Hammers in the Shadows

Part Two: Hammers in the Night - Chapter Thirteen

I looked out on the yard in front of the Pride House as a large black SUV turned and headed down the recently upgraded road towards the gate and sighed. The last three months had been challenging as we'd raced to complete the complete overhaul of the interior of the massive Pride House before the first snows arrived. Now with Zane and his family heading to Wild Valley there were only two wolves left here among the Pride, my eldest daughter Katherine and Sergi's mate Jasmine.

The move had been a colossal headache and the stress had nearly driven myself and Anna half insane as we struggled to keep the whole move out of human attention. The most difficult part had been moving the two tanks and it had been before the road had been upgraded. In the end, we'd had to use the Grizzly and the BMP-1 to try and tow the lame duck of an IS-2M up the road as it's engine made a lot more smoke than it did power.

In fact, the BMP and the Grizzly had been forced to make so many trips up and down the road that they were both out of service now due to excessive engine and transmission wear. Getting parts for the BMP was relatively easy since it wasn't that old of a vehicle and its parts were still plentiful. On the other hand the Grizzly was a different proposition due to the fact that it, along with the IS-2M were, over eighty years old.

However, once the entire Pride had been moved to the newly renamed Silver Peak Pride House we upgraded the road to the point that it was actually navigable by our buses and SUVs. The reason for the upgrades had been the almost constant truckloads of materials and debris that had to come into and out of the Pride House while it was under renovation.

When was all said, and done we'd managed to burn through almost half of the money that I'd siphoned from Vladimir's old accounts into ones owned by the Pride, which was a considerable amount. However, the changes had been massive and now the place had some of the highest environmental, efficiency, and safety standards of any Pride or Pack in the country.

The day before Zane left I'd invited him to a meeting of the Pride Council with Simone where we gave thanks to him for all that he'd done for the Pride in the past three months.

"Zane ever since I first met you two years ago, you've been a good friend, though at times I've wanted to tear my hair out at how reticent you were, but now I'm proud to present you with a small token of our Pride's appreciation for your sacrifices on our behalf." I said turning to gently pull the heavy gold and silver necklace from the bent-wood box in front of me before placing it around his neck and fastening the clasp. "From this day forwards, you are a friend of Silver Peak and you have all of the rights and protections as any member of our Pride, wear this necklace with pride Second Zane Donovan." I said as my mate, Anna, did the same thing for Simone as she'd also given us much in the past three months.

The expression on Zane's face was a bit rueful and even perhaps embarrassed as he was already wearing a necklace from the Nam Cho Pride, a second one from his rank as Second at Wild Valley, a rather worn one that marked him as the Alpha of Ice Lake, and now he was getting a fourth that showed off that he was a Pride Friend of Silver Peak Pride. "Thanks for the honour Mark, if I get anymore I am going to feel like one of those rap stars with the dozen necklaces and chains." He flashed me a bit of a grin since it was obvious that the necklaces he was wearing were worth a small fortune.

I had to laugh at his comment before I replied, "Zane, you keep making friends of Prides and Packs and you expect anything less? You helped save my people from death, almost at the cost of your own life." I placed a hand on his shoulder as my voice had cracked slightly as I felt Tanya's arms hugging my leg. "I know of no other way we here can honour the sacrifices that you've made for our sake. You've truly earned this honour Zane."