Page 57 of Jared

“Three or four? Seriously?”

“I think we'll be okay with just two, dear. I'm sure if strange humans suddenly appeared anywhere near Galbraith, they'd sound the alarm. Not like humans are commonplace. I'll take one, you can arrange one for Jared, that way if we split up, we each have a guard. Okay?”

“I was going to say...” Jared muttered darkly. “If it was that dangerous, I'd better just stay home.”

Steve put his hands up in surrender. “Okay, sorry. I am probably being a little overprotective.”

“Just a bit,” Jared agreed.

“I'll call Dale and see who he suggests.”

“Good idea.”

“Hey, Jared, let me know what it's like,” Desmond chimed in.

“You've never been?” asked Alice.

“Uh, I've never even been across. My folks weren't really into the pack thing,” he said embarrassed. “I know some basic stuff about being pack and all that, but we didn't live all together like this and my folks never participated in stuff back home.” Desmond looked at his feet as Alice and Steve looked at him incredulously.

“What a shame,” Alice said softly. “Why don't you come with us tomorrow?”

“I've got work. I'm off again on Thursday though.”

“Great. Why don't we go across again then. We can check at the house to see how the arrangements are coming for the wedding.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Desmond said as Jared nodded.

“I'll make sure to get that covered as well,” Steve said, taking his phone out. “Yeah, hey, Dale. I need to talk to you about arranging a detail for Jared. Mom wants to take him to Galbraith and stuff.”

Galbraith turned out to be a charming small town that sat along a crossroads. The sign for the crossroads were labelled so that they pointed the way to each of the holdings of the three races. It was also obvious from the other signage tacked on the post that the inhabitants had quite the sense of humor and were fond of American television. 'Tokyo', 'San Francisco', 'Detroit' and other earthly destinations were labelled, pointing at seemingly random directions, though mileage was missing. Someone had also put up one that simply read 'There be dragons'. Jared laughed.

“Dragons? Really?”

“Oh,” said Alice. “That one's not a joke. They keep to themselves generally though and are way up in the mountains,” she reassured him.

Jared stopped laughing and gave her a look. “Seriously?”

The two men who'd been assigned their protection detail nodded.

“Yeah, no one has seen any around here for at least five hundred years,” said the one called Danilo. Jared had been happy when they'd met. Afraid that he'd end up with a muscle bound Secret Service type cliché, he had felt reassured when instead he'd found his personal guard was a leanly muscled man of average height who had a twinkle in his eye. Danilo exuded confidence and Jared had been reassured that Danilo was skilled enough in combat should it ever be required. Jared hoped it never came to that.

“At least five hundred,” the other man affirmed. Unlike Danilo, Tim was a giant. Standing over six and a half feet tall, he had muscled arms that Jared was pretty sure his hands wouldn't fit around should he try. His expression betrayed little emotion and Jared actually felt a bit intimidated by him, despite knowing he was good friends with Steve and one of his future betas.

“But if he says there's no dragons...” Jared mused.

The town wasn't walled but it did have a clear indication when they were in the town proper. The main thoroughfare suddenly became paved with what Jared was surprised to see was asphalt and decorative sidewalks paved decorative flagstones lined the streets. The townsfolk were an eclectic mix of the three races and houses sprang higgledy-piggledy between shops. The shops themselves seemed to be a mixture of types. Here was an artisan bakery, delicious smells and tempting scents wafting out to temp passersby. Across the way and a few buildings down, there was a bookshop, its wide glass windows not only displaying what appeared to be hand bound leather volumes and racks containing scrolls, but several recent best selling novels from the human world.

Jared blinked. There was a parking lot next to the bookshop, with a VW camper van parked proudly in one space.

“Is that?”

“Oh, yes. There's not many cars here, but Joe brought his pride and joy over new all the way back in 1968. He's the mayor too and somehow managed to convince everyone else that paving the road benefited everyone. After that, a few more brought cars over.”

“Where do they buy gas?”

Alice laughed, but it was Danilo answered. “Oh, they don't need any gas. They're spelled once they are brought over. Just like the stoves and stuff.”

It was only then that Jared registered that there were street lamps. “Like the street lights?”