Hell Hounds
Chapter 54: The Never-Ending Meeting

Most of the people left the room. In the entrance lobby of the packhouse, several tables lay set up. One filled with various snack foods, another with an array of hot and cold drinks. The last two had nothing displayed yet. Yolanda assumed those were for the meals to come. The line formed up the stairs as people picked up their drinks and snacks, then moved on. It took a few minutes to get there, and they all grabbed a drink.

"Did I miss how long before we reconvene, or was it not mentioned?" Jaxon frowned over a hot mocha chocolate coffee.

"Normally, these ambassadors like a half an hour break. This lets them get their asses together. I swear if you listen to Edith talk sometimes, they make it their missing to screw up everyone else's plans and send them into a tailspin, trying to recover gracefully from it. We should get back there in about ten minutes because I think that game just went out the window. As we were leaving, I heard one mage say they'd patched in the Vampire Ambassador and staff from the storage bunk that they are using while they are here." Aria kicked off the conversation with this.

"Good. She might have information from some of their elders about this. Between the Dragons and Vampires, there are a few old enough to remember the Fae leaving this realm. Maybe, they can shed some light on this better."

Desire snorted in agreement with Yolanda's words. "Really? Do you believe any of those elders will change their story from the party line they've fed us for all these years? I highly doubt that. This makes them look terrible in the eyes of everyone. People will start asking questions like, how come you didn't hunt for these portals and such and destroy them before this?"

Desire was right, and Yolanda angled her head and nodded, acquiescing to her point. "That would be an interesting question to hear the answer to."

"I don't know about any of you, but it's clear to me that someone dropped the ball, or at the very least didn't do their due diligence in the cleanup. Asking questions is the least of their worries. I still want to know who the humans are, and how they got the power and knowledge of the ritual to perform it. If they've opened over one portal, that would mean they're organized, and that spells out in the end that they are a greater threat than anyone believed before this." Hal pointed out, effectively changing the subject.

"Agreed, that's another problem. I think we might want to make a list of questions like that to see how they want us to proceed. Someone must look into these, and if there's no one, then they need to assign someone." Aria mentioned, pulling a large phone from her ever-present bag. She tapped away at it. "I think I'll cc Edith and Dean with this, so it doesn't take them by surprise. The last thing we need is them balking at the question because they're not prepared. It wouldn't make them look good to anyone. Just too unprofessional."

"Good point. Also, lan came up with an idea. We aren't sure it can happen by maybe one of the other factions can put their heads together and remember something, or create something that can do it. He posed the question, what can we do to limit the Fae's use of the Dream realm? What about limiting their magical use? Force them to use hand-to-hand fighting styles. We have superior weapons in this day and age. It can't hurt to level the playing field or at least attempt to."

"I'll add it. But I think that they'll shoot down as putting too many people in harm's way. But it's a logical thing to do too. However, I don't see how we can't do that to some extent. It would protect some it it weren't the only thing we relied on."

"Best to say something like that with the question so that we can skip the lecture on why it would be foolhardy and just rack up the unnecessary deaths." Aria nodded absently as she continued to type. "What about the protection of the people near the location they removed the portal from? If the Fae can't replace it, won't they go after the people in the area to replace out where it went?"

"God, this is insane how is anyone supposed to keep track of all of this?" lan wanted to know as he saw the extent of all of this.

"Then we have the people that live and work in or near the old places of power. Some locations are tourist destinations. You can't tell me that most tourists can handle angry Fae."

"lan, you're correct. If we don't put our heads together and anticipate this. We'll be responding to and not heading anything off. Aria. Add it to the list and I'll contact Edith now and warn her about it. I haven't even looked in on the Armory yet this morning." Yolanda distractedly muttered this while she looked longing at the door that would take her down to the Armory where she could hide from all of this. Why couldn't she have time with her new mate like every other shifter in the history of the world?

"Good idea. We should get back to the conference room and do this."

A cacophony of movement came from the Alpha's office behind them, and the door burst open. Gregory came out and stopped in his tracks. "Good, you're here. Yo-Yo get down to the Armory and get them into gear we need to send out several of the new teams. Jeff's sending you the specs of each team." He stopped and waited for a response. "What are you waiting for? Get moving they need to get out there now. The Fae just walked into several populated locations."

"On it. Come on, lan, time to do our job." It didn't take long for the others to follow her. Once downstairs, they found a few Fianna still down there, finishing up a few things. At their noisy entrance, the Fianna went silent and looked at Yolanda instantly. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to be invaded by enforcers about to be deployed we need to have kits ready for them now. The Fae are now in populated locations. I'm going to assume that these locations are human populations, so pack the kits accordingly. I don't have numbers of those deployed."

Because of the organization of the

Armory, the Fianna could select components for armour and weapons to bundle together. Many bundles already existed and were ready to go, but they needed immediate replacement and that's what the Fianna did now. It didn't matter how many enforcers left today, all would have a full kit, and more kits took their place for the next. They registered everything as the items left the Armory. Inventory right down to the smallest piece of ammunition's kept, who and when. The system worked smoothly all because of the Fianna and their honour. These people made and monitored all their weapons. Yolanda fully believed they possessed the names of those that died somewhere to their weapons, but she'd never know for sure.

When the first enforcers came down to pick up their kits, they were more than ready for a speedy check-out. One Fianna stood at the entrance and gave a simple lecture on what to expect in the kits and the safe practices with the truly dangerous weapons. Yolanda never felt so grateful for now needing to repeat like that. But she knew that was needed. The number of stressed enforcers entering the Armory arguing with each other concerned her, though. She prayed that didn't affect their performance in the field. These mixed-species teams weren't ready for this, in her opinion. But it wasn't her place to say anything right now.

Several hours later, they'd missed the rest of the meeting. Aria sent off the message and Edith got it. Now, their duties in the Armory took over, and they'd need to catch up later. Edith promised to speak with them when she returned with Gregory to ensure everything would appear clear to them.

Gregory informed Yolanda in a

distracted aside that Catherine

would take over the primary

protection for the time being of his Mate, and their pup. That things were too grave to have her attention pulled in multiple directions. This gave Yolanda mixed feelings, she'd felt the stress of being pulled in too many directions, and she'd bonded with her Luna. Even the pup, Evan, became endearing in his own way. So, it became difficult to take, but he was her leader, and his decision to make. He'd promise it would change again once the conflict with the Fae ended. Now they were to focus on the Armory and keeping it moving like a functional system.