Mama Wolf
She actually sort of liked patroling. It was nice to be able to run, to give into the wolf. Refreshing. In the woods she didn't have to hide who she was. The only downside was the irritating voices swarming her head.
Thankfully the pups were at prom - heh, she remembered her prom, that was...it had been unique - and the older wolves were patroling the area, unphased. That much wolf blood in one area was difficult for any other supernatural to ignore. It was easier to stay close while human, so...
Leah was alone; physically and mentally. She took pleasure in it.
A scared, strangled keening brought her attention back to earth. Her nails sunk into the moist soil as she put the breaks on, head swiveling to the side - there, the noise. She bent low, stalked across the forest floor.
She howled in fear and flung herself backwards as something attached to her nose, sinking sharp little teeth into her flesh. As she shook her head, the panic began to subside.
It was a baby raccoon. A fat baby raccoon, but...a baby nonetheless. The small thing fell from her snout, landed with a thud. It scampered back a few feet, fur bristled, lips curled. Hissing.
Two others chattered in fear behind it.
Leah realized the attack racoon had been protecting its siblings. The she wolf allowed her eyes to roam over the three fuzzy bodies, wondering where mama was. No time for this, have to patrol, she told herself, turning her back on the babies and taking off once more.
She swung that way again, six hours later, when Sam and Jared took over patrols. She was human, and on foot, but she wanted to check. Just to be sure.
The babies were still there, and there was no mama in sight. The smallest of the three was laying on its side, weak, ribs showing. They're starving.
She took off her shirt, scooped the three babies - struggling the entire time - into the cloth. She folded it over, tied it to her neck, and headed home.
Seth and Sue said nothing when Leah walked in shirtless, a strange bundle around her neck. Instead they shook their heads and Sue went to the fridge, to get the milk. Leah had always had a soft spot for small animals.
ZZZ
The biggest she called ChewChew for the way he...well, the way he bit at her. He wasn't a particularly friendly raccoon, but she figured it was more from fear than anything else. His younger sisters were more docile, but the smallest - who she had named Puddles, after a pee related incident with her pillow - was near death.
She nursed Puddles the most.
Seth was laying on the floor, ChewChew eating his fingers, and Rascallina - Seth had named that one, of course - curled up on the small of his back, asleep. He was completely enthralled with the critters, and Leah could see his arms physically shaking with the effort of being gentle.
Recently, they'd only been interacting with pack. Pack was harder to break than malnurished, baby raccoons.
Puddles whimpered in her hand and Leah turned her attention back to her little girl. She filled the eyedropper with more milk, brushed it near the 'coons nose. The baby opened its mouth wide, suckled on the end.
She smiled, sighed, and settled into bed. Parenthood.
ZZZ
"Get those off my table, right now." Emily squeaked, staring in horror at the three masked bandits running around her - brand new - dinning room table.
"Don't be like that Em. They aren't hurting anything." Sam said quietly, scooping ChewChew up in one large hand. The baby sank its teeth into Sam's thumb, and the wolf swore lightly. "Fiesty aren't they?"
"Take after their mom." Seth chirped, gently ushering Puddles into his hand. She was by far the cuddliest of the three. Probably because she had realized Leah or Seth plus hands equaled food.
"Their mom?"
"Me." Leah snagged ChewChew from Sam, slipping the eyedropper into his mouth before he could bite her. As the milk - kitten milk finally, courtesy of Carlisle Cullen, who got it from a vet friend of his - touched ChewChew's tongue, the baby settled. Small suckling noises filled the room, as she cradled him in the crook of her arm.
"You're their mom?"
"Look, I don't care if you have them, I just don't want any of them on my table. I just washed it. Do you know how many diseases raccoons have?" Emily picked her dish cloth back up off the table, inching forward.
"Nothing they have will effect us - oh." Leah's eyes rolled up and down Emily's body. "Human. Right." Her lips curved into a sarcastic, unamused smirk. "Sam cover my patrol tonight. These guys need food every three hours."
"But Emily and I have a da-"
Leah was already gone, her three babies in the sling Sue had made from one of Leah's old shirts. Sam sighed and quietly apologized to his wife.
ZZZ
"They're scavengers right? They forage, eat garbage." Seth was saying, ChewChew hanging from his shoulder. His guess was that the raccoons were around a month and a half. Give or take a few days.
"So? What about it?"
"So when we got them, their eyes were just opening. This is the time they'd be following mama raccoon around, learning how to rip open our garbage bags and piss us off."
"Right." Leah raised an eyebrow not having a clue as to where Seth was headed.
"So there's no mama raccoon. Just a mama wolf. It's your job to handle their learning Leah."
Blinking in surprise at her brother saying something intelligent for once, the she wolf turned to face him, Puddles suckling at her neck. "What d'you want to do then?"
Seth lightly jiggled the leftover, slightly rotting carcass of the turkey Sue had cooked last week. "I say we teach our puppies how to hunt."
Quietly, Rascallina chattered in agreement.
It was decided. Side by side the siblings walked into the forest, buried the leftovers, and watched their babies do some sniffing.
Leah would never tell anyone that Seth had turned wolf in an attempt to teach their babies how to sniff. Or that ChewChew had taken a raccoon-sized chunk of fur off her brothers ass.
ZZZ
Leah was sitting in a tree, a stuffed Puddles laying across the branch above her. The raccoon tail was hanging in her face, and she could hear her youngest chittering in amusement as she kept batting it out of the way.
On the ground, ChewChew and Rascallina were hunting. Seth had been there an hour prior, burying berries into the soft soil. It was a test. So far, they were passing.
Puddles had opted out of digging, choosing instead to loung with her mother. Sometimes Leah thought that her raccoons believed they were wolves.
The tree across from her shook, and she raised her head to stare at her brother. Wolves were grown-creatures, not ones meant for trees. He had been using them to avoide walking on the ground, so the babies couldn't scent him.
Rascallina ran to the tree and scampered up it.
Seth grinned. "They passed the test."
Leah's eyes filled with tears. "It's almost time to let them go."
ZZZ
"Seven months. We've had them for seven months." Leah sighed, watching the critters poking around in the forest. They didn't come in at night anymore, but they hadn't traveled far into the woods.
"Puddles started a nest last night, I swung by to check them on patrol."
"All babies leave the roost at some point Leah." Quil said, voice full of sympathy. "Some sooner than others. They'll always love you."
"They're nesting." She couldn't believe it. "They're...they're ready to go."
"Don't worry Leah. They'll be safe." Sam's voice was hard, unforgiving. "We'll patrol around here to make sure -"
"Sam." Kim interupted softly. "They're raccoons."
"No." Brady and Collin shook their heads. "They're pack. Baby pack."
"We'll run by here to check every night. They'll be fine. We all always have leftovers...they...they'll be fine Leah."
ZZZ
What amazed her the most was that they were. They were fine, and Jared had gotten a chunk bitten out of him when a starving vampire picked up ChewChew for a snack and the wolf had went beserk.
What surprised her the most was when Rascallina's belly became full of babies, when she let Leah and Seth hold a second generation, their grandraccoons in their hands, full of awe and wonder.
How ChewChew never left his sisters, and how Puddles had somehow become the biggest of the three.
They were fine, and they were pack, but most of all they were family even if they were just raccoons.
They were loved.