HER Young Mate (Completed)

Part One Hundred and Four: Think About Us

Danny didn't return for hours. It worried me to no end, and I felt just on the brink of loosing my temper with him, when I saw him at the edge of the forest. The sight of him was so relieving any anger kind of washed away. He had missed practice. He was gone for hours- but now he was home. I waddle ran across the field towards him, but he seemed lost in thought. I thought when I got to him he would be distant, but when I did he pulled me close to him and kissed my face, put his hands through my hair, and pressed his face against mine as he kept walking and I kept up. Blood from the healing superficial marks on his face left wet trails across my cheeks, but I didn't care, he was home, and none of his wounds were from anyone else- they just looked like they were from running through trees or brush.

"Where have you been?" I ask him, as he leads us to the house and I pull away enough to look up at him. He looks down at me with a calculated and worried expression, but doesn't speak at first. He rubs his blood from my face with his thumb as he stops, and then holds my face. He studies me for a long moment, and I see ghosts of our past in his eyes, a worry I've seen in them so many times flashing in them as his eyes dance across my face.

"Running the perimeter. Looking for traces of them. I think I know which direction they're in, how close. I was thinking. Planning. I don't want you to worry about it..." he kisses my forehead and then puts his arm around me again and keeps walking, and I don't speak- because my worries of what he was doing were far worse off than what he was actually doing. "How are the others? How are the children?" He asks, his voice is sincere, but now it is distant.

"They're fine. The babies are fine. Our brothers are... worried about you, though..." I say hesitantly- because worried is an understatement. They're pissed. They wanted to go look for him, but when I told them no they listened.

"They need answers. Soon enough I will have them," he said calmly, "and I won't turn rogue, so they'll either have to listen, or challenge me- which I know they won't. Don't worry. I will have answers." His words have finality to them and I know not to push it much more. I nod and kiss his jaw.

"Okay."

When we go inside Danny and I take a warm shower together. We don't exchange much words, but he takes extra time holding me, touching me, feeling my bump. He kneels and presses his face against it, and listens, the water splashing over him as he rubs my side. He says he can hear them growing stronger. He stays that way for a long time, and when we finally get out he kisses me deeply, as if savoring each moment. I know it only means he's coming to some sort of conclusion about what to do with the rogues- which only puts me on edge. He asks me to gather everyone for dinner, and we all bring the porch tables together to eat outside. He even asks Durst to come home on his lunch to join us, and let's him sit across the table from Lavender. She doesn't look up at him the whole dinner, but he stares at her from time to time, and Danny says nothing.

No one says anything to Danny. Not his brother nor my own, nor my father. At least not about the rogues. The conversation is light, and I too try to savor the moment with Daniel. I watch as Lucy interacts contently with her new parents, as she plays with the other children, and everyone smiles around her. She's worth whatever trouble this brings us. Our children mean more to me than anything, and now she is one of them- our little tribe of girls; all of whom will take over one day. More of a reminder that something must be done, for them.

Dinner ends and we all clean up and go our separate ways, and after I get all of the girls down I finally get to bed. I sleep only for a few hours, and wake pulling myself from a nightmare. A nightmare of dark eyes and shiny hair in shadowed corners. It's not one of my more terrifying dreams, but it leaves me with a dull fearful feeling. It's a haunting nightmare that I always have. When I wake I'm confused and my eyes hurt, and when I blink I see Danny is sitting up.