Lakota I wake up in Lance's arms and for a moment I am startled. "Calm down, you were shivering after Lynn and Josh joined Alice in preparing breakfast," Lance tells me through the mind-link, just before Lynn shows up to tell us that breakfast is ready. I listen to Cian as he tells Josh and Lynn what they missed of my story, and I just let the activities around me take my mind off Jake. I watch and listen to my Pack-members as they prepare to continue our search. "We will get there, we will find our territory and we will learn to live with the memory of Jake," Lotus says as we both look around our camp. Dad and Colton have divided us into small groups to make it a little easier to search the trees: one person to clear the trunk while the others check for markings. Josy is joining me and Lance as we move away from our campsite, and we soon find a good rhythm to work in; Lance clears the trunks while Josy and I check them on all sides. Quinn has taken three Warriors with her to check the trees closest to the road; one of them keeps an eye on the road while the rest search the trees, and once in a while they switch places. It is a slow process, and by the time we stop for lunch we are not that far away from our campsite. Normally this might have made me agitated, but not in this case. It gives me the chance to get a feeling for the area, and it has given me something else to think about. I expected Josh and Lynn to get bored, but they are very serious in searching every tree trunk that gets cleared by Cian, and he really enjoys having those two in his group. After lunch we head out again, and we have been searching for about an hour when Lotus starts pushing me forward. Lance and Josy just follow me. Neither one of them says a word, and I don't ask Lotus what is going on; she never failed me before and I doubt she will start today.We are walking at a slow pace, and it looks as if she is scanning every tree and shrub we see. Suddenly she stops in front of a huge thick oak tree, and Lance seems to know what she expects him to do. He has only removed a little part of the vines and moss when we see the first signs of markings. "Dad, we found a marking," I call out, and everyone quickly rushes towards us in the same line we have been searching. Cian and Kobal are the next to find a marking, and we slowly find more and more markings, but we have no idea of knowing where the territory starts or ends until we find all the markings. Alice and Mylana have taken the Pups into the territory; Jazzy is with them to keep them safe and to look for foundations or structures. Colton has put one Warrior near the oak tree for multiple reasons: for one, we need to have a starting point, and two; we need someone as a look-out. We have uncovered a lot of markings by the time Jazzy links us that dinner is ready, and we all head back to the oak tree to see how far everyone has gotten.I have to ask Dad if we are allowed to change the markings and how we are supposed to do that; I don't even know with what kind of marking we are going to replace it. As I wait for my turn to get some food, I send a message to Uncle Chris, just to let them know that we found the territory and that we will let them know when we need him to send us whatever we may need. We turn in for the night, and with how exhausted we all are, everyone falls to sleep in minutes. It's been a month since we found the territory, and it has been a very busy month to say the least. It took us a total of three days to find every tree with markings on it, and it is a lot bigger than any of us had expected. Our eastern and southern border consist of trees, while our western and northern border consist of mountains. Colton found out that the oak tree used to be the entry way into the territory, and after looking at the entire border we decided to reinstate it as our entry way. It took two days to clear the road that leads to the oak tree from the main road. An exhausting but satisfying job for all of us, and we took a day to regain some energy to start clearing the territory after that. Dad took that day to contact Council-member Armas, and Crystal Blood Pack was a Pack with a territory once again. Lance and I took the time to mark our territory on the map and tried to pinpoint where the Pack-house might have been, just to give us a purpose. After a week of clearing away as much of the overgrowth as we could, we called Uncle Chris to get supplies for rebuilding the Pack-house and a few cottages. Jazzy and Josy had found the foundation of a few cottages spread out through the territory, and Mylana had requested the one closest to the mountains; it made her feel safe. I couldn't blame her, because the Council had informed us her former Mate had been looking for her. He apparently found out she was with Pup and wanted to know if she and the Pup were still alive, something we are not going to tell him if he ever shows up. Uncle Chris didn't just send the supplies; he also sent Pack-members to help us build whatever needed to be built, and I made sure our first priority was Mylana's cottage. On the third day of construction, the Days of the Full Moon started and it held a few surprises for us. One of the Warriors Uncle Chris sent as a precaution turned out to be Darrius' second chance Mate, and I got the ungrateful job of telling Uncle Chris he lost one of his Warriors to us. Mylana found her fated Mate in one of the construction workers, and I am glad Uncle Chris had told them up front a bit about her history. I think the biggest surprise was seeing that Quinn found her second chance Mate in Cian, and Kobal has had a smile on his face ever since. He loves teasing them both by asking when he will become a Great-uncle, even though Quinn knocked him on his ass the first time he asked and Josh and Lynn had laughed their asses off. We have found a rhythm in our daily routine, and we even found the time to start a training program; Colton even trains Josh and Lynn three times a week. Alice has been able to set up an infirmary in a cottage near the Pack-house, and she has been constantly in contact with Silver Lotus' Pack-doctor to get everything we might need. Aunt Lucy made sure she sent as many essentials to us every week, and if there is something specific we needed, I would send her a message, receiving it with the next delivery from Silver Lotus Pack. Our Warriors had sorted out the patrols with Quinn and Colton, and it started to feel more like a Pack with each passing day. The last time Dad talked to Council-member Armas, he found out that Armas had secured all of Crystal Blood Pack's finances, but to make sure it wouldn't look like favoritism he had asked an old friend of Dad to hold on to it.He had been on assignment during their first few calls, but the moment he had returned Armas had informed him. So now we have a very wealthy Pack; we can do whatever we want and not worry much about the financial side. Right now I am in Dad's office updating our map with every building that is finished, and I smile as I look at every marking on the map; it is starting to look like something. A knock on the door pulls me away from the map, and when I turn to the door I see Lance standing in the doorway with a serious expression on his face. "Lance, come on in. What can I do for you?" I ask him as I turn away from the map on the table and I walk over to the couch to sit down. He hands me a small bag I have never seen before, and I look from the small bag to Lance. "I have had this for a while now, but I never knew when to give it to you or how to approach the subject," he says as he looks at the small bag on my lap, before he looks up to look me in the eyes."I have no idea what is inside; it isn't meant for me, and that is why I never looked at the contents of the bag. Jake asked me to give it to you; he wanted you to get to know him and his family," he continues, and I understand why he had trouble finding a good time to give it to me. Lotus softly whimpers in the back of my head; thinking of Jake still hurts both of us, and I am not sure if it will ever go away. He would have been our second chance at love, but someone took him away from this world, and I know he will always be a part of me and this Pack. I slowly open the small bag as Lance gets up from the couch. "Please, I want you to know what is in here," I whisper before he can take a step, and he sits back down as I reach into the bag. My fingers grace against something hard, and as I wrap my fingers over it I understand that these are journals. After I pull my hand out, I am holding on to four journals, and all of them look well read, even though one looks as if it hasn't been written full.