The blare of her alarm tore through the still quiet of the morning. Blearily, she absently flailed an arm out. It took a couple of attempts, but she eventually managed to find the off switch. Groaning, Isabella Connors rose from her plush comforter. She brushed her long amber locks out of her eyes and rubbed blearily at her eyes with her palms. She sat there for a couple of moments, soaking in the silence that only seemed to exist in the early hours of the morning. She listened to the robins, singing their early spring song and soft rustling of leaves in the gentle morning breeze.

Deciding she had wasted enough time, she set about her usual morning routine. The same routine she'd repeated nearly every day for the last five years. She took a quick ten minute shower, dabbed on a light touch of make-up, and dressed for another casual day. One of the few perks of being her father's daughter.

Checking the small digital clock by her bed, it read a little after half past six. Right on time. Walking casually from her bedroom, she made her down the stairs and into the large kitchen. Reaching into the refrigerator, she retrieved a loaf of bread and some blueberry jam and a bag of carrots. Them she opened the pantry and grabbed a jar of creamy peanut butter. Simple, but it was Cassidy's favorite, and who was she to argue with it. It made her life easier and if it made Cassidy happy, it made Isabella happy.

She finished making the peanut butter and blueberry jelly sandwich. She made a mental note to ask Augustus for another dozen jars. Augustus still had at least thirty or so jars in storage from last summer's harvest. Putting the carrots into a small plastic baggie, she finished off the small lunch with an apple-flavored juice box and placed the meal in a paper bag. Pulling a permanent marker out from a drawer next to the fridge and wrote "Cassidy" in curvy cursive. Checking the clock over the pantry, she strode from the room.

Climbing the stairs once more, she walked over to the room adjoining her own. She knocked on the door, just under the placard bearing Cassidy's name. There was no response from inside. Rolling her eyes in exasperation she opened the door. The lights were still off in the room, and the lump in the small bed in the corner of the room rose and fell.

Isabella walked over to the bed and took seat on the edge, gently gripping Cassidy's shoulder and shaking it.

"Cassie," she said softly, "It's time to wake up."

Cassidy murmured incoherently under her breath and tried to roll away from Isabella's hand.

"Nope," said Isabella, no longer whispering. "Time to get up kiddo. Either you get up now, or I break out the big guns."

"Can't hear you. Asleep." Grumbled Cassidy, hauling the blankets over her tiny head.

Isabella smiled wanly. "If you're asleep, how are you talking to me?"

"Sleep talking."

"Uh huh," nodded Isabella in faux seriousness. "Five seconds. Four. Three." She began backing up towards the light switch by the door. "Two. One. One and a half…" Still no movement. "All right, you asked for it." She flicked the light switch on, then darted forward and yanked the comforter down from Cassidy's head. She yelped, then groaned in annoyance. A noise that sounded immensely out of place coming from an eight-year old.

"Come on, up you get," grunted Isabella, hauling her daughter to her feet. Cassidy made a show of groaning but allowed herself to be pulled out of her bed.

"I really wish you'd stop turning off your alarm."

"Too loud," grunted Cassidy, as she shuffled towards her dresser.

"Your fault," said Isabella over her shoulder as she made her way out of the room, "Don't think I don't know that you've been staying up past your bedtime."

Cassidy couldn't hide her flinch and Isabella smirked to herself as she left the room. Her daughter had a bad habit of staying up under her covers and reading until well into the night. Isabella didn't have the heart to chastise her for it. She'd done it herself when she was Cassidy's age.

"You reap what you sow my love." Laughed Isabella from down the hall.

She busied herself for the next several minutes with readying Cassidy's schoolbag and packing away her lunch. At a quarter after seven, she called up the stairs.

"Cassy, you almost ready?"

"Coming!" Thudding footsteps, shortly followed by Cassidy's small frame darting down the stairs."

"Don't run please."

"Yes momma,"

Cassidy slowed down as she clambered down the stairs and began throwing her shoes on. Isabella tried helping her with her shoes, but Cassidy shooed her away, adamant about doing it on her own, as she'd been doing since she was five.

As Cassidy worked at her shoes Isabella grabbed a pair of coats from the closet.

"It's not even that cold out." Whined Cassidy,

"Oh?" Isabella cocked an eyebrow, "I didn't know you were a meteorologist." She walked over to the door and opened it, ushering in the rush of cool of the early spring air. Cassidy shivered, and Isabella tried and failed to hide her satisfied smirk. Cassidy pouted, but didn't resist as Isabella closed the door and handed Cassidy her coat and ushered her daughter out the door.

As she turned out of the mile long driveway, she noticed something strange. Her property butted up against a large acreage. For the five years that she had been in Paradise, it had been abandoned. Supposedly it had been a rather successful ranch back in the sixties, but it hadn't been used in some decades. But as they drove past the property that morning, there was a strange amount of activity. Much of the property was blocked by trees, but Isabella could see through the trees what appeared to be several large trucks near the edge of the property.

Then, as she made the next turn and the tree line disappeared, she got a better look at what was going on. Several large trucks, horse carriages from the looks of it, were being unloaded into a large paddock near the edge of the far property. She had thought that she had seen builders on the property that winter, but had passed it off as none of her business. She had supposed that it had finally been sold off to someone in town. But she hadn't heard any rumors that someone in town was getting into the horse business. Well it wasn't any of her business, and it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that someone would be getting into something as strange as horses.

She spent the next thirty minutes of the drive to the school listening to NPR, Cassidy in the back seat idly reading some book or another. Isabella wasn't exactly involved in the day to day of business, but she liked to keep tabs on things just in case.

Isabella pulled her car into the long cue of other parents dropping their kids off at elementary school.

"Have a good day hon," waved Isabella to Cassidy as she unbuckled herself and threw open the car door. "And don't forget that Mrs. Donovan is picking you and Sofie up for dance after school."

"I know mom," Cassidy robotically but the smile on her face contrasted her tone.

"Love you sweetheart!"

"Bye momma!" Isabella watched as her daughter raced off towards the entrance to the school. She met up with a couple of friends, and they giggled and chatted excitedly with one another as they made their way into the school. Isabella waited until she could no longer see her daughter's Finding Nemo backpack, then she put the car in drive and made her way out of the parking lot. She had some errands she needed to run in town, and then make her way back to the house to prep for an upcoming business trip out to New York.

She had just turned the corner running perpendicular to the school, when there was a flash of red and blue behind her, and a small blurb of a siren. She glanced in the rearview mirror before swearing loudly. Of course it would be Bradley Packard. She would recognize those god awful sunglasses of his anywhere. Still, she complied to the lights and pulled over, flicking on her hazards. She waited for a few moments as Packard exited the cruiser, a dopey and confident grin on his face.

"Morning Ella," he grinned, resting an arm on the roof of her car as he leaned down into the window. His dark grey eyes seemed to dance in the damp early morning.

"Can I help you, officer Packard?" She asked, her voice as flat and even as she could possibly make it.

"Well yes, there's a great deal that you could help me with," said Packard, his grin widening.

"Why did you pull me over, officer?" Pressed Isabella.

"For driving while beautiful."

Isabella closed her eyes, and forced herself not to growl in agitation.

"I swear to god, Packard," she snapped, "this is the third time in the last month you've pulled this shit. I'm calling Alex as soon as I'm home and filling out a complaint!"

A flash of anger danced across his face, but he covered it smoothly, as his expression morphed into one of seriousness.

"Fine then, there was an actual reason I pulled you over."

"What?" She snapped. She was beyond the point of trying to be polite any more.

"Emergency Council meeting tonight at Seven."

Her eyes narrowed, though her anger was fading in favor of confusion. It had been years since the last full council meeting, and an emergency meeting had never been called in her entire time living in Paradise.

"What's going on?"

"Seriously?" Packard gazed at her, incredulously. "Some new guy moves in next door and you don't think we're going to be concerned?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" She paused, "Wait, the farm? That's what this is about?"

"You know anyone else who's moving in over a dozen thoroughbreds?"

Isabella ignored him, "You're sure that it's a new guy and not just someone in town?"

"Positive," nodded Packard, then he grinned again. "And hey…if the meeting runs too late and you feel unsafe driving home…you can always stay with me."

Isabella growled at him, "Have a good day officer." Without waiting for a reply, and not caring if she ran over his foot, she put the car in drive and raced off down the road. She was in a foul mood for the rest of the day. Ever since she'd moved to town, Packard had been harassing her. From pulling her over for no reason, to trailing her in his cruiser, to waiting for her to leave her house in the morning. If she were anyone else, she would have been worried about him trying to pull something, but not even Packard was foolish enough to try something on her.

She'd pull him apart.

But as her day went on, her anger faded and curiosity and confusion took over. She could understand the emergency meeting. Unknowns in their town were dangerous. They threatened the safety and security of the town. Not in the physical sense. That was for sure. She didn't think there existed anything that could threaten the physical security of the town, but if some mundane, normal person was coming to town…it threatened to expose the town to a whole heck of a lot of people.

They couldn't have that. Not here.

She hadn't been here in the eighties. Hadn't been there for the last time exposure was threatened. But her Uncle had been. Had lived through the chaos and violence. Remembered the feds coming in and laying down the law.

So they couldn't threaten exposure like that. But she also had a bad feeling that some of the…more temperamental heads would be not handle the situation well.

She sighed as she arrived at the Council Center at quarter to seven. She brushed a strand of red hair out from her eyes. She didn't know why she had to be there. She didn't care. Didn't care about this political and tribal crap. She just wanted to keep her daughter happy. But her daughter was happy here, and if her daughter was happy here then that meant that she needed to make the town as safe as possible.

Sighing, she turned off the ignition and hauled herself from her car. Based on the other vehicles in the parking lot, she was going to be the last one to arrive. Not a surprise she supposed, out of everyone on the council, she probably resented the position the most.

The council building was old. A relic from the old mining town that had existed back at the turn of the twentieth century, the building had once been the headquarters for a since bankrupted mining corporation. Restored back to its former glory in the thirties, the marble and stone Goliath looked like it had been torn from the pages of a story book. Half modern bureaucracy, and half story book castle, it loomed over the rest of the town in the middle of town.

It was a grim reminder of the town's own strange and fantastical past.

The clock struck seven right as Isabella walked through the doors into the general body room. A large, comfortable room, with an enormous rosewood desk in the center. Eight comfortable, and impressively well tailored leather arm chairs were situated evenly around the room, and seven pairs of eyes landed on her as she entered the room. She did her best to ignore the looks of the others as she took her seat. She was seated at the end of the table, facing eye-to-eye with the head of the table. On her left was a short, stout man. His dark auburn hair was cut short along his temples, and his face and neck were covered in a string of intricately interwoven deep blue tattoos. His piercing blue eyes darted over to Isabella for a moment, before he went back to carving into a small block of wood with his buck knife.

On her right was a wafer-thin woman. Tall and willowy, like a weed. Her straw-blonde hair danced along her back in an impressively structured braid. As Isabella sat down, the thin woman closed her eyes, and hummed to herself. It was a soft, melodic tune, one that reminded Isabella oddly of wind whistling through trees.

"Well then," announced the man at the head of the table. "Now that we are all here, we may begin."

Jedidiah "Jed" Masters raised the gavel in front of him, and slammed it three times in quick succession. The mayor of the town, and head of the council was an old, yet incredibly large, man. Isabella was fairly certain that he was nearly seven feet tall, and built as solidly as a redwood, Jed had been around the town for as long as most could remember. Even at eighty years of age, he still looked like a young man of only thirty, with the strength and power of a man the same age. His deep hazel eyes peered around at the gathered men and women, his jaw set tight. As always whenever Isabella saw him, the poor man looked like he hadn't slept in years. His eyes were baggy and the circles under his eyelids were so pronounced that he looked as though he had been punched repeatedly in the eye.

When he spoke, his voice came out as a low growl.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I am not one to mince words so we shall simply get down to business. As of this morning, Paradise has a new resident."

"Who is he?" Groused Brok, the man to Isabella's left. Isabella always had to strain to understand the man. He spoke with such a thick Norwegian accent, that sometimes it seemed as though he were speaking another language. Maybe he actually was.

Jed flipped through the large envelope on the table in front of him for a moment. He grabbed the large glasses dangling around his neck and placed them on the bridge of his nose as he examined the information.

"Percy Jackson," he grunted, "Don't have much more information than that at the moment. I reached out to some brothers over in California and they're looking into him. But as far as I know right now, is he's a nobody."

"A nobody with enough money to drop on eighty-six acres, and import over a dozen thoroughbreds?" Asked Thailor Brooks, brushing a few loose strands of her weave from her face. "That doesn't sound like a nobody to me, that sounds like someone we should know something about."

"How long has he been in the breeding business?" Asked Packard. Even though he was speaking to Jed, he was staring at Isabella. He hadn't taken his eyes off her since she'd entered the room.

"Don't know," grunted Jed, "Like I said, we don't know much of anything about him. But that doesn't mean red flags haven't been raised."

"Such as?" Kassandra Evergreen, the wafer-like woman to Isabella's right. Even her voice was like a soft breeze, soft and hardly noticeable.

"Such as, he wasn't the one to make the initial purchase."

"The fuck's that supposed to mean," barked out Brok, and he stopped his whittling for a moment and stared over at Jed.

"It means exactly what I said," growled Jed. "The initial purchase was made by Mercury Shipping, but then was sold to Jackson for…far less than the land was worth."

"I don't like the sound of that," muttered Thailor.

"I have a question," said Daiyo Mutumbe, a large Black man. His thick Haitian accent had always been difficult for Isabella to understand. His deep brown eyes flicked around the room for a moment, before landing on Isabella. His deep baritone voice reverberated like a rumble of thunder, the glint of the overhead lights reflecting off of his shimmering bald head.

"That farm has been abandoned for decades. It would take considerable time to transform it into something habitable for livestock, and that says nothing of that farmhouse." His eyes narrowed as he seemed to split his attention and ire between Isabella and Brok evenly. "I find it hard to believe that he would have been able to accomplish this without help from a rather impressive smith, or that any of these changes would go unnoticed by his neighbors."

Isabella narrowed her eyes, not liking the tone of that particular observation. Neither apparently, did Brok.

"If you got something to say, then fucking say it," he snarled.

"You helped him rebuild and reconstruct the farm, did you not?" Asked Daiyo. His tone was not exactly accusatory, but it was most certainly not friendly.

"And if I did?" Scoffed Brok. He had placed the wooden block on the table and had begun playing with the small buck knife. Twirling the handle of the blade in between his fingers dexterously.

"You didn't find it important to mention that to the rest of us?" Snarled the last man, Hei Wong. His long black hair was pulled into a tight bun on the top of his hair, and his dark brown eyes narrowed.

"I don't make a habit of prying into my customers affairs," growled Brok. "He paid, and I didn't ask no questions."

"Some stranger paid you to renovate the old Edwards farm and you didn't think that information worth sharing with the rest of us?" Snapped Packard.

"And let's not forget Ms. Connors," rumbled Daiyo softly. "Horse stalls and renovations do not appear overnight. They take time. It strikes me as odd that such construction could have occurred just down the street, and for her not to notice."

"I'm sorry," said Isabella calmly, her nostrils flaring. "But I thought this was a meeting about the new person in town, and how we want to deal with it. Not an inquisition of those of us who live here already."

"Gotta admit Ella, it looks a little suspicious," shrugged Thailor. "New guy pops into town a block up the road from you, and you don't say anything?"

"I'm sorry that I didn't think it odd that someone had finally purchased the land that's been vacant for nearly fifty years," snapped Isabella. "Besides, Brok and I were far from the first people to know about this. You mean to tell me that the bank didn't let you know, Jed, that the farm had been bought?"

All eyes turned to the head of the table, and Jed's nostrils flared in agitation. He let out a heaving sigh and leaned back in his chair.

"I am not in the business of denying anyone the right to live here," he said finally.

"It's not about that," growled Packard, "It's about protecting this fucking town and looking out for ourselves. You didn't think it was worth our time to know that we had an unknown coming here?"

"Not when I'd already reached out to brothers and sisters, and learned that he was not one of ours," grunted Jed. "He's normal,"

"All the more reason to ensure that he does not come here," said Daiyo, "Packard is quite right. We must look out for ourselves. Bringing in an unknown adds an unneeded risk. What if someone starts getting ideas? What if someone cannot control themselves?"

"So we're putting the blame on the potential victim now, is that what we're doing?" Growled Jed, "New guy gets torn to shreds, or suddenly drops dead, and it's because your people just couldn't help themselves? If that's the case, then we're in a lot more trouble than what you're suggesting."

"Don't be cute," snapped Packard, "This is serious, you're putting us at risk! The last thing any of us need is for the fucking feds to come back here! Sticking their noses in things that they shouldn't be!"

"The feds won't be coming back here," said Jed with a shake of his head. "They still think we're too fractured. They think we've moved on, and the heads of the families are in the cities now. They aren't worried about Paradise any more."

"Then lets just kill him and be shut of it," said Hei softly, "We should deal with this before it leads to something problematic. Packard…perhaps your little dogs could-"

"The fuck did you call them?" Snarled Packard, jumping to his feet so violently that his chair clattered to the floor. His eyes were wide in fury and his chest heaved, a line of drool rolled down the corner of his mouth, and he swiped at it with the back of his hand.

"I apologize," said Hei, "I meant mongrels, I didn't mean to offend."

Isabella met Kassandra's eyes, and at the same time they rolled their chairs away from the table. Things were on the cusp of getting out of hand, and Isabella wanted no part of what was about to happen.

Packard growled, a guttural sound that began at the base of his throat and reverberated around the room like the rumble of thunder. Then, in a blur of motion, he leapt over the table. As he soared through the air, his body began to change. His muscles enlarged, his limbs became elongated. His face and skeletal structure became sleeker, more compound, and as he soared through the air Bradley Packard disappeared, and an enormous wolf took his place. It was larger than most wolves, easily the size of a small horse. Thick black fur, and razor-sharp claws and fangs.

But Hei wasn't idle, and he too transformed. However unlike Packard, Hei wasn't a wolf, but an enormous tiger. His teeth glinting in the laminated light, and his enormous claw extended and ready to pounce. Hei met Packard in midair, and the pair of them collided in a flash of fur and teeth. The pair fell, shattering the rosewood table. Brok squawked in agitation, but kept out of the fight.

"Mr. Mutumbe," called out Jed in agitation, "If you would be so kind…"

Daiyo grunted, but nodded and raised one hand in the air. He murmured something in a language that sounded like a weird amalgamation of French and something else entirely. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as his body shuddered and convulsed violently. Then, a burst of electricity shot forward from his fingertips. It arced through the air and slammed into the tangled mass of fur, claws, and teeth. Hei screeched, sounding strangely catlike and Packard yelped. The pair were thrown to opposite ends of the room, small arcs of electricity dancing along their fur. They struggled to move, but every movement triggered a small jolt from the electricity covering them, causing them to cry out in pain again.

After a few moments of unsuccessful struggling, the pair fell still. Then, in the blink of an eye, both large animals disappeared and the men had returned. Packard had a nasty looking bruise forming along his right eye, and his shoulder was bleeding from a wicked looking set of claw marks. Hei, likewise, looked equally battered. He was bleeding rather profusely from a set of bite marks on his right shoulder, and his shirt was torn around the ribs.

"If you children are done," snapped Jed, "Then we can move on,"

"Broke the damned table," grumbled Brok under his breath, staring despondently at the shattered remains of the table. "Spent three fucking months working on that."

"Mr. Mutumbe, do me a favor and don't release them until the end of the meeting," said Jed, ignoring Brok's agitated grumblings. "If they want to act like children, they'll get treated like children."

Isabella didn't even bother to hide her smirk of satisfaction as she glanced over to Packard, a sour expression on his face.

"We do not have enough information to act on this as of right now," announced Jed. "And I did not call this meeting with the designs of ordering an execution. Regardless of whether Mr. Jackson is one of ours or not, I am not in the business of ordering the killing of an innocent man. For the time being, I move that we observe and keep an eye on him."

"I'm still not convinced," said Thailor. "Still seems to me that it would be a hell of a lot easier to just kill the guy and get it over with."

"And what happens when the people who know him start looking for him? Start poking around and asking questions?" Prompted Jed. "He didn't buy the farm outright, remember. He bought it from Mercury Shipping at a discounted rate. What does that tell you?"

"Lad's got friends in high places," observed Brok.

"Exactly," grunted Jed. "We kill him, then his friends come looking for him. And if they start looking, you know who else is going to start looking for him?"

"The fucking feds," groaned Thailor, "All right, all right. I get it."

"And if we come to the conclusion that he is indeed, a threat?" Asked Kassandra dreamily.

"Then we kill him, and deal with the consequences later. The feds are gonna be more willing to overlook something if the bastard actually threatens to expose us."

There was a round of approval by the rest of the council. Isabella didn't feel strongly about it one way or another if she were honest. She didn't like the idea of murdering an innocent man, but should he prove to be a threat to her daughter? Then it was no skin off her back if he were to never be seen again.

She'd even volunteer to do it herself.

"All in favor?" Prompted Jed. All hands in the room, with the exception of Hei and Packard, raised in unison.

"Motion passes," announced Jed, as the hands dropped. Then, for the first time that evening, Jed turned his attention squarely on Isabella.

"Well Ms. Connors, I suppose you'd best get started."

Isabella blinked. Certain that she'd misheard.

"I beg your pardon?"

"He's your neighbor," grunted Jed, "Go be neighborly. Introduce yourself. Bring that cute little daughter of yours."

Like hell she'd be bringing her baby girl around some strange newcomer, but she didn't say that. She knew better. Instead, she grit her teeth and nodded.

It was time to meet the mysterious mister Jackson.

AN: Sup. Same author, same bullshit. Started a new story with Double, that we're both really excited about. Needless to say, since it's me, this story is going to be AU and it's going to be OC heavy. Consider that your one and only warning. As always thank you to Double for being the best on the planet, this story literally wouldn't exist without him and he's the best. I'm discord with a bunch of other awesome authors, link is in my profile so come check us out some time. Any hoo, enjoy the new story.

Love you,

LilDB