“No freaking way!”
Tyler wasn’t sure who spoke, and he couldn’t care either, he was just as surprised as the grownups. Actually, shocked was a much better word to describe how he felt.
“That was weird.” Tyler commented in a dazed voice.
“Alex?” Rudi’s voice sounded panicked.
Alex, being the wise man he is, said the one thing he could think of. “Tyler?”
“I don’t know daddy.” After a short hesitation he blinked his eyes rapidly as he tried to concentrate. “It’s just … when I touched her hand and looked at her, it’s almost like I could see tomorrow, you know?”
“I think so.”
“Good,” Tyler said in relief, “because I am not sure I understand.” He smiled down at Mandy as he spoke. She was crinkling her face and getting ready to bawl. “Shh.” He said as he very, very gently smoothed the frown on her face. Immediately her frown disappeared.
“May I have some juice please?” Tyler asked when he registered how anxious Dinah was to feed Mandy. He also knew that she did not fancy having an audience while doing so. With one last look at Mandy he walked out the door to the kitchen.
Alex and Barry followed him out and a short while later Rudi came into the kitchen as well. Barry congratulated him again and gave him a few instructions. Most of them being about letting Dinah get as much rest as she could. He yawned as he waved goodbye on his way out.
“And now,” Rudi asked taking a deep breath, “what do we do?”
Father and son glanced at each other, and then Alex relied with a slight smile. “We don’t do anything.”
Rudi frowned at them. “I am serious here, what do we do?”
Tyler looked at Rudi with a ‘duh’ look on his face but did not say anything. He left that for his dad.
‘Nothing.” Alex said shrugging. “Nothing is going to happen right now, so we don’t have to do anything.”
“Oh,” Rudi said feeling rather sheepish. “Of course.” He took a loud gulp of juice, downing the entire glass in one go; wiping his mouth with the back of his hand when he was done. His feet tapping on the kitchen tiled floors nervously.
“What is bothering you Rudi?” Alex asked when he had emptied his glass.
“What is going to happen, later?”
Rudi still looked rather dazed and Alex took it as a good sign. Not that he liked Rudi being stumped, but rather that he did not laugh off Tyler’s claim that Mandy was his mate. Right now, Rudi was only being a concerned father and he could not find any fault in that. Hell, if it were his daughter, he would most likely be thinking of all the ways he could castrate the poor boy. No father would like ‘loosing’ his daughter right after she had been born.
“When, later?” Alex asked to be sure he was on the same page as Rudi.
Rudi scrambled around looking for words. “You know …” he cleared his throat and swallowed down the lump in his throat. “When he shifts. If he is anything like you and your brothers, he will shift when he is fourteen, fifteen? Mandy will only be seven or eight then!”
Alex had to fight hard to keep his lips from twitching. If Rudi was only bothered about then, he should not have any problem reassuring his beta. “That will not be an issue at all. If you remembered what happened when Conrad met Grace?”
He waited until Rudi nodded his head, the tenseness in his shoulders relaxing.
“I remember, she had not gone into season yet, so even though he knew she was his mate, his wolf did not demand to complete the mating process.”
Clasping his friend’s shoulder Alex stood up to leave. “That’s right. Even though we are generally over enthusiastic where our mates are concerned; if they are not fully adult, nothing at all will happen.”
They all walked to the door and when they stood outside, Alex shook Rudi’s hand, again congratulating him on the birth of his and Dina’s daughter. Rudi also accepted Tyler’s hand when he held it out towards him.
“She is really a sweet baby.” The young boy said.
“Thank you Tyler.” Shaking the little hand he wondered whether he should say anything about them being mates. “At least I will have someone to help me look out for her now.”
Tyler frowned at him. “I would have looked out for her anyway like I do for the others. But I will look out for her extra hard, don’t you worry.”
Rudi almost choked. Why did that sound more like a friendly threat? He soon found out.
Later that day Rudi frowned in frustration. Dinah was sleeping; at least she was if this racket hadn’t woken her up yet. This was not the first time he was giving one of his new babies a bath darn it. It should not be this hard! Obviously Mandy had other ideas. He let out a long and hard breath through pursed lips, almost sounding like a horse in the process. And even that did not make little girl quiet up. She had started of with a gentle sobbing that soon turned pretty ugly; and he had only managed to wash her hair so far!
He gritted his teeth and decided to finish the job and get it over with. Once she was dry and dressed he could try to get her to calm down again. Or else he would have to wake Dinah and he really thought that she could do with some more sleep.
This delivery was the worst Dinah had gone through, and to be honest, he was starting to think that it should be the last. There was a seven year difference between the youngest and oldest; perhaps they should leave it at that. And with four children, he felt that they had made their contribution for posterity.
A loud splash and a wave of soapy water, that hit him in the face as she kicked, brought him out of his day dreaming. A small hand pushed him lightly to the side as it reached out to hold Mandy under her neck and head as he lowered her almost completely under the warm water.
Rudi stepped to the side after letting go of the baby girl that was calming down. ‘Traitor’ he thought at her as he watched Tyler use his free hand to send small waves of water to lap softly under her chin. The boy was cooing softly as he calmed her down. When she was lying quietly he used his free hand to press the dispenser down to get some of the liquid baby soap on his hand. He started at her hand that was lying on top of her tummy. He soaped her hand and arm, making sure to clean all the creases new babies have. When he soaped her under her neck he tickled her gently and she gurgled in surprise. To both Tyler and Rudi’s amusement they discovered she was ticklish between her toes when he washed her scrunched up feet.
Rudi knew that Tyler had a lot of experience helping Cassy take care of her younger children. But when Mandy was practically clean except for a few ‘delicate’ places, he started squirming and his hands itched to grab his daughter away from Tyler.
Tyler rolled his eyes. He could feel the way Rudi was working himself up. It sounded like a distant avalanche that was rolling closer and closer. Were all parents like this?
“Here, you do the rest while I get her something to wear.” Tyler held her so that Rudi could just slip his hands in under his.
With practice that came from a lot of experience while dealing with his own baby sister, Tyler selected the clothes that would be most suitable for her. He also lay out the baby powder and cream for Rudi. When he heard Rudi’s oldest twin daughters bickering with Wade, he went out to intervene; leaving Rudi to finish bathing his daughter.
Tyler took Carmen and Shelly with him to help carry the dinner Cassy had prepared for them. Dinah was definitely in no condition to do anything and Rudi, bless his heart; although he could manage, it never turned out very edible. When they got back, Tyler made the girls set the table as he went to find Wade.
Dinah was still sleeping so Tyler took Mandy from Rudi so that he could have dinner with his kids; and while they were eating, he sat in a chair with them.
After dinner Wade shyly brought his dad the ‘welcome’ picture he had drawn for Mandy and Rudi made a big fuss out of it, saying that he would get a nice frame in town when they went in again so that it would always stay pretty.
When Dinah woke up she came to join her family in the kitchen. Tyler gave Mandy back to Rudi as he heated the plate they had put in the microwave for Dinah. With Dinah busy eating her dinner, the kids just about done, Tyler asked Rudi if he wanted help in getting Wade bathed and ready for bed.
“Thanks Tyler, but I think that Dina will be feeding Mandy when she is done eating. That will give me some time to help him. The girls should be able to take care of themselves for one night.”
“Sure, no problem.” Tyler said and headed for the door as he no longer had any excuse to stay longer.
Rudi walked with him to the door, Mandy still in his arms. “Tyler.” He winced when Tyler looked at him those knowing eyes and cleared his throat. “You really have a way with her. Thanks for giving a hand.”
Tyler flashed a smile at him. “I have had a lot of practice you know. I helped mommy a lot with Sean and Ellie.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind. Goodnight Tyler.”
“Goodnight Rudi.”
For the next two weeks or so Rudi and Dinah had a hard time with Mandy, especially during the night. Their baby girl would start crying for no apparent reason, and then later, after they had tried everything they could think of, she would stop. Just like that. And they could never say what had stopped her crying. Then one night Rudi found out why she would stop crying like that.
He was on ‘duty’ for any emergency and had received a call that a new scent had been picked up by the pair running patrol along the southern border. He left by the back door after grabbing a quick glass of milk and had to go past his bedroom window to get together with another pair of wolves who would be taking over the patrol so that the other pair could follow the scent to see if they could find anything.
As he turned around the corner he could see a strange bundle lying under his window. Stepping up he took a closer look, then shook the bundle awake. He had to shake more than once.
“Tyler, what are you doing here?”
A sleepy Tyler rubber his eyes. “Can’t sleep.”
Rudi swallowed a chuckle. “You were fast asleep just now.”
“Because she stopped crying. I can’t sleep when she cries like that, so I come here. It helps her and I get to sleep a bit.”
Rudi shook his head. “Does your father even know you are here?”
Tyler did not answer.
“He doesn’t, does he?” Rudi spoke without expecting a reply. With a sigh he picked Tyler up and carried him back into his house. He put the boy down on a couch in the lounge and covered him with a blanket one of his kids forgot there; tucking him in. “We will talk about this tomorrow, OK?”
He got no response from Tyler and he looked down expecting to see that the boy had fallen asleep. What he saw made him worried. Tyler had a strange look on his face and suddenly the boy did not look that young anymore.
“Tyler?”
“You have to stop them. She is scared.”
“Who? Tyler, who is scared?” Rudi asked as he frowned.
“The she wolf the two are chasing down. Rudi, you have to get them to come back. Rather send females after her.”
“Can you hear her?” He asked Tyler while he told the guys to back off. “How far ahead is she from the men?”
“Not far. She is very scared and very tired. I think if you send females after her she will stop running.”
Briefly Rudi gave instructions for two females to catch up with the men and take their place. The males would then follow the two females if they needed assistance. Suddenly he got a bright idea. “Can you send her calming thoughts, the way you do for Mandy?”
Tyler did not even bother frowning at Rudi. “I have to be close for that to work. That is why I come here at night.”
Surprised that he would feel disappointed, Rudi nodded in understanding. “Oh, OK. I can see that now. Do you think that she would need to see you if we can get her to back here?”
“No.” Tyler said as he snuggled down into the blanket. “You can see her when she comes and then my dad will see her tomorrow.” He yawned and closed his eyes. “If the females can convince her to come back with them you won’t need me. Just make sure to give her something to eat. She doesn’t like hunting.”
Leaving the boy to sleep Rudi went off to make arrangements for the female they were pursuing. If she came back, she was going to need food, clothes and a place to sleep.
“And that is what he told you?” Alex listened as his beta gave him a report of what had happened the previous evening. There were still some pieces of the story he could not put together yet but he would make sure he got the details for that later. For now they had more important matters to consider. And he had better get Cassy involved with this. Their unannounced visitor would most likely feel more comfortable if there were a female present when the alpha interviewed her.
“Thanks Rudi. Go get some sleep now if you can. We can get together later this afternoon and I can fill you in on what the story is. Perhaps you can also tell me then what you have not told me now.”
Much later that afternoon Alex and Rudi were in his office discussing the future of the female shifter that had given everybody a nasty scare.
“That must be terrible. Not knowing that you are a shifter and then just changing suddenly. We managed to get hold of her mother to let her know that her daughter was safe. And to find out whom her father is because according to her, her mother is human. Her mother told Cassy that she had fallen pregnant after a night of heavy clubbing; so the father is no longer in the picture. And by the way, Cassy gave her your and Dinah’s numbers as well, so if the mother calls, we are a shelter for animals and we found her taking care of one of our stray animals. That is why she is working for us now, OK?”
“Yeah,” Rudi said as he sat back into the comfortable chair. “What I don’t understand, is why did she run away from her home in the first place?”
Alex rubbed through his hair and thought that he would have to ask Cassy to cut it for him soon; it was really getting too long now. “If you ask me it was normal teenager behavior, for a shifter at least. And her mother did not understand because she didn’t know any better. They were having very bad arguments and she nearly shifted in front of her mother. So she decided to leave home. That did not work out for her so well, she has been on her own for almost a year now and she was getting tired of always being on the run and decided that she would try to meet with the next pack she came across.”
“It must have been hard on her to find out about being a shifter like that.”
“Yeah, the way she explained it, it sounded like she was on her way to having herself committed because she thought she was going crazy.”
“That would be easy to understand.” Rudi shook his head in sympathy. “I might have thought exactly the same thing.”
They were both quiet after that. Alex knew that Rudi had something on his chest that he needed to talk about and was Rudi not quite sure how to bring up the fact that Tyler was sleeping outside his bedroom window.
Eventually Rudi cleared his throat and took the plunge. “Do you know where your son was last night?”
Stunned shock flashed on Alex’s face before he smiled crookedly at Rudi. “I thought we had a few years before we had this conversation.”
Rudi snorted. “It’s not funny. That boy was sleeping beneath my bedroom window. Claims that Mandy keeps him awake when she is restless.”
The two fathers sat and discussed the matter for a while, and although they did a lot of talking, they did not reach any conclusion. As long as Tyler was on the pack grounds Alex was not too concerned about where Tyler was and Rudi had decided that Tyler could sleep over at their place for a while to see if it would help with Mandy. Alex just hoped that they did not have a repeat of the Ricky incident or that the kids would grow so attached that they were inseparable.
Their worrying was without cause. After almost five days Mandy started sleeping through if she had a feeding late at night so Tyler moved back to his own home after the second night of uninterrupted sleep.
Time flew by and before her parents knew what had hit them, it was time for their little baby girl to start school. Rudi and Dinah had discussed home schooling her but they thought she might get lonely if she were kept at home. And although Rudi knew that Tyler would never hurt Mandy, he was still a father and he worried about his little girl. He tried very hard not to hold anything against Tyler but sometimes he was unable to keep the apprehension at bay. Mandy turned out to be quite a little miss sunshine. She always had a ready smile and a friendly word to say and everybody was captivated by her, Tyler especially.
Tyler, on the other hand became a broody young boy. He was about ten years old when he started noticing that the adults acted strangely around him. And even though he knew that they were uncertain about him, it made him became more withdrawn when he was not with his family and he started keeping to himself. Unfortunately it only made matters worse and the kids his age started avoiding him altogether. Which in turn ment that he started spending more time with Mandy because she was the only one who never seemed to be bothered about him being … different. He had asked his and Mandy’s parents not to say anything about them being mates yet. They all agreed and hoped that the matter would take its natural course.
When he turned fourteen everybody started looking at him and waited to see signs that his change was on its way. Nothing happened. Fifteen and nothing. Sixteen and nothing. He would be turning seventeen the day after tomorrow and still nothing has happened. No change in his sense of hearing or smelling. His eyesight remained exactly the same as it always had been. Rebeccah and Audrey had shifted and Sean had started showing the early signs that his change was close.
‘Why can’t they leave me alone?!’ Tyler thought to himself as he crashed through the trees. He had taken up running in an attempt to keep all his frustration from bottling up and leading to an inevitable blow-up. He was so distracted that he wasn’t paying any attention to his surroundings. Or to the usual sounds he could pick up from all the other shifters in the woods. He was so distracted that the uncomfortable itch on his skin when something was about to go bad did not register until it had become so bad that it was like a mild burn on his skin.
Panic surged through him as he slowed down to asses the situation as he opened his mind to his surroundings. That is when he noticed that something was seriously wrong. There was a rabid shifter running in front of him and he would soon meet up with another group of shifters heading their way. With dread he realized that his father was part of that group.