Stolen Birthright Ch. 60-64

"I'm hoping that won't be necessary," I said. "I have a little faith in Olivia, she wouldn't have done this if she didn't feel they could be trusted." I looked at the group. "Mark, why don't you and Olivia take everyone to the main house in the bus. Al, stay with us. We'll talk to the reporters before the plane leaves."

"Yes Alpha," he said. He started moving everyone onto the bus, once they were out of earshot it would be safe to tell them about the island.

Olivia came down with two people in tow, a beautiful young reporter with dark red hair, and a cameraman with a beard who looked to be in his late 20's. "Elanor and Curtis Black, this is Alan Perkins," I said as they approached, using our fake names. "Welcome. I trust you had a good flight?"

"It was fine, just a little bumpy. I'm Linda Remington, field reporter for KUSA in Denver. Thank you for having us." She shook Craig's hand then mine, she was very bubbly and nervous. She can't have been too experienced, she looked just a few years older than me.

"Travis Small, cameraman." He set down his gear bag and shook both of our hands.

"All right then, some ground rules," Al said. He went through what we had talked about; they were a little hesitant, this was a lot for a reporter to give up control of.

"I assure you, this is a necessary thing for the people you will meet. What we are offering is a chance to talk to and experience a real Werewolf pack outside the war. You can meet with their leadership, see how they live, how their children are raised. You can talk to them about the war, what happened to them and their families, and why they are taking refuge here with us. All we ask in return is that you help us to ensure it can't be traced back to our families or where we are now. The government can use facial recognition to find and track us, our voice prints can be used to identify our phone calls. That is what we are afraid of, that you will bring them to us. That's why you were blindfolded for part of the flight, and why the flight crew won't tell you where you are. If you can't agree to these terms, then we will escort you back onto the flight and you will be returned to Denver with no hard feelings."

She looked at Travis, who gave a small nod. "I can live with those restrictions," she said.

"I don't reveal my sources, and I'm fine with you using false names. I just want to bring your stories to my viewers. No one has been able to get this kind of access before."

I shook her hand and motioned them to the Jeep. Travis loaded his gear in the back as Al went and got their luggage from the hold. The plane closed up and taxied for takeoff as we were leaving.

She asked a bunch of questions for background as we drove, since we didn't want any photos of the island or the beaches that could identify where we were. I told her the basics of Pack life; the structure, the sizes, and how it was like a big family. She was surprised that Craig and I were the Alphas, she expected someone older. "My parents were killed, I was eighteen when I became Alpha," I said. I told her about the basics of mating and turning of humans, emphasizing it had always been punishable by death to turn someone without consent and approval of the Alphas. By the time we arrived at the Pack House, she had the basics down.

I sent a mental command to the Pack, letting them know that we had reporters and what the rules were. I asked them to cooperate, to use false names, and if they weren't comfortable being photographed in human form they could stay out of sight or shift.

Mabel had already set up a room in the house, basically a small closet without windows, that we could use for the interviews. With a single light on below and behind the chairs in the room, a person could talk and their face would be hidden in shadow. Josh said that he could alter the voices as he transferred the files, so that wasn't an issue. I let the two know, which shocked them until I explained how Pack could communicate mind-to-mind.

Craig and Al went to take care of other duties, and I gave them a quick tour of the area. They saw the children playing on the beach and Travis went to take video, careful not to show the horizon or anything identifiable. He didn't want to lose the footage of the young children, some in wolf form, playing with each other.

We walked past where the boar was roasting and I could hear her stomach rumble. "Come on," I said, "Let's get some breakfast before we continue." We walked into the dining room where a buffet breakfast was set out. We had lots of bacon and eggs, and pancakes. Linda moaned at the taste of the bacon. "We have lots of wild boar around, and we smoke the bellies ourselves. We like our food fresh, and we don't use chemicals or additives. Soon we will be self-sufficient in our food and energy production."

"Even with all the new people today?" She hadn't known until after the plane left that all her fellow passengers were actually werewolves, coming her for sanctuary.

"Yes, because there aren't idle among us. Think of us as a big farm family, there's plenty of work to do and everyone pitches in. We're growing more of our food now, and we've installed several large wind turbines and solar panels with more on the way. We only need to run our diesel generator a couple times a week now." We finished our breakfast, and she asked if she could get some questions on video. I called Craig to the room and we sat down at the desk, our faces backlit. Linda verified that the camera wasn't picking up our faces, but to be sure, we decided to wear surgical masks. If they couldn't see most of our face, they couldn't use their recognition programs.

Linda sat to the side of the camera, so her face was illuminated gently and she stayed in frame. "I'm in an undisclosed location with the Alphas of a werewolf pack. Elanor and Curtis are the leaders, or Alphas, of this Pack which is in hiding from the government. Alphas, thank you for agreeing to talk with us."

"You're welcome," I said. "I think it is past due for Werewolf leaders to come out and tell our side. We didn't want this war, and it never should have happened."

"Why do you say that?"

"We've been in the United States as long as you have," Craig said. "When the Mayflower came over, there were werewolves among them. We've lived among you for centuries, peacefully coexisting, being a part of your society and our country."

"I think that is one reason your reveal was such a shock," Linda said. "Suddenly we realized that dangerous beings were among us and could strike at any moment."

"Yet we didn't," I said. "What happened was a tragedy for both sides, and clearly a werewolf started it all. We had one man go insane and attack a school. The werewolves who were there tried to stop him, they did stop him. We don't execute all the children when we have a school shooter, that doesn't make sense. It could have been stopped, but the local Packs were more afraid of being revealed than what would happen when they left. You saw the changes, that is what happens when a turn occurs in a violent way."

"It isn't always that way?"

"Not at all. There are some of us who find our spouses, our mates, among humans. There is a process of explaining the change, receiving permission from the Alphas, and always with the consent of the person being turned. The turn of a mate is a much different thing, because the mate and the Alphas are there to stabilize the new wolf when it emerges. You see, a new wolf is frightened by its surroundings, by having to share a body and a brain with a human. The Alphas or mates anchor the wolf, allowing it to calm down and accept its new nature. We have turned wolves in this Pack, you should talk to them about their experience."

"So that carnage at the school didn't have to happen?"

"No; if the people who were scratched and bitten were sedated, then placed with an Alpha for support, they could have become normal Pack members," I said.

"But what if they don't want a wolf? Isn't it permanent?"

"No, it is not. The wolf can be killed, but we won't go into how because we don't need the government using it against us. The point is, if we would have talked and come together to solve the problem instead of defaulting to shooting on sight, it would have been a different history. Now the hunters of the night are the hunted. We are being bombed, targeted by drones, and executed on sight. Do you really think we wouldn't strike back?"

Craig picked it up. "It's not like we have been perfect either. We used economic sabotage, terrorism and sneak attacks because we didn't have the numbers to fight otherwise. Instead of helping our cause, it only hardened the attitudes towards us."

"So what happens now? How does this end?"

"Hopefully, saner heads will prevail and we find a way to live together again," Craig said. "We aren't going to go quietly to our mass graves, I guarantee that."

"This war is hurting everyone," I said. "This Pack was formed as a sanctuary Pack at the start of the war."

"So why here? Why a sanctuary?"

"Because when Packs came under attack and fled to the hills, there were some that couldn't go with," I said. "We were a very small pack, easy to hide and out of the way. We were allied with a much larger Pack which was bombed early in the war, losing entire families in a few moments. The pregnant, the badly injured, the orphaned young ones- they had nowhere else to go. We went to get them, and soon more people were coming to us. Just today, almost two dozen war orphans were added to our ranks. We came here and formed this Pack because these children are innocent, and they deserve a life." I wiped the tear from my eye as Craig gave me a hug. "This war has gone on for over two years with no end in sight. We put our money and our lives on the line to find a safe place to wait it out."

She asked a few more questions, then we arranged to have some others come in to talk. By lunchtime, Linda was complaining she had a headache from all the rethinking she was having to do. There were a few people who didn't want to be on camera, but would talk on the record. She also got a few of the young orphans to talk about what had happened to them and their families.

There wasn't a dry eye in the house for them.

I used the satellite phone and called the charter company, asking them to send a much smaller plane to us in the morning to return them to Denver. They participated in and filmed part of the party that night, as we feasted on the wild boar our Pack had taken down. They loved the video of the wolves playing, but when I changed to my panther things really got fun. "Beautiful, isn't she?" Craig was standing next to Linda as Travis recorded me playing with the pups.

"I didn't know they had werepanthers," she said.

"They aren't common," he replied. Pulling off his clothes, unconcerned with his nudity, he shifted into his large black wolf and went to play. The cubs climbed over their Alpha pair, their excited yips and leaps making for a great photo opportunity.

Overnight, Josh and Al worked with Travis to go through all the video he had taken while Linda spent the night going over her notes from the interviews. In one day, she had gone from low-level local reported to a player on the national scene. We waved goodbye as they got on the plane, hoping for two things.

One, that the interviews would make a difference in the war.

And two, that this wouldn't come back to destroy us.

Ch 64

As soon as the reporters left, Olivia took my hand and pulled me into the backseat. "Ella, it's time. I want you to bite me, I want my animal part back." I had expected this, I had seen the longing in her eyes the first time I shifted in front of her. She was fascinated by my panther form, running her fingers through the fur and scratching my ears as she examined me. "I know, I just didn't want to change while THEY were there."

"True... I didn't say why I was a panther, that I had lost my wolf, and the last thing we need is for them to watch a change from beginning to end. I take it Mark has agreed as well?"

"Yes, he's excited. Any hesitation he had was taken away when we saw your mating was even stronger with your cat. It's all going well, right?"

I nodded. "Perfect, in fact. I feel complete again. It is a little weird, I'm getting new abilities and instincts that I have to mesh with my human ones, plus I have the memories of my wolf. She's been very interested in those, it helps her to learn why I am how I am." I praised my cat in my mind, she purred and went back to grooming herself. "Are you sure? We don't even know if a wolf and a panther can have children."

She and Mark looked at each other. "We know, but we already have two and we can adopt more if we want. I really want this, it is important for me to be able to defend my children." I could see her logic, as a human I couldn't protect them like I could now.

"In private or with your mate?"

"With," they said together as the men reached the Jeep. "Could we do it now?" Mark took Olivia in his arms, smelling her neck. "I don't want her to be missing this any longer."

"All right then." I got out and pulled off my sundress and swimsuit, then shifted into my panther form. She pulled her dress up, exposing her long thigh. I looked at her, she nodded and looked away, so I bit her just below her butt at the thickest part of her leg.

"FUCK!" She jumped away as soon as my teeth had let go. "That hurt!" I licked the blood from her leg, pushing more of the saliva into the wound, and it quickly stopped bleeding.

I shifted back, grabbing my suit. "Yeah, but it was only once. You need to relax, Mark can help you with that, or your body could treat it as a forced change." I pulled the dress over and grabbed a towel, laying it in the passenger seat for her in case she bled. "Come on, we should get you back." We all climbed in and Mark started driving the dirt road back.

"Did you have trouble grounding your cat when you shifted, Ella?"

"No, Mark, it was pretty easy. I wasn't scared, I was happy to have her show up. I embraced her, showed her my memories; I showed her Craig's love, our babies, my wolf. By the time I was done sharing, she was happy as well. It went really smooth."

"Just in case, though, we should leave the two of you alone," I said. "If you don't mind, we'll watch your girls for you tonight, and you should take one of the cabins. It's probably best if you're a little isolated in case things don't go as well."

"Wait, that's all I had to do to get my man alone in a cabin for a night?" Olivia giggled. "We haven't had a night where I could be a screamer for a long time!'

"LA LA LA LAAAA, I can't hear you, too much information!" I covered my ears in the back seat as they laughed.

"Hey, at least I learned the lesson better than you. After our girls, I've been wrapping that rascal." I was turning red again. "Someone needs to be able to have sex without getting pregnant."

"By LUNA, will I ever live that down?"

The other three looked at me and all shook their heads NO.

I didn't care, I got two beautiful boys and another baby on the way. I absolutely loved being a Mom, when this one was born I'd be trying for another on my next heat. Ker had explained how heats work for cats; they happen yearly, in the spring, unless you were still lactating. A cat's heat was even more intense than a wolf one, and involved some planning. The scent would attract males, so the female would select a male and take him to a remote location for three days of constant sex. Male panthers had short fuses, but recovered in minutes; essentially, you were filled with a constant supply of baby batter. Wolves didn't do it as often, but with the knot they could hold the seed in for a long period.

We got back home and spread the news that Olivia was taking the change, and they would be in the cabin on the west side beach. Everyone would stay well clear tonight. They packed an overnight bag and some food and walked off, their daughters waving goodbye as they played with our boys in our living room.

I woke up in the morning to my face being tickled. My cat was amused but not threatened, that is why she didn't wake me up. I opened my eyes to a huge set of teeth being yawned over me, as slobber dropped onto my cheek. Sitting up quickly, I took in the huge panther that had crawled up on the bed with me as Mark looked on with amusement from the door.

She was magnificent; good sized, corded muscles under tight skin and shiny fur. She was a lot lighter than my black panther, more of a jaguar coloration, lighter even than Al was. I had done some reading, apparently for panthers the dark black color was uncommon; even a black panther like me was more likely to have light spotted offspring than dark. I ran my fingers through her fur as she purred in pleasure. "You're beautiful, Olivia!"

"I think so too," Mark said. "She changed a few hours ago, it went really smooth. We went for a run in our animal forms and marked each other again so we could have the mind link."

"You got the pack link too, didn't you?"

"Of course! Man, I can't believe how much I missed it." She licked my face as I tried to get away, but she used a big paw to push me down. I shifted underneath her, my paws reaching up and batting her face gently. She jumped off the bed and I followed her outside, eager for some cat time with my friend. We came home with a pair of small pigs, as we had learned quickly to hunt together.

A few days later, the commercials advertising the exclusive interview with a werewolf Pack were all over the network. I could have guessed that a rookie local reporter would be pushed aside, and I was right. She was still in the teaser clips, but it was being run as a national story on Dateline NBC. Of course, one of the network anchors from the show was edited in, as if he was asking the questions instead of her.

The whole Pack gathered in the hotel lobby for the show, which was up on the projection screen. All the couches and chairs were full, and blankets had been brought in so the young ones could gather under the screen. Everyone went silent when the show went on, and we watched, fascinated, until the hour was done.

They had done a good job, I thought. It was a pretty unbiased look at our lives, and not too much opinion was thrown in. They just showed how we lived, worked and played. The interviews were pretty good too, especially with the young orphans. If anything was going to get through to these humans, these little ones would.

After the show was over, we watched the news out of Denver followed by Nightline, which did a follow up along with a number of guests providing opinion. As we went to sleep that night, we didn't know which way it would go. We went to bed, figuring the next day would be a better indicator anyway.

We were watching the morning news shows when a delivery barge came from the mainland, bringing more construction supplies. As the men unloaded, the master of the vessel pulled me aside. Handing me a piece of paper, he said, "Men are handing these out in town. Cartel men. I didn't say anything, but someone will. Be careful."

"Thank you, Enrique. Have a good trip back." He walked back onto his tug and waved as they pulled back from the dock. I opened the paper, and when I saw what it was, I shoved it in my pocket. I started to sway, my knees got weak, spots formed in my eyes, and I can't remember what happened next.

I woke up in bed, Craig was holding my hand as my boys snuggled close to my sides. "Ella?" Craig put his hand on my forehead, moving my hair out of my face. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, it was just a bit of a shock." I sent over the link for Mabel to come get the boys, then for Mark and Olivia and Al and Mabel to come over. When they were here, I pulled out the paper and handed it to Craig. "My Spanish is rusty, but I think I got the gist."