Lacy Seeing Double (2 page)

Then a few months ago, Quin and Jaden, the Alphas of the New Council, found their mate Cami. Her best friend from childhood turned out to be the missing Chosen one that was thought to be dead. So, the Prophesy was back, and the Alphas began searching for the rest of the Chosen. Of course, since one was supposedly killed, all of their parents scattered to protect their children.

The spirits gave each of the Chosen a gift that coincided with the astrological signs they were born under. Something that would help them fulfill their position on the Council.

The Spirits assigned each of them with a specific job, which would ensure the New Council would succeed in their enormous task.

Quin, born in January, was the leader of the Council. Being a Capricorn, he was regarded as the zodiac's leader. His gift was being the Alpha Triad. Thus, having stability and strength needed to lead the Pack and the Council at the same time. As well as being a stable influence for humans to see and would not fear the shifters would try to take over their realm. Because both jobs were of equal importance, the Gods gifted the Triad to help share the duties. Cami, the female Alpha, had a strong personality in her own right. Jaden, the other wolf in the Triad, was also an Alpha. Before coming here, he had been planning on setting up his own Pack somewhere close to here. When he arrived and discovered that he was mated to both Cami and Quin, he had been ecstatic.

They had decided over the last few weeks that Jaden would be the Denver Pack Alpha, while Quin would be the Council Pack Alpha. They would share the responsibilities, but it made it easier on both Packs to have one Alpha to go to.

Jo was born in February. She was an Aquarius, the humanitarian. She was a White Wolf and had the ability to feel the entire Pack and Council, and transfer emotions to calm and reassure others. Once she gave birth to her child, she would receive another gift. None of them knew what it was. She was the emotional balance needed for them all. Tey, her mate, would call it a curse as well as a blessing. Tey was the one who had to hold her when the emotions overwhelmed her or try to calm her down when she was high on excitement from all the emotions the Pack gave off. He had done a wonderful job so far, but taking care of the Packs emotional well-being was a full-time job. Tey had to be with her always and so the Pack had lost one of its best Enforcers.

The next was the child born in March, Pisces. This child would be the visionary of the group. They would be the one who had the ideas and ability to see what the future held for the Pack. Though they had the Seer from the European Council Pack, the Spirits intended for this child"s gift to surpass that of the Seer. This person would see the very future of the Council, and the wolf whom Quin wanted found first. After reading the papers from the previous Council, they also figured that he would be the hardest to find.

However, they had been wrong, Blaine had been right under their noses. Now that they found him, and his mates, they thought it would be easier to find the Chosen.

Then, the child born under the April constellation is an Ares. This child will be the one who will be the liaison between the humans and the Were. They will travel all over the world promoting the harmony that is needed for both races to coexist. There were more shifters than just the Werewolves, and making the decision to come out into the open was going to be difficult. All shifter communities needed to be involved in planning the Revelation.

After April is, of course, May, the Taurus. This will be the spiritual adviser and historian of the Council. This Wolf will confer with the past notes and make sure the Council is not making the same mistakes the previous Council made. They will record our history as it happens, and make sure that future generations have documentation of shifter history.

The child born in June is one of the most unique among the zodiacs, Gemini, the twins.

This was Reggie and Casey. They will be the only ones who share a month, and will share the seat on the Council. They will be the financial managers of the Pack. Because of the responsibility, and the task being so vast, two children needed the gift. The current Council had amassed a great fortune and the Denver Pack was extremely prosperous. They needed to build more room for the new members of both Packs as well as making sure that each member was taken care of. Quin and Jaden would never allow anyone in their Pack to want for anything. It would take a team loaded with financial people to normally run the funds from a Pack. The twins were going to be in command of the group.

The next child is born in July, a Cancer. They are the overseer of mates. Their gift allows them to see who is supposed to mate and who is not. They are also the protector of the mates, should anyone force a mating or abuse a mate, and they are the ones who will deal with it. Quin did not tolerate any abuse of a mate in the Denver Pack. They had heard stories of other Packs that used their females as slaves, and refused to do anything like this. The overseer of mates for the Council would have a big job trying to clean up the mess in America. Quin and Jaden spent half of their time calling the Alphas from other Packs and reporting mate abuse that they heard about.

Devon was born in August. He is the Leo, the leader of the Enforcers of both the Denver Pack and the Council Pack, the leader of their army, a natural protector. Should he wish, he could challenge Quin, of course he would never do that because he does not want the headache. He is perfectly happy being the Beta. Devon was going to be the leader of all the Betas. He would set up training for them and make sure that they were doing their job as well as making sure the Enforcers did theirs. He was like the military leader in the United States, the highest ranking General in the Were community. If there were a war with the Rogues, Devon would be leading it.

Next in line is Virgo, the child born in September. Cloe will be the medical adviser. She will work with the human doctors to understand the physiology of the Were, and will be the trainer of the Were doctors. Cloe was mated to Beta Darien, and actually, they shared a bond with another member of the new Pack, Teagan.

The child born in October, Libra, will be the Pack builder. They will be responsible for setting up a new Pack and knowing what is going on in each of the Packs and report to the Council. Once the Council officially moved to Denver, there was sure to be an influx of Packs starting in the United States. Many of the Packs for Europe had small Packs in the States, but Quin knew that they would grow and be much larger than they were now.

The next is the child born in November, the Scorpio. They are considered the oldest of souls and will be the consultant with the previous Council, using them as a resource, should the Council need them. There was much to be learned from humans and other Were. Quin wanted the Old Council to be advisers, but they needed someone appointed to help with organizing them.

Finally, the child born in December, the Sagittarius will be the liaison between the other shifters and the Council. They knew there were other shifters, all with different hierarchies, and this person will be the go-between for the groups. Most of the shifter community kept hidden, even from fellow shifters. Once they became public, it would be a huge job to organize all the different communities.

Everything had been moving along, with a few bumps in the road, like a couple of attacks, a kidnapping, and a few shootings. All in all, not bad. Then the Rogues obviously got a little help. Whoever was leading them was refusing to give up. He or she wanted the shifter community to remain in secret, and he was willing to do anything to do that.

A black shadow surrounded the New Council Pack compound. Everyone from the town had been taken to the compound so they would be safe. They were staying in the huge Pack house and the other New Council houses that were complete. It was cramped, but because of the danger, it was more than worth the inconvenience.

The strange shadow was a spell, cast by witches the Rogues had gotten on their side.

Jo"s father and the Old Council Alpha had gotten information about a strong coven that had migrated to New Orleans after the kidnapping. Witches and shifters had once been friends, but in the chaos after the kidnapping, the relationship between all shifters and magical creatures had been strained.

So, Sevi and Shawn had been sent to New Orleans to see if they could get the coven leader to help them. They needed a spell to counteract the one being placed on the town, until they did; the New Council was helpless and stuck. They couldn"t leave or communicate. Sevi had tried several times to call Blaine but they had never gotten through. They were on their own, as Ambassadors of the New Council.

“New Orleans!” Shawn said and pointed to the sign. They were only thirty minutes from the place they needed to be.

“Finally, let"s find the Queen and get the hell out. I saw a place a few miles back that looked like it had potential.” Sevi said and Shawn agreed.

Hopefully, they would be able to do this in one day. Neither one of them wanted to stay in New Orleans for long, the whole dick shrinking conversation really put a damper on the trip.

Chapter 2

Lacy sighed tiredly; it had been a long day. First, her assistant called in sick, leaving her to be the only one in the store. It had been busy; so many people coming in for vacation right now meant lots of traffic. Then, in the middle of a particularly busy rush, she had tripped over the damn rug and sent a table full of potions flying across the room.

Thankfully not many of them broke. She just had to clean the mess while people were wandering around and trying to ask her questions.

She needed a drink. A glass of white wine and a bath sounded heavenly. But she had to go to her mother"s; she called a few moments ago in a panic. Something was up, but she didn"t want to discuss it on the phone. Well she was just going to have to wait. She had to clean up first, and then she would get there. If she left a mess today, tomorrow would be a long day again.

Picking up the bottles to restock the shelf, she felt a shiver. Someone was outside the door, and they did not have a very good aura. She looked at the door and made sure that it was locked, then turned to finish her stocking. Whoever was at her front door was probably drunk and looking for a reading. People were under the misconception that she was a physic. She was not.

Finally, she finished with all the cleaning and looked around, she was satisfied that everything would be ready for opening tomorrow. Grabbing the list of potions she was going to have to make on the weekend, Lacy walked to the back door and paused. She felt the same presence back here. Not good. If it was a mugger she was in trouble, she left her crow bar in the car in case she needed it.

Turning back to her store, she picked up the phone. Her father would be more than happy to come here, she knew. He had done it on more than one occasion, especially when it was Marti Gras.

“Hello, honey. Are you on your way? Your mom is in a tizzy, she needs you here.” She heard the humor in her father"s voice. “Also, there is a lot we need to discuss.”

“Uh, dad. Do you think you could come and get me?” Lacy whispered, like the person outside the store could hear her. Well if they were a shifter, they could.

“Why?” Her father asked sharply. Lacy heard her mother in the background with her voice rose talking to someone. However, when her father spoke, she could hear her mother speaking frantically to her father.

“What"s wrong? Is it Lacy?” Her mother asked.

“Shhh.” Her father said and then spoke to her again. “Lacy, what"s going on?”

“Nothing, I think there is a drunk outside, gave me an uneasy feeling. I just was wondering if you could come and get me. If you"re busy, I could just handle it.” Lacy said quickly.

“NO!” Her mother yelled into the phone. Her father must have let her listen while Lacy was talking. “Do not leave the store. We are coming right now to get you.” Lacy frowned and looked at the phone in her hand. Did her mother really just hang up on her?

Shaking her head, she put the phone down, then wandered back to the entrance, and stood there for a second. Whoever it was, had not left. She could feel the presence on the other side of the door.

“Hello?” A male voice called. He could feel her. He was a shifter.

“We"re closed.” Lacy called back and stepped back a little.

“I know that, Lacy, I just want to talk to you.” The voice said.

“How do you know my name? Who are you?” Lacy said wrapping her arms around herself and shivered.

“I know a lot about you, Lacy. More than you probably do. Your parents did a very good job hiding you, but it couldn"t last forever.” The voice said.

Lacy frowned and stepped closer to the door. “What the heck are you talking about?” She heard the man chuckle and then whispered something to someone else. “Lacy, I would much rather do this face to face. We need your help.” The voice said.

“Who needs my help?” Lacy said and then stepped one more step closer to the door.

Helping people is what she did.

“We are having some problems in our Pack. Some of our females are getting hurt. We have been looking for you for a long time. I know you don"t remember, but you used to belong to our Pack. Your mother was an advisor on the Council. Then she took you and left without any warning. We have missed you, and needed you. We knew your powers were strong. So did your mother. I think she was afraid that you would take over for her. She knew that you were more powerful.” The voice said softly.

Lacy frowned and looked at the door. They were lying. She had been born here in New Orleans. And her parents certainly never belonged to a Pack. That, they would have told her.

“Look, I don"t know who you are, or why you think I"m the person you are looking for, but you are wrong. My parents are on their way, so if you don"t want to find out firsthand how protective my father is, you had better leave.” Lacy called and slowly backed away from the door. She was not going to open it until her parents were here.

Of course, the laws of physics were not on her side again.