Gypsy Wolf Ch. 04

"I feel like I ran a marathon yesterday." I did, the less than restful night's sleep combined with everything that happened yesterday had me feeling worn out.

"Well today should be easier, but no promises."

"I hope so," I said before digging into my breakfast. Typically I would only have a cup of coffee and a bagel, but this morning I was starving and quickly emptied two full plates.

"Well your appetite appears to be normal," Damien said approaching the table, "The Alphas have asked that I give you a quick physical before your meeting. So if you would meet me at medical when you're finished and we can get this done."

"Wait a second, aren't you supposed to fast or something before a physical? They always have me do that before taking blood."

"No, it's quite alright," Damien said laughing, "The fasting thing only applies to humans and you're not human anymore."

"I suppose not, I'll meet you there in just a couple of minutes." Damien seemed satisfied and headed off.

"Well that was odd," Sara said.

"That's what I was thinking," Max said.

"What's odd?"

"The physical, I've been with this pack for forty-five years and I've never heard of a healthy adult getting a physical," Tim said.

"Women get exams while they're pregnant, and kids before they shift, but that's all I know of," Amber said.

"Really?" Seeing the nods from everyone, I added that to the list of questions I needed to ask. I vaguely remembered where the medical room was and managed to find it, only getting lost twice. I probably could have asked for directions, but as usual, if I can manage on my own, I will. Pushing open the door, I found myself in a medical clinic that could have been any emergency room across the country. Multiple beds, surrounded by privacy curtains, lined the walls, each with a cart loaded with supplies. "OK, I'm here. Let's get this over with."

"Excellent," Damien said pointing towards a bed, "Angel is going to draw some blood and take your vitals first, and then we will get to it." Hopping up on the bed, Mercy pulled a cart over and began prepping my arm.

"How are you doing?" Mercy asked. I was impressed at how efficiently and quickly she was able to draw my blood.

"Better, you're pretty good at that."

"Thanks, I don't get to do this very often. I'm glad my skills haven't deteriorated too much since school."

"You went to school for this?" I said the surprise in my voice was obvious.

"After I joined the pack I always seemed to find my way in here and after a couple of years, they arranged for me to go to school to become Damian's medical assistant. It was a challenge, but I graduated top of my class, and even got a couple of really good job offers."

"That's awesome," I said. I could hear how proud she was of her accomplishments since joining the pack and couldn't help but smile.

"I'm hoping to be able to go to medical school at some point," she said as she finished taking my vitals, "I'd like to be a doctor."

"I'm sure you would be great," I said suddenly fighting back tears. Being a doctor was what Mercy had always dreamed of as a kid and I was happy to see she hadn't lost that dream.

"I'm sorry for prattling on like that," Mercy said, "I'm sure you have a lot to do today and the last thing you need is to hear about my life."

"Actually," I said, "I'd love to hear about everything in your life and I'm sure you will make an amazing doctor."

"Thanks. You're going to need to shift, so go ahead and get undressed. You can stack your clothes on the table."

"Little different than my last physical."

"I would hope so," Damien said walking back into the room, "Wolves rarely get sick, so we usually deal with trauma or births here. Go ahead and shift into your hybrid form and we'll get started." Thus began the strangest physical I ever received. After checking the usual; eyes, ears, nose, and throat, Damien seemed more concerned about measuring me than anything else. It felt more like getting fitted for a prom dress than a physical. Height and weight, how long my fangs and claws were, all recorded in both hybrid and wolf form. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was making it up as he went along.

"OK Elizabeth, you can go ahead and get dressed, we're finished here," Damien said after about forty-five minutes. "Angel, can you prepare the samples for transport? I want to get those sent off this morning."

"Sure," Mercy said, "I'll be in the back if you need me."

"Well, that was fun. We should be sure to never do this again. It felt more like a dress fitting than a physical."

"I need to talk to the Alphas," Damien said seemingly lost in thought, "I'll meet you in their office when you're ready." Opening the door to the clinic, Derek slipped into the room just as Damien was leaving.

"Elizabeth, is Angel here?" Derek asked.

"She's in the back finishing up some stuff for Damien," I said getting dressed.

"What about Bubbles? He's not going to try and eat me again, is he?"

"No, you're fine, Bubbles is in my room. What brings you here?" I was curious as to what Derek could want from my sister.

"Derek?" Mercy called from the back.

"Yeah babe it's me." Suffice to say, I was a little stunned when Mercy came running from the back and threw herself into Derek's arms. The kiss that followed was as passionate as I could recall ever seeing, and in a way reminded me of how our parents used to act before Mercy went missing. I stood in shocked silence for a minute before they seemed to remember I was there.

"Sorry about that," Mercy said when they finally broke apart, "With his guard and patrol schedule it's been a couple of days since I've been able to see my mate."

"Mate?" I said completely flabbergasted and my anger spiking, "What do you mean by mate?" I had a fairly decent idea what she meant after having seen Natalie and Rasp, but there was no way in hell my baby sister could be mated.

"I guess with everything else that has been going on Natalie hasn't had the chance to talk to you about how we mate. You do know wolves mate for life, right?"

"MATE FOR LIFE," I said, "Mercy, you're only twenty-three; there is no way in hell you should be mated for life." I had this sudden urge to separate the major components of Derek's body into small bite-sized pieces, and I could feel my wolf running through my mind wanting to come out and play. After all this time, I finally find my sister only to discover some flea-bitten wolf boy has convinced her she is his mate. Oh, fucking hell no. Even as inexperienced as I was I could tell I was getting close to shifting.

To my surprise, Mercy placed herself directly between Derek and me as I started to cross the room. "I don't know what the fuck your problem is but Derek is my mate whether you like it or not. You may be able to wipe the floor with both of us, but you're not going to lay a finger on him. And why in the fuck do you keep calling me Mercy? My name is Angel, and how in the hell would you know how old I am?" Any other time I would be proud of her for standing up for herself, even Derek seemed shocked at her behavior, but now was not the time.

"I keep calling you Mercy because that's your name and why wouldn't I know my own sister's birthday?" I said just as Natalie and Rasp came charging into the room. To say Mercy was shocked would be something of an understatement. Her eyes flew open wide as they flashed back and forth between me and her Alpha's, all traces of defiance and anger gone. I even felt my anger over her being mated slipping away.

"Sister," Mercy said in complete disbelief, "I have a sister." From the way she was saying sister, it was as if she was trying out the word for size.

"Alpha, what the hell is going on?" Derek said walking over to Rasp. I didn't hear the answer as Natalie pulled me out into the hallway.

"Do I want to know what happened?" Natalie asked.

"Why didn't you tell me she was mated?" I said as the urge to shift slipped away, "How in the fuck did this happen?"

Watching Natalie blow a strand of her blonde hair out of her face told me that the thought had never even crossed her mind. "Werewolves can only become aware of their mate once we are of age," Natalie said, "So when Angel, said that Derek was her mate we never even thought twice about it."

I'm pretty sure my jaw would have hit the floor if it could stretch that far. "She's the one who said he was her mate?"

"Yeah," Natalie said. It was a challenge for me to wrap my mind around the idea of Mercy being the aggressive one. "Listen, I know this is difficult for you but Derek takes good care of her and whether you approve or not they are mates. The only thing that can change that is if one of them was to die and rarely does the other survive long after that."

We were suddenly aware of a large presence standing over us. "Natalie, Elizabeth I think this conversation has been put off long enough," Rasp said having come out into the hallway, "We'll use our library, the books we need are in there anyway." Following Rasp to the other end of the house, we entered a large library next to the Alpha's office. Entering the room we were all surprised to find a group of teens standing around the large conference table, which was covered with small buildings and what appeared to be armies of miniatures. It took me a moment to recognize the game as Warhammer 40,000. My friend Nikki's older brother Jacob, who I totally did not have a crush on, used to spend hours playing with his friends down in their basement.

"Jonathan, what's going on? What are you doing in my library?" It was obvious Rasp was trying to contain his temper.

"Alpha," Jonathan said, "You said last week we could use the room today, I thought it was still ok.

You could visibly see the frustration slipping away from Rasp. "You're right Jonathan, I did," Rasp said, having forgotten in all of the drama of the last couple of days, "However, something has come up and we need to use the room. Pack business has to come first boys."

"Yes Alpha," the teens chorused dejectedly. You could see they were unhappy as they began to gather up their books.

"You can have the room back when we're done," Rasp said, "so you can leave your stuff in the room if you want, but we'll need the table." While we waited for them to clear the table, I took the time to look around the room.

As with everything else in the house, the room was done completely in rich dark wood with book-lined shelves reaching to the ceiling. Pulling several volumes off the shelves, Rasp set them on the now clear table. "Ok boys, I'll let you know when we're done."

"Thank you Alpha," Jonathan said as the boys filed out of the room.

"Okay everyone take a seat please." Part of me wanted to take the seat at the head of the table, but once Rasp seated himself there I grabbed the chair to his right, directly across from Natalie. Damien joined us a couple of minutes later with Mercy and Derek in tow.

"You wanted to see us?"

"Derek, Angel take a seat," Rasp said, "you're now involved with this as much as anyone."

A moment later the door opened and an Omega I didn't recognize walked in pushing a cart with a variety of snacks and a large carafe of coffee. "I figured we would all need the caffeine," Natalie said, "Thank you, Dawn, we'll take it from here." Giving a quick nod, Dawn quickly left the room, letting Mike and Holly in just before closing the door behind her.

"Ok, first things first," Natalie said, "Just so every one is one the same page Elizabeth here turns out to be Angel's older sister. Also, her real name is Mercy, not Angel."

"Can people still call me Angel?" Mercy asked, "It's the only name I've ever known and everyone already knows me by it and it would just be easier for them." I started to object but realized she was right. Angel was the only name she could remember and for me to insist that people call her Mercy would be selfish and probably alienate her.

"Yes," Rasp said, his tone making it clear I would lose were I to argue the point, "but understand Elizabeth will be calling you Mercy and as people find out others likely will as well. I know you probably have a million questions for her but now is not the time for them, ok?"

"Yes Alpha," Mercy said.

"Elizabeth," Natalie said, "you've mentioned your great grandmother told you stories. Did she ever mention anything about the Gypsy Pact?"

"Not that I can remember. She'd passed away by the time we were attacked so I couldn't ask her anything. I wracked my brain trying to remember anything I could when I was in the hospital but I was having trouble coping with the situation."

"Despite the reputation, they have with the rest of the world, Gypsies and those of their blood are the gatekeepers between two worlds," Rasp said, "They have knowledge of every legend and myth and know which ones are real and which are not. If they chose to reveal us to the world there is not a single thing we could do about it. We could fight back but how long do you think it would be before humans decided we needed to be wiped off the face of the earth? It's all a numbers game and humans have them on their side."

"So what prevents us from wiping out the gypsies?" I asked. I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of mythical creatures attacking humans, I was just being pragmatic.

"In 325 AD around the same time as the Council of Nicaea the Gypsy Pact was formed," Natalie said, "In a nutshell. the Gypsy Pact says you leave us alone and we won't bring the world down on your head. The mythical races all agreed to leave anyone of gypsy blood alone in exchange for keeping their existence a secret. Vampires agreed not to feed on them, weres agreed not to change them, and the elves, well let's just say you don't want to know what the elves agreed not to do. The quickest way to ensure your destruction was to break the treaty as the Witches Council discovered."

"Salem?" I asked, "Wait for a second, did you say vampires?"

"Yes, I said vampires, and no they don't sparkle," Rasp said, "You have no idea how pissed the vampire community was when those movies came out. Turns out however that the author is untouchable on her own right, otherwise, she would not still be breathing. Although some of the cooler heads might have turned her as a joke. If you do happen to meet one, I don't recommend bringing that up.

"Salem was just one of many attempts by the Witches Council to push the rules," Natalie said, "Pretty much any witch trial can be traced back to the gypsies but as you can imagine things do slip through from time to time. It was discovered in 1427 that when you mix werewolf blood and gypsy blood together you get an Alpha, every time.

"Is that why we were attacked? I get he was trying to turn us into Alphas, but why try and get us pregnant?"

"That is an excellent question that unfortunately we have no answer for just yet," Natalie said.

"I'm not an Alpha," Mercy said with a level of resignation in her voice.

"Not yet," Damien said, "but there is such a thing as a latent alpha where those traits we associate with being an Alpha do not reveal themselves until a later time. It's rare but it has happened."

"I think we can all agree that Elizabeth is anything but latent." Rasp said to the nod of everyone in the room.

"I knew it," Holly said slamming her palm on the table, "There was no way you could be a Beta and kick my ass like that." The sudden outburst had everyone in the room laughing as Holly sat back in her chair beaming.

"Yes Holly, you can relax," Natalie said, "you're still the toughest Beta here."

"Just so long as you recognize that," Holly said a smile plastered to her face.

"Ok enough," Rasp said, "we're getting off track. Whoever attacked you knew exactly when and where to put you so you would be found. That means your attacker was either someone in the pack or we were being watched for a long time. "

"There is no way someone in the pack would do this," Mike said.

"I agree," Natalie said, "Which means we have to look for someone playing the long game. Someone willing to bide his time and see how things play out."

"That doesn't exactly match the description of the typical rogue," Mike said.

"No it doesn't," Natalie said, "I'm not entirely convinced they were attacked by a rogue. This seems too thought out, too calculated. Rogues work almost purely on animal instinct. It really would help if you could remember anything about the attacker."

"I wish I could," I said, "If I remember something I promise I'll tell you immediately."

"Do you think this might have something to do with our visitor in the woods?" Derek asked.

"Seriously unlikely," Rasp said, "Watcher punishes packs for committing genocide, and this isn't the sort of thing he would perpetrate. In the end, there's no way of knowing what Watcher wants."

"I'm not sure if it's my place to say this," Derek said, "but couldn't we just go ask him? It's better than just sitting around waiting." It made perfect sense to me, but from the blank looks on people's faces, no one had ever tried that approach before.

"We can try it, "Natalie said, "Any volunteers to go meet the big bad wolf?"

"I'll go."

"NO," Natalie and Rasp said simultaneously.

"Elizabeth it's not that we don't trust you," Rasp said," You are simply far too new of a wolf to be meeting someone like Watcher. He dampens his presence down most of the time but when he wants to let you know who's really in charge, there isn't an Alpha alive that can stand up to him. In truth, Natalie or I should be the ones to go; just in case we've done something we don't realize to anger him."

"Wait just a second, "Holly said, jumping to her feet, "You're the Alphas of this pack, there is no way we are going to let you offer yourselves up like sacrificial lambs, Mike and I will go."

"Holly no, it's not our first choice," Natalie said, "but if we've angered him, it's better than him going through the entire pack to get at us. It's happened before."

"Ok," I said, "I'm starting to understand why everyone freaked out when he showed up. This guy doesn't make social calls does he?"

"No," Rasp said, "Watcher has never just shown up at a pack to say hello. If that's the case then this would be the first time I've ever heard of it happening."

"Rasp and I will go out and try to make contact a little later," Natalie said.

"It's not up for discussion Holly." Realizing the argument was over before it started; Holly slumped down into her seat.

"I don't like it," Holly said pouting.

"Regardless if you like it or not," Natalie said, "I still need you to teach Elizabeth how to push, preferably without any drama. Mike, ask Sara to research the gypsy werewolf connection and see if there's anything we are missing. This should be right up her alley."

"Yeah," Mike said, "anything to bury her nose in an old book."

"Elizabeth, I want you to read this as soon as you can," Rasp said, sliding a large book across the table, "It's the history of our pack and a political overview of the North American packs. When you finish that one I have several others for you but I wanted to start on something light. Anyone have anything else to do before we turn the room back over?" Picking up the book, I was quick to discover that this book deserved to be called a tome. Large, ponderous, and several inches thick I was certain it would take a year to get through it.

"How come I never had to read that?" Mike asked.

"Because it's required reading for every Alpha," Natalie said, "and as we find ourselves with more than the usual number, she gets to read it. Don't laugh just yet Angel, you get my copy." Despite the massive book in front of me, I couldn't help but join in the laughter when Mercy let out a squeak.

"Yes, I know you're not an Alpha yet," Rasp said, "but the operative word is yet. We want you to be prepared."