Chapter 19

**Cole**



As I enter our room, I hear the shower running. Oh, Goddess she is showering again. The thought of her naked body makes me stiffen. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. I hear her gentle calm voice “Hey Cole is that you?”

“Yea it is.”

“I’m almost done just give me a second.”

A moment later she walks into the room wrapped in a towel. “Hey, look I don’t know where I can wash these muddy clothes. I need to though since I only have the one bra and shorts. I put them in the tub for now.” What am I going to do? Seeing her in just a towel; I want to rip it off her right now and ravage her? As I am caught up in fantasizing, I realize I have been staring at her. “Well, what do I do with them?” She asks again.

“There is a shoot in the closet which goes down to the laundry in the basement.”

“Thank you, you can shower now.” She gathers her muddy clothes from the tub and tosses them down the shoot. I get undressed and hop in the shower. I know I need to make this fast. We probably won’t be able to get breakfast until after we meet with the council. Fuck, I need release. After I clean myself off, I bust one out. I dry off and get changed. When I come out, she has her face in a book.

“Hey, we need to head to the council office. We can eat after.”

She doesn’t respond right away. “Yea okay "she says a moment later, as she marks her place.

“Hey, I’m sorry about my mom. She has always puts her snout where it doesn’t belong.” I say grabbing her hand.

“No problem, I can hold my own, and yours when need be.”

How does she just roll that off? One minute she is spitting fire. Then she just drops it as if it never happened. She is right back to her calm gentle demeanor. I wish more people could just drop shit like that.

We walk into council office, and the other four council members are already there waiting for us. “Hey, this is Winter. Before we do this, I would like everyone to be introduced.” I want her to know all the people who hold power in the pack.



**Winter**



Cole goes around the room and introduces the other council members. “You have already met Marcus. This is my little brother James, this is Adam, and this is Byron.” I mentally catalog their names with their faces. James is tall like Cole, and they both have thick black hair. I can definitely tell they are from the same family. Then there is Adam; he is also tall. Not as tall as Cole or James though. He has light brown hair and hazel eyes. He has a scar under one eye. Byron is an old man. I can see he has a lot of knowledge by his age alone. He is staring at me as if he knows me. I wonder how old he is. I can tell by his eyes he is a kind man, and not overly ambitious. He has the look of a scholar.

“Nice to meet you all.” I say to the council men.

James starts off by saying “we need your full name to proceed.”

“My full name is Winter Rey Storm.” With that we proceed. Cole starts to talk.

“Winter Rey Storm do you vow to protect this pack if the need shall arise.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you swear to treat this pack as your family?”

“I do.”

“Hold out your hand Winter.”

I hold out my hand. Cole picks up a knife, and slices into my palm allowing my blood to drip into a chalice on the table. Then Marcus cuts through Coles’ hand. I watch as his blood drops into the chalice and mixes with mine. Cole hands me the chalice and motions for me to drink from it. I hand it back to him and he drinks as well. Byron then says “this is your solemn vow. We all have borne witness to you accepting the pack as your family.” He smiles and says, “welcome to The Red Dawn pack.”

All the men cheer, and Cole gives me a big hug. “Goddess I’m glad that’s done.” James says. “That rogue smell was not pleasant, but it already seems to be dissipating.” I didn’t know that being a rogue was so hard for those around me.

Byron comes over “Did you say you are a Storm?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“I knew your parents. As soon as I saw you, I knew you were from the Moon Stone Pack. But you are a Storm. What a small world. I was very grieved to find out that they had died in the tragedy that befell your poor pack?”

I cannot believe Byron knew my parents. It is a small world, just as he said. I am very curious to learn how he knew them. It is nice to meet someone, besides myself, that knew them. It seems he already knows about the destruction of my home. I will have to ask him later what he knows. Cole did say he is extremely wise and knows a lot of things.

“However, did you manage to escape that tragedy?” Byron asks.

“I snuck out of the meeting to go find a waterfall.”

He chuckles “You are just like your father.” I smile. It is nice to hear someone who knew my parents talk about them.

I am so glad he said I was like my father. It makes me happy. He was such a good man. He was a strong leader, and like me, he loved nature. I guess that the greatest thing the two of us had in common was our fervent desire to blow off work and go explore in the wild. It’s not like work is important, but everyone needs a break.