Lycan's unexpected mate

Baby on board

Thaumas

I watch Atlanta walk away from me to speak to a woman. When I found her in the woods and I felt her grief for the fallen man, my heart hurt. She's like a little sister to me and I feel protective of her. Maybe it's because I also have a younger sister who's 10 years younger than Tali. But these two girls couldn't be more different, and I'm not talking about their upbringing, mind you.

Anyway, people here all look so upset, distressed and scared. The tension is palpable in the air. Then my ears catch someone crying. I look around and notice that it is the woman Tali is speaking to. My guess is that she has just told her about the man's death by the distressed look on the woman's face. Then they walk inside the packhouse. I wonder who the man was and why this one particular death was so hard to accept for Tali.

I choose to mingle and find out if I can be of use anywhere because I have to wait for Atalanta to do whatever it was that the man wanted from her. People automatically get out of my way and I don't force them to speak to me. I realise how much work will have to be done if they want to survive the winter and I shudder myself. It is an awful lot.

Suddenly, I feel a tug of a mindlink and I let the person speak, although he sounds a little bit out of breath. "Beta Sorren, have you found the Alpha's daughter?" He is one of my green subordinates and I think his name is Telemos.

"Yes, I have," I answer shortly. "She needs to finish something in the packhouse and then she's joining us. Oh, and why do you sound strange? Everything okay?"

"Yes, Beta Sorren, of course."

Despite this answer, I don't believe him. Telemos is one the youngest people I have taken here and it was only because he pleaded with me to go into real action. I only hope that his Lycan isn't surfacing because he doesn't have as much control over his Lycan as the others. This is also the problem of us changing during fights. Triton always advises us to change into our Lycans if there is no other way out because we mustn't let anyone who has seen us alive, Alpha's order.

I close my eyes in regret. During this fight, I had to execute one pack member because he saw my Lycan Mars. No-one else saw us and I made sure to make his death completely painless, but the fact is almost suffocating me. He was innocent, Goddamnit! If Atalanta or her father used their Alpha voice on me, I would be forced to tell them but, otherwise, it is only my secret burden to bear. I was lost in the fight with a rogue and forgot to pay attention. This is the price I must pay. And then we lost another person because he was too seriously injured. This is a f*cked up mission, it really is. Never before have both I and Atalanta watched someone die on our mission. It was always only one of us.

"Where are you?" I demand Telemos in the end. I need to take my mind away from these thoughts.

"We're looking through the demolished houses for anything that can be salvaged. There are five of us here," he answers truthfully. "Others are helping in the clinic or they are collecting bodies to bury."

"I'm coming to help you then. It's good that we have something to do before we leave."

Once I cut off the mindlink, I look towards the packhouse. I can see the woman exit the building alone and walk towards her group of children. She cuddles a small girl in her arms and hugs an older one. I give them a warm smile and set off in the direction of the most demolished house where I expect Telemos and his people to be.

I reach their position about five minutes later. The houses in this part of the village are beyond repair, some of them are burnt. The team is searching through a house without a front door. The hinges are pulled out so I know that someone was forcefully trying to get in. Inside, the flames have consumed almost all the furniture on the ground floor. One of the team is outside, making sure that the building is still standing, while the others are surely inside. When I arrive, I notice that they have pulled out a cupboard and some clothes. Telemos is just bringing out a mirror while others have more clothes and a couple of chairs.

Everyone stands up to attention as soon as they see me. I nod at them and they relax. "Report," I say looking at nobody in particular.

Furrina steps forwards and announces: "This is the last house. We've found clothes, some furniture, Telemos here insisted on the mirror so that it didn't get broken and bring us bad luck. So now we're about to take it all back to the main area so that others could decide where to put the things, sir."

"Alright, so let's move it, guys. Show me what to take," I say walking closer to the furniture. Together we make two journeys to the main area, neither of us very talkative except for saying where one is going and such.

When we get to the packhouse for the second time, I can sense that Atalanta is in distress. Mars yips in my head and I know he can feel our Tali is upset as well. I set the wooden cupboard to the side and walk to the hole for the front doors. There I can hear Tali's voice. She is cooing at someone or something. What the heck?

A moment later, she emerges with a bundle of white cloths in her arms and a formal man's attire in her other hand. She looks around and her eyes widen when she notices me this close. She gulps and avoids my eyes. I can't help but wonder what she has done this time. 'As if we didn't have enough on our plate, right, Mars?'

'Find what she has in her arms.'

'Wow, charming as usual,' I can't help but throw back.

I can feel that Mars lowers his tail between his hind legs. I sigh internally. 'Sorry, dude. Seems like we're both trying to move on but we can't, I can't just yet. I'm sorry.'

Mars curls into a small ball and waits for what will happen without answering me. His eyes are the only indication that he has accepted my apology.

While I talked to my Lycan, Atalanta has side-stepped me and brought the clothes back to the woman she spoke to earlier. I can hear them very well.

"Emily," Atalanta starts, "I've found his navy blues and I prepared the uniform for his funeral. I took this shirt and trousers and I will get him dressed before we bring him back."

Emily gives her a small sad smile as she pats her shoulder awkwardly. "He would be happy to know that he is taken care of, Alpha." Then she leans closer to Atalanta's chest and her eyes widen. "How . . . Where . . . Whose . . ." she stammers, her eyes moving quickly between Atalanta and the bundle.

Atalanta shrugs and says: "No idea. He was alone so I guess his parents are either dead or in the clinic."

Emily shakes her head and I have to ask myself who that "HE" is. What did Tali find? Well, more exactly, who?

I stride closer to the women and that's when Atalanta's bundle starts to stir and a cry echoes through the area, surprising everyone. Atalanta starts rocking the bundle and nothing more comes out of it. I know that Atalanta can sense my closeness but I come even closer nonetheless.

Atalanta looks at me sheepishly and turns back to the woman, Emily. "I'll take Thaumas here to help me with Alpha White. We'll bring him as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Alpha. I will go to the clinic now, see if we aren't losing anyone more." Emily leaves with a bow to both me and Atalanta.

"Tali?" I lift my eyebrow in confusion.

"Not here," she stops me and signals for me to go to the forest with her, walking in the direction where we left the dead man some time ago. I obey without hesitation.

When we get inside the forest, I know that we are out of the hearing range, however, she still continues to walk to the corpse. Only now do I realise that it belongs to the pack's Alpha. Connecting these dots, I understand Atalanta's unhappiness.

Only when we reach the dead body, she turns to me and starts speaking. "Thaumas, I . . ." She takes a breath and doesn't meet my eyes. "Alpha Merdok asked me to find this baby. My guess is he is his son. His name is Johann. Merdok died before he could tell me anything more than the name, so I didn't know who I was going for."

I lift her head with my fingers on her chin. "You could have told me, you know. Mindlink can't be eavesdropped on."

"But you would have asked many questions that I didn't and still don't have answers on," she admits and I let out a deep breath.

"Tali, Tali, Tali."

She looks at me hopefully. "Thaumas, do you think we can keep him?" she asks suddenly.

I can only stare at her in shock. This isn't happening, right? I still believe that I have misheard her. "We can what?" I ask hoping for a negative confirmation.

"You know, keep him, like bring him to the pack," Atalanta says innocently.

She is pulling my leg, right?

"The baby may still have some family here. You can't just take him away," I try to reason with her.

"But his parents are dead, you've told me yourself that the Luna died," she argues with me.

I massage the bridge of my nose when I recall the woman she spoke to earlier. "And what about Emily? I could see that she was closer to Alpha White than just a pack member. Hmm?"

Atalanta purses her lips and shrugs. The movement jostles the baby boy and he starts to gurgle unhappily. She waits for a second, hoping he would settle down, just like I do. Fat chance of that happening. He starts to cry silently and then his voice goes louder and louder. Atalanta looks at me helplessly and if the situation were any different, I would have laughed at her expression. I didn't see her interact with her younger siblings when they were born and her mother is too protective of her youngest offspring to let anyone do more than watching her from afar.

"Shhh, Johann, shhh, please," Atalanta tries to calm the baby. He has such strong lungs that my ears hurt. Mars whimpers in my head as well.

I have no idea what to do. When my baby sister Pomonna was born, I was away on my studies. I mean, my parents were against it and we argued a lot at that time. I left for five years to study law in Oxford. That way I was far from my parents' influence and I didn't keep in contact except for calling on birthdays and official holidays. When I came back that fifth year with a red diploma in my hand, hoping to apologise for my foolish behaviour and to tell them that I love them and I missed them, I was met with a three-year-old girl who immediately slammed the door on me and called at our mother to come downstairs that someone strange was here. Needless to say, I was left speechless and then, when my mother arrived, she introduced us and well, now Pomonna and I are pretty much inseparable because we both know that petty things can steal precious time with your beloved.

I shake my head and call at Atalanta: "Look, try calling your parents. They will surely know what to do. And take him somewhere away from me. I can't stand him crying."

Atalanta nods indecisively and steps away from me and Alpha White. I kneel to his side and prepare the clothes to dress him up. I've never had to get a corpse dressed before but you can imagine that it's not an easy feat when he has started to cool down and stiffen. If only I had known earlier . . . Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk.

I carefully pat the blood on Alpha's body to find it all almost dry. I move his body to the left where there isn't so much undergrowth. Then I start to place the clothes on him. Atalanta has brought only the most important parts so I don't have to worry about underwear or socks or a jacket. While working, I can hear no more crying, which means that Atalanta has somehow managed to calm the boy down. I debate waiting for her after I am done with the Alpha and decide to move the corpse closer to the packhouse and wait there. I am very much capable of holding and carrying the body myself.