Mates of a Human

Epilogue. Part Two. Michael

"Have you packed everything?" I asked Eric, who was scratching his head and looking over the list once more.

"Let me see," Eric mused. "Fifteen baby grows, fifteen baby vests, thirty bibs...are you sure we want this many bibs?"

"You're right, we should probably pack more," I said and he laughed as he continued to rattle off the items in Alex's hospital luggage. He was due to go in for his Caesarean section today and the babies would be removed from him tomorrow, having reached thirty five weeks. The doctors wanted to remove them now due to the strain on Alex's body. As supernaturals (for our genes tend to be dominant) the babies should be strong enough to cope outside of their mother now. However, all four would remain in hospital for a couple of weeks at least to ensure they recovered. Not only were the babies due to be born premature, Alex was a rare male carrier and they wished to keep an eye on him having not dealt with a Male pregnancy before.

"Milk will be donated right?" Eric asked. The private hospital used donated milk to help strengthen premature babies as well as their mothers milk wherever possible. Not only were we unsure if Alex could produce milk, there were three babies to think about.

"Yes... did you pack the nappies?" I asked him.

"Yeah, two packs to start with," Eric shrugged. "We can bring in more if they are needed." I agreed and carefully folded up sets of large pyjama's with drawstring pants for Alex to wear while in the hospital.

So much had happened in the seven months since I was released from the hospital. In the end, the doctors kicked me out after another two days. Doctors do not make good patients and I was particularly unpleasant to nurse. Even more so when a junior doctor took a fancy to me and tried to flirt beneath the noses of my mates. She had fled my room in tears. Seriously, woman, you work in a hospital to treat patients not to pick up men!

Alpha Rider was arrested for harbouring a criminal, namely Gamma June, but he was released with a suspended sentence, which wasn't all that long anyway. Gamma June's court case is still pending as was Nadine's. She was charged on attempted murder, but Eric's mother admitted quietly that her lawyers were attempting to get the charge reduced to assault with intent. Either way, she was still in prison as prosecutors had claimed she was dangerous.

Her 'perfume' had turned out to be a scent mask, which was why no one could make out her actual scent. It turned out that her grandmother had been a chemist, working with perfumes and had formulated the mask. Once it wore away, there were subtle hints that she was turning rogue, just like her father, who wore an odourless version of the mask. Being a rogue is not a crime, but they were considered dangerous and closely watched. Rider's minor criminal activity meant the courts could order him to seek rehabilitation, but what happens from there is anyone's guess. In hindsight, I felt as if I should have been able to piece the puzzles together; both father and daughter were too human, suppressing their inner beasts and causing the imbalance in their nature.

My father's case was higher profile. It appeared in the papers and quickly became the most talked about think for a week (humans are so easily distracted). Although we were kept out of it, to protect Alex and the little ones, journalists attempted to access both the pack lands (which they were thrown out of just as quickly) and my less guarded abode. We pretty much abandoned work that week in order to safe guard the house and Alex, who hid within nurturing the babies after he left work. The journalists were quick to realise that they would be idiots to challenge a tiger and a large wolf, but it didn't stop the calls. We expected it to all blow up again once his sentence was heard in a few weeks. We would be moving down to Alex's parents with the babies at that point.

Journalists lost interest in his case due to an interesting scoop amongst their own; the private hospital that had a pilot scheme to deal with public patients had come under scrutiny due to haphazard spending and the hiring of unqualified doctors. The owner of the hospital had to pay a huge fine and lost most of his private patients as a result of the bad publicity. A large number of doctors and nurses left. Clover retired as soon as she hit sixty five. I still worked there, but I was currently exploring other avenues. Knowing I was sought for my body rather than my skills still hurt and I wanted to start somewhere fresh. But that could wait while I had my family to think about.