A Birth day

Jack looked at the large dark brown bird sitting in front of them next to Lucian. " wow, he's magnificent, his plumage is looking good " he looked to Lucian and spoke to him "You take care of him?" he asked and Lucian nodded.

"mostly he takes care of himself, but I make sure he's healthy and exercised " he told Jack who walked over to Rock "Play nice" he said to Rock who looked at him and rolled his eyes before he spoke to Kate as Jack stroked his head feathers gently. Lucian looked at Kate but said nothing about what she had told Jack. Seeing her look he held up his hands. "Hey, none of my business I wasn't even listening" he said with a smirk to her." thanks for the name, Gabe and Moira, I'll stop by on my way home."

Jack heard Kate and listened " I'll grab afew men and head up right away." he said and headed down to the guard house his gate told Lucian he was a man on a mission.

"hope thats not trouble?" he asked as Rock gave a call and took off " okay hes done for the day." Lucian said and chuckled watching Rock fly of to where ever he goes.

"There's an old saying that has always seemed to hold true for us," Kate said to Lucian. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. We did not set out to make friends with Fenrir, and I don't know if he actually makes friends as such. Still, Fenrir hates James and so do we. We have helped defend Fenrir's pack because there are so many women and children in it. And he has helped defend us from James. They came to us a couple weeks ago because someone had poisoned their food supplies. Several of them damned near died. We brought them here so we could try to safe them, but then the winter weather set in before they had all recovered, so they're still recovering in a couple of longhouses we have in the far northwestern corner of the estate. Its' rugged and dangerous up there. We have, I suppose, what Robert would call an uneasy truce with them, but we're not about to let someone just come and pick them off either. I think it could be serious trouble if we have some assassins on our grounds who have come to try to eliminate Fenrir. Understand, Fenrir is old now. So far as Robert knows, he's one of the first werewolves in our recorded history to make it to damned near 80 years old. Lycanthropy is brutal on the human body, so for anyone to make it that far, its a miracle all its own. Even so, Fenrir is the only person on the planet that has any ability at all to influence James's behaviors. Angus's grandfather he's just plain afraid of, and for good reason, but Fenrir frightens James right down to his core. If I had to guess, I'd say it was either James or Tom that would have motive to try to take out Fenrir."

Lucian listened to Kate and nodded " ministry was a tissy when he disapeard, dropped off the face of the earth they thought he was dead, guess they were wrong but don't worry Im not about to tell them where he is, none of my busines but..I would like to help" he asked " only if you and Robert think it would be okay" he saw Jack return with several men and he noded to Kate " be back in a tick" he said Jack just looked at Kate for confermation as Lucian moved to stand with Jack.

Once at the camp Jack moved quickly casting a charm to hide the camp and lucian bolstered it. Several of the men moved to protect the boarder of the camp. Lucian folowed Jack as he walked to a tent. Pausing as Jack turned to face him. " do not talk unless he talks to you and be respectful." jack said.

"your the boss" Lucian said smirking again. They both entered the tent and Jack walked infront of him.

"you have men headed your way, hunters" he said " we've hid the camp and I have stationed men around the perimiter, half your pack are in no state to fight, but we are, this is Lucian he's a freind of Roberts and is willing to help."

"Certainly," Kate nodded. "Jack, I'll go find Edward. I'm sure he'll want to go help if he can." When they left, she headed to the duplex. She went to Edward's side. Edward had just come back from going to Tuscany to bring the girls home so they could have some time with family. The moment Edward heard there could be intruders on the grounds, he was on his feet, getting his coat and his axe.

"Gear up, Boy," Edward called over to Angus. "You're not done yet today."

"Well, shit," Angus sighed. He had just put the last of his late lunch into his mouth when Edward called. The girls were getting their winter coats on. Marcus got up to get his coat on too.

"Where are you two going?" Angus asked the girls.

"Kate told Edward there are hunters coming for our pack" Anise said. "We're going."

"This isn't the time," Angus said. "We don't know how anyone knows your pack is even here. Something is seriously wrong. You wait here, and if I need you, I'll send for you. Understand?" They were angry with him, and they tried to argue with him. He scowled at them. "I do not have time to debate this. Stay here. That's final." He looked at Edward and Marcus. "We have to go. Ru, warn Jessie somehow. We don't know how they're finding the pack. If its some sort of enchantment to detect werewolves, then Jessie and Cris could be in danger. Get them word somehow to protect themselves til we get the grounds cleared, would you, please? And don't let anyone go far from the house until we know what we're dealing with."

"I thought I smelled something strange on the wind a few minutes ago," Fenrir said. He looked at Lucian and nodded slightly. Fenrir could tell immediately this was an auror. Aurors always looked the same, and he could pick this one out, he believed, in a crowd of just about any size. Still, if they vouched for him, Fenrir wasn't going to take the time to argue about his presence. "Most of my pack is unable to fight, if we're being honest about it. I'll go make sure everyone's here and give some instructions. If any of us can join you, we will."

Angus and Marcus and Edward dressed for more bitter cold and headed out towards the northwest sector to join Jack and Lucian and any others Jack had rustled up.

Ruby heard Kate and nodded she looked to the girls when they tried to argue about going with " you need to stay here, so they can fight and protect your pack without worry" she said and looked at Angus " be safe" she said with a smile " Aria looked to Marcus and smiled just as she finished Jessie and Chris walked in.

"Jack got one f the grounds men to let us know whats going on so we thought it best to come over here since Yu went to the camp to help." he said letting Chris go to a low coffee table and start drawing.

"I'll stay as backup , anything goes wrong we'll get to the main house" she reasured him " but please stay safe, bust some balls" she said and smiled at him. Jack looked at Fenrir and nodded " yeah about ten men , unwashed and stinking up the air" he added as he saw Edwrad, Marcus Yu and Angus arrive. " re-enforcements " Jack said.

"I'm glad you're here," Angus told Jessie. "You all stay safe. I don't have a good feeling about this because nobody should know the pack is here. We need to find who this is and how they knew the pack was here at all. If they have men that double back and come here, you have a couple options, off the top of my head. One--the main house. And two, you could port over to Tuscany. But by all means, keep yourselves safe." He trusted Ruby and Jessie and Aria to be able to keep everyone safe. "We'll be back," he smiled at Ruby.

They left and went up to the longhouses and caught up with Jack and his men. Fenrir saw Edward and Angus arriving.

"Only ten? We'll find them," Angus said, giving Fenrir a bit of a mischievous grin.

"Just like your granddad, aren't you?" Fenrir asked Angus.

"Damned right," Angus nodded. He turned, wanting to head out right away. Marcus didn't say a word. He just turned and followed Angus.

"We have a lot of ground to cover but we also have a lot of help too," Edward said. "I think we should split up in pairs, so long as we have a couple of rules. Break up into pairs, stay within eyesight of your partner, and be observant. You aren't out to try to catch ten people by yourself. We're only out to find them. When you do find them, use your medallions and signal, and we'll come right to you. We'll capture them together. And one more thing--be damned careful. We don't want to lose anyone. Choose a partner and fan out."

Ruby listened to Angus as did Jessie as he spoke of their options if they were to be attacked. She walked over to him and kissed him as she smiled to him" see you when you come home" she said then moved back to Caprice and Jessie watching as he headed out with Marcus. " are you not worried about Marcus?" she asked Aria who looked up at her while she held Diamond and chuckled.

"nope, he's a big boy and can take care of himself, he's trained to do this and so much more." she said smiling as she held Diamond and patted her back before standing " this one needs changing " she said and headed up to the nursery. Jack chuckled as Angus spoke to Fenrir and teased him over the number.

"yep, easy pickings, you told the others to watch their backs I take it?" Jack asked Marcus as he and Yu stood with him.

"Angus gave them a couple of ideas in case they had to leave the duplex," Marcus said. "He brought up a very good point with them, though. Unless James just plain guessed that the pack would still be here, nobody should have known the pack was here at all, much less where to find them on the estate. He's a bit hypervigilant about this one, and maybe he's right to be." He saw Angus decide to head north.

"Clive, go with that one," Fenrir spoke to an extremely tall young ginger man, gesturing towards Edward. "Don't be stupid, and he probably will let you live." The silent young man frowned a moment at Fenrir, not sure he liked the odds that maybe he would live and maybe not. Still, he walked over to Edward, and Marcus took note that Clive stood at least seven or eight inches taller than Edward's 6'5"

"Damn," Marcus told Jack softly. "Do I really want to see what he's like when he transforms? I presume he wouldn't be the first one I ever met that shrank, would he?" He teased. "Ah, well, I'd better go catch up with Angus since Robert wouldn't like it if Angus got eaten. Be careful, you guys." He turned and headed north to find Angus.

Angus and Marcus went quite a distance, and Angus was seeing little tufts of fur. Some was gray, and some was charcoal colored or plain black. Marcus was helping him track when there were some signs. Edward and Clive were working silently for the first ten minutes or so until Edward broke the ice with the lad, telling him that so long as Clive didn't transform and attack him, Edward had no need to slay him just for the practice value of it.

Angus and Marcus went as far north as the cliffs would let them go, then Angus saw some paw prints in the snow. Some looked like wolves, and some looked like something else. Not werewolf, not man. it was weird. Those prints went northwest towards a tall rocky outcropping in the farthest northwest point of the estate.

"What the heck are those prints?" Marcus asked. "Not a wolf, and not a werewolf."

"I dunno," Angus shrugged. "Maybe a hybrid of some sort? I suppose we'll find out if we catch up with it."

"Well, there isn't much more of the estate this way. We're about to run out of ground," Marcus said.

"Nothing but rock. Rock going straight up. We don't get this far hardly ever because the very corner of the estate is just solid rock," Angus said. "We'll have to run into whatever it is, because it'll have to double back really soon now."

"We couldn't hope for just a lost dog, could we?" Marcus teased.

Jack heard Marcus and chuckled " he's just a pup" Jack said " if I'm a runt as Fenrir calls me and James then he's not that tall" he added with a wink. Jack watched as Clive, Lucian and Edward with Angus all walked away leaving Yu and himself with Fenrir in the camp with Lucians men surrounding the camp and facing outward.

Lucian stayed back but hearing Edward thought about what Angus had said earlier " lends credence to the theory that you have a mole in the organisation." he said as they walked staying back while the others tracked the men until they came to a rock wall " hum more climbing?" he asked looking up at it " some good hand and foot holds" he then looked down and winced " but not wanting to be skewered by those rocks I'll defer to your choice." he added.

"We can go up if there's really a need to do it," Edward said. "I didn't bring climbing gear, but I can still freehand."

"At your age?" Clive asked, surprised Edward was saying he could climb."

"Watch it, Junior," Edward teased. "Of course I can still climb. Have any of your pack been this far in this direction?"

"Our hunters have," Clive said, "but that's been before we got sick. They haven't come this far because of the winter weather."

"Interesting," Edward said, thinking and looking around.

"Why is it interesting?" Clive asked.

"Look here," Edward said, walking southwest a little. "Now. Look down. What do you see?"

"Snow."

"That isn't all you see. I see boot prints--fresh ones made since the snow storm. These are round toe boots, and I happen to know that a good many of the work crew have taken to wearing square toed work boots or western boots."

"So you're saying there's an intruder? But we knew that," Clive said.

"It's a narrow width boot that should fit a man that stands somewhere between 5'10 and 6'," Edward told him. "And that makers logo on the sole is not from a British maker. Has to be from the states or Australia since the name is an Anglo saxon name."

"Yeah, thanks, Sherlock," Clive said.

"Pay attention," Edward reprimanded. "You might learn something." Edward followed the boot prints and walked up to the rock face and looked down. "Hey, Lucian. Look. No evidence of them readying to climb. No evidence of any stakes being driven into the rock. No evidence of them even attempting to stand close enough to the rock to try to free hand it. They just walked up to the rock face and then...disappeared? That's weird. I wonder if they apparated out from this point, but that makes no sense."