Chapter 183: 143. Meeting The Matriarch

"That's it there," Melanie gestured. "Coming up on the left. Turn in on that driveway, then you can park on the grass over by that old pick-up."

Cerys nodded, "Got it."

We made the turn off the country road and onto a long unpaved driveway. There were green grassy fields to either side, and about a hundred meters back from the road was a good-sized white two-story farmhouse. The field to our right had a couple horses idly grazing, but the one on our left looked empty. There were rows of tall trees along the far sides of both fields, probably marking the property lines, while on either side of the driveway the fields were bordered by old wooden split-rail fencing to keep the animals from wandering off.

On one side of the house was a large vegetable garden, on the other side was a small patio area with a big BBQ and some faded plastic outdoor furniture and a big old wooden picnic bench. And beyond the house was a large garage-like outbuilding, then the barn. And past all that were more fields stretching back some distance, with a bunch of trees at the very back.

About twenty meters to the left of the house was a beat-up old pick-up truck, and next to that was a shiny black and chrome Harley motorcycle. There was also a newer model mini-SUV over there too. Cerys headed over in that direction, across some grass then pulled up alongside the other vehicles and parked there.

"Let me do all the talking at first ok?" Melanie said as we all emerged from the van.

She shifted to her wolfgirl form then continued, "It should be fine, but this is another pack's home turf and y'all know things are tense right now. They said it was ok for us to be here, but I want to make sure we don't get them upset or anything."

Seeing her girlfriend shift, Cerys switched to her wolfgirl form as well.

Meanwhile the older wolf added, "After I've done the introductions and stuff it should be ok. Uh, she's probably going to want to know what y'all are though? I know Cerys already told Jaden, but if we're meeting Belinda then she'll want to hear it for herself."

"Ok Melanie," I replied quietly as she started to lead the rest of us over towards the farmhouse.

Kaylee asked, "I take it Belinda is the leader here?"

"Yeah," Melanie nodded. "She's the matriarch and pack leader. And I know she's probably not that special next to gods and demons, but compared to other weres or witches or even fae she's a pretty big deal."

By that point we were practically at the door, and someone opened it before we were close enough to knock. Standing there was a tall strong slim athletic looking young woman. I'd guess her age to be mid-twenties, just a bit younger than Jaden, and her height was probably about the same as Paige, like about five-foot-nine or five-ten. Her dirty-blonde hair was in a short messy pixie cut, she had bright blue eyes, and her skin was tanned like the werewolf we saw on Saturday. She was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a pale green t-shirt, and cowboy boots. She also had a pair greyish-blonde wolf ears sticking out on top of her head, and a long greyish-blonde tail hanging down behind her legs.

"Melanie," the young woman stated. "Good to see you again, too bad the circumstances aren't great."

Our wolfgirl nodded, "Hello Lindsay. Good to see you too. I've brought my friends like I said. We're here to offer our help. We want to find this guy as much as you do."

"I dunno about that," Lindsay responded. "We want him pretty bad. But mom said she'll meet with your friends, so c'mon in."

She stepped aside, and the seven of us filed in through the door. We found ourselves in a large living-room sort of space. There were big bay windows along one wall that gave a nice view of one side of the farm, including the driveway and where the cars were parked. There was a wood stove in the corner, although it was unused at this time of the year. Another corner had a large TV on the wall. There were a couple chairs and sofas all around the room, enough seating to accommodate well over a dozen people. There were only two others in the room though.

Jaden was sitting in a recliner to one side next to the windows. Rather than his biker leathers he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, with a pair of work boots on his feet. His black furry ears and tail were both in view today too.

And finally, sort of half-laying back on one of the sofas was a middle-aged woman. She was obviously recovering from an injury, her left arm was up in a sling and she had a light sweater around her shoulders. Some pillows were propped up behind her to help keep her comfortable. Despite all that, she had such a presence to her that it was hard to focus on anything else. Like after seeing her, it was hard to look away.

With her sort of reclined on the sofa it was hard to get a feel for how tall she was, but I was positive she was at least as tall as Lindsay. Her age was harder to guess, but I figured late forties or early fifties. She looked to be in great shape though, apart from the recent injury. Her hair was silvery grey, but I knew that wasn't an age thing. It matched the fur on her tall fuzzy ears, and her long furry tail.

The silver-haired werewolf spoke first, and despite sounding tired and maybe in a bit of pain her voice carried as much presence as the rest of her. "Hello Melanie. You can tell me about the rest of your friends in a minute. Right now I'd like to meet your mate."

"Yes ma'am," our ravenette wolfgirl replied as her cheeks took on a pink colour.

She gestured to Cerys, and the two moved forward until they were just a couple paces back from the matriarch. Then Melanie did the introductions, "Belinda, this is my pack-mate and girlfriend, Cerys Ainsley. Cerys, this is Belinda Tate, matriarch and leader of the Tate Wolfpack."

Cerys actually seemed a bit anxious, her ears were drooping and her tail hung down between her legs as she sort of bowed her head in greeting. "Hello ma'am. It's an honour to meet you."

The older werewolf's eyes tracked up and down our blonde wolfgirl's body, and her nose twitched a little as she was obviously taking note of her scent.

After a few quiet seconds Belinda's expression hardened into a frown as she stated, "You know, most werewolfs wouldn't be caught dead in a collar. Our kind are strong and proud, and resent any implication or suggestion that we might be mere animals. The thought of a werewolf being treated like a pet is unheard of."

Cerys looked like she was starting to cringe when she caught herself. And instead of shrinking back or grimacing or anything like that, she actually set her shoulders and straightened her back.

In a proud and shameless tone she announced, "I'm sorry to hear that other wolfs are so insecure. My collar was my choice. It was given to me by a goddess and it bears a divine enchantment. I asked my girlfriend and pack leader to put it on me, and I wear it with pride. And sure, if some human tried to pet me without permission they might lose a hand, but I have no problem accepting headpats and earscritches from the people I love and trust. Frankly if you've never experienced that, you're missing out."

By the time Cerys was finished Melanie was cringing hard. She wasn't alone though, Jaden and Lindsay were both cringing a bit too, as all three of them watched the matriarch and waited for her to explode or something.

Belinda continued frowning at the young blonde wolfgirl for a few more seconds, then her frown shifted to a small amused smile. "Now this is a wolf with chutzpah. Well done girl, even my own kin wouldn't stand up to me like that."

The tension was suddenly defused and all the other wolfs in the room visibly relaxed again.

Meanwhile the matriarch continued, "It's nice to finally meet you Cerys, your girlfriend's told me a fair bit about you, but that's never as good as getting eyes on someone and checking their scent."

Our blonde wolfgirl smiled back at her, "Thank you ma'am. Melanie hasn't actually told me much about you, but I know the stuff you taught her helped her a lot. Thanks for that."

Belinda shrugged with her good shoulder, "We don't see many stray werewolfs nowadays, thank goodness. Having said that, your girlfriend isn't the first stray I've taken on as a student. And she probably won't be the last."

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Without waiting for a response the older wolf shifted her attention back to Melanie again and she changed the subject, "So tell me about the rest of your friends. Are these the girls May Hawthorne used to talk about? I always thought her crew were all humans, but I can only smell a single human among them. Lots of demons though."

"Uh not exactly ma'am," Melanie grimaced. "It's a long story but we haven't worked with May for over a year now."

Then she got on with the introductions and explanations, starting with me which made me blush.

"This is Cass," she said as she gestured to me. "She's kind of a demon. And Cass's sister Nina, also a demon. That's Kaylee, she's a kind of fox demon? And Sasha, she's a divinely-blessed half demon. And Willow, she's a sorceress."

The werewolf matriarch looked over each of us in turn, while her nose twitched a bit. By the time Melanie was finished the older woman had a thoughtful look on her face.

She finally responded, "All right Melanie. I can tell there's more to a few of these girls than you're telling me, but I'll respect their privacy. For now. I might have more questions later. I know Jaden's told you all about my encounter with a werewolf hunter the other day. You think you and your friends can help somehow?"

Melanie opened her mouth to respond, but Cerys beat her to it.

"We might be able to track the guy down with some advanced scrying techniques," the young blonde wolfgirl replied. "If Jaden can take us to where he figured the hunter was set up to ambush you, Cass can do a spell that'll let her look back a few days to see what happened. And if you've still got the silver bullet, we can use that as a scrying focus too."

Belinda raised an eyebrow as she looked back and forth between Melanie and Cerys before asking, "Which of you two is in charge? A pack can only have one leader."

Melanie replied, "I'm the leader of our pack. But Cerys is the leader of our group."

"Interesting," the older wolf stated. "I've already attempted to scry with the bullet, but I wasn't able to get anywhere with it. Lindsay will take you all out to the spot where the attack happened, she knows it as well as Jaden. And when you're done there, you can come back and have a look at the bullet itself."

She added a moment later, "We're already exploring other options, we might have more answers shortly."

"Thank you ma'am," Melanie replied.

Lindsay motioned for the door and said, "All right girls, follow me."

She led us back out the door, then we set out in the direction of the barn. Lindsay opened a gate so we could get into the barnyard, then closed it again when we were all through. On the other side of the yard we passed through another gate which let us onto a wide grassy 'lane' that ran almost the full length of the farm.

There were a couple fields on either side, and we finally spotted about thirty or forty cows all milling around in one of the fields on the right-hand side. They were mostly crowded along the fence line on the far side of the field, so they could enjoy the shade from the line of trees along the edge of the property.

As we approached the end of the lane Lindsay asked, "What do you want to see exactly? The spot where mom was when she got hit? Or where we figure the hunter was hiding?"

Cerys looked to me for the answer, since I was the one who'd be using Brooke's spell.

I grimaced slightly and replied, "The uh, place where you figure the guy was hiding. The scrying spell I'm going to use should let me see the events from when it happened."

"Gotcha," she nodded.

The lane ended at the tree-line, and there was a split-rail fence there that we needed to climb over to get into the woods. It was only about four feet high though, and it was easier to climb than chain link. Especially after Lindsay showed us the trick to getting over it.

Then she led us to the left through the trees for about ten or fifteen meters before stopping.

"This is the area," the tall strong wolfgirl stated. She gestured, "Jaden smelled the gunpowder by that tree there, and the bushes next to it were disturbed."

She looked at me and asked, "So what do you need to get this done?"

"Oh um, the main thing is I need to know exactly when it happened," I replied. "Or a window of time, if you don't know exactly?"

Lindsay replied, "It was Thursday August eighteenth, at around two in the afternoon."

I nodded as I checked the time on my phone. It was nearly two now, so the event I was looking for happened roughly seventy-two hours earlier.

Then I put my phone away and added, "The only other thing I need is some time to focus? Oh, and I need a clear view of the area where you figure he was hiding."

"So it's best if we're all standing behind her," Kaylee suggested. "To make sure no-one accidentally gets in the way."

Lindsay nodded as she and the others all made sure to be back out of my line of sight. Then she asked, "What will we see?"

Melanie replied, "Nothing, unfortunately. Cass will see it since she's doing the spell. Then she can tell us what she saw."

"All right," I said as I took a deep breath. "I'm going to start now."

Then I closed my eyes and began to concentrate.