Fury perched on the kitchen counter of Bride's home, it was the first time he had seen his brother since his untimely death and rather timely resurrection. For a whole week after the incident Fury had locked himself away with Charisma in their forest and indulged in simply being on earth again, at night he still woke up. Not from nightmares exactly, there were no images, just a feeling that he was stuck in darkness fighting to go back, watching a bead of marvellous light struggling to move towards him. He knew it was Charisma's soul and he called to her to move back, that he would wait for her. He'd wake up sometimes to find Charisma also awake, watching him or moaning in her sleep.

Fury looked up from his untouched bottle of beer that he rubbed slowly between his palms, Vane was sitting at the table staring at him, he shifted uncomfortably and turned to look at Fang who was sitting catty-corner from him on the other counter, also staring at him. He blew out a resigned breath.

"Okay, I'm not going to feel right unless you say it," Fury exclaimed suddenly, he waited a heartbeat looking expectantly at his brothers, "so say it."

"You were dead," Fang whispered almost reverently, Fury didn't want to waste any sarcasm on him so he satisfied himself with giving Fang his drollest, most sarcastic glare.

"What did you see?" Vane asked, his head tilted wolf like to the side, contemplating his brother, Fury paused and took a sip of his bear before answering.

"I remember being hurt and I remember blackness coming over me, you know like when your about to pass out sometimes things go dark without you realising it?" Vane nodded, Fang shook his head, Fury smiled but ignored him. "I remember just existing in a dark place, I didn't know what put me there, where there was, I wasn't afraid or hurt, I just felt a bit confused. Then I saw Charisma's face in my … mind, I suppose and I just wanted her. To be where she was even though I could hardly recall who she was, it was like a compulsion to go to her and to do that I … it was like instinct, I knew I had to go back." Fury paused again, debating his next words.

"I have to tell you, the urge to stay where I was, was overpowering. To simply be there and if I chose to move forwards … again instinct told me I wouldn't be able to go back. Then I heard Charisma calling me and - and you two calling me, its hard to explain. I didn't hear it as such, it was more of a feeling that someone needed me to come back."

Fury looked at Vane and saw his brother was a little pale, Vane ran a not so steady hand over his face and rested it against his mouth. Fang was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his mouth slightly open. Fury cleared his throat.

"Your catching flies, Fang," he said and Fang blinked.

"What?" he said thickly still blinking and Fury smiled.

"Shut your mouth, Fang!" Vane snapped, Fury and Fang exchanged amused looks, apparently Fury's demise had shaken up their eldest brother and since the time Fury had stepped foot in the house with Charisma this morning, Fang had been shouting out at random moments that Fury had collapsed. It had been hysterical watching Vane skid back into the room, looking like he'd just been drained of blood and dragged through a hedge backwards.

It was only when Charisma had threatened to turn them all in to spayed alley cats that they relented and cut Vane some slack.

"Can she do that?" Fang had whispered casting anxious glances at her as she sat harmless on the couch with Bride, Fury shrugged ominously.

"Best not to try your luck, eh?"

Vane fiddled with his own bottle of beer before pinning Fury with a gimlet stare and Fang snorting with laughter opened the fridge to hide his smile.

"Why didn't you call us to help you?"

At this Fang became very still and Fury was sure he was listening, it wasn't so much what Vane said as the way he said it that made Fury want to wince. Though he refrained Fury felt a sinking in his stomach, there was something in his voice that told Fury he had hurt his brother in someway.

"I just didn't think I needed it. It wasn't a deliberate attempt to piss you off!" Fury added defensively but Vane kept his cool.

"I'm not pissed off, Fury. I'm just disappointed," Vane said in low even tones meeting Fury's eye directly. Now his heart sank, over the years he had always respected Vane as a fighter, now he loved and respected him as a man, a wolf and as his older brother and therefore his Alpha. He enjoyed that when they were together they didn't jostle for the leadership mantle and Vane had never tried to impose such, he had simply accepted him and Fury didn't realise now how much he had begun to look up to his brother and how low he felt at disappointing him.

"I - I just …" Fury shrugged and scratched the back of his neck guiltily, Fang had given up pretending to search for food and was standing leaning on the open fridge door, his chin on his forearm, gazing at Fury. "You have a family now, Vane, you can't keep putting yourself in danger."

"So what are you then?" Vane shot back sharply, "my fucking gardener or something! You're my brother, Fury! My family! How hard am I going to have to push until it gets through your thick fucking head that you are my family no matter what? No matter that you were born Arcadian and raised away from us, that you spent hundreds of years as just one of our pack members? Now and forever after we're brothers. Or does that not matter to you?"

Fury mumbled that it did matter to him, and Vane shot out of his chair and poked Fury hard in the chest, Fury bit his tongue so hard to keep his temper in check he tasted blood.

"Huh? Come on, answer me! What you too good for us? You don't want us your brothers? We bore you? We're an inconvenience to you, is that it?"

With each question he slapped or poked Fury in the chest and suddenly Fury ran Vane up the wall, holding him by the scruff of the neck.

"Fuck you! You know that's not true! I would have given everything for you to know me all those years ago! You've always had Fang, he's always been yours. I haven't, and I don't want to lose what I have now. I'm not going to expect you to drop everything when I get myself in shit!"

"But I expect you to," Vane said simply and it was then that a red haze moved from his eyes and he realised with horror that he had run Vane in to the wall and secondly Vane wasn't struggling. Fury let him go as though he had been burned and backed away, Vane straightened his shirt with dignity and moved to clap Fury on the shoulder.

"You think we don't see you as our brother, Fury, but we do. When we saw you dead that night .." Vane broke off and shook his head. "Its not something I'll ever forget. I've experienced the pain of losing Anya and when I saw you lying there, both of us -' Vane looked at Fang who nodded sombrely, '- it was of the hardest nights of our lives."

Fang fiddled with a plastic container before he spoke squinting at a corner of cheese as he did so.

"Your right Vane and I have always had each other, but now we have you too. Remember that Fury, you've always got us."

Fury's throat tightened painfully and Vane squeezed his shoulder and ruffled his hair, Fury slapped him away and moved to sit up on the counter.

"I got to say this though, if you try and die again Fury. I'll kill you myself," said Fang casually, opening the container up to sniff at it.

"What is this?" he asked Vane with a disgusted look and Vane who was looking more relaxed all of a sudden just shrugged and sipped his beer.

"Fang!" All three men jumped and looked around guiltily, Bride walked in with a frown on her face, "shut that or the milk will turn."

"Sorry Bride," he closed the fridge and was about to sit down when they heard a delighted shout from Charisma in the hall.

"Look who's here!"

And in single file through the kitchen door came Charisma holding Quinn who was leaning over her shoulder and growling at -

"Sasha!" Vane barked, "What are you doing to my son?"

Star rushed forward and caught Fury in a death grip immediately, while Sasha looked indignant.

"Me! Your cub just bit my ankle!"

Fury laughed as he hugged Star back and winked at his nephew who smiled showing his baby teeth, Vane looked delighted.

"Sorry about that Sasha, we've been trying to get him out of that stage ," Bride muttered, plucking Quinn out of Charisma's arms.

"Its perfectly natural," Vane said, as though highly offended that she could think there was anything wrong with their son. "Fang went through it when he was a pup."

Bride raised her eyebrow and cast a doubtful look at Fang, who was sniffing at another container, and said, "we'll not get into that discussion again, Vane."

"Hey!"

"Sorry Fang."

Fury laughed at his family and hugged Star tighter, his eyes met with Charisma's and she beamed at him, lighting up his world, making it brighter then ever.

"So Lazarus," Sasha said lazily as he sauntered over to retrieve Star from his arms, he pulled her back against his front. "did being reborn improve your shitty attitude?"

"Fuck you, Sasha!"

"Guess not," Sasha grinned at Charisma who laughed and walked over to lean against Fury's side.

"I was so frightened when I heard what happened, Fury," Star said sweetly, hugging her mate's arm, "I thought I had found you only to lose you again."

"You can't get rid of me," Fury grinned at her before nuzzling Charisma's ear. "I'm like a bad penny, always turn up. Besides Vane and Fang would kick my ass if I did die again."

Charisma slipped her hand round and down to pinch that particular part of his anatomy, "so would I," she muttered with a huge smile.

"Looking forward to that," Fury whispered back and they only realised they were not alone when Sasha snorted in disgust, Star slapped his arm.

Dinner that night was a joyous affair, Sasha and Star stayed for dinner, Fang disappeared for a while and came back with Aimee, who told them all Dev was covering for her when they gave them tense looks.

"Yeah, he's pretty helpful all of a sudden," Vane noted frowning holding Bride's hand in his.

"He's mate is a good influence on him," Aimee said smiling and there was a moment when all the males in the room glanced at their woman with loving eyes. Quinn broke that moment by throwing pea at Cujo the Labrador mix, that was laying absurdly on his back with his legs in the air, apparently too full to move by the treats everyone was sneaking him under the table.

"You know Bride," Charisma said smiling fondly at both mother and baby, Fury would have loved her and been with Charisma whether his family had liked it or not but he felt it was an added bonus that both all the women at the table looked upon each other with apparent affection and friendliness. "If you and Vane ever want to go out and you don't have a baby sitter, me and Fury will do it for you."

Fury hid his smile in his mashed potatoes, they had been planning how to announce their pregnancy to the family, Fury had a feeling that Bride and the gang would take it a lot better then Charisma's family. Although Blaze and the twins had screamed and hugged them for nearly half an hour before calming down and Sabine had kissed them both congratulations smiling widely, the rest were slightly offish with the idea.

"That's nice of you," Bride said kindly smiling, Vane rubbed the backs of his fingers over her cheek and she smiled at him. "My parents usually baby-sit for us though."

"Its just, well, Fury needs the practice …" she left her last words hanging and the clatter of cutlery against plates, though slightly delayed, stopped as one. Fury puffed out his chest proudly and Bride jumped up and hugged Charisma with a shriek of delight, Star looked as if she were going to cry with joy and hugged them both, the men shook hands. When Bride reached Fury, there was a special look in her eyes, a satisfied gleam that her favourite brother - in -law had finally found his purpose in life, finally found that he belonged. That look made Fury's throat tighten and he hugged Bride who whispered. "I'm so happy for you."

"Hear that, Quinn," Vane said to his son, "Uncle Fury is going to have a baby."

Quinn, who Fury was sure didn't fully understand, clapped and laughed along with the rest of them.

Fury flashed himself and Charisma back to the glen where he and his pack were denning, Charisma spun out of his arms and back into them again so her back was pressed to his front, Fury laughed and wrapped them tightly around her then planted them on her rounded hips.

"Mine," he said softly in her ear before trailing his hands slowly up to her aching breasts to cup them, Charisma moaned with pleasure.

"Always," she breathed back, her voice hitching a little when his hands kneaded, Charisma tipped her chin back so she was looking at Fury's beautiful face. He bent down to drop a lingering kiss on her soft lips, trailing his lips over her satin cheek to her little ear.

"Bond with me?" he whispered so gently that his breath tickled her ear while her eyes teared up and a lump formed in her throat. She turned in his arms to look at him.

"Oh Fury, you have no idea how much I want to," Charisma said running her fingertip over his lips.

"But you won't?" His heart felt like it was being squashed under a block of concrete.

"Not while I am still carrying our baby," Charisma said cupping his face in her hands and looking him in the eyes, "I know that if we were bonded and you were killed I would not die until after the baby was born. But I don't think I can do it now, I feel as if it would jinxing all we have."

Fury sighed and nodded, perhaps he was asking too much of her, he kissed her lips and wiped away the worried look she was giving him.

"Will you still love me if I asked you to ask me that question after we have the baby?" Charisma asked teasingly but there was a shadow in her eyes that told him she was scared she had hurt him.

"There's nothing in this world that could stop me loving you," he said then gave a long suffering sigh. "Don't think you've got me wrapped around your finger though, wench!"

Charisma pinched his butt hard in mock punishment. "I've got you exactly where I want you."

Fury raised a suggestive eyebrow. "And right now," she continued, circling him.

"I want you naked." His clothes vanished.

"I want you lying down." He found himself a little disorientated lying on a bed of soft flowers that sprang up to form a floral scented bed beneath him.

"And I want you ready to love me." Charisma let her own clothes disappear from her body before she was on her knees and crawling towards him like some predatory feline, a playful glint in her eye.

Fury groaned with satisfaction when her head dipped over his groin area, he flung an arm over his eyes a second before they crossed and he hissed with pleasure.

"Yeah, your right," he conceded, burying his hands in her hair, "I'm more then happy to concur if you want me in this position."