Yes, yes, I know it's taken an unforgivably long time for me to update this story. In all honesty, I had no idea that the fall semester would turn out the way that it did, and it's been a real challenge to get to the computer. Still, I finally managed to get this chapter out, and I'm fairly pleased overall. I hope you guys enjoy it, and that it's a welcome relief from months of silence.

Happy New Year!

P.S. By the way, I took some liberties here regarding werewolf development. If anybody has any corrections or suggestions, just let me know.

For a Knight's Lady

By: EarthDragonette

Disclaimer: Ash is not my original character. Mary-Lynnette isn't my original character either. Neither are Thierry, or Hannah, or, well, anybody really. Except Reina, the blonde kid from the club, and the pup. Those I'm rather fond of – even if Reina DOES vex me so. Anyway, I'm not making any money off of this story.

Rating: PG-13

Thea squinted her eyes, turning her head to the side as she gazed intently at the cub. Eric, who was gently holding the pup in place on the examining table, watched her with a similar intensity. After a few moments, she looked up and turned to Mary-Lynnette.

"There's no doubt about it," she declared. "It's definitely a werewolf – and a young one, too. My guess is probably no more than seven weeks old."

Mary-Lynnette looked at Ash. "How old is he in his human form? Is it any different?"

Ash shrugged, pushing his lanky frame away from the closed door and walking up to the table. "The forms age differently," he answered her, shaking his head when the pup twisted its neck around to gaze at him. Gently running his fingers over its ears he added, "It's sort of hard to correlate the two shapes."

"Still," Thea supplied, "it doesn't mean that we can't make a pretty good estimate. I'd say although he's only been alive for six weeks or so, in his human form he's developed up to a year."

Mary-Lynnette was surprised. "That old?" she asked. "That's amazing. I can't believe his body would grow so quickly."

"In the wild, regular wolves have to grow quickly," Eric informed her, shifting the pup slightly so that Thea could have access to its paws. "It gives them optimum defense against any threats, and it lets them learn better. The same natural law applies to werewolves, but more so."

"But wolves have natural predators," Mary-Lynnette pointed out. "Such as other packs, carnivores, or humans. What do werewolves have to fear?"

There was an uncomfortable silence before Ash answered. "Some of the same ones as regular wolves, but also, werewolves aren't exactly the most respected species within the Nightworld. There's a lot of day-to-day racism that they have to put up with, not to mention the long history of vampires and witches hunting them for their blood and body parts. It's not surprising that nature compensates it all with rapid growth."

Before Mary-Lynnette could finish recoiling, Thea tossed out in a somewhat distracted voice: "Also, werewolves are also usually caught and burned at the stake by humans whenever they find one. It doesn't happen very often, but it is a threat."

"Humans don't do so well whenever they meet members of the Nightworld." Eric gave Mary-Lynnette a small smile when he saw her face flush slightly. "And I'm not just talking about surprised soulmate halves – man has a long, bloody war going on with different clans. It may not be something everyone is aware of, but society is filled with fear and hatred of vampires, witches, and shifters." Making sure that Thea had a grip on the pup, he moved over to a large sink on the far side of the room and began to fill it with warm water. "Each species of the Nightworld has some means of defense, but it's not full-proof."

"And as the peace-keeping organization, Circle Daybreak deals with a lot of refugees from towns where things go wrong," Thea added.

"Go wrong?" Mary-Lynnette echoed, looking at the pup intently. Kneeling down in front of the examination table, she put her hand out so that he could sniff it. "Is that what happened to you last night, little guy? Did you get caught up in a fight?" Looking up at Ash, she wondered out loud, "Maybe that's why he's still in his werewolf form – he's afraid of humans, so he's keeping his guard up."

Respect lighting in her eyes, Thea agreed: "Probably." Picking up the pup by the scruff of the neck, she cradled him gently as she moved to the sink, sending calming energy through him so that the bath water didn't shock him. "Fear and wariness of humans is something that all Nightpeople are raised to know. For the older members, there are laws and penalties that govern interactions with humans. In the case of the young, like this pup, all he has is his instinct and what his parents were able to communicate to him." Gently going over his fur with some mild soap, she continued, "I don't think he'll stay like this for long, though. After he finds somebody to bond with, he'll relax and we'll be able to see both of his forms."

Before Mary-Lynnette could ask what Thea meant, Eric snorted and glanced at Ash. "That shouldn't take too long," he predicted, crouching down to get a towel from one of the cabinets.

Ash bristled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Thea tucked her tongue inside of her cheek, trying to hold back a smile. Focusing on rinsing off the pup as if it were the most delicate of tasks, she chose her words carefully. "We-ll, it's like this. When pups are left alone, for whatever reason, and especially if they've lost all the members of their pack –"

"Thea," Ash huffed. "Will you get on with it?"

Gently bundling the pup into the towel that Eric had stretched out for him, she hurriedly finished: "It's not unusual for them to seek out the strongest male in the area and try to, er ..."

"Become part of his pack?" Mary-Lynnette suggested.

"Oh, um, hmmmm," Thea said, rubbing the towel over the cub's fur. "Yes, something like that." Her brown eyes darted over to Eric, and then narrowed when she saw him stifling his amusement. "Now stop that," she scolded. "We don't know for sure if he'll bond with Ash. It's just a possibility."

Eric just shook his head, unable to hold back his grin. Following his gaze, both Thea and Mary-Lynnette had to quickly cover their mouths to keep from laughing.

Although the pup was still mostly wrapped up in the towel, it was easy enough to see that he'd wiggled one side of his face out from under it, and that his eye was completely fixated on Ash.

Crossing his arms and scowling at the werewolf, Ash grumbled, "What're you looking at?"

"Well, looks like he found his alpha male," Eric remarked.

"Not a chance. No. I won't," Ash protested. When Mary-Lynnette gave him an incredulous look, he reaffirmed, "We have people here to look after him. There's no way I'm playing foster father to a mutt."

Wincing as she pulled off the towel to check the pup over one last time for fleas or ticks, Thea reminded Ash, "Nobody said you had to. We can probably find somebody else that he can imprint until we figure out what to do with him."

Relieved, Ash felt safe enough to venture forward and pat the wolf on the head. "Not that you're not cute," he told it, running his fingers underneath its chin, "But we'd never get along. I'd want to play video games in the evening; you'd want to chase cars. I'd want to go out for deer, and you'd want to chew on bones. It would never work."

Delighted that the big-blonde-male-leader was talking to him, the pup wagged his tail and gave him a little yip – just to let him know that he was paying attention, even if the vampire wasn't using pack-speak. And then, just to make sure that the leader knew that he knew his place as the pup, he reached up and nuzzled Ash on the chin.

Ash jumped back and looked at his soulmate with a helpless, offended air. "Mary-Lynnette," he whined.

She shook her head. "I don't have any advice for you, Romeo. Your animal magnetism is beyond me."

Before he could reply, the house intercom wheezed to life and Thierry's voice poured into the room. "Thea? Is Ash still with you?"

"I'm here," Ash answered. "What's up?"

There was a slight pause before Thierry patiently replied, "You came into Circle Daybreak with an orphaned werewolf pup and have yet to report to me to let me know what's going on ... and you ask what's up?"

Ash winced. "Okay, Fearless Leader. I'll be right there." After the speaker clicked off, Ash reached over and gave Mary-Lynnette a kiss. "After you settle things here, meet me back up in my room," he said. "We can figure out what we want to do from here." Glancing at the cub, he shuddered, "And Rover's not coming with us."

The other teens in the room didn't do much more than shake their heads as Ash left the room. To Mary-Lynnette's surprise, he hadn't been gone more than a second before the pup began to whimper. Not looking overly concerned, Thea motioned for her to come closer. "Here," she instructed, placing the pup into her arms. "Hold him sort of like you'd hold a human baby. His back is more limber than a regular wolf's, so it's pretty comfortable for him."

Although Mary-Lynnette was human, and by no means the pup's new alpha, she was more familiar to him than anyone else in the room and after a few minutes he quieted down, blinking sleepy violet eyes at her. She couldn't help but smile at him, and then blushed when she looked up to see Thea and Eric watching her with interest.

"What?" she asked.

Thea grinned. "You look domestic. It's cute."

Not really prepared to answer that one way or the other, Mary-Lynnette noticed jars of unusual looking baby food and suggested, "Why don't you let me know what I can do to help keep this guy fed?"

"Well, well," Thierry commented as Ash walked into his office. "I think we may upgrade your status to Director of Lost Werewolf Operations. You've found, what, at least two in the past year or so?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ash replied, taking a seat in front of Thierry's desk. "What was that I saw jumping out the window when I came in? Was that, your personality?"

Thierry chuckled. "So you're saying you're not a dog person?"

Ash grumbled to himself before changing the subject. "So what're you doing here, anyway? I thought you and Hannah were supposed to be off on a world tour or something."

"We're leaving for Hawaii tomorrow," he informed Ash. "She wanted an extra day to pack." He shrugged in confusion, "I don't understand why she needs so much time, but it seemed really important."

Ash gave him a sympathetic look. "Mary-Lynnette did the same thing to me before we left Oregon. I think that the time it takes a woman to pack is proportional to how complicated her clothing is."

Thierry blinked several times before turning a slight shade of red. "Oh, well, I wouldn't know anything about that."

Ash arched his eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

Thierry was silent.

"Nothing at all?" Ash prodded.

Thierry glared at him. "That's a private matter between Hannah and myself."

Holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender, Ash smirked. "Okay, okay, I'll back off. So, what do you want to know about Spot?"

Thierry furrowed his brow before leaning forward. Ash noticed that he had a file folder in front of him. "I just have some questions. First of all, how did you find him?"

Ash related the story about the previous evening, and included an account of the dogfight that he and Mary-Lynnette had heard. Thierry listened carefully, nodding here and there. When Ash had finished, the elder asked, "Do we know if the cub's a full werewolf?"

Arching his eyebrows in surprise, Ash replied, "We didn't even think of that. You could probably ask Thea to run some blood tests to see. Werewolves are already so much like humans that it's almost impossible to identify a hybrid any other way."

Thierry seemed thoughtful. "I'll make sure she does that. How old is he?"

"Thea said around seven weeks or so."

"Any strange marks on him?"

Ash shook his head. "None that we could tell right now – we'll have a better idea once he transforms into his human shape."

Thierry was quiet for a moment before inquiring: "You said you found him out by the mines, right?"

Unable to keep his curiosity at bay any longer, Ash replied, "Yeah, that's right. Hey, Thierry, what's going on here?"

The older vampire seemed to be deliberating about something, but ultimately came to some sort of decision. He cleared his throat, and Ash sat back, preparing himself for an explanation.

"After I closed down the mines in the late 1800's, a tribe of werewolves asked me if they could use the property to build their den and lodgings. Since the land was just sitting there, I had no problem with them using it. They're usually a quiet group, but I know that recently they've been having political problems within the pack order. I'm wondering how the baby was involved and where its mother is."

"That's not hard to find out, is it? Just send some agents out for recon."

"That's been done, but we won't know anything for another hour or so. Ash," Thierry said, using a tone that caught the young lamia's attention, "if something happened to his pack, we're going to need to find a place for the cub."

Ash was confused. "What about here? We take orphans in all of the time."

Thierry shook his head, "I'm not sure that's a good idea. I have a strange feeling about this, and I don't know if it would be good to keep him near whatever is left of his clan. Besides," he continued, "if the pup does turn out to be a hybrid, then we'll have even more of a reason to keep him far away from his Nightworld connections."

Ash could see where Thierry was going with this. Oh, no. Not a chance in hell. I am not a babysitter.

"We have a foster family in Orono, Maine that's willing to take him."

"I'm not taking the pup to Maine," Ash declared, crossing his arms firmly in front of him. "There's no way you're getting me to take a baby on an airplane."

"You wouldn't be," Thierry assured him. Ash's look of relief was short-lived, however as Thierry clarified: "He's too young to fly – the pressurized air will hurt his ears. You'll drive, instead."

"Yes, because that's such an appealing alternative," Ash snapped, slinking down into his chair.

"It'll only take a week at the most," Thierry pointed out reasonably.

"I'm really more of a cat person," Ash protested.

"So we already established."

"My car isn't nearly large enough to accommodate all of the supplies we'd have to take."

"We'll give you another one."

"I wouldn't want to leave Mary-Lynnette here alone."

"She could probably go with you."

"I'm not sure she likes dogs."

"You're just making up excuses, now."

Before launching even more into his "why me?" routine, Ash stopped himself and ran a hand over his face, sighing heavily. Eventually, he asked: "Isn't there anybody else that can do this?"

Giving Ash a knowing look, Thierry said, "The pup's already bonding to you, isn't he?"

Ash rolled his head back, casting his dark green eyes at the ceiling. "Yeah. I think it started when he climbed into the tent." Glancing down at Thierry, he injected a hopeful note into his voice. "Thea said that we could probably get the wolf to bond to somebody else?"

Thierry conceded. "That's true, but it would take some time, and I'm not sure how much we're going to have to work with. Furthermore, I think you'd probably be the best protection for him. You're already well trained in combat, and, what's more, the cub trusts you."

"Thierry, I don't know anything about taking care of babies," Ash pointed out.

Looking triumphant, Thierry retorted: "Even better – you'll watch him extra carefully."

Seeing that the young vampire was still against the idea, Thierry moved to reassure him. "It's only a possibility, Ash. It may be that there was just a slight disturbance in the pack and that the cub wandered off. We'll see what information the agents bring back from the den, and maybe even wait a few days to see if his mother comes to claim him."

"But if the pack disbanded or went crazy, I'm the one who has to play nanny."

"I'd like you to, yes."

Shaking his head in annoyance, Ash drew his lanky frame up from the chair. "I can't believe I'm getting wrapped up in this. I'm just a quiet man, trying to live a quiet life."

Thierry snorted. "You're no more quiet than Quinn is vegan."

Giving the older vampire a sour look, Ash moved to leave. Before exiting the door, though, he turned back to Thierry and commented: "You know, I bet Lassie never gave Timmy this much trouble."

Thierry rolled his eyes. "I'll call you when we know more information."

After Ash left the office, Thierry leaned forward to examine his file, his eyes passing over the photograph of a young woman. "Arianna," he murmured, "What did you get yourself into?"

Curled up in one of the easy chairs in Ash's living room, Mary-Lynnette was having a difficult time staying awake. The excitement of the cub had done a lot to compensate for her late night and early morning, but now that she'd found a few moments of peace, her body had begun to respond to it in kind.

Yawning, she stretched her legs and tried to focus on the book she'd grabbed off of Ash's shelf. Although she'd read most of the titles that he owned, there were one or two that she was unfamiliar with and this had seemed an opportune time to take a look at them.

"Focus here," she murmured to herself, wiping her bleary, heavy eyes. The weight of The Iliad seemed to increase with each passing minute. "There's no reason for you to fall asleep right now. This is a good book. Homer is a classic. You can read this."

Still, classic or not, it was only moments later that Mary-Lynnette succumbed to her sleepiness, turning into the chair with a soft sigh. This was also how Ash found her about half an hour later when he returned from his meeting with Thierry.

Softly closing the door behind him, Ash smiled to see his soulmate stealing an early afternoon nap. When he walked up to the chair, he wasn't surprised to see his old copy of the epic. Kneeling down in front of the chair, he moved the book to the floor and took her hands in his own, kissing them gently. When her blue eyes opened to him a few seconds later, he couldn't help but grin.

"It's okay," Ash reassured her as she stretched and began to sit up. "The cataloguing of the ships always put me to sleep, too. I think it sounds better in the actual Greek."

Mary-Lynnette chuckled, shifting her clothing a little bit before giving into the urge and running her fingers along Ash's face and through his hair. "I actually didn't get that far," she replied. "Achilles's temper tantrum was enough to put me out." Yawning, she looked around for a clock. "What time is it, anyway? Did you just get back?"

Sitting cross-legged in front of her, Ash pulled her hands back into his. "It's just a little after one. Thierry let me go a few minutes ago." Ash rolled his eyes. "He keeps forgetting that I'm on vacation and not supposed to be working."

Mary-Lynnette shook her head. "Why do I get the feeling that you have another assignment?"

"Probably because I do. Well, sort of," he answered. Resting his chin on her hands, he quickly filled her in on the events of his meeting. When finished, he concluded: "So, Thierry wants to do some background information on the pup, and if things turn out to be questionable, then he wants us to take it to Maine."

Mary-Lynnette nodded. "I see." Her face looked thoughtful for a moment before it cleared and she smiled at him. "Well, if we have to help the little guy, then that's that. It's the right thing to do."

Ash was only slightly stunned. He would've been more so had she refused to help the cub, but he was still somewhat in awe that she would be so willing to give up her leisure time. "Are you sure?" he asked.

She blinked at him. "Of course I'm sure," she answered. "It's not his fault that he may have become orphaned. Besides, I'd like to help out if I can. It doesn't seem fair if we're soulmates and I don't support this kind of work."

Feeling an overwhelming sensation of love and adoration well up in his chest, Ash couldn't keep himself from reaching up to kiss her, savoring both the surprise and pleasure that he sensed through the chord.

"You know," he whispered to her, his lips running across hers as he spoke, "I had a horrible night's sleep, too."

Blushing faintly, Mary-Lynnette whispered back: "Afternoon naps are good cures for that."

Clearing his throat, he tossed her a devilish-looking smile before picking her up bridal-style and moving towards his bedroom. Just as he set her down, however, the bedside phone rang. Giving her a look that was a mixture of annoyance and frustration, he answered it, his voice sharp with impatience.

"What is it?" he grumbled, sitting next to Mary-Lynnette. Scooting over a little to give him more room, she ran her hand up and down his back, watching his face as it went through several changes of emotion.

"Are you sure it was her?" he asked. Long seconds ticked by before Ash nodded. "Okay. I'll do that."

Another few moments passed before he said: "You're right, this is something I should look into. It's too weird to just ignore."

Concerned, Mary-Lynnette rose to her knees and began to rub Ash's shoulders, working out some of the tension that she felt along his neck. He reached up to pat her hand as he finished up the conversation. "I'll give her a call and see what I can find out. Hopefully this won't be anything serious."

Hanging up the phone, he turned and gave Mary-Lynnette a hug, leaning his forehead against her stomach before exhaling with a deep, drawn out breath.

"This is like some dark comedy," he said.

Mary-Lynnette smiled ruefully. "More work?"

Ash brought his head up and then shifted his body so that he was leaning against the bed frame. Pulling Mary-Lynnette against him, he replied. "I think so. It's really … weird, though. Remember Reina, from the club?"

Her muscles tensing slightly at the memory of the dark-haired beauty, Mary-Lynnette replied, "I remember her."

Not oblivious to his soulmate's discomfort, Ash rested his chin on her head. "That was Lupe, one of our field agents that's been keeping an eye on the Iris over the past few months. I guess Reina's been asking people how to get in contact with me."

Mary-Lynnette arched her eyebrow. "Really? Why?"

Ash shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe it's, what did you say earlier, my 'animal magnetism'?" He ducked as one of her hands came up to swat him.

"Not funny," she declared, before settling back against him in a huff.

He gave her a squeeze, and nuzzled her neck. "Seriously though, I'm not sure what's on her mind - that's why I told Lupe I'd contact her. Considering how high up Reina is with Hunter, I think I should stay on top of this situation."

Determined not to feel overwhelmed with all the evidence of Ash's professional life intruding on their personal time, Mary-Lynnette just sighed. Turning around to look him in the eye, she asked, "Well, can it at least wait until our nap is over?"

Completely captivated by the intensity of her gaze, as well as the insistent tug of the soulmate chord, Ash was already rolling onto his side before she'd completed her thought.

I didn't go crazy on the plot development, but we should have some nice movement in the next chapter ... and I'm not sure when I'll get that out. It could be as early as next week, or it may be another month or more. As always, I'll try my best.

And now, a huge thank-you to my readers, all of whom I will be forever grateful to. You guys stick by me through strange plot developments and postponed deadlines, and I adore you for it. I know I usually respond to each of you, but I thought you would probably appreciate having the update sooner instead of having a personal note. Please believe me, though, when I say that I appreciate each of your comments and they're what keep me writing and striving to update.

See you next time!