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Chapter 1

Ivy lay awake staring at the growing stretch of light on the ceiling and listening to the twin snores filling the room. Curled up next to her, Russell snored loudly, the sound like a long, deep rumble. On the small dog bed by the door Bugsy, the part Staffordshire bulldog, part god only knew what, who adopted Russell as his big brother and default pack leader, echoed the deeper snore with a low rumble of his own. Ivy smiled and shook her head as she tried to decide if it was too early to get up. Her belly fluttered with nerves as she thought about what today would bring.

Since the collapse of the Shadow Council several months prior, Ivy began working her way through the pack. While Hackett, the former council representative for the shifter clans, originally asked her to create shields for the more at risk wolves of his and Russell's pack, the Council's demise changed things. While the most at risk were handled first, Ivy found herself moving from house to house, visiting any pack member who wanted protection against the coming unknown. The shielding kept her busy as it turned out that now that the pack had a mage they trusted, all of them wanted whatever protection she could provide.

In Wildwood, the property she now called home, Ivy helped with the family's own shields, but left a lot of the set up to her siblings. Alex, as both architect and contractor, supervised the on-going work on the house and outbuildings. Max took charge of the various cows, sheep and goats. Rose looked after the ducks, geese and chickens and Danny made certain that an irrigation system was in place for the various plants they would need to grow. Ivy knew that once the plants did grow, it would be her turn as she used them to create the various concoctions that Wildwood would create and then ship to both a high-end spa and a small store in town. The specific store in town had yet to be identified, but that task she passed to Melissa, Danny's new wife.

For now however, the protections took precedence. Between the five of them they covered all the elements, with Alex and Max as Earth mages, Danny as Water, Rose as Air and herself as Fire. While they were each individually strong, collectively they could produce shields that were virtually unbreakable, making Wildwood the equivalent of a magical bomb shelter. Hopefully, it wouldn't be needed, but Ivy had her doubts.

Even though things were quiet since the disintegration of the Shadow Council, it was a waiting kind of quiet. They all knew a storm was coming, they just didn't know exactly when or what form it would even take. The Chaos Years, as the time before the establishment of the Shadow Council was called, were dangerous and bloody. Entire bloodlines were wiped out and everyone lived in fear. Now the Vampire Clans and the Clans of the Fae pulled their support for the Council. With the Seers departing to hidden strongholds, three fifths of the Shadow Council no longer publicly recognized its governance and it was disbanded. Ivy and her siblings were from the Mage Clans and Russell and his family from the Shifter Clans. Thus far, the Shifters and the Mages agreed to hold to their alliance, even without the Council.

"Because they all know the history, " she reminded herself as she watched the golden shaft of early morning sun shift over the ceiling. Early in the Chaos Years each clan fought on its own. Alone each of the five clans was nearly the equal of each of the others and a bloody stalemate ensued with no one able to gain ascendency. When the Shifter and Mage Clans united they were able to turn the tide and force the other Clans to the treaty table, creating the Shadow Council and stability. Ivy knew several mages who believed their Clan to be better then all others, including the norms around them who had no idea of the hidden world that existed cheek by jowl with their own. She just hoped they had enough sense to keep their notions of superiority in check until the world was a little less volatile.

Beside her, Ivy heard the snoring come to a sputtering stop and turned to look at Russell as he shifted underneath the covers. His blonde curls were in disarray and where the morning sun shifted over them they turned from gold to bronze in the light. She still had trouble believing the wolf was hers. As she studied Russell, his green eyes cracked open. Seeing her watching him, his lips curved in a lazy smile.

"You think too loud, Ivy, " he told her sliding an arm over her and pulling her close.

"I think at the appropriate volume, " she told him with a laugh.

"Uh huh, that's why your thoughts woke you up. They were too loud, " he told her as he bent to nuzzle her neck.

"I woke up because you and your puppy were having a snoring contest, " she told him. Russell looked over at Bugsy who was contentedly snoring in his little dog bed. He was rolled onto his back, his four paws in the air wiggling occasionally as though dreaming of running. Russell dropped his voice low and leaned over Ivy's ear.

"As soon as he wakes up he'll want to run outside, why don't we try a little warm up exercise of our own before he does." Ivy smiled as Russell slipped a hand under her night shirt. Amusement quickly turned to arousal, although the amusement remained as they reminded each other to be quiet so as not to wake the sleeping dog.

Later as they fell apart, and Ivy tried to catch her breath, Russell looked down at her. "Now that's a nice way to wake up, " He said.

"I thought you considered that a nice way to go to sleep, " she reminded him.

"That too, " he said. A second later he jumped and let out a small yip of surprise. Ivy froze.

"Cold nose, " he explained. Ivy frowned puzzled, then catching his meaning she propped herself up on her elbow and looked over. Bugsy was no longer conked out in his dog bed. She could see the wagging tail, but his head was under the end of the blanket near Russell's feet.

"There are worse places he could have stuck his nose, " she reminded him with a laugh.

"True, " he admitted. Russell sat up pulling the blanket off of the dog. Bugsy looked at him with joy and adoration, his tongue already hanging out, his stumpy tail wagging. Bugsy barked once. "Ready to run?' Russell asked. Recognizing the question Bugsy went into spazams of doggie delight spinning around and wiggling in joy.

"I guess we are running then, " he told both her and the dog.

"Like you don't love it, " Ivy said. Russell gave her a kiss and slid out of bed. Bugsy raced to the door. Russell opened the door for them both and Bugsy took off like a shot down the hall. Russell, naked as a jaybird followed behind.

Ivy shook her head, knowing that reminding him there were other people in the house would do no good. Russell would just point out that he would have to take off the clothes when he reached the door so he could shift and run with the dog through the early morning, making clothing therefore pointless. While Ivy conceded that argument, knowing that more people would be up and about when the duo returned, she convinced him to stay in his wolf's coat until he retreated to the bedroom where he could put on clothes.

At the moment there was only one person nonplussed by the Shifters casual attitude towards nudity and that was Melisa, Danny's new wife. All shifters were male, the few females ever born to shifters couldn't shift although those were few and far between and usually the product of a shifter mated to a strong mage.

Due to the current situation Russell and his pack were frequent guests at Wildwood, sometimes in human form, sometimes as wolves, frequently sans clothing regardless of form. Ivy worked with the Shifters long enough that she no longer thought it strange. While her three brothers, who were mages and not shifters, remembered to wear clothing in public, they took the nudity in stride and Rose, who was only recently retired from a career as a ballet dancer was accustomed to costume changes backstage and odd moments of nudity. Melisa grew up as a norm and until she started seriously dating Danny had no clue that mages, shifters, seers, vampire and fae were anything but fairy tales. While she was doing fairly well adjusting, the nudity of virtual strangers still caused her to blush and turn her eyes to the ceiling. Many of the Shifters found it amusing. She was fairly certain her brother found it endearing.

Her thoughts turning back to the day's schedule, her nervous quivers returned. Ivy sighed and slid out of bed, gathered her clothing for the day and headed to the shower. The mating of shifters and mages was foremost on her mind, and not only because she was a mage mated to a shifter. Hackett asked her to move through the pack located around the town of Isliton, providing what protections she could. When fire was not the element for the job, she alerted the others and one of them took the lead. While Hackett's request led her to nearly every member of the pack, there was one member she had yet to visit. Although he hadn't asked for help, Ivy planned to use Hackett as an excuse to pay an elderly wolf by the name of Jerome Finch a visit.

Ivy showered and dressed, feeling her nerves jump inside her. When she was first introduced to the pack, Jerome made a cryptic comment about a man named William he believed to be her grandfather. As Ivy knew nothing of her father, the name of her father's father came as a bit of a surprise. Jerome did not realize she did not know of him, expecting Albert Winters to have told her of William. Realizing she didn't know what he was talking about, he scampered off and made himself scarce every time anyone went looking.

Since his statement, Ivy learned a bit more, although she hadn't told the others, and was planning to beard the lion, or wolf rather, in his den today. Even if she didn't learn anything, she hoped to put him at ease and let him know Albert finally told her at least his version of the truth.

"Which means I'll have to tell the others, " she muttered to herself as she tied her hair back and pulled a pair of socks from the drawer. One was pink and the other a neon green. She shrugged and pulled them on anyway knowing her shoes would hide the fact that they weren't a matched set. Even though she felt a little guilty about hiding information from the others, the truth was there really hadn't been time. Everything seemed to hit at once and in the ensuing maelstrom finding a quiet moment with just the family and not the family plus assorted pack members was difficult. She knew shifters thought of pack as family, but since the information she learned could have serious consequences within the pack, her mage born caution took over.

She frowned as she tied her hair back. "It would help if I understood shifter clan laws, " she muttered to herself. While technically all of the clans had laws agreed upon and sanctioned by the now defunct Shadow Council, all of the shifter clan laws she managed to come across dealt with finding a way to co-exist with the other shifter clans. While she could read about how disputes between the wolf packs and the feline intrigues were settled, none of the shifter clans felt the need to have any sort of formal statement of internal governance, at least as far as she could find. She had the sneaking suspicion the pack's internal rules boiled down to a simple, the strongest is in charge and if anyone hurts another member of the pack they are executed posthaste.

"Wolves do tend to favor a straightforward approach, " she reminded herself with a shake of the head. At times it was a refreshing change from the twists and turns inherent in mage politics, at other times it simply gave her a headache.

"Most of the emergencies are taken care of though, " she reminded herself, shaking off thoughts of pack law. With the perimeter protections set on Wildwood, everyone was starting to unpack and settle in to wait for spring and the work outside to commence. There were never any completely down times, but the frantic pace slowed to normal working rhythms. It may have been the calm before the storm, but she thought it was likely the only calm they would have for a while making it the best chance she had to discuss what she learned with the family.

"After I talk to Jerome, " she promised herself. Ivy tugged on her shoes and headed down to the kitchen.

Despite there being seven adults living in the house, Ivy quickly found out she was one of the only ones with any form of culinary skill and was voted unanimously as the kitchen manager. As working with fire in a controlled form energized her and smoothed out a lot of her rough edges, Ivy didn't really mind.

Breakfast was usually a muffin, scone or pasty type of deal; something that people could grab and eat on the go. Dinner served as more of a family meal. Lunchtime everyone was on their own and Ivy found if there was anything she wanted to save for dinner time she needed to put a note on it or there was a good chance it would disappear sometime in the middle of the day. The amount of food shifters could actually consume in a day was something she still found astounding.

"Like human sized locusts, " she muttered to herself as she reached for her mixing bowl.

As Ivy began to mix the batter for cranberry scones, she started to plan dinner so she could mark the items that needed to remain in the fridge. Not terribly long ago Ivy lived alone, forbidden from contacting any of her family by the ruling of the Shadow Council. Now she not only had to worry about her brothers raiding the fridge, but her mate Russell and any visiting Shifters as well. Worry about what to do with left overs was replaced by the worry of how to keep the fridge stocked when they were well over an hour away from the nearest grocery store.

Ivy knew once spring arrived things would get better. In addition to the various ingredients needed for the concoctions she was planning to make and sell at the spa and store, there were large gardens planned so vegetables could be paired with the animals the others raised.

"There has to be a finite about of vegetables even wolves can consume, " she decided. She chuckled at the thought of handing any of the wolves a head of lettuce or a bunch of carrots to nosh on between meals.

"It'll be better than the cookies." She glanced at the cookie jar placed on the end of the counter. No doubt it was already empty. Ivy always loved baking and growing up she routinely made a batch of cookies once a week to fill the jar up. Her grandmother considered the jar sufficient for the week and if they ran out of cookies before they ran out of week they would just have to wait until the once a week refill.

Here, Ivy pulled the cookies from the oven and set them too cool completely before putting them in the jar. By the time they were cooled enough for storage over half the cookies were gone. She was lucky if the remainder lasted the day. As no one appeared to be expanding their waistline, Ivy figured the batch was spread over a much larger group of people rather than a focused consumption by one or two people.

"And then they start with the eyes." She reminded herself turning away from the jar and continuing with her morning task. Somehow she fell into the habit of making cookies on Wednesday afternoons. It seemed that was generally when the lull in her schedule arrived. Picking up on the routine everyone passing through the kitchen took a moment to peep into the jar. Once the cookies were gone she was treated to doleful expressions of disappointment as they peered beneath the lid to find only crumbs.

"Followed by the slumped shoulders and heavy sighs as they slink away." She shook her head. "Who would have though Hackett would be the worst?" Hackett, the former council representative of the shifters and a wolf who seemed to hold some sort of high ranking position with the wolves of Russell's pack, always peered into the jar with the shiny eyes of an excited three year old. If the jar wasn't empty and he managed to extract a cookie from its depths he was jubilant enough that he practically skipped out of the kitchen. If it was empty, he looked crushed.

"Makes me feel like I kicked a puppy." Ivy sighed. She already increased the batch size twice with no actual change in results.

Ivy finished her mix and shaped her dough, slicing it into triangles, putting it on a baking tray and sliding it into the waiting oven. Breakfast was a much safer bet as far as food was concerned. Generally it was only those who slept under the roof that needed to be fed with a few others showing up and making the extra disappear well before lunch time. As the building was originally designed as a corporate retreat or high end hunting lodge with a spa, the kitchen was more commercial than she was used to.

'Of course it does let me bake more than one tray of scones at a time, ' she thought, sliding the second full tray into the oven. She knew the extras would not go to waste. She wasn't sure she could actually pull off feeding this many mouths routinely without the commercial kitchen and patted the range affectionately.

After cleaning up, Ivy grabbed her roll of masking tape and sharpie pen, preparing to mark certain foods off limits so they could be eaten at dinner time. As she reached for the fridge door, she heard barking and sound of nails on tile. Turning she saw Bugsy race into the kitchen, heading straight to his bowl and chomping gustily at the contents.

Following behind were Russell and one of his brothers, Eric. Both were six foot four in height, broad of shoulder and blond of hair. While Russell sported curls falling nearly to his shoulders and a full beard, Eric tamed his curls by clipping them short so his hair bristled up from his scalp and kept his face clean shaven. Both had green eyes and in Ivy's opinion even cleaned up, they resembled marauding Vikings more than anything else.

'All they need are horned helmets and giant axes, ' she thought with a smile.

Russell's curls were windblown and both men had cheeks red from the cold winter wind. They moved with the easy grace that seemed to be a natural part of Shifters and each looked as though they had just hurriedly thrown clothes on. As she was pretty sure the shirt Eric was wearing actually belonged to Russell, she guessed that Eric joined his brother and the dog sometime on the run.

Despite the fact that dogs typically reacted poorly to the presence of Shifters, especially of the wolf variety, Bugsy adored every member of the pack that came by, regarding them as his pack. Even though they grumbled about the insanity of a dog liking them, they all enjoyed his company. Even Hackett slipped Bugsy treats from the table when he thought no one was looking, despite grumbling the loudest.

"Good run?" she asked.

"Yup, " Russell answered. "Coffee?" he asked her.