Coming of Age Ch. 03

Author's note: All characters and companies mentioned in this story have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone or anything bearing the same name or names. Events portrayed in this story are pure invention and have not been based on any events that have happen in real life. All the characters involved in any sexual acts if their ages are not mentioned beforehand; are over 18 years of age. Enjoy.

Hey Everyone:

Here is the latest chapter of Coming of Age. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks as normal goes to my editor and to you my fans and just a quick warning that there might be a slight delay with chapter 4 but we'll see.

Have fun

P.S. All feedback and questions are welcome.

Serenity walked into the house when they got home later that day and went straight up stairs. Crystal watched her go, a little concerned as Serenity had been very quiet most of the day which was unusual, for her. Serenity went to her room, Thais was already there perched on her bed waiting; she put her things down and crossed her arms waiting.

"Da is waiting." Thais told her before he made them both appear near their father. Wolfgang was sitting in his favourite chair with several files perched on the arm rest. He watched his two children for a moment before he stood.

Wolfgang was an intimidating person if you didn't know him, he was actually a big softy but only when it came to his family, with the pack he was firm but fair. He was broad across the chest and tall, towering over most. His dark hair was left long and often left loose; his blue eyes were only a shade or two darker than those of his children before him.

Wolfgang took two bridging steps and brought Serenity to his chest and just held her, he had grown up knowing he was the next Alpha, so it hadn't scared him and he had been trained accordingly from a young age. Serenity hadn't had that luxury; the powers had just awoken upon her coming of age. On top of that she knew that her father was the Alpha of this pack and would be for the rest of time, there hadn't been the need to look at his children and search for his successor. So her being an Alpha was a shock not just for her but for everyone, except for Thais. She pressed her face to his chest as she quivered; the stirrings of the Alpha within her stopped and submitted to the Alpha that her father was.

"Thais called and told me what was going on," he told his daughter, "but your mother and I have had our suspicions for years."

"I don't want it." She told him.

"Neither did I," he admitted, "but I grew to accept and you will too, in time."

"Ren," Thais said and both turned to him. "One day you will be an Alpha, just not in the traditional sense."

Wolfgang moved Serenity to the lounge, sat her down and sat next to her to listen, wrapping an arm around her for comfort. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Thais thought for long moments, wondering just how much and what he could actually tell them without giving away the future too much. "In the future our structure will change; you will need the dormant Alphas that Serenity and Ash are. They will be like super Betas but they will always answer to you."

Wolfgang gently stroked his daughter's neck, "how does that make you feel?"

"I don't know, I never wanted this, I just wanted to be a Beta."

Wolfgang chuckled, "honey, didn't you listen to your brother, you will still be a Beta; you'll just hold a little more sway with your group." He turned to Thais, "I always thought Ash would go off and form his own group."

Thais shook his head, "you underestimate the hold you and ma have over his heart; he would never freely choose to leave you." Ash's inclusion into the family had been an interesting time for them all.

~Eight years ago~

Amy was being driven pass a rougher area in the city on her way to a hotel for a meeting when her senses locked onto Ash and his distress. "Jay! Stop!" She ordered.

Jay brought the car to a smooth but rapid stop, "Alpha?" He questioned as he turned his body to look at her. When Amy had become president she had been very adamant with the secret service, she would not need protection since she couldn't die. She had relented when it came to the protection of her children, however she did this on her terms not theirs, Wolfgang's one request was that she had a pack member as her driver and she had allowed that and had chosen Jay.

"Back up." She told him and he immediately did as he was told. "Stop." She said as they had come far enough back to see, her blood started to boil as her eyes focused on Ash who was being arrested.

She had tried keeping an eye on him but it was difficult, unlike Sasha who knew everything about her parents Ash knew almost nothing and she knew that until the bond to his parents was severed with their deaths he wouldn't become known to her. Until then she had just had to wait.

Wolfgang, get one of our lawyers and bring them to me.Amy told Wolfgang, "Jay follow them please."

Why do you need a Lawyer?Wolfgang asked.

I don't, Ash does.She answered.

Ash... I'll get on it.He promised.

When they got to the station Amy told Wolfgang where he could find her, then walked in to find out what had happen to warrant Ash being arrested. Amy made a bee line to the officer who had Ash, to say the police were shocked that the president was taking interest in a foster kid runaway was an understatement, they simply didn't know how to react. "Why is Ash is being arrested," Amy asked trying not to be too overpowering.

The officer holding Ash seemed to hesitate before he answered simply, "for stealing."

"Ash wouldn't so much as steal a penny," Amy had answered, "what is he accused of stealing?"

"A gold necklace with a locket." The officer answered.

"It was my mother's I never stole it, the fat cow just wants to sell it." Ash said as he struggled a little with the restraints. Amy reached out and touched his shoulder; he stilled and gave Amy a puzzled look. When Ash had calmed she removed her hand.

"Easy enough to find out if Ash is telling the truth," Amy said siding with Ash as she had never known him to be a liar and she doubted that he would have changed so fundamentally. "May I see this locket?"

The officer saw no reason not to let her see the evidence which he had taken from Ash so handed over the evidence bag which she opened and upended the locket into hand, she opened the locket to expose a picture of mother and son together.

"Looks like Ash was telling the truth." Amy showed the officer the inside of the locket, "would you have checked the contents before handing it over to his foster mother?"

"His aunt," the officer corrected feeling stupid for over reacting and not even checking the kid's story.

Amy blinked, that explained why he hadn't come to her attention until she was almost on top of him; he still had a living blood tie although he was doing his best to cut it himself. "Would you have?" she asked again and got silence which was her answer. "Un-cuff him, and I'll take care of this."

"Social services..." the officer began.

"This is my territory."

"Mrs President, he is human," the officer slid in as he knew that the pack took care of their own orphaned kids.

"Are you sure about that?" She answered as she placed the locket back in the evidence bag for now.

"His file says human." The officer said confidently.

Wolfgang took this moment to enter followed by one of their best lawyers. Tomas went straight to Ash, "don't say anything more until we've talked." He told Ash before he turned to officer who was still trying to figure out why The President had taken an interest in this case. "I would like to speak with my client please."

"Tomas, the locket Ash is accused of stealing is his; it has a photo of him and his mother in it." Amy explained as Wolfgang came to stand with her.

"Amy you have a meeting with Nancy, I'll handle this." Wolfgang told her.

"We will both handle this and Nancy will understand." She corrected, she wasn't leaving without Ash.

Wolfgang chuckled and kissed her temple, he knew how strong willed she could be when it came to her children.

"Okay," a harassed looking woman said as she walked forward, a stack of files were clutched under her arms. She put the stack down and pulled a file out from the middle of it. "Ashton Young." She said as she flicked the file open, "your aunt wants her property back and has signed you over to the state."

"It isn't hers... it was my mother's... it is mine." Ash told her, his eyes glanced to the locket, it was all he had left, his aunt had slowly sold off all of his mother's things but he had refused to let her sell the locket, so he had taken it and run.

"Tomas Elderwood, I have been asked to represent Mr Young." Tomas said offering his card to the social worker. "Since his Aunt has signed him over to the state what will happen?" He asked.

"I'll spell it out plainly; older children in the foster care system usually end up in group homes or juvenile facilities." She explained and when she finished Tomas went to open his mouth, "emancipation isn't an option because he can't support himself. No judge would allow it." She quickly added knowing Tomas would have made the suggestion.

Tomas glanced to his Alphas, "The solution is simple, sign guardianship over to the Luis's."

"It doesn't work that way." The social worker said a little resigned.

Tomas turned to the officer, "First things first, this stealing charge. If I locate the estate of his late mother and see that the locket and any other items are his, I want the charges dropped and I will be pressing charges on Ms Young on my client's behalf. Until then I want bail posted and the locket to be kept as evidence."

Tomas turned and started making calls; he would have a copy of any paper work concerning the Young estate within the next hour. When Wolfgang called, Tomas had dropped everything and put his team on standby so that they would be ready to help him out. His very small firm had taken over all of the Luis's legal needs when their lawyer decided it was time to retire, it had surprised him when Mr Marshall had recommended them to take over and surprised him more that the retainer alone was enough to pay everyone in his firm handsomely. So handsomely in fact that they needed no other clients which meant they would be completely focused on this until their primary clients had this person in their care.

The social worker turned to Amy and Wolfgang, "why him?" she asked, wondering why they were interested in this person.

Amy took a deep breath, it was still hard to talk about that other world, "I first met Ash six years ago in an alternate universe." She answered honestly, "and in that universe... Ash became my son."

"Our son," Wolfgang corrected as he could feel himself getting more annoyed the longer Ash wasn't in his care.

Amy watched Ash as this news sunk in, she could see the anger in his eyes, he didn't want a new mother, he had one and he was not going to replace her.

"The Ash I knew was orphaned when he was around ten; he then spent the next four years scrounging a life with other orphaned kids until they were rounded up by Merks, the bad guys, and forced to join their group. I however freed him and the others and found them all homes." She told Ash directly. "After everything the other you had been through you were still a very caring young man who was happiest playing with his brother Thais and Aunt Sasha."

Ash frowned a little; he had always wanted a brother.

"His greatest treasure however..." Amy continued, "Was a damaged locket. He found it in the rubble of his home."

"Look, nothing has to be decided or done," Wolfgang slid in, "for now we just want to make sure you have a roof over your head and a safe place to live." He turned to the social worker, "can you do anything to help us?" He asked.

"And what if this doesn't work out a second time?" She asked, wavering in favour of the couple before her.

"Then we will look for another suitable family and keep looking until we find one for him. He will become our responsibility like all the young of our pack." Wolfgang answered. "However we have managed to incorporate a number of... odd... people into our family group over the years, one of them human, including Ash will be no different."

Ash chewed his lip, he had been in a boy's home before, while they were looking for his aunt, he didn't want to go back and he liked how they didn't use Ashton as hehatedthat name, not even his mother had called him Ashton even though that was what was on his birth certificate.

"Give me a few and I'll see what I can do." She told the group and went over to a desk to start making phone calls.

Ash couldn't believe his luck, as the plush car pulled away from the court house, it had, after all the fuss, been a very simple process to get guardianship transferred to Amy and Wolfgang. Tomas had already placed an injunction on his aunt's assets, freezing them until everything could be worked out and more importantly the charges had been dropped. His mother's locket was safe in his jeans pocket.

"Now," Wolfgang said, "we have an order allowing us to go and get clothes..."

"I don't want to go near that place again." Ash said firmly.

Amy glanced up from some papers, "are you sure, think carefully, have you left anything behind?"

Wolfgang wrapped an arm around Ash, "Tomas will take care of it, if there is anything of his mother's in that house Tomas and Brad will find it."

Amy nodded as her phone started to ring; she opened it, "Amy speaking."

"Amy..."Nancy said slightly amused,"I am calling to give you a warning, since you skipped our afternoon tea, Shia, Claire, Will and I will be coming to dinner."

Amy chuckled, "Sorry Nancy, something came up that couldn't be put aside."

"I gathered; you aren't one to skip something without a phone call. Tell me about it tonight, now I have to go to organise the family to get to the manor."

"See you tonight." Amy said which Nancy echoed before both hung up.

"I take it Shia and his family are coming to dinner." Wolfgang said slightly amused.

Amy nodded as she dialled home to give Bastion or Anna a heads up that there would be four more Were and a growing human boy to feed tonight, once she had done that she turned her attention to Ash, her eyes raking over him. Ash squirmed a little under her gaze.

"Jay, stop at a barber please." She called forward.

"Yes Alpha, any preferences as which?" Jay asked.

"No, if you know a good one that will be fine." Amy answered.

Wolfgang grinned, "Lucky for me I keep my hair long, but when Amy wants something she gets it."

"What's wrong with my hair?" Ash asked.

Amy reached out and caught a lock, her sharp eyes had picked up the damage of split ends, "Wolfgang may like his hair long but even he gets it trimmed and takes care of it. Your hair has damage in it; if you want it long you have to start with strong healthy locks to prevent breakage." She explained.

He nodded with a shy smile.

Amy grinned, "Besides, you look good with short hair."

"So... how many kids do you have?" Ash asked curious.

"Eight if we include you." Wolfgang answered.

"Eight?" Ash questioned stunned.

Amy nodded, "Two are adults, Electra and Alanna they are both mated. Sage is close to her Were majority but is still some years from her Nephalim majority. Then you have the triplets, Temperance, Serenity and Thais they are eleven, Gwynt who is six and you."

"You keep including me," Ash stated.

Amy nodded and lifted the hem of her shirt on the left side, exposing her waist-let and the eight little hearts on it. "One heart for each of our children, have a look." She said as she turned to give him a better look. He leant over and carefully read the name on each heart; he frowned as he noticed the last two hearts were a little more crudely made and different to the other six hearts.

"Those two hearts were made in a post-apocalyptic world that I visited, the world where we adopted you and where I conceived Gwynt." Amy explained.

Wolfgang chuckled at Ash's confused face. "Amy is Ancient, you get used to the weirdness I promise."

"But that means... Gwynt isn't..." Ash said but suddenly stopped as he realised his faux pas.

Wolfgang and Amy both smiled, "Like he said, I'm Ancient, weird things happen, Gwynt is Wolfgang's son." Amy explained.

"Just a different Wolfgang." Wolfgang added.

"And does he..." Ash started to ask.

"Know?" Wolfgang asked before he nodded, "Gwynt knows he was conceived in an alternate universe to an alternate me, he also knows that regardless of which Wolfgang sired him he is still my son."

"Just as our other adopted children are ours regardless of who they were originally sired by." Amy continued tucking her shirt back in as they pulled to a stop.

"Alphas, the barbershop you requested." Jay called back.

"Thank you Jay." Amy said.

Wolfgang wrapped a comforting arm around Ash as they stepped out of the car, "It is just a house."

"It's so big." Ash answered a little self-consciously, his hair had been cut so he no longer looked quite like a street rat but his clothes were dirty and worn. He didn't own a thing that would be considered good enough to wear here.

Amy chuckled, "The home of the Alphas is meant to be big, it houses the central pack, the Alphas and their family, the seconds and their family, some enforcers and their families and miscellaneous pack members and their families."

"So... a lot of people live here?" Ash asked.

Amy nodded, "don't worry about a thing..."

"ASH!" Thais called as he ran out of the open front door and launched himself at Ash. They both tumbled to the ground. Ash was a little shocked as the boy hugged him. "Welcome home." Thais said before he pushed himself up and then offered his hand to help Ash up.

Amy chuckled as Ash got back to his feet. "Forgive Thais; he has been impatiently waiting your return."

Thais smiled, he took a lot after his father in the face; he was tall for his age, only a little shorter than Ash and very lean. His dark hair was only slightly long giving him an unkempt charm that human girls his age found irresistible, even though he wasn't interested yet. "Ma can he have the room next to mine?"

"He can have whatever room he likes." Amy compromised knowing Ash might not be comfortable being placed with the other younger cubs.

Serenity and Temperance ran out with Gwynt trailing behind his older siblings, they paused before Ash.

"Serenity and Temperance," Wolfgang said pointing to each girl in turn as he said their names, "and Gwynt."

Gwynt stepped behind Serenity and glanced around her to study Ash, his eyes, the left one blue and the right one green, moved to his parents but Amy and Wolfgang were just waiting for him to stop hiding. Gwynt was the shyest of Amy and Wolfgang's children, he was always the last to meet new people and often did it reluctantly, they knew he would grow out of it given time.

Temperance skipped up to Ash, "Hi," she offered her hand to him and he took it.

"Hi," Ash answered.

Serenity glanced back to Gwynt, "come on, it's another brother..." she then walked forward leaving Gwynt on his own. "Hi, most just call me Ren." Serenity said as she offered her hand.

"Nice to meet you Ren," Ash said.

"Don't worry about Gwynt; he's just shy around people he doesn't know yet." Serenity explained.

"You lot go finish your homework..." Wolfgang told them, "and if you have done your homework go pester Taliesin." He shooed them off and they went. "Let's find you a room, you can clean up and get ready for dinner." He told Ash as he started to lead the somewhat reluctant young man into the house.