Butterfly Rising

Chapter Two

"We need to have a talk about the pack house. As you all know, this living arrangement has been with the wolves for... centuries. But I'll be honest, it's extremely outdated."

Rory's voice booms across the room. Other pack members like our beta and their command listen attentively as he speaks. Then we have two pack civilians who hold no authority. They all watch him seriously, taking all of his words to heart. As this is my first meeting in ages, I can't believe how much Rory has grown. And it's all passed by me.

I sit between both Alexei and Rory, though he's standing while giving his proposal. My heart beats faster as I watch him. Proud is the only thing I can detect within my emotions right now.

"Werewolves have always been family oriented. That's true, but I truly believe we're outgrowing the old system of living in one big house," he says, pursing his lips.

"What exactly are you saying?" one of the non-authoritative members asks. She leans forward, placing her forearms on the table and pressing her hands together. She's an older woman and a mother of four.

Rory licks his lips. "I'm saying it might be time to tear down the packhouse. Rather than having it, we can build a neighborhood for pack members only."

Noises of disbelief wrack the room. When I look around, everyone is doing the same. I meet eyes with Elijah, our beta, for a moment and he nods and smiles. It's an action of reassurance. I can just hear him telling me that Rory's fine and to let him do his thing.

"Take away the pack house?" our third, Cal, repeats. Being a vampire, I'm sure his previous living arrangements had been different from ours. At least he doesn't sound against the idea. I can tell he just wants more clarification.

Rory nods and begins his spiel.

Huge pack houses have been the norm for werewolves for... all of time really. It's always been a usual thing for everyone to live together, raise each other, and be close like one huge family. I can see how most of the older folks would find this as some type of blasphemy, but I'm in support of my mate. As the pack grows, it becomes extremely hard to maintain this huge house. Not only do we continuously have to build upon it when families grow, the privacy is practically nonexistent.

"We all know that this place is extremely hard to maintain. Plus, we don't have the privacy we each need. Even you guys have to admit that," Rory says, placing his hands behind his head. It's a gesture which he's developed recently as a way to calm his nerves. "If we build around and give everyone their own individual homes, I think it would really boost the way we live."

"Okay, but why-"

They're cut off as the room shakes heavily. We look around at each other in surprise, silently wondering what that was. Earthquakes just don't happen in Georgia. No matter how much the world changes, Georgia just doesn't have earthquakes.

I stand on my feet and walk to the window to take a look outside. Anyone who's out there looks just as confused as we do with bewildered looks on their faces and furrowed eyebrows. As I continue watching, they begin speaking to each other and someone points to something. Not being able to see where they're heading, I make my way out of the office.

"Sophia-Grace?" Alexei calls out. To that, I motion her, and everyone, to follow me out.

We bound down the stairs quickly and out the front door. I follow the last person as they lightly jog to where everyone is. When we make it, the sight is one that both terrifies and confuses me. On the floor of our land is now a fissure. It stretches far from both ends.

Pushing past everyone, I step closer to take a look. My pack members try to stop me, telling me to not get too close and to be careful. But I have to see just how far down this goes. There are children in the pack who naturally like to get into things. Their mischievous will be a huge problem if they wander over to this terrain issue.

I look down to see it's not too big. With the surface open, further down is much too closed and small for anyone to slip down. Blowing out a breath, I turn to everyone and nod my head.

"I have no idea what happened. You guys know this has never happened before. For now, let's monitor this to make sure it doesn't open more, I guess," I tell them, moving my eyes across everyone present. "Please try to keep your children away. While they won't slip down, I'm sure a twisted ankle is more than likely if anyone plays around here."

"Yes, Luna," everyone chimes simultaneously. They then scurry inside to tell their friends and families about the mess that has occurred just now.

The only people to remain are those on the pack committee, as they should. If the leaders of this pack have not dismissed them, they shouldn't go anywhere. Truthfully, this can also be considered an emergency. There's obviously something strange that has just happened and the only thing we can do is study the crack and make calls.

"Alright," Cal mumbles as he stares at the ground. His hands are on his hips as he squats down to get a closer look. "We should start making some calls."

Next to me, Rory nods his head. "I can't imagine that our territory is the only place to have felt that. I mean... we can't even see where the fissure ends. So, maybe Cal and Alexei can take care of checking with the vampires while the rest of us get to calling the packs all around Georgia."

Once they're done, we all make our ways back to the packhouse. Each and every one of us gets to work on making those calls. While Alexei and Cal make their way through all the covens, the wolves and I break up who we'll call. Rory and I will take the northern packs while Elijah and the other will take the south.

Just like that, hours pass. By the time we've finished, it's clear to see that the fissure is throughout the whole state. There's a high probability that it's not just Georgia, though we didn't bother to ask if anyone knew if anywhere else is experiencing this.

When we reconvene, I stand at the head of the large cherry wood table. "So, it's clear that this fissure is a statewide issue. Naturally, we all experienced the quake at the same time and that's when it formed. Every single pack Rory and I called said they could also see a fissure in their parts. But it seems like multiple formed rather than one continuous one throughout the state."

"The covens as well," Alexei says. "Though they don't seem quite that worried about it. It could be that we're overreacting."

I did think about that for a split second. But no matter how much I look at it, it's weird.

"Then we'll table it for now." I sigh and take a seat, rubbing my forehead. I don't exactly want to forget what happened, but for me, it won't be out of sight or mind. "Let's continue with our discussion from earlier. Rory?"