Tatum and Henry

POV – Henry

Four Months Later

Every time I close my eyes, she appears in front of me. Standing and looking at me, in army fatigues drenched in blood. In one hand she holds her bow and in the other a knife. The expression on her face says it all. I want to run to her, and in my head, I do, I run to her and lift her into my arms, and she laughs and smiles down at me. But in reality, it never happened like that. In reality the look on her face says it all, and because we’re in the same area, I feel her emotions. Sadness, pain, loss. And I know that it’s my fault. I did that to her.

I didn’t see her after that. Not physically anyway. In my head, yes. But not in real life. After I killed Andre Aubert, we burnt his body. His troops surrendered and we shipped them off to Silverlock Prison, the wolf prison in Capital State, where our King and Queen reside.

There were some smaller uprisings but Kane, my best friend and second in command in this war, organised teams to go in and squash them down.

I sit outside my house at the edge of my pack’s territory and reminisce on the past five years of my life. As Beta it is my job to assist my alpha in pack duties, and from the first time someone reported finding silver traps on pack territory, five years ago, this has been my world.

From that first report- to the ongoing investigation and future reports of silver traps found in other packs, good and bad things have happened to me. I found my mate and then lost her because of the actions of the individuals behind the war.

I think about my daughter. She was a few weeks old the last time I remember seeing her. Now she’s three and because of the war, and the attack on me, I don’t know what she looks like. I don’t know what the colour of her eyes are, or the sound of her voice. I don’t know the sound she makes when she laughs.

They tell me it’s not my fault. I was under a spell. I learned that a powerful blocking spell and love spell had been used to break the mate bond and make me fall in love with the one who placed the spell on me. And it had worked. The spell’s strength fed off my true feelings towards my mate and child. The High Priestess of Silva Ignis coven, the local witches’ coven near our pack land, explained that the blocking spell was only as effective as the mate bond, which she concluded must be strong because I completely forgot who Tatum and Rhiannon were. When she had cleansed my office, she found many icon symbols and bags of love herbs hidden around the room in order to keep the spells potent.

Even though the High Priestess had cleansed my office, I refused to go back in that room and instead we remodelled the space and turned it into a large walk-in reading area with a large archway entrance.

“Hey,” Kane says, sitting down next to me. I heard him ride up on his bike moments earlier but didn’t get up to greet him.

“Hey,” I reply, taking another sip of my drink. Since the war Kane’s been visiting me every day, just to check in on me. I’ve waited years for this whole thing to be over and now that it is, I realise I have nothing left. Alpha Andre and Alpha Bridie took everything from me.

“How are you today?” Kane asks.

“Great,” I reply.

“You can’t keep on moping Henry. It wasn’t your fault, and it’s not good for your wolf,” he says. I know. But it’s hard when all I hear is my wolf howling for our mate and pup, and I have no idea where either of them is.

\\//\\//\\//

Dad’s birthday is today, and he’s celebrating with a family barbecue. After working out in my home-gym in the morning, I shower and change and get ready to ride my motorbike to my parents’ house.

My parents live on pack grounds in the small township called ‘Silver Forest.’ The name of the town is like the name of our pack- ‘Silver Luporum.’ It’s mainly a werewolf town but we do have some human families that live in town as well. It’s hard to exclude humans and other supers from living here if they want to, but we generally try not to sell properties to non-wolves to keep our secret.

I park my bike on the driveway and kick the stand down. I walk up to the front door and try to open it but surprisingly the door is locked. Mum never locks the door, even though I tell her off every time I come over. This is unusual.

I knock on the screen door, listening to the screen rattle as I hit the door. I wonder why the door is locked when I hear small steps walk up to the door on the other side.

“Who is it?” a little girls’ voice asks.

“It’s Henry, who is this?” I ask.

“My name is …” she begins when she is interrupted by another voice.

“Anna don’t ever tell a stranger your name,” the young boy chastises.

“Who is it?” he then asks.

“Henry, can you let me in?” I ask, slightly amused but getting annoyed. I hear footsteps moving away and towards the door. The inner door then opens followed by the screen door.

Her light brown hair is long and straight, and her agate eyes look up at me with a mix of sadness and happiness. She goes to say something, but I react, pushing her against the wall and nuzzling into her neck.

“Mate,” my wolf and I speak at the same time.

My arms wrap round her waist as I breathe her raspberry and vanilla scent in. Slowly she wraps her arms round my neck, and I can’t help but wet her shoulder with my tears.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have, I‘m so sorry,” I beg into her shoulder.

“Please forgive me, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me.”

I hold her, refusing to let go in case I’m dreaming, and she’s not really here. I feel her hand move up to my ear and down my jaw, and I pull away from her neck and look into her beautiful light green eyes with brown ring around her pupil. She’s crying too. I place my forehead on hers, continuing to breathe her in and take in her scent.

“You abandoned us,” she whispers.

“I know. It wasn’t me. I was under a spell. I’m sorry. I’m sorry… if I could take it all back…” I murmur.

“I know. I know. I was told. I’m sorry too,” she smiles weakly.

I press my lips against hers, and move to pull away when she responds, kissing me back. Tilting my head to the side I breathe her in, capturing a sigh as it leaves her mouth. Tentatively I move my tongue into her mouth and meet with hers, pulling my tongue in and out as I kiss her. I feel her move closer into me and our kissing becomes more urgent, more needy. I smell her arousal as I feel mine grow in response. Mine, mate, my wolf and I sing in our head. Sparks fire off as our skin touches and I feel that longing warmth I’ve missed.

She’s here, she’s really here, I have her again, I smile in my head.

“Mummy! Is he eating you!” I hear a scream to my right. We pull away and I look down to see a little girl looking up at us with worry on her face. She looks like a toddler version of my sister. Tatum smiles and moves her hands, so they are now resting back on my chest.

“No baby, he’s not eating me,” she chuckles. I smile as I rest my head against Tatum’s and watch my little girl talk to her mother. She’s beautiful.

“Rhiannon, this is your dad,” Tatum says, picking her up and hoisting her onto her hip. Rhiannon looks at me and then buries her face into Tatum’s neck.

“He looks scary,” I hear her whisper to Tatum.

“He’s not, I promise,” Tatum chuckles as I smile at her.

“Rhiannon, I think grandad wants you,” Tatum then says, letting Rhiannon down. I watch Rhiannon run off outside and turn to Tatum.

“She’s beautiful,” I smile.

“Huh. She looks like you,” Tatum smiles back. I pull her back into a hug, wrapping my arms around her shoulders.

“Please forgive me,” I ask.

“I forgive you. I miss you,” she replies.

“I miss you too,” I say, leaning down and kissing her again.

“Get a room! Actually, don’t. Mum says dinners ready,” Leora calls out. I smile and pull away from Tatum.

“How come you came back?” I ask her as I interlace my fingers with hers.

“Your dad’s birthday. Your parents asked me to come,” she says, looking for my reaction.

“They knew where you were?” I ask. I don’t know how I feel right now. Have they always known where she is? How long have they kept her away from me? Do they blame me too?

“Shh. It’s not what you think. I was Leora’s physiotherapist at Waning Moon when she was hospitalised,” Tatum soothes.

“What?” I state, turning to her. Tatum gives me a weak smile.

“I asked your family not to say anything until I was ready. I’m sorry,” she looks down at her feet as she speaks.

I pull Tatum back into my arms.

“You’re here now,” I state, holding her.

“Yeah,” she says. We stand there for a bit, just holding each other. I don’t ever want to let her go.

“I’m hungry!” a little voice growls. Tatum giggles and I turn to look at Rhiannon who is standing there with her arms folded, glaring at us.

“We’re coming, we’re coming,” Tatum smiles, walking over to Rhiannon and picking her up, walking off with her towards the back yard. At the last moment Tatum turns and looks at me, giving me a wink before continuing to walk away.

I follow Tatum and Rhiannon out into the back garden where my parents have a large outdoor dining area. I scan and see my parents sitting at the table with Rhiannon on dad’s lap, her little arms wrapped around his neck. Mum sits next to dad and Tatum next to her.

I then lock my eyes on Jed, Tatum’s stepbrother. He looks at me and gets up, walking towards me and wrapping his arms round my waist.

“You’re so tall!” I say as I hold him. Jed was six when I saw him last, now he’s nine or ten, and very tall for his age. His once curly black hair is cut short on the sides and a little longer on the top, and besides his height and lankiness, he’s the same boy I remember.

“So are you,” Jed smiles, looking up at me.

“I’ve missed you, how old are you now?” I ask.

“Eleven,” Jed smiles, letting go of me. I look over at Tatum, just to make sure I heard correctly. She nods. Fuck, he’s older than I thought.