The Lone Wolf

Chapter 20: Katniss

I walk across the balcony with Johanna Mason. I'm more comfortable with her than before, but I don't trust her quite yet. She's to much like me. We don't mix very well.

"So tell me," I say as I stand with her looking over the valley I've started to call home. "How did you end up following the ways of the Huntress?"

"At first, I really did believe in the cause Artemis set forth. Part of me still does. But she makes you swear off the company of men. She even frowns upon friendships. Which is why when I met Blight one day after fighting a pack of hellhounds, we always met under the cover of darkness after my sisters had fallen asleep. It started out as a friendship later became something more. And just like our friendship, that too was kept a secret. And that is when the trouble started."

"What kind of trouble?" I ask but we are interrupted by Delly.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you and Ms. Mason, Luna Katniss, but we've having some trouble getting the little one to sleep," she says and I notice her holding the small lavender bundle that is my daughter.

"That's fine," I say. "I can take her." I gently lift into my arms and dismiss Delly before turning back to Johanna. "You were saying?"

"You're a mother?" she asks.

"Yes," I say. "For about a week now."

"To a girl?" she asks.

"It surprised us too," I say. "But yes, this is Peeta and my daughter Rain."

"She's lovely Katniss," she says.

"Thank you," I reply. "You were saying."

"I got pregnant," she says. "Artemis has a temper, especially when she finds out about something like that. But she's fair. She stripped me of my rank and immortality and cast me aside like a used toy. Blight is the one that truly got her wrath."

"What did she do to him?" I ask.

"She turned him into a deer and sent his own dogs after him. That's what she does to the men that lead her hunters astray," she says.

"That's terrible," I say.

"Not really," she says. "He knew the risks. We both did. He was willing to risk his life to be with me. But its not like he died at her hand. He was given all the gifts a deer possesses. For all I know, he's still alive in the woods somewhere. There was never any evidence of his death. Artemis just takes away their threat to her hunters."

"So you aren't angry at her?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"Artemis told us the rules. Blight and I broke them. They were just punishments," she says. "Snow however will feel my axe wedged in his brain for what he did to me."

"What did he do?" I ask.

"Nine months after my exile, I gave birth to a son, alone in the woods. I named him Marcus. He was all I cared about. Nothing lit up my life brighter. I had him for about two months before we came in contact with that disgusting piece of scum," she hisses when she speaks of Snow. "Him and ten others came down on us and attacked me. I was too busy killing his minions that I didn't see him snatch up my son. When the others lay dead and I saw him standing there, Marcus' blood staining that mangy white muzzle of his, my sons lifeless body beneath him, something inside me snapped. He ran away and I cradled my son to my chest and cried."

"Johanna, I'm so sorry," I say but she just brushes it off.

"I prayed to Artemis after I buried him, telling her how sorry I was for crossing her and how terrible I had been under her gentle light. And she came to me. She led me back to the hunters, to my sisters under her rule. She accepted me as an asset, to come and go as I please. I am no longer a hunter because I lost my innocence. But she does allow me to come with them sometimes. And when I heard of the war brewing between the packs and Snow's Capitol, I knew I owed it to my son to fight on your behalf. To finally send that monster to Tartarus."

"I'm afraid my story is not much different," I say but she holds up her hand.

"There's no need to being up your past. I know it already. Your stepmother told me before she parished," she says.

"You killed her?" I ask horrified.

"No, Snow's men, the same ones that killed your father and sister, gave her fatal wounds," she says. "I found her and helped her pass peacefully to the other side."

"Thank you," I say and Rain starts crying. I gently start bouncing her and swaying my body back and forth. "Shhh, It's okay."

"Can I hold her?" Johanna asks. I look at her for a moment before laying Rain in her arms. Johanna smiles at her. then looks up at me. "I've never held a baby werewolf before."

"She's no different than any other baby at first," I say. "She won't even show her real strength or go through her first shift until she's at least twelve."

"But she is special," Johanna says. "The daughter of two Alpha heirs, one the daughter of the Moon Goddess, Selene."

"I found out about her just before Peeta was captured," I say. "She was born a whole month earlier than most yet she was fully mature. She's my pride and joy. If something happened to her, I don't know what Peeta and I would do."

"Well she is a perfect little pup, aren't you little one?" Johanna says and Rain starts wailing louder again. "I think she wants her Mommy."

"Yeah," I say taking her back. "She'll sleep once I get her upstairs and sing to her for a little while. Come with me. I'll show you to your room."

"Mother, Luna, Hostess," Johanna says. "Is there any thing to can't do?"

"Cook," I say. "I leave that to Peeta." She starts laughing.

"I think I could learn to like you Wolf," she says as we walk inside.

"I think I can say the same for you Hunter."