Page 9 of The Stars of the Pack

She took it eagerly, grinning like she was a little girl again and approached the pine tree, glancing up and swallowing. “I hope this is okay,” she told the ancient being. She took one of the lower branches and carefully slipped the bauble on it, slowly letting go and taking a step back.

Ray hadn’t stopped hearing the song since the previous day, but now he closed his eyes and focused on it. There was nothing different about, except... “Oh.”

“What is it?”

Ray laughed, shaking his head. “It’s like... it’s a bird coming to nest on it. It likes to be chosen.”

Marisa snorted, but then she laughed too. “Are the other trees gonna get jealous then?”

“I guess we better take turns with this too,” Ray told her with a shrug, but he couldn’t really imagine it. Each tree was enough of an individual to care about its own rootsfirst,but being planted firmly down into mother earth, they had no notion that another’s blessing was to their detriment. They knew it all came back, whatever rain they drank going deep into the network, any excess they discarded being taken by a neighbour in need—they wouldn’t take more than they needed, they had no concept of it, and they wouldn’t take less, either. It was so simple and Ray could barely grasp it with his rational mind, so used the games humans played. “Want to get the rest of the decorations out here?”

***

THEY DIDN’T JUST GETthe decorations, of course, but the rest of thepack. Gabriel and Alec had just got back from a trip to Durham, which wasn’t even that far but had somehow turned into an overnight stay. Ray suspected it’d been a date as well as a present buying expedition, but there was no time to get Alec alone to ask.

“I’m getting the kids,” he told them both as soon as the car doors opened. “Can you help Marisa with the decorations? She said they were in the beta wing’s storage area.”

“Decorations?” Gabriel asked, clearly confused.

Ray nodded, slowing down just enough to say, “For the tree I have found.”

He was also all too aware that he needed to explain the whole thing with the trees to them all, not just Marisa, but that called for a pack meeting and this was meant to be fun. Maybe they couldfeelit first, without any need for words.

They’d built a main house first and then added an extension when Marisa and Irina had come, later inviting more betas to join. But as the kids had got older and they’d separated them to give each of them their own bed, the original nursery in the beta wing was now mostly used for lessons—you couldn’t send werewolf children to a human school before they understood their very nature was a secret, and it was important to have a dedicated space so they understood the work was important.

At this time of day, they were most likely to be in their playroom in the main house or the living room where the television was. Today, Ray didn’t need to wonder or even focus his hearing, he knew at once it was the playroom they’d made out of Sergi’s old bedroom—Iesu’s original room had worse light and they’d left the best option for the kids. It wasn’t that big, the five, Cali and whoever was keeping an eye on them were a little bit cramped, but it was worth it to keep their toys somewhat away from under adult feet. Besides, they all spent a lot of time in fur running through the whole house and in warmer months the grass outside.

“Hey, Ray,” Sergi was already looking his way from where he sat on the carpeted floor, he must have heard him coming down the corridor.

“Hey,” Ray smiled at him, a little stiff with the excess energy he was carrying. At the sound of his voice, the five glanced up from their games, only one of them was in fur—Jamie gnawing at a huge lamb shoulder bone that someone had obviously let him keep after lunch. Ray shook his head, it wasn’t worth nagging about that Sergi right now. “Where’s Cali?”

“Toilet with Kaylee,” his alpha told him. He hadn’t moved, but he was watching Ray closely. “Everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ray said at once, his smile expanding without him meaning too. “Just excited,” he explained. “I found us a tree to decorate!”

Sergi hesitated. “Did you get it in town yesterday?” he asked at last.

He had, hadn’t he? Or at least the bravery to open his eyes to see what he’d had all along. But before he could find words for Sergi, he felt a tug at his trouser leg.

“Ray?” Maria was standing at his feet, blue eyes wide and arms extended for a pickup.

He swallowed, a little twist of regret taking over his mouth. “I can’t right now, sweetheart, I’m carrying the babies, remember?” He offered a hand instead. “Let’s get your coat and we can go outside, I have a surprise for you all.”

The word got them all going, including Sergi, to whom Ray could only mouth ‘Later’ from across the room. His alpha fell a little behind since he had to catch Jamie to get him to shift and back into clothes. They met Kaylee in the corridor and Ray pointed his head to the front of the house. “We are going out; I’ve found a tree.”

To her credit, she didn’t question his strange statement, following with Cali snuggled in her arms and then helping him sort out shoes and coats.

By the time he made it back to where he could see the tree, he saw Marisa and Gabriel were distributing the boxes around the tree. Alec was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Josh for that matter. No one was going to miss out on this ritual, but even if they were unlikely to get a cold, he didn’t want to keep the children out too long either.

He’d just closed his eyes to reach for all his missing pack members when he got a nudge from Josh and turned around. Yousuf, Hugo and Josh were carrying atable(the not so large one from the betas kitchenette) and Alec wasn’t far behind with what looked like a picnic basket.

Ray gawked at them “What...?”

“Is here good, Ray?” Yousuf asked, way too earnest still, pointing at the ground a couple feet away from the tree with his chin.

Before Ray could answer, Josh was already instructing them to step back further to leave room for them to move around.

***

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