• "Mom, tell me the story please." My little girl begged, her deep yellow eyes staring up at me eagerly in the twilight darkness of her room.
    "You heard it last week." I laughed, stroking her hair.
    "Please." She hugged me, awkward as it was with her lying down and me sitting at her shoulder. Then her gaze became solemn, like I had never seen it before. "And this time, tell me the whole thing." For a moment I looked at my daughter, gently running my fingers through her rough, thick hair. She was almost twelve now, and although my mind screamed that she was still too young, my heart knew it was time.
    "Alright Pup, I'll tell you the story."

    I never did understand how the whole fiasco began; the exact story was never told. I understand about why they evacuated the city of course, some idiot blew up a full city block and threatened more. Apparently they believed it because they evacuated an entire metropolitan area into two small suburbs, a feat that still boggles the mind.
    I guess the lack of space and disorganization contributed to how I ended up in the situation I did. I had fought and pleaded to be put in a room with your father and the rest of the pack, but I was still human so they wouldn't let me. The irony of that still stings. And so I ended up in a two bed hotel room with five other people, a man and four women. The whole time I was there I had a suspicion that the man had not been placed there. All I had with me were the clothes on my back, the couple clean shirts and changes of socks I'd thrown in a bag plus a couple books and my notebooks. Other than the odds and ends in my purse, none of which were of any use to anyone, I had nothing.
    "Here you go ma'am." The blue uniformed officer pointed down the hall to a door marked 273. "We'll have to request that you stay in the room and don't wander around under any circumstances. Someone will be around to drop off food later." All I could do is nod and walk towards the door, I couldn't protest anymore, I was protested out. No one knew anything, and no one was willing to listen. I knocked and waited for the lock to turn.
    A sharp eyed brunette answered the door. She looked me over and sniffed. Not a disapproving sniff or any thing like that, a querying sniff; the sniff of an animal when it’s around something or someone new. My unease started then. As soon as I saw her and knew what she was I should have turned and got a new room assignment no matter how many superiors I had to go through. But I was too tired, and too frustrated to think straight or even be upset.
    "Human." She said, I raised an eyebrow in a 'so, what?' gesture.
    "Pack." Was all I replied. She shrugged and stepped back to let me in. My dismay grew more when I saw the rest of the room. A man, the Alpha by his posture and the disgusting way the other three pack females hung on him, lay on the bed. I took a seat in one of the desk chairs by the window and gave them an even look. Not hostile, not friendly, and certainly not challenging. No matter what my co-workers said about me at the time, I was not a fur-groupie, tail chaser, moonie,whatever the name of the day was.
    "I'm Luckas." The Alpha on the bed said, shifting a little when one of the females rubbed over his crotch and he brushed her away with a hard cuff. "And you're-" I answered with my name before he could finish that statement. I knew it wouldn't be a term I wanted to hear from his lips.
    "Pleasure." The brunette who opened the door nodded at me, I nodded back without breaking eye contact with Luckas.
    "Are you frightened?" He asked coldly, gently petting the blonde to his left (the one he didn't hit) as she gazed at him adoringly. I rolled my eyes inwardly, how naive they were to think that this was how they should act. They were certainly a new pack by the look of them, still fluid and loose not tight and aware like the older ones, the girls were barely a half year turned maximum, the boy probably just shy of a year. The pack was about as old as the girls.
    "No. I'm not." I leaned back in the chair, relaxing without breaking our eye contact.
    "Why not." there was no inquiry in his tone at all, but it was a question nonetheless.
    "Because, I'm not. Should I be?" I managed a bemused look and still didn't look away, eye contact was a game I had mastered early on in the game, that and body language are the two most important tools when dealing with a pack of any kind: Human or Were.
    "Well, we are a pack, most are afraid of a pack when it’s all together." He motioned for the brunette on the wall to bring him a drink. I shrugged at his comment.
    "You haven't been a pack long, and you act more like a vampire court than a pack." My posture stayed relaxed, forcibly, when he stiffened in irritation.
    "Oh? And I supposed you, human, know how a pack should act?" He sneered and rolled his eyes, unknowingly bowing to me by being the first to look away. He sickened me, a typical packless turning, he had a pointless scorn for humans that led to the stereotype a decent pack was forced to fight against their whole lives.
    "I do." The staring now broken I took out a book from my bag.
    "You a moonie or something?" One of the blondes on the bed asked, stretching languidly like a cat rather than the wolf I could tell she was.
    "No, I'm a PR officer between the local packs and the hospital." I opened to my bookmark and stared reading. Around me the "pack" moved and conversed. It irked me that I had been put in here with an unregistered, rogue pack, because the administration thought it was too dangerous to put me in with your father and the pack. I knew that your father and the other leaders would not be happy to hear of a pack roaming their territory without their knowing.
    Around 5 o'clock another knock on the door announced the arrival of our dinner, and breakfast and lunch for the following day.
    "MRE's" I held one up between two fingers and gave it a nasty stare. "Joy."
    "Not so bad." the blonde who had been cuffed earlier put forward. "Not as bad a raw kill." She made a face of true repulsion and looked nervously at Luckas, asleep on the bed.
    "Please, how often do you really have to eat that?" I tore the bag open and examined the contents. From the labels on the package I learned that I would never be able to look a cheeseburger the same way. "Raw kills are only on ritual holidays, those are only once ever 26 months or so."
    He makes us hunt once a month, though at the beginning it was a couple times a month." She shuddered and read the instructions on how to heat her meal.
    "Well why do you run with him then?" I set the main dish aside and opened the crackers to start.
    "You can't change packs once you’re sworn in!" She protested, looked appalled that I even suggested it.
    "Oh sure you can, it’s done all the time. Job transfers, marriages, sick relatives..." I looked surprised at her reaction, and then the meaning sunk in. He told them they couldn't leave so he could keep them no matter what.
    "No. You can't." she got sullen and dug into her food. I let it go, I certainly wasn't going to pick a fight with an unstable, young alpha when I had no real means of escape and my protection from the pack meant nothing here. I ate my fill of the packaged, god knows how old military rations, and sealed the rest up for later. Snagging a blanket from the closet I curled up in a chair and tried to get some sleep.
    I awoke to a low growl that seemed to come from all around at once. It was dark and I felt very alone. For the first time I started to feel afraid. I didn't dare move, didn't dare try to make it out the door. The only thing I could do was sit still and hope the growl was due to a dream.
    "I know you’re awake." Luckas voice cut through me like ice, it was harsh and growly, I could hear his inner wolf pawing near the surface. "I can smell your fear." I didn't answer.
    "Just give in." A female whispered in my ear. "It's easier that way."
    "You don't want to do this." I hissed into the dark to keep the fear from my voice solely because I knew he would like to hear it.
    "Oh but I do, a strong willed human will be a delicious conquest. If I like you, I might even turn you so you can join my pack." I felt him moving near me in the dark and struggled to swallow my panic.
    "You really don't, not me."
    "Oh so you're begging now, keep it up, I like that." A hand slid over my knee and I tensed.
    "I’m engaged to a local pack lieutenant, I'm carrying his pup." The hand drew away sharply and a snarl ripped through the blackness of the room. You know sweetie, no pack member will dare touch another members mate, especially when she's carrying his pup, that can earn you death rather than simple exile.
    "You lie." He growled.
    "I don’t." I whispered back, not trusting my voice to get any louder.
    "You're human!" His outrage was clear in his voice, and the disgust that any pack member would intentionally impregnate a human.
    "I am." There was silence for a long time.
    "I will still have you, but not while that abomination is in you." And then he must have signaled the others because they fell on me with a howl and dragged me out of my chair.
    "NO!" I fought, oh I fought, but it was all in vain. I blocked and kicked and lashed out, I drew a couple yelps from the bodies around me and I felt rough fur and the panic rose when I knew one of them was changed. I fought even harder to keep her from biting.
    Then, a gift I will never be able to repay was given to me. The brunette female who had let me into the room turned on her fellows and drove them off of me for the split second I needed to do what I had to. I ran. Out the door and down the hall, half blinded by tears and fear I ran into someone and smelled wolf on them. Mindlessly I fought against them in panic as my arms were pinned to my sides by strong arms. Slowly I became aware of a familiar voice whispering in my ear and the words and knowledge they brought calmed me.
    "Shhh my pet, shh. It's okay, I have you now. You're safe."

    "Daddy!" My daughter squealed and I smiled, always she interrupted at this point.
    "Yes, Daddy." I shushed her and continued.


    I allowed myself to collapse in his arms as the tears fell freely for a moment, then I pulled back and saw the anger in his gaze. I knew what he wanted to know.
    "Two seven three." I told him, and with a kiss he passed me to a pack mate who I was close to, Marie, and he took off down the hall flanked by two of his closest warriors.
    "Did they bite you?" Marie asked as she led me, limping, back to where the pack was staying, her glare driving off any who dared approach.
    "I'm not sure, but I'm afraid they might have." I was bleeding from several places, a few deep cuts from nails and there was a distinct ache in my leg which I knew deep down was a bite. By the time Marie got me bandaged and changed, your father was back.

    I paused here, to collect my thoughts and to remember. The little girl cuddled into my leg waited patiently, idly stroking her soft hand on my knee. Outside the door I could hear the clicking of two pack mates playing air hockey, laughter and talking. The smell of homemade pizza permeated the den. I felt calm and safe, reminded once again that I was safe and home, I began again.

    Your father took me aside before he let me go to sleep, he held me as I talked through my feelings. I talked my way through the shock, the fear, the anger, the sorrow that packs like that even got formed. Last and longest, I talked and sobbed my way through the fear that I was going to lose you. As I began to calm, daddy told me about what happened when he went into the room. He had taken Luckas down in a few seconds, he never told me what he said to him but I know that neither Luckas nor any of his blonde pack members were ever seen again. I never asked about that conversation either, I never will. However the girl that had stood up for me, allowed me to escape, she had returned to join our pack. Her name was Lisa.

    "Aunt Lisa!" A new interruption this time, I had never named the one who had been my savior.
    "Yes, Aunt Lisa was the one who saved me." I smiled and nodded, playing with the silver streaked hair that lay across the pillow.
    "That’s why she's my godmother..." The musing look turned to realization as the whole situation made sense.
    "Yes, that's why, now hush and let me finish." I shushed her with a finger over her lips

    "During my bandaging it had been found that I was indeed bitten. But that didn't mean I was infected." My story became more interactive at this point.
    "You were though." The tone was solemn; she knew this part of the story because she'd heard it from when she was a newborn pup.
    "Yes, I was. I was tested as soon as the evacuation was lifted and we were allowed to return home. I was crushed when they said I was positive, I knew I was going to lose you." The little body snuggled closer against my leg at his, her wolfish eyes looking up at me, listening.
    "But you didn't lose me, I'm still here."
    "Yes, and that goes to show how special and strong you are Pup. Only one other has ever survived a full term pregnancy immediately after infection."
    "Why is it so hard?" She questioned, wanting to know because she saw pregnant pack members all the time, with a pack our size there were normally one or two at a time.
    "I'll tell you."

    "So what are we going to do?" I asked Daddy, he looked grim. I twisted the band on the chain on my neck. Pack marriages wear rings on the chains so that they don't get lost during the change.
    "Do you want to keep the baby?" He asked me, trying not to influence my choice but I knew he would give anything to keep you.
    "More than anything." I answered vehemently.
    "Then you'll have to control your changes from the very beginning, straight off, every time." He hugged me tight enough to feel the bare bulge of you in my stomach. "It will be hard."
    "I know, but I have to try." I hugged him back and for the first item I could really smell him. Smell his scent of his body, soap, detergent, the lingering scent of exhaust that told me he'd walked down a busy street recently and the lingering hint of his lunch.

    "You mean, people really can't normally smell all that?" The awe was apparent in her face and again, I cursed the law that kept her from going to public school and getting to know human children, all she had to play with and get to know were the were-pups and a few sparse older human teens whose parents had been infected.
    "No sweetie, they can't. Humans can only smell the very strongest scents." She looked contemplative after this and I continued.

    I spent the next couple weeks learning what to expect, how to focus and what I would have to do to change both you and me when the time came. I talked with pack members who had had pups and one who had a litter which she joked was the consequence of mating while changed. It took a lot of concentration and it was very difficult, but I managed to make each change for the full 9 months without hurting you. And you came out as beautiful as you are now, a wolf in spirit and my baby girl all the way.

    "Did a pack mate really have a litter?" She asked as I was tucking her in.
    "They aren't really a true litter, just a natural set of triplets, but in pack terms anything over a single birth is a litter. Those three were really just the cutest things, more puppy than anything even though they were born human. You know the middle boy, Jackle." I smoothed her covers as she looked surprised.
    "Jackle's a litter? I didn't know that."
    "Yes, his older brother Romulus and younger brother Taz were a litter. Jackle was the runt, that's why he plays with you and the other younglings rather than with his older brothers." I handed her the stuffed fox she slept with each night and switched off the light.
    "I always wondered why he played with us puppies rather than with the older ones.” She yawned and snuggled into her blankets.
    "Now that's enough story for tonight." Leaning over her I kissed her forehead and we rubbed cheeks, playfully she nipped my jaw and rubbed against my neck.
    "I love you Mom." She whispered.
    "I love you too Pup." Turning on her night light I closed the door behind me and walked out into the main room of the Den to join the rest of the pack.