The next morning Nose made sure she looked her best before arriving at the Johnson's pack house with her camera tech. When they arrived, she found Hands, Savory, and Nuzzle waiting for her, "Good morning to all of you."

Hands smiled at her, "Ray asked me to greet you and show you into the house. Since we have some history he figured it would be best." He looked at the camera person, "Please don't record until told you can. It is mostly due to us, both of our packs, starting to settle down after all the fun. If you would like to record something, ask." He turned back to nose, "Please follow me."

Nose gave Hands a good hug, "We understand. When you say we can record we will. Not before then. I really hope things are getting better for all of you." She had been really moved by his story when he had talked with her previously.

He sighed, "Better but still dealing with many things for both packs. Being back is so wonderful but I'm still dealing with some things." Hands was doing better but was still mentally healing from what had happened.

The five of them walked into the central house and Hands showed them to Ray's office. When they walked in Hands introduced Nose, "Hey bro, this is Inquisitive Nose and she is the lady who did my interview. Tell her what you want and she will set up the background." Hands settled down in a chair and pulled Nuzzle into his lap and curled an arm around Savory.

Ray looked up and smiled, "Greetings Nose and this is my mate Gentle. I wanted to thank you for coming over for the interview. Please have a seat. After looking at what my brother did with you, I am thinking something similar. In this case, more than anything else I want to simply let the world know I have a new mate." His expression saddened, "I loved Flitter a great deal but she would want me to keep going. I love Gentle as much as I loved Flitter."

Nose gave him a quick hug, "I am the one who should be thanking you for allowing me to do the interview." She glanced at Gentle and Zantha not to mention the other three, "What questions do you want me to avoid? I know that this is a very emotions time for you." She was doing her best to keep this as above board as possible. This could be her break into the mainstream reporting.

Inquisitive Nose talked to both Ray and Gentle for several minutes before she came to a decision, "Pack Father I think it would be best if we simply left the background as is. This is a lovely office and with the various pictures of your family and pack on the walls shows what is important." She lowered her ears briefly, "I think this will mean more to the viewers than some contrived background. With Pack Father Strong Hangs the fireside chat worked since we do have a great deal of snow. Here it isn't as much and so it wouldn't come across quite the same way."

Ray glanced at Gentle and then back at Nose, "Actually I rather like that idea. We have pictures of Flitter, Gentle, myself, and our pack. Some are serious such as when they delivered and holding our pups. Others are simply amusing scenes and shows our short pack time." He was forced to look down and sigh, "It has been a hard year but for all the agony there has been some wonderful things." One hand found one of Gentles and grasped it, "I loved my former mate deeply but I also love my new mate as much. She is not a replacement since she is her own person. I love Gentle Resolute Song and can't wait for our next set of pups. It might be a few years down the road but we will have more. I love all of my pups deeply and all are going to be raised by the pack and temple." He glanced up at Gentle and his eyes showed his emotions.

Gentle had an arm around him and as he spoke her ears lowered as he expressed how he cared for her. She returned the hold on her hand and leaned over and gave him a soft kiss, "I love Ray as well and though he still has some healing to deal with his loss I am here for him." She kissed him again as well and spoke again, "I love Ray as my mate as well. It was hard for me to step into Flitter's paw prints but she chose this for me. Rayfuso is my mate and... How I do love him. We have a damn fine pack and nothing will change that. We have been stressed and tested yet we came out stronger for it."

Nose was forced to lower her ears at the affection the two were showing, "Darn it but I hope I get a chance to feel this way down the road." She tensed and then shook her head, "Sorry, that was not something I should have said."

Hands glanced at Savory before moving over to Nose and gave her a good hug, *I am sure you will find someone just for you.* After one last hug he moved back over to Savory and settled down next to her.

Ray gave Hands a pleased look, "That actually sounds like a good idea. So we will go with my office as the background and go from there, "The questions I do not want to touch on are..." He mentioned a number before looking at Hands.

Hands sighed and glanced at Nose, "It is pretty much the same as when we had the interview. I will not talk about certain things and I don't expect you to touch on them. You didn't before and I would like to think you won't again."

Nose lifted her chin at the two before becoming professional, "For now that is fine but eventually based on what I have learned it will come out. I would suggest that at some point you will have to talk about it. Having said that I will go with what you have to say." She settled back in the chair slightly as her assistant sent out several remote cameras for the interview.

~~~

Hunter/Morning contact Dark Storm's pack

By the time Hunter and Morning made it back to their Pack house they had plans to do what they could. For now, they were going to deal with Dark Storm and her pack as much as possible. Both of them stalked into Hunters office and settled down behind his desk. Actually, he settled down in his chair and she stood behind him as he activated the computer. They had already looked up Dark Storm's main pack contact information. He keyed it in and placed the call. Normally they should have contacted the senior Pack father for that section of the world but in this case, they chose not to. She had come to their territory and confronted a Pack Mother who was their responsibility.

Moments later the other end of the line was picked up and a young female could be seen, "Good evening Senior Pack Father and Pack Mother. How may I help you?" Her robes were of a neutral color and almost but not quite severe looking.

Hunter gave her a slight nod, "Good evening to you as well. I need to talk to either the Pack Father or Pack Mother please." One thing he had noticed was some of the records didn't include updated information on the senior pack members. Granted it wasn't required since even though there was a unified government Packs were semi-autonomous. As long as they kept up with the legal requirements dealing with Packs for the most part nobody would get involved.

The female glanced at something on her VR screen, "I am sorry they aren't available at the moment. If you would like I could connect you to one of the Matriarchs." She wasn't sure why the Senior Pack Father was calling, "May I ask what this is in reference to so I can inform them?"

Hunter almost frowned but didn't. From Morning, he could feel displeasure. When a Pack Father and Pack Mother called to talk to their counterparts they were virtually always put through. There were very few reasons he could think of which might keep them from being contacted. Nothing came to mind which could be related to this at the moment, "Then please put me through to the senior Matriarch and this is a private call. I will explain why we are calling only to the senior matriarch." His voice wasn't hard but it was firm. He would not discuss this with anyone else.

The female lowered her ears at the almost reprimand, "I understand and please give me a moment." The screen changed to the pack emblem for Dark Storm's pack. They were on hold long enough that he was starting to get ready to hang up and call back. He was not pleased at the disrespect they were being shown.

Right before he hung up the female came back, "I am sorry for the delay Pack Father and Pack Mother. I am connecting you to High Winds." The screen blanked for a moment before an older female appeared in the viewer.

"Good evening Senior Pack Father and Pack Mother. I am Matriarch High Winds and how may I help you?" She was looking slightly irritated at the moment.

Before Hunter or Morning could growl they felt their Liraque smooth their emotions, "Good evening Matriarch High Winds. We have had an issue with one of your pack members by the name of Dark Storm. She came to my territory and confronted one of the Pack Mothers who reports to my Mate Morning Sun. We have tried to contact her to deal with this but she is not responding to send requests. If she is not here by noon tomorrow I will be filing a request with the courts to have her emergency locater enabled. I will then have her detained and additional charges will be placed. I expect to hear from your Pack Father and Pack Mother as soon as possible about this. If they don't respond I will contact your local Senior Pack Father and Mother and get them involved. Good evening." He disconnected and then a low snarl of anger ripped out of his mouth, "How dare they disrespect us this way? I will get to the bottom of this."

Morning was growling in anger as well. She was as upset as her mate as well. She wasn't sure if Hunter had picked up on it but High Winds seemed to almost dismiss him since she was staring at Morning for the most part. Nobody did that to her mate and got away with it, "I might just go and have a visit with the Senior Pack Mother they report to. I really want to rip the tail off someone."

As angry as they were both Liraque were going to have a long evening of helping them calm down and relax. The anger was justified but a knot in the tail reaction wasn't what was needed.

When the call was disconnected, High Winds let out a low growl as well though she wasn't growling at Dark Storm. It was for the rude and abrupt way she had been treated. They were not part of her pack and they didn't have the right to treat her that way. They had the right to request Dark Storm's presence but to treat her that way? That was not acceptable. She was the senior Matriarch of the Pack and deserved more respect.

It took her some time to calm down as well as several shots of her favorite tipple. Once she had calmed down enough she started to worry. The Pack Father and Mother were not capable of dealing with this. Both were very old and frankly weren't able to do more than gum processed food down. There was another Pack Father who could take over but they, the senior females, had decided to keep him in the Harem. They had taught him his job was to control the males and servicing the females.

This was simply due to their, the senior females, feelings that they were in a better place to run the pack instead of some random male. They knew what was best for the pack and didn't need some male trying to tell them differently. She snarled and stood up with a slight stagger, "Damn that stupid woman, she should have just let that damn kid go. She was nothing but a bad influence on the other young females. Dark Song might not have realized it but there were a number of young females who had looked up to her. She had refused to bow down to the dictates of the Pack and had decided she was going to go into the military. Even worse she had decided to do menial crap as an engineer. They were a pack of traders, not menial laborers. That was where their money came from; they traded a wide variety of items and owned a number of ships to haul cargo around.

She finally sent a demand to Dark Storm to report to Hunter's and Mornings offices in the morning. The message indicated she had better bow down and accept what punishment they might feel was needed. If she said anything out of order she would be removed from the pack roles, "That should deal with the problem." Now she could get back to what she had been doing.

~~~

Dancer/Golden meet with Clearly/

Once Dancer and Golden returned to the temple they had settled down in their quarters and called for the other senior Priest and Priestess. Once they came into the room Dancer waved them to a sofa to relax. Melody had already brought some drinks in as well as a few snacks, "Please have a seat. We have talked with Ray about what the Pack Lord and Goddess needed of him. It was a fascinating conversation. I know I have given you some information but since the God and Goddess were limiting it there wasn't much."

She leaned somewhat more against Golden and kept speaking, "The most important thing for the four of us to know is the Dragon Lords were involved in our distant past." Dancer gave the other two a few moments to react and recover, "I am going to send you a number of memory files Ray gave me once we are done. The long and short of it is from our beginnings as a sentient species we have had human DNA mixed in with ours. This was to remove some blocks which would have kept us from becoming more than semi-conscious. The Dragons in a way are our progenitors and only due to their involvement we became sentient." Now she paused for questions.

When they indicated for her to continue she did, "The Pack Lord sent Ray, or his consciousness, back into our past three times. The first was at the birth of our race. The second was at some point after that for the next nudge. The last time..." She nibbled on her lip for a moment, "The third time was when they brought a human female into our past about one hundred thousand years ago. She was encouraged to breed with our males and further mixed our DNA with theirs. There were five packs who this happened to total. She as much as Sees Far, her eventual mate, were almost in a way the mother and father of our race. This is why we can breed with humans. The dragon who visited recently left Ray with some additional knowledge which indicates a fresh infusion of human DNA into ours will resolve our declining male population."

Both of their counter parts could only stare at her when she told them the last section. They looked like them had been smacked on the back of their heads by a wooden stick, "Um, good God, I don't know what to say. Send us what you can please so we can review it and we will, um, need to talk to you tomorrow." He was going to need to meditate on this tonight. His counterpart was feeling much the same way as well.

~~~

Accident investigator and LEO's

The investigator for the accident was sitting at a table with a number of other law enforcement officials. The magistrate had demanded they get to the charges and get things organized. At the moment, they were still under the Goddess order so nobody outside of the small circle could say anything about the charges. He looked at the lead LEO investigator and waited for him to speak.

The senior LEO glanced at his tablet before speaking, "We all know why we are here so I am going to skip all the usual comments. As of now we are investigating the murder of a female of the Zorg Pack and the attempted murder of the male pup named Dreamer. I am sending the coroner's report to all who need it. I am also sending Pack Father Strong Hands videos to you. There is also the report of the accident investigator. I know that most of you have some aspect of this information. We are here to discuss what has been found. I am going to give you some time to review the information."

Everyone accessed the information and reviewed it for a while before the senior LEO took charge, "As far as the accident we can see what Pack Father Strong Hands found while under the vehicle. Just looking at what he found shows there was a strong possibility of this not being an accident. Now if we look at what the Accident Investigator found it goes from a possible case of sabotage to an actual case of sabotage. Looking at the damage to the case of the drive unit we can see..." He turned it over to the Accident Investigator for further review.

The male took the lead, "Based on what I and my subordinates have found this was not an accident. The vehicle was expected to explode and kill both." His voice became guttural for a moment, "Why it was designed to kill a male pup I am not sure and the only thing I can think of is to make a point. Based on what Pack Father Strong Hands indicated in the interview the female wanted to give the boy to either him or the temple." Suddenly the viewer he was looking at shattered as he grasped it too hard.

He jerked and pressed his hands against the table and ignored the minor scrapes from the viewer when he destroyed it, "I apologize but this issue has me rather worked up." He took a number of slow breaths as he tried to relax.

The others jerked when he destroyed the viewer of his. That forced the senior LEO to take charge, "Take a few minutes to calm down while we continue this review." She turned to the others, "What about the fight and charges?" She asked the two who had been there.

Eventually a Liraque in the room soothed his emotions. She came over and massaged his shoulders. He was finally able to continue, "To me it appears that this was designed to make a point to the pack that giving up males was not to be condoned. I don't know if this is true but we need to look..." He took a slow breath, "Anything else I say is going to be an opinion. I am not going to say anything else."

The senior female looked at her and barely managed not to growl, "I have reviewed all the footage of the accident and the brief contact with Dreamer's mother. To me it is obvious that she was coherent enough for the request to be honored. Based on what came through she did not want to deliver her pup to the harem of her pack. She wanted Pack Father Strong Hands not just to accept Dreamer as his pack member but to give him something her pack couldn't. I can't speak as to what she wanted the Pack Father to give him and it would be an opinion."

She took a sip of tea before continuing, "Having said that when the male from Pack Zorg told the females to get the, and I quote, 'the brat' Pack Father Strong Hands had already accepted him into his pack. Therefore, the attempted removal of the child was illegal." She took a quick review of the notes and nodded to indicate she was done with her comments.

The discussion continued on for some time as information on Pack Johnson and Pack Liraque was discussed. Once they were done the senior LEO had what she needed, "I am going to review what has been said and will send my recommendations to the temple and the Judiciary. Keep in mind this is under a Goddess order and I have a feeling she will not approve of anyone breaking that." She didn't think anyone would but it had to be said.

~~~

Singer and Thunder go to medical

The afternoon of the video interview of Ray and Hands, Singer had an appointment both to check on her scars and to ensure her heat was over. To be honest she was so very embarrassed about the heat and how she had dealt with it. Toes had been so very attentive and he had taken as much time as needed before anything had happened. It still embarrassed her that her body had forced her to do what she had. She had enjoyed the experience but it was conflicting with feelings about being intimate.

Once she was in the