Tatum and Henry

EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER

The mark Henry gave me is a constant reminder of the mate bond. It hasn’t faded over time, which I’ve been told is surprising, because we’ve been apart so long that it should have. I think it’s still there because I still love him, although I’m not in love with him. I think about him a lot. Every day, in fact. I’ve been told it gets easier, but it hasn’t. I think the bond is the reason for that.

I haven’t been with anyone else since Henry, and I know he hasn’t either. I don’t know what happened with her, the other woman, I’m not privy to information about pack politics, which doesn’t bother me. I want to forget what he did. But it still haunts me.

Alpha Quade found his mate, a young she-wolf called Stella, and they recently had their first child. Vas and Adrian had another baby, or should I say, babies- they now have fraternal twins, six-month old Eleni and Eros, a girl, and a boy. Eleni is also a white wolf, so now there are two.

“Tate,” my friend Bianca asks me. I turn and look at her.

“Thinking of him?” she asks. I smile. I’m often lost in my thoughts, thinking about Henry. I can’t help it. Bianca is a she-wolf as well, and like me, she came to Sefton to escape. But unlike me, it was to get away from her family. She is originally from Tower City pack, but she moved to Sefton to go to university, and is studying Applied Sciences, like me.

“Yeah,” I say, “I miss him,” I sigh. Like everyone else, she knows my story, just not who he is or the pack he’s from.

“Alpha Quade linked us, he wants a pack meeting at five tonight, and all have to attend,” she then says. I look at her. Bianca transferred to the pack to attend university, and as a wolf, she can get pack links. But the last time Alpha Quade announced a meeting that the whole pack had to attend was to introduce his mate and our Luna, Stella.

“You want to come with me?” I ask her. She nods.

“Okay, I’ll pick you up at four-thirty,” I say. Bianca thanks me and heads for her car. I calculate in my head the things I need to do before I pick her up. I have to pick up Rhiannon from the university creche and then Jed from after-school care, and I’ll have enough time to make them a sandwich before we have to go to the pack. I’ll have to take both with me, but it’s doable.

I park on the side of the road leading up to the pack building. There is already so many cars and I see some people doing the same thing as me. I also know that some people have already arrived and gone to the pack hall for dinner beforehand, but I’m not the Beta anymore, and I’ve used all my card privileges this month, so I have to pay for the food. My family are happy to eat sandwiches for dinner anyway.

“Hi Tatum, hi Jed, Bianca” some of the other members greet as we walk up. Jed and I say hello back and follow the crowd towards a large hall.

Waning Moon has over a thousand members, and it looks like most of us are here already. There are several rows of chairs set up in the hall, with a large section near the stage free for the smaller children to play at the front.

I walk up to the front section and look for a spot on the floor to sit on. Already the first and second rows is seated with families and prams, so I scan the hall and see three spaces free six rows down. Apologising and excusing ourselves, Bianca, Jed and I side-step to the seats, and we sit, Rhiannon on Jed’s lap and her baby bag is down at my feet. People give me annoyed looks, because my baby bag is big (It is full of nappies and baby products, as well as wipes and three changes of clothes, having a baby is messy), but I don’t care.

There is a soft chatter as people talk, wondering why we’ve all been called to this meeting. Rhiannon is restless and starts playing a game where she crawls onto my lap and back to Jed’s, and when I try to hold her down, she gets all disgruntled.

“Mamma can I pway pwease?” she asks. I look at her and then I look at Jed. I’m about to ask Jed to bring her back to the front when Beta Connor comes to the microphone and asks for quiet.

Beta Connor stands there, and I note the five chairs behind him. Alpha Quade and Luna Stella sit together, leaving a chair, and Gamma Felix and Delta Eamon sit on the other side.

“Thank you, Waning Moon, for coming to this meeting with such short notice. We don’t often ask for meetings with the whole pack, and this one has some very concerning news,” Beta Connor begins.

“Four years ago, Silva Luporum pack reported finding silver traps on their territory. Since then, fifteen packs, mostly in the south and east of our country, have found silver traps, resulting in many injuries and even fatalities.”

I scan the crowd and note that this is not unknown news to the pack-members around me.

“The packs that were attacked were packs near fairy, vampire, and witch settlements, and packs that have hybrids within their packs. It was concluded by those investigating these attacks, that this was an attack against mixed wolf races,” Beta Connor continues.

Some of the woman and older people around me gasp.

“But doesn’t every pack have a hybrid or two?” someone calls out.

“Down south, yes,” someone behind me mutters.

“Two years ago, Beta Henrik of Silva Luporum arrested the culprits, Alpha Andre Aubert of Phenora Pack, his beta Jack Rogers, and Alpha Andre’s mother Patricia Aubert, who is a witch. But unfortunately Alpha Andre escaped,” Beta Connor says, looking up at audience.

People around me begin to speak, condemning Alpha Andre and his mother.

“Quiet down,” Beta Connor orders. No one listens, “quiet down,” he orders again, putting his beta power behind the order. The pack quietens down and Beta Connor waits before he speaks again.

“Beta Henrik also arrested the group who set the traps, Alpha Bridie Crawford and her mate, Luno Paul Crawford. They both currently reside in Silverlock Prison,” Beta Connor states. I squeeze Jed’s hand and turn to the person next to me.

“What is Silverlock Prison?” I ask her.

“It’s the Royal prison in Capital State, it’s heavily guarded,” she whispers back to me. I nod.

“Has she escaped?” someone calls out.

“Do they have proof?” another one calls out.

“How did they know?” comes another voice.

I watch Jed’s face for his reaction.

“I’m okay,” Jed says, he knows who Alpha Bridie is to him, and what they both did to us.

“Quiet!” Alpha Quade roars, coming up to the microphone. I watch as Beta Connor sits down on his chair, and Alpha Quade takes over.

“Silva Luporum is one of our allied packs, and yesterday, Beta Henrik called a meeting with the Alphas. Little Rock, Midnight Crest and Rivermoon packs were attacked by Alpha Andre and his army,” Alpha Quade states. The hall goes quiet. I feel tears form in my eyes. Little Rock pack is close to Silva Luporum and everyone I love and hold dear.

“Silva Luporum sent their army to fight, but unfortunately, only a few wolves from these packs survived,” Alpha Quade then states. The room is still quiet, and no one speaks. I look at Jed.

“Whether we want to be or not, we are at war,” Alpha Quade states. The room goes silent.

“Those of you who do not want to fight, or cannot fight, will be protected, but anyone who can fight, who want to fight, can,” he continues.

“What about schools?” someone calls out.

“Those of you in university will be pulled out. It’s too dangerous. High school and primary will continue as normal, but if you’re in your senior year and you want to fight, you can as well,” he continues.

A barrage of questions is fired at Alpha Quade. He answers as best he can, Genesis pack and Iunae Lumen pack are joining the war, as are the water fairies and witches from Portersmouth. Anyone who wants to join the fight needed to sign up in the training rooms with Beta Connor and Commander Eamon over the next few days.

I sigh as I listen to the conversations going on around me. I need to call Sam and Lucinda, the witch couple who supported me and Jed when our parents died. They live on the outskirts of Little Rock, even though their diner was in the Little Vallis province, and from what I can understand, from memory of the silver trap cases, the packs targeted were those with links to other supernatural’s, witches, vampires and fairies.

I drive home from the pack and put Rhiannon in her little bed.

“Are you going to call Sam?” Jed asks. I nod. I haven’t contacted Sam or Lucinda since I left Little Vallis.

“And then are you going to call Henry?” Jed asks. I look at him, and then at my fingers. We haven’t really spoken about Henry, but Jed knows that I miss him.

“No,” I say.

I sit on the couch and tap in Sam’s home number.

“Hello?” Sam greets as he answers the phone.

“Sam, it’s me, Tatum,” I say.

*~~*

I’ve dropped Jed off at school and driven back to the packhouse to drop Rhiannon off at their day-care centre.

“Tate!” I hear someone yell for me, “Tatum!” I turn round and see my friend Bianca and another girl who looked similar to her come up to me.

“Hi,” I greet when they stop before me.

“Hi, Tatum, this is my sister, Crystal,” she introduces. I smile at Crystal. Bianca is shorter than me, at five-foot-five, with long wavy black hair and big brown eyes. Her sister is slightly taller with a slimmer build, but with the same big brown eyes and long eyelashes.

“Hi,” Crystal greets.

“Are you signing up to fight?” Bianca asks.

“Sure am,” I reply. Any way to get back at that bitch who changed my life.

“Really? Bianca says you have a baby,” Crystal comments.

“I do, I’m fighting for her and for my brother,” I reply. Crystal nods and doesn’t say anything.

We walk down to the target room which is crowded with wolves. There are two lines in front of desks, and I see Beta Connor sitting at one and Commander Eamon sitting at the other. The three of us join one of the lines and we chat as we slowly move up it.

“Tatum!” Liam calls out as he walks past me.

“You signing up?” he asks.

“Yup,” I agree, smiling as I notice his friends Jude and Dylan walking with him. They all nod respectfully at me.

There’s a commotion at the door, a mother wolf is yelling at her teenage sons who have joined the lines a few spots behind us.

“You should all be ashamed,” the mother then says, looking at us, “this is not our war. We shouldn’t participate in this. We haven’t been attacked or targeted!” she cries out.

People murmur at her response. She then looks at me.

“You!” she states, pointing at me, “you shouldn’t participate in this either, this is a war for wolves, not humans!” she yells.

“She’s part of this pack, she can do what she wants!” I hear Jude yell back at her.

“See, this is why we shouldn’t fight, if others like her join in the war. They’ll destroy our chances of winning; you’ll all probably die!” someone yells out.

I shake my head. The room is still full, but I see some people take notice and stop what they’re doing to listen in on her argument.

“Yeah!” another, older wolf calls out.

“This is ridiculous, we should go,” I hear some wolves from the other line begin.

“Please sons,” she says, now that she has some support, turning towards her teenage sons who remain in their line.

“Look,” she says, walking over to me. She shifts her hand only and tries to scratch me across my arm with her claws, but before she can I’ve grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back.

“Just because I’m human, doesn’t mean I’m weak,” I state, letting her go and watching her stumble as she tries to regain her balance.

“Hey!” an older wolf says, trying to confront me.

“She attacked her first, she had her claws out!” Bianca cries, trying to defend me. I can see this getting out of hand really quickly. I look over at Beta Connor and Commander Eamon, for support, but they’re too far away to help.

“That is not an excu…” the same wolf continues, shoving his way forward into the crowd.