Gamma No More - Book 3

Toni looks over the table at Leah and Samuel. A heavily pregnant Leah is almost ready to welcome her pup into the world, but is refusing to drop any of her duties.

“Well, the pups are very healthy and ahead of their milestones, so this is me, signing off on their twelve-month checks. I’ll miss seeing their progress.”

She looks at Theo and Thea playing gently on the floor beside them as Toni smiles

“I doubt it, Leah. You will have your little one to distract you soon, and I hope our pups will grow up as friends.”

Leah glances down, rubbing her extended stomach before yawning.

“How did you keep going when you were heavily pregnant with two and building up this pack?”

“Stubbornness, sprinkled with a little bit of obstinance and a refusal to admit I was just one wolf… and a lot of unhealthy foods and evenings spent regretting those choices… but mornings always seemed to be easier and the cycle began again!”

Toni chuckles at the memory

“A bit like you, Samuel, could have done the checks. You could take it easy and used purely as a sounding board if he had issues…

Plus, I have an excellent grasp of field medicine, even if it’s rough and ready and can assist as a backup!”

Leah just groans, but Toni looks at Samuel before she can reply.

“How are you doing, Samuel?

I haven’t given you as much time as I have with your sister and Diane.”

“It’s all good Alpha. My trauma was purely physical, but I think focussing on medic training here, rather than with Alpha Dimitri, helped me as it was a familiar environment.

I’d still like to train with them once Leah returns to work, but being close to the pack and to my family helped me a lot.”

Toni nodded. She’d understood his request to delay the temporary transfer, but he’d been more than diligent in his training with Leah.

“As long as you are doing it for yourself and not because anyone expects you to, then I’m okay with whatever you choose to do.” Toni smiles at him.

“You went through a lot, so anything we can do to help you out, we will.”

Samuel fidgets under Toni’s gaze. Dropping his head, he started talking quietly, shame infusing his words.

“I’d like to add some training with the warriors if I can.

Feeling weak and unable to protect my sister; felt devastating. I was supposed to be the adult, and I failed her.

You were fighting rogues and stuff at the same age; I feel like I failed as a wolf and as her brother.”

Toni moves to sit in front of her desk, getting closer to Samuel.

“You are the epitome of strength and courage, Samuel; you realised they outnumbered you, and that fighting them would end badly and importantly, that your sister would need your strength.

Without your support, she told me she wouldn’t have been able to stay strong; you were her inspiration.

You kept her belief in the pack, saving you both. That takes a lot of inner strength, so never, ever, believe you are not a strong and capable wolf.

And you know now, I’m a Lycan, so I am the very last person you should compare yourself to.

I am the definition of abnormal.”

Toni smiles as she finishes the last line.

“But if it helps you to learn more fighting techniques, I’ll get one Delta working with you on a one-to-one basis.

If you feel you still want to train more once you have learnt the basics, then you can join the main warrior training.”

Toni sees a spark in Samuel’s eyes that has been missing for a while as he thanks her.

As they get up to leave, Leah turns to Toni

“Take your own advice, Toni. Do something because you want to, not because you feel you should.”

She looks towards the pups knowingly.

Later that night, she safely strapped the pups into the car seats of two different cars for the long journey to Calindora. She knew Leah meant well, but she was making this journey because she wanted to, as well as believing it was the right thing to do.

They were travelling through vampire territory and that fact had left Toni feeling a little uneasy. She had, after all, been ignoring Leif’s calls, but this was part of the Delta’s ‘non-negotiable’ plan, so she had agreed.

As they entered, a Thrall escort who would follow them through their territory and would also follow them back had been waiting, in case of any more border issues with the Royal Pack.

Between them and the excessive number of warriors that Karl insisted she took, they made their way to a house owned by Alpha Dimitri’s pack; it had taken them most of the night, in a five car convoy, each wolf driving for four hours before swapping drivers, ensuring everyone rested.

Delta Brendan had set the guards at various points around the house, Katie had travelled with them and had taken the pups, leaving Toni alone inside the house, but with sixteen warriors and one Delta scattered around the two houses, and Katie next door with Theo and Thea, she was far from alone and that didn’t include Alpha Dimitri’s wolves.

‘Targets approaching Alpha’

Toni thanks Delta Brendan and stands wary at the reception she will get.

Outside the house, Alpha Dimitri is standing, arms folded, looking at his guest.

“Beta

If you walk through the door to that house, as I said before, then I will ratify our trade agreement. How long you stay is up to you, but I guarantee no harm will come to you.

Your pack mates are being entertained in a bar the pack owns. They are safe, and I can take you there immediately after you finish here, with or without the agreement signed.

The only question remaining is, how much do you want the trade agreement?” Alpha Dimitri has a bored tone to his voice as if this wasn’t the first time he had made this statement.

“You better not be trying to cross us. ”

Toni could hear the drop in tone. Suspicion and threat blended in the Beta’s voice.

“Trust me, this is something you need to do, alone.

You aren’t as bright as I thought, if you think I’m stupid enough to risk the Freedom pack by breaking Neutral zone rules or crossing your Pack.

You came for a trade treaty, so you have a protected status within our pack, as do the others.

But there will be no signature on the trade agreements until you have at least entered that house. How long you stay there, as I’ve said before, is your choice.” Alpha Dimitri sounds slightly frustrated at the suggestion he was untrustworthy.

As the main door opens, she steps to one side, forcing him to come into the house fully to see her. He’s looking around warily until his eyes land on her, and a silence fills the room.

“Beta Andrew, it’s been a while. ”

He stands staring at her for a while as if not believing what he’s seeing; he was aware she wasn’t dead after the broadcast months ago, but he’d never expected to come face to face with her again.

“Antonia, what are you doing here?” His eyes haven’t left her.

“I thought it would be good to talk. A lot happened, and here, in the neutral zone, we are both somewhat protected.

Shall we sit?”

She moves and takes a seat in one armchair. Externally, she’s far calmer than she expected to be.

“You know there is still a warrant out for you. The King hasn’t yet decided your fate.

Technically, we are all bound to report on your whereabouts.”

Andy sounds like he’s just repeating words by rote rather than believing them, still fixed in the spot he’s stopped in when he first saw her.

“Well, you are free to leave and phone in my whereabouts. If that’s what you choose, no one will stop or harm you.

Any agreements you may have worked out with Alpha Dimitri will be honoured, but I will leave the moment you walk out that door and I won’t try to contact you again.

Not even Alpha Dimitri will be able to give information on my whereabouts, since he doesn’t know where I stay.”

Ironically, that was true. Dimitri chose to remain ignorant of where they were, leaving the information with Cage giving him reasonable deniability.

“So how do you get an Alpha in your debt?” Andrew raises an eyebrow at her.

Toni laughs

“I didn’t, but I helped someone, who helped someone who… well, you get the picture, right?

It’s how the Neutral zone works, a circle of debts and favours, the circles can get very large and none of the others are wolves, so they won’t meet any investigators who try to track me down!”

The truth is, she had technically gone direct to Alpha Dimitri once he had admitted the Iron Claw pack may want a trade agreement at the meeting, but for the sake of appearances, they would claim it had gone via witches, Raine agreeing since Toni had been looking for their witch, or attempting to at least.

Andy walks over and sits heavily in the other armchair, rubbing his face with his hands.

“You live in the Neutral zone?”

Toni just shrugs before answered

“I would respectfully choose not to answer that. As you mentioned, there’s a warrant hanging over my head.

Tell me, Beta Andrew, do you want to head out and hand me in? Tell someone my current whereabouts?” She asks, motioning to the door.

“No.” He looks down at the ground for a while

“And please, it’s just Andy. Andrew is so formal and wrong, given our past.

But I’ve wronged you enough already. I won’t do that again, but you should know I found my second chance mate nine months ago at the mating ball.

I didn’t want to go, but the Alpha’s mate was close to her due date, so I was the pack escort for the rest of the single wolves.” He finally blurts out.

“I know, and you have a two-month-old son. Congratulations,”

He looks at her, concerned.

“I’m not here to hurt or threaten you, or anyone else, nor to try to win you back.

I sealed our fate months ago when I rejected you. I just did my research before I called in my favour.

What’s done cannot be undone in the eyes of the Goddess; at least as far as I am concerned,

But I’m glad to see you have moved on, found happiness.”

Her words filled with sincerity, as soon as she saw Andy again, she realised she felt nothing, no attraction, no pain, just memories of a shared history, she had decided the day before, if he was her Erasthai, she would still have feelings for him.

“There are two things we need to talk about, something I should have done sooner, but it was difficult to find the way to do it safely.”

His admission about wronging her had been enough to make up her mind. She got up and walked into the back room, where Katie had brought the pups at her request, before walking back slowly, carrying them.

“Let me introduce you to Theodore Andrew and Althea Emma Woodfield, twelve months old, affectionately known as Theo and Thea.”

She sits down balancing a pup on each knee, seeing the stunned look on Andy’s face

“How…” he starts

“The usual way, you have a pup. You know how it works.

But these pups are feisty fighters.”

Toni smiles at her pups, her face softening as she looks at them.

“Everything that happened, well they hung on in and even went to full term, the whole six months carrying them, and trust me, at the end, I prayed daily for them to make an early appearance.”

She laughed to herself lightly

“But you deserved to know about them, and they you.”

Andy takes in a deep breath

“May I?” He holds his hands out slightly, hands trembling, eyes fixed on the twins.

She lifts them and carries them over to him, talking as she passes them to him.

“This is your Daddy; he wants to play.

I’ll just be over there; she points to the corner where she’d placed a book”

“Ball.” Theo said.

“Ed Ed” Thea points to the box on the floor.

Toni just nods

“They want you to play with them. Thea is after her Teddy. Ed Ed is her words for it currently. Are you good?”

“Yes, thank you,”

He nods, carrying them to the box of toys, his eyes glistening with tears.