma’am? I am not a ma’am!”

Tala looked at Jay and saw the color draining from his face. “Mother! He was trying to be respectful.”

Karla started to laugh. “I know. I just don’t like to be reminded that I’m getting older.” She turned to Jay. “I’m sorry if I scared you Jay. I just hope you didn’t piddle on my new loveseat.”

The color started returning to his face. “I think I’ll stick to Mom and Karla then. Might be safer for my bladder. But as I was saying, you can be changed if you want and not if you don’t. My best advice is to see what you feel once everything settles down.”

Three black SUVs start turning down the road toward the happy reunion. All had the same orders in hand, damage control. They needed to get to Hank before Tala found out what was going on. As they approached the house, all three vehicles turned on the sirens and lights. Tala and Jay heard them coming first and got a worried look. Jay turned to Hank gave him a look of confidence.

Tala jumped up. “Mom, I love you so much, but I think it was best if you went in the bedroom and didn’t watch. I won’t hurt them, but they are going to try to hurt me. They might try to hurt Hank as well.”

Karla protested, “no one is going to get away with trying to hurt my sons or my husband.” She walked to the front door and opened it as the SUVs pull to a stop with the lights still spinning. “Who are you and why are you here?”

Two men in suits got out of each vehicle and started up the walkway. The one in the lead pulled out a thin wallet and showed it in front of him as he approached. “Good Afternoon, we are from the local chapter of the FBI. We have been tracking a pair of known fugitives and we believe they are hiding in your home.”

Karla tried not to laugh. “Who do you think would be hiding in my home?”

The second agent pulled out a piece of paper. “Their names are Oliver Taylor and Jason Wilson.” The agent put the paper back in his pocket. “They are believed to have laundered money and impersonated a celebrity to gain usage of a private jet. They are considered extremely dangerous. We will need you to allow us to search your property.”

Now Karla did laugh. “No, I think it best if you just left my home.” She turned and closed the front door. “If you want to hurt them, then hurt them slowly. No one lies about my son and gets away with it.”

Hank looked at Karla shocked. “Honey, I’ve never seen you talk like that before. What has gotten into you?”

Jay spoke up first. “Just the fact that Tala is here, and she now knows the truth, has caused her wolf spirit to start to rise in her. I knew it was there when we got here but now it has broken free of the bindings put on it. She is going to be a very outspoken wolf as she is as a human.”

Tala laughed a little bit. “My mom is that for sure!” He dodged as Karla tried to hit him for the comment. “What? It’s the truth. Ask Hank.”

Hank shook his head in an act of don’t get me involved. “Tala, I’m focused on the six wolves outside. What do we do about them?”

Jay pulled out his cell phone. “This is what I’m going to do. Hello? Yes, I’m at 725 Lupine Walk Drive and there are six armed men outside the house that are trying to gain entry. They said they were with the FBI, but they didn’t have a warrant and threatened my stepmother. Thank you.”

Tala had to hold himself up as he started to laugh very loudly. “Did you just call the police on the FBI?”

Jay looked surprised at the question. “What? You think they really are?”

Tala nodded. “I can read them only a little bit. They are keeping their distance from the house. They are indeed FBI agents, but they have been given false information. I just hope the news doesn’t show up before I am done.”

“Boss, what are we waiting for?” The lead agent turned toward the second agent as he spoke. “There are three of them and six of us. The rumors are just that. No one is that strong.”

“My brother was at the council meeting. He saw the whole senior council transform.” The agent sighed. “He is that strong. If he is in there, we don’t stand a chance now. They stupid wolf was supposed to call us instead of having to rely on the cell phone tracking.”

A third agent ran over to the other two agents. “They called in the local police. They should be here about two minutes. Should we run or should we see if they will help us?”

The lead agent looked over at the third agent. “Leave the locals to me. Get the rest of the men ready to enter the house. We may be out matched, but I’d rather try and fail instead of running.”

Jay was trying to talk Tala out of going outside. “What if they have guns? I can’t lose you.”

“They won’t raise a gun to me, and you know it.” Tala put his jacket on and turned toward the front door. “I promise I know what I am doing.”

Karla stepped in front of him. “You don’t have to do this. The police will take care of them, plus you are a celebrity. You don’t need to be on the news before you can announce your exit from the limelight.”

Tala hugged his mom as he spun her out of his way gently. “I do need to do this my way. You’ll understand as soon I am done. No one will get hurt and I won’t end up on the news because of a police standoff.”

The agents were caught by surprise when the front door opened, and Tala walked out on to the porch. He stepped down to the front yard and walked to the center of the yard, about five feet from the walkway to the street. He sat down and watched as the six men made a circle around him. Jay and Karla were staring out the front window in horror as they closed in around him. The lead agent stood right in front of him and wondered what was going to happen.

Tala looked up and gazed directly into his eyes. A few seconds later Tala spoke. “Agent Montley, I am Tala. I’m sorry they sent you to come after me, but your mission is failing. Please sit down with me and I can save us all the pain of me fighting you.”

Five of the six men started to laugh. The lead agent didn’t laugh. He didn’t know how this guy knew his name, but he knew that his brother asked the same question at the council meeting. He went for broke and just said what he thought was already true. “So, your mother knows the truth then?”