Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus. All characters belong to Uncle Rick, not me.
Running.
That's all she could do. If she'd stayed any longer, she'd have put him in danger, and she refused to lose another of her pack. Despite her strict and indifferent outlook, she is actually very passionate, and cares greatly for her family. It can almost be considered her fatal flaw. Although that may not be true for her, but given the ancestry of her mate it will almost definitely become ingrained into the result of their efforts.
Loyalty. Such a beautiful thing. It can support a friendship or topple an empire in the most spectacular and violent way. It's incredible that it was still such a prevalent aspect of his, even after so much time!
An agonizing surge of pain is her reminder that she cannot keep running forever. That soon she will need to stop and rest.
Fortunately, she stumbles upon a cave nearby in the cliff face. Sensing no immediate danger within, she assumes a comfortable position in preparation for what will hopefully be her most painful experience of her long immortal life.
She has to stay hidden. She could not even call her dear friend Diana, or Artemis as she prefers, for her aid, despite the act in the coming hours being one of her own godly domains.
Childbirth. Never, in all her many years, did Lupa expect to find herself in this position. She's confident she can raise her pup. She's been doing it for others all her life. It's what she's best known for. Training heroes of Rome. The city she is considered the mother of.
Yes. Raising her pup is not her concern. It will be the world's reaction at knowing that Lupa, the eternal maiden goddess of wolves and mother of Rome, has sired her first ever child.
She will only be able to protect him long enough for him to prove himself worthy of his own life.
The Olympians, hypocrites they are, think they have a right to determine who can and cannot have a child. And subsequently, who is exempt from punishment for having a child.
Being her firstborn, she knows that he will have a powerful scent. How does she know her child will be male? Chalk it down to a godly mother's intuition.
To think it all started 10 months ago.
10 months ago, she lost her pack in an ambush courtesy that bastard Lycaon. An ambush in which she was the only survivor. Bloodied and beaten, she was forced to follow one of the most misinterpreted teachings for all leaders. She had to live to fight another day.
So, she ran until she could no longer. Until her injuries proved too severe for her to continue. But the Parcae were kind to her it seemed.
She soon stumbled upon a simple log cabin deep in the woods. And the man who lived in the cabin took one look at the goddess, now in her human form, and ushered her in to help tend to her wounds.
If only Diana were not so short sighted to believe that all males were bad, she thought dryly. Phil proved her philosophy's inaccurate. He was kind, understanding, respectful, helpful and she didn't regret what became of their time together.
Phil reminded her so much of Neptune, with his unruly black hair and neatly trimmed beard. But his eyes were not only slightly duller than the stormbringers, but they carried with them an independence. A freedom that could not hope to survive the legion.
Perhaps his lineage goes beyond Neptune?
Lupa still considers the possibility of Phil being a descendant of Neptune or possibly even Poseidon, but the latter seems far too unlikely for her taste. The Greeks barely last a generation nowadays. Although overtime it is possible for a legacy, should they remain out of contact from the godly world for a while, to lose their 'scent' and become easily mistaken for mortals. No matter how unlikely it sounds, she cannot help but feel that that is exactly what has happened to Phil and his forebearers.
About a week after Lupa had determined that she was in fact pregnant did she have to leave Phil. If she stayed any longer, she ran the risk of Lycaon discovering her scent and finding him.
So she left.
She spent some of her early months with Artemis and her hunters, trying to gain a favour and solidify her trust and friendship with the man hating patron of maidenhood. Lupa wasn't oblivious to the fact that her plan could very well backfire in her face, leaving her disgraced and broken. Cut off from all godly ties.
Throughout their time together, Lupa kept dropping hints about her condition and tried to alter her views on men, going so far as to ask if she believed a 'perfect male' would ever exist?
She posed the same question to her hunters as well, receiving mixed responses ranging from about a dozen different ways to say No, to others who did not know how to answer Lupa's question. But Artemis' answer was the only one she needed, and she was thankfully not disappointed.
Maybe if he was raised properly from birth and brought up to uphold our truth, could a male possibly be tolerable, was her response. The youngest and newest hunter also seemed to share a similar opinion as Artemis, only much more positive and optimistic that any hunter Lupa had ever met.
All good things must come to an end. Lupa stayed with the hunt long enough for them to start to have their suspicions about her before she left.
Five months later Lupa finds herself swollen and in pain as she attempts to finish birthing her son.
In her wolf form, her chocolate red fur is coated with sweat and with one last cry of pain she welcomes her first child, her son, into this cruel world.
When she can finally inspect her child, her assumptions are confirmed. Unlike Lupa who has a beautiful coat of chocolaty red fur, her son she can see will have a midnight black coat with a bit of his mother's fur color at the tip of his tail and his paws.
These patches of color on an otherwise black template almost seem to glow in the dying sunlight that reaches into her cave.
She knows that she will have to wait at least two weeks until she can see his eyes. Wolves are born both blind and deaf, so until then, she will be very careful. It will be even longer until he will assume a human form still.
She knows his name. She's known for months. She knows that he will need all the good fortune available, so she names him after one of the few great heroes who actually live to their end and are not killed off in a battle or any other embarrassing way.
"You will be strong Perseus. You must be if you hope to survive. But until then, you are mine, pup", She tells her son.
Lupa settles herself to caring for her son until the day comes when she will have to part with him. The ancient laws forbid Lupa from being a constant presence in his life. Despite her affection for Phil, she knows that he is not prepared to raise a demigod child, let alone one as powerful as Perseus.
Three years. That's all the time she'll have. In that time, she has to finalize her plan for her son's future. All the while raising him to be the best she can. First, she has to teach him to be and act like a wolf. Then she'll start teaching him to fight.
Lupa has already considered a woman who could adopt her son and raise him to be the best that he can be.
Letting out an uncharacteristic yawn, she resigns herself to sleep.
She gets one last smell of her son before finally succumbing to the realm of Somnia.
A fresh foresty smell. And a hint of the sea?
A/N
Just testing the waters to see how this does.
This is my first story so PLEASE leave a review of what you thought about it.
Basically, it should be the same as the PJO storyline, with a few changes and a different personality. I'm also probably going to swap Piper and Annabeth later on. Nothing against PERCABETH, but I like trying different things.
Let me know what you think.
AyeEnfield