From The Ashes.

Chapter 17

We followed Hanas example and didn't bother finding our underwear as we pulled our clothes on. I almost opted not to dress Cody until Dot reminded me of how cold it was outside. Along with Hana, several of the women has scrambled out the door and it seemed some of them had had children with them that instantly began to swarm Dot and I. She hurriedly began to locate their clothes and as soon as I had dressed Cody, I silently turned to help her. We worked quickly until every child was dressed when a woman in bright clothing, brown hair that was braided with several strings of colour and a large blue butterfly pinned to the top of her head came racing over to us with two small new born babies in her arms, her expression frantic. Without thinking, I took one of the babies and held it tightly.

"Sorry I'm late, I was trying to feed them when the alarm went off." Dot shook her head, gathering a frightened little girl onto her hip. Her eyes flashed with determination as she looked at me and the older woman.

"It's okay Andrea, Tera helped me get them ready. We've wasted enough time, we have to get to Pack House." I was confused for a moment before Dot indicated the large house I'd been staying in. It seemed everyone, including the children, knew exactly what was going on and without saying a word they all raced over to the building and made their way through a door to the side that lead down into a pitch black room that was only slightly illuminated by a single dim torch on the far side of the medium sized room. There were already people here, handing out blankets as walked in and seemingly setting out jars of preserved food. it seemed as though this had been practiced several times before. I stayed silent, simply following Dots instructions as we got the kids settled. It seemed a lot of them had parents that stayed on the outside.

"Are you okay with Julie?" Dot asked, a few hours later as we huddled into the far corner, wrapped in blankets as Julie, the new born girl I'd picked up, snored softly on my chest.

"Yes, I'll be fine. Besides, we've got a helper." I smirked as I nodded my head towards Cody who was patrolling the lines of sleeping children, a blanket dragging on the floor behind him as he looked up at me with a dark look in his eyes.

"This probably seems familiar to him." Andrea slipped in beside me and silently handed us both slices of bread. I set mine down, the mess of nerves swirling in my stomach had ruined my appetite. Dot chewed on hers as she leant over me to see Andrea."

"I didn't think of that. Do you think he'll be okay?" She asked and we were all silent for a few moments. The kid was carefully picking his way through the others, silently handing out food, water and blankets to those who requested it. My chest hurt as I saw he couldn't seem to calm down.

"No one can guarantee that, unfortunately. Not even me." Andrea leaned back against the wall and I frowned at her. Who would it be different for her?

"The soldiers are banned from giving us updates during an attack since it could distract them." Dot said, answering a question I hadn't thought of. It hadn't occurred to me that the werewolves should be able to telepathically communicate in this situation. "Viria isn't telling you anything?" She looked at Andrea, who shrugged, tearing a large piece off her bread.

"No, they aren't. Not about the attack anyway." Dot leaned back with a huff, apparently pissed off about something. Julie shifted in my arms and I rearranged the blanket to encompass her new pale blonde wolf cub state.

"You seem to have gotten used to this fairly quickly." Andrea commented as Cody made his way over to us and pushed his way between Dot and I.

"Is everyone taken care of?" I asked and he nodded, eyeing the wolf cub that could only be seen by her little snout sticking out from under the blanket. "Would you like to hold her?" Immediately, he nodded and I carefully handed him the cub. The boy rested his hand on my side as Julie turned back to human, snuffling slightly as he rested her head on his chest and stroked her hair as the baby snuggled into him. I giggled before turning back to the girls.