Vi and Pav had to watch the children as we went in, the two of them leaving the room and Nick and I sat down. The seats had been arranged in a circle, as if we were kids, but it sort of forced everyone to look at everyone. One part of me disliked this quite a lot- I hated the idea of all these 'non-wolves' staring me in the eye so directly, it almost felt like a challenge.

But in another way I liked it. It was impossible for people to hide motives when so face to face like this. Jamie was there as well.

Elena shifted in her seat at the head, Clayton standing against a wall and refusing to take part in the 'circle', his gaze fixed on the Elders from the skin-walkers.

"We've agreed that they may remain in Forestwatch with your permission." She said quietly, her eyes coming to mine, frowning somewhat. "All things would be moved out to a different home and they would rent it."

"What home?"

"You'll have to organise that."

I hesitated at that. The idea that they'd take my home for a short while, that I'd handled fine, but now they wanted to stay? Where would we go anyway? Nick shifted uncomfortably beside me.

"You know what we are?" He asked, his knee brushing against my thigh, and when we got a nod from one of the older women, Nick continued, "Then you know how we feel about terrortry?"

"It's probably easier to explain what we are." An older man spoke up. His eyes met Elena's eyes. "Would you let us explain it?"

"Go ahead." She nodded, head just moving a tiny bit.

I went quiet as they described who they were.

"I'm Selene's Grandfather, by the way, and thank you. For taking care of her. She's had to go for a little while." I found it hard to mirror the friendly smile and he continued without seeming put off, "Our kind are an ancient race. We were far back as the stone age, when we depended on fur, and some of the humans discovered that they were taking on the form of one skin they put on. This became a blessing and for many thousands of years, it was used to our advantage in hunting, travel, protection. We were treasured, even worshipped, and it seems that we were not limited to one area. Our kind appeared around the same time across the world without any evidence of where we came from. We just appeared.'

'Naturally there became points in the world where we were seen as enemies, as evil, as unnatural, and so we became secretive instead. Hid ourselves and tried to avoid detection. Some of our children started to be born different to us. Vampires, shape shifters, selkies, a fixed skin-walker race, shamans, necromancers-" His gaze went to the seat Jamie sat in, "- and of course, Werewolves. They became their own races as hundreds of years passed, without any clear reason for the mutations, just that for some reason some of us only bore the mutated children. Some, the Vampires, stopped aging and depended on blood for life. Some, as the shape shifters shown, required no skin and were mistrusted greatly for they were known for causing problems. There was a race of skin-walkers that no longer needed a skin but could only take one shape- a cougar- and they were limited to the Native American populations. Shamans were human except that they were more connected to nature on a spiritual level and mistrusted us in the same way we had no trust in shapeshifters. Necromancers were born with the ability to see the Ghosts and interact but were not able to take on the form of a dead shape. They became powerful in their own way over time and are also difficult to trust, because not all use their strength wisely. And then there were the werewolves- our offspring that could only be a wolf, and required no skin to do it. Each race separated from us but we watched them over. This is where your race comes in." His eyes fixed on us. "The werewolves. The youngest of the races to form and yet so old now, by this world's standards, and our responsibility. This skin-walker that takes human forms has targeted your Pack and your species. We were responsible for her, or his, downfall and we failed to destroy the abomination before it took one of your own. This is our failure. This is why we need to remain close. Within your Forestwatch."

"So you want to move us out?"

"Yes. We will care for this property. We will even buy it, should you allow that, should your Pack feel comfortable in the future. But this isn't a thing to worry about for the moment." He glanced at Elena.

"We'll discuss that later." Elena's blue eyes met mine. "Are you all right with them renting Forestwatch for a longer period of time?"

"We will pay rent and repair your building." Selene's grandfather added, softly. He held out photos of Forestwatch, of my home, and I stared at it. There was a new roof on it. There were gardens. Was that a shed out the back that hadn't been there before? All these additions! I stared at it and felt my anger build, even as my resolve to say no faded, realising that there was no way in hell I could say no. They'd already done all this work.

"We can move easily." Nick spoke up. I blinked as he slid an arm around me. "If Liz wants it. I'm happy with it."

"I... I guess you can stay." I felt like there wasn't much say in the matter, no matter what these people said, and felt Nick's leg brush against mine slightly. I had to focus. Wherever he was, I was home, as long as I was near the pack. Forestwatch had been so ideal though, right next to Stonehaven, this property close enough to make it easy to walk from one place to another. "Yeah. We can do it."

"That's all for now. I'll have a meeting with everyone tonight about what we've agreed. See if you can find a place within a few hours. Nick, stop teasing her and show her." The last statement puzzled me, somewhat, but I was too irritated by this turn of events to ask. Elena was already dismissing us. I glanced at Clayton, who wasn't budging, but Nick was getting up. We left them to the meeting again, Nick's hand finding mine as we went into the older half.

I was kind of angry. No. I was really angry now. Forestwatch was my home, even if it had gotten scary with some new species of supernatural inside it, and to be told that 'Sorrry, we're squatting and we're going to stay'...

"Bloody squatters." I muttered, glancing back at the door that led into new Stonehaven, half tempted to go back and tell them that No! They couldn't just go and take over my home. What the hell? But I couldn't do it.

Nick swung me up into his arms, shocking me ,kissing my face over and over as he grinne down at me. "Look at you, Liz, all grumpy. Come on. Time to house hunt." He kissed my neck, my face, my lips, over and over. "Let's find a home."

He dragged me behind him, pulling me along upstairs into our little bedroom, and I crawled onto the bed beside him as Nick opened up his laptop and got his phone out.

"How do we find a house in two hours?" I muttered, tugging my legs up, suddenly having the urge to consume chocolate. Maybe it was the time of the month. Or maybe I really had something to be annoyed about this time. Okay, I got that they'd struggle to find a place isolated like Forestwatch, a place with a lot of land to run on, and that they'd draw attention to themselves if they moved now, but it didn't change that I felt ...as Nick had said... grumpy about it!

"We look. It's easy. Come here." Nick slid behind me, his legs around me, pulling the laptop into my lap. He snuggled against me and we tried to look. "We need at least eight bedrooms."

"Eight bedrooms? Are you mad?" I glanced back over my shoulder at Nick. He had to be kidding. "What do we put in the other ones? A trophy room?"

"One bedroom for each of the kids is six, with Matt. Then you and I need a bedroom, so that's seven. And one bedroom for our guests. Eight." Nick listed it off on his fingers, his arms squeezing my middle.

"Who's cleaning it?" I reminded him, nudging him. But actually... it suddenly didn't feel like such a bad idea. At some point they might want separate bedrooms. We might want to have someone live in as security. I didn't know. Hadn't there been some movie about a huge family and the kids claiming a tired old mansion? Cheaper by the dozen? I was starting to feel like that. One day Nick would pop up with another six kids. I wasn't sure I could cope with that idea. "Not me."

"Hire someone then." He nudged me. "Rich wife."

I scowled at the reminder. I didn't like the money, even if it did make the future a little less stressful, because it came with a huge catch. I wasn't sure I was up for 'running' a business. It didn't matter if the twins wanted it or not. I hadn't even started the business course yet and I was having doubts!

"Liz, sorry." Nick kissed my neck gently as I stiffened in his arms. He reached beyond us and close the laptop, his hands stroking my arms, my back, running his fingers through my hair. "I don't mean to stress you out with this. I was thinking about the kids, and about security, and those places have state of the art security. Plus you've got a security guy and his family, and they'd probably be more happy living near us. It'd make it easier for them. Truth is, all those big places are cheap now, the disease is causing the real estate market to crash."

Buying a house within two hours was not easy and I knew Elena knew this. We sat there, Nick's arms around me as we stared, using his charm on the phone when he was contacting people on the real estate market. When I had money, this made it slightly easier, as apparently people were willing to do almost anything. Rush almost anything.

"I hate money." I muttered. "Can we donate it all to charity?"

"You can do whatever you want with it, love, but most charities barely give much to the cause." Nick kissed the back of my neck. "Maybe you could do something of your own. Use it for your own charity. Right now, don't stress about it. We did need a few more bedrooms. Here. I was looking at this one earlier, checked it out, I wanted to show you it anyway." He actually slid sideways to his bedside table and pulled something out, something printed. A house advertisement. "This one wasn't listed online. I had to call around."

"You were calling around?" I took the advertisement.

"We've got three toddlers and two babies trying to share a room. It isn't working that well." Nick reminded me. "I know you're stressed. Take a look at it."

I stared at it. The first thing that stood out was the number of bedrooms. Nick had said 'eight'. This place, this mansion, it didn't have eight. It had twelve. I pointed the number out to him. "It has twelve bedrooms."

"So? Reece and his girlfriend might live there. We might hire a nanny. I don't know. Look at the photos." Nick shrugged lightly and nudged me.

I stared at the photos of the place. It was pretty stunning.

'A gem on a rare twenty eight acres of gardens and forest, located out in the country away from the stress of city life, this Georgian style manor is the very picture of the very style it was built to mirror. Although not entirely kept up, some restoration is required, it has been offered up by the family that has lived in it since the construction. Fireplaces are located in the graceful drawing room, in the elegant dining room, the mahogany lined library and the cosy family room. Nine bedrooms are located in the main manor, six of them lovingly restored, three the perfect project, two of them with their own fireplace. The garage will hold three cars easily, with an extended back for projects undertaken.'

"There's a lot of fireplaces." I muttered.

"Yeah, keep reading." Nick grinned.

'The cottage located deeper in the grounds is a simple one bedroom cottage, requiring further restoration, but has extensive vegetable and herb gardens that have been lovingly maintained by the elderly couple that lived there. Another larger two bedroom cottage is located near the entrance and was used as the servant's quarters, perfectly restored and ready for use about its own personal two car garage.'

I started to flip through the photos as Nick opened the laptop beside him and started to look for something. Big gardens, lawns, a vegetable garden, forest like it said, all kind of nice. The cottage was hte most attractive part for me, this tiny one bedroom thing that was dusty, sad looking, still with one of those wood fires. Like the old couple had refused to fix it up and had lived their entire lives there without wanting to alter a thing. It would need new floorboards, benches, probably a lot of new things, but it was cute.

"It's nice, Nick, and massive. Like I said. Who's cleaning it?" I yawned. "We have to do some serious looking now."

"What about-" He turned the laptop around. It was a photo of Nick. Beside a 'Sold!' sign. Holding up a 'Merry Christmas!' sign, the triplets beside him, Antonio on the other side. He had this face which was a mixture of espasperated and amused, trying to hold Lily, glancing over his shoulder at the big ass gates. "We just stop looking and see our new house?"

"Our house?" I stared at the sold sign. It took some time to connect it with the actual big ass mansion thing he'd just shown me. "YOu already bought it?"

Nick tugged something out of the desk and held it out. A giftbox. I opened it and held up a huge jingly thing of new and old keys.

"Merry Christmas." Nick nuzzled aginst my neck. "The couple trying to restore it were Australians and they'd planted all these Australian things all over the place. I thought... you might feel less home sick. THere. Reece liked it. He's already claimed a bedroom. Morgan wants to be your gardener. He hates city life."

I couldn't speak for a long time, just stared at the keys and the photo, stared at it like I'd gone mad and this was proof.

"How the hell... I know you and your dad are successful... but how..." I couldn't get the words out of my head. My jaw was opening and shutting.

"It's gotten cheap since the disease happened. Dropped so much in price you wouldn't believe it."

"I have to pay for it too, Nick, I can't- you can't just ..." I couldn't believe it. I stared at the house. "What about your Dad's house?"

"We'll live there while they're at school. Let Reece and Morgan run this place. And no." Nick nipped my neck gently. "I'm paying for this. You can pay for schools and renovation, if you want, but I wanted us to have a home. It's only a short drive from here."

"How short?"

Nick slid over google maps and showed me. It was literally fifteen minutes down the road. I'd never even heard of it, never even seen it, and yet there it was. Close to the highway to New York city, sure, and far off the road. I had seen it every now and then, seen the two bedroom cottage beside the road, and assumed that was exactly what the property was. A tiny house on a lot of bush. But the forest crowded around the driveway as it wound around into a large open area that wasn't viewable from the road and there it was, this massive building, surrounded by green. "It's at the back of Stonehaven. We had issues with them several times, those owners, when Elena came back. There were these deaths, some mutt killing people here, and they kept coming into Jeremy's land with hunting dogs trying to find the big dog killing everyone."

"Does Jeremy know you've got it?"

"He's trying to buy up the land around us for a bit of extra land. It was his idea to get this one." Nick replied softly. "He was right. It was perfect for you. Matt can still walk over. It's a bit of a hike, about an hour's walk from that house to this, but we'll buy him a bike. Make a path for him. Are you-" He hesitated. "Okay? With this? I know how you feel about expensive things but I thought this was more practical than clothing."

"Okay? I'm ..." I wasn't sure. I really wasn't sure. "I don't know. I'm stunned. Do I get the one bedroom cottage to myself?"

"Course you can." He nodded. "Morgan was tempted to ask but when he saw it didn't have internet and it'd take a few months to renovated it properly for it he changed his mind."

For a while I sat there, staring at the keys, at the photos, and then at the price of the place in the print out. Nick was right. Originally it had been a hell of a lot of money. Even he couldn't have afford this place. But it'd gone down by so much since the disease started to take over that I might have been able to buy it myself, without the twin's inheritance, it had dropped so much. No one wanted to buy houses right now. The economy, which had already been struggling, was now almost screwed all over the world. People were dying all over the place, businesses going out of business...

"What about your dad's business? Shouldn't the money-"

"It's okay. Dad's a natural and apparently it's doing well." Nick shook his head. "I hoped you'd like it."

He sounded disappointed. I suddenly felt bad. I twisted around, kissing him hard, dropping the keys beside us on the bed. "Of course I do. Nick, I'm just... please tell me this is the only present you're buying me all year."

Nick laughed at that and nodded. "It's your only Christmas present. Mine too. We can go visit it tomorrow, it's all ready. Everyone already knows except you."

"That's why Elena was letting them shove me out?"

"Mmmhmm. They'll already have the address." He shut the laptop and tugged me against him, wrapping his arms around me. "It's our last house. We're not going to move again. We can get old in that place."

"I hope not." I tried to relax, leaning against his chest, my legs over his legs.

Everyone came the next morning to see it, except for the big kids and the triplets, and we stared at the place as we drove around the forest. It really was hidden so well from the road. I would have never known it was here. Antonio introduced me to my 'security half-demon''s family, who turned out to be another very normal and very common name, Dylan Thatcher, his wife Georgia Thatcher- apparently Paige's friend and another witch- and their new baby. They'd already been living here in the two bedroom place for a few days now.

I let Nick carry me over the threshold, as if we were married all over again, and was lowered into the hallway. It was clean. Really clean. Things shone, the fireplaces looked clean, everything looked and smelt clean. I had been expecting it to be dusty and to need hours of cleaning to be done.

"How long has it been since the last people have been here?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder at Antonio as Nick raced up the stairs like a kid.

"Georgia and a few hired people already went through it. She was happy for any extra cash at this time." Antonio hugged me close. "I know it's a big place. Come with me. I had something done for the three of us."

I followed him through the ground level and into an extension: large rather modern looking study, a contrast from the more traditional and old building, where there were three workstations set up. Three desks.

"You can study, Nick can work. I won't stay here as much but I thought this might be useful." Antonio smiled down at me, squeezing my shoulders. "No babies allowed in here. The door's a barn door- you can have it half open. There's an older study which I might borrow if I'm here- a lot of my work has to be private, I'm afraid. But you'll be glad about it when the kids have to do homework."

"Is the barn door to keep the animals in or out?" I muttered and he laughed softly, kissing my head, leading me back out into the rooms. There were a lot of rooms. I wasn't even sure what each was for. But the study extension was right beside the older library, lined with shelves and wood panels, which I had to admit I liked. The kitchen wasn't small and the storage room had a drying closet – so I could dry my own herbs and things.

Nick led me through the upper floor like an excited kid, his hand clutching mine, like we were exploring secret tunnels and bedrooms of some long lost building. There was a master suite, of course, still empty. It even had a fireplace. A spa bath. All modern, all clearly new, and then beyod that a walk in closet which I could already picture being filled with mostly Nick's clothing.

The original building had only six bedrooms, I discovered as we explored. The extension with the large study had added on the last three- three slightly narrow but large enough rooms, and all three of them ready for use. Two of the old bedrooms, with a bathroom between them, had been restored as well. The other three bedrooms, the ones that need a lot of work, we didn't even go inside. The floor was faded and old, it was probably safe, but no one had bothered to clean it up much. The carpets in the last three bedrooms, the older ones, would need pulling up and burning. The walls would need to be stripped, probably treated for mold, and repainted, and the same thing for the ceilings. The windows let in the cold wind so easily that we were quick to shut the door and put the door stopper back along the edge of the door frame.

"We can fix them." Nick let me know as he led me back down the stairs. "The one above the garage has its own bedroom. I figured Reece or Morgan could repair it and then they could claim it for themselves. Till then we've got enough bedrooms for us, the triplet can have one, the twins, Matt can get his own, and we've got one. Dad's got one and Reece and Morgan can share one till one of them gets to work."

"You have it all planned out?" I had to smile. Nick actually looked worked up about this, about this giant house with some old dodgy rooms, like he couldn't wait to get into it and start to claim it properly.

"Yeah. I've bought green paint for the triplet's bedroom. Um." He blinked, realising he'd never asked me about this, and added sheepishly, "If you don't mind me deciding on that?"

"As long as you don't mind me painting them pictures and stuff, go ahead." I smiled, kissed him gently, which relaxed Nick a lot more. He continued his tour of his new house, hand in mine, pointing things out.

We spent the next few weeks trying to get it turned into a house before winter came. Mansion. Whatever it was supposed to be called. Most of the fireplaces wouldn't be used this winter- the restrictions and rations would only let us have one- which didn't worry me in the slightest. I claimed the family room as our 'fire room', a large cozy room with a curved window outwards onto a covered patio, with a door into the kitchen. It was closed up and would stay warm easily.

Nick might have been tempted to suggest we use 'traditional' furniture. I wouldn't let him. I filled it up with my style, telling him he could decorate his living room however the hell he wanted, and instead used our old couches, our scuffed and dented coffee table, our lamps, all the things that hadg gotten a bit worn from two years of toddlers, werewolves and general wear and tear.

The couches were a warm tan, the coffee table, with drawers concealed in the middle, had a large scratch where Nick and Clayton had been play fighting and had fallen down, breaking off one of the handles for the drawers. I still had to replace it. The lamp tables had a few stains from coffee or tea or juice, as people ignored the table protector things for matts- maybe they weren't amused by my choice of the cat shape- and one of the lamps, a deep forest green, was dented on one side from someone probably having fallen on it and then pretended nothing had happened. The only new thing I let him put in were new rugs- the family room had floorboards, most of them needing re-polishing, and it'd need to be done during summer. The rugs were lush and warm. Our TV was put into a concealed cupboard against the wall, shelves put up so we could put the books there, and a toy chest for the toddlers. Near that would be where we'd put a Christmas tree, I was already planning that far ahead, and the porta-cot closer to the fire so the twins didn't get too cold.

It was a nice distraction from Pack business but it didn't last long. Elena was getting multiple calls from Mutts now, demanding the cure, and it was pissing both her and Clayton off big time. I worked from our new 'house', from the study, calling them and informing them the same thing. Over and over. Join our mailing list.

We actually created a mailing list. It amused me but it was true. A 'mutt mailing list'.

I had to watch Pav leave again after those two weeks. Vi came to live with us after, she'd promised to help, but she was quiet for a while.

Reece behaved himself. I couldn't believe it, was amazed, but when it was clear she wasn't trying to blow him off he didn't rush off after her. He didn't try and run away. He actually took his punishments, which involved running him to the point of exhaustion and or changing, like a champion. Antonio took one look at the old house's rooms and pointed at them. Reece started to work like I'd never seen him work, threw his shirt off, and got into it with everything he had to do. That was going to be his punishment. He was going to have to single handedly repair each of the bedrooms and the cottage, keep up the grounds, and he just took it all with one big smile. He was only allowed to get assistance from us with Antonio's permission and was not allowed to leave the new house. Which, as it was on a large property, turned out to not be such a bad thing.

He helped Nick paint the two new nurseries, one green and one yellow, set up cots for the twins, set up the toddler beds for the triplets, and we watched with amusement as the triplets threw themselves onto their beds with glee. They'd started to try and crawl into our bed, into Matt's bed, so to be given one each? Of their very own? Nick filmed the entire thing. School, their own beds, even their own bathroom now, they were already growing up way too fast for me.

I kept expecting things to happen. I didn't know what. Selene to appear at our door. Reece to run away. The skin-walker to show up. Things did happen, far away, sightings of Daniella, the CEO position filled, and yet it seemed like we were in a bubble.

Nick grinned at me as I watched Reece cheerfully sand the walls, a dust mask on, shirt off and singing away to the radio, nudging me. "See? He had to get laid. Men need different things to women. He'll be like this till she gets back. All cheerful and happy."

"That mean I don't need sex? Better keep up this dry spell." I teased him, ignoring his soft growl, nudging him right back. It'd been because of the miscarriage- I couldn't handle it, the intimacy, but then it'd turned into exhaustion from babies. Now though, with my body starting to recover and the shock of it fading, I was starting to feel... a little unattended. That was the right word for it. Lying next to him, feeling him brush against me at night, or the kisses we'd steal when we got our chance, it was leaving images in my head that I wanted to try out.

I had to admit. Now I wanted it.

We just kept getting too buggered to do much.

Then suddenly, Christmas was only a week away. Three weeks had already passed. I wasn't sure where they had gone, except that we'd been full of our new 'house', I'd been studying, threatening mutts to behave or bugger off, and suddenly Clayton was at our door.

"You gonna come buy some presents this year?" He asked, casually, as he came in. Gazed around. "Nick wanted this huge place?"

"He's loving it." I smiled somewhat. I'd spent a lot of time at Stonehaven anyway, staying overnight there the first few weeks, but somehow it was a relief to have our own home. We'd be going back for Christmas over a few nights. Matt barely wanted to leave it, though he was excited about the property here, and I'd already caught him running wild- this little red wolf, running through the rain, exploring it all. "I think he likes being creative."

"Reece said you needed presents and supplies for his work." Clayton nodded a fraction. I led him into the family room, which more or less looked like what it had in Forestwatch, and Clayton visibly relaxed inside it. "This is better. More like you."

"I told Nick he wasn't changing a thing about it." I commented, leaning against the wall, as Clayton wandered around to look at the wall of photos. Everyone was there, the entire Pack, the triplets, the twins, the entire wall just covered in photos.

"Good." Clayton smiled somewhat as he gazed over the wall and then around the room. "Got something to snack on before we go shopping?"

In other words, I was going, whether I liked it or not. He probably needed my 'people mover' car to cart all the stuff we needed back.

"Check the fridge in through that door." I pointed at the door to the kitchen. "I'll ask Reece to get the back seats out of the car."

"Elena's exploring the garden with Matt. She's coming with Nick in the other car to get the rations." Clayton called and I headed upstairs to where Reece was still sanding walls. He glanced over as I opened the door.

"We have to go shopping. Do you mind helping me get the people mover empty?"

"Course." Reece dropped the sander, unplugged it, and shook the dust free of himself. He threw the mask to one side and followed me downstairs into the garage. The people mover's back seats could all be removed. This was good for us- it meant we suddenly had this car with a large empty back space- and Reece lined the seats up along the back as I got a tarp down over the fabric to protect it from whatever we were getting.

"You said you needed stuff?"

"Yeah." Reece tugged a crumpled list out of his pocket, a pencil falling out, shaking more dust free from it. "The room I'm in has some stuff wrong with it. Just show them this and they'll know what you need."

"Stuff wrong?" I glanced at the list. Half of it made no sense to me.

"Some holes, some mold damage, nothing I can't handle." Reece grinned. He blinked as he heard his phone and lifted it up. "Selene's still in Alaska."

"Is she telling you what she's doing?"

"Not allowed." Reece's smiled faded a moment. But then he grinned and held the phone up to me. "But she sent me this."

It was a shot of her cleavage.

"I don't want to know what you said to her to get her to do that." I pushed it away, lifting my eyes as he laughed, shaking my head somewhat.

"Said or showed?" Reece waggled his eyebrows, grinning at me, and leaned against the wall. "I think they're doing some kind of magic up there. I don't lnow. Her aunt wanted to drive up but they ended up flying up to some island. Her brother and grandfather are still down here working on the skin. Guess there's no magic to make it instantly ready."

"Guess not." I wasn't sure how they'd gotten Daniella's... how she'd been used so fast. The question nagged at me but I pushed it away, not quite able to face the reality of ...of what it meant. What they'd done. I still saw her in my dreams.

Reece's smile had faded though, as if his mind had gone to the same dark place I had, and even for all his hard work, and his real happiness about his new girlfriend, I saw it. He was not healed. He wasn't even close to it, there was a really dark place there, one that I didn't want to see rise up again. It reminded me that we had to find out about this skin-walker. They may have vanished for now but it didn't change the fact there was one huge problem.

"Elena's been looking into it." He said after a while, scratching his arm, glancing away. Reece's eyes avoided mine now. "Hope's got some leads. She isn't sure if she's allowing me to take part in it yet."

"She hasn't even spoken to me about it." I admitted. "So at least you're hearing about it still."

That bothered me a little too. Elena hadn't really talked to me much about ANY pack business beyond the 'threaten the mutt' job. I knew I was going to have to be punished too. Was she letting me settle in here? Get used to a routine, to the business course, what?

Once again, I felt that nagging 'everyone's trying to protect me' feeling, and frowned too now. It never occurred to me before that this was how it was. It was almost like I'd been given this giant place TO distract me. Why? What was going on? I couldn't see it as something Nick had done- he was far more distracted than I was, rushing all over his new home like an eager child with a new toy. He'd found the cellar yesterday complete with a wine room. With wine in it. He'd gone on about his 'wine collection' for hours till I threatened to drink it all to shut him up.

Reece stood up and hugged me, tugging my hood over my head, as Clayton came through with a couple of paper bag's worth of food.

"Got the list?"

I held it up. "Clay, is something going on?"

Clayton didn't answer. He took the list, read it over, and then shrugged at me. "Things are always going on." Not a no. Not a yes either, but not a no. "Your fridge is nearly empty."

"Yeah." I noticed that. Today was 'ration day' and we still had to figure out how to balance the food from Stonehaven over this way too. "Rations today."

"I'll talk to Elena about it. Come on. Let's get this moving brick out of the garage and let them know we're going." Clayton's gaze fixed on Reece. "You taking a break?"

"I'll get some lunch and weed the garden. Come here." Reece grabbed me in a warm hug, dust and all, maybe seeing the expression I had. He got it better than anyone, except Nick, knew how to read me. "I'm going to plant some more Aussie flowers and a wattle today. A Variable Sallow Wattle. It can handle the snow."

"Good." I leaned against him, breathing out slowly, reminding myself to meet up with him tonight and ask him. "Show me tonight when the kids are in bed."

"Will do. Have fun shopping." He leaned back and headed back through the door to the main house.

Clayton got into the driver's seat and I slid in beside him. As we were backing out I noticed my wedding ring wasn't on. Huh. I must have left it in the bathroom again, I had this habit of doing that, but at least it wasn't lost.

Clayton wound down the window as we pulled out into another hard shower of rain, as Elena hurried in with Matt, calling, "Get into shelter! We're going. You get dry before you come."

She rolled her eyes at him. I'd noticed he'd gotten more protective over her, maybe a little too much, now that Elena's pregnancy was out in the open. Literally, it seemed, because over the past three weeks she'd really started to show with or without baggy clothing. She'd decided to go ahead but I knew that she'd been close, even had an appointment booked, to ending it.

"We'll be a few minutes behind. Where's Nick?"

"He's in the study. Something about an issue with a client. You might have to wait a bit longer than a few minutes." I called across the car and she sighed, nodded, and patted Matt's back.

"That's okay. Show me your house. I want to see what's changed in the past few days."

Matt nodded, Clayton called 'Take it easy, Elena', as we pulled out, and we headed into town.

I relaxed against the side of the car, feeling a bit odd without my rings on now that I'd noticed, watching Stonehaven come and go past. It looked peaceful. I kind of missed it, I had to admit, I had liked living there. It had been crowded but that hadn't mattered too much. It was our other home.

We started with the renovation things, all the things Reece needed, finding out that even those things were more or less rationed out these days. Clayton, with his accent and his 'cold charm', managed to get the flushed girl at the counter to slip us what we needed though. Funny how it worked like that- he was a cold bastard to humans, but he was gorgeous, and some girls just loved that in a guy.

I thought it was a bit rude and he laughed when I told him so.

"Yeah?" He hugged me, shocking me with the public affection, and shook his head. "Maybe you're right. Sorry, sweetheart, I'm a little tense." He shot the girl such a smile that she almost dropped the money she was putting away.

I shook my head at him as he grinned. I saw what he'd done though- the girl slipped out with another small bag of concrete. Free sample. I rolled my eyes, he shrugged, and we headed out to the car as his fake smile slipped back off his face, he lifted up the door we'd had to buy, and carted it out under one arm as the girl gazed at him with open admiration.

We carefully arranged the things in the back of the people mover over the door, some buckets of plaster, a bag of another kind of plaster, tins of paint, paint brushes, rollers, new sanding stuff, some wood lining stuff, other wood stuff, glue, concrete, door handles, fertiliser, all kinds of things that I knew Reece wouldn't have asked for if he hadn't needed. Taps and pipes were wrapped up in some scrap fabric to protect the car from them. He was working on the bedroom over the garage, trying to fix the bathroom to get it to work, and had already gotten us to get a new bathtub and toilet. Apparently he wanted to do it all himself. I was still holding my breath about that- I wasn't sure if Reece was a plumber like he thought he was. He'd wanted to do the wiring too but I'd convinced him to let me hire someone for it, thankfully, and was glad when I found out it was more or less already fixed. They must have started the job.

We were loading the car when we saw Nick and Elena pull in beside the Town Hall, the twins in the car, clearly intending on using them again as a 'Please help us hurry because these are my adorable twins' trick. It worked pretty well. That woman in charge lived to see the twins every week. Or maybe she had a crush on Nick, I didn't know, I wasn't too worried about it. Elena had gotten on the baggy clothing again now. It wasn't going to be long before it was blindingly obvious she was pregnant.

"Anne, come on. Nick's fine." Clayton nudged me and we pulled out, waving to them as we moved past, and headed down for Walmart. Closing down sale meant that it had a lot of things it was trying to get rid of- they were closing a lot of Walmarts down now. It was crowded and people were trying to get Chirstmas shopping done with the restricting on everything.

For a closing down sale it was more expensive than usual, I noticed, and sighed. Everything was still expensive. And there were still no signs of the 'healthy'. It was strange that for all the sick still around, and there were a lot of buildings now marked off as the home of a sick person or people, I hadn't yet heard about the healthy. Was that bad news or were people still sick after all this time? The death toll had risen dramatically till we couldn't watch the news now. And after Christmas New York was going to be having its own 'gas and electrisity' on and off times. All power would be shut down between the hours of ten and three in the daytime, nine and six at night, and all gas only on between the hours of five pm and seven am. The costs of those two needs had gone through the roof too which meant that people were skimping. I'd heard stories of people dying from hypothermia simply because they couldn't afford heating and it wasn't even snowing yet.

I followed Clayton around the store, as we tried to find presents for the kids, being as creative as we could. A magnetic white board could be great for the triplets, I reasoned, we could attach it low down and give them big magnetic pictures to put on there. I'd have to make them myself- all the magnets were too little with Rose crawling and Reece not far behind- but it could work. Kate wanted a pink bedspread and Clayton offered to pay me to make it for her, so we bought fabric, a mix of things that were pink, tea towels, silk runners, and a plain pink silk bedspread that I could decorate easily. Logan wanted a telescope and binoculars. They both got new bikes- they were getting tall now, as did Matt.

We took the big things out to the care and carefully slid them in next to the other things, using the bags of fabric as buffers to protect them a bit, and headed back in again. Tiny toys for the little ones. Luckily we could re-use toys for the twins, re-wrap, re-paint, whatever I could think of. They were too little too care and the triplets had forgotten about the toys that they used to play with when they were tiny. The triplets just got a few toys, a few things here and there, Matt got a camera of his own, and we ended up reasoning that we'd just donate food for the Christmas dinner and that'd be the 'adult's presents'. Everyone giving up something from their rations for the feast.

"What about these?" I held up a handful of fistsied stuffed animals. Clayton snorted as he looked at them, prodding a crab's pincher, shaking his head.

"They might not last."

"I could reuse them. Crab shaped things all over Kate's bedspread. She can tell you she's got crabs." I grinned, giggling a little at the look on his face, and wasn't the least bit surprised when he threw the crabs back in the toy bin. "Daddy, I got crabs?"

"That ain't funny, Anne." He shot me a look and it just made me laugh harder. Clayton grabbed onto me, holding me, as he threw some 'approved' stuffed animals into the trolley. "There. Prey animals."

"Such a hunter." I teased as I grabbed some of the hunter animals. "They should have a balance."

"Balance my ass." Clayton snorted, making a grab for the crabs as I picked them up again, only to miss. I snuck the half dozen hand sized crabs in beside the rest. Couldn't wait to get Kate to say that to him on Christmas morning.

"When we we getting the trees?"

"Got a couple ordered for us already." Clayton replied as he dropped a football into the trolley. "I'll get them tomorrow and bring yours around."

"Thanks, that'd be helpful." I nodded, as we got a little serious again, his arm still draped over my shoulder. I wasn't sure why though.

When he came closer to kiss the side of my forehead, I blinked, as I was tugged into his chest for a full on cuddle. "What's going on?"

"Nothing much." His lips found mine then, which scared the hell out of me, till I felt his lips say softer, "We're being followed. Stop looking like I've gone mad."

"You have gone mad." I muttered. I liked the guy, sure, but kissing? It was like kissing your grandpa. Sad but true. It felt kind of icky.

"Pretend to be my wife and shut up. Elena's not protected." He hissed, kissed me, and then slid back. I got it then. If they were following us instead of Elena, they either thought I was Elena or that Elena wasn't around and getting to Clayton was better. Either way it was safer to play 'couple'.

I pretended. We wandered on through the crowds, shopping for toys, Clayton keeping his arm around me and keeping me close now. I didn't see who he had and I didn't look around- it would have been suspicious. He wanted them to keep it up. Maybe he was hoping they'd follow us outside and follow the car, so that he could lure them somewhere and 'question' them.

We never got to that point. The crowd kept jostling, pushing, shoving, and neither of us noticed something was wrong until Clayton swore softly and leaned more heavily on me.

"What?"

"Dunno, but keep walking. For the car. Forget the toys." He muttered. I hesitated, Clayton turned me around, and we abandoned the trolley.

It was halfway out the store that I felt it too. Dizzy, started to feel disorintated, like I couldn't quite ...figure out which way was up. Clayton's weight wasn't helping.

I had to stop and the second I did, arms pulled us apart, something pressed into my back, and we were told to keep walking. So we did, Clayton glancing sideways, his face a little more pale as he caught sight of what it was jabbed into my back. He pursed his lips and did as he was told, swaying, and we were shoved into the back of a car.

A police car.

I wasn't sure what was going on. They looked like cops, cops I'd never seen before, and they locked us in the back. My head was starting to swim more, Clayton was starting to slump against my side, and I felt numb. My arms weren't moving.

No, they were, but they were handcuffed. Handcuffed? Had they thought we were shoplifting? What the hell?

There wasn't time to ponder it, to worry about it. Seconds after Clayton passed out I did as well, head too heavy to hold up, my eyes fluttering down as I passed out. The last thing I felt was the motion of the car as it pulled away from the shops.

For those who feel curious about how it actually looks-

Their new house (and FINAL house) is based off the House Plan #ADI30-313 Edgewood. Feel free to gawk at it.

I actually picture it looking a little like : House for sale in Bellevue Ave , Rumson, NJ, 07760 - 11 bedrooms … but with Anne going around it trying to make it look like a house, not a museum.

The two bedroom cottage is based off House Plan #DD-2931

The one bedroom cottage is a run down version of House Plan #HPG-600B

I have hurt my back so chapters may be a little shorter than usual. :) I'm tempted to give Selene her own chapters from now on, at least till she returns, so let me know if you're curious about what she's been up to. Besides naughty photos.