The Unexpected

"I will not tell anyone. You can trust me." Madison says confidently. "I do have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"If half my blood is from you, then should I expect to wake up one day as a wolf? I don't exactly know how all that works."

Charles laughs. "My dear, I am not sure why you have not shifted. Typically, one can shift the first full moon after you turn thirteen. I take it nothing like that happened." Madison shakes her head. "Then I think it is safe to say that you will never shift. It is a dominant trait, so you are a rare treasure. As for you not knowing how things work, if you are interested, we have several books in our library here that contains the history of our people and other related information. You are more than welcome to anything here. Or if you prefer, we can discuss your questions at your pace."

"Thank you. I think I would like to read more about this and then if I have any questions, I can ask the expert." Madison smiles.

"Ok then. You let me know if anything pops up. As for now, I need to get back to my schedule. Let me introduce you to Aaron."

Charles opens his office door and escorts Madison out. In the waiting area, standing next to the angry assistant is a man dressed in a plain black suit with a white button up shirt. The top button is open as he is not wearing a tie. He is just as tall as Charles, a good six foot something, and looks like he could crush Arnold Swartzenegger.

"Aaron, this is my daughter Madison." Charles says as Madison extends her hand.

Aaron shakes her hand but clearly has a shocked expression.

"I just found out about her, well about an hour ago." Charles says as he looks at his watch. "She is going to be staying with us for a couple of weeks. I have ordered her room to be prepared, but would like for you to show her around the campus. I still have a few more meetings that I must attend, but then I will find you both. Oh, and please introduce her to the betas."

Charles turns to look at Madison "This is Aaron, my highest ranking beta. I'll explain all that to you later this afternoon. His bite is worse than his bark, but he will take good care of you. Are you comfortable with this?"

Madison nods and watches as Charles returns to his office and closes the door. Both Aaron and the angry assistant are staring at her. No one says a word.

"No I am not a wolf. At least I know I have never shifted before. And no, I did not know anything about Charles before a week ago." Madison says to try and break the uncomfortable silence.

"Well Madison, this here is Will and he is your father's personal assistant." Will nods at her but does not move to initiate a handshake. "If you're ready, I will show you around."

Aaron seems a tad hostile but he never says anything inappropriate. His face holds no smile. In fact, there isn't much of an expression at all. His speaks very monotone and offers no emotions. Conversing with a wall might be more enjoyable Madison thinks to herself.

They arrive at an office with glass doors that say "Public Affairs", Madison is glad to finally see some people besides her and Aaron. All eyes are on them as they walk through the room and head to a smaller office toward the back. Aaron walks right into someone's office without knocking or pausing. The person was on the phone but as soon as he sees Aaron, he ends his call.

The man is introduced as Roman, Rome for short, and he is apparently the second beta. Since Charles has yet to explain what that means, Madison assumes that is an elite title. She smiles and shakes his offered hand respectfully.

Rome has dark hair and eyes. He has an olive complexion and is a little shorter in structure than Aaron. What he lacks in height he more than makes up for in muscle. He is literally the widest person Madison had ever seen and it is muscle, not fat.

They barely greet one another when Aaron is already shuffling Madison out the door. Madison is following Aaron around like a lost puppy. He doesn't stop or turn back to make sure she is still with him. And he walks at a pretty quick pace. That seems rude to her, but she dismisses it as part of her well-mannered upbringing.

They leave the building and spend the next hour walking through the second main building before venturing into other parts of the campus. It would probably take days to cover the whole campus or to even meet everyone.

When they arrive back at the entrance of the second building, Charles is waiting. Madison is glad to see him after spending time with the cold Aaron. A second glance at Charles makes Madison think that he might be upset with her about something.

"Charles, are you upset with me about something?" she asks directly as she is not one to beat around the bush.

"No my dear, I could never be upset with you." Charles says and he reaches over to hug her. It was their first physical contact, yet it seemed so natural for them both. "I am angry however at someone else." Charles says as he glares at Aaron.

Madison can sense the immediate tension between the two men towering over her. The men continue staring without saying a word but as she watches them, she starts to think they might be communicating. Both their expressions change subtly in relation to one another.

"Are you two having a conversation while I am standing here?" Madison says rather loudly, drawing the men's attention. "Because that is very rude if you are."

Charles smiles at Madison proudly. "You are certainly like your mother. She was stickler for good manners. She always said that one may not have everything good in life, but they can always have good manners."

"Alpha, I still think that we should run the test." Aaron finally speaks.

Charles growls as he turns his face toward Aaron. Madison jumps as the animal sound and see that her father's eyes have now changed to an eerie yellow. His nostrils are flaring and his is clenching his hands.

Aaron bows his head and then turns it, fully exposing his neck. He waits for Charles to react as does Madison. She really does not know anything about Charles so she is hoping that he is not temperamental and moody. Maybe it's a wolf thing.

When Madison can no longer stand the silence, she says, "I take it you want me to have a paternity test." This elicits more growls from Charles.

"Yes. No offense to you, but my job is to protect the alpha. While you may not be a physical threat, you could still cause damage. I must insist on validating your ancestry." Aaron speaks boldly.

He turns to Charles "It won't cause her pain and it might explain why she did not shift. This doesn't have to be a bad thing."

Before Charles can respond, Madison does. "Fine. Let's go. I already told Charles that I would take any test he wanted. I am not here to lay claim as an heir. I just want to meet my family. He is all that I have left."

Charles puts his arm around Madison. His deep baritone voice startles her. "Beta, you should know better. Do you wish to challenge me? Because right now you are clearly going against my direct order."

"Please Charles," Madison says as she puts a hand on his chest. "I understand his concern. He cares about you. That is a good characteristic. Let's just go get this done and over with and we can get on with our lives. Aaron is not the first and he won't be the last. We can put an end to all the doubt."

Covering her tiny hand with his larger one, Charles smiles looking down at Madison. "As you wish my child."

Aaron is shocked that this small woman was able to keep his alpha from punishing his disobedience. He had been prepared for a beating. Never has his alpha ever backed down nor has he ever looked so happy. Hoping that Madison was telling the truth, Aaron leads the group over to the infirmary.

Doc York shuffles around exam room one preparing for the blood test his alpha requested. He has not worked on a human since his school days, so he is somewhat excited. There is not much difference. In fact the biggest difference is the rate at which wolves heal.

The pretty woman sitting on his exam table does not look even remotely like the alpha, at least in the doctor's opinion. He never met her mother, who is actually a legend these days. Most of the people living on the campus were not around to see their alpha in love. There are pictures of her in his office and he has mentioned her many times, yet very few of the pack have ever seen the big man's softer side.

Drawing the blood takes no time at all. The doctor promises that he will have the results by tomorrow. Charles orders Doc to let him know immediately and only him. He is not to tell anyone else the results. In fact, he prefers that the results are given to him sealed where even the doctor does not see them first.

After dismissing Aaron, Charles escorts Madison outside where a shiny black Rolls Royce is sitting. He asks her if she needs to get anything from a hotel. She shakes her head and tells him that she really didn't bring anything with her. She travels light and only came with the pack on her back.

They both get in the Rolls as Charles says they will go to his living quarters. He explains that since he is the alpha of the pack, his home is the original house from back when the property was a farm. Madison admits to having done some research of Logan Square because she needed the intel before she arrived.

The car comes to a stop in front of huge house. Madison knew what it looked like from published photos, yet it seemed so much bigger in person. She was too busy gawking to notice Charles leaning against the car watching her. He was just enjoying seeing all her emotions and reactions. She reminded him so much of Marilyn.

They walked through several rooms of the house with Charles pointing out various items of interest (things like the Wii, fountain drink area, best seat for watching movies etc.). Madison tried to take it all in. There was so much happening all at once. She was meeting a ton of new people which she knew she'd never be able to remember all of their names. She was being shown all the various places and rooms that would require GPS coordinates to find again.

Just when she thought the shock from the extravagance had worn off, Charles showed Madison her room. It was probably bigger than her mom's whole house. There were cathedral ceilings, hardwood floors and two sets of glass doors that more than likely opened up to balconies. She had her own bathroom with a ginormous whirlpool bathtub. The walk-in closets were to die for being very roomy with built in organizers. Even the bed was bigger than normal.

"Dang! This is your guest room?" Madison asked as she continued to look around the room.

"No sweetheart, this is your room. It was intended for the alpha's child or children, so here you go. It will be yours as long as I am alpha, which will be a very long time." Charles chuckled.

"Wow. This room is spectacular. Thank you for letting me stay here. I'm going to be so spoiled and it will be hard to go back sleeping on the dirt under any tree or bush I can find." Madison said.

"I hope that I can spoil you for a long time to come." Charles admitted proudly. "I have waited a long time to be able to share all the luxuries acquired from many years of work."

Madison tried to stifle a yawn, but it was obvious to Charles that his daughter was tired. Pointing out the phone and giving her instructions on how to contact someone should she need anything, Charles hugged his daughter and squeezed her tightly. He wished her sweet dreams and left her for the evening.

The first thing Madison did when she was alone was to run and jump on the bed. She fell on her back laughing. Charles seemed like a genuinely nice man and he was already comfortable expressing his feelings about her. It was nice to have family.