EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER

Beth was cuddled up in my arms, wearing the prettiest little flower dress, her dark hair tied in ribbons on either side of her head, her head resting against my chest. Her enjoyment of cuddles and snuggling is definitely something that she gets from her father.

I caught sight of Ethan and Dante Jr toddling around near their dad as he built one of the cabins with the help of Eric and the rest of the pack. It was one of the last ones that needed to be erected before we could truly call this place our home. A whole eighteen months after we fled from the forest just outside of Everett and here we were in Redwood forest California, setting up our new lives together.

Dante was doing his best to keep Ethan and Junior entertained while also wielding a saw and trying to work, so I was thankful when Mom swooped in all smiles, Horus at her side, to pick them up and hurry them away. And I could breathe again. No one was going to lose a finger or a toe today. Everything was going to be fine.

In the eighteen months since Dante had found a new place for Eastwind to set up, we’d built log cabins all around the area. Originally he’d been determined to get ours built first so we wouldn’t have to raise Beth, Ethan and Junior in a tent, but I didn’t mind. It was the right thing to do, as the alpha, to get everybody else set up first, to make sure that everyone had a place to stay, Horus, my mom, Eric and the rest, before we got too comfortable.

We were living under new identities here, to everyone but the rest of the pack and our werewolf friends, of course. We didn’t want anyone to go looking for us. We’d had to leave in such a hurry that I lot of people had to leave their jobs behind with no notice, so we didn’t want anyone getting suspicious. It was going to be a long road and a big challenge for everybody being somewhere new, but the set up we’d created so far seemed like it was going to work.

There were a lot of people that weren’t too happy that we’d had to run. They blamed Dante and I for getting caught on that bridge, and rightly so, we hadn’t exactly been careful. Perhaps if we’d been more sensible, we’d still be back up near Washington where people had been settled for the last twenty years or so. But in a lot of ways this was a good thing for Dante too. Here, there was no past hanging over his head, no history of things gone by that always seemed to plague him. He could leave all of that behind and start afresh. He seemed happier for it. It was hard to start over, but I’d done it before and I knew that they would be fine, eventually.

It wasn’t easy looking after three pups in a tent, but it was Dante’s tent from when we’d been to that Howl all that time ago, so it wasn’t like it was small. He built cribs for each of them, and we slept snuggled up in that big old king bed, waking up with the light of the morning warming our faces. It wasn’t easy but it was worth it.

No one had heard from Lesander since Dante had exiled him and, though I didn’t say it out loud, I think it was probably for the best. After everything he had done, I didn’t think he had too many allies left in Eastwind, but I didn’t want to risk being too vocal about him either way. The name changes would hopefully help us keep our distance from him too. Dante put out a message to other packs in the Pacific Northwest to keep their eyes out for him just in case. He let them know he had been exiled and that he wasn’t to be trusted.

I certainly didn’t want to bump into him again. Even though my scars had healed somewhat, they were still visible on my face and Lesander still haunted my dreams. It had been quite the adjustment to only have one eye. I wore a patch a lot of the time and it took me a while to get my bearings and balance again. I still wasn’t used to it if I was honest with myself and though it didn’t hurt physically, there were days when I cursed my rotten luck that it had happened to me. But I had to be strong. Not just for the pack but for Dante and for our children.

I looked around at the members of Eastwind who were helping Dante build our new home, one that had a bedroom for each of the children, one that had a big enough bedroom for the both of us, and a dining room as well as a living room. We’d talked about what we wanted and he decided he was going to make it as nice a home as he possibly could. He was working so darn hard to make sure that everybody in the pack got what they wanted. We would all be living a much more luxurious life, it would seem.

Mom sat at my side, Ethan wriggling about in her arms. “They have far too much energy,” she said. “I think it’s all the excitement of that beautiful new cabin.”

“I don’t think they know it’s for them,” I said quietly, feeling Beth stir in my arms. “I think they just want to help out their dad.” I smiled. “I’m glad you’re here Mom,” I added. “I’m glad I didn’t have to run off and not tell you where we’d gone. I’m glad you’re part of it. I think Beth, Ethan and Junior are too.”

“I think you’re happy for the child care,” she laughed.

I leant my head on her shoulder. “I really appreciate you helping out Mom.”

“Three pups is a lot,” she said. “Your Dad and I had our hands full with just you, I’m surprised you even have time to sit down.”

“Oh,” I said. “Didn’t you know I had child care?”

She laughed again and elbowed me, tickling me so I laughed a little with her. “You have a wicked sense of humor.”

“I wonder where that comes from.”

She stood up again, hauling Ethan onto her shoulders. “Come on then you,” she said. “Let’s see if we can catch Junior and Horus.” She started running away, across the field and towards where Horus was wrestling in the grass with Junior. She was so much lighter than she had been for very many years. It wasn’t just in the way that she acted, in the way that she spoke; you could see it in her. The withered old woman who had taken the place of my mom for all of those years had vanished. She was a new woman.

It had been a weird time for me. I’d gotten the one thing I never knew I always wanted, which was Dante, and had a family. What had started as a way for me to make some quick money for the Lakeshore pack had turned into a romance that was the beginning of the rest of my life. So much had changed and moving away from where we had been was the biggest change of all. But it was comforting to see people settling into new rhythms here, into new practices. Everyone seemed to be pretty happy, and I certainly knew I was.

The growing threat of the humans was every present. It was difficult to ignore the fact that humans had driven us out of our home intent on hurting us, of ridding the world of our kind. It was also difficult ignore the cries for help from other packs at Howls or over news communications.

When it was late at night, and I was snuggled in Dante’s arms thinking about how I got a happily ever after that I didn’t even think was possible, my mind couldn’t help but wander to the world outside this forest. It was scary knowing that there were people after us. I hoped and prayed that we wouldn’t have to move again or worse, fight with them, but it seemed inevitable. Our days of peace and quiet were numbered. We just needed to be ready for when they came.