by Jamie Klaire
"I didn't do everything I've done for it to fall apart now!"
"Are you kidding?" Kate yelled back at Ziva, right up in her face. "You did everything you've done because you're fucking insane!"
Ziva slapped Kate so fast Emma heard the sound ricochet off the cave walls before she ever saw Ziva's hand raise.
"Don't you dare call me that!"
"It's true! You haven't been normal for a very long time, I'd guess. Maybe Thomas still being alive helped you some. Maybe no one ever looked that close, but it shines in your eyes, Ziva. The lights may be on, but there is definitely no one home."
That pushed Ziva over whatever edge she still clung to.
Ziva leapt at Kate, pushing her down on the cave floor.
Emma tried to pull out of her leather ties, but she was bound well. She could get to her knees, but with her ankles also bound, she could only scoot toward the pair and try to club Ziva with her fists, and pull Ziva's clothes and hair with her hands.
Kate rolled out from under Ziva, trying to get to her feet and run for the cave's entrance, but the desperate insanity driving Ziva made her quick as hell.
Ziva beat Kate to the entrance, but instead of leaving she bent down, grabbing the tree limb Emma had brought into the cave when she'd explored it the first time.
Ziva turned back toward the two women, holding the limb like a baseball bat.
She eyed both Kate and Emma warily for a few heartbeats, while she caught her breath. A stony, detached calm suddenly replaced the anger and venom in Ziva's face.
She addressed Kate first.
"Fine. Obviously you aren't Alpha mate material, and you certainly aren't good enough for my Galen. I guess I'll just have to kill both of you."
It was the sudden switch to calm and calculating that really scared Emma.
When Ziva stepped toward Kate, starting to swing the branch with a deadly precision aimed at Kate's head, Emma channeled all her fear and rage into protecting Kate.
The leather ties binding her human wrists and ankles were suddenly no match for a shifter growing and expanding into a wolf.
Emma put her new and still not quite totally controlled wolf between Kate and Ziva, growling, snarling and showing her teeth.
Ziva's eyes narrowed at Emma.
"You can shift. I thought maybe you could, but I wasn't sure. I came prepared for it though."
Ziva tossed the branch aside, and reached behind her back, pulling out a small pistol and aiming it at Emma.
Kate tried to grab the abandoned branch, but the movement drew Ziva's eyes and the barrel of the gun swung with her gaze. Ziva's finger pulled the trigger and Emma leapt.
Emma felt a heavy thud hit her shoulder as she jumped in front of Kate. With Kate behind her now, safe, she turned, aimed and leapt again, this time for Ziva's throat.
She felt another thud crash into her underbelly as she opened her jaws wide, finding and sinking her teeth into the tender flesh of Ziva's neck. She tugged and jerked, instinct and the drive to protect Kate driving any rational thoughts from her wolf brain.
She fought a now lifeless Ziva still, thrashing her like she'd seen dogs do when they were playing tug-of-war with their pull toys.
She didn't hear Kate's screams right beside her, and paid no attention to the yanks of fur and punches from Kate's tiny little fists as she tried to get Emma to stop.
No, Emma heard nothing but the pounding of her own blood in her ears, until the hostile growls of two newly arriving wolves broke though her reality.
She dropped her prey and turned toward the new growls. She recognized both Elam and Galen's wolves as they faced her, growling, and slowly approaching her step by step.
Kate's yells broke through to Emma's ears, and she suddenly realized how this must look. Risking the fact that she wouldn't be able to defend herself against two wolves, she shifted back into her human form, to explain.
As soon as any trace of her wolf form left her, and she stood there naked and human, she felt the pain ripping through her body.
She opened her mouth to explain, raising her hands palms out to speak, but her one arm wouldn't obey.
She looked down at herself, confused, and saw herself covered in blood. She'd been shot, not once but twice.
She raised her face to ask the wolves what had happened to her, but collapsed in a dead faint at their paws instead.
Chapter 3
Emma's body tossed and moaned as her mind was once again connected to her mother's. As Emma's body recovered from being shot, her mind got to re-live Reine's memories with her, as if she was really there.
As her mother's memories pulled her deeper into the past, a still rational part of Emma's mind was grateful that it was her mother she 'saw' through instead of Ziva.
Ziva's mind had been a dark and scary place, so she was glad that if anyone had to be there, her mother was somehow in her brain instead.
Reine hadn't planned on winning the Alpha Challenge, in fact she was as surprised as anyone when she came out on top. Going into the challenge she fully expected to give it all she had, but she was also fully prepared to acknowledge Thomas as Alpha when it was over. But now, in the deep middle of it, she really didn't want to lose.
Her rarely seen competitive streak came out once she had taken care of the wolf attacking Thomas, and it was only she and Thomas in the thick of things, as she enjoyed sparring with her brother immensely.
She had just taken Thomas down with an extra little twist as she had the back of his neck in her grip, and had backed off to let him get up so they could go at it some more when she realized from all the cheers and yells from the coliseum that she had won.
She didn't even have a full moment to process what that meant before a wounded and bleeding wolf from the adjoining pack burst on scene, shifted, and called for help for his pack.
The entire pack took off, aiming for the adjoining lands, but it became very obvious as they neared the other pack's den that they were too late.
Humans and wolves alike lay dead everywhere. Scattered at first, and then more and more bodies as they reached the center of the other pack's den.
The wolves had defended themselves well in the places that it seemed were fair fights, but in the center of it all the human's scents and footprints were very heavy, along with the sharp tangs of gun powder.
The humans had come prepared, well-armed and with many of their women along to boost their numbers. The wolves took out great numbers of their attackers, even as they were shot themselves. Human bodies outnumbered wolves by an average of two to one. The villagers had obviously meant business.
Once it was determined that the entire pack was wiped out, and no wolves were found alive, the pack headed to the village for vengeance.
Vengeance was not to be, though, for the only people still in the village were women, children and teenagers that had been left behind during the attack.
Yes, the humans had managed to take out an entire pack, all but the one wolf who had run for help, but they had also lost all of their men, and a very large percentage of their own women in the attack as well.
Reine could feel the rage and indignation rolling off of the younger wolves in her pack. They wanted to finish the job, to take out those who had hunted their kind, but Reine, in her very first duty as Alpha, wouldn't have it.
She shifted into human form to be able to speak with the huddled and scared villagers that were still alive. Thomas and a few of the other wolves stayed close to her, for protection in her human form, as Reine shouted for whoever was now in charge of this village.
The women looked around at each other, most of them huddled with small children, until the oldest woman still among them reluctantly stepped forward.
"Why have you done this? That pack protected your village." Reine's tone demanded an answer.
"Protection, at the cost of our people. You take our females as slaves when they are young. You take them from their mothers in exchange for this protection. We needed prote
ction from your kind more than we needed you to protect us from outsiders. The world is changing. Your kind became our greatest danger."
"I agree that the world is changing. Our pack does not take humans for slaves, although I understand that some packs still do. You attacked first. We came for retribution, but we will not kill women and children, even if it is our right. As Alpha of my pack, I offer a truce. You leave us alone and we will leave you alone. If any human breaks this pact, we will kill every last one of you. Do you agree?"
"You say your pack does not trade children for protection? We are now only women and children, it seems. Can we work out a protection agreement that is fair to both sides?"
"You wiped out an entire pack of my people. No, we will not protect you. But we will ignore you. That is as much as I can give you. You are on your own. Do you agree, or no?"
The villager nodded.
"We agree."
With a nod of acknowledgement, Reine shifted back into her wolf form and led her new pack into the woods once again.
They came across Ziva on their way back to take care of the dead. She was on her knees, rocking herself in grief, beside a small group of both dead villagers and wolves.
Thomas went to her, and shifted to hold her and speak to her.
Reine watched as Ziva let Thomas comfort her. Reine heard Ziva cry out, "They were all my people, the villagers first, and then the pack. Whether I liked them or not, I now have no one left!"
Thomas rocked her sobbing body in his arms, murmuring to her that he was here for her now, and always would be.
"You belong in our pack, with us. I'm sorry for your loss, Ziva, I truly am. It is our loss as well. But you belong with me, now. I will take care of you. I will always take care of you."
"This was not how it was supposed to be!"
Reine nodded at Thomas, offering to leave them alone for a bit, and she continued on to organize some wolves to take the human bodies back to the village, for them to bury or burn their dead as they saw fit, and to begin to take care of their own kind's bodies as well.
As Reine walked away she heard Ziva carry on, "She wasn't supposed to be Alpha, you were. I've never even heard of a female Alpha before. I thought you were next in line. Wait! Were there any survivors at all? Young or old?"
Reine shook her head as she walked away, thinking the stress of losing her pack so shortly after being claimed into this one must be affecting Ziva's thinking. Why else would her only thoughts after everyone she'd ever known had been killed be about Thomas losing Alpha?
Grief affects everyone differently, she thought with a sigh. She didn't know Ziva very well yet, since she'd only recently been claimed, but surely it must be grief, and her fully human blood, making her act so oddly.
* * * * *
The pack had only recently gotten back into some semblance of order after adjusting to the Alpha outcome, and cleaning up after the human's attack, before Ziva and Thomas announced that Ziva was with cub.
Reine's memories flashed to a celebration feast thrown for the pack to blow off some much needed steam. No one cared that the cub was half-human, since most of the pack's cubs were so. The pack rejoiced and celebrated their newest, unborn member with abandon.
The pack was overjoyed, using the feast to not only celebrate new life in the announcement of Thomas and Ziva's upcoming cub, but also to honor and celebrate their new Alpha, and using the feast as a chance to morn those they had known from the adjoining land.
Everyone partook but Ziva.
Ziva wasn't thrilled to be carrying another baby, since this cub would not hold the honor of being the Alpha's cub. She also felt that her own cub news was more of an afterthought, tacked on to honoring Reine and mourning the adjacent pack.
Ziva felt like Reine had stolen her thunder, somehow, yet again.
Chapter 4
Emma continued to 'see,' through Reine's eyes, how Ziva slowly started to break apart, bit by bit.
Ziva was full and ripe with Galen when Reine announced that she was also with cub.
Reine was thrilled beyond belief to be carrying Henry's baby. She 'saw' immediately that she was carrying a girl, and that her name would be Emma.
Emma, still unconscious after killing Ziva in real life, felt Reine's joy in carrying her before she had been born. She somehow knew she was experiencing all of her mother's memories while wounded badly from her gunshots, but she couldn't feel that pain here. Here, sharing her mother's memories, she only felt joy and love as Reine conveyed to her how much she had wanted and loved Emma from the very moment she'd known of her existence.
Ziva, though, was not happy at all.
Ziva had already lost a lot of herself when she was raped by some unknown mist-man shifter and left carrying Elam, but Reine hadn't known any of that when she and Ziva were both pregnant together.
Ziva also lost a bit more of what little sanity she had left once her clean start as an Alpha's wife had been dashed when Reine became Alpha instead of Thomas, and now Reine's cub would hold the prestigious spot in the pack that her and Thomas's cub, in her opinion, had been destined to have. All of that, plus pregnancy hormones again, so soon after carrying what she'd considered a 'Devil's spawn,' only sped up Ziva's crazy.
One day, Reine was coming back from an unsuccessful hunt, and had taken a moment in the bushes just off a well-used path to throw up.
Reine was still bent over, her first trimester hormones making her throw up daily, when Ziva stopped near her on the path.
"Morning sickness is a bitch, is it not?" Reine asked as she stood up, trying to use the moment to bond some with Ziva, her brother's mate.
"How the hell would you know? Your wolf blood protects you from most of it. I threw up way more often than you do." Ziva said, as Reine straightened up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Ziva, look. I'm not sure how it is that we've gotten off on the wrong foot, but you are my brother's forever mate. We are about the same age, newly mated, and both carrying our first cubs. Surely we can start over, become friends. If there was anything I did to make you dislike me, I do wish you would tell me. I'm sure I meant no harm."
"Our first cubs? Right. Our first cubs."
"Are you all right?"
"How did you manage to beat Thomas in the challenge?"
"I'm sorry?"
"It has never happened before, ever, in our history. You had to have had help. Did the mist-man come to you? Is it his child you carry? Or are you one of his children? That would explain everything, wouldn't it?"
"Ziva, what are you talking about? Are you feeling all right? Let me take you back to your den."
Reine reached out, taking Ziva's elbow and aiming her toward the pack.
In a quick flash of movement, Ziva pulled a knife out from some pocket of her skirts and managed to cut Reine across her forearm before Reine could react.
Ziva's knife was aimed at Reine's midsection, Ziva thrusting and stabbing the air in front of Reine. Ziva was off balance and bulky from being heavy with child herself, and trying to plunge the knife into Reine's stomach.
With a loud growl Reine shifted into her wolf form and threw herself at Ziva, knocking her down into the bushes, pinning her there with her wounded forepaw, and growling and snapping her jaws just millimeters from Ziva's face.
Her brother's pregnant mate or not, no one was allowed to treat Reine that way. If Ziva had been a wolf, Reine would have torn her throat to shreds, and no one, not even her brother, would have said anything about it.
But Ziva was human, and pregnant, and brand new to this pack. She'd also recently lost everyone she'd ever known, and was surging with hormones.
Reine decided she would spare Ziva's life, this time, but wanted to teach her a lesson so that Ziva learned exactly how her new pack's Alpha would be treated.
Reine shifted her weight, intending to claw Ziva and leave a scar she would carry with her forever as a reminder of Reine's generosity in letting her live.
As Re
ine moved to mark Ziva, something shifted deep down behind Ziva's eyes.
Reine thought she saw insanity there. Fear, rage and more than a touch of desperation rolled off of Ziva, filling Reine's snout with the sour stench of it a second before Ziva started to speak.
"Kill me, Reine. Kill me and this cub, or I will kill you! One way or another, only one of us can stay here. You would be doing me a favor, really."
Touching Ziva as she spoke so fiercely made Reine's 'sight' kick in.
Two possible outcomes flashed, as usual, through Reine's vision.
In the first, Reine saw Ziva coming after her again, scar notwithstanding. But this time, Ziva would go after her by attacking Emma instead. Emma was a young cub in Reine's vision, so young that she was no match for Ziva. Ziva killed Emma, in flashes so grotesque that even as just a possible future, it made Reine sick to watch.
She saw the pack not being entirely sure it was Ziva who did it, even though her scent was on Emma's body, because Ziva swore she was trying to protect Emma, not hurt her. But Reine knew differently. Reine saw herself going after Ziva then, ripping her throat out right in front of the entire pack in a murderous fit of grief and anger.
She saw doubt in Thomas's eyes at Ziva's guilt, and a wedge being driven between brother and sister. She saw Thomas fading to nothing, grieving his mate, and some of her pack doubting her actions as an emotional, protective new mother, tearing her pack apart from the inside.
The second possible outcome followed quickly on the heels of the first. She saw herself leaving this pack, with Henry and her unborn cub. She saw Emma being raised human, and even noticed that all of her visions down this road included Henry and Emma, but not herself. She wasn't shown when, or how, she'd die, but she didn't see herself in her cub's future.
But she did see Thomas being a good Alpha after she left, her pack staying intact even if angry, confused and unforgiving of her for leaving. She saw Ziva pulling herself somewhat together, once she'd left, and Emma eventually returning here, to find happiness and peace as an adult wolf with a family of her own.
