Chapter 11: Back home with the guys

                                    

                                          
~Zander~
Man, I've missed this place. I can't wait to meet back up with all the guys too, so I check my cell for their messages again. Blake said he was using a portal, and he would be here soon, and it was already one o'clock. Caleb and Keelan wanted to fly in, and their plane would arrive in a couple of hours, but then Caleb would teleport them here. They're just making it take longer to get here in the first place, which is annoying. 
Dravon is flying himself here, and luckily we have all this forest and land attached to our town and territory. Plus, he can make himself invisible. The luxury of being a royal, I guess. That's where I am now, waiting, as he should be here any minute. Sebastian, I have no idea about, as he hasn't replied to me, then I feel a rush of wind, and now I finally have my answer. As they say, speak of the devil and he shall appear.
"Sebastian!" I chuckle. "I've missed you, man. Why didn't you reply? I'd have waited at the house if I knew you were going to get here first!"
"I wanted to surprise you." He grins, waving me off. "When are the others getting here? Have you been back for long? Is the Mansion all set up for us?" He asks in rapid-fire and emphasizes the word Mansion. We live in a house large enough for all of us, but I wouldn't call it a mansion. We wanted to be separate from the town and not live in group houses.
We just wanted some privacy. A place to call ours. It's not far from all the others, about a seven-minute drive as we wanted to be close by, there's just a nice layer of forest that surrounds our place, keeping us separate. We all got what we wanted like we love nature, so we made sure to be surrounded by trees. We also wanted somewhere that was quiet. We all built it together. 
He knows I hate using that word, which is why he does it. We live on what we call the Royal lands, and it's a community in the middle of hundreds of acres of woodlands that all the Royals purchased together so that we could unite all the creatures. 
We have shops, cinemas, and everything a town has and needs. We do get some tourists which is why we have a hotel, cabins in the woods, and a beautiful lake. That's seasonal though, and they only tend to make reservations for the summer, so we don't have to hide what and who we are. Plus any of them that do see something, there are charms in place to make them unsee it. It's not like we need the income as we also own multiple companies to keep the people and town thriving. laughing, I tell him that the others should arrive very soon. 
We're talking about our times away, and all we've learned in the past four years, as we've all had to go learn combat, business and all it means being a royal and ruling over our kinds. 
For example, you have the Kings and Queens who rule all. Under them, are the council, which is made up of all the different creatures. They advise and write our history, then there's the Alphas, or the equivalent depending on which creature, who reports to the King and Queen. There is also a member of each group, pack in my case, that watches over the Alphas to report anything amiss or not done properly, but nothing has been reported in centuries. 
Anyway, it's not like the guys and I haven't stayed in touch the whole time. It's just the longer me and Dravon go without a mate, the more feral our beasts get, until the darkness completely takes us over and we are lost to our beasts, so the guys have been checking in with us regularly. 
We haven't let them know how bad it can be and has been. We want them to focus on helping us to stop it from happening. Not to worry about us before that, and it can get really bad. I don't really know how it works with Dravon, as we try to keep it to ourselves, and we've managed to not let it get that bad in front of anyone. 
I tend to lock myself in a room before I let Shadow take control for a little bit, that seems to do the trick. To just be let free. He snaps and snarls and tries to get out, but I've wolf-proofed my room. To be honest, I'm not doing great. I've been struggling, and have gaps in the day where I don't know what's happened or where I've been! I've even woken up in the forest a few times now, covered in blood. And no, I presume it's an animal or rogue I've killed as nothing has been reported otherwise, but Shadow eventually comes back to himself, and I'll find I'm me again when I wake.