Changes

by Corinder

After a few years of peace and Elena is made alpha, things start to get a bit strange for the pack, as someone returns and an disease hits every bitten werewolf in the US. OC/Anne Includes bonus chapter- honeymoon.

9. Connections & Sacrifice

Sorry about that- confusing numbers! :) But hey, twice the chapter now, so happy Valentine's Day. 3

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Clayton, as much as he wanted to support Elena, did not last there long. Particularly when Reece called up and said a couple of scientists had tried to coax their way in. So he and Reece swapped, on the sole condition that Reece accept all and every responsibility for Elena's safety, which I had to say Reece took pretty damn seriously. Clayton and Nick were the ones in charge of the kid's safety. The two dads. I almost wished there was a camera to see that- the scientists trying to coax a little more blood or something from those two. Nick would follow Clayton's lead all the way. And when Antonio was on his feet he joined in when he was there. Three intimidating big men, arms crossed, blocking the scientists from the kids. It would have been hilarious if it wasn't so serious. And if they got past them?

They'd run into Lucas. The son of one of the big guys. He could have, though I doubted he'd ever really do it, get them fired in a second. So basically they had to beg every single time, wait for Clay to call Elena, who'd talk with me, and it'd be an hour before they were even allowed on the propery.

Vi sorted out the schedule again, refusing to let the Cabal doctors or nurses take over, assigning us shifts. I got only one all nighter, which was a relief, now that the toddlers were so close. She knew I'd be wanting to spend the night with them. Instead I was there from six in the morning till four in the evening. Ten hours, and twelve hours overnight one night of the week.

It was surprising but once we'd sorted it out, two people on the floor and two on 'standby' while they watched over Jamie, it somehow got a little easier. We hadn't known what to expect with half-demons or vampires but with werewolves, as physically demanding as it was to keep them safe, they weren't an unknown species to us. They were predictable. We knew the signs for a change, we knew when they were getting too hot, knew how to cool them down. It wasn't easy but it was predictable.

The sorcerers and half-demons were left to the Cabal. We had to duck spells, duck out of the way, but we could try and get into a routine now.

So naturally Nick hoped when I got home, we'd be all over each other, except he'd forgotten. Triplets. Toddlers. Two year olds. I was usually the one cooking too. I ended up juggling toddlers, cooking vast amounts of food for the factory patients, which Vi hadn't factored into it, and getting constant hungry looks from Nick that had nothing to do with the soup. Looks that usually got caught by Clayton who'd threaten us with another honeymoon if he caught us groping.

We stood in the kitchen, toddlers playing with pretend cooking things in the middle, 'helping' me by stirring their play dough and shaping it into things that to them resemble food. More soup. Nick grumbled softly as I had him stir it while I cleaned up.

"So mean." He grumbled, glancing back at me, but there was a small smile there. Nick didn't mind this. His eyes met mine, and that incredible look of hunger came back, the one that made me wonder if he was tempted to try something... how long had it been? Days. Weeks. We hadn't gotten a chance to be alone for a long time.

"How's the soup?" I asked, sliding up behind him, slipping my hand down the front of his pants, against the lower stomach. I teased the soft hair there, under his belly button, making him growl. It wasn't just Nick who did the groping or intense looks these days. He grinned, leaning back against me.

"Great.." He leaned back to kiss the side of my head as he tried to stir, growling softly as I slid my hand lower. Nick shuddered, the sense of his reaction going right up and down his spine and into my chest, which just provoked me to keep it up. "What's this for?"

"Making soup." I nipped his neck gently, shutting my eyes, teasing him slowly, hearing Clay's snort of annoyance as he came into the room. Catching us again.

"You're late." He held up the phone. "Vi's calling."

I picked up the phone and swore. Shit. He was right. "Hi Vi."

"You and Nick at it again?" She sounded amused, almost. "Is the soup done?"

"Again?" I resisted the urge to tell her we hadn't been 'at it' for too long. Tiny rented house. Toddlers in the room. Pack crowding in. "It's hot but it's done. We'll drive carefully." I glanced up to where Antonio had come in with the keys in one hand. He'd recovered enough to be allowed to drive again. "Not long."

My goodbyes to the toddlers took a while. It was hard, they always acted like it was the last time we'd see each other, and I felt so guilty every time I had to go. I couldn't blame them. The past few months I hadn't been around at all and suddenly I was leaving all day, instead of being home all day, and they were getting clingy and upset every time they suspected I was going. It was impossible to pretend I wasn't going either. They always knew.

We got back to work in the factory again, another day, except today something different happened just a few hours into it. Another half dozen mutts, another group needing fevers to get down, that was normal.

I hurried from bed to bed at the 'half hour checks', taking them and writing them down, amazed how routine this had become. You checked them, you wrote down the details, and without the smell of them, they went from being dangerous mutts that'd gladly jump us if they thought they'd get away with it to being a group of very sick men. Some of them were just teenagers. A couple of kids who were beside their dads, some of the mutts raising their own kids, instead of the traditional 'appear when the kid gets close to the change'. That changed my opinion of werewolves outside the pack. It made them normal, all of a sudden, fathers, and brothers, and someone's son. The first introduction to werewolves outside the pack hadn't been that great.

Daniella worked the other side of the room, neither of us speaking, I had no idea what to say to her. Reece would stand guard at the end of the room, arms crossed, and I'd bought him an outfit that resembled the crocodile hunter's outfit for a laugh. The looks he got from the Cabal scientists and doctors was hilarious, he'd stride past in leather pants, the boots made from 'genuine crocodile leather', that stupid looking hat, and I'd even found a tooth on a leather chain. Add that to his skin, which had gotten even more tanned in the winter desert sun, the blonde curls and the Australian accent coming from under the hospital mask... not many people in the factory outside the pack wanted to argue with him. The women in particular.

He did it to make me laugh. It made him laugh. But I knew he wasn't happy, his eyes avoiding Daniella's eyes, arms crossed most of the time, doing his 'job' when he had to. I noticed he was still protective of her, like it was as hard to resist as sneezing with eyes shut, and it made me want to smack her myself. I was protective of him. He was like a brother I'd never had. I liked her too and while I felt bad for her, for the pain she had probably endured, I did not like the way she was coping with it. Especially as she was dragging him into it.

Shaking my head free of those thoughts, I finished the checks and went to sit back down beside Reece as his head twitched up. His nostrils flared and I smiled somewhat, checking my watch, knowing what it was he smelt. Dinner.

"What is it?"

"Spaghetti. Some kind of creamy sauce. Turkey in it." He informed me, relaxing back, arms behind his head. Reece took off the hat and dropped it onto my head. "Bacon too." His smile faltered as Daniella vanished from the room, but just for a moment. "Cake for dessert."

"We get dessert tonight?" I reached up to adjust it onto my head. It was a bit big for me.

"Smells like it."

Moments later our bowls were brought down and he wasn't wrong. I missed that, a sense of smell so keen I could tell exactly what was in my food if I concentrated, but it was getting easier now. Daniella returned and sat down nearby. The three of us ate silently, conversation fading as that awkward passive anger came back from all three of us, even with Reece trying to joke around. After a while we just put the TV on and watched that.

It was getting dark outside. I was supposed to be at the house already, it was well after four, but Vi had needed me to hang around- Elena and Jeremy had to go back to the house for the evening. Paige had to go back to New York with Ana. It meant that suddenly numbers were back down again. Nick had ignored my text and refused to answer the phone so I knew how he felt about this idea- he'd suggested we'd spend the night alone together if his dad cared for the babies. No sex for a few months and he got cranky. So did I- I just took it out on other things. Like cooking. No sex? I cooked a lot of food.

"Can you take this out and put it on?" Vi called as she came in, a sack of laundry in one arm, staggering a little as she came down the metal staircase. Reece got up to help her and she shook him off as she dumped it into the wheely thing we used. "We have put it off too long."

"How is Jamie?" I asked, though it was a silly question, because I knew the answer. Jeremy wouldn't have left the property if she'd have been anything other than safe.

"Her fever is not as bad as others. Miserable but she is fine." Vi answered, smiling somewhat, the relief there. Vampires snacking on us, half-demons setting the place on fire, it was a relief to find out that necromancers didn't get as sick and didn't ...release the dead everywhere. Or something. Savannah was still healing from her burns and we didn't need another person to get hurt. "Sheets in a plastic bag inside, clothing in another, and the towels loose." In other words, she wanted me to wash them all separately, which meant I'd be out in the small shed outside for well over an hour or more. We had two machines and one dryer in a shed outside, the machines not quiet and warming the area around them, so it'd made sense to keep them seperate to the sick.

"This is why you kept me back?"

"Sorry, yes. Savannah cannot do it. Adam does not do it right." She shrugged lightly. "I must stay upstairs." Observing everyone, as she cared for Jamie, in other words. "Wait a minute. I have another thing you must do."

I didn't need to ask what it was. When she returned, it was with the other trolley, covered with the dishes. Another logistics problem- when we fed a lot of people, as we were, it involved a lot of dishes. And sadly the only thing in the shed for this task was one dishwasher, which was designed for a family of four or so, and a sink.

"So cleaning duty tonight?" I asked and she nodded, an apologetic look.

"I'll wheel it out." Reece offered. When Vi nodded her agreement the two of us headed outside into the darkening night across the bare ground towards the little shed. The tents were some distance beyond that, the two of us ignoring the mutts and the fire, and Reece headed back inside once he'd dropped off his one. Very helpful of him.

I threw the clothing into one machine, towels into the other, and loaded the dishwasher with the first load. The sink was needed to soak the sheets, they had all kinds of nasty fucking stains, so I dumped them out of the bag into the sink and filled it with hot water and the stain stuff.

There was a little chair there so I sat in it, took out my phone, and waited. Nick still hadn't replied. I sent him a photo of my cleavage, just for a laugh, and when he didn't even respond to that in his usual way - he'd take a photo of his 'cleavage'- I knew he was really upset about this.

Leaning back, I shut my eyes, listening to the machines and the insects outside. It was dark outside now, the light in the shed attracting insects through the partially open door, and as annoying as it was to have to clean these things, it was a task I'd come to like. I put on music on the phone, glad that it did that, and waited patiently.

Half an hour later and a message came on the phone and I lifted it up, fast, expecting to get a reply from Nick.

It was from Nick's phone but the photo wasn't of Nick. I knew him well enough to know that wasn't HIS penis. What the hell? I couldn't see Clay doing it. Or anyone in the pack, really, except for maybe Reece if he was a bit drunk- after all, I'd seen them all naked after the pack runs- but he wouldn't have done it with an erect penis like this. Even he wouldn't cross that line. And anyway, he was inside, he wasn't drunk.

One of the machines shut off, the towels, and I left the phone there while I transferred the towels into the dryer, feeling oddly uncomfortable about that message. Someone had taken Nick's phone and had apparently liked the photo I'd sent. Photos, if he hadn't deleted the other ones, and I doubted he would have. He wouldn't have sent it either. Nick might have been angry with me for not saying no to Vi, when I probably could have, but he had that jealous nature that came with the mate 'bond' we had for each other.

This uncomfortable feeling I had was put aside as I plunged my arm into the sink to drain the water. It was warm now but the sheets were still pretty nasty looking and I had to get them into the machine after I'd rinsed them as best I could. Soaking wet sheets covered me with the slightly soapy warm water, and I made a face at that. They weren't washed yet. Once they were in the machine, I sighed, relaxing.

Now just the dishes.

I tugged my shirt off, rinsed the soapy crap off it, and threw it into the dryer with the towels. Vi wouldn't notice. It was a crappy old bra that wasn't lacy or see-through, so if Reece came into check, it wasn't going to raise an eyebrow. The dishes then, clean on the bench, dirty in the machine...

Hands pushed me against the machine as I closed it, a body coming up behind me, and I glanced back to see one of the two mutts camping outside and another man I didn't recognise.

"You might want to let me go." I warned them, fury flooding my face as his hips pushed harder into mine against the dishwasher, hands twisting my arms behind my back. I could feel it- what I'd seen on the phone- feel it through his pants. Damn. The idiots stole Nick's phone. Probably from the car this morning. I spoke louder, over the loud machines, growling as I added, "I don't play with mutts." I glared over my shoulder at the older of the two, the one pinning me, recognising him as one of the two mutts that'd decided to hang around and camp here. One of the ones that Daniella had probably messed around with.

"I don't know about this." The other one was hesitating, staring at me, but the first didn't seem to care. I didn't know him either- he wasn't one of the recovered mutts or one from inside the factory. Maybe he wasn't one at all. I didn't know any more. "She looks serious."

"Bullshit. They're all gagging for it." He twisted me around, hands grasping at my breasts as he released my arms. "See? No shirt. Took it off the second she saw it. Going to play with yourself?"

There wasn't time to ponder the difference between male and female attraction to 'porn' or anatomy. I hit him hard with one of the plates on the bench, no mercy as he groped me, the china shattering over his head.

"Fuck. You bitch!" The mutt, maybe a little older than Nick, staggered back as he reached up to touch the blood trickling down his head, pain fogging his eyes. "That fucking hurt."

"I warned you. Get out." I pointed at the door, growling as he stepped closer, reaching for another thing. A heavy china mug. It would hurt too.

"Seriously. I don't think this is a good idea. She isn't like the other girl." The other one was stepping back, as my teeth bared, intimidated. Maybe he'd seen my video online.

"You seem like the smart one. Might want to listen to him." I was unnerved by this though, alone in the shed with the two of them, something deep inside shaking. Mutts and smells. It was always that damn smell.

"If she was like you right now, she'd have put that through my head. Grab her." The older one ordered, growling as the younger hesitated, grabbing him and shoving him at me.

I swung the mug at him, hard, as he did what he was ordered to do, and when he grabbed my wrist to stop it, I knew he was a werewolf and he hadn't been sick yet. He was still at full strength and his nostrils flared as he came close, that smell breaking away some of his apprehension, twisting my arm behind my back as the mug fell and shattered on the concrete.

The older one grabbed at my neck, squeezing, thumbs pressing against my windpipe, cutting the air off as he pressed a hand to the bleeding cut across his forehead. I gasped, trying to free it with my other hand, as I was lifted up. For a second, just a second, I blacked out, but I woke the second my head hit concrete and a sharp pain in my back reminded me of the mug. I was yanked forwards a foot, skirt sliding up my legs, the wet floor from the sheets under my back, the water cold now.

I had the sudden memory of something like this. Something, somewhere else, a man pinning me there, another man watching. It was confusing, it scared the crap out of me, this memory that I didn't have but ...I did have.

Trying to bring myself back to reality, fight the urge to go to sleep, I fought, growling, teeth sinking into the man as he tried to lower himself closer, the other one holding me down with that strength I no longer had. A hand clasped over my throat again as I shouted for Reece, cutting me off, the machines rumbling loudly beside me, the older man trying to get the shards of broken china off the ground so he could kneel between my legs. It was delaying him, frustrating him, and he paused to rip the bra down the front, before he tried to get the china out of his way. Under my legs. He didn't want to have to clean it up. He just wanted to get on top of me.

The younger werewolf tensed and cursed. He saw him before the older man did, saw Nick standing there. He inhaled, smelt my blood, saw me struggling, and I saw a murderous fury there. I'd never seen him angry like this. Never. His neck pulsed, eyes narrowed, breathing fast, his arms shaking. The older man was too preoccupied with the china and squeezing my neck to keep me quiet, unzipping his pants when he was sure he was safe.

Nick hit him so hard that I was sure I saw the skull cave in, blood covering Nick's arm as it splattered upwards, the younger werewolf jumping back, arms up, trying to say something. He didn't get a chance, Nick stepped over me, only to be grabbed by Reece from behind, struggling and swearing. He wanted to kill him. I didn't need to hear him to know that.

I tried to stand up, legs shaking, tugging my skirt back down, grasping onto Nick from the front. He didn't even seem to see me now, eyes locked on the younger werewolf trapped against the washing machines, shaking so hard his jaw was chattering. It was only when my arms slipped around his neck that he flinched and stared at me, recognition coming after a few seconds of blinking.

He shuddered, relaxed, and when Reece let him go, grabbed onto me and lifted me up. Reece went for the other one. I didn't see what he did with him, Nick was carting me out into the dark night as fast as he could, sliding his shirt off and wrapping it around me. I didn't like being weak in front of him but if the alternative was to have a couple of idiotic mutts try their luck with me... he could cart me all over the place in his arms, flex his muscles, and declare himself Tarzan for all I cared. Except, I realised with a sinking heart, I had a job to do. And clean up the shed. And get my shirt out of the dryer before Vi realised I put it in with the towels and all hell break loose.

"Nick, you can put me down now."

"Car." He muttered, circling around the factory, arms tightening.

"I have to do the washing."

"You have to get in the car." He gave me a look that shut me up. He was really upset. I nodded, leaning up to kiss his jaw, and he relaxed somewhat. When we got to the car, he got in the back with me, and let me go only when the door was shut and locked. "Where are you bleeding?"

"I don't know." I wasn't sure. My head hurt, I knew the china had cut some places, and he followed his nose to the spots, tugging the first aid kit out from under the chair. In the light of the factory, he treated them, one arm staying around me the entire time. "It's okay. I kicked their ass."

"Yeah, I know." He muttered. "I saw that. That cure better come soon."

"They wouldn't dare then." I muttered. I went quiet, trying to figure out what it was I'd remembered before, the flash to something else. Something that was like a memory. It was confusing and upsetting. The pain of Nick pressing against a wound on my back made me hiss and him withdraw his hand fast. "I think there's china in it."

"Now you tell me. What did they do, throw plates at you?" He flipped on the light so he could see better, tugging tweezers out so he could fish it out, twisting me around.

"Other way around." Weapons, when you were a weakened werewolf, weren't cowardly. They were smart. I wondered if I should carry a knife.

When he was done I made him stop so I could clean his hand, still covered in the man's blood, inhaling sharply myself when I saw the cut there. On Nick's hand. Covered in the man's blood. Nick didn't seem to know what had upset me, maybe hadn't noticed it, but I did. I grabbed the alcohol swabs and tried to clean it deep, ignoring his protests that it wasn't that bad, sticking the antibacterial stuff all over it. I'd have to tell Vi- I didn't know if the older man's blood was still dangerous after he'd recovered or if Nick was safe.

Nick kissed the back of my neck gently, arms wrapping around me when it was done, his chin finding my shoulder and weighing down there. "It's okay. I saved you."

"You did, didn't you?" I smiled somewhat at that, shutting my eyes, still a bit stunned by that element of it. Nick wasn't the warrior kind of guy but it'd come naturally enough. "Might need a special reward for that."

"Never been that angry before." He muttered, trying to smile, but he was still shaking. "I didn't hear anything wrong over those damn machines. I just saw you there and ...snapped."

"I know. It's okay. Nothing happened in the end." I turned around to stroke his face, gentle, he seemed almost in shock now. Nick's eyes went down to my neck and the frown line appeared.

"Who did that?"

"The one you hit."

"Good." He growled, leaning closer, nuzzling against the swollen flesh. Nick reached for the medic box again, rummaging, and tugged out one of those disposable ice packs. He pressed it against my neck as it got cold. "You didn't get raped?"

"No." I reassured him, taking his hand, pressing it down between my legs, so he could feel for himself. Nick blinked, lips twitching, inhaling as my legs opened slightly for him. He would have known, would have smelt it, but I could see the fear in his face. So much fear and confusion. I wondered if he remembered much yet. "Do you remember ...a lot yet?"

"Not after New York." Nick admitted. "Bits and pieces. I don't need to. You're mine."

I shut my eyes and shifted up against him, letting him hold onto me, the two of us relaxing.

The car shifted, I flinched, and Nick stroked my back gently, relaxing me. "Reece."

"All taken care of. They're packing up and will be gone by sunrise." Reece called from the front. He was breathing heavily and even I could smell the blood on him. I felt a hand reach back, Reece's hand, handing me my phone. The photo was still on it. "That Nick's way of turning you on?"

Nick took one look at it and flung it hard out the window, so hard that I saw it shatter against the factory wall, his body tensing. He knew it wasn't him either. "Someone stole my phone. That isn't mine. Mine's bigger."

I snorted, making Reece laugh, and even Nick relaxed somewhat at that. Typical. Dick size competitions even when he was this stressed.

"Yeah. Sure." Reece shook his head. "Seatbelts on."

Nick tugged it around the two of us and Reece pulled out.

Reece went inside to get me something to wear while Nick waited with me, his hand still between my legs, stroking me gently there, though he seemed distracted and not that interested. Even his kisses were soft, his mind somewhere else, arm draped across my back. Reece dropped off a dress and bra and I dressed while Nick got out and tried to stretch.

"Come on." He held out his hand and when I got out, Nick shut the door and pressed me against the car door, ignoring Reece's hiss of 'come on', kissing me hard, tongue finding mine. We stood there, arms wrapped around each other, ignoring Reece. A few precious seconds left. Just a few...

Reece yanked me away, shoving Nick to one side, the two of them bumping against each other as I headed for the door. It was dark inside and I was sort of tired. A drink and a snuggle, and a bottle for the babies, maybe a change for them, another snuggle with Matt and a book, and then bed. The usual bedtime routine.

"Surprise! Happy birthday!"

Sound and lights and explosion of streamers greeted me, Nick's arms grabbing me as I backed up, people jumping out from various bits of furniture as an excited Susie ran at me and grabbed for me, smelling of bath, still slippery.

"What?" I blinked, staring at everyone, and then at the cake. "Who's birthday?" Had I interrupted Reece's birthday surprise?

"Yours, Aussie." Nick murmured against my neck, leaning over to kiss Susie's scalp as she laughed, her hair wet. "You forgot, didn't you? I came to fetch you."

I did forget but it wasn't for long. Jeremy checked me out in the kitchen as Elena directed the 'feast' to be laid out, mostly takeaway, the toddlers over-excited and screaming as they ran around, the kids just as bad. This was okay because tonight it wasn't my job, apparently, and that just made me want to do it more. We ate, watched bollywood, which was amusing in that the kids seemed to be more excited by it than the adults, and even the adults got into it- they had to, because someone had to read the subtitles out. Nick ended up doing it with Elena. Then cake.

By the time it was eleven, I sat there, Susie slumped across my shoulder, fast asleep, her little arms wrapped around my neck, Lily in Antonio's arms, Dominic curled up against Nick. Matt had fallen asleep on the ground, so had Logan, Kate hadn't stopped watching the movie the entire time. She didn't seem to notice or mind that the adults had stopped reading subtitles for her- she made it up herself, using her imagination as only a kid could, enraptured with the story.

Nick took Dominic and Lily to bed, then returned for me, lifting me up with Susie, the few beers he'd had relaxing him from the scare he'd had earlier. Same deal for me. Nothing like alcohol to relax us. Reece was asleep across a chair, Elena and Clayton having retreated once they'd lifted the kids into bed, and Nick went back to get Matt into his bed in our room. He flopped into my bed with a sigh, glancing at the full room, and flopped with a soft groan.

"Sorry." I murmured, leaning across to kiss his jaw, his cheek, his lips, as he rolled onto his neck. Nick shrugged in the darkness.

"Maybe tomorrow. Love you, Liz." He leaned up, rolling me over, his body curling protectively against my back, the exhaustion in his voice.

I got up early the next morning, leaving Nick to sleep in, carrying the babies out one by one into the living room. Reece was still asleep there, passed out under a blanket, and I tried to feed and change them quietly. Toddlers didn't do anything quietly. Reece woke up, halfway through, getting up and helping me hand out breakfast and keep them on the 'splatter proof mat' they used without their high chairs.

"Sorry." He muttered, as we worked, one hand coming up to brush against my neck. I couldn't see it till I looked at our reflection in the window. It was bruised and nasty looking now, a clear hand print against the pale skin. Reece looked guilty as he stared at it. "I asked Elena to let them stay."

My gaze swung to him, surprised. "You asked her?"

"I was afraid that Daniella would go if they went." He absent-mindedly picked up the spoon that Susie dropped, cleaning it with his shirt, and handed it back to her, too guilt ridden to think much about the ceral he'd wiped all over himself. "I thought … I didn't know they'd try it with you."

"It was just stupidity. Don't worry about it. Where is she?"

"I don't know." The look on his face, the grief and fear, and anger, it made me go quiet then, Reece's gaze dropping away. He'd made them leave and he didn't know if she'd go with them. Neither did I. "I wouldn't have asked if I knew this was going to happen."

"Nothing happened. Forget about it." I insisted quietly. He didn't answer, just continued to help the babies feed, before Reece got the bag of dirty nappies and headed for the kitchen with them.

We drove off, when Antonio was up and able to watch the kids, the rest of the house still fast asleep. It was just barely after six when we got there and we went to work quietly. Daniella was there still, asleep upstairs, I saw her as I went to check in on Jamie. Jamie was looking better too and to my surprise, Jeremy was there, apparently having driven over after we'd all gone to bed. He was fast asleep next to her, the two of them almost matching each other's soft breathing, her hand clutched hard in his hand as he slumped beside her. Vi smiled a soft morning and came out as I guestured carefully.

"What is it?"

I told her about the night before. She knew about it, of course, but she hadn't known about Nick's cut. No one knew. I didn't want there to be panic.

"I will ask him to come for a look. I will not tell him why." She reassured me. "It may be if the man was well, he may not be a danger, but we will watch him carefully."

I nodded and started on the breakfast for everyone as Vi went downstairs to watch the ground floor, mostly just boxes of cereal and long life milk with tinned fruit, carting them downstairs and setting them out on a table so everyone could help themselves. Then we moved around the werewolves with the nurses, coaxing each to try to drink the soup broth I'd made, sometimes working, sometimes not. Then I headed outside and cleaned the shed. It looked like Reece, or someone, had stuck a hose on the bloody floor, but the china was still everywhere and the washing half finished. It took several hours. The tents were gone, fires put out, and the healed mutts that had been hovering around had cleared out. It was a relief in some ways.

Close to lunch a tourist bus stopped outside the factor, an older woman got out, and I watched her walk up to the factory with a dazed look on her face. It was like she wasn't quite sure what she was doing here.

I pointed her out to Vi who blinked, the two of us getting the soup heated up for lunch for everyone in the office, and she suggested I go down. "Get her going if you can. I will get a lift if she is lost."

Nodding, I jogged down, heading outside.

"Hi, can I help you?" I shut the door before she was spotted by anyone inside. The last thing we needed was the Cabal doing something stupid when it was easily dealt with. "This is a private factory."

"I'm sorry. I'm Lillian. I just-" She gazed at it, fingers grazing across the fence. The woman looked vaguely familiar somehow, dark brown hair, blue eyes, maybe in her sixties. The hair was dyed, I could see the trace of silver roots, but she still looked pretty good for her age. "I dreamed of this place."

"You dreamed of this place?" Suddenly it hit me. I knew where I'd seen her. She was the spitting image of Nick.

"Yes. Someone kept calling for me. I ...just saw it and got off the tour bus, middle of a wild flower tour, and told them I'd meet them at the hotel." She seemed almost lost in that, vague, staring at it as it was a dream itself. When she caught my face though she flushed. "I'm sorry. I don't even know why I got off the bus. I'm sorry. I think I may have had a little too much sun. I'm not even sure what I'm doing here." Lillian laughed, a small embarrassed laugh as she gazed around the factory, confused. "Could you call me a cab? I think I have lost the last of my marbles."

I gazed at Nick's mother as she tried to laugh it off. "I'm sorry, I don't know if there are cabs out here. You had dreams about this place?"

"Funny, isn't it? Sometimes I have dreams like that. I'm afraid it's a bit of a drive to the hotel from here but I can pay for the gas. Are you Australian?" Her eyes went back to me, sudden, that shock returning behind her embarrassment. "I think I remember that too. Maybe we were meant to meet."

Jeremy came out, sudden, and I stiffened. He was the logical choice for this- a random human woman showing up- he was good looking, diplomatic, and firm enough to send any human leaving.

The problem was that she didn't need dreams to recognise him. I knew that the moment her blue eyes fell onto Jeremy and her jaw opened. He didn't recognise her, I suspected, but she knew him. He had been Antonio's best friend since they were kids.

"J... Jeremy?" Lillian stared at him in renewed shock. "Are you Jeremy Danvers?"

Jeremy froze halfway down the path to the road and nodded slowly, the hint of caution as the woman spoke his full name. As the ex alpha, in the supernatural world, he wasn't unknown. "Can I help you?"

Lillian seemed lost for words. I saw it, hurt there, decades upon decades of hurt, as he reminded her of everything she'd lost. Saw her blue eyes go moist sudden. That same frown line appeared between her eyes. "Is this a joke?"

"Lillian has been dreaming about this factory for weeks." I placed my hand on her arm gently, feeling her jump, eyes going to Jeremy. It took him a few minutes to put Lillian to Lily and ...

"Lillian?" He repeated, quietly, staring at her. Then at me. "Did you contact her?"

"I never met this girl before in my life. I just hopped off my tour bus here. I had dreams about this place. That I was being called. Stupid, really. You can't be Jeremy. He'd be as old as I would now." She tried to laugh, tried to, but that look didn't leave him. "My kids keep telling me I'm loosing my marbles since Anthony died. I suppose they're right."

Jeremy's eyes met mine now. He didn't know what to do. Neither did I. Antonio would want to know, without Nick knowing, but ...

Neither of us has to make that decision.

Antonio came out when the human wasn't dealt with. He stopped as Lillian and he caught each other. I didn't need to be psychic to feel THAT impact of their eyes meeting, it may have as well shock the entire damn world, Lillian's body swaying the second she recognised him.

It was only when he suddenly rushed forward that I realised she wasn't just swaying from shock. She was literally fainting. I grabbed her as she slumped, eyes rolling up in her head, Antonio there surprisingly fast for someone who was still weak from the disease.

"What is going on? Jer?" His eyes went up to Jeremy who still stood there, looking stunned. "What's she doing here?"

"She's been having dreams about being called and this factory for weeks." I said quietly. "Went on a wild flower tour and ...when she saw this place, she made them drop her off, and told them she wanted to make a surprise visit to someone. She has no idea what this place is."

"She's been dreaming about it?" Antonio reached down, then withdrew his hand, as if he was afraid to touch her. Afraid to make any contact. He almost looked afraid, maybe that she wasn't real, or that it was a dream. Tormenting him again. "We can't leave her out here."

"No." Jeremy agreed. Quieter now. He was reaching into his pocket for the keys. "We should drop her off in town. They'll help her."

"You're probably right." Antonio said quietly, gazing down at her, his own olive skin pale now. My growl made them both freeze.

"Come on. Seriously? She's here. Don't just drop her off like she's a crazy old woman." I growled, making Antonio cringe. "You kept calling for her in your sleep. Now, like a good mate, here she is. Don't give me the 'it's for her own good' crap. Or the 'it's for his own good crap'." My eyes went to Jeremy as his mouth opened. I wasn't usually into telling off my elders but for this? After seeing Reece and Daniella break apart like that? Screw that happening again. "At least talk to her. Or is she too old for you now?"

Antonio froze and gazed back down at her. The expression he had showed that he clearly did not think that. I may have seen a sixty... seventy, really, year old woman but he saw that teenager again. He had that expression some married couples still gave each other decades on, when they were old and wrinkled and still so in love with each other that it made marriage look worth it all over again.

"Nick-" He said quietly, finally, "She'll want to know about him."

"Nick's an adult now. She's lost her husband. I can tell you, as a mother, if Nick had taken my kid..." I knew this was harsh, I knew that he knew, but, "...I would spend the rest of my life heart broken and looking. You need to tell them." It was harsh and I saw the pain in his face but whatever choices he'd had to make then... it was a long time since then.

Antonio's head swung up at me at that. Only now did he risk touching her, brushing the hair out of her face, shoulders stiffening as he felt the feathery hair under his thumb. He inhaled slowly, his own eyes wet now, still clearly not believing it.

"It's your choice, Tonio." Jeremy said quietly. "Pack laws are different. As long as you don't tell her what we are without Elena's approval..."

"We'll take her back to the house then." Tonio agreed quietly. He wanted to lift her up but there was no way he would. Jeremy glanced back at the factory, thinking of Jamie, but he was the only one who really could do it.

"Jamie will be fine for a while." He decided quietly. "I'll drive the two of you back. Nick may need you there, Anne."

She didn't wake, thankfully, during the quick drive. But she woke as we pulled up, head lifting up, seeing Antonio beside her. He withdrew his hand and she stared at him again with that expression of shock and hurt.

"Is that you?" She asked, voice barely raising above a whisper. "You bastard. What did you do? Where is he?"

"Come inside and I'll explain." Antonio said quietly, eyes down, avoiding her rage. Maybe my words had been to harsh. He looked pretty upset.

"Where's my son, Antonio."

A toddler appeared against the window then, sudden, making all of us jump. Lily squealed with laughter as my eyes met hers, trying to get her arm in the window, and Nick pulled her away with a wicked grin.

"She knew it was you. Clever girl." He called as he opened my door. "Surprise lunch visit?"

"You could say that." I replied, taking Lily, and turning to Lillian. Her namesake. "I'm sorry it's a shock, but could you come in for lunch? Please?" Nick was heading inside, probably for the next toddler, because I saw a small face appear under a blind at the window, pulling it apart so hard I was afraid it'd break. Susie.

Lillian stared at me and then at Antonio, then Jeremy. "Who are you?"

"My daughter in law." Antonio said quietly. "This is my grand daughter. Lily." He reached out for her as she reached for him, big smile that she had reserved especially for her granddaddy, and Lillian froze.

"Just lunch. After that, I can take you back anywhere you like." I offered.

"Okay." She got out, her legs weak, and Antonio slid out after her.

Nick came back out with the last two toddlers, Susie and Dominic, and their eyes met.

For a moment he stood there, blinking, the bright sunlight maybe confusing him, and she did the same thing.

"Antonio?" He reverted to the safer name, his eyes going to his Dad, and the second he saw his dad's face, he knew. He knew already, really, he knew what his mother looked like. But to see her standing there... "Dad?"

"Nicholas?" Lillian swayed again, grabbing onto the nearest thing, which happened to be Antonio and Lily.

"Breathe, Lily." Antonio said quietly, his free hand on her shoulder. "It's Nicholas. Nick. Here he is. These are his children."

"I don't understand. It was just a dream." She was just about ready to faint again. "I don't get it."

"Not all dreams are just dreams." I said quietly. "Come in. I'll get you a drink."

Nick stared at us as we went past, frozen, the toddlers not understanding what the problem was. A random strange woman wasn't cause for alarm in their world. He only followed when we were inside.

Lillian seemed to recover when I got her a cup of coffee, real coffee, her face drained of blood. The toddlers were too much. I made Nick take them into the bedroom they shared with the kids and Jeremy went back to the factory.

She reached out, hesitating, as she stared at Nick. Touched his face, his hair, he was much taller than she was, stared at him with the look of a mother who'd found her child again. A bit late, but it was her child.

"I have photos of him." Antonio said quietly. "At home. Some here." He offered his wallet's collection.

"How could you take him?" She grasped at Nick's arms, hugging him close, and Nick froze before his arms grasped her back, the shyness not something I was used to seeing in Nick. This was a woman he couldn't flirt or tease. He didn't know how to behave with a mother. "How could you do that to me?"

"I had to."

"I'll make lunch." I said quietly. Clayton was in the kitchen when I retreated there. Antonio and Lillian were talking. No, he was talking, she was arguing. Decades of hurt being thrown at him with every barb she could find. I wondered if she'd released Nick yet.

"What's going on?" He stared at the wall between the kitchen and the living room as if he could see right through it. "This about the thing that happened last night?"

"Nick's mother found us. Dreams." I answered quietly. Lunch. Comfort food. Mac and cheese would be good. It'd calm everyone down.

"Nick's mother?" Clay stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "That's ..."

"She's in there. Right now. Saw Antonio sick in her dreams and followed them to him. Now he's getting-" We heard her swear at him, that fire there suddenly, "-a grieving mother's wraith."

I wasn't sure if I felt sorry for him or not. I didn't know what the pack had been like then. Maybe it had been safer for her.

"I should go in." Clay muttered but he didn't move. Instead he stepped closer and picked up the grater as I dropped the cheese on the table, glancing at the two then at the recipe I'd put on the laptop's screen, then at me. "I'll grate cheese."

"Okay." I muttered. He glanced at me, at my tense body, and nodded, for once agreeing to help cook since the birthday party months ago. It wasn't how most people offered help, sure, but it worked.

We made it as fast as we could. Antonio and Lillian's had lowered now. Nick came in, grabbing for me, his head sinking into my hair as he inhaled long and deep, his breathing ragged. Clay's hand found Nick's shoulder as he stood there, shaking against me, not crying but... there was a lot going on inside of him.

"She found us." He said, quietly, not lifting his head.

"I know."

He stood there as I slid it into the microwave and I turned around to wrap my arms around him. Then Clay, I dragged him into it, even if he scowled. Nick needed pack support right now.

"Dad's having trouble explaining. He said I had a rare genetic condition and ...he wanted to spare her." He added, quieter, lips brushing against my shoulder. "He isn't telling her that he never got over her."

"She can't know what it is." Clay said quietly. "You know that."

"Why? She's my mother." Nick's head swung up and he growled low, arms around me harder suddenly. He blinked and tried to let go of the anger, tried to smile. "I guess ...this is a good thing."

"Of course it is. You wanted to meet her." I reached up to stroke his face, gentle, running my fingers along his neck. Trying to comfort him. I kissed him gently, tenderly, a shudder going down his back at the contact, leaning into the kiss harder as he grasped onto me as if he was drowning.

"Nick?"

Lillian flushed when he turned around. She glanced at me, looking overwhelmed. "I'm sorry. I just ...where's the bathroom?"

"I'll show you." I said, leaving Nick. "Get the lunch out when it's done. It won't be long."

I led her down the hallway and she glanced around, unsure. This wasn't really a homely home.

"We're just renting for now." I explained softly. "We have a house in New York."

"I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I ... didn't mean to turn up like this."

"Antonio was very sick. I suppose somehow you knew that." I replied quietly. She stared at me.

"Very sick?"

"For weeks and weeks. He spent the entire time having nightmares about you. I don't know a lot about that stuff, dream and stuff, but he did call for you a lot."

"Wait here for me, please." She went quiet, slipping past me into the bathroom, and it took her a while to return. When she did, her face was blotchy, and I offered her a towel to wash her face.

"Fifty years." She breathed, as she washed her face, eyes avoiding mine as I waited patiently. her arms shaking. "Nick looks so young. Antonio too."

"I know." I smiled somewhat at that.

Lillian caught her reflection, reaching up to touch her face, as if she'd never seen it before. The wrinkles, her face, the lines, the grey line where the hair dye had not covered. "I look like an old crone."

"No one here thinks that." I replied quietly.

Nick came then, that same shy look back again, hesitating. Lillian caught sight of him, her face going red, lips twisting in that pained expression. "I missed so much of your life. You're married now."

"Two and a half years." Nick said quietly, holding a hand out for me, but he couldn't stop staring at her. His nostrils kept flaring. I wondered what she smelt like to him. "I ...don't think you look old."

Lily was back again, suddenly, Matt chasing her, calling her. Lillian stared down at the toddler as she ducked under our legs and into the safety of the bathroom from Matt, finding the cupboard as if she knew exactly where not to go, trying to yank it open.

"Lily?" She asked, quietly, as Lily stared up at her. She'd only just realised the strange woman was there again.

"Dad wanted to name her Lily." Nick answered. His hand tightened around my hand, then, sudden, "Please. Now that you know where I am. You don't have to vanish. I'd like it if ...if you knew me. And them."

"Antonio may not want that." Lillian said quietly. She hesitated when Lily tried to get up her, Lily was trying to climb, and reached down to pick Lily up. Only she, out of the three, would try it with a stranger. "You have three toddlers?"

"Triplets." I replied. "This is my nephew." I reached out for Matt, who was behind us, taking in Lillian with that wary expression he got around strangers. He slid against my back, peering around at her. "He's a little shy around new people."

"You have the same eyes." Nick said, quietly, as he stared at his mother and his daughter together. "Lily and Lily."

"She has eyes like my grand daughter. My other one." She tried to smile but she was quickly looking overwhelmed again. "I think I might head back to the hotel after lunch. I need... I need to think."

"We'll take you back and leave you with our contact details." I promised. "Come and have something to eat first."

Antonio hadn't moved when we came into the living room, the lunch set out, his head in his hands. He sat up fast when he heard us coming, trying to smile, but he was still pale. I reached out for him and he jumped, staring at me, then to Lillian. She didn't speak a word to him, only asking Nick about his life, about his family, his work. Antonio didn't seem to want to speak either. I wondered if I'd done the right thing after all, pushing him to do this, and even Nick seemed to struggle. For the first time I'd known him, probably in his entire life, he seemed to not know what to say or do with a woman.

This just made Lillian try harder with him. She showed him her other children, told him about them, and the grand kids. Two boys and a girl. Her husband had died the year before but had alzheimers years before that. Lillian had gone on the tour on the insistence of her children after spending years caring for him till he had to go into a nursing home for special care.

She tried to ask Nick about Antonio, without being obvious, as we drove her back to the hotel. Lillian seemed surprise that he'd had no other women, not even girlfriends, really surprised. He must have been good looking younger. He was good looking now.

"Promise you'll call." I said, as I went in with her, and she turned to me.

"Do you think they want that?" Lillian asked. The frown line was back. She looked exhausted. "I don't know. I haven't even told my kids about Nick. I was just a girl when I had him." She added, quieter, "He didn't even look at me. Not really. He seemed awkward about it. Antonio didn't look at me either." She tried to smile, tried to look okay with this, but that hurt hadn't gone. Years of hurt. I couldn't imagine how it felt, to be betrayed by someone you loved, and then hurt that badly. Then to find them again. Did that kind of love go away? I knew it wouldn't with Nick. If he vanished for that long... it'd still be there when he came back. That horrible tormenting love. I could marry, I could love, but nothing like this.

I glanced at the car where Nick was. He was watching her, I knew he was listening, and I saw his shoulders stiffen slightly.

"He wants that. Nick does. I want you to know your grand kids." I replied quietly, my voice lower.. "We do want you in our lives. He's just not used to a woman he can't flirt with. It's going to take him time to figure that out."

"I will think about it. It's too much to take in. It's just-" She stared at Nick in the car. "He's so big. So tall. So grown up. And he doesn't look fifty."

"I know."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty ei, I mean nine. Twenty nine." At her look I shrugged, my own smile increasing somewhat. "He doesn't look like he's in his fifties. By the time I knew I was already engaged to him."

We went quiet, standing in the hotel's lobby, as she watched her son with the hungry eyes. Like she couldn't stand to leave just yet, couldn't stop staring, she just needed to watch a little longer before she tore her eyes off him.

"Did you marry because you were pregnant?" I blinked and she smiled a small smile. "Sorry. Maybe that's old fashioned these days."

"I was pregnant when we married but we only found out the morning of the wedding." I admitted and she smiled a little wider. "They were a bit of a surprise. We didn't even know I was pregnant with triplets. Lily and Susie were big and Dominic hid behind them till I was giving birth."

"Really?" She laughed then, Nick's head twisting, as if he was trying to catch the sound. "That would be a shock."

"Nick was supposed to catch them, he had the shock, seeing Lily halfway out. It was a home birth too. Two girls come out, we think it's done, then Dominic comes out." I smiled a little at the memory. It hadn't been funny at all at the time but now it was. "Feet first. Lucky his sisters were large."

"Nick came out feet first." Lillian sat down on a seat, flopping, fanning herself a little. The porter was quick to come over to her. "Can you get me a glass of wi- I mean, water?" He nodded and headed off. The second he did, she sat up straighter, stopped fanning herself and got that same cheeky look Nick got when he used his flirting skills to get what he wanted. "They always like to help the old ladies."

"If Antonio and Nick have shown me anything, you're only as old as you feel." I muttered and she nodded, relaxing somewhat now.

"Antonio might not want me to interfere now." She said, quietly, once she'd gotten the water and drank half of it. Her blue eyes met mine.

"I think he always wanted you to interfere. Every day. His family was-" I didn't finish. It felt like it wasn't my place. Antonio had to decide if he wanted to push to reunite with her.

"I know. We hid from them all the time as teenagers. I think I'm going to head upstairs and open that bottle of wine early. I have all your contact details."

"Here." I opened my own wallet and gave her the photo of the triplets and Nick. "You're his mother. If it was Dominic then I... I'd be trying to interfere all the time."

"Thank you."

Nick was waiting when I came back. I slid into the front seat beside him, the two of us glancing back to see Lillian going into the elevator, and then he pulled out with a long drawn out sigh, one hand coming across to grasp mine.

We didn't talk. He drove through the town, one hand in mine, and out into the desert-like surroundings. Nick's eyes kept on the road as he drove and it was only when we'd found a small dirt road that he pulled off onto it, drove a few hundred metres around the bend and out of sight of the main road, and pulled over.

He got out and got into the back seat, eyes searching for mine, but I was already crawling into the back seat. No need to get out of the car. Nick's lips twitched as he got back in and tugged me into his lap, kissing me hard, hands tangling in my hair, while I climbed on top of him. He was desperate, confused, even a little upset and had been denied sex for weeks. He hitched up my skirt, mouth bruising mine, before twisting around and pushing me onto my back on the back seat, trying to free my breasts with one hand, the other undoing his pants.

"Let me do that." I reached up to tug my top off, throwing it to one side, figuring that if someone came along the blanket wasn't too far. He paused as he gazed down at me, the hunger gone for just a second as he took in the sight of what was his, and then slid his pants down his hips.

Nick was in me in a second, pushing the panties to one side, a shuddering groan as he nearly came then and there. I laughed, and he bit my neck, content to lie on top of me for a moment as my arms wrapped around him.

"Mine." He growled softly against my neck, possessive, his thighs trembling between mine. Nick's nostrils flared as he smelt my answering lust for him. Who said lust was a bad thing when with the right person? When I pretended to slide back he grabbed my hips, yanking me hard against him, the shock of his body forcing me open only adding to my own building desire for him. Nick grinned, started to move hard against me, as I nipped his neck hard enough to leave bruises. "Tease."

"Only for you." I nipped one earlobe and he breathed out, long and slow against my neck, as he started to move slower, gentle, trying to make it last as long as he could, though both of our bodies were so deprived of each other it was just minutes before I cried out against his neck, the pleasure and relief to have this intimacy back again mingling, and Nick sped up till he was joining me, his body collapsing down onto mine.

He didn't move for a while, embedded inside me, but when I reached under me to yank a seat belt from under me, Nick seemed to snap out of it and slid up, pulling me into his lap, arms tight and the tension from earlier gone.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." He muttered against my neck. "I think so. Dad was pretty upset."

"It was either tell her about you now or dump her in town. He was going to be upset either way." I stroked his hair gently, fingers scraping against his scalp, watching the pleasure it brought him in his face.

"Guess that's true. She really dreamed about him?"

I nodded and his arms squeezed harder around me at that, unable to speak, the two of us sitting there in the back seat as Nick tried to deal with what'd just happened.

"I have brothers and sisters."

"I heard."

"And two nephews, and a niece."

"Yeah."

"They don't know about me." He muttered, quieter. "She didn't tell them."

"She was pretty young and it was when girls didn't do that." I didn't need to say it, he knew that, but he snuggled me and kissed my neck anyway, my mouth against his skin, the sweat salty against my tongue, his skin warm in the warm car. "I'm sure she wanted to."

"I never really thought about how it'd have hurt her. To loose me and Dad like that. But now, if you vanished with the babies..." He went quiet. "Dad had to do it."

"He did have to then. Things are different now." I leaned against the seat behind me, letting him have access to my chest, still covered with the blue bra he'd bought me once. "There they are. Your girls. Still here for you."

"They are." Nick leaned forward into my chest, nuzzling it, amusement in his face. Amusement and ...love. I realised, when he looked up at me, how much I had missed that look. Since the honeymoon, he'd given me a lot of looks, but this one? It had been rare. "You're here for me. Still."

"Always here for you."

"You are, aren't you?" He lifted his head up to me. "I think I chose a good mate."

"I chose you. Lured you in with tears." I teased. "You got the bait and got me."

"Lucky me." He laughed softly and unclasped my bra- the blue bra having a front clasp- cupping my breasts with his hands as he stroked against them lovingly. When Nick had undone his own shirt he pulled me closer, hugging me against him with my bare chest, my head tucking into the spot under his chin. "I didn't even know how to behave with her. How do you act around a mom?"

"I don't know. You just start to do it naturally."

"That's if she ever wants to see me again." Nick muttered.

"I think she does. It's just a lot for her. We've got time." I reassured him, letting him snuggle me, his eyes shut as he ran his hands down my bare back under the fabric.

"I want to go for a run. Tonight. With you only." He muttered against my head.

"Okay." Elena might let us tonight, after this, she'd be a little more forgiving towards him. Hopefully. "Clay will probably stick up for us but you'll have to ask."

"He's probably already told her. Want to head back for some dinner first?"

"We're in town. We'll get some dinner. Call in sick for work. Go out after for a nice run." I smiled as he laughed softly against my chest.

"Is it selfish to not want to see Dad right now?"

"You can talk to him in the morning. He has Jeremy so he's not sitting alone in the living room." Even as I said it, I felt afraid that he was, and made a mental reminder to tell Clay to check that. If he was then he'd have to go to the factory where Jeremy was. I wasn't going to let him go through the shock alone either. "I'll make sure he's not alone."

Nick called up while we sat there on the side of the road and I wasn't wrong about Clay sticking up for Nick. Elena didn't expect us back that night and Antonio had been taken to the factory to spend the night with Jeremy. He claimed he was okay, he was fine, but …tough. She just needed to make sure I wasn't going to leave Nick alone and she could cope with the night shift. Most of them were sedated anyway or asleep.

Nick re-dressed me and we went out for BBQ chicken again, roast vegetables, some drinks, including a few bottles of beer and cider for me, getting enough for two extra people, then went out into the desert to sit under the stars and eat together on a blanket. It was simple and relaxing, lying there side by side, trying to eat and watch the stars together, drinking the alcohol and the coke, letting the day's shock sink back into the back of our minds.

"I still don't know what to tell her." Nick admitted, our hands up as our fingers entwined and loosened, over and over, palms brushing, teasing each other with the slight contact.

"Just go with the truth."

"I stalked her, I knew she had kids, I knew where she lived, and I didn't go near her?" He drank the beer, another deep gulp. "She might not take that well."

"Why'd you do that?"

"I didn't know if she wanted me there. You know that. She seemed happy." He shrugged, thumb running up the side of my hand, our eyes still on the sky.

"So tell her that. You knew where she was and sometimes went to see her in the playground but you thought she was happy without you. That it was easier for her."

"Yeah." He muttered. "I didn't know her husband was sick."

We went quiet, watching the stars, finishing off the food. When it was all gone we changed and wandered around side by side, nibbling and playing with each other in the isolated place, shoulders brushing as we explored the strange landscape, the smell of Nick filling me like a drug- a smell I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We teased some small mammals hiding in the sand, chased each other around the place, nipping tails and pouncing on each other, and when we changed back, we made love on the blanket under the stars, rolling and growling and nipping each other with the same playfulness as we made love over and over and over, with the same intense joy of being alive and being near each other, and it was already sunrise before we got tired and fell asleep against each other.

Nick got me up, I grumbled as we dressed, the early morning sun not as hot as it might have been in summer, but he'd spotted something I hadn't. The police or sheriff or whatever they called him out here had found our car and was wandering on over.

"You kids slept out here?" He asked, amused as I hurriedly pulled on my shirt.

Kids was an amusing way to describe Nick, as they were probably the same age, but Nick nodded and grinned, brushing sand out of his hair.

"We're going home now." I smiled sheepishly as I tried to gather the stuff in the blanket so we could just lift it all up at once. Nick wasn't as stressed about dressing fast as I was, he was still zipping up his pants. "Night off from the kids."

"You're married?" That made the sheriff relax a little. It amused me too, that automatic connection, because in the city kids didn't automatically mean marriage. It was apparently the same in all county places- a little more conservative. He still glanced at our hands though, just in case, looking for the rings. "Glad to hear that. Australian too, no wonder why you're not afraid of snakes, but you need to watch out. They could be anywhere."

I followed Nick's gaze to a rock ten metres away and hid my smile. There was a snake over there, relaxing in the sunlight, ignoring us.

"Will do." Nick lifted up the blanket. "Thanks for the warning. Come on, darling." He held out one hand, the blanket over a shoulder like Santa's sack, and I took it and let him lead me back to the car. He was much more relaxed now than he had been before.

We showered and changed at the house, giggling as we stumbled a little, exhausted and having trouble walking. A night of sex, after only quickies here and there, and our bodies were clearly not used to it. Then he dropped me off at 'work' and headed home to work with his dad from there.

It was back to work. Lillian spent two days before she contacted Nick again and Antonio. Apparently, she'd never married Anthony, and had never annulled the marriage to Antonio. Nick didn't tell his father this, that he was still married to her, but he seemed a little more relaxed with her. They went out for lunch together with the toddlers while I worked as a 'nurse' several times, Nick brought photos. He called me at one point, startled, because she'd burst into tears when he told her that he'd always watched her, but he thought she was happy. Apparently she'd grabbed him and hugged him so hard that he wondered if she was a werewolf after all... blubbering about how much she loved him, and how she didn't go a day without wondering about him. I told him to go back in there and stop talking to me about it. He was apparently invited to go on a day trip with her on the wild flower tour. She wanted him to spend the day with her.

Some of the mutts started to wake, the first ones that'd come in, one by one. I wasn't sure if they were shocked or scared to wake and find both Elena and Jeremy as part of the 'nurses' working there. Elena, the current alpha, and Jeremy as the former alpha … or maybe it was the cages that scared them. The second they could walk Elena told them to pack up and go. She made the mutts outside in tents move on too, when they'd approached Vi expecting the same thing they got from Daniella, and Elena made it clear that they weren't welcome any more. Daniella had the freedom to choose her partner, or partners, but they would not be getting the right to abuse or harass anyone against their will.

I sat there, watching the mutts, several close to the end of the fever now, when I realised that one of them wasn't moving. Not even his chest.

"Vi!" I called, getting up. I had just checked him. She rushed down, as Reece prodded her in the office, as I headed over to the mutt. He wasn't breathing. Nothing we could do could bring him back, nothing at all, and it'd been so fast. One second he'd been more or less all right, a bit feverish, the next... gone.

That was bad enough, seeing one die when we'd really tried hard to keep them alive, but it got worse when the Cabal came to take him away. To the basement freezers. It was only then that we found out that he wasn't the first to die in the factory and that the basement wasn't just a lab again... it was also a morgue again. The freezers were back in operation.

He was the first of them to die since Tyler. It was then, only when the Cabal came to take him away, that he wasn't the first to die in here. Several sorcerers had already died and they'd 'forgotten' to tell us. The freezers downstairs were back in use.

Daniella stopped talking when the mutts were gone. Not to us, not to the patients, she just stopped. She would go out into town overnight, and Reece followed her from a distance, coming back looking torn up every time, till I was tempted to tell him to stay. He only stayed if Elena stayed overnight- he had to protect her when she was at the factory- but that never helped either.

At last, the twenty mutts that started to come in got well, or they died, one by one, coming out of it and being sent away as soon as they could walk. The deaths were hard at first but by the third, some part of me shut down, refusing to feel it. The alive ones were pretty shocked, it seemed, to have the alpha herself as apart of the effort to keep them alive. Or maybe they were shocked in general that the pack wasn't killing them. I wasn't sure. For some of them, it seemed to change the way they viewed us for te better, which was interesting to see. Others, it pissed them off. Or they assumed we were weak and looked at us like we were mad.

Five were gone, two dead, three on a bus back to the different cities they came from, after two weeks of nursing them back to health. It was strange. I'd started to feel strange again, dizzy, almost nauseous, and for a heart stopping second, thought I was pregnant. But the test was negative. Vi thought it was a lack of good food and made me eat more, even as I started to loose weight, and Nick didn't seem to know what it was either. But he'd been acting funny too.

I almost fainted at one point, as I was carting the washing out to the shed again, having to drop it on the ground and sit against the side of the building for a while to breathe. It was like I couldn't breathe, it was the strangest sense, like I was sick all over again. I'd have to go get another test again, or get Vi to check it out again.

A car pulled up, I ignored it, it was more or less time for Daniella to go to the house for a rest, but it wasn't Jeremy. It was Lillian and Antonio. Antonio got out, pulling someone out with him, someone with olive skin that was drained of all blood, eyes rolled back, skin slick with sweat, his chest rising and falling with every sharp shallow breath. Lillian was there in a second, moving so fast that she skidded, grabbing for the other arm, her own face pale with shock. The second Antonio's eyes met mine, the fear there, I knew. I didn't need to ask.

Nick was sick.

---

The world collapsed.

I panicked. I panicked, anxiety attack swallowing me up whole, and the world vanished as the panic flooded into me. No time for coping mechanisms, no time for breathing techniques, the faces of the corpses from the past few weeks flooded my head, Nick's face with them, and the world collapsed. It shattered. Nothing existed, except fear for Nick, and for the babies, and...

I had already started to change before Antonio noticed, but Lillian noticed, and she froze, horrified. Some part of my brain, the human part, it knew she was watching and tried to stop it, but no amount of pain, no amount of horror at what I was doing in plain sight of the world could stop it. The second I had changed, I was shaking the clothing loose and gone. Sand, panic, grief. Some part of me was sure he was dying.

At some point between trying to rip the clothing free the wolf took over. I was briefly aware of things, here and there, of Reece's scent, Nick's scent, so sick, so damn sick, and standing over him, refusing to let anyone come near. He was ...human? Wolf? It made no sense, the need to protect him was overwhelming my need to get him inside, but he was mine and no one was harming him. No one. Other memories of being dragged, and biting, and fighting, and the human shielding the human woman from me and...

I woke in the car, seats torn up, my head and body aching, my own blood on the windows where I must have tried to smash out. I had scratches and tears and bruises all over me, teeth marks in my arm, and a big blonde wolf was standing guard outside the car, muddy paw prints on the outside of the windows. I had vague memories of trying to smash my way out of the windows, get back to my mate, only to have Clayton pop up, growling, snapping at any part of me that exited the car, refusing to let me leave.

Groaning, I shut my eyes, shaking, the fear still in the back of my mind. But if Clayton was here then he wouldn't let Nick die. He would protect him too. I tried to reassure myself that, reassure the wolf that was pacing around in the back of my head,

A sudden thump made me jump, my eyes flying open to see giant paws on the window, Clayton's head sticking through the shattered glass. With a snort, he stared at me, shaking his head, clearly annoyed. Then he jumped back and I heard him leave, the sound of broken glass under his paws, and it wasn't long before Reece came out and carefully unlocked the door.

"You okay now?"

I nodded, he cringed as he stared at the state of my body, and reached in to brush the glass out of my way so I could get out. Reece lifted me up, standing me so my feet were on the top of the boots I'd bought him, wrapping a blanket around my back very carefully before he lifted me back up.

"Nick?" I croaked, throat dry, and I wondered if I'd been howling. Maybe I had been.

"Safe inside. You really snapped." He smiled somewhat, a tense smile, and I felt guilt. Shit. I'd stopped them from helping Nick.

"I was ..."

"Upset. I understand. Vi is waiting to patch you up. Nick's in the storage room with his mother."

"Oh shit." I groaned, hiding my head against Reece's throat, as he chuckled.

"Don't feel too bad. Antonio got to protect her. It was very romantic. Then he got to explain things to her."

"Shit." Elena and Jeremy were going to kill me.

Vi had him sit me down and she worked quickly, as I shifted restlessly, eyes on the closed door to the storage room. I hadn't lost control like that for years and felt awful.

"Did I make it worse?" I finally asked, as she tried to stitch up a cut from the window on my hands. "Did I make him worse?"

"No. It was raining. The rain kept him cool." Vi replied, matter of factly. "You were cleaning his cut, even though it had healed, and kept everyone away."

"Is it the disease?"

"Yes."

My heart sank at that and she stroked my face, gentle, a rare show of affection from her, before she returned to the wound.

"He has many to watch him and we have experience. It could be worse."

She let me up only when I'd dressed, as it was cold now, and when I went in I wondered if she had been lying after all. Nick looked terrible. I didn't understand how, when he'd looked fine that morning, he'd suddenly looked like this. Antonio was standing against a wall, arms crossed, Lillian holding Nick's hand. Jamie was gone.

She stared at me with that fear that she'd had, but when Antonio came over to hug me, Lillian tried to relax too.

"It's okay." Antonio murmured against my ear, arms tight, but he was shaking.

"How much does she know now?" I asked, soft against his ear.

"Nick changed when you did. Both of you panicked. She knows everything." He answered, standing back, and wrapped an arm around me. "This is Elizabeth Anne. We call her Anne. She was bitten three years ago."

Three years. So long already? Lillian stood up, slowly, still pale, trembling. But when I didn't freak out she reached out to grasp my hands, squeezing.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." I tried to smile, but my eyes kept going to Nick, sheepishness mixed with the fear.

"Antonio explained. You do it when you're afraid." She was afraid. I knew that from the way she looked at me. But she wasn't angry with me either.

"Not every time. It was a shock. The babies." My head swung up, sudden, to Antonio.

"Elena is caring for them. Clayton will be heading back now to guard them. Everything is taken care of. Here." He lifted up a chair and placed it on Nick's other side for me. "Sit with him a while. Vi is adjusting your shifts so you can spend time here."

I sat down and stared at Nick. "How can he be so sick suddenly?"

"It wasn't sudden." Antonio's voice got dry. He tugged something out of his pocket and tossed it to me.

I held it up and blinked. Foundation? Nick had been wearing makeup? "He was ..."

"Hiding it."

I suddenly understood why I'd felt sick. I hadn't even thought about it. I shoved the bottle on the ground and took Nick's hand. It was clammy in mine, lifeless, damp, not curling around mine like it usually would while he was asleep. "He feels cold."

"We just gave him a bath." Antonio informed me as I stared at the hand. "It's all right."

I focused on Nick's breathing, watching the chest rise and fall, reaching out to feel for his heart. He was alive, he was breathing, and he was there. He'd just gotten into the part of the disease where he wasn't aware anymore.

Something cold trickled down my neck and I glanced back to see Antonio gently wiping away blood off my neck and shoulder, his concern as much for me as it was for Nick, parting hair so he could get at the cut on the side of my head.

"How did you get me into the car?"

"Reece and Clayton and a little lure. Lily. You were very upset with Clayton for that. Chased him right into the car, we locked you inside, and Lily loved every second of it." He laughed softly. "Clay almost got his behind bitten off though for handling your puppy."

"Stupid." I would have been livid at that. I wasn't angry at them for using her- she was the bravest and I wouldn't have hurt her. If I got her, she would have been right beside Nick, and I would have guarded them both. But I wasn't so sure about what I'd do to anyone handling her even if it was Clayton.

"We wanted to get Nick inside so you could calm down and he could change back." Antonio continued to clean my skin, even if he didn't need to, the motion calming. He knew it calmed me. I reached up to grasp his hand, squeezing it, aware that I wasn't the only one terrified in here about what sickness meant for him.

"Can we take him back to the house?" I told him, quietly, the other still grasped onto Nick's hand. "The babies need me."

"We'll take turns. You spent some nights here and some days there." Antonio replied quietly. "This may take a while and the house is too crowded."

He was right.

"Where's Jamie?"

"Well enough to go back to the house. Jeremy took her back. She isn't sure how it's affecting her yet." Antonio replied quietly, eyes going up to Lillian as she seemed to flinch. "Lily, come with me. We'll go back to the house today, Anne, Elena's got to discuss things with Lillian."

Lillian didn't argue. She stood up and followed him outside, leaving the two of us alone, Nick completely unaware of my presence.

The clammy cold hand warmed up as the hours ticked by, his heat returning, the restless sleep coming back. It was amazing how, when nursing so many mutts, they were predictable. Time flew. I knew what to do and had no emotional concern. But with Nick, even if I had seen this disease play out over and over, even if I'd seen others do the exact same things he was doing right now, nothing was predictable for me. Every heave of his chest, every groan, every flinch of his hand against mine, it all scared the crap out of me.

Maybe it was the suddenness of it. The guilt that I hadn't noticed. We collapsed into bed after getting the toddlers calmed down and asleep, which sometimes took hours, we slept, then I had to get up and go for the day. Nick didn't mention being sick but it did explain why he'd struggled with the toddlers more. I hadn't even thought about it.

I fell asleep beside him, head in the bed, not able to nurse any more than I had been able to think earlier. Vi came in and out, every now and then, probably realising that I wasn't in any state to care for him unless she was giving orders. Sometimes she did and I'd get up, doing it numbly, changing his clothing, 'bathing' him with a cloth, getting him to drink, but I barely thought about what or why I was doing it. She told me to and she was a professional health care worker.

This became a new routine. Nick. It was all about him and the toddlers, just them, and I stumbled home to love them all over, or to go to the factory to spend time with him, not caring that it was the factory I'd been bitten in, only that it was where he had to heal. Suddenly, although I cared about Reece, his issue with Daniella faded into the back of my mind. Antonio and Lillian faded into the back of my mind. All of it. It was too much to cope with on top of this paralysing fear that Nick was going to die here.

I was barely aware of time passing now. Instead it was dark or light, not days, and sometimes it rained. Sometimes it snowed. It was like the grief I'd felt after my parent's funeral, blanketing me from the world, except I had to move now. I had to do things. Wash sheets. Love babies. Feed people. Care for Nick. Smile sometimes. Programming in my mind that only got skin deep and underneath I churned with fear that no one could snap me out of. Only Ana seemed to notice, when she called, and it was difficult when she asked probing questions. For a thirteen year old she was incredibly observant.

When he'd collapsed, it had been with Lillian and Antonio there, I'd found that much out. She had been going back home and wanted a lunch with him and the babies. Antonio had to be there too, so there was one baby for each adult, or that had been Nick's excuse. I suspected he was trying to get them to spend time with each other again. They'd been at the house so getting here hadn't been a problem.

Whatever plans the older woman had made to return home must have been cancelled- I saw her every day. She was as afraid as I was, I felt it, afraid that he was going to die before she got to know him. We spoke about our life together, Nick and myself, I told her things, and told her what he'd told me about his earlier life. That was when things were good.

When things were bad, even Vi struggled to come inside. Whatever Nick felt in his fevers, whatever panic he had during his nightmares, I shared it completely and utterly, sometimes to the point of Vi restraining me too, because when he thrashed or kicked I felt panic so vividly that I panicked too. When he changed, I changed, the two of us shut into the storage room. I didn't remember much of that, except for being curled up beside Nick's warm fur, the two of us leaning against each other as he whined. I'd wake curled up on the ground beside the bed, a blanket across me, Nick back on the bed as Vi took care of him with the unsympathetic efficacy of a trained nurse who had no bedside manner whatsoever. She would have been an incredible pair with Vi right now- Vi was all heart, all empathy, and I could picture the two of them in nursing school. Like good nurse, bad nurse, working together like they were made to be partners.

Finally I had to snap out of it somewhat when I started to get high fevers too, trying to withdraw myself from Nick's suffering, because it made it impossible to care for the babies. He was not going to be helped if I got sick again.

The amusing thing that snapped me out of it was that the toddlers were starting to potty train. I had expected this to be a difficult thing but they were fascinated with Matt, Logan and Kate, and would follow them into the bathroom. Or one of us adults. When they understood what we were doing, they tried to do it too, trying to climb up. Antonio got them a seat they could sit on. Once Susie got the hang of it, telling us she wanted to go, the other two copied her fast. They had accidents at night but …

It was almost over. The nappies were almost over.

The girls also started to notice that Dominic looked different from them and started to ask everyone they met if they had a penis too. Not in those exact words, it was usually a query like 'Penis?' as they'd gesture at some poor random person. Usually pack but on the days I was with them and we had to go to town, it could be a stranger too. Even with Nick so sick, and the fear so strong, these babies could never fail to amuse me or impress me. Or if that failed, anger me, because they were good with tantrums. No one was more of an expert at being angry than these three when they worked together.

I sat with them in the living room, Dumbo on the TV, as they drew and watched the movie. The silvery blonde hair that Lily and Susie had months before at their second birthday was darkening so fast at the roots that it almost looked like I'd dyed it. It was already a golden blonde now, at the roots, and I wondered if they'd end up brunettes like their dad and grandfather. Lillian had once had a golden brown hair, she told me, so maybe they'd end up with that.

No one else was home. Clayton and Elena had given in and agreed to take the kids out exploring the desert. Apparently they'd all been asking the entire time they'd been here, having never seen it before, and he hadn't wanted to leave the toddlers unprotected. The Cabal scientists still came, from time to time, but with me here and somewhat more lucid than usual, he'd given in. Lucas had gone to New York to be with Paige.

I heard the doorbell and left the kids in to play with the TV. When I opened the door, it was an unexpected face, one that made me want to slam the door.

It was the ex-alpha's father with two doctors. Demetruis.

He didn't really need to do much more than raise his hand, shoving me back, the force of a spell knocking me into a seat and holding me there.

"Make us a cup of coffee as I talk with Elizabeth, will you?" He asked pleasantly, the first time I heard his voice in person, the distinctive accent from somewhere in Europe. Greek, maybe. I wasn't sure. If I didn't know better from the conversation on the phone with his son or the spell he'd just used to pin me down, I might have thought he really was a nice older man. He had a walking stick, though he walked upright perfectly, salt and pepper hair, a dignified face with dark grey eyes and wrinkles that were only slight shadows on his face. A tailored suit added to the effect.

Demetruis sat down, and I was aware suddenly with horror that I was alone here with the toddlers. I heard them start to cry and protest as they were picked up behind me.

"Into a bedroom." He ordered, and I couldn't move, just sat there frozen and helpless as I heard them cry, afraid of the strangers suddenly, as they were carted away. A door was shut and their cries, breaking my heart now, cut off. "We have to discuss something without interruption. I have a proposition for you. An offer I doubt you'll refuse."

"Try me."

"I am not young and I require an heir. My sons were weak. If you carry one for me, I will offer something in exchange that you need."

"If you think I'm going to do it, you're wrong. Your son told me it was your idea to rape me." I bared my teeth at him as he shook his head, daring him to deny it. I'd seen the video footage of it. "I saw the video."

"My son told me that you'd agreed to this in exchange for him leaving the country. I had no way to know he was lying. I apologise for the misunderstanding. But now I do require a heir." Demetruis waved it off with a hand, as if it was nothing, as if forcing a woman to carry another man's child was nothing. "And you need something in return that I possess"

"So find a woman and do it the normal way. You've got nothing I need."

"I have the cure for the disease. For all werewolves." He flashed me an easy smile, but there was a hint of malice. "I require your genetics. You are a proven carrier, your fertility proven after such a quick conception, you are one of only a few female werewolves and the only one in America besides the Alpha who can carry a child. Daniella and Vi, as you call her, both are unable to carry children." His words shocked me. I didn't know that Vi wasn't able to carry a child. "You also show strength and a cruelty that I admire. Your punishment of my son was exactly what I'd expect from you. I would prefer your Alpha, naturally, but she would be difficult and it would cause problems I do not have the patience to deal with. Your mate is currently out of my hair and will be for some time."

His praise made my blood run cold, so cold, so uncaring about his own flesh and blood, admiring me for harming his child. "He was unable to feel what I did."

"Never the less, highly appropriate, and he was too weak to resist your punishment." He shrugged it off. "I offer you the cure in exchange for a child. Your pack will receive the cure, ready made, and will also receive the information required to create more should they decide to offer it or use it on the mutts to establish power."

"You're a mutt." I reminded him.

Demetruis shrugged. "I was bitten and I do possess the gifts, yes, but I was born and raised a sorcerer. But my child, whether I like it or not, will be a werewolf with my sorcerer blood. I believe that if his parents are both bitten, then he will be stronger."

"And if he's not? Or it's a daughter?" The questions came out before I could stop them. Surely I wasn't actually considering this? The offer sickened me.

"I am too old to be fussy. He or she will be." His voice had a note of finality that again chilled me. It was the 'or else' tone. "I require a heir. I do not care about the gender."

"No."

Demetruis shrugged lightly. "I do not expect to leave without your agreement. You misunderstand- this is not an offer that you are able to refuse. If you do, I will give the cure to the mutts instead. Your pack will not be offered the cure. You know exactly what will happen if your pack is weak and they are not."

Demetruis didn't elaborate. He didn't have to. Horror at this filled me. If the mutts regained their strength and the pack didn't, however grateful some of them were, we were more or less fucked. Elena would be helpless. Only Jeremy and Reece were well. Karl, we weren't sure, Hope had taken him on herself. The pack would be mowed down, the men probably killed, and as we were all weakened, all us women, I knew what would await us. Matt would probably be killed or brainwashed, my daughters raped when they started their changes, and what about my son? Nick?

They'd kill them. Kill them so fast that even the Russian pack couldn't get here fast enough to assist.

Maybe it was too dramatic, what I was thinking, but deep down I knew what kind of disaster it'd be for us if the balance of power shifted. Under Jeremy and now Elena, things had reached a fairness, a kind of balance that worked. If the mutts that resented us or suspected us of creating the disease had the power...

"You wouldn't."

"Yes, I would." He wasn't smiling now. He was deadly serious. "I am not a patient man but this option would allow me to rent Elena's womb from the mutts who take over your pack. This is a tempting alternative that I would almost be willing to wait a few months for. But I am aware that should this happen, I may have to wait longer, if Elena is first made pregnant by another mutt. I prefer directly offering you the choice first."

Rent Elena's womb. Like it was a car. Or a house. It made me want to be sick, this threat, his pleasantry gone. I had no choice, in other words, I gave him the baby or he screwed us all over.

"I am willing to offer your pack the cure instead, if you carry the heir quietly and without informing them of the father. I have no loyalty to either mutt or pack. I am not above playing one side against the other though."

"I don't want to have sex with you." I snapped. The words were out.

"No need to go that far. My son, during his time with you, collected various things from you and his other bitten women. I already have your eggs. If you are not already implanted with my child-" This made no sense to me, I hadn't seen him for months, "-then I will simply place embryos inside your womb. You will come every week to be tested and when pregnant will keep quiet about this. I will come when you go into labour and take the heir, and return you safe and sound."

For a long time I didn't answer. I could hear the toddlers crying in the bedroom, crying out for me, trying to get me to come running like I always did. What could I do? Risk my pack? I was alone, I was helpless right now, and ...I didn't know what else to do. "How can I know you're not lying?"

Demetruis smiled then. He knew I had no choice but to accept for the pack's sake. Knew I'd do anything to protect them. The pleasant smile was back. "I will cure you first. Now, in fact, as a show of faith and trust."

I hadn't seen the doctors come back. One offered him a coffee, the other at my side, lifting a syringe.

"We will inject you with the cure and a sedative. You will be unaware of the tests done, will not suffer, and I will ensure that you are cared for to the highest standards." He was cold, but he focused on me with a look. I knew he wasn't lying. "The carrier of my child will not suffer. You will receive money, you will be cared for, and I will have your entire pack guarded until the cure is offered to every member. If you agree, you will be treated as an ally, and I do not betray my allies. If you tell anyone if this agreement, if you betray me, I will do likewise and will not hesitate to destroy your pack and force you to full term myself. Do you understand?"

I nodded, weak, as the spell lifted and my body could move.

"Do you agree?"

"What about the babies?"

"I will send a message from your phone informing them that you are in a change and that someone has to come back. We will undress you, rip your clothing and remove our scents from the room. You will be gone for several days but the children will survive the fifteen minutes it takes for help to come. Do you agree to the terms?"

I nodded again, a fraction of the head, and he shook his head. "No, say it. Say I agree to carry your heir in exchange for the cure."

Something in me screamed, as I opened my mouth, growled, paced. The wolf. I felt caged and shackled suddenly, leashed, collared. But I had to say it. "I agree to carry your heir in exchange for the cure and the information about the cure." The words felt binding, sudden, final, as if there was some spell on that moment.

The shackles closed over me and a pinch in the arm made me flinch. He sipped the coffee, calm, and the world fell always as I saw that satisfied look in his face. Demetruis got what he wanted. And he didn't look surprised.

The next thing I knew was being bound into a chair, legs strapped to stirrups, arms and neck tied down. The realisation as to what I'd agreed to hit me, and I stared in horror at the shoulders viable above a hospital gown, a man or woman between my legs doing something. I struggled, growling as I felt something, hearing feet approaching. What the hell had I agreed to? This was fucked up. This was wrong. This was...

Probably the only way to save my pack from being attacked by the mutts, a smaller voice piped up, as I felt fingers probe, the sense of rubber down there. The person's scent was filled with fear and she...

Wait, what?

I paused, inhaling, and I smelt her. Every single little subtle element to her scent, flooding my head, right down to the chicken salad sandwich she'd had maybe three hours before, the fear, the pounding heart as she knew I was awake and she was trying to get her job done fast. My legs weren't moving and it felt numb below my waist, somehow, I couldn't get any sense of a body below my belly button.

"Sir?" She called and the feet came closer. It was a good thirty seconds before Demetruis came into the room. He didn't bother hiding his glance between my legs, and I growled again, trying to free my arms as the chair shook under my efforts. "Should I sedate her?"

"No. Let me tell her the good news while you do the test." He stepped over, running a hand through the groomed hair, a pleased look on his face. "Congratulations. Earlier implantation worked."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I was tempted to add 'I've changed my mind' and see what mutts through of guns but I knew, deep down, that guns wasn't enough.

"You're healed. Fully healed. I suppose you've noticed that already though." He added, eyes going to my nose, which hadn't stopped flaring. An eyebrow raised. There was no fear in this man's scent, nothing except the werewolf part of him I could smell. Nothing. He was calm and he knew that right now he held the power. There was some arousal though, some lust, and I knew what he'd been thinking when he saw my naked lower half. "Don't you recall New York? Our encounter?"

"Our what?" I didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

Or did I? In the shed, when those idiots had been hoping I was like Daniella, I'd had this memory of ...I didn't know.

"Our special night. Is the test done?" He was undoing his sleeve buttons, rolling them up, placing the walking stick to one side. It was so casual, so easy, but there was an increase of blood in his body that made my blood run cold. "I'll celebrate this. It's been some time since I indulged myself."

"Nearly, Sir." She hurried, glancing up at us, and then withdrew a needle. "Done."

"Leave us then. Start the tests."

She did as fast as she could and he circled around. Unstrapped one leg, dropping it down, then the other, before reaching up to undo his shirt at the neck, tugging his tie off. I thrashed, growling, but he just ignored me.

"It seems there's no need for embryo implantation." Demetruis informed me, casually, as he unstrapped the other leg. "I was correct about your fertility. It was much simpler than we anticipated. You do not show yet, that's all, and I am delighted to not have to wait."

"Show?"

His hands undid his pants, throwing them to one side, and climbed on top of me, pulling my legs down, and when I snapped at him, threatening to tear him up if he got to close, he sighed. Then he struck me so hard my head rang, the elbow connecting with my head, the violence so unexpected from his calm manner that it stunned me on more than one level.

"You're already pregnant." He informed me, the chair shaking under us, as he lowered the chair back with a remote. "I think I will enjoy you again. Let us celebrate the easy conception."

I blinked, trying to clear my head, trying to understand and to fight back. With my neck held and my arms held, the feeling of his leg hairs brushing against my thighs as he lowered himself down. I saw his ass, slightly wrinkled, not very pretty looking, lower itself down against me as my legs flopped limply around him, and remembered.

When Antonio found me in the garden, it hadn't been just a beating. It had been worse than that and he was doing it again. I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the tip of him prod against me, rough, about to violate me all over again...

"Sir?"

"What?" Demetruis growled, so angry that the woman flinched, I heard her behind the door, afraid to look. He froze.

"She's carrying twins."

"So what?" Teeth closed around my chest hard, through the hospital gown, as he held himself back.

"She might miscarry. You should wait till the tests are done to identify the fa-"

Something slashed against the wall, a glass of water, and Demetruis suddenly get up, anger making his face red, an anger that was out of place in that calm face. He growled, a low feral growl, hitting at a tray of tools and sending it flying across the room. I understood. He was happy to 'try me again' but not if it risked his heir.

"-ther." She trailed off.

"Why aren't you doing the tests?" He was breathing hard, his body fully erect, hands clenching and unclenching.

"They've started. I'm waiting." She explained, hesitating, and he seemed to twitch as he stared at my spread legs.

Then he strode into the hallway, I heard a muffled strike, the woman's surprise and hurt gasp, and her body hit the wall right next to the doorway. I saw her arm, her leg, struggling against him, as he ripped her clothing instead, eyes fixed on me, my scent in his nostrils as he forced her against the wall, horror filling me as he raped her instead.

Or was it rape?

I didn't know, suddenly, because her arm was around his neck, not pushing him. But he was so rough. I heard the pain it caused her with every slam of skin against skin, and yet she was moaning...

It confused me and upset me, and made me want to change, but I forced myself to stay calm. Not all rough sex was bad. Nick was rough sometimes. I shut my eyes, trying to not see or hear it, trying to ignore the heavy gaze of his eyes on my own body, as violating as anything else right now.

He groaned, eyes fixed on me, and when he was done, strode away, the anger in his scent fading with him. The woman took a few minutes and she was trying to pull her clothing back down, breathing, not even looking at me as she went the other direction, limping somewhat.

I lay there, legs slumped wide open, eyes shutting as I tried to understand and forget what had just happened. Tried to think about the situation logically.

So I was pregnant already. I'd done a test a few weeks ago, when I'd been sick with Nick's fever, and it had said otherwise but they weren't always right. Wasn't that why I'd planned on getting a second one? They weren't always right? But then Nick had gotten sick. And it'd happened in New York, when Antonio had found me, but ...whatever they'd slipped me, Tyler, whatever Tyler had slipped me, it had made it impossible to remember it except for flashes here and there. Even now I didn't know how I got outside and only had this brief glimpse of that man's ugly ass lowering and rising above my hips, and another pair of feet nearby.

In other words, this had been something he'd been planning for some time. I wondered how long. Maybe as long as years- he had been very upset when he found out his son succeeded in artificially starting it up. And he'd made it clear why Elena couldn't work, or the others.

I felt sick suddenly, I wanted to throw up, realising that I was pregnant. I had been raped again. And this time I couldn't do a thing to stop it- I'd agreed to carry the man's child to protect the pack and get that damn cure. Antonio's concern had been right and that morning after pill hadn't done a thing to stop it.

The cure was real. I tried to hang onto this thought, as I inhaled deep, trying to breathe in and out to delay panic. The cure was real. He'd cured me, as he'd promised, and I was back to normal again. It also meant that if I was already pregnant, the time I had to wait to get that cure would be cut down by ...how long had it been since New York? It was December as of yesterday so... four months? Time had flown since I'd gotten sick, then everyone else had, and then we'd come out here...

My stomach did look round, now that I stared at it, my lower half still uncovered from his attempts. I hadn't thought about it- I was a curvy woman in general. A round stomach was never a cause for alarm when you were 'obese' in the eyes of the media. And I'd been far too busy to notice or care about weight gain. It did not look pregnant yet.

After a few hours, and I called out something about needing to go to the bathroom, the woman came back, more composed than when she'd limped off, and adjusted my legs and the blanket so I was covered. She didn't even look at me, and didn't look distressed, so I doubted it had been a rape. Maybe she hoped that she'd win favours by being his lover. I wasn't sure. She adjusted the blanket so she could do an ultrasound, the machine wheeled in by another doctor, neither of them giving the bindings a second glance. They worked for their boss alone, apparently, and this was not a normal hospital.

She asked me basic questions. When did I last have my period? I had been having them up to now, or I'd thought so, so I was confused, but she didn't seem bothered by that answer. She made me list the last period before August. August. When I'd gotten sick.

"Sixteen weeks then." She was writing something down and they started the ultrasound.

It was the second one, I had to assume, because she already knew where to shove the thing.

"I really need to go to the bathroom." I told her, again, and she ignored me.

"A boy." She informed the other man, who scribbled something down, ignoring me as she took a photo.

I stared at the screen, sudden, aware that this was really happening again. Only this time, I would never see this baby. I wouldn't see their hair change color almost daily or watch them happily ask strangers if they had a penis or … grief welled up in me, as she moved it, and I lost sight of the little body before I could really look at it. Did I want more kids? No way. But I didn't want to loose them either.

I didn't have a choice. I'd agreed to this. For the sake of all my pack, I'd agreed to let him take these ones away, so that my pack would recover.

"A girl."

Grief came back, lodging itself in my throat as she announced that, taking another photo. I struggled against the bindings as she checked them, checked their progress, confirming that they were both more or less sixteen weeks along.

"Will we inform him before or after the DNA test?"

"After. He does not care to know until he is sure they're his."

I froze, suddenly, and they walked out after they cleaned the stomach. Oh god. I hadn't even thought of that. Nick was using things to keep it from happening again, he never forgot now, but … no contraceptive was foolproof. What if they were his? Would Demetruis leave them alone? Probably not.

I was aware that my body released my bladder, but this was nothing now, nothing compared to the horror that came with the realisation that if these were ours, our children, that I'd loose them. Either when the tests were done or in five months, either way, I would loose them.

I'd know about them for a few hours and I didn't want to loose them. I wanted to fight for them teeth and nail. Could we get them after we got the cure or would he vanish? I didn't know. I hoped, hoped for their sake, that they weren't Nick's babies. Never in my life would I have thought to hope for this, never, but … I'd seen them moving. I'd seen their hearts racing. I'd seen them growing inside me. Unwanted puppies or not, they were my puppies.

The woman came back, gave me such a scathing look for wetting myself, and injected something into the little thing in my arm. It was barely seven seconds before she and the world faded away again.

I groaned, the feeling of a pillow under my head, a hand stroking my hair, and tried to throw the person off me, fear and horror and rage filling me. Whoever it was crashed back into a wall, as easily as I'd flicked off an ant, and I heard a groan that was very familiar.

My eyes flew open and I saw Antonio stand up, cringing, looking surprised as he held out his hands.

"Shh, it's all right." He tried to reassure me.

I sat up, disorientated, expecting to be in that hospital. Had it been a dream? All of it? I wasn't sure suddenly, my head swam, and the world swayed as I tried to stagger to my feet. Antonio came back fast and grabbed me, holding me up, though it was easy to push him back. I didn't have the balance though- I flopped onto my ass on the bed- and tried to get my head to work.

"Where am I?" Where was the hospital people? Had it been a bad dream?

"Home. We found you outside asleep. You've been gone three days." He rubbed the shoulder that had hit the wall, I could see other questions there, but Antonio held them back. He reached out to stroke my shoulder, trying to calm me down, as I came close to panic all over again. Three days?

I stared at the arm where the woman had injected something. There was a bruise there. Lifted my shirt, tried to feel for the belly, afraid. So afraid. What if they weren't there? What if they'd been Nick's and they weren't there? I staggered up, pushing him aside again easily, trying to get to the bathroom down the hall. I needed the wall but I made it, slamming the door shut in Antonio's face, trying to breathe, hands scrabbling at my stomach for the barely existent bump.

It was still there. I wasn't bleeding. I couldn't smell any blood.

A piece of paper was in my pocket, I realised, and I tugged it out.

'Five months'.

That was it. That was all there was to it. Five months. He was coming back for them in five months. Grief and fear came back, and I flopped onto the ground, trying to not cry or loose it. It wasn't right. But I had to protect the pack and healing it, healing Nick, it was the best way. Antonio's scent was on the paper and I heard the door open slowly as he came in.

"Nick?"

"Elena is there. He seems comforted by her." He shut the door behind him, leaned against it, and crossed his arms. "You're healed."

He didn't mean cuts or scrapes. My strength had been a dead give away. I had to hide it better.

"Where were you?" He added. The gentleness was gone. Antonio's eyes narrowed. "That's an injection in your arm. You've got bruises on your wrists and neck. And I found the note. Where were you?"

"I can't tell you." I wanted to. He almost looked hurt by that, but he didn't budge, just stood there. "I can't tell you. Not yet."

"Is it to do with Nick?"

I didn't answer and he came to a conclusion on his own. What could I tell him? I didn't know. Could I tell him I was pregnant? They'd notice sooner or later. But then what? Tell him it wasn't Nick's child? What did I do?

"No one else knows you're back yet. Anything you tell me will be between us alone." Antonio dropped onto one knee, voice gentler now, reaching out to stroke my head.

"I can't tell you." I looked up and the look in his face, the intense worry and love that I usually saw for Nick, it was enough to make tears start to fall. He flinched at the sight and shifted closer. "I'm sorry."

"Good girl."

The entire world shifted. Suddenly I was in a van, and it wasn't Antonio, it was the older man. I was yanked up, body weak as something was injected into my arm, and I realised it was a spell after all. A fucking illusion.

"You're allowed to tell them you're pregnant. But the second you go into labour, you call me, and you tell them the babies died. Do you understand? Our agreement stands. I take my heirs. You take the information for the cure. We help each other out." He wasn't looking at me now, sliding back into a seat.

I was crying, shaking, but he ignored me. "."

"Calm down. We'll let you out at the factory. You say you got lost after the change. Tell them you're pregnant. Hide your cured body. Do you understand"

Another shaky yes, I was too devastated to care about appearing strong, aware that this was it. From now on, I'd have to lie, and I'd have to give them back. It was worse than any rape, this pain, and I had to hide it. For Nick and everyone.

He flung a wet cloth at me and waited till I had calmed down and my face had cooled before they started to drive. Then he slid the door open after an hour.

"The factory is a half hour walk along this road." Demetruis informed me. It was raining and I flinched as he shoved a jacket at me and a letter. "These are my details. Should you loose them, I will be in contact weekly, and you will receive them on your phone. Now get walking. The rain will ease soon."

They drove off and I started down the road, the cold rain soaking into my arms, trying to shove the grief and anger down. I tried to remind myself why this was important, tried to focus on the smell of the world that had come back to me, tried to enjoy the sense of hearing that allowed me to hear things so much further and more intricately. The slide of a snake nearby as it escaped the rain. The gentle crunch of my feet turning into a louder 'crunch'' that got wetter as the rain continued. The little rivers of water soaking into the arid desert and giving it precious water. And, if I concentrated, the sound of the factory. Even from this distance I could hear it- the voices echoing inside, the shout of someone in a fever, echoing right across the landscape that was so empty of people. If I had come here any other time as a werewolf I might have loved this place. Other people saw an empty desert. I heard and smelt how full it was, but not just that, how much sound carried across it. It was not empty at all.

How would I explain the pregnancy though? Nick hadn't really slept with me at that point. We'd been fighting and ...he'd know that. Maybe he'd think I was cheating. But they had found me in the garden and they knew what that might have meant happened. Antonio wouldn't have given me the pill otherwise. I would tell them and leave it at that. That I was pregnant, that it was from the attack in the garden, and I would try and carry it full term anyway.

Then I'd have to lie to them and tell them they'd died. I didn't know what to say about the bodies but I had months to come up with a lie.

God, I didn't want to lie. I wanted to tell them the truth right now. I wasn't the kind of person who liked being a self-sacrificing hero. Some part of me wanted Nick to appear, fully healed, like he had in the shed. Muscles bulging. Furious like some gorgeous Italian-American angel or something, crushing skulls and whisking me away. A girl could get used to that, even if she did like being strong herself, could get used to a partner having her back like that.

I froze. The sensation of something in my stomach came, like gentle butterflies, and all of a sudden the grief welled back. They were moving. I could feel them moving inside me. Just a few seconds of it, just a few seconds of this gentle tickle from inside, but I remembered how it'd felt from the triplets. Suddenly it became so real and I had to stand there, the tears back, and I gave into it. I only had five months to be with them. It hardly mattered that I had decided to not have any more, hardly mattered that I would have said 'No fucking way' a week ago if Nick asked, because they were there now.

Stop it. I tried to urge myself, lowering the umbrella so that the rain could wash down my face, soak the tears off, the cold water shocking my hot face.

A car drove past and then skidded to a halt. Reece got out, staring at me, his face white as he came closer. His nostrils flared, then he grabbed me, lifting me up and dropping me into the car.

"You scared the crap out of us. Where the hell were you?" He growled, checking, mistaking the tears for rain, and I reached out to touch his face. He felt and smelt real. God. His scent. I basked in his scent, inhaling, then tried to hide that by burying my head in his neck. I felt him tense, arms wrapping around me, and fear mingled with his scent. "You hurt? Did someone hurt you?"

"I'm pregnant." I was shaking, and when I felt him inhale slowly, I added, "It's not Nick's baby."

Reece drew back, staring at me like he'd never seen me before, and I saw the accusation there before he could help it. He thought I meant I'd cheated. "It's not Nick's baby?"

"It can't be. It has to be from the attack in New York." I didn't ask him if he knew about that. The whole damn pack knew about it more or less.

Reece's accusatory look faded suddenly, as if he was slapped, and that horror came back. Then rage. "I thought ...are you sure?"

"It has to be. It's too far along to be anything else."

He grabbed me in a hug again, trying to comfort me, and the guilt got worse. I was lying to him, not telling him the full truth, and I wanted to. I wanted to tell him everything. But I couldn't.

"I thought you smelt a bit funny again but you keep bleeding." He muttered against my hair. "Is that normal?"

"We'll ask Jeremy."

We sat there for a long time, Reece trying to comfort me, and I was trying to resist the urge to blurt it all out. Half of me was expecting it to be another mindfuckery thing but when nothing happened, no spell fading, I tried to relax.

"I'll take you to the factory. Nick has been panicking without you." He murmured against my neck and climbed into the front seat. "They'll be bloody glad to see you're okay."

"Don't tell them about it. Not yet." My eyes met his in the mirror and he nodded, jaw tightening, that anger back.

"You keeping it?"

"Not its fault." I didn't tell him 'it' was 'them'. He would want to know how I knew and that'd raise too many questions. Questions I couldn't answer.

"Suppose you're right there." He didn't seem convinced, glaring at my stomach as if it was the cause for my pain, like he was tempted to insist I get rid of them.

It was a quick drive and he helped me inside, though he didn't need to, and I almost fell back at the explosion of scents and sounds inside the factory. As a human I hadn't noticed this- the mishmash of mutts, so many mutts, the sounds of them, the Cabal and their patients, the scents criss-crossing across the factory floor, the smell of food upstairs, the groans, and... Nick's panic. I smelt it and heard it.

Shrugging Reece's arm off me, I ran, ignoring Vi's surprised "Anne!" and everyone else, running up the stairs, barely able to suppress the returned strength. Nick was panicking. Antonio was struggling with him, cursing, and I burst into the storage room.

"Anne!"

I crossed to Nick in a few strides and leaned down over him as he thrashed, groaning, fear filling my nostrils.

Suddenly he relaxed, as his own nostrils flared, and when my hand touched his face, Nick's body slumped back. He had been afraid for me. Had he sensed my distress? Maybe he had. I didn't know how this mate thing worked but it seemed that we did do that- share more than we intended.

"Anne?" Antonio looked relieved. "You okay?"

"Not really." I muttered, then when he stiffened, tried to smile. "I mean, I am better now. Here." Nick's smell in my head. I didn't want to say it in front of him anyway, afraid that he'd pick it up on some level, and it'd upset him. "We'll talk later."

He nodded, reaching out to grasp my hand, the feel of Antonio's skin on mine enough to make me burst into tears again. Or nearly. He seemed to see it and pulled me out of the room as Lillian lifted the bowl.

"What's wrong?"

I told him what I'd told Reece. Antonio didn't think I'd cheated on Nick, I saw him connect the dots before I could tell him when and where, and he glanced down at my stomach with the same anger Reece had given it. My hand went over it protectively.

"I gave you a pill for that."

"It didn't work."

He reached out and I tensed, Antonio's anger fading, and he took my arms instead.. "Relax. I won't harm it. I'm just angry that it happened."

"It's okay. I don't remember it." I tried to smile, weak, which didn't help.

"Can I look?"

I nodded and he lifted up the top, hand brushing across the barely there bump, stepping closer. It wasn't his grandchild and yet he was so tender, so careful, that I saw him already bonding to it, already deciding to accept it as one. It hurt to see him do that. I had to toughen up and get used to it- they'd all do it, one by one, when it became clear I wasn't having an abortion. They'd all adopt the twins as apart of the pack. I'd have to pretend that it was going to happen.

"You really don't show much, do you?" He asked, amused, and reached out to hug me again. "That where you were? Upset?"

I nodded and he sighed. "Should have told me. I'm your father too now."

Those words made tears come back again. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and I couldn't just 'harden up'. Antonio seemed shocked even, he'd only seen me like this a few times, and he made me lie down on the spare bed in the storage room and have a nap.

The shock about it spread, though only Reece and Antonio knew the truth about the father, and suddenly I was completely off nursing duties and getting another ultrasound. I knew what they'd find, knew they'd find the twins, but they checked for a sneaky third. This time there was no sneaky third baby, they checked carefully, but there was twins. A boy and a girl. Then I was given the same orders as Savannah was- observation only. No work. Vi was concerned that I'd kept having periods even with twins and she didn't want to push my body. I managed to convince her to let me take the staircase on my own though. She was tempted to have me carried up and down it and truthfully, I just didn't need that much help now, my body back to strength.

It was hard to hide that, hard to hide the incredible hearing and sense of smell, to pretend to be weak like a human. I had to let Reece take care of me as if I was like before. If they knew I was healed, they'd know something was going on, or they'd do tests and they might have figured it out.

Clayton seemed the only one suspicious. I didn't understand it, why he kept giving me looks, like some part of him knew I wasn't telling the full truth. But he never questioned it. No one did. They accepted my sudden silence or change of subject as if it was another symptom of the pregnancy, despite the fact that until now, I'd had no symptoms, and continued to feel pretty good on that front.

Demetruis did contact me in a week. I didn't ask how he had my phone number, after we'd changed it, I didn't want to ask. He spoke. I answered with yes or no. Then he hung up and the number remained private. But I had his number in that letter with the instructions to go into the desert and only call it when the labour started or if they found out the truth, and I required immediate evacuation to protect the babies. It sounded like he expected the pack to beat the babies up if they found out. Or maybe it was a last chance to prove I was an 'ally'. Willingly give myself to him if the pack found out. I didn't know.

Daniella seemed to be suspicious too. She watched me carefully, and I tried to ignore her, still so angry about what hurt she'd called Reece. It was strange, to have both her and Clayton watching me like hawks, and sometimes trying to follow me. The thing was, now that I had good hearing and scent, I could tell when I was being followed and could give them the slip.

"I've told my children." Lillian spoke up, as we sat on either side of him, her eyes on Nick's pale face.

"About Nick?"

She nodded, stroking his arm, that tenderness and wonder there. It made me want to cry all over again, that love, aware that even after so long a mother could love her child like this. Maybe one day they'd find me. Maybe I'd find them. Lillian's eyes met mine. "Are you all right?"

"Pregnancy." I muttered. Truthfully, still I had no symptoms really, but it was amusing now that I knew it was there, how aware I was of it. The small things I'd been too busy to care about suddenly were the focus of my attention. She nodded, a sympathetic look, and reached across Nick to grasp my hand too. I'd told her, when she found out, I didn't want her to think she was getting another grandchild. It would have been too cruel to her after she just got him. She didn't know the specifics about the rape- just that I'd been drugged while out and had woken up the next day with a killer headache.

She and Antonio, while they didn't speak, had started to give each other looks of such ...intensity... that I wondered if something was going on. I could tell it wasn't- they never had the scent of the other on them- but something was going on. They kept trying to avoid each other's company for too long, flinch if one accidentally brushed the other's arm, but I caught him staring at her more than once. And likewise, she'd stare at Antonio, sometimes her cheeks flushed, as if she was that love struck teenage girl again.

That, and her amusement at the toddlers trying to show her that they could go potty now, was what I used to try and not go crazy with the guilt. Tried to focus on the love everyone had for each other. On what I was protecting by doing this.

And Demetruis was determined to make sure I knew he wasn't going to betray me, because by the third week after the agreement, he'd already given me the first part of the cure. Not enough to create it, or even discover it, but it was a show of faith. And he sent me something far more precious than that. He sent me something to end the fever for two people, suggesting I use it for Nick and someone else. Not a cure but ...a treatment. Demetruis warned me to keep it quiet, to not explain it, but he wanted me to see that he was serious about being on my side as long as I was on his.

Some part of me was suspicious but with Nick suffering, and he really was, I tried it. First on a mutt. When the mutt came out of the fever within hours, much to Vi's shock, I used it on Nick.

The next few hours felt like years. I sat there, anxiety trying to make me go off, taking his temperature and checking him obsessively, refusing to leave the room. But I felt it, felt it deep inside me, felt his body healing itself. Slowly. Surely. Felt his breathing deepen, his skin cool, the sweat fade. The fever was breaking. I couldn't tell Vi why, I couldn't explain it, because Demetruis had forbidden it and he had me by the balls. So to speak.

I was trying to eat when Nick blinked, shifting onto his side, and stared at me. His eyes were clear, his body smelling healthy, and he looked fine.

"How the hell did I forget you?" Nick stared at me, shaking his head slightly, reaching out for me. His voice was raw, croaking, and he drank the entire glass of water when I offered it. He looked confused. "You? Of the entire world."

"You've been sick." I tried to talk, which made him rub his head,.

"I know that. How did I forget you?" He grabbed at me, the movement so sudden and unexpected that he had me on the bed before I could blink. The strength wasn't that of a werewolf, my heart sinking as I realised it, but it was Nick and he was awake and he was fine. More than fine. It was like he'd just woken up, not recovered from a deadly fever, even undoing my top for me, fingers tracing across old scars and things. Some weren't his, some were, across birthmarks, freckles he liked, thumb brushing across my nipple. Across the spot the mutt had threatened to bite me in Central Park.

"Nick, you've been sick. For weeks. Calm down." I added, as he rested his head on my arm. "What did you remember?"

"Everything." The word had so much wonder in it, like he couldn't believe it himself, the brown eyes drinking in every inch of me. Nick reached down to stroke my lower stomach. He froze, as he felt the lump, staring at it. "I remember everything. Is that what I think it is?"

"It's about bloody time." I felt my eyes go wet at the look in his face, emotion well up, and so much relief. I lifted his head to mine, not answering the question, leaning down to kiss him hard. "You're back."

"I'm really back. I know I was sick. I also know that I'm really a middle aged man." He muttered, groaned softly, and flopped his head on my chest. Nick's eyes shut, the burst of energy gone, and I felt him relax again, his body easing into a peaceful sleep. Reece and Vi appeared within a minute, probably having heard him, and she shook her head as she took the readings.

"He is ...not sick. I do not understand." She stared at Nick and then me. "It makes no sense. He is not sick now. No warning. No coming out slowly."

"Like a switch." I agreed, as I gently eased him back onto his back, sliding up with Reece's help. "Is he really okay?"

"Really. I will call Antonio." She moved out, before returning, trying to take his temperature again. Vi couldn't believe it. "It makes no sense. The disease never ends this fast. Three hours ago he was almost too hot and now he is fine. Another mutt shows same improvement."

She headed out, glancing back at him, the phone pulled out.

Nick improved so fast that by supper time, he was up and about, not even needing a cane. Ate everything we offered, and more, though he had lost his sense of smell, hearing and strength like everyone else had. He was upset, I could tell, but he tried to hide it. He tried to smile and pretend everything was okay.

When I told him the news about the babies, the next morning, he did not pretend everything was okay. Nick vanished outside, I heard things smashing, and he returned breathing hard, the fury in his face, not trying to pretend he was fine. He was really upset. Not only had he lost everything he'd gotten used to but I was forced to carry someone else's babies. It went against every instinct left in him, every single one, and I knew that he wanted to get rid of the babies. I knew that he felt more hostility towards my stomach than he had towards the last pregnancy, and it wasn't a shock when he pushed hard for an abortion. Get rid of them. To him, they were parasites, insults to me and to him, not children but an insult. Growing. Getting ready to hurt me again.

I wished I could tell him the truth.