Claiming Treasure

Three Tequila’s POV

Cascade Pack House

Our alarm had come way too early for Mongo and me, but we had to get back. The party last night had been wild, rivaling any Club function I’d ever attended. I was glad Colletta warned us away from trying to outdrink werewolves, and more glad I had limited myself to one glass of champagne. My old man never found a party he didn’t enjoy, though. Mongo woke up, threw up, took some painkillers, and drank three glasses of water before I even got into the bathroom.

It was just after five in the morning when we left the room, meeting Heather and Carson for early breakfast. The room was nearly empty in the early morning after the big party. “This sucks,” Mongo said quietly as he tried to eat some eggs.

“You needed to pace yourself better,” Heather laughed. “You aren’t a young biker anymore.”

“Oh, I know that. Every day I wake up and listen to my body talk back to me. Standing up sounds like I’m stepping on Rice Krispies.” He looked at the people around him. “I can’t believe you guys live so long without breaking down.”

“Our bodies heal and regenerate better than yours,” Carson said. “I was born in 1931. We age the same as humans until our wolves come forward, then from eighteen to twenty-eight we appear to age only to twenty-one, and after that, we visibly age about two years for every decade.”

“I thought he was about thirty when I first saw him, which made sense with Chase being twenty-five at the time,” Heather said. “I still can’t accept that he’s older than my grandfather was.”

“It causes a lot of problems for us,” Carson said. “One of the reasons we don’t interact much with humans is because our lack of aging would be obvious. Most Pack members don’t leave Pack lands except to go directly to other Packs. It’s getting harder and harder to change or update identities now.”

“How will that work with me? I still age normally, and my babies won’t?”

Carson just nodded. “Your twins will be werewolves and will age that way. They will always look younger than you, and as you age, the visual gap will get wider. The good news is that they can live for hundreds of years. Colletta was a teenage girl when the Civil War broke out.”

It blew my mind. I left the men at the table for seconds as I pulled Heather back up to our room to help me pack. “How are you doing, Heather?”

“I’m surprised I’m still standing, honestly,” she said as she sat down at the end of our bed. “I’m tired of being hurt, tired of hiding, tired of having everyone protect me, and tired of not having any choices.”

“You have choices, Heather. You have money, friends; say the word, and we’ll take you out of here.” I opened my suitcase and started folding the clean clothes into it. “You have to protect yourself.”

“That’s the problem, Tee. It’s not about me. All of these people have placed their own lives on the line for me, and I can’t have them harmed by me running off. I like it here, and I love the people who have welcomed me. It will be a good place for my babies to grow up after I’m gone.”

That was the last straw. “You will NOT give up on us,” I told her as I grabbed her shoulders and put my face in front of hers. “The Council gave you a year. I watched, I know what they said was going to happen. You know what I think? What Mongo thinks?”

“No.”

“You’re a Steel Lady. We don’t go down easy, and we don’t accept defeat like this. FUCK the council. They aren’t Club, and they aren’t this Pack.”

She shook her head. “Carson and his family will be hurt if I don’t comply.”

“Carson and his family aren’t rolling over and taking this either. You’re a fool if you think this is the end,” I told her. “You have a year. A lot of things can happen in a year. Alphas can change. The Council can change. You CANNOT give up, and if I hear you are, I’m going to fly back here and slap you into next week.” Tears were starting to fall down her face, and I wasn’t far behind. “I love you, and I will NOT lose you.”

“I love you too, Aunt Lori,” she said.

I leaned down until we were touching foreheads. “You’re just trying to piss me off with that Aunt Lori shit, aren’t you.”

She started giggling. “I don’t know why you hate your name so much,” she said. “It’s not like your name is Prudence, or Esmerelda, or something.”

“I earned my riding name, pup,” I teased. Getting back up, I continued packing. “What are you going to do here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you were going to college before all this happened, and you’ve been training.”

She started helping me fold. “Nathan and Patricia said we’d be training on hand-to-hand as long as my pregnancy allows, but we should be able to keep up firearms and knife training throughout.”

“And what else? You can’t train all the time,” I said.

She looked at her hands. “I don’t know.”

I took the jeans from her hands. “Don’t isolate yourself here. Get to know everyone, and the best way to do that is to be with them as they work and play. Spend time with everyone, from the cleaning lady to the Alpha. It’s the best way to become part of them.”

“Except the whole turning into a furry, four-legged beast thing,” I said.

“Pregnant females can’t shift either, so no one will mind that you can’t either.” The bags packed, I helped her to her feet and gently embraced her. “It wouldn’t hurt for you to spend time getting to know Carson. He’s a good man and deserves a chance.”

“I’ve been single for about three days, at least from my end,” I said. “It hurts. I’ve not even had time to sort out my feelings for Greg yet.”

“He’s not coming back for you, and for that I’m glad. You deserve better than him.”

“I do,” she said. “I do. Three T? Will you be here when I have my babies? I need you.”

“Of course I will, baby. I’ll be here as long as you want me to be.” I grabbed the bag. “Come on, we need to rescue Carson from Mongo’s interrogation before we scare him off,” I said with a grin. “He’s a little protective of his favorite niece.”

“I’m his ONLY niece, Tee.” She opened the door for me as we went back downstairs.

“Time to go,” Mongo said as he came and took the bag from me. He took Heather gently into his big arms. “You be good for him, and you know my number. Call if you need me, and the whole damn Club will be here for you.”

“Thanks, Mongo,” Heather said. “I love you.”

“I love you too, baby. It’s going to be all right.”

There were more tears as I said goodbye, and she watched from inside as Carson loaded us into one of his SUV’s for the drive to the airport. When the Pack House was out of sight, I turned to Carson. “So how the fuck are you getting her out of this mess?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’m working on it,” I said. “I do need your help.”

“What is that?”

“She needs to remain with me, no matter how bad it looks. If she takes off, I can’t protect her, and the Council will go after me. Stay or go, but either way, we have to do it together.”

Mongo nodded. “We’ll keep her spirits up. She knows that if she needs a lifeline, the Brotherhood will be there for her. Learn to ride, and I’ll take you in too,” he said.

“Ride what? The 1948 Harley-Davidson Panhead I learned to ride on that’s in my garage?”

You could have heard a pin drop. “Stock?”

“Original paint. I’ve had to rebuild the engine three times, but it’s worth it. I take it out a couple of times a year when the weather is perfect. Compared to a modern bike, it’s a rough as hell ride. I use my 2017 Indian Chieftain for almost all my riding now.”

“The Panhead covers a lot of faults, including that,” Mongo said. “If you have to split, we’ll get you patched in and hidden far from any of these wolves. We protect our own.”

“I hope that will not be necessary.” He told us of the plan he and his family had discussed before leaving Arrowhead. They were capitalizing on the pregnancies as a sign from Luna that they were right, and forming the alliances needed to turn two-thirds of the Packs against the Council’s rulings. “I would be thrilled if we can change the law criminalizing humans finding out about us in any circumstance. That may be a reach, but it would be enough if we could get Heather the same Trusted Agent status you two have. That is part of why she has to be on her best behavior. We need that to convince the Council she will keep the secret.”

“Her children will be werewolves, that alone should be enough, just like with Possum and Roadkill,” I said.

“And that will help. The Council is a political machine, and the people on it will do anything to maintain power. We can impeach them with a two-thirds vote of the Alphas, but this isn’t common. It happened a year ago when Council members were found to have assisted in the cover-up of the Arrowhead Pack attack that orphaned Rori.”

Mongo shifted next to me in the back. “I’d like to remove that smug-ass Chairman myself,” he said.

“I know you want to do something, but you need to trust us on this. My family and I will figure out a way to handle the Council. We need you to support Heather, so she doesn’t lose hope.”

“She was resigned to dying, but I think I broke through a little,” I said. “Don’t let her hide in her room, or sit around doing nothing. Keep her working out, and get her involved with everything you can. I told her she should get to know people, maybe spend a day working side by side with them, so they see how things work here.”

“That’s an excellent idea,” Carson said.

“We do it with our Prospects in the Club,” Mongo said. “They spend a day in every job in the Club, and shadow every Patched member for a day. It forces them to learn and get to know people.”

“It’s good training for a Luna, too, and will help with the Pack accepting her. I’ll talk to my mom, see what she suggests to help her learn. I’d be thrilled if I could get her to pick up some of the Luna duties.”

I looked out at the trees going by in the dim light, wondering what this place would be like in the summer on a motorcycle. “We want to come back and visit, and maybe bring some of her friends,” I said. Carson started to say something, but I put my hand up. “Other Trusted Agents, women she trusts with her life.”

“Just let me know. I’ll do whatever it takes to help Heather settle in and find happiness.”

“I know you will,” Mongo said. “And if I hear different, I’ll come back here and kick your ass.”