We left the Betas and went in the conference room with Cedric. As the door closed Cedric cast an eye at Joel.”Some of the other Alphas wouldn’t mind having a piece of your territory, Joel,” he said bluntly.”Which is why I would never invite them to view this with me in this room,” Joel said settling into a chair. “I rue the day I cannot trust my mentor and my father’s best friend.””Just so your young mate is aware, Joel,” Cedric said taking his own seat. “I am quite impressed with the security you have here. You have taken to modern technology so well. I would hate to see someone confuse Elizabeth and take advantage.””Thank you for your concern,” I said politely and took my own chair. I got the message, ask Joel before answering questions about our security. It was good advice, I had to admit. Joel had been right. The old Alpha was always in charge and always teaching. Considering how he still sometimes addressed Joel as ‘young man’, I wondered how young he must think I was. On the monitor, Rick didn’t seem to be making much headway with the women. They refused to talk to him. Never one to miss a golden opportunity, he took the time to catch up with April. They sat on a love seat holding hands and talking. I knew they didn’t spend as much time together since Rick had been in the kitchens. Both of them were enjoying each other now. Rick asked April all about her new job. April went into intricate details describing the ball gown she was making for one of the rich women in town. She had never been commissioned to make something like this before. It was amazing to her, she loved her new job. Even in school April had never been told designing could be like this. Her family had told her fashion design was a dead field. Wistfully, she said she wished they could see her now; it just wasn’t possible. She was in a position she had dreamed of. The women started yelling. The wolves were liars and frauds. They had seen their true colors. April was not a human and she was not happy. I nearly went back down there when April used the sharp end of an antique letter opener to slice her arm open from elbow to wrist. The wound bled furiously. April sat on the couch and watched it, only sometimes blotting the excess away with a tissue.”Nobody checked the room for sharp objects before you put the suicidal women in there?” I asked quietly. Neither man answered me. They were engrossed with the monitor. Finally, Rick healed the scratch with a long lick of his tongue.”A wolf would have healed from that,” one of the women said quietly. “It probably would have been healed by the time the end of the cut was made if she was a wolf. The wolves that took me originally fought all the time. A cut like that never would last.”So it began. They started to talk to Rick and April stayed quiet beside him. She understood this was his show, her part was done. It was like they had planned to use her as an ice breaker. Once the women started talking, they couldn’t stop. They screamed and cried and told Rick every fear they had. The nightmares, the terror, and the loss they all felt came spilling out at him. He absorbed and dealt with all of it. In a room of five women near out of control with panic, he calmed each of them individually. It was amazing to watch. He never forgot a name or confused who told him what story. He used what they told him to lead them all to the same conclusion. They had to live, surviving was the only way to win this battle.”But we want to live and go home,” one of the women wailed. “I have a family. They deserve to know I’m all right.”Rick calmly talked to them. He asked them all the questions their families would ask. He asked them how their families would feel if they disappeared a second time; it would happen eventually.”You’ve agreed to the change, now. If we let you return home, how will you explain to them you don’t age like them anymore?” he asked calmly. “You won’t, you know, we live many hundreds of years. The aging process is markedly slower.”I stopped breathing for a moment. Joel had never said I couldn’t see my family anymore. I’d always just assumed I could. How would I explain to my observant aunts and cousins why I didn’t get the characteristic family age lines? Would my drunk father notice I didn’t really seem to change year to year? Sitting next to Joel I went through the same grieving process the women were going through. I had to disappear, too. It wouldn’t be hard. My family was distant, they only saw me every few years. It would take them a long time to realize I was gone. Tears formed in my eyes as I silently said goodbye to them.”I will share my family with you, mate. I know it is not the same, but it is all I can do,” Joel said repeating Paul’s words from the day before. “You may have everything I have, it is all yours.”Heedless of the visiting Alpha beside us, I crawled into Joel’s lap and cried. Lost in shock, I sat and listened to what Rick said.”Your families will accept your disappearance eventually. It is human nature to heal and move on from tragedy,” he told the women and they screamed at him. Their relatives would never move on. I rallied with them, but had no conviction in my thoughts. My family would barely notice I was gone, I knew that. Perhaps the other women were not so lucky.”They will or they won’t,” Rick said, “but the more you appear and disappear out of their lives, will that make it harder or easier?””We could be normal, if you just left us alone,” one woman cried on her knees by the fireplace. “We don’t need to be like you.””Would you walk down a dark street anymore?” Rick asked the group. “Would you go camping? Sleep alone? Would you suspect every nightmare fantasy you have ever had could come true? Do you believe in monsters now? Are you strong enough to face them on your own?”One woman had been pacing quietly by the window, I feared she would jump if the window was open. Joel told me the Betas outside the door would not let her get that far. If they heard it open, they would enter or Rick would stop her.”Are vampires real?” she asked quietly.”Does it matter?” Rick asked. “Did you know about werewolves? In five minutes won’t another mythical creature permeate your senses and you will be terrified of that one? I beg you to accept your lives have changed. The only way to deal with it is to stay with us; we can help you, protect you, and guide you.”It continued for hours. The women went round and round with Rick until they each came to the same conclusion. They were not the same, their worlds had changed, and they could never go back to the way it was. The women sat around the room in huddled piles. Some clung to each other, some sat by themselves. Rick circulated the room and touched each of them. When none of them recoiled from him, he went to the door and asked for five of Cedric’s Betas. Rick directed each of them to a woman. I felt unsure the women would accept comfort from their captors. Wasn’t this Stockholm syndrome? Shouldn’t this be wrong? I had to remind myself it was not a bad thing. These women would not survive without us. Their acceptance was paramount in importance. We watched as Rick directed each Beta to a specific woman. He instructed them to hold the women and let them talk if they needed to.”How did you know?” one human wailed burying her face into the chest of the female Beta holding her.”It is what I’m good at,” Rick said looking up at the camera in the room.”What do you want for him?” Cedric asked turning in our direction.”I’m not trading him Cedric, his home is here,” Joel responded. My mind was still too full of grief to really comprehend. It took a moment to realize they were talking about Rick.”Hmph,” Cedric huffed, “you’ve got the boy working in the kitchen, Joel. He has no use to you obviously. Let him come with me. I will train him to his full potential.””You’d make him into a negotiator, Cedric. Look at the boy, he’s a healer at heart. His drive to read people is based on a sincere desire to help. He has no interest in business. Rick would wither and fail in a corporate setting,” Joel scoffed. It felt odd sitting in a business meeting on Joel’s lap, but he wouldn’t let me leave. Honestly, I was glad he was holding me tight. I needed his closeness right now, because it felt like I was going to fall apart.”Perhaps we should have something to eat,” I heard Rick say on the monitor. “I’m sure they would bring us something.”Joel pressed a button beside him and Nate appeared in the doorway of our conference room.”Rick is asking for food. Send them a selection,” Joel ordered.”Chocolate,” I said looking up, “send them something sweet, too.”Joel and Cedric both looked at me confused.”Human women sometimes like to have something sweet to eat when they are upset. It’s not a good habit, but it happens.”