Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Disclaimer: Alpha and Omega is owned by Patricia Briggs.

Prologue: Blue Jay and Lady Wolf

*Aspen Creek, Montana; October*

APOV

I was in the middle of a restless sleep when I felt Lady Wolf nudging at the edge of my awareness. Ever since Charles and I had come back from the negotiations in Seattle last winter, the bond with the wolf spirit that shared my soul had gotten stronger. Just like my Mate bond had. Sleep was always difficult whenever Charles wasn't here. I mentally swatted my other half away. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be brushed off.

WAKE UP, Lady Wolf screamed in my head.

My eyes snapped open and I forcibly shot up to a seated position in the bed. Thanks to the thick curtains and late hour, the bedroom was more like a cave with its stygian blackness. I called upon Lady Wolf and felt the shift as my eyes went from root beer brown to sky blue. Human eyesight had been replaced by a werewolf's superior night vision. That was how I discovered that I wasn't alone.

Peace, sister, she means us no harm, she soothed.

Between her soothing and the fact that the intruder hadn't moved from the corner where they watched me, I calmed down. I relaxed completely when I'd taken the time to get a good look at my intruder. She was a beautiful Native American woman clad in a buckskin dress and boots. Her long black hair had two braids with beads woven into them on either side of her face. Insight told me she couldn't hurt me because this was Charles' mother, Blue Jay Woman. The fact that she was also over a century dead didn't hurt, either.

"There is much we need to talk about," the ghost stated softly as she made her way over to her bed.

When the conversation finished, I was an emotional wreck. The urgent phone call I'd received just afterward hadn't helped my mental state. Bran Cornick, Charles' father and the Marrok, had sensed my distress through the Pack bond and attempted to call me several times. It was just before dawn when he walked into house then noticed the suitcase waiting by the door.

"What's wrong," he asked when he saw my tear stained cheeks and pulled me into a hug.

"My dad just died," I wailed, heartbroken, as he held me. It might not have been the whole truth, but it was enough.