"No, absolutely not, not happening." Hamish argued with the rest of the wolves. "We are not calling our baby Fluffy."
"Hamish, you can name your kid whatever you want, we are talking about naming their hide. Since this is a Knights thing we figured we had the right to take a vote and the vote is unanimous. Our new werewolf is called Fluffy. Perfect name for the little dude." Randal added.
"No, I didn't get to have a vote on this and there shouldn't even be a vote. It's my kid. I made her I should get to have a choice in what she's called."
"Yeah but did you make her hide?" Randal argued with him. "That's what I thought."
"Vera is going to kill you, no way she's letting you call the new wolf Fluffy. Her name's Theo."
"Theo?" Gabrielle finally spoke up sounding a little annoyed with their choice. "What's wrong with Ganrielle?"
"That's the name Vera wanted, Vera gets to go through nine months of misery. She gets the first pick in what the baby is named, just like she gets first pick in what to call her baby's hide and she hates the fact you guy's call her Fluffy. This isn't a puppy you know."
"I mean, it sort of is considering you, know, she's, yeah she's a puppy."
"Watch it Randal, that's my precious niece you are talking about there." Gabby pointed at him letting him know she wasn't going to let him cross certain lines when it came to poor sweet Fluffy. "Happy it's a girl by the way, I totally knew, it's practically like I have telepathy with her already. We are going to totally own this campus, she's going to be so unstoppable. I'll make sure of it."
Hamish was a bit worried that Gabrielle Dupree was already plotting out his daughter's prom and meanwhile Hamish was just trying to catch a break between Vera's random cravings at random hours of the day. It was great that Vera finally had an appetite but it was weird how she could go from craving a bowl of icecream to drinking pickle juice in a matter of minutes.
"Hey, I happen to like puppies, who doesn't like puppies? Puppies are the best, they are so cute with their little squishy faces." Randal sighed. "I miss Bandit and Larry."
"Let's be fair here, Hamish is right, it is his kid which makes it by default his werewolf too and his hide. Well, his kids hide." Jack, the voice of reason and stepping up as usual, uncomfortably acting like he was trying to claim leadership of the wolves which was a bit harder now that Hamish was also Temple Magus. "Like he said, Vera gets to go through nine rough months so she got a claim on naming the baby. Well Hamish nearly lost them both for that hide to even be here so he gets to call it what he wants."
"Thank you Jack, finally a voice of reason among all this insanity."
"Fine then Ham-Sandwich, what are you going to call the new knight?"
Hamish paused a moment actually trying to think of what the new werewolf should be called. They didn't know any traits of it, were they smart like Tundra? Would they be hot tempered like Vera? Did the first champion decide how the wolf itself would be? There were a lot of unknown's in the situation. "I think since it's a werewolf hide and the baby is also equally as much of Tundra's as it is mine then Tundra get's to call the shots on what we call the new wolf."
"Tundra gets to name it now? Man, talk about complicating everything, I still vote for Fluffy."
"Okay." Gabrielle cut in. "What does Tundra want to call the new wolf?"
"Ember." Hamish didn't even get a chance to really let that name set into his own head before he'd blurted it out like Tundra had been sitting on this for years. Maybe she had, maybe it had even been in the back of her mind the day Vera told him she was having a baby, just in case. The more Hamish thought about it though the more clever he realized it was. Ember, talking about the fire, polar opposite to the cold sound of her name, Tundra. It also fit the fact that Vera was fire, at least if Hamish was the cold. Opposites do attract after all. It was a nice name for the new hide, a little of Tundra and a little of Vera in it.
"Okay, I love it." Gabrielle admitted.
"Yeah it's pretty cool." Randal added. "So like, do we make them a hide locker or what?"
Hamish had to admit he had no idea how the rest of this worked but he didn't want to think of the hide locker when it came to his unborn child. In one regard it would be nice should something happen to her down the line to know she was alive but on the other hand what sort of parent wanted to have to check a locker for confirmation if your child was dead or alive? "Can we not talk about that right now?"
"Making you uncomfortable Papa-Mish?"
"Hate it, don't ever call me that again."
"So totally teaching your kid to call you Papa-Mish."
"I'm starting to regret coming here and asking who is willing to come to the Christmas party for Vera right about now."
"Oh, a party? I'm in." Gabrielle injected without hesitation.
"Not that kind of party but thanks, besides aren't you going home for the holidays?"
"Don't insult me Hamish, I know it's not that kind of party but I want to take this opportunity to be the first to spoil my niece okay." It was unsettling that Gabrielle kept calling Theo her niece, he really didn't want to raise a Dupree jr. "Besides I was just home for Thanksgiving, I really don't need to see my family that much. I can tell them something came up in one of my classes and I have a lot of work to finish during winter break."
"Alright that's….you." He didn't sound super excited for that one.
"I'll go, not like I have anywhere else to be." Jack added. After all the only family he had left were the knights and the order. All he had was Alyssa, his grandfather was dead and Alyssa's family hadn't met him yet. He wasn't even interested in meeting them from how Alyssa had spoken of them.
"Not to make this obvious but Alyssa isn't allowed to come." He paused. "No hard feelings and nothing against her Jack but the last time she was in the same room with Vera she was going to kill her and call me a little protective but Vera's my partner now and the mother of my unborn child so I don't feel comfortable putting her in harm's way. I hope you understand."
Jack nodded his head, "Alyssa wouldn't hurt her now."
"Okay, then let me put it this way, I don't want there to be a witch fight. Vera might not have her own powers but she's bound to the babies and those are getting pretty….intense lately." Maybe not even fully controllable but better to have Vera in charge of them then the actual pup who might accidentally kill someone with a startle reflex.
"Well I'm busy." Randal added before Gabrielle hit him in the shoulder.
"No he's not, he's hardly busy, he's coming as my date aren't you Randal." She grabbed his hand and smiled at him.
"Just great."
"Lilith, what about you?" Lilith still wasn't a fan of Hamish, a combination of being a 'poor' leader in her eyes and letting the knights join the order after she's been sucked into a demon portal and then forced to come back to this place that no longer felt like a home. "Good talk, Lilith, can't wait to see you at the party."
"Don't…" She looked up from her school work. "I'm not going, Nichole and I already decided to go to her family's for Christmas. Sorry Hamish but I'm not going to be apart of your little clan gathering around someone who should still be our enemy."
"Vera is not our enemy."
"Say's you." She snapped back. "You do remember she tried to erase all our memories."
"Yes, and then she tried to save the world against a demon, one we almost let walk freely because we robbed the order."
"And then she refused to help you guys rescue me."
"She was busy with Praxis."
"Sounds like you are just making up excuses for your easy lay Hamish."
His eyes flashed silver, Tundra seeming to boil up in rage over Hamish. Maybe he wasn't so much the one overly protective of Vera as Tundra was. "Take that back Lilith." His voice got deep and hollow echoed with a wolfish growl.
"Make me." Lilith threw her assignment to the ground and stood up, her own eyes flashing silver.
Jack and Randal got between the two jumping into action before this devolved into a wolf fight and another hole in the wall they had to plaster up. "Hey, whoa guys. Let's settle down here." Morton, the voice of reason yet again. "No need for names, you have fun with Nicholes family and we will still have a good time and everything will be good."
"I thought you were on side with this whole Ember thing?" Hamish added since earlier today Lilith had been in the conversation on naming the new pup Fluffy.
"Just because I'm on Ember's side doesn't mean I have to like Vera. Ember's a Knight, she's one of us. It's just unfortunate her mother has to be the grand ice queen. I hope for her sake she doesn't pick up too many of her traits. I'd rather Dupree rubs off on her instead. At least i could put up with that instead of that sociopath you call a girlfriend."
Hamish growled again moving for her again only for Randal to stop him.
"Whoa there big guy, settle down. I mean she has a point, I kind of agree." Those silver eyes darted down to Randal then, Tundra was so cranky lately. "I mean, that is how I used to feel but...Vera and I, we are cool now." Yikes, hopefully the Christmas party didn't feel this intense with papa Hamdra trying to rip out someone's throat for insulting Vera. "It's going to be a nice Christmas party, everyone will be well behaved and totally respectful."
Hamish calmed down again taking a step back. "Good, because Vera's never had a family before and she's never celebrated Christmas properly. I just want to give her a good Christmas with a family and let her see it's not really something she needs to hate anymore."
"Poor, poor Vera." Randal had some pretty fake sympathy for her because after all she was the Grand Magus. If anyone should have a sob story or have them feel sorry for them it was Jack. The Order had actually taken everything from him.
Jack on the other hand didn't seem to have false sympathy for her, his was very real. Back when he'd been a tree he'd felt her very real pain. He'd experienced her very real memories over her loss. "Don't worry Hamish, I'll help you make sure it's a great first Christmas with her. I think as someone who understands a little better that I can agree it's not going to be easy for her to enjoy it this year that much but it's worth a shot. Just because it's hopeless doesn't mean you don't try." Jack looked over to Lilith having quoted Vera the day they sat down discussing how they would save humanity from the demon of fear. Lilith looked over at Jack knowing what he was doing and she didn't like it. "Count on me Hamish, if you need any help with setup I'd be happy to lend a hand too."
"Thanks Jack, I knew I could count on you."
Gabrielle huffed, "Suckup."