Dawn of a New Age: A Sons of Satrina Novel (14 page)

Patrick nodded, “Thank you.”

He guessed that Kelton was probably on the phone with the Matris council. Kelton would have a lot of explaining to do after his little chat with Merion last night. Patrick knew just how much talking to the stiff suits at the council pissed Kelton off. Kelton didn’t suffer fools lightly and wouldn’t waste a second more time on them than was necessary. After all the stories that Kelton had told him about what had happened with their young female warrior and the councils reaction, he knew that the council were way down on his list of people he wanted to talk to.

“Who’s Kayleigh?” Rees asked as he watched the warrior walk back over to the bank of computer screens. You could see the thoughts churning in the kid’s head – that’s what he wanted to be when he grew up.

Patrick knew that the relationship between Kelton and Kayleigh wasn’t one that he liked to broadcast to his students, so he said, “She is Kelton’s right hand and deals with a lot of the administration here at the academy.” That was the best way he could think of explaining it. If Kayleigh wanted to say it in another way, then she could.

“Here she is.” Patrick said, smiling warmly as he stood up to greet her.

“Good to see you again, Mr Mulholland. I wish it was under different circumstances.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Patrick.” He grinned and then waved a hand to indicate the boys behind him. “This is Caleb, and that’s Rees.”

Kayleigh tried her hardest not to gape at the mark of the warrior on these two shifters. It was the same as it was on all of them, but simply knowing that these boys weren’t Lamia made it all the more interesting and different.

“Hello, I’m Kayleigh.” She smiled warmly.

When the boys didn’t respond, Patrick glared. “Don’t forget your manners while you’re here.” He hissed. He knew that look on their faces. It was easy to see the awe, not that he could blame them. Kayleigh was immensely beautiful, standing like a graceful model and completely unaware of the effect that she had on the men she encountered. Kelton was sure one lucky dog.

Kayleigh raised her eyebrows at Patrick. “Well, would you all like to follow me? We’ll find somewhere a little quieter to talk.”

“Sure.” Patrick replied, jabbing both the boys in the ribs when Kayleigh turned away.

Kayleigh led the way to one of the offices that they had more or less finished. The whole place was starting to come together nicely, but it was still nowhere near how they wanted it. That would take a long time. But, they couldn’t devote all their time to it. The boys had to get back to their training and they had to work around that schedule. It wasn’t easy but they were making do.

Closing the door behind them, Kayleigh gestured for them all to sit down. “Sorry, we’re still in the process of cleaning the place up.”

Back in her human days, Patrick would have been just the type of guy that she would have gone for. Rough and rugged, with his stubble, muscles and tattoos all wrapped up in biker leathers, even though she knew that he had driven the boys here in a car. He was as hot as sin. He smouldered. It was no wonder the women in his pack fell over themselves to be near him, even though he was taken, that didn’t stop them from wanting him.

Strangely enough, her husband in her human life hadn’t been that type at all. He’d been very clean cut.

As they sat down, Kayleigh had to bite back a smile. They boys looked just like Patrick. In a way, the whole pack had a similar look to them. They were less regimented and formal than the Sons, with their own particular blend of raw power and strength that emanated from each of them.

The younger of the two was Rees and he was only sixteen. She couldn’t believe it when Kelton told her. He was too young to be getting involved in this kind of life, but there was nothing they could do about it now. Sure, Aisline was also sixteen but she had a maturity about her that helped her come to grasps with everything this life entailed. Rees looked very eager and it was clear that he couldn’t wait to get stuck in. He seemed a very likeable kid and Kayleigh didn’t doubt that he would find his place here quickly. He had that cheeky-chappy quality to him. A joker. She could already tell that he would be easy to get along with.

Rees was a cute kid, still young looking despite his height and size, and his tousled brown hair seemed to grow out from all directions, untamed like the animal within.

The older one, eighteen year old Caleb, looked very unhappy about the whole situation. Brooding dark eyes and pouting full lips, she could tell straight away that this one had a hell of a temper and would be hard to tame. It was obvious that he resented this strange turn of events and probably wouldn’t find the adjustment as easy as his younger brother.

Kayleigh knew that it wasn’t going to be easy for either of the boys. This was a brand new world that they were stepping into. Neither of them had any contact with vampires before today. This was unknown territory for them. It was sure to be a heck of a change and a culture shock to them. She would be there for them, as much as they would allow anyway.

She was already thinking through who would be able to help them out and what they could do to make them feel more at ease. It was all she could think about since Kelton had first told her about this. The kids weren’t the only ones that were walking into a new situation. Sure, she’d been there to help Aisline through the transition, but this was going to be different. These boys were going to have a different set of challenges to face and Kayleigh wasn’t sure that she would be the best person to deal with that.

Luckily, Kelton had already decided to take a personal interest in Caleb and had set Master Warrior Verynai as a mentor for the younger Rees. At first, Kayleigh had thought that was a really bad idea. She loved Verynai as a friend, but he was one hell of a scary looking dude and she didn’t want to frighten the living daylights out of the kid from day one. But, as Kelton said, Verynai had all the qualities that the boy needed to learn and honestly, she didn’t think this menacing appearance would freak Rees out at all now that she’d met him. He’d probably find the badass look awesome as opposed to intimidating.

The shifter pack was close. Each and every member of the pack was classed as family. They took the meaning of ‘family bond’ to a whole new level. It was unique and one that was not widely understood. She had heard the rumours herself, of incest and the suchlike, but she wasn’t narrow minded enough to believe any of it. Kelton had explained to her what the bond of the pack meant and there was nothing incestuous about it.

Kayleigh thought about the closeness of the pack, and how the boys had been wrenched from that. They were going from living in a close knit community where everyone knew each other and looked out for one another, to come to this place of strangers. She didn’t envy them and knew that it was going to take some time for them to settle in. Everyone was going to have to work together to help them out as much as they could. This was going to be quite a test for the other trainees as well.

“Do you have any questions you’d like to ask while we’re waiting for Kelton?” Kayleigh directed the question primarily to Patrick. He was sat watching the boys with an eagle eye. She could see the concern clearly etched on his face. This wasn’t going to be easy for him, either. He was entrusting two members of his pack to a group of people that he barely knew. Sure, he knew Kelton, but there was more to it than that.

“When can we start fighting?” Rees asked immediately with a cheeky grin.

Kayleigh chuckled softly at his enthusiasm. Patrick rolled his eyes. She guessed that this was a kid that would always be overflowing with energy and enthusiasm. But, at least he looked like he was going to enjoy this journey. “We thought that we’d give you a little time to adjust to your new surroundings before you start training. As soon as Master Warrior Kelton thinks you’re ready, you’ll be the first to know.”

“I’m ready now!”

“The warriors are the ones that will tell you when you’re ready, so pipe down.” Patrick said in a tone that clearly meant for Rees to rein it in and calm down. He turned back to Kayleigh, “I’m sorry. He thinks this is one big adventure.”

“Don’t even apologise. There’s no need. It’s good to see that he’s ready and willing to learn. This is a big thing for both of them and it’s good to see he’s ready to embrace it.” She glanced over at Caleb who was slouched down in his chair, scowling.

“Do you have any questions for me, Caleb?”

He snorted.

“You know that you can ask me anything. I’ll try to answer you as honestly as I can, and if I don’t know the answer, we’ll find someone that does.” She wanted them both to trust her. Her mentorship was a steep learning curve for the pair of them and she hoped that she would be better equipped to help out this time around. With the boys, she knew that it was the other warriors and trainees that were going to be doing more for them, but she wanted to be there if they needed her.

Caleb narrowed his eyes a little. “Yeah. I have a question for you. How the fuck did this happen?” he stabbed a finger at his temple. “Why us?”

“Caleb!” Patrick roared.

Kayleigh shook her head and held up a hand to stop him from berating the boy further. “I can understand his anger.”

“But he knows better than to swear at a lady.” Patrick glared at Caleb until he hung his head and muttered, ‘sorry’.

“Forget about it.” Kayleigh replied graciously. “As long as it doesn’t happen again, we’re all good. In answer to your question, we actually don’t know. There is some kind of unknown magic that can’t be explained. When a Lamia Matris leader dies, the magic comes to life. Centuries ago, when the leader died, the warrior mark appeared on several Matris male civilians. There was a big uproar. As I am sure you can understand, once you receive the mark, there is no getting away from it. The call to fight is too strong.” She took in a deep breath. “This time, when our leader died, the mark appeared on our first ever female warrior of our race. No one else has received the mark. Until you two.”

She could tell that it still didn’t really make much sense to them, but Caleb didn’t call bullshit. Rees was nodding along with her explanation, but Caleb didn’t seem to wholly care. He’d only asked the question to be controversial.

He was an angry kid. Not that Kayleigh could blame him for that. She had been through an immense change in her life herself and could understand the flair of emotions that ran through his head.

There came a swift knock on the door and Kelton walked in, looking harassed. Patrick had guessed right that he had been caught up on the phone to the council. They were a bunch of pencil pushing mindless stiffs that knew nothing about the real world. They were safely ensconced behind their desks, away from anything that could hurt them and all they could do was pick fault with everything that the warriors did. It infuriated the hell out of Kelton and he tried to deal with them as little as possible.

It was another reason that he refused to take up their leadership offer. He wasn’t adverse to the idea of responsibility, but Kelton couldn’t stand the thought of having to answer to the council over his every decision.

Trying to straighten out his frown, Kelton crossed the office to shake hands firstly with Patrick and then turned to the boys. “I am Master Warrior Kelton, the head of the Sons of Satrina warriors and academy.”

“Wow.” Rees whispered, looking like an awestruck kid. Caleb made no comment whatsoever.

“Thank you for all your help with this, Kelton. You know how much I appreciate it.” Patrick said.

“No problem. We’re all going to be working together on this.” Kelton turned to the boys once again. “I think that we should start off by showing you your new rooms. It’s getting late for you and I think that we should tackle this situation with clear heads tomorrow. It’ll take you some time to start working on a nocturnal schedule, so we might as well make a good start.”

“Sure! Sounds great!” Rees was still bursting with enthusiasm and it seemed doubtful that he’d be getting any sleep tonight anyway. Kelton saw that as a good thing. The boy was eager and ready to learn their ways.

“I’ll call you tomorrow to see how you’re both settling in.” Patrick said to them.

Kelton nodded and motioned for the boys to follow him. There wasn’t much point in hanging around. It was getting late for the boys and, although they would have to get used to living on a new schedule, they would need a little time to adjust to everything. Kelton wasn’t unreasonable about that.

Patrick watched as the three of them walked out of the office. That was it. It was done. There was no more that he could do for them. He’d handed them over to the vamps. They were in Kelton’s hands now. He was just thankful that he was entrusting his young pack members to a man he liked and trusted. Kelton was one of the good guys and Patrick knew that he would do his best by them.

That wasn’t necessarily what was bothering Patrick, though. Kelton couldn’t always be there for them twenty four/seven. He didn’t expect him to be. Hell, the man was the head of the entire place and the warriors at large. He wasn’t there to be a babysitter. It was the other trainees that he was concerned about. Rees was so young and trusting and Caleb was so hostile. He was concerned about the reaction that they’d both receive.

After saying his goodbyes to Kayleigh, Patrick drove back to his home. He knew that although it was close to morning, he’d never be able to get any sleep now. The pack would all want to know what had happened and how the boys were and he didn’t want to have to face the swarm of people coming at him. Patrick knew that they were worried about sending their boys off to the Sons, but it was different for him. He felt like he had failed them as their Alpha.