Warming The Cold One - 37. Here We Go Again

When Tala and Jay woke up, there was an email from Clay to call him when they could. Tala grabbed his phone, and it rang a few times before Clay picked up.

“Hello? This is Clay.” Clay yawned into the phone.

“You sound like crap,” Tala said. “Should I call you back later?”

“Oh, shit,” Clay exclaimed. “Sorry, it was a long night, and I just closed my eyes for a few seconds. Damn it, uh, yes, can you give me like five minutes to get an energy drink?”

“Clay,” Tala said calmly. “How about I call you in about two hours. You take a nap. I don’t want you strung out on energy drinks this early in the day.”

“No, I’m fine,” Clay assured him. “We had a late here dealing with part of the group that staged the break in. Two people are in custody, and we are trying to back trace who else they were working with.”

“That is wonderful news. I am glad that you found some of them,” Tala encouraged. “Still, get some real sleep. We were about to go deal with our big transition down here.”

Clay chuckled. “I think I’m getting off easy then. From what you told me before, I don’t think it is going to go smoothly no matter how hard you work at it.”

Tala sighed. “You have no idea.”

Tala and Jay emerged from the elevator on the lobby floor and saw Clifford waiting for them by the front desk. “Good morning. I was asked by Tony to escort you up to his office. He wanted to talk about your dinner last night.”

Tala frowned. Jay sighed. “We were hoping that Tony was going to take the hint, but I guess we were wrong,” Jay said. “Do you know if your wife will be back today?”

“I got a call from her this morning that she is still needed where she is,” Clifford answered.

Tala turned red and started toward the elevator up to Tony’s office. “Are you coming,” he demanded.

The three men stepped off the elevator and went into the office suite. Clifford tried to lag behind but Tala’s grip on his arm wouldn’t let him. Tala pushed the office door open and saw Tony, Ruth and Susan all waiting for him. “Good morning,” Tala said with a forced smile.

“Good morning,” Susan answered. “You can go Clifford.”

“No,” Tala said without letting go of Clifford’s arm. “He is staying right here.”

Tony started to object. “Listen here...”

Tala interrupted him. “Stop!” Tala turned to Jay. “Please make sure the door is locked.” He turned back to Tony. “I thought I made myself clear last night. Clifford’s wife was to be back here by dinnertime. Why did she call her husband and say she was needed longer?”

Susan piped up. “The problem we have her dealing with cannot be delayed. If you were any kind of leader, you would understand that.”

Tala turned to stare her directly in the eyes. “I didn’t ask you if she could be back. I told you she had better be back. I see now that I was wrong that I could do this the easy way.”

“What are you going to do now,” Jay asked. “You told me you didn’t want to go down this road again.”

“I didn’t,” Tala grumbled. “I just don’t get a choice in the matter.” Tala took a deep breath and turned to Ruth. “When was the last time you were allowed to transform into your wolf?”

Ruth blushed a tiny. “I have never transformed. Why would I?”

Tala turned to Susan. “Same question. When was the last time you transformed?”

“Do I look like some dirty animal? I would never,” she scoffed.

Tala turned to Jay with a glance and Jay nodded. “Do it,” Jay said.

“Do what,” Tony challenged.

“This,” Tala said. “We are all going to transform right...now.” Tala’s last word was laced heavily with ancient speak. He watched as the other five people all transformed to their wolves. He turned to Jay. “You didn’t have to transform.” He patted him on the head.

Tony growled and jumped up on the desk. Tala ignored him and walked over to a chair and sat down. Clifford walked over and laid down at Tala’s feet and exposed his belly. Tala gave it a rub. “Clifford, you may change back.” Clifford shook his head. “Clifford, please change back. We have a lot of work to do.”

Clifford transformed back and grabbed his clothes. When he was dressed, he turned to Tala. “How did you do that? I mean, it was like something in me just did it without me being able to do anything about it.”

“I have an ancient wolf spirit,” Tala explained. “It transcends alpha speak. I hate using it, but I felt I had to or else they wouldn’t have gotten the point. Tony, get down off the desk. I thought you wanted to set an example. You don’t want the others to think it is okay to get up on the desk as their wolves, do you?” He turned to Jay. “However, Jay knew he could have resisted it but chose to let his wolf out.” He saw Jay try to laugh but as a wolf if just came out as a huff.

“So, now what,” Clifford asked.

“As I told Tony and company last night, I think that you should handle this pack transition as I think the three of them are going to be under the weather a bit.” Tala looked over at the three Florida Black wolves staring daggers at him. “First thing is to call your wife and tell her to get back here as soon as possible. Spare no expense.”

Clifford went over to the desk phone and called his wife. “No, it’s me. I have been instructed by our new clan leader to have you come home right now. Do whatever you have to do, no matter the cost, and bill it back to the pack. Great, see you tonight.”

“Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get down to business.” Tala walked over the filing cabinet and found one of the drawers locked. “I think I know where some of the mysteries will solved now.” He turned to Clifford. “I want you to publish an announcement to the whole pack that you are now under the American Clan and that you will be handling the transition. Also, make sure to add that the alpha and his family are ill and are not to be bothered for any reason.”

“How are you going to handle them,” Clifford asked while pointing at the alpha’s family.

“That’s easy,” Tala said cheerfully. “It’s hard to talk and make trouble if they are not allowed to transform back.” Tala heard all three of them whimpering. “I think embracing your wolf spirits will do loads of good for you. Don’t worry, I know how to make wonderful homemade dog food and I’ll be sure to take you for walkies every couple hours. I don’t want you to make a mess inside.”

Jay made another snort sound. “Jay, please transform back. We have a lot to do and you being your wolf isn’t helping,” Tala scolded.

Jay walked over to the corner and changed back and got dressed. “What if I had wanted to go on walkies with you?”

“We’ll have plenty of time for that when we get our work done,” Tala laughed.

The desk phone buzzed, and Clifford picked it up. “Yes, go ahead and bring them up.” He turned to Tala. “Someone has a delivery for you. They are bringing it up now.”

Tala smiled brightly. “Excellent, they are right on time.” Tala walked over and carefully unlocked the door and let the courier drop four large boxes just inside the door. “Thank you.” He relocked the door and opened the first box and smallest box.

“You didn’t,” Jay exclaimed as Tala pulled out three large dog harnesses and retractable leads.

“We have to be able to control them and make sure they don’t try to run away,” Tala said trying to sound innocent. He then opened the next box and pulled out a really large carrier used for wolf rescues. “I got these so we can contain them when we need to work and for any future punishment.”

Clifford looked horrified. “You are really going to put them on a leash and stick them in wolf crates?”

“I didn’t want to,” Tala explained. “I just don’t know anything else that will get it through their heads that I mean business.” He looked over and saw that all three wolves were still staring at him with hostile looks.

Clifford shook his head. “I really don’t like this. When news gets out, I don’t think it is going to look good.”

Jay smiled this time. “I don’t see that being an issue. One of the clauses in the contracts Tony gave us was that we were responsible for his welfare if he were to become incapacitated and unable to perform the duties of pack alpha. While we won’t be signing that, we figured we could still choose to provide that care until either he comes to his senses, or he can be replaced.”

Lyla opened her eyes and quickly shut them again. Her head boomed and she felt very nauseous. Barely opening her eyes again, she got up off the couch and over to the guest bathroom. She hardly got the lid to the toilet open before she vomited from the lingering odor. She carefully got up and washed her face and rinsed her mouth out.

The sound of Lyla puking woke Duane up and he went out right as she was exiting the bathroom. “Did you use the whole can,” Duane asked as the smell of canned rose fragrance filled the hallway.

“What happened,” Lyla asked. “Why do I feel like I was hit by a truck?”

“It’s what happens when you finish off almost a gallon of mixed spirits. My best guess is that bender cost about $2000.” He guided her back to the couch in the living room. “I’d offer you some breakfast or coffee, but the kitchen has a few issues now.”

“What’s wrong with the kitchen,” Lyla asked.

“You threw everything out the door and trashed the cabinets,” Duane calmly explained.

“Oh god!” As the gravity of what she did started to hit her, tears started forming. “I, I, I’m so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen.” The tears turned to sobs. “I put our whole family at risk.”

“I’m sure you felt there was a reason,” Duane said. “But I need you to explain what you have done. It is the only way we are going to be able to figure out what to do next.”

“I can handle it,” Lyla tried to assure him. “I got us in this mess. I will get us out.”

“I don’t think that is a good idea,” Duane warned. “This goes much deeper than either of us know and we need to pool our resources if we are going to get this all cleared up.”

“Do you think that ditz from the land trust is going to do anything to help you? She will sue us from here to forever.” Lyla’s head spun for a second and she almost fell off the couch. “Sorry, I got a little dizzy there.”

“First of all, Savanna is not a ditz,” Duane said forcefully. “Second of all, she is no longer going to be handling the trust. I told you that yesterday. Third, the land trust is a front for the lycan holdings.”

“Wait, what? What are you talking about,” Lyla sounded perplexed.

“There is a lot of history involved but the short version is that all the land a certain group of lycan lived on was stolen from them. A different group felt that was unfair and worked over decades to get it all back and put it in a trust. The rightful owner has now taken over that trust.” Duane sighed. “I have done a lot to try to fight against this trust’s interests. Now I need to see what I can do to right the wrongs. So please tell me what information I’m missing so we can fix this.”

“Why does it always come down to you damn people fighting each other? For once I just want a normal life!” Lyla fumed for a moment and then looked over at Duane intently. “I was approached back when we first got married by an older man. It was right after you had told everyone you were going to go to law school. He told me that if after you became a lawyer, I should try to focus your casework and he would make sure we were well compensated. I had forgotten about it until a year after you started working at that law office a few hours away. He found me again and made his offer again and I told him I’d run it by you. He shut that down and said that you couldn’t know about it as it was be seen as unethical.”

Duane nodded his agreement. “So much better when I don’t know,” he said.

Lyla waved to shush him. “At first I told him no, but he bugged me every day until I agreed to at least fully hear him out. He told me that I needed to do a few things first and then he would make sure we were never wanting for money or business.”

“And,” Duane asked.

“The first was I needed to go get involved with law so I could work with you and feed you what needed to be done. The second was I needed to direct your work to either real estate or taxes. The third was I needed to push you harder to suppress your wolf.” Lyla looked away. “I still don’t know why I agreed to it.”

“Things make a lot more sense now,” Duane stared out the window and pondered. “At the time I knew you were still unsure about what all would happen now that we had two young children and I was still not making much money. I had already talked to Greyson about how to take the next step based on the pressure I was getting from you.” He turned to look at Lyla. “Keep going, please.”

Lyla sighed. “After you did a few bigger cases and I had gotten my mail order paralegal course completed, I reported in and that is when you got that first side case. It paid out twice. You got the official payment, and I got a bonus that I stashed away in an investment account. Things continued until we were able to get our practice together.”

“Is my entire career a lie then?” Duane tried to hold back his building anger. “Have I done anything above board in the last ten years?”

Lyla dropped her head in shame. “Not really,” she replied weakly.

“So, what about the phone call you made last night,” Duane asked.

“Phone call? Oh, shit!” Lyla started to look panicked. “I forgot about that. Um, I was told that if things ever looked like they were going to fall apart and the truth of what I did exposed, I was to call a number and get them a list of code phases and they would fix things.” She started fidgeting noticeably. “I don’t think making that call was a good idea anymore.”

“We can’t do anything about that right now,” Duane exclaimed. “What we can do is get you cleaned up and head into town for some breakfast. You need to eat. Then we can go to the office and start gathering the information I need to start making this right.”

Wanda woke up to her phone ringing. She answered it. “Hello?”

“Were you still sleeping? Never mind why you are asleep. Get up,” the voice told her.

“Damn, what time is it,” Wanda asked as she looked over and saw it was 8:30am. “Damn you, Matthew. I thought you were working until 1am last night. Did you not sleep at all?”

“I got a couple hours sleep,” Matthew laughed. “I have today off so I can take a nap later if I get tired.”

“Whatever,” Wanda said with an exhausted chuckle. “What do you want?”

“I want you to tell me what happened last night with Greyson,” Matthew said. “You promised to tell me today.”

Wanda yawned. “Okay. I followed Dad when he left the house and we ended up at Greyson’s place. He tried to tell me to go home but the guards had already seen me.”

“Guards,” Matthew interrupted.

“Yes, guards. Greyson is the alpha of his pack. Leaders have guards,” Wanda said in a patronizing tone. “As I was saying, Dad said he needed to see Greyson and we both ended up being invited in. He told Greyson what he found out about the trust and asked him if there was a way to fix his wolf. Greyson told him there wasn’t. He also told me how I was born.”

“You said something about him being your uncle, last night,” Matthew interrupted again.

“I was getting to that,” Wanda said annoyed at being interrupted again. “His youngest sister was trying to break him and your mother up and thought that is she got pregnant, he would leave Lyla and stay in the pack. So, she drugged him, and it didn’t work out very well for her. A few weeks before I was due, they found an issue and they induced labor early so she could heal via transformation. She never made it long enough to do that. Your mother finally agreed to take me in if Dad promised to hide it all from us.”

“Wow,” Matthew exclaimed. “That’s intense. Did they say why Dad’s wolf can’t be fixed?”

“Greyson said it was something very powerful. I think he called it a muzzle. He also said it affected his wolf for a while too,” Wanda answered. “He looked like he was sad he couldn’t help but told me if I ever need him, I’m to call him.”

“Hmm,” Matthew pondered. “Maybe I’ll asked around here and see if anyone knows about fixing that.”

“That would be wonderful,” Wanda replied. “It would be amazing to be able to fix his wolf for him.”

“Yes, it would,” Matthew agreed.

“For now, though, I should grab some breakfast and head over to work and see if I can compile the information we need to work on fixing the land trust issues.” Wanda put a coffee pod in the machine and turned it on. “I’ll text you later if I hear anything else.”

“Okay, I’ll do that research on my end too. Talk to you later!” Matthew hung up the phone.

Hawk was sitting in his office when Matthew knocked on the door. “Come in Matthew. I didn’t expect to see you today.”

Matthew came inside and sat down. “I got some information from my sister I want to ask you about,” Matthew replied. “Have you ever heard of someone reversing a muzzle?”

Hawk gasped loudly. “Who told you about that term? Tell me,” he almost yelled.

“I was talking to my sister this morning and she said that my dad went to talk to Greyson yesterday and ask him about fixing his wolf. She said she heard them reference a muzzle,” Matthew answered.

Hawk calmed down for a second. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I shouldn’t have.” Hawk took a breath to calm himself down. “The spell that was cast on your father, if it is what happened, is very powerful and forbidden to use as it usually kills both people. It takes great skill to cast. The fact that both Duane and Greyson are alive means that he must have done it correctly, however, it also means that the same damage done to Duane also happened to Greyson.”

“Why would he have done that then,” Matthew asked. “He had to know what could have happened.”

“I’m not so sure he did know what would happen,” Hawk mused. “If he did, his wolf wouldn’t have let him. Whomever he got to teach him, didn’t tell him what would happen.”

“So how do you fix it,” Matthew asked.

“You don’t fix it,” Hawk said flatly. “That’s one of the reasons it is so taboo. It’s a one-way street. There are no records of it ever being cured or reversed in any of the records I have seen or heard about.”

Matthew’s head fell. “You mean I’ll never get to see my father complete?”

“From the sounds of it, he made a choice. He chose to forsake himself for his family.” Hawk tried to choose his next words carefully. “He has to live by those choices. I’m sorry I wasn’t more help.”

Matthew ran out of Hawk’s office crying. He didn’t even wait for the elevator and just ran down the stairs and out into the parking garage. He sat in his car and cried and cried. After about forty-five minutes, he couldn’t cry anymore. He stared at his phone and tried to build up the courage to make the call he desperately needed to make.

Greyson’s phone rang. “I wondered when you would call,” he said as he answered it.

“You knew I was going to call,” Matthew asked.

“Hawk called me right after you ran from his office,” Greyson replied. “He told me you asked about what Duane asked me to do for him last night and before.”

“Hawk said that it did the same to you that it did to him. Why did you do it,” Matthew asked.

“I did it because it I thought it would protect my niece,” Greyson answered. “I wanted Wanda to grow up in a family that loved her.”

“So, you didn’t know it would do the same to you,” Matthew asked.

“I knew,” Greyson said. “My wolf was so sad after the death of my sister that it didn’t care if he lived or not. However, I think I got the worse of it. I must live with the knowledge that it all went bad anyway. Your mother never really accepted Wanda and now when Duane needs his wolf the most, it is lost to him forever.”

“There has to be a way to fix it,” Matthew pleaded. “Please, there has to be a way to fix him and fix you too.”

“Even if there was a way, I don’t think I want to be fixed,” Greyson admitted. “I made a mistake trying to help your father and I will live with that in my heart forever.”

“But,” Matthew stammered.

“No buts, Matthew! I knew what I was doing when I did it,” Greyson fired back. “It was wrong, but I did it with full knowledge. Your father deserves to be fixed, but even he knows deep down that it isn’t possible. Now I need you to focus on helping your father fix his error in not telling you and your sister the truth.”

“Okay, but I am not going to stop looking for a cure,” Matthew said with determination in his voice.

“I know,” Greyson said. “I would expect nothing less.”

“Come on! Pick up the phone!” The man stared at his phone with contempt. “Ruth, call me right away! This isn’t funny anymore. Everything is going to shit, and your teams are needed to fix this.”

“Such language,” an older voice said as the first man put the phone down.

Startled, he turned around. “I’m sorry, sir. I haven’t been able to reach anyone yet. All the phones go to voicemail.”

“All the phones? Did you call the office phones, or just the cell phones,” the older man asked.

“Only, just the cell phones,” the first man stammered.

The older smiled a fake smile. “Then I guess you haven’t tried them all yet.” He turned and walked out of the room.

“Thank you for calling the office of Alpha Black. How can I help you,” the office assistant said.

“Can you put me through to either Alpha Black or Ruth, please,” the man asked.

“I’m sorry,” the assistant apologized. “They are currently away from the office. Can I direct you to the beta’s office instead?”

“No,” the man said angerly. “Do you know when they will be back?”

“I’m not able to give that kind of information out. I am happy to take a message and pass it along to the beta’s office though,” the assistant answered.

“Damn lady, are you deaf? I told you I don’t want to deal with a stupid beta. I want to talk to the alpha,” the man spouted in disgust.

The assistant gave up on being subtle. “I’m sorry you feel that way but the alpha’s not here. You either talk to the beta or you talk to no one.”

The man started to get irate. “Either I talk to the alpha right now or I’m calling the head you’re your clan to complain.” He knew it was a bluff, but he hoped it would scare her into connecting him with the alpha.

The assistant didn’t blink and got a warm feeling. “Oh, let me save you the trouble. He is on site today. Hold for a moment and I’ll connect you.”

The phone clicked a few times, and a new voice was heard. “Hello? Are you there? Oh, well I guess they hung up.”