Collin watched as Nicole said goodbye to Tommy and Kira and held her as she cried in his arms. He could see that Tommy wasn't taking her reaction well. Tommy was a kind heart who hated that his leaving was having such a negative effect on Nicole.

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It took a few weeks but Nicole was soon able to overcome her heartbreak just in time to be surprised with a new pack member named Nicolette Garza.

Nicolette was an interesting woman. A former Navy medic, Nicolette was blinded in Iraq then forced to undergo the change so that experiments could be ran on her to test drugs for effectiveness on werewolves. Adam had commented that given her situation her control and use of her senses was shockingly well developed. She had answered that by saying that she had no choice but to learn to use her senses or starve to death.

Nicolette fit in well with the pack and Collin noticed that she and Samuel hit it off quite well, though he wasn't so concerned about Nicole given the fact that Nicole and Nicolette didn't hit it off nearly as well as she had with Tommy. He was concerned about her friendship with Samuel being affected but once again they were never as close as she was with Tommy, who she would follow like a puppy on a leash for as long as he would allow it and pout when he told her no. He noticed that Tommy sometimes had a hard time resisting Nicole's pouting but he forced himself to resist when he had to.

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School ended and Nicole started to notice that Mercy was gaining weight just as they started to get ready to move into their first true home since leaving her mother behind.

"Daddy, why is Ms. Mercy's tummy getting big like that?" she asked one day as he drove her to school.

"Ms. Mercy is going to have a baby." GE replied

Nicole seemed to think about that.

"Where do babies come from, daddy?" she asked.

Collin's mind screeched to a halt and he had to slam on his brakes to keep from running a stop sign. Nicole gave him a look that seemed to be asking if she said something wrong.

"It's okay, sweetheart, you just surprised me." he assured her.

He started driving again as he tried to formulate an explanation that her young mind would understand. He swallowed a knot in his throat and in a calm confident voice began to speak again

"Where do babies come from? Well, sweetheart, that might be a little hard for you to understand right but I'll try to explain it to you the best way I know how. You see, sweetie, boys and girls have different private parts that fit sort of like a lock and key. You know how daddy uses a key to open the door? It's like that. When two grown-ups love each other and want to have children, they have something called sex. That's where the private parts act like a lock and key, but instead of opening a door, it can make a baby and the baby grows inside the mommy's tummy, where it's safe and warm, until it's ready to be born." He explained to her.

He could see the wheels turning in her young mind as he pulled into the parking lot of their new apartment building. Then, as if satisfied with that answer Nicole changed the subject.

"Daddy, why didn't mommy love me?"

To be continued...