“What are you some kind of stolen child adoption agency?”
“If we can save them in time.” Fredrick emphatically believed what he was saying. He took one more look at the woman that he considered his nemesis. It was the first time that he had ever been confronted by the loving family of one of the children that he had liberated from their human parentage. Ursula wasn’t looking at his face, if she had been she would have seen the doubt on his face, the nagging questions as to whether he had made the right decision. The look had disappeared the moment after it appeared and he left her with her son.
Ursula knew that she had to check him and laid him down on the bed next to her. She carefully shifted the blankets one at a time. She checked the child. He looked healthy and happy, but she wondered how long he would stay that way surrounded by people who hated half of what he was. The child had her eyes and he started to shift and squirm as the cool air touched his skin. She quickly recovered the child, hoping that he would go back to sleep and started to think about ways to get her son safely out of this prison that he was being held in.
She checked the door, but it was locked, preventing her from escaping with the innocent little victim that she held in her hands. She moved to the windows, peeking outside, but there was a man outside of them. He wasn’t looking her direction initially, but when he heard the curtains scrape against the glass he turned his angry gaze upon her, letting her know that she wouldn’t be able to slip by him.
Ursula cursed silently and tried to think of a better plan. She knew that it probably wouldn’t work for her to pick the lock, likely there was someone close to the door that would hear her exit the room with the child. She would be prevented from leaving with the boy, and she tried to think while she held the boy to her chest.
The baby sighed, nuzzling into her chest and she pulled her breast out, eager to finally be able to feed her son once again. She had been continuously pumping to keep her supply up, and finally she was able to gain that connection with the boy again. She hoped that he would be able to connect with his mother after being away for so long.
The child had no problem, immediately moving his mouth to suckle at the breast of his mother. Ursula smiled, knowing that it wouldn’t be long until her child was saved from the clutches of madmen that thought that they were protecting him.
CHAPTER 14
She looked at the boy in her arms. He was sleeping now and she couldn’t pull herself away from how wonderfully perfect he looked. She couldn’t imagine herself loving anyone more than she loved this little boy at that moment. She thought of the child’s father, Walter, a strong man with the heart of a bear, a protector, and knew that the man wouldn’t be there to save them from this situation. She started to think. There had to be a way out, but finding it might be difficult.
She studied the child’s face and noticed how much he resembled his father. She smoothed his dark hair and wondered if it would lighten up to her color, at only a few days after his birth she could already see the red highlights becoming more and more prominent in the baby soft strands that he had been born with. It made her heart ache to be forced not to share this moment with the man that had become such an integral part of her life. Reuniting with her son had made a huge difference in her mind, she felt stronger with him there, with the confirmation that the boy was still alive, but still the fact that she had been trapped by him.
She felt devastated by the changes that had hurt her family and taken her child from her world for as long as it had. Vowing to never let go of her son again, she carefully unwrapped the child, pausing when he stirred. She counted his fingers and his toes for what must have been the tenth time and examined the tiny body for any sign of neglect or injury. It appeared that her son had been well cared for, but she would be happier if he was in her home. She sighed and wrapped the boy back up, clutching him to her chest, determined to never let him go. She would protect her son from people that hated half of what he was.
She could understand why Fredrick had done what he had done. If humanity was to find out about what they were, their entire lives would be in great danger. She wasn’t willing to risk an entire society, but she could understand the fear that they held, and even though most members of this new world would never admit to the truth, she frightened them. She was a human, the bogeyman in their world.
Commotion started in another part of the house, her human ears refused to identify the direction of the situation, but she listened as well as she could. She could find no meaning in the mumblings and the slamming of doors, but immediately afterward she noticed that the sounds of children had ceased. The clock told her that the entire circumstance had only taken a few minutes, but from the noise it was easy to see that there was a lot going on. It was odd that everything had suddenly gone silent.
She looked around the room, waiting for someone to come and wrench the child out of her hands, but no one came. She was curious, the house seemed deadly quiet. She wondered whether or not Walter’s crack team had found them, and wondered if she should scream, but decided against it. It was just too risky to draw attention. She hoped that they had forgotten about her, all alone in that little nursery, holding her son.
Escape didn’t exactly seem possible at first, but she knew that she had to try. She had already looked out of the window and had determined that the door remained locked, but she decided that she had to try once again. The baby in her arms was counting on her to save him and she had never felt so needed before this moment. Her son was in her arms, and while he didn’t have a name yet, it didn’t really matter. She needed to save him. It was time to fix the problems that had come to my life, to his young life. I knew that he wasn’t at fault for the problems that had followed him for the short time that he had been alive. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry this is happening to you. Ursula felt the tears start to well up in her eyes. “Stop it, you have to pull yourself together”. She slipped back over to the window and peek outside. She hoped that something was going to happen and that everything was going to change, a miracle was going to appear and pull her and the child out of this situation.
She knew that the team was probably still searching the grounds, desperately trying to find her son before they were discovered and imprisoned or killed. There were too many people loyal to Fredrick and willing to put up with what they were doing. She noticed that the guard wasn’t visible in the window so she looked a little harder into the shadows, searching for the man that had been supposed to be watching her. “Where is he?” She whispered the question to herself and noticed that the boy in her arms was sleeping peacefully.
The window locked from the inside, but it appeared to be painted over. She placed the child onto the bed and forced the paint to crack, making noise that she wasn’t exactly appreciative of. She paused, listening carefully to see if anyone was coming up to her.
She could hear the ticking of the seconds from the clock on the wall, but that was all that she heard. She needed to get out of there. No one was coming so she opened the window, wincing with every creak and crack of the ancient wood that had been painted into the crevices. No one came, it was time to leave. She didn’t know why she had gotten so lucky, why they had dropped their guard with her, but was grateful for the fact that they had done that.
She carefully cradled the infant in her arms and reached for the changing table. Underneath it she found a small bag and carefully packed a few things that she was certain that she would need in order to care for the child while they hid in the woods. There were diapers and wipes, along with a can of formula. She didn’t like having to use it, but after a moment of thought she gathered it, the bottles, and some water up, knowing that in a pinch she could keep her child fed.
Climbing out of a first floor window with a baby in her arms was a different story. It took several tries to get her positioning right, but eventually she had gotten herself softly to the ground. There wasn’t any time to second guess herself at this point and she ran straight toward the woods, her c
hild clutched to her chest.
She panted as she reached the edge of the woods. From there she tried to remember, hoping to be able to find her way off of the lands of the tribe that had stolen her son, but there wasn’t much use. She hadn’t seen the way they had come in, and even if she had, they were leaving a different way.
The boy began to stir and people started to look outside of the house that she had just left so she knew that she had to move again. She slipped deeper into the darkening woods, it was then that she realized exactly how late it was starting to get and how tired she was starting to feel. She knew that tired was not going to get them out of this situation and she began to imagine all of the horrible things that could happen if she was discovered sleeping in the woods. The adrenaline made her move a little faster and she fought to maintain the silence that was necessary to her survival and the safety of her child. She knew that she had to get far away from anyone before the baby woke and started to fuss.
She got into the woods almost a mile before the child began to fuss. She found a small log for a seat and moved to comfort her child, offering him the comfort of her breast. It seemed to work and the child calmed. It didn’t take him long to get his fill and fuss due to the mess in his diaper. She regretted not bringing the changing pad, but knew that it would have slowed her down. She cleaned the ground off as well as she could before laying the small blanket that she had shoved in the blanket down. She changed the diaper then nuzzled the child back to sleep and heading back off into the woods, hoping that she would be able to find a road soon.
The woods felt impassable, an impenetrable wall that held her back from reuniting with the man that had become her mate. She didn’t know when she started to think of him that, but it didn’t matter, she knew that she loved the man that had fathered her child. Part of her wondered if the situation had some effect on the emotions that raged between them. She could almost hear her mother telling her that the danger her child was in had caused her to invent this love that she felt for this man. She didn’t know if that was entirely true, but she knew that the feelings were real and she had felt no resentment for Walter, no feelings of unease or any other red flags that would normally follow this kind of situation. It just felt comfortable, and had almost immediately. She knew that it would take longer to adjust to the society that she was now making her life in, but that didn’t matter. She was happy with her life as it was.
*
He saw her before she had seen him. By the time she realized that the shifter had identified her as the escaped prisoner he was already almost on top of her. She clutched the child and ran through the wood, but the beast was faster than her and not burdened by trying to keep an infant safe.
She hadn’t been in the woods for long when she ran across the road. Grateful she tried to watch for anyone that might see her and take her back to captivity. At least that’s what she hoped would happen if she was captured. The other possibilities gave her an involuntary shudder as the crossed her mind. She watched and it wasn’t until she turned that she saw the creature coming up behind her. It was a wolf and her first thought was how cliché it was, but it didn’t take her long to realize that she had to run. She bolted onto the road and started to run on the flat asphalt, she realized that it wasn’t going to be long until the man in beast form caught up to her.
Still she tried to run, keeping as quiet as possible and hoping not to alert anyone else to the chase. She stumbled and the creature closed on her; he was nearly within reach now as she struck something solid. She moved, trying to get around whatever it was, but she felt the arms wrap around her, shifting her to behind whatever it was.
She panted and looked at the person who had moved her. Her heart skipped when she recognized the man. It was Walter. “He’s chasing me.” She wheezed the words out and swore that she was going to get into better shape as soon as this was all over.
“I know.” The man stood tall watching the wolf that was trying to slip around him. A powerful kick struck out, bringing the creature’s attention fully on the bear that was changing in front of him.
The wolf turned to the gargantuan beast. Walter was a fearsome creature, tall and proud, a black bear hulking over on his hind legs. Powerful claws struck out at the creature, but the wolf was faster. He dodged and shifted, clamping down his jaws on the deep brown fur of Walter’s leg. The animal within him howled in pain and struck out once again at his attacker.
Ursula couldn’t help but wonder if a father bear could be just as dangerous as a mother bear, but that fact quickly became evident. He was human as well, dealing with the pain of the situation by violently striking at the wolf once again. The human moved back, trying to stay out of range of the flailing strikes and snapping teeth.
She held the baby in her arms and understood that everything was going to become easier now. She was protected by the man who had taken her as his mate. She leaned against a tree, sagging slightly from the exhaustion that she was feeling as she watched Walter face off against the wolf.
The wolf was faster and he deftly dodged and ducked from the variety of blows and strikes that were coming his way. Walter forced his way through the air with brute strength leading his blows. It was easy enough to see that Walter hadn’t managed to hit his opponent other than the initial blow.
The wolf, however, was laying multiple bites on his opponent. Walter didn’t slow, instead his rage grew. He hunkered down, this time on all fours, knowing that he was much faster that way. The bear’s teeth glittered and shone with the salvation that was caused by the fight. He bit at the wolf, the canine couldn’t quite dodge and the powerful jaws scraped on his leg. The creature howled and bit at Walter, but missed.
Walter’s momentum grew as the combat continued, and Ursula could do nothing but stare on with wide eyes. She watched Walter bite at his opponent once again, this time landing a clear blow on the creature’s side. She had no idea how the wolf could continue to move, but it was clear that the man that had been chasing her wasn’t going to give up any time soon. He was a zealot and his fascination with Fredrick’s ideals were just as strong as Walter’s love of his family. It was a problem with fanatics. Ursula had seen it with humans, and this, while it could become infinitely more dangerous, was still the same as the way it was in the world that she had been raised in.
The wolf managed to dig his teeth into Walter’s shoulder and managed to lock his jaws on the opponent. The bear reared up onto his back legs and shook his body. The wolf held on, but he was buffeted into a nearby tree as the bear howled in a mixture of rage and pain. There wasn’t much that anyone could do about it. Ursula watched in horror, but she heard something. Someone else was coming to join the combat and whoever it was approached from the side that she was resting on. The baby started to fuss and she started to move, hoping that whoever it was would run into the combat before it saw her and the child that she cradled in her arms.
She didn’t make it in time, she saw Fredrick come up to her side as she was trying to put the bear between her and the kidnapper. “Go away!” She was panting while she shouted.
“Give me the child. I will keep him safe.”
“No, you stole my baby.” She wasn’t going to just give in to his demands. She clutched the child tighter and he started to move in her arms, fighting against her grip. It didn’t affect her at all, she knew that she had to protect the child that required her care.
“I protected the child and I will continue to do so.” Fredrick’s face looked like it carried a lot of reason, but she wasn’t willing to give the child away. “I want to protect him, you can’t protect him like I can.” The weasel smiled at her, hoping that he would make her see the truth.
“I will protect him, he is my child. You can’t take him.” She stood up to the man, knowing that she had to try to distract the man while the bear moved the combat into the position he liked. She could hear the ripping of flesh behind her and the howls of pain would haunt her ears for many years after this entire situation w
as solved.
“I can take him. Do you really think that you can stop me? I’ve got allies in the very tribe that you live with. They will help me.”
“No.” She was starting to sound more absolute. “I don’t care how many allies you have. You aren’t going to take my child away from me. He’s my son and you could never love him like I do.”
“You don’t really know that. Already you know that you won’t be able to relate to the boy as he grows. He’s going to quickly become faster, stronger, and smarter than you. It won’t be long until you live with the fear that your own child could kill you and there would be nothing that you could do about it.” Fredrick seemed to still be trying to make her understand. He was pleading with her to understand his resistance to the change in the status quo, his inability to see the evil that existed in his soul.
She clutched the child tighter and looked down at her son’s face. In that moment, she looked at the child’s eyes and knew that she held a child that was capable of great things, that could change the world and bring kindness to people’s hearts if he was just given a chance. She could see him grow into a young man that would make mistakes as all young men were did, but he would face his mistakes. In that moment she saw the future that her son was capable of bringing and wondered if her vision would come true or if she was just a victim of wishful thinking. She looked up to the man that was trying to take her son. He was approaching her and she knew that she had to do something. She reached down by her feet, plucking a stone off of the ground and holding it, ready to throw or strike with her makeshift weapon. “Back off, don’t make me hurt you.”
The weasel laughed at her. He obviously had found this entire situation quite amusing. “Do you really think that you could stop me with a rock?” He looked into her eyes and saw the fear that resided in them. “Don’t you remember the last time you tried to fight with me? Don’t you remember the scratches that are still on your face?” He brought back the initial kidnapping, when they had taken him from the parking lot.
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