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48. Love a Found Family (Green Creek Series: Heartsong 3/4 ) · The Book-Watchers

• M y on its sounds anyway. Hi, welcome to book watchers. Possibly long segway slash introductory, but I am, of course one of your hosts with maybe not the most, but I definitely have a lot to give. Uh ah, Hi, Hi, how are you? My name's Jacob h the host but not with them, bruh. You are the hosts with the most. You're the drama. Wow, a good chunk of the drama. The drama. And I'm the other problem that I'm not a problem. I I'm not a problem. I'm the problem. Hi, how are you? I'm Devin the gay with the plan my dream to do gay ship. Yeah. Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, And of course we come to you live from a pre recorded recording from our bedrooms. That's that sounded weird. That's what book are we talking about today? That's sounded weird. You just kind of launch you kind of like your synapsis. I was like why am I I was like why am I saying? Yeah? I was like, why am I saying that we're recording this live from our room, our bedrooms? That just sounds weird? Anyway, of course, link link in inscription below. Take it together. Nevoid podcasts. If you want Spooky Ship spook oklups, it's your teeth. If you want D and D board on which is coming back soon, but my lazy ass take it forever on it. The YouTube channel be also in description Belove you want to go check that out? What other other podcasts you want us to part of the board family? Go check that out? But yeah, so what book we talk about today? So today we are going to be continuing with the Green Creek novels by Yeah, we are going to be talking about book three and that song. And you know, I love all of these books. Wolf Song of course will always be my favorite, and brother Song is which is the fourth and final book, will definitely be my second, is the second favorite, and of course number three like the other two. Like I don't like playing favorites, like Wolf Song is my favorite, but heart Song is a really it's a really good Oh God, I love it. I love them all. And let me tell you something. The story, the story, the story in this book just really throws you for a loop. H It really does. Because the way Klune wrote the first two books, it was kind of like a hot like a it was kind of like a mix of past present, past and present, so like it would have scenes like Remnant, like just the characters reminiscing about moments from their past. Like Book one, it was more of like it was just more in order. Started off from when OXNRD was about twelve years old when his father walked out, and it ended when he was about twenty six when he and Joe finally got together, and then with Raven's song Gordo, of course he's already in his late thirties. Yeah, and he's just having moments where like just flashbacks of his earlier his earlier life, and it just brings it just ties the story together, especially how his relationship with the Bennett Pack was how it is now and then at the end of the book it shows like what it's become. But this book, this book got me fucked up. Oh I heard that Ladies and Gentleman. This book got him fucked up. It got me fucked up, not because like I hated it, but because like I was expecting something along the same way, because the this book is going to be centered around the uh relationship between Robbie Fontaine, who if you remember, he came into the he came into the story in book one. He was originally an emissary for Michelle Hughes, the Alpha of Alpha's back in Maine. Ah. He was originally part of her pack, but he also he at the same time didn't really feel like he belonged to anyone pack. He often just kind of drifted around, went from place to place and never really settling anywhere. But then when he got to Green Creek, he was acting as an emissary for the main alf for the for Michelle h for this for Michelle Hughes, and he ended up meeting the second son of Thomas Bennett. Yeah, Carter Bennett. No, I'm sorry, future m hm, Future Devin. Uh, edit this part out because I fucked up. That's not that's not who we foll whose relationship is about? Sorry, I didn't not. Carter. Carter was the oldest of the three Bennett sons. Uh, his relationship this story, we'll be talking about the relationship between Robbie and uh, the second oldest son, Kelly Bennett. So the uh, so there were three brothers, Carter, Kelly, and then Joe. Joe of course got with Ox. And now this is talking about Kelly's relationship with Robbie Fontaine however, Robbie, it will be. The book is from Robbie's perspective. Now, when I started reading this book, it started out how more or less how I expected, with a little bit of, uh, just some preference preface about Robbie's early life. So, Robbie had a very somewhat of a very tragic childhood because his mother was werewolf but his father was a human. But the problem is that his father, as it turns out, was actually a hunter. Now I don't know, it didn't really explain how his mother fell in love with a hunter. Probably she probably didn't know that he was a hunter, and he probably didn't know she was a werewolf. But either way, they had a relationship, they had Robbie. And then one day his mother ran and took Robbie with him, and they were on the road for quite some time before they settled with a pack. For a while, they were safe, they didn't feel like they needed to run. But then Robbie's father hunted them down and along with another group, but along with a large group of hunters, he ended up his father ended up killing every everyone in the pack, including his mom, but not before his mom managed to hide him. Yeah, so some more werewolves did show up, and although it wasn't specifically like spelled out that they killed his father, but it was heavily implied that all of the hunters were killed, including his dad. So he was found by another pack of werewolves. He was raised kind of like in a like kind of like in a foster system before he became part of Michelle Hughes pack in Maine. And you know what, it's been so long, like we kind of we had a of a Caswell that's where it is. So I was forgetting, like, wait, where's the where is Michelle's pack located? It's in Caswell, Maine. So uh. Aside from that, it begins flashing more or less to the present, but instead of Robbie. Uh, so Robbie, he's been He had been having dream dreams of his early life, as well as having strange streams of pack of wolves that he himself doesn't recognize, and a forest and a clearing that he feels like he knows but he doesn't really, but he doesn't really recognize it consciously. When he wakes up, he's in a house and it turns and he's in Caswell. He's back in he's he's back in Michelle Hughes's packgrounds and he's currently living with UH. He's sharing the house with UH the Casual Packs which future Devin edit this part out let me, I'm terrible with names, ladies and gentlemen, give me a second. Let me look up his name. Do do do? Go back to the beginning. No, no, no, no, no. Ezra that's his name. M hm. I knew that, y'all, pass my test um hm. So he's sharing the house with a which name Ezra, and UH Ezra has been helping him because he's been having nightmares. Now at this point, I am very confused. When I was reading this part, I was very confused because I was thinking to myself, huh okay, so this must be from when he was still with the Casual Pack before he went to Green Creek and became a part of the Bennett Pack. Yeah. So I just I was like, all right, stroll with it, and it shows a little bit of his life with the some aspects of his life, he enjoyed spending time with the younger With the younger werewolves of the Casual Pack, they often they often look up to him like he's a big like a big brother. He has a closer relationship with Ezra because Ezra's become somewhat of like a fout, like a fatherly figure and say, I thought you were going to say a thought. I'm like a thought. There's that intrusive thought coming out anyway. And it also shows a bit of his relationship with the Alpha, Michelle Hughes. She considers him her second, which was surprising to him at first because he didn't think she put that much trust in him. But he rolls with it, and I'm like, okay, well, that must have been such a blow for her when he decided to defect the Bennett pack. But then she sends him on a mission to check in on a small pack further south. I believe it was in Virginia. Yeah, And when he gets there, he notices this pack is very mistrustful. They don't really want him there. The Witch Ezra goes along with him. They talked to the pack just because this pack has not been keeping in regular contact with Alpha. Hughes. Being the alpha in charge of the other packs all across you know states, she has to make sure everyone is you know, she keeps abs on everybody, and all the other alphas are obligated to report into her from time to time, but this pack hasn't. She figured that this particular pack was just taking some time to get readjusted with itself because its previous alpha had passed away and the end, the role of alpha was passed on to the alpha's daughter. That alpha's daughter, and since she hasn't been keeping in touch with Caswell, they need to. Michelle Hughes needed someone to go check up on them, so Robbie gets there. He speaks to them with Ezra by his side, and he notices how mistrustful they are and how suspicious they are of him and Ezra. They let them stay to night. However, in the middle of the night, one of the pack members leads Robbie away from Ezra to show him something that they've been trying to keep secret, and he told him because he this. This pack member told him that he doesn't really want anybody. He doesn't really want this getting back to Alpha Hughes because they don't trust her, and Robbie is very confused because he doesn't know why. He doesn't understand why they wouldn't trust her since she's the Alpha of all Yeah, but he leads her into a farm. But he leads Robbie into a farm, into one of the other farmhouses, and inside they turns out this pack is keeping an omega. Uh so as you've probably so as you guys remember in the past, uh the wherewolf hierarchy is broken down into three groups. There are the alphas, which are at the highest They are defined by not only being bigger and stronger, but they also have glowing red eyes. Then they are Then there are the betas. The betas are just basically the average wolf. They're they're your typical were wolf. They are they're still big were wolves when they're in their wolf form, are about the size of a horse. But their eyes glow a bright orange color, think like a Halloween orange color. O love that. And then there are the omegas. Now omegas are were wolves that have that are not a part of any pack, and they have allowed themselves to descend into something more feral and more animalistic, so they don't really have much self control. And they're defined by their glowing violet eyes, so like a purplish blue color. M And when Robbie sees this, this omega, it's just a little boy, it's a a child, and the thing is this child is caught between something of like what is considered a half transformation, so it's not full He hasn't fully transformed into his wolf form, but he's not fully maintaining his human form either, And it's shocking because werewolves typically don't have their first transformation until they're about twelve or thirteen, around the time they hit puberty. And this boy looked to be about eight, like eight years old. Yeah, And Robbie was confused and asked the and asked this wolf why he hasn't he told Caswell about this boy, and why haven't they asked for help with him? And he tells and again he reaffirms that this that they don't trust Alpha Hughes or anyone from Caswell, but he trusted Robbie because he knows who Robbie is. And Robbie is confused because he's never met this guy before. And the overall vibe that this that the members of this pact had been giving Robbie the entire time was almost as if they knew who Robbie was, even though he himself has not done anything of note aside from being the second to Alpha Hughes. And they also they also seem to be like almost like they're trying. They're hiding something else as well. Before Robbie leaves to return to Caswell with his report, the new alpha of this pack like sneaks him a slip, a piece of paper with a number on it, and she whispers in his ear and on the note there's a little message that says for when you're ready. And even more confusing, I'm starting to get confused here because I'm like, what is going on? So he goes back to the pack house and the way this next few the next several pages are written. It's confusing because it's almost like Robbie forgot that he'd even gone to that Uh, had he even gone to the to visit this pack and even his interactions with the other ah, with the other wolves in the in the compound, some avoid him, some treat him with some kind of like uh, some keep it like keep their distance and like give them like a certain you know that certain kind of clipped respect. Yeah, and he he starts noticing somethings off because when he, like I said, he interacts with the the younger the children of the pact a lot more. And one of them asked him, like if he was sad for being gone from the UH from Caswell for so long, and he was confused and he said, what are you talking about it? I only recently came to Caswell in the past year or so. And the little boy was even more confused because he's like, no, you were You've been here before, like well before that, and he doesn't really know what to think about that. He begins to notice that one thing that he notices in the in Caswell is that there is one house that is under constant guard, and he learns that there is a prisoner there that's being held under a magical guard. This person was I believe they said it was either a witch or where nos a. They told him that the person under guard was a witch that committed some crimes. And he also begins to realize that there's that something is going on within Caswell. He notices that there's their secrets being kept from him, and while he's while he's talking to Michelle Hughes at one point, he notices that she's really that she's actually hiding something from him. So when her when her back is turned when she UH and while she's distracted it out of her office, he searches her office and he come across he comes across a couple of journals that were left behind in the office, and these journals belonged to an older werewolf name Thomas Bennett. Now, if you guys remember, Thomas Bennett was the original Alpha of the Bennett Pack before his son Joe took over. Before he died and his son and his son Joe took over, And he doesn't know why, but he feels like these journals are somewhat significant, and while he's searching the office he finds he also finds the note that uh uh, that note that that Alpha gave him, but he doesn't remember it. He doesn't remember who gave it to him, and he doesn't understand who the message is for. So knowing that like he's suspect, he's beginning to suspect that something is being kept from him and that something is complete, that there's something wrong going on in Caswell, he decides to call the number and when he speaks, when the out when the small pack Alpha, let me get her name. I'm sorry, let me get her name. I can't I need to. I am terrible with names. People. Yeah, I'm terrible with names. This is true, it's took him for everything. Might learn my name. No it's not. Let's see Shannon Wells. That's her name. M hm. So Alpha Wells answers the phone and she's confused because she doesn't recognize the number. But when he tells her who she who. When he tells her who he is, she immediately recognizes him and tells him like, well, it took you long. And and he's like, who are you? And she's now confused because she's like, what are you talking about? You know who I am? You were just here at my You were just here at my pack house in my home a few weeks ago. He's like, I've never been to that place before and I've never and I don't know who you are. So it's starting. He's starting to panic because he's realizing that something is something weird is going on. He has gaps in his memory and he keeps having these dreams about like wolves. He don't he doesn't. He feels like he should know but doesn't, but he doesn't recognize them, and Alpha Wells tells him that they need to meet, so he she tells him where to meet her. He ends up leaving Caswell. He has and he goes to her to where she tells to where she told him to meet. And when Michelle when hughes and Ezra learned that he's planning on leaving, he just tells him, Oh, I just need to go check up on something, you know, pack business like gives him a just a blind excuse, yeah, and they believe him and let him go. However, Ezra is beginning to act weird, and so he leaves. He travels further south to the meeting point, to the meeting place with Alpha Wells, and when he gets there, he sees her and he immediately knows she's an Alpha, but he doesn't recognize her even though he's seen her, even though earlier in the book it was established he's seen her before, right, And it's there, it is here that she reveals that there is a conspiracy surrounding Caswell and that he is actually not who he seems that he he is not who he seems to be, or he believes himself to be He's a lion, or he doesn't. He's like, he doesn't realize it, and so as it. So here's the thing, m his every part of him was screaming, it's a trap. This is a trap of some kind. Mm hmmm, And well he was right. Yeah, So the thing is when he the thing is is that when he gets there, well I say it's a trap, it's not really so much as of a trap, is more of a rescue. Yeah. And while he's speaking to Alpha Wells, she uh, he hears someone's uh. He hears someone to call his name behind him, and well, actually, I'm sorry, back up, back up, back up, I'm sorry. I have my notes here, I swear to God I do. I'm just getting like jump future devon edit this part of oh Future in his eyes right now, he knows. So while she's telling so, Shannon Walls is telling him that he is basically being used and that he was actually that he's actually a prisoner of Caswell and that he's being manipulated. And he laughs in her face, and he's like he's not only confused, he's getting frustrated because he doesn't know. He knows thing is wrong. He knows that there's something that that's being kept from him, but he's not sure if he should trust this this strange, this stranger that he's standing before right now. Yeah, and she basically tells him, well, it's better if I show you. So, right in front of his eyes, she transformed. She transforms into a wolf form, but he's surprised because she's not a typical were wolf. She's actually a mained wolf, which, for those of you who don't know, is a South American breed of canine, which is actually which is actually not even really it's not even a wolf. It's a category all on its own, kind of like a fox or a jackal. Yeah, main wolves aren't really wolves. There's something more akin to like a to like a fox or a or even a jackal or like, but they're much bigger. They're not as big as actual wolves, but they're much bigger than boxes. But they're really beautiful anyway, this uh. When she turns into her mained wolf form, she lets out she gets let's out a call. Ah. She lets out a call very similar basically the main wolf equivalent of a howl, and from the surrounding trees it comes the response of other wolves and he starts freaking out because he's like, oh crap, this was a trap. But before he can run, several people step out of the wood, out of the woods, and it's the Benet Pack it's their witch, Gordo, Joe and all right, Carter and Kelly. Kelly is in his human form. Kelly is in his human form, and he's looking at He's looking at Robbie with something like relief and yearning, like like what's going on? Hold on, I'm sorry. Let me just get this done. Let me see. I'm sorry, I'm actually looking through the book right now. Work try gets a proper scene. Yeah, so when Benettack shows up, it's actually everyone. It is you know, both Ox and Joe, it's Gordo, it's Mark and Carter, and Kelly is there too. So the thing about Kelly is when Kelly shows up, he's in his wolf. He's actually in his wolf form. His fur is described as being like a tan color. Oh wait, no, I'm sorry, God, damn it, ah Ship, I should I should have reviewed this before we started. I always do this, got it, damn it? Test test task. Now you're fine, You're good, mum. Hum. See here, so the way this confrontation works out, let's just back up a bit. Then the Bennett pack reveals themselves, and at this point, Robbie had been told by Alpha Hughes that the Bennetts are are rogue pack and they should be treated with extreme caution as well as like you know, on site. Yeah, So when he sees him, at first, he doesn't know who they are, but Joe and Ox they step forward and they introduced themselves to him, and he immediately he goes on the He's immediately tense. He's ready to lash out at them. And because he knows that from what he what Hughes has told him is that they're the enemy, they should and they're very dangerous. So he immediately is mistrustful of them. They try to they try to tell him that you know who we are, We know you, you are a part of our pack, but he doesn't believe them, and he's getting very tense. He's basically turning into a corner. He's basically turning into a cornered animal at this point. And at one point, uh, at one point, Robbie finally decides he's had enough and he and he rushes them and he nearly attacks them, but then he hears somebody call out his name. Yeah. When when he hears that, when he hears that voice, he everything stops. He stops, He doesn't, he stops his attack and when he sees this. For uh, when he sees this man step forward, he's immediately he feels like he knows who this person is. And well, here's the thing. Even, here's the thing. Robbie begins to learn that his memory had been altered. Yeah, he was a part of it. So this is the point where I realized. Okay, so it turns out this wasn't in the past, but this is his present and this is actually the present, and Robbie had somehow been kidnapped by Michelle Hughes using with the help of Gordo's Gorda Livingstone's father, Richard Livingstone. The thing is Alpha Hughes. She knows that one day she's going to have to step down from her role because she was only a placeholder, yeah, for Alpha All, and that the real Alpha All is meant to be Joe Bennett. Yeah, but with everything that was going on in his life, he wasn't ready to take that role just yet. So she was supposed to just hold it until he was ready. But now she is basically on a power trip and she doesn't want to give up that give up that role and she yeah, and she's done an earthinger power to antagonize the Bennett Pack. She even sicked a whole squadron of like a whole group of hunters on them who late who actually and very publicly attacked Green Creek and they not only hurt people, but so they Basically she's she, she's Alpha Hughes is now on the Bennett ship list, and they're at basically they're at war now and the Bennetts have rallied dozens of packs to their support. But Alpha Hughes has been allowing these packs to fall on under the onslaught of these infected wolves because there's there was an infection that was transforming normal wolves into omegas, but ox Nerd was able to stop it because since he became aware wolf, he's somehow now able to be the alpha of of Omega wolves, so he's able to help them. He's able to help to help the infected wolves retain their humanity and keep them from going completely feral. So that backfired on her, and now Alpha Hughes is using Robert Livingstone as another as another tool to keep her power. But what she doesn't realize is that Livingstone is the real villain here. She's not using him, He's using her. Yeah, and the way that he guaranteed her cooperation was when Robbie wasn't paying attention. Like when Robbie was had left Green Creek for a short period of time to help out one of the neighboring packs, living Stone captured him, yeah and brought him back to Caswell and altered his mind into thinking that he's still loyal to to Alpha Hughes, and also erasing his memories of his time with the Bennett Pack. Now, he didn't fully erase Robby's memories. It was more of like he just put a block there so Robbie can't access those memories. The Bennetts had to subdue Robbie at this point because he was still very flighty, even though he saw Kelly and he recognized Kelly, even though he doesn't know why, He's still basically a cornered animal, and he tries, he tries to attack them and run away, but they subdue him and they bring him back to Green Creek. There. They there, they they put them in their basement and behind a line of so we can't escape, and they begin there to try to readabilitate him. And it takes some time because he Robbie is still very mistrustful of the Bennett pack, but he's beginning to notice that there are things that they know about him, personal things. For example, Robbie is he can be described as somewhat of a hipster because he wears glasses. He wears glasses even though as a werewolf he doesn't need them, but they know why he does. And that's because his mom did the same thing. She wore glasses and even though she didn't really need them, but she would wear them. But when she died, before she died, she gave she put her glasses onto him and she told him, she just told him, just hold on into those for me, but then she died. So ever since he's just been wearing them. So it is his way of like holding onto a piece of his mom. And they would tell him these things that we know you. You are a part of our pack, and you are Kelly Bennett's mate. Who. Yeah, So the reason why whenever he sees Kelly and he gets he's really like confusing string of emotions like longing, attachment, even love. You know, it's confusing for him because he doesn't know who this guy is. Yeah, and let me tell you something. When I realized that I was like, oh, this is no, they got me fucked up. No, they had him fucked out. Oh, they got me fucked up. Because when he's now that he's back with the Bennetts and they are slowly getting him, not only he's not only they're not only earning his trust, but he's also earning their trust back to because when he was captured, it wasn't just like oh he got captured and uh, they had to go on the search, go on the hunt to try to find him and bring him home. No, hit hit the fan. Yeah, because Robert Livingstone didn't just capture and brainwash him. He also before he took him back to Caswell, he cast a spell on Robbie that briefly turned him into a feral beast. So when Robbie came back to Green Creek, yeah, he attacked the first people he saw, and that happened to be uh Tanner and Chris, two of the mechanics from Gordo's shop. Now those now, Uh Gordo, as I've said before, owns a shop. Uh, Gordo owns a owns an autobody shop which Robbie used to work in as a receptionist. Gordo refused to let Robbie anywhere near the cars because there was a There was a point where Robbie set the car engine on fire while trying to do a tire rotation. Is concerning but impressive at the same time, Yeah thing it uh So, Livingstone had basically turned him into a ticking time bomb. So when he were as soon as he got back to Green Creek, he attacked the first members of the pack he saw, and the three there were three guys that worked alongside Ox and Gardo at the shop that was Rico, Chris and Ten. And those three were humans. They stayed humans although they were included as part of the pack. They decided to stay human. But then when Robbie came back under the control of Livingstone, he attacked them and he nearly killed them. And this was this came as a huge blow for the Bennett pack because they didn't know what was going on. Robbie just attacked and then he ran and then he ran away, and they weren't sure if Robbie had turned out to be a trader and was secretly working for Hughes the entire lin or what. But Robbie was held captive, was being held at Caswell for about thirteens. It's a little over a year. Yeah, And the is that he learns that Theack didn't bother search for him at first because they were all very confused, but eventually, especially under pressure from Kelly. Because the thing is, at this point in book two, there were hints that Kelly and Robbie were an item. It was one of those It was more of a like kind of like you kind of just see the glance that, you know, the glances they would sneak at each other, or how Robbie would follow Kelly around or vice versa, things like that. So at that point we didn't we have we haven't really seen anything of the relationship. But from where this book starts off, we're well past that. We're well past the awkward you know, like love like beginning for new love stage, the dating, and now they are we're at the point where they were actually full blown mates. They had already marked each other as such, and they already they were they were building a life together, like Kelly had become a deputy of Green Creek and like the because of the Hunter attack from the previous during the previous book, the citizens of Green Creek now know that wherewolves exist, and they've come to accept the Bennett packt as part of their as part of Green Creek. And also they've even like elected them to be part of their community as like you know, like Kelly is a police officer now and his older brother Carter is has been elected as mayor of the town. But since it's a small town, it's more of like a kind of like a honorary title. Yeah, but they had built their lives together, they were they already love They've already established that they love each other. They've already basically have just built their lives like year's worth. Is this this book takes place several years after the events of the second book. Yeah, and I think, let me see, I want to say it was probably it probably takes place about four years after the events of the second book. And because the second book takes place almost immediately after the first book, and Robbie when he shows up, it was during when he first comes to Green Creek. It was during the first like within the first few months of Joe Bennett leaving the pack to track down Richard Collins, who had killed his father. So by this point Robbie had been a part of their pact for about six or seven years, or like about six years, and then he got kidnapped and brainwashed and lost an entire like more than a year of his life. So he had been a part of the Bennett pack's life for over seven years, and he built a relationship and a life with them, only for it to be ripped away by Livingstone. So when he's as he's as Robbie's learning all of this, he's becoming more and more distraught because now he's starting to accept that this is real. The Bennetts aren't lying to me, and that Livingstone, who he originally thought was Ezra, had manipulated him. And just to step back a little bit. When the Bennetts finally found Robbie and brought him back to Green Creek, they did have a brief confrontation with Robert Livingstone, and he proved to be way more powerful than they thought he was because he's now using dark magic, so he was easily able to he was easily able to get the upper hand over them. His own son Gordo was able to uh give give them enough of like hold his father back enough for them to escape with Robbie in tow, so now there were They're working to not only figure out a way to bring Robbie back to them fully, but also to finally put an end to both Livingstone and Hugh and Alpha Hues. They come, they finally, they eventually rebuild most of their connections with Robbie. Robbie when he finds out that he attacked two of his pack, was completely heartbroken because he knows that he would never attack the people he loves, especially people he considers his family. And because he had attacked Tanner and Chris, they were so badly injured that Ox and Joe were forced to turn them into were wolves so they would survive. So now those two are wolves the only one of their The only humans left are Julie and uh Rico. But either way, they are still trying to figure out a way to deal with Alpha Hughes and Livingstone. Now that they know for a fact that Livingstone is working with Hughes, they need to figure out a way to basically storm Kaswell and take her down. But that's not going to be easy to do because Caswell is basically d C of the of the wolf community. Yeah, so it's it's fourti fied. There's dozens of werewolves living there, and they also have an army of witches at their disposals, so it's not like they're gonna be able to do much. While the Bennetts they have managed to build alliances with other packs across the nations as well as across the nation, as well as recruit other witches to their cause. They still don't feel like it's going to be enough. However. The decision to attack, the decision to finally bring it bring an end to the to Alpha Hughes and Livingstone came when Alpha Shannon Wells shows up at Green Creek. So she had somehow managed to cross an entire the entire country and get and reached and and she made it to Green Creek on her own, severely injured because her path was attacked and she barely made it out alive. Yeah, in fact, she doesn't survive. She meant she knew though, she needed to get to the Benett pack and warn them that living Stone and Alpha Wells they are to something because her pack, her pack, was slaughtered by children. Oh so Livingstone had changed tactics with that virus he created which would turn werewolves into omegas by destroying their emotional tests their emotional tethers and their bonds with their pack, causing them to become to become feral and more aggressive. Well he did that, but now he did it too where it would affect young children. Yeah, and it is and her pack and Shannonwell's pack was completely torn apart by a massive word of werewolf children Like these kids were the way she described them, it was like they were infected by that same disease, but they were caught within this half transformation, so they have teeth and claws, but they still look like kids. Oh god, and she was dying. She was. She was so badly hurt that she only had enough strength to get to Green Creek and warn the and worn their pack of what's of what happened. And unfortunately Alpha Wells dies. She's not. Even though were wolves are able to heal from very uh really bad injuries, she there comes a point where they're even their healing factory isn't going to be enough, and she had reached that point, so she unfortunately died. At this point, the the Bennett pack comes to the decision that now is the time to take down, to take down Alpha Wells before they do. I'm sorry, I just said, Alpha Wells, Alpha Hughes. It's time to take down Alpha Hughes. But the thing is, Alpha Wells died in Elizabeth Bennett's arms. Elizabeth Bennett being the mother of Joe Carter and Kelly Ah, she herself is described as a queen Elizabeth Bennett. Yeah, as a queen of where she's like. She's often described as as true royalty, a queen of the wolves everything. And let me tell you this bitch acts like it. She doesn't just act hold no, no, hold on, hold on. She doesn't just she doesn't act like it. She is a queen. She is royalty. Let me tell you something. When Alpha Wells died, Elizabeth was holding her and was there for her in her last mons. But once she dies in her arms. Once Wells dies in Elizabeth's arm, Elizabeth is like, all right, that's it, that's it. Uh huh. She gets up, She marches her ass into her son's office and she uh pulls up his computer, his computer, and she do She starts a video call with Caswell and when the video when Hughes answers the phone. Let me tell you something, Elizabeth Bennett is not an alpha, but she sure damn and is intimidating as an is as intimidating as an alpha, and she commends just as much, if not more respect than an alpha would. Yeah, and she while she doesn't exactly go on like a long tirade of how she and her family are going to completely tear Alpha Hughes apart, but she does make it clear that she and her family coming for Alpha Hughes, and they're coming for for living Stone too, and she even, uh, she even tells her that they know that Ezra, their witch, is actually living Stone, and she even calls him out right then and there, and he comes into the into sight of the video call, and it's clear that he's in charge because he just kind of waves Alpha Hughes out of the way and she moves without question. And that's a big thing because the thing about alphas is that their instinct is to be in control and to be the ones to like, you know, give the orders. Right, So when you see in alpha, especially in alpha of high status, as Michelle Hughes just casually get like just takes an order without being without giving any kind of backstats or anything like that, that just goes to show how dangerous Richard Richard Livingstone is so they exchanged some words with Richard, you know, pending doom. We're taking your ass down, that kind of shit. Uh. Livingstone makes it clear that you're like, you're the ones that are putting this on yourself. I just want what's mine. I want my son back, and Gordo, thinking that his dad is talking about him, tells him, yeah, well I want nothing to do with you, so you can go fuck yourself basically, but Livingstone is like, please, I'm not talking about you. You've already been You've already too far gone. They've turned you against me, and there's and I'm never gonna get you back. I'm talking about my other son. And uh, like when when I read that part, I was like, wait, what I'm kidding. I already knew about I already knew this because in the the epilogue of the last book, he that's the that's the deal he made with Michelle Hughes. She helps him, He helps her get Robbie back, She helps him get his son back, and he confirmed. He hints that it's not Gordo, but he has another son, but we don't know who. We didn't know for sure who it was. And when he says like he's talking about his other son. Gordo is even more confused because as far as he knows, he doesn't have a brother. He was an only child, and he even tells his dad like, Dad, there's nobody here. Even if I do have a younger brother, we don't have him. If that's why you're attacking us, we never had him. And living Stone is like, oh really, and then he calls out, Gavin, I know you're there, Please just make the don't make this harder. Come home to me, and I should probably bring ther I want to go ahead and take this time to bring the attention to the literal wolf in the room. No so. And during the events of book two, when the Hunters attacked Green Creek, the leaders of the leader of the Hunter, Meredith King, she had tamed two Omega werewolves and basically turned them into her pets. So these werewolves were so far gone that they were more wolf than man, so they were always in their wolf form. They never turned back into their human form. They were completely feral. One of them was killed during the attack, but the other one surprisingly ended up defecting to the Bennett pack because hint, hint, he has a this were wolf, a described as a massive timber wolf, almost as big as Ox, if not bigger. Uh. This timberwolf begins, uh, has a certain takes a certain interest in Carter m hm, the oldest of the Bennett's sons hints hint interestin hint wink wink, and since then has been following Carter around like a literal button magnet. He will not let Carter have any personal space. He follows him around. He like basically is like his shadow. It anno hit the fuck out of Carter at first, but Carter eventually comes around and kind of kind of grows attached to the werewolf. But the entire time, this timberwolf does not change back into his human form. They suspect that that's probably because he's so far gone that he doesn't remember what it means to be a human. Yeah, but so yeah. When Livingstone calls out to a to his son, who is a man named Gavin, the timberwolf gets up and steps forward. No, yeah, so so so yeah. It turns out that the timberwolf is actually Robert Livingstone's youngest son, long lost son, and Gordo's younger brother. Yay, happy Yay, happy family reunion it's it's always drama with the family. Yeah, there is, I would know, Sam. Yeah. Uh So everyone is is thoroughly shocked because they didn't realize that they had Like, for one thing, they didn't know that Richard had another son, and for another thing, they didn't know that that son happened to be this giant timberwolf that's been following Carter around like a like a lost puppy. I'm not sure if I should say pun intended or no pun intended. Huh, I mean pun intended, unintended, Yeah, pun intended, And Livingstone tells them, if you just give me Gavin, I'll just I'll leave you alone. That's all I want. But Carter surprisingly steps forward and tells him that's not gonna happen, and everyone else comes to Gavin's defense, and Livingstone's like, all right, then let there be war and cuts off the video call from here. It's at this point that the others need to really work on work with Robbie because they're not entire Although they've come to trust him again and he's come to accept that he who he originally was, they still need to figure out if Livingstone has some kind of hold over him. So with the help of Gordo and the other witches that they have on their side, they go into Gordon. They go into Robbie's mind and to see if there's any kind of triggers that might turn him against them. But while they do their best to undo any of Robert Livingstone's work on his mind, they they still know that he there is a slight chance that he might be used in some way. And Robbie's like, well, what can I do to resist or to stop it? And they said, and they told them, well, you just need to have very You need to maintain your your connections. You need to maintain your ah, you need to keep your connection strong. And by that they mean he needs to really reconnect with his mate. Hint more spicy scenes with his discovering the fuck yeah yeah, yeah, pretty much. So he and Kelly get reacquainted with them with the with each other, and it all not only restrengthens their mating bond, but it also helps Robbie to reaffirm his position within the pack with his with his mate everything, and they finally make plenty uh. They finally take action and head and make their way two Caswell to confront living Stone and alpha hues. But let me tell you something. When they arrive at Caswell, they were not expecting. They were expecting to force meet resistance, but they were not expecting to find the literal clusterfuck that they do find. For starters, they do encounter the the infected children. Mm hmm. And it's a bitch to They're a bitch to deal with because they don't want to They don't want to hurt these kids. They want to help them. But still they're getting their asses handed to them by these little kids. But eventually something calls these kids away from them and they make their way into the actual Uh territory where the pack UH lives. When they get there, the wall. Now the pack land has a big wall surrounding their entire complex. But this wall has been completely overgrown by some strange, disease looking trees and vines. Yeah, it's completely unnatural looking and upon close upon closer inspection, as it turns out, the trees are growing around the trees actually are grown from the bodies of the werewolves from the pack from the Caswell Pack. Yeah so, no, they're trees, but inside every tree is a werewolf from the weird Yeah so they're alive. It's just that they're being used as fertilizer for these diseased trees, and the trees are making it almost impossible for them to get inside the compound, but they managed to do that and they immediately head to the to the Alpha's house. At first, they don't find much resistance, but they then but they eventually do run into Livingstone and Alpha Hughes. Livingstone tries to use his magic on Robbie to trigger him and to turning against the Bent Pack, but because he's because he's rebuilt his bonds with the pack and with his mate, Livingstone has little to know hold over him, and he's able to resist and they're actually able to bite back. Livingstone, of course, calls in in the hordes of werewolf children to attack and then, uh, surprisingly, it's not Joe and Ox, the two alphas of the Bennett Pack, that attacks Michelle Hughes, but it's Elizabeth Bennett, who immediately goes straight for her. On site, I was like, oh shit, on site on site. As soon as the fight starts, Elizabeth, she transforms and she goes right for Michelle Hughes, and the fight is epic like it's confusing. It's epic. They have to contend not only with several witches that are working under UH like, they not only have to contend with several witches that are still working with Livingstone, they also have to contend with uh excuse me, They have to contend with Livingstones, magic and Alpha Hughes and the children. So and it's confusing. They do manage to corner Livingstone, and at one point, Michelle Hughes tries to jump at Ox, but Ox catches her and throws her into a house, which was hilarious because it not only goes to show that even as Alpha of all alphas, she's nothing compared to ox nerd ox nerd Matheson. I love that guy. I love him so much. Right, And the thing is is that they do encounter a lot of resistance, even with the extra which is helping them against Livingstone, living Stones proving to be too strong. But at one point, just when they think that, just when Livingstone thinks that he has yup her hands, Michelle Hughes, he and both Hughes and living Stone began to come to UH begin to come to UH like. They begin to be at odds with each other because living Stone reveals that she's disposable to him, and she tells him that this is not what they were Uh, this is not what they agreed to. All this like the kids, the pack being turned into those trees, things like that. She's starting to second guess it and like she herself is completely beat up because she got her ass whooped, right, And when Livingstone like basically drops the ball and says like, yeah, we're not gonna do this and tries to kill her, she surprises him by biting him. Now, when the thing is when a where when an alpha bites you, that's how you were turned. Only an alpha were wolf can turn you into a world into a were wolf. But the thing is witches cannot be turned into were wolves. If they're bitten by an alpha wolf. They done like their own magic and the magic of the of the bite of an alpha just clashes with each other and they end up dying and if they survive, even if they do survive, like it's kind of like not fair, it doesn't end well for them either way. But since Livingstone is such a powerful witch, his own magic is going to clash hard with the magic of a werewolf. So when he when she bites him. He basically he seizes and he just drops dead right then and there. And she turns back to the Bennett pack and she's like already, she's ready to go toe to toe with the two with the other two alphas with with them. She's like, all right, let's do this. We're not done here. But before she can, living Stone gets back up and right before their eyes, he punches Alpha Hughes right through the chest, killing her. And so as they watch this, Livingstone begins to transform into this massive humanoid version of a werewolf. So the way the werewolves transform in this in this book, they don't have like a like a hybrid form, like there's a half transformed transform, Like there's a half transformation they have where it's like they can like grow like wolf claws and teeth, but they still are bipedal, but they're not fully transformed. But what Livingstone turns into is this massive like think Van helsing were a wolf. Den, Oh you bitch, did you walk away? Yeah? Okay, So we're gonna just pause here for a second until Devin can like until Devon returns. Deviven, Hello, I can't hear you. If you can hear me, take yourself off from Well, no, you're not a mute. I can tell. Hello, Devon, Oh god, if you fell asleep again, I'm gonna be pissed. Devon Davante deve Ontario incorrectly spelled Devon. It's only gonna get more insulting from here. Hello. Okay, Well I'm just gonna wait. I'm just gonna wait. Is my internet acting up? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? No gun service? Hello you? Oh god, puter. Devon's going to be listening to this, and he's gonna get so turned over, especially when you here's the part where I call him incorrectly spelled Devon. What nah? I knew that would get your attention. Yeah, I know you walked away, you slut. Well you're again. You were on the thame balas having a cat throw up their guts everywhere. Oh okay. I was like, I was like, trying to ask you a question and he didn't respond, and I was like, Devin, this hello again. Now you were on tangent. I didn't want to I didn't want to interrupt you, so I was like, I'm gonna go handle this cat situation real quick. You notice this time again, what question did you ask me? So? What part. Okay, what part? And first off, how dare you say it correctly spelled devon? How dare you get your attention? Well? I knew it would get your attention. How dare you in the presence of me on God's Day? On Lord's Day? Yeah, on the Lord's Day day. Yeah. So anyway, it was, Uh, I've only been gone for a few minutes. So mm hmm, I've been gone for that long. I don't know. Did I Did you hear the part where I started talking about their fight? Yes? Okay, which part did you like? Okay, So I'm just going to backtrack, so yeah, they started now okay, so yeah, so they started fighting. The Elizabeth attacked Alpha Hues alongside Yeah, uh the kids the world kids came in again and started fucking shut up and uh the rest of the pack, Robbie and others begin to try to like attack and face off against uh living Stone. He tries to use his magic to compel Robbie into into serving him, but since Robbie has strength like he's rebuilt the connections with his pack again and with UH with Kelly, so Livingstone's magic no longer works on it. Yeah, but during the fight, Michelle's getting her ass handed to her. At one point, she tries to attack, Uh, she tries to attack Ox but ox grabs her and just chucks her into a house. Oh, which is which was hilarious because like it just goes to show that even as alpha of all the alpha, she is nothing compared to Oxford Matheson, Like he just and it was the way he does it too. It was kind of like like she jumps at him, he grabs her and just yets her back at like yeats her across the way and into a house. I'm like, okay, well that like how casual was that? Right? Not gonna lie, it was a little turned on. Ah, But they confront they do. They do finally confront living Stone. He's proving to be too much, a bit of a bit much for them to handle. Hughes Alpha Hughes tries to get him to help her, but he he makes it clear that oh, you're disposable this entire time. I don't care like your use your useful ones is done. I'm just gonna take my son, who they've propped to me on a silver platter and leave. And they have a bit a bit of a disagreement and when living Stone his back is turned to him, hughes, jumps up and bites him. And like I said, like I said before, alpha's when they bite you. That's how you get turned into a were wolf. That's the only way you can get turned into a were wolf is from a bite. Is a bite from an alpha. Unfortunately for living Stone, however, he is a witch, and witches can't be turned into were wolves. Says the fact that if they get bitten by a wolf, they will either die or just live out the rest of their lives in excruciating pain. That's all fun. No, it isn't. And that's pretty much what happens to living Stone. She bites him, he begins to transform and drops dead, or so we think, because living Stone hughes once she thinks that her work is done, Like, all right, got rid of him. Now it's time to take care of the rest of you assholes. Living Stone stands back up and he punches right through Hugh's chest. Oh yeah, so two things happen. Yeah, so two things happen from here. One, since Livingstone is now a were wolf, he can now become an alpha. Because one of the ways you can become an alpha is by killing another alpha and he just and he just killed an alpha, So Livingstone is now an alpha. But here's the thing, because he was such a powerful witch and which that was using dark magic, no less. Yeah, he does transform into a were wolf. But he does, but he loses access to his magic. So that's a good. That's the good thing. The bad thing is unlike the other were wolves who just basically when they turn into their wolf form, it's either like, okay, so they have three different forms, their human forms, their full wolf, their full wolf form, which is just basically like a giant horse sized wolf, and they're like half transform transformation, so they can kind of like begin the process of transforming into a were wolf but kind of stop it halfway. So it's like they have access to the teeth and claws but are still bipedal like a human. Yeah, but living Stone turns into something like that, except we're talking like more of like van helsing were wolf. Yeah that's not good, that's hot. No, this is bad, very bad, because when the Venett pack attacks him again, he no longer has access to his magic, but he is stupidly powered, like I think, so they don't really not to spoil it too much. But in the next book when they do fight him again, he doesn't have access to this ability, but I think since he has some like I guess, there was just still some of his magic left over. It protected him. So every time they would try to attack him, and anytime the human members of their pack tried to shoot silver bullets at him, the bullets would bounce off his skin. Their teeth and claws would just scrape against his skin and wouldn't even damage him. He badly injures Rico, the final human member from the Human member from the Team Human. Yeah, well, okay it was him and Ox's ex girlfriend Julie. Yeah, but he gets badly injured. Forcing Joe. Uh it was either Joe or yeah, it was Joe. No, it was Ox forcing Ox to turn him into a were wolf. And uh it looks it looks pretty bad because it seems like living Stone is gonna kill them all now that he's in stupidly powerful were wolf. Yeah, but before he can do anything to hurt Robbie or anyone else, something unexpected happens. Oh, the timberwolf that we now know is Livingstone's younger son, Gavin. Yeah, jumps forward and he transforms back into his human self, which as Up said, like I said before, living uh Gavin is not uh has been has not once turned back into his human form since joined since he joined the Bennett pat Yeah, because like he was full, he was a full farreh. But seeing that Carter and the rest of the Bennett pack that he has become so close to we're about to be murdered by his dad, he manages to find a way to return to his human form, and he stands before his father and he agrees to go with him if he would just if he leaves the Bennetts alone. Yeah, And living Stone still has enough remembers enough of himself to agree to this, and he and Gavin leave, though there is a really funny moment where Carter, Yeah, who like, okay, so let me say you something. Let me just go ahead, and like before we get to that, the two of them leave and the Bennetts are left to pick up the pieces of the battle. The kids, the magic that Livingstone had been using to not only transform were wolves into omegas and also to like turn those kids into those monsters as well as turned the other wolves into those trees all felt it all came undone, and everyone returned to normal. The wolves that were originally a part of the Kaswal pack woke up. They were confused, and they were also upset that their alpha was killed, But after Joe and the others explained to him what happened in her connection to Livingstone, they accept it. And they also accept the fact that Joe is now going to be their alpha because he has always been meant to become the alpha of alphas in the of Caswell. Yeah, so now Joe has completely has assumed his role as the alpha. All he helps them reuh. He begins helping them to rebuild things there at their There in Caswell, they spent some They spend quite a bit of time in Caswell before returning to Green Creek. They see that the wolves that have been infected from the previous book also begin to return to normal. So even though they managed to find like a like a workaround for that for both Carter and Mark who had been infected in the last book, they were still technically infected and they were still somewhat omegas. Only. The reason why they weren't losing their minds was because ox was is the alpha of Omegas and is and was able to keep them under control. Yeah, but now now that Livingstone's magic is gone, they returned completely to their original selves and now they're able to go back somewhat to their back to their normal lives. That just left one last thing for Robbie to do, because even though living stones magic has been undone, the block that was in his that's in his mind keeping him from accessing his memories, is still technically there, but it's being It's more, it's more like it's being held in place by Robbie because Robbie he's afraid to He's afraid to remember everything completely, and he has a good reason to. I mean, yeah, he uh yeah, he has his mate again, he has Kelly. But he still has to deal with the fact that once he remembers everything, he's also going to remember him attacking his friend, his family, Tanner and Chris, and that's something he's not sure if he could live with, but everyone assures him that, yeah, it sucked that happened. Robbie is the victim in this, all right. Livingstone was the one that put them through all of this, all right, And now that Livingstone isn't magic is gone, and now that Tenor and Chris are both alive and they're wolves. Now things are more or less back to normal, and he doesn't really need to worry about that all right, because they at first, yeah they were cautious, but they forgave him the only The only person who's still a little more or less pissed at Robbie is Rico, because Rico he witnessed it. He saw Robbie attack his friends. So that's something that's something very traumatic and not something he's not gonna he's gonna be able to get over anytime soon. But now that Rico is a werewolf because like I said, he got badly hurt during the attack and Ox turned him. Rico's a wolf now and he has not he can't really complain much anymore. And also he has other things to look forward to. Considering that Rico and his girlfriend had their first child together. Yeah, yep, yay, so big happy family. So after much convince convincing, h Gordo and the witches working with them help Robbie to go into that Ah, I'm sorry, backup, back up, Actually, no, this one. This is not something that the witches do. This is actually something that Kelly and Robbie do together. So back up future, I vin detit edit all that. So Robbie finally decides to remove the lock from his mind. But to do that, you know, him and his mate have to get down and freaky, so yay, more spicy scenes and it's at the So basically they have to remark each other. So when they do that, by doing that, you know, the warrewolves bite each other during the proper mating ritual. Yeah, yeah, basically, and when he bites him. When Kelly bites Robbie, that's supposed to not only allow them to reconnect and reconnect, but it also will allow Robbie to go deeper into his mind and unlock that block. So when he does, everything comes back. All of his memories his life with his memories of his life with the Bennett Pact as well as with his mate comes back, and also the memories of him attacking Chris and Tanner, and yeah, he remembers everything. Kelly, being so closely connected to him, also sees all his memories too, so he experiences everything with Robbie, but he helps him and they work through it, so they're able to They're now able to go back some more or less back to normal. But they have to deal with something else now. The Bennett family has to deal with something else now. Well, for one, Robert Livingstone is still out there, but he's now, if anything, more of a threat because he's an alpha werewolf, a demon werewolf, I might add, because he's not normal. And Carter, the eldest of the Bennett's sons, he is now finally realizing what everyone has realized, what everyone knew from the beginning and had been giving him shit about the entire time, but he realizes that Gavin was his mate. Yeah, it was hilarious because everyone else, his mom, everyone, they all knew, Like they would just watch the way that the Gavin as a timber wolf would follow Carter around, how protective he was, how possessive almost, and everyone else was like, oh, I see what it is, and Carter's like what is it? And they'd be like no, I'll tell you when you're older. So he would get so much shit and he didn't understand, like why this wolf was so obsessed with him. But then the this part was hilarious. I died. I almost died when when I read this part. But when Gavin transformed into his human self to stop his father from killing his family, from killing the Bennetts. Carter sees him and of course, since what wolves don't wear clothes when they turned. When he turned back into his human form, Gavin was completely naked, and Carter sees that, and he like, it's such a serious moment, but it's just this a little bit of like this is this a little thing that got me like I was dying. He sees Gavin completely nude, and he's just like, oh my god, I think I'm Bisexualin't that the truth? Uh huh? I mean, he like, so right now they have to do He's dealing with that aftermath because he realizes now that he realize what Gavin was to him. Yeah, he's heartbroken and he's lost now because the one thing, the one person that's supposed to be the most important thing in his life is now like gone off and in the possession of a very dangerous person. Yeah, and he doesn't know what to do now. His family comfort him and they tell him we're gonna they're gonna find Gavin. They're gonna bring him home because he like it or not, he's part of their pact and they're gonna deal with living Stone. But the thing is Carter isn't convinced that they'll all be able to do it together, just given how strong, given how dangerous Livingstone is now. So at the end of the book, this is kind of this is pretty this is heartbreaking because this is this is a very heartbreaking moment because Carter decides to leave Green Creek and and go hunt down not only living Stone, but to find Gavin to bring him home. And the thing is, he doesn't tell anybody of his decision. He leaves a recorded message on his brother's computer and he leaves well before they realize what's going on, and he's for good measure to keep them from tracking him down, he severs his bonds with the pack because the pack, they are. The bonds between the pack members allow them to sense each other. Yeah, so they know they have a more or less general idea of where each other are at all times, and they can feel each other like emphatically speaking. And to make sure that they can't find him, he basically disconnects on the pay yep. And it was part breaking because Carter and Kelly, they are the closest of the Bennett brothers, because Carter is like about a year or two older, than Kelly, while he is about six years older than Joe, So he and Kelly they have a much closer relationship than they do than they did with Joe. And you can almost say it's almost it's almost like a I don't want to say codependent, because codependency really comes as more of like a trauma response. But you know, they had such a close relationship that Kelly always believed that he could depend on his brother. So when he realizes that his brother left the pack and cut their bonds, he was heartbroken and so distraught that like, that's pretty much where the book ends. I'm like, ah, you got me fucked up, got me fucked up? You do that to your own brother, God damn it. But the epilogue of the book is from Carter's perspective, kind of leading. It's post it's for the lead, the lead in into the next and final book in the series. Carter. It's been about almost a year now since he's gone on his search, and uh, Carter has been slowly gaining on Gavin, getting closer and closer to finding Gavin, and whatever he gets seen when he thinks he's getting close, he keeps finding these messages that Gavin leaves for him, and this last message he finds it was just Gavin telling him to fuck off. Ah And yeah, Devin, was that you? Yeah? I said, ah, okay, cool, Like when I when you said that, I didn't seem like I didn't see your icon light up with that green ring. If anything, it looked like it lit up from my end, And I was like, is that from my did someone in my did someone just go ah in my room? What the fuck? Yeah? All right, spoopy, all right, But that is pretty much where Heart Song ends. Carter is now is fully is on the is searching for Gavin, and he's getting very close, but we won't know what will happen until the next book. So thank you guys. This was our review of book three of the Green Creek Novel's Heart Song. Like I said this, this book got me fucked up in many ways because of just like the betrayal scandal, Like, okay, not so much of a scandal, it's just like, oh God, no, why they do that to our guy, Robbie? What do you do? What he do to you? Like he's he's just a little guy, he's just the he's just the dumb guy. He's just the dumb hipster that set a car engine on fire. We'll try to do a tire rotation. Oh my god, that's true. Okay, Well you gotta man, well, you gotta do him dirty like that, because like he he gets kidnapped, bring Washington to attacking his family and then held captive for thirteen months. I wanted to be found and brought home and told that everything he knew was a lie to rehabilitate him into remembering who he was and who his family was, and also remember the fact that he fell in love and basically did the werewolf equivalent of getting married. Right, So just like it was just all kinds of fucked up. Wow wow, So yeah, got me fucked Yeah. Anyway, it's a good read. Like I said, I love these I love these books. They are emotional, they are it's just it's just great. Yeah, it's great. I love it. And next week will be the last one. Yeah yeah, yeah, we're gonna be reviewing the final book of the Green Creek Novels book four Brothers Song, Brother's Song. So I'm not gonna go I'm not gonna spoil it too much for you guys. But aside from so like really Although these books are categorized as romances, they're definitely more of a They're more of a love story really than romance because it's not really focused on like oh, she's hot, he's hot, passion, love sex the end. It's more of like it's like we're seeing their whole story play out, how their relationship starts and how it ends right or like not so much as end, but so at how it what it becomes right. And let me tell you something romance is not. The foot is not really the main focus of these books because like, yeah, there's love. They do love each other very much. The characters love each other very much. There's a lot of themes, strong themes of love. Outside of just romantic. It's also platonic. There's also familial, Like these guys they're a family, and Brother's song is very strong. I will tell you this right now is very strong on the family aspect of it because we see, like we see the Bennett brothers come together, we see them like, we see how strong their bonds are as family. We see so much more love and also we see love from beyond the grave because even now, nearly ten years after their father was killed, they're still seeing signs like finding little memories of him, little things that remind them of him. And before we end this book, there is one thing that they find that really reminds them of their father's love for them and for their future. Yeah, so I'll be honest, I almost forgot about this part. How can I forget? But earlier I mentioned that Robbie found a couple of journals belonging to Thomas Bennett. And when he was brought back to Green Creek and he was building rebuilding his relationships with his pack, he had he had a heart to heart with Elizabeth, who was Thomas Bennett's wife and mate. And while he's talking to her, she's telling him a bit about Thomas, and when as she's talking about Thomas, he remembers, wait a second, I found these, And he pulls out the journal that he found and gives it to her, and she has a moment where she like, it's like it's like happy tears, like I can't believe he can't I can't believe he found these. And as she's looking through the journals she's looking at she's seeing her deceased husband's handwriting. She notices something in the binding of one of the covers, and she could because she was the one who had originally given her husband this journal as a gift, and she notices something was off about it, so she grabs a knife and she cuts into the binding on the on one of the covers, and inside the binding were three letters and these and each letter was written by Thomas to be given to his son's future partners. He wrote them as a way of giving his uh, his future in laws, his son in laws, son or daughters in laws, a little bit of perspective of their of his children as he knew them. And when she pulled out the letters, she saw what they were. They were each addressed to the way they were addressed. They were addressed to to Carter's future, to Kelly's future, and to Joe's future. And she immediately gave the letter addressed to Kelly's future to Robbie. He hadn't he hadn't gotten his memories back, but she told him he still deserves to see this, and it's for him from Thomas. And since Thomas is long dead, he never got a chance, was dead well before Robbie showed up to Green Creek. He never got to know Thomas. But when he was reading this letter he got he got to get a good bit of insight into Thomas Bennett, not as an alpha, but as a father. And each letter, let me tell you something, each letter had so much love in them, like Thomas had. Does the letter. So they actually show the letter itself in the book. Yes, read the letter. Read the letters. Well, read the letter that's in this book. I should say, Okay, let me okay, let me, uh let me get it, let me get it? How much? All right? Where is it? Where is it? I'm sure, bitch, give me a second, let me find it, don't bitch, bitch, bitch? How what? Uh? Okay, Let's see. So I'm gonna start a little bit earlier before she before he starts reading it. Mm hmm, before Robbie starts reading it. Yeah, so this is from when he's talking to Elizabeth. He had just given He had just given Elizabeth the journal. She opened the journal, and I felt like I was intruding on something private. She traced the finger over the sligntid writing that filled the pages. She took in a shuddering breath as she begins to flip through the journal. I wonder, she said, I wanted to ask, but didn't think she would hear me. It didn't take long until she reached the back of the journal. She looked disappointed for a moment, but then her eyes lit up. You sneak, of course. She ran a finger over the back cover. There were tight black threats in one edge that I hadn't noticed before. A clock grew from the tip of one of her fingers, and she sliced through the threads. I was alarmed that she felt the need to destroy her husband's journal. But before I could say anything, she pulled out an envelope, and then another, and then another, three small squares that I hadn't known were there. Her smile trembled. There you are. I thought you'd been lost. She looked up at me, eyes bright. Thank you, Robbie. You don't know what this means to me, for us, or our family, for our pack. This is a wonderful gift. And now I have something for you. She handed me. One of the envelopes. On the front was the same handwriting from the journal for Kelly's future. What's this, I asked. It's for you, and there's one for Ox and one for well. We'll know when Carter knows. I looked up better about what. She shook her head. It doesn't matter, not now. She closed a journal in her lap, keeping the other two envelopes on the top. My husband wrote you a letter. I blinked me, but I didn't know him. Hypothetical use, she said, running at her fingers over the other envelopes. Whoever Kelly chose to spend his life with. When the day came that Kelly would find his mate, Thomas planned on giving whoever it was, this letter. He wrote one for each of his sons. He always planned on being here when it happened. She stood, then, bending over and kissing Kelly on the forehead. She squeezed my shoulder before heading towards the door. She paused and said, you deserve every happiness. Remember that, and then she was gone. The room was quiet, with only the sounds of Kelly's slow, shallow breaths interrupted by the occasional smiffle. I looked down at the envelope again. I was here to open it. I didn't know if I deserved this, didn't know if I could be the man in alpha. King would have chosen for a son. But it wasn't about his choice. It was about mine and Kelly's. I opened the envelope. There were two pages filled with the same script, and ladies and gentlemen, this is the actual letter itself. Hello, I write this on a sunny day. I think that's important. It's a sunny day, and my son, Kelly Abel Bennett, has just turned thirteen years old. He's tall and gangly, not having grown, not having yet grown into his limbs. He's smart, much smarter than I'll ever be. It's almost scary, if I'm being honest. He's quiet, and sometimes I worry that he spends too much time in his head. I don't always understand him. Can one ever completely understand their children? And there are times that I think him a mystery that I'm to solve. Being a father isn't as I expected it to be. It's hard. There are days when I second guessed myself, days when I'm sure I've ruined them forever this life. It's not easy. The Bennett name isn't quite a curse, but I sometimes think it is. We have been through much, and Kelly has seen the aftermath of what happens when someone tries to take everything away from us. When Elizabeth was first pregnant with Carter. My father told me that I would spend the rest of my life in a constant state of fear. Even though my children would be wolves, he said, they were still fragile, still capable of hurt and pain and suffering. It is a father's duty to protect them at all costs. He told me of the days when they would hate me, days when they would think I was the stupidest personal life, days when I'd want to pull my hair out and question everything I'd ever done. But these days, my father told me, would be few and far between, because a child is a gift. Kelly isn't like his brother's. Carter is headstrong and blunt. He will make a fine second. One day. Joe is going to be the alpha, and with that will bear the responsibilities that came with the power and the title. But Kelly, He's something different. I think something more. I wonder about you. Who you are, what you're going to, what you're doing at this exact moment. Are you a man or a woman? Are you a witch or a wolf? Are you human? Do you smile and laugh and see the world for all it has to offer, for all it takes away. Kelly is a mystery, But he's not unknowable. Here's what I know about my second son. He prefers to spend time alone. If he's not alone, he'll be with Carter. Carter, as he's wont to do, will think of himself Kelly's protector. It comes with being the eldest and with being each other's tether. But what he doesn't know, and what I've only recently come to understand, is that Kelly is fierce and brave, and he might be Carter's protector just as much as Carter is his. He wonders about all manners of things. Yesterday, for example, he asked me about our territory and why it felt different there than it does here in Maine. I didn't know quite how to explain it to him. I can't even be sure I know myself. When I told him as much, he wasn't disappointed. In staid. He asked me to come with him. We went outside and wandered through the forest, just the two of us. I felt guilty for a moment, not able to remember the last time we'd done this. With everything that's happened to us these last years, my attention has been elsewhere. We went deep into the woods, He stopped after what must have been a few miles in a part of the forest I hadn't been in for years. It wasn't much different than any other part of the woods that comprise our territory. I wanted to ask him why, why hear? Why this place? What drew him to the specific spot? But I waited. He sat down next to a tree, his back to it. He took off his shoes, his toes digging into the grass. He patted the ground beside him, squinting up at me. His hair was too long, he had to brush it off of his face. I was completely charmed by the skinny, quiet boy and could only do what he asked. And we sat there for almost two hours without saying a word. Eventually he broke the silence. Do you know what he said? I think any place can be special if you try hard enough. And that was it. Simple really. But the more I think about it, the more I parsed through those twelve words, the more I understand he wasn't just talking about the territory. He was talking about his entire world. His entire world was special because we're in it, And this is Kelly in a nutshell, simple at a cursory glance. But just underneath there is life teeming wildly, and his chest beats a tremendous heart, something so vast and extraordinary that it takes my breath away. He is a light, a beacon in what can seem like a never ending darkness. A world in which he does not exist is a world I cannot even begin to comprehend. Carter made me a father by simply being born, but Kelly has helped me understand what it means to be a father and all that entails. I don't know you, whoever you are, but you must be someone who knows the light he is. If he has chosen you, and you are smart enough to choose him back, then I know he'll be in good hands. Appreciate him, love him, never take him for granted. If you can do these things, then I promise that you will know what true love is. Kelly will never do anything to harm you, at least not intentionally. I think he would rather hurt himself than anyone else. He's not fragile. No, that's not a word I'd ever use to describe him. But he must be protected at all costs because he deserves it. I don't know you, but I can't wait to I can't wait to witness what blooms between the two of you. Knowing Kelly as I do. It might be hard at first, but give it time, grant him patience, and you will be justly rewarded, beyond anything you could possibly imagine. I sit here on this sunny day, light streaming in through an open window, imagining what the moment would be like. Will when he comes to me and tells me he's met his mate, though I'll admit to never really finding that word to be entirely adequate. He'll be nervous about it, I think, and his brow will be furrowed, and he'll ask questions, so many questions, and will probably be wishing he was anywhere but here. But he will be fighting back a smile, and he will look as if he's burning from the inside out. I know this, I know this. Cherish each other, love each other with your whole heart. Don't ever lose sight of what's important. And that my unknown friend is easier said than done and makes me a hypocrite. I can see that now clear than ever. But if you learn with each other and grow together, then there's nothing that will stop you from becoming the people meant you're supposed to be. I can't wait to meet you, but I hope you understand that I'll be fine with waiting on that meeting for a time, because when he gives you his heart, it will no longer be mine to hold, and I want to hold on to it for as long as I'm able. Whoever you are, you are loved. Never doubt that you are loved yours, Thomas Bennett. H Let me tell you something, if only my own dad talked to him, talked about me like this, I swear to God, God, damn, a fictional character is a better father than mine. Oh damn. And this is and this is post mortem. Damn. He's been dead for almost ten years by this point. And despite the fact he talked about he had hopes of meeting his his future son in law, he never gets to. And that's even that's even heart more heartbreaking, because like, damn, he was so like like I can't wait to meet you, and uh deceased. Damn. But there are two more letters, and both letters will be revealed in the next book. You know, Carter's letter is just as has written pretty much the same. Ah Thomas never got the chance to meet who would be Carter's future partner. And he's right. I don't like using the word mate. It's used a lot in this book to describe like there there's like true love and shit like that, but I don't think it does a justice. But I won't spoil much for the for Joe's letter, but I will tell you this. When Thomas wrote these letters, he wrote them well before he met any of his son's partners. But then he met Ox, and he already knew from uh. He already knew from the very beginning that Ox would be a very special person to Joe and that the two of them would one day be together. So Thomas decided to rewrite the letter he wrote for Joe's partner and instead wrote a letter specifically addressed to Ox. And since Brother Song is going to be the fourth and final book in the series, instead of there being an epilogue, the final chapter is just that letter. And let me tell you something. When I got to that letter, I was like, oh shit, oh fuck. When I saw that it was addressed two Ox directly, I was like, no, oh fuck, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. Oh fuck, I was I'm not ready for this. No, no, oh god, I panic. I was like, no, I'm not ready. So for the next episode, I want both of those other letters read too as well. Yeah, there, we're gonna read both of those letters. And I may or may not cry while reading Ox's letter, because oh my god, dude, like you you saw, like as I was reading Thomas's letter, uh, to Kelly's partner, you could tell Thomas had a lot of love for his son. Yeah, and he had a lot of and he does the same thing for both of his for both Joe and Kelly. I'm sorry, Carter, but dude, the stuff he wrote just for Ox, my god, it was just so oh my god. Oh I cried. I was crying by the end of it. I was crying my eyes out because like, oh, I'm not gonna I won't say more. You guys will have to find out next week. But yeah, fuck it feels yeah anyway, well thank you then of course, and then of course after that, we're going back to a Stephen King book. I'm talking about it because I'm gonna fit. I'm gonna have that book finished by then. You better. I am, I am, I am fairy Tale. It's gonna happen? How far? How far I'm about it's like thirty into the books. I almost say, men, it's like a probably what a third to half? I'm supposed to a half half the book? All right? Well, since you've said it here, you got two weeks, man, I got two weeks. I got more than time to do it. Uh huh. You said that the last time. You know, what do you know what I'm let's go through a lot last time? Okay? Okay? Oh was I and I still managed to read five books? You know, everybody goes through their own ship differently. I don't read. I don't stress talk about ream. Okay, but I'm stressing yourself out reading. Maybe you should like use reading to relieve the stress, like you know, like I do you Maybe plague? Maybe plague when Stefani's escape sweet escape while you're doing it, maybe it'll know what you know escape. I'm kidding. See, don't don't copyright me. Anyway. We're gonna do a Brother's song and then hopefully the week after that will do fairy Tale by Steven there's so hopefully we will do fairy Tale by Stephen King. Well, yeah, there's no I know you're not here in the room with me, Devin, but side I, criminal, side side ie all you want. Okay, this is gonna be the first book. Now, it's not the first book, the first novel I will read for the a book. Watch mm hm okay, Well, anyway, I gotta get going, so we're gonna go ahead and end it here. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys enjoy these books as much as I do. I swear to God fucking read them. They are really good, all right. And if any of you dumbasses call it Twilight for Twilight for Werewolf, I will hunt you down, dacause it is nothing like that, damn because because let me tell you something, this is way better than Twilight. Oh lord. Yeah. And there's no glittery vampires in it too. Oh god. Okay, we'll catch the next time on site. Bye.