#12 The Triplets of Emerald Forest

Griffin

For once in my life, being the youngest was going to serve me well and I wasn’t about to let go of that advantage. Ric and Gabe always made me sit in the back seat and now, all of the sudden, they wanted to change that? I didn’t think so. I pulled Harlow into my lap and ran my fingers soothingly through her hair.

“If she wakes up to you doing that she’s going to freak out.” Ric said, turning around in his seat to watch me.

“She’s going to freak out regardless.” I snapped back without looking away from my adorable mate’s face.

“She won’t wake up for hours anyway.” Gabe said,

“Hours?” I was suddenly concerned about how much sedative he gave Harlow.

“At least eight hours according to Dr. Moreson.” Gabe replied.

“You had Moreson make up the sedative? Can he even still see the numbers on the syringe?” I squeaked. Gabe shook his head at me in the rearview mirror.

“We want her to sleep through the trip, right?” Gabe grumbled.

“Yeah, the trip, not the entire day.” I mumbled back.

“Where is she going to stay?” Ric asked, ignoring our argument.

“I said on our floor.” Gabe hated repeating himself almost as much as he hated being called by one of our names.

“Which room specifically?” Ric sighed.

“All the rooms are exactly the same besides our suites and the master suite.” Gabe said,

We had designed the new packhouse as an oasis for the ranked families. In the past, each of the ranked families had their own modest house, which worked fine for the size of our pack then. But, with the three of us, we needed more space. So, we decided to construct a grand four story packhouse mansion for us, the Beta, and the Gamma families.

The second floor housed the three Beta families in three separate suites that included a master suite for the Beta and their mate, a full kitchen, living room, and four guest rooms for their future children. The third floor was for the Gamma along with visiting ranked members. The Gamma had a suite for him and his mate, a kitchen, living room, and four bedrooms as well. Separated from the Gamma’s apartment were several extra bedrooms for high ranking visitors.

The top floor had three master suites for my brothers and I which included a bedroom, office, and bathroom. Then, there was an extra large suite for the three of us to share with our mate that included the same amenities. There were four bedrooms for our future children, 3 separate living areas, and a small kitchen.

The first floor of the packhouse had a kitchen, dining room, living room, multimedia room, and three Alpha offices, three Beta offices, a Gamma office, and a Luna office for our official business. Larger meetings and gatherings of the minds were held at the office building in the center of the packgrounds.

“She should get the master suite while we all stay in our rooms.” I replied after a few moments of silence.

“I agree. She deserves the best and we’ll all move in there eventually anyway.” Ric nodded his head.

“It’s settled then. We’ll send some of the girls to her apartment later today to pack up some of her stuff.” Gabe agreed.

“Shit, I didn’t even think about that.” I immediately felt guilty about kidnapping our mate all over again.

“We’ll just buy her whatever she wants.” Ric shrugged casually.

“Oh sure, she’ll love that.” I scoffed.

“She’s a woman.” Ric looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes on me.

“Genius.” I shook my head.

“I think it’ll be a while before she can leave the packhouse. She’ll try to run away or call the police.” Gabe said,

“This just gets better and better.” I muttered.

“We didn’t have a choice, Griffin.” Gabe sighed loudly.

“Didn’t we?”

No one will ever be able to convince me that we didn’t have a better option than kidnapping our mate.

It took us almost two hours to reach Emerald Forest’s territory, which was about 45 minutes from the nearest town of Stafford. We waved to the guards at the front gate and continued down the long, stone driveway that weaved through the grounds. The road circled around the center of the grounds creating a sort of island for the office building, community center, hospital, and school house, and snaked through the individual cabins, cottages, and single family homes. A direct route took us straight to the packhouse tucked into a grove of trees.

Both SUVs pulled up in front of the wrap-around southern porch and plantation style front steps. Gabe and Ric hopped out of the car and opened the door to the back seat. I handed Harlow out to Ric and followed after them.

“Everything okay?” Callie, my Beta, asked as she ran up to me.

“I’m still pissed about this idea and I guarantee you that it’s going to blow up in our faces.” I grumbled.

“I have to say, even I’m a little skeptical.” Cambridge, Gabe’s Beta, appeared at my other side.

He was usually halfway up Gabe’s ass and never disagreed with his Alpha, so I was surprised by his confession.

“You all are no fun.” Ambrose, who was Ric’s Beta and a complete nutcase, laughed mischievously as he ran between us and my brothers.

“Callie, I need you to take some of the girls and head back over to Harlow’s house to pack a few bags for her.” I said, ignoring Ambrose.

“Sure, I’ll take Matti, Annie, and Kori.” Callie agreed, naming the mates of the other two Betas and the Gamma.

“Just make sure you’re all back in a few hours. I want you here when Harlow wakes up, especially Annie and Kori since they’re humans, too. Oh, and Nova.” Gabe called over his shoulder as we walked towards the packhouse elevator.

“Good idea.” I agreed.

“You got it. We’ll go now.” Callie said before disappearing.

“Cam, go get Waylon.” Ric instructed.

The elevator doors opened and the three of us plus Harlow and Ambrose stepped inside. Cam ran off to find the Gamma, Waylon and would meet us upstairs in a minute.

The elevator ride was smooth and quick. It made a dinging sound and then the doors opened to a comfortable looking living room and small kitchen combo. The kitchen had only the essentials and a small circular table while the living room had an oversized sectional sofa and large TV.

Moving down the hallway, there were two doors. One opened up to a large empty space with several doors around the perimeter. There were six doors, three on each side of the room. Two of the three doors on either side contained identical bedrooms while the third door led to a full sized Jack and Jill bathroom. These were the rooms for our future children and the large room would be utilized as a playroom and lounge area as they grew up.

The second door down the hall opened up to our rooms. Again, there was an empty multipurpose room that we currently had set up as a movie room. On the left hand side were three doors for each of our three master suites, and on the wall to the right was a single door that led to our shared suite. Gabe opened up that door and Ric walked inside with our mate in his arms.

In the center of the room was a massive California King sized bed, big enough to hold all four of us. I quickly pulled back the dark gray comforter so Ric could lay Harlow down on the soft sheets. He was careful not to disturb her too much and tucked her in. We all stood around the bed staring at her for a minute before we realized how creepy that was.

“Let’s go.” Gabe said and we followed him out of the room.

Ambrose, Cam, and Waylon were waiting for us in our living room.

“You found the Luna?” Waylon asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, her name is Harlow and she’s sleeping.” Gabe explained.

“She’s sedated.” I corrected him.

“I can’t believe you kidnapped the Luna.” Waylon frowned.

“Goddess, not you, too.” Ric grumbled.

“What now?” Cambridge asked, looking between the three of us.

“We wait for her to wake up.” I said it like it was obvious.

“No offense, Griff, but if you’re all here staring at her when she wakes up she’s going to completely lose it.” Ambrose spoke bluntly, per usual.

“He’s not wrong.” Ric agreed but he didn’t look happy about it.

“What do you suggest then?” I snapped.

“I said it before, I think the ladies should be here for her when she wakes up. We should give her some space at the beginning.” Gabe suggested.

“I don’t like the idea of being away from her.” I mumbled.

“I don’t either, but I want to do what’s best for her. We can just wait out here.” Ric said,

“Oh now you wanna do what’s best for her?” I grumbled. Ric glared at me but Gave spoke up before he could say anything,

“If we wait out here we won’t be able to stop ourselves from storming in there the second she’s awake. We need to be downstairs.” Gabe shook his head.

“Yeah, we have zero self control right now.” I nodded in agreement.

“Fine, we’ll wait downstairs but Waylon has to stay up here as her guard.” Ric grumbled, looking very upset with this idea.

“Of course I’ll guard the Luna.” Waylon nodded quickly.

I had the feeling that we wouldn’t have been able to pull him away from the floor even if we wanted to. He was finally able to do his Goddess given duty of protecting our Luna.

Cam and Ambrose started walking towards the door, pausing when they realized we weren’t following them. Instead, we were staring at Harlow’s bedroom door. I heard them sigh and then suddenly our Betas were dragging us through the door and all the way to the elevator.