“Of course you can! You’re Auntie Ashley, after all.”
“Oh my God! I can’t believe I’m an aunt.” She squealed as quietly as she could as she took hold of Willow and breathed in her fresh baby scent. “She’s so wonderful, Jess. I can’t wait to hold my own baby. It’s going to be so amazing. How bad was it? Was it horribly painful? Or was the pain really just hyped up by a bunch of moms who didn’t want to see their babies get knocked up too young?” Ashley was rambling, something she only did when she was nervous, and had a secret she was hiding.
“Ashley? Do you have something you want to tell me?”
“Okay, fine. How do you always manage to pull things out of me? Your super power is interrogation, I swear it.” I cocked an eyebrow at Ashley in amusement, because I hadn’t even tried to get the secret out of her yet. “When Asi asks, though, I am going to tell him you beat it out of me.”
“Fair enough,” I agreed as I laughed at her. She stalled for a few more minutes while cooing to my darling daughter. Willow already had Auntie Ashley wrapped around her little finger, it seemed. “I’m still waiting,” I whispered to her.
“I’m going to have one too…” she commented absently.
“Have one what?”
“A baby. We’re pregnant again.” I really took a hard look at Ashley then, and saw that her skin was aglow with happiness, and maybe some pregnancy hormones too. I also noticed that she was looking a lot puffier than usual. Her cheeks had filled out, her large boobs were way bigger than normal, and I could already see a baby bump. She had miscarried her last pregnancy, and even then she hadn’t been this far along. It was clear I had been missing a lot where my friend was concerned, and it made me feel tremendously guilty.
“Wait,” I yelped, “how long have you known about it?”
“A while, but I didn’t want to tell anyone. I told my mom, but she advised me not to say anything yet, you know, because of before. She had four miscarriages before Jack, you know.”
“I didn’t know.” Sadness swooped in with the mention of Ashley’s brother. This wasn’t the time to get sentimental about Jack though. I had already been a horrible enough friend to Ashley to miss the fact that she was pretty far into another pregnancy. “Your mom thought you might have the same issues, and lose this one too?”
“Apparently, it’s a regular thing with the women in her family. They have all had problems carrying pregnancies at first. She was lucky she went on to have three successful ones, because my Aunt Tricia only had one kid even though she was pregnant six times. It broke her. My mom didn’t want me getting excited about it until I reached the second trimester, just in case.”
“Second trimester? My God, Ashley, how far along are you?”
“Sixteen weeks,” Ashley shrugged and offered up a sheepish grin.
“Sixteen weeks? Ashley, that’s four months! You went four months without telling anyone?” I couldn’t believe it, because Ashley was not one for keeping a secret, at least not her own secrets. “I’m such a horrible friend.”
“Aww, come on Jess, you know I can keep a secret. I never told a soul about the whole werewolf thing. Of course, I didn’t really think anyone would believe me anyway. Besides, Asi knew, and my mom knew. So, I had someone to talk to.”
I was a little hurt, because as her best friend, I should have been someone she could talk to. Ashley must have seen the look on my face, because she quickly added. “I didn’t want you worrying about me possibly losing another baby when you were so close to having your own, plus, you have a whole world of trouble on your shoulders already.”
“I get it, Ash. I do.” I smiled, and grabbed hold of the hand she had tucked under Willow’s back. “I’m really happy for you guys!” I reached out and patted the little protruding bump on her abdomen. “I am a horrible friend for not realizing sooner though, seriously!”
“Shut it, and just marvel with me at this precious baby girl you made. She is perfect.” Ashley cooed down at Willow, talking to both of us at the same time. “She’s going to be a stunner, Jess. You better hope I’m having a boy; so he can watch out for her, maybe beat the other guys off with a stick or something. They’re going to flock to Willow whenever your back is turned!”
“I doubt that very seriously.”
“What? Why? Have you not seen this beautiful girl?” The shocked high pitch squeal of her voice was hilarious and started to laugh at her.
Finally, I pulled myself together, and explained, “of course I have, but I also know her daddy. Any boy would be a fool to even think about trying to date her, let alone break her heart, or mate her.” We both laughed at that. I wondered what Mikael would do if our daughter ever came home marked the way his brother, Evan, had marked me when we first met. It was probably best not to bring that up with him though.
~*~
Two nights later, under the full moon, I was parading Willow through the pack lands, on our way to her Life Celebration Ceremony. The lake had become our pack’s go-to place for life and death celebrations since Jack’s sending off. It offered us a full circle, under the moon, with all the elements of nature present. As we approached the rest of the pack was waiting in a semi-circle that started and ended on the pack’s side of the lake. With the moon reflecting their presence, it appeared as though there was a full circle. A young woman with chocolate brown locks stood waiting for us just beyond the circle. As we joined her, it was obvious she was still recovering from her ordeal, but I refused to have this ceremony without her. After all, we were celebrating the fact that she was still with us as much as we were celebrating the birth of my daughter.
“Tamara, will you join us this evening in celebrating life-both newly given and newly appreciated?” I asked her as I approached.
“I would be honored.” Her response was no more than a raspy whisper as her throat was still healing from the trauma the vampires had inflicted upon her. It was unreal how much she looked like me. We were the same height, our hair about the same length, and nearly an identical color under the moonlight. The difference being that where I had bright green eyes, hers were a bright blue reminiscent of the waters of the Aegean Sea. Willow was cradled in my left arm, and I held my right out for Tamara to guide her through the circle with us. As we approached, Mikael split apart from the rest, allowing us to enter beyond the barrier the semi-circle of our pack had made. We walked to the center, at the lake’s edge, and turned to face our pack-mates.
“This night, we celebrate the lives of two very important members. Willow Ash St. Marks De’Lune was born to this pack two nights ago.”
“We welcome you, Willow Ash St. Marks De’Lune.” The pack intoned as one voice rising into the night sky.
“That same night, we welcomed Tamara Anne Simms back into our pack after she was nearly lost to us. We are thankful that she was returned to our pack and granted a second chance at life.”
“We welcome you, Tamara Anne Simms.” The pack intoned as I finished.
“We welcome you both, and together we are one.”
“One pack.” The pack voiced in unison, and then all those who could shift did so, howling their acceptance of our newest pack member, and the newly returned, as one spirit under the moon. Tamara took off in her wolf form, a great gray beast, to run with the rest of the pack. I stood firm, in my place as a mother, watching over my baby as the pack took off into the forest surrounding the lake. I felt their energy and excitement ebb and flow through the trees as they went, and I was exhilarated as if I was with them too. That was what it meant to be linked as a pack in spirit. I had never known, because I had been sheltered from that part of pack life growing up. I understood why my parents had done it, but I was thankful that Willow would always know what pack life truly felt like as she grew.
Warm, strong arms encircled me as I stood there by the side of the lake with the others who were pregnant and couldn’t shift, or looking after those too young to join in the run. “How are my beautiful girls doing?” The spicy-man scent of
my mate clung to me as he pulled us closer to him. His warmth seemed to seep right through my clothing and into my soul. It was an amazing feeling having my family together this way, with the pack energy all around us, and the illusion of safety in numbers.
“We’re doing just fine, now.” I turned so that Willow was nestled between Mikael’s body and mine. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into him, so that we all fit snuggly as one family unit and then he kissed me, underneath the moon as we celebrated the life of our daughter.
“I woke up this morning, and once again I thought maybe it was all a dream, yet here we are.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I never thought to see the day…” his voice trailed off wistfully as the telltale glimmer of tears sprung up, misting his emerald laden eyes.
“Here we are. Your family. Your pack. Why don’t you go run with them?” I, myself, looked out longingly at the forest. The wolf in me wanted to join the fun, and run and play with the others, something we’d missed out on for too many years. The other part of me was content to stay right where I was though. Wrapped in the security of my mate’s arms while holding my own daughter was a joy all its own.
“I don’t need to run, Jess. Everything I ever wanted is right here.”
How could I argue with that? Those very words stomped down my antsy little wolf’s feelings, and make her take notice of the truly important things in life. We were happy, for once, and it was time to soak some of that in and enjoy it before life crept in again and ruined everything.
“I didn’t get a chance to talk to Tamara before the ceremony the other day. Can someone fill me in on what happened to her?” I asked as I sat down at the kitchen table with my coffee, seeking the answer from my parents or Mikael, all of whom deemed it necessary to crowd my space before I got to take my first sip of the magical anti-cranky brew. They all shared a quick look that immediately put me more on edge. Apparently, they were trying to decide if they should hide something from me. “Well?”
“There were three vamps.” It was Mikael who spoke up, finally. “They attacked, but weren’t going to use her as food. She claimed they were talking about getting her to ‘the site.’” He tossed up air quotes around the words as he spoke. “They were arguing among themselves about whether she was the one, and how someone else wouldn’t be happy if another was drained and it didn’t work.”
“If what didn’t work?”
“I suppose, that’s the question at hand.” My father added dryly. “Unfortunately, the information Tamara gave us just ended with more questions than answers. The plus side is that we know the girls are all being taken to a specific place to be drained.”
“That doesn’t help unless we know where they’re being taken.” I added.
“No, but it does tell us we need to find one central location that has seen a lot of blood in the past few months.”
A sick feeling bubbled up in my stomach then at the thought of the number of girls who had gone missing from both our pack and the pack run by Avery Daniels. “Has anyone spoken to Avery lately? Are they still having problems over there?”
“He’ll be coming by in a few days to give an in-person update. He was trying to give you a little time to be a new mom before he came piling his problems on top of the ones we have here already.”
“Well, I may be a mom now, but I still have a duty to my people. Tell him sooner rather than later is good. We need to end this before any more women are brutalized for this sick bastard’s end game.” I tossed my hands in the air helplessly. “Whoever the hell the sick bastard actually is.” Then I looked up at everyone who was sitting around the table. “Maybe it’s just me, but this seems odd. I just can’t imagine the dark ones rallying together like this for one specific cause. They don’t usually like to be together in big groups do they?”
“Jess…” Mikael started worriedly.
“I can handle it. I have to. Being the white wolf doesn’t stop just because you have a baby. It’s a calling, and one that needs to be answered. It’s a calling that Willow may one day inherit for herself. I’d rather do my job to the fullest now, and make it easier on her in the future, if that’s possible.” Mikael didn’t answer; he just threw his hands up in surrender. “So, was I completely off base with the dark ones?” I asked, looking to my dad for answers.
“No, you aren’t. It’s an angle we’re looking into, actually.”
“Along with others.” Mikael huffed out.
“Speaking of other angles, how the hell did she get away? And why was Tamara attacked, her throat ripped into, if they were supposedly saving her for some special place?”
“Maybe now isn’t the time for this, Jessie girl.” My father hadn’t called me Jessie-girl in an age. Not since before I came home marked with Evan’s scent almost two years ago now.
My parents got up to leave then. “Seriously, I don’t get those answers? What’s going on?”
“Bring the baby by later, I have some things I pulled down out of the attic that you might want.” My mom called out to me as before they shut the door. They seriously just acted like I hadn’t asked some pretty important questions. I remembered the look they all shared when I first sat down to join them, and I turned to Mikael then. “My parents might be burying their heads in the sand on this, but I’ll be damned if I am going to let you do it too, Mikael.” I put Willow down in her basinet so that I could help clean up the mess from their breakfast while I waited for an answer. As I took the dishes from the table to the sink I caught Mikael staring after me, worry-lines wrinkling his handsome face in spots. “What? Seriously, we promised remember?”
“Hmm?” He answered absentmindedly.
“What’s going on in that head of yours to cause these,” I had walked over to him and caressed the slight frown lines appearing on his forehead. “What on this earth could be so bad that you think you suddenly have to hide it from me?”
“I don’t know Jess. I just worry about you. Actually, seeing you and Tamara standing next to each other in the moonlight at the ceremony made me wonder a few things.”
“What things?”
“I wondered, just like you did, who is really behind these attacks, because it doesn’t just seem like a bunch of dark ones out to break free and come out of the closet to humanity. If that were their game, they’d play it better. I am beginning to question who exactly is being targeted with all these attacks though. It’s clear that they are looking for a specific woman, and it was almost uncanny seeing the two of you standing there side-by-side last night. I keep hoping that one day I will wake up, and for once you won’t have a giant target pasted to you, but I think it’s an impossible dream at this point. The moment you came out as the white wolf sort of killed that possibility.”
“Tamara looked a lot like me. You guys think that they’re looking for me, don’t you? I never realized before. I mean I knew they were mostly taking dark haired girls, but there are a lot more dark haired girls in these parts than light. I never thought that I might be the target.”
“No? How could you not? You’ve been kidnapped and attacked how many times now? Hell, some of it by my own family’s hands.” He shook his head then, and sunk further down into the chair. “I worry for you, Jess. Now, I worry for Willow too. She’s not like you. Everyone will know who she is, and what she has the potential to become…” Mikael looked up at me then, green eyes glowing with concern. “How the hell do we let her grow up normal, and protect her at the same time?”
“Honestly?” I smiled down at him, and cupped his face in between my hands, feeling the rough stubble on his cheeks. “We do the same thing any other parents do. We watch, we prepare her, we raise her the way we want, and do the best we can with what we’ve got. Fortunately for Willow, we happen to have a lot of resources and a lot of eyes around to look out for her.” I leaned down and kissed his forehead. “She’ll be just fine. Just look at the amazing genes she carries. There’s you… and there’s me… she’s made of nothing but awesome!”
Laughter at the door made me look up in time to see Evan standing there with Natalia. “Your mom let us in on the way out, but I didn’t want to interrupt.” Evan apologized.
“No worries,” I said as I stepped back from Mikael then. “Can I get you guys a drink or something?”
“When did you get back?” Mikael asked as he gathered himself, stood, and turned to face his brother.
“We got in late last night, figured we’d wait until a decent hour to come meet my niece.” Evan walked over and hugged his brother then, “Congrats, my brother. I know you’ve waited for this day for a long time.” Mikael gave a gruff, noncommittal noise in response, which triggered laughter from Evan. “Aww, what’s the matter, having a daughter not all it’s cracked up to be? Already worried about the boys who will be beating the door down?”
“Don’t even start on that subject.” Mikael launched a playful punch at his brother’s chest. “Besides, as her Uncle, it’s your job to help scare them off before they even think of getting to the door.”
“Boys!” Natalia rolled her eyes as she walked over to me. “Heaven help your daughter. She’ll never be allowed to date with them around.” I loved hearing Natalia speak, her thick accent, and the roll of her tongue always reminded me of a couple of my white wolf ancestors. In that way, talking to Natalia always felt like home. Both Evan and Mikael’s accents were much more muted. Apparently, when Antoine was alive, he made them practice for hours a day to sound as though they were American. He had been planning on sending his boys to rule the roost over here long before they discovered I was alive and coming into my power.
It still took a little getting used to that Evan now had a mate of his own now. I didn’t think of him in any romantic way anymore, but it was still odd seeing him so at ease with another soul. Those two were truly meant for one another.
“Yeah, well, where there’s a pretty girl, boys will always find a way. Isn’t that right?” I looked up at Evan whose cheeks turned red at the reminder of how he had marked me when we first met.
The Ancients Series Page 68
