Absinthe

Chapter Three

Absinthe leaned her head back against the wall behind her and began studying the ceiling. They'd been sitting in the waiting room for three hours now without a word. The clouded leopard cub had fallen asleep two hours ago. Gasping, Absinthe sat up straight. Quickly catching the cub in her lap, she shushed him back to sleep, murmuring nonsense in his fluffy ears. The three werewolves watched in vague amusement as everyone calmed back down.

"What did you remember?" Hank asked after a few minutes.

"Venny," Absinthe mumbled as she carefully reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cell phone. Hitting speed dial two, she raised the phone to her ear and tried to wait patiently. Four rings later, a well-loved and cheerful voice answered. "Hey, sweetheart. What's up?"

"Hey, Mama!" Absinthe answered with a warm smile. "I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Anything for you, sweetheart."

"Hank and I are at the hospital with"

"What?!" Zinnia screeched. Absinthe quickly pulled her phone away from her ear and blinked quickly. "Why didn't you call me earlier?!"

"Mama," Absinthe quickly interrupted. "We're both fine. Hank had a call while I was with him. There are children involved so Im helping."

"Oh dear. I'm not sure that's any better," Zinnia mumbled from her end of the phone. "What can I do to help, sweetheart?"

"Venny's had breakfast but I don't know what time we'll be home. Could you check on him on your way home, please?"

"Of course, sweetheart. You call me when you get home and let me know how it went."

"You know I can't give you details, Mama," Absinthe replied with a found smile.

"I know, sweetheart, but you can at least let me know if those kids are ok or not."

"Will do, Mama."

"Alright then. I'll talk to you later, sweetheart. You and Hank be careful!"

"Yes ma'am," Absinthe chuckled as her Mama giggled then hung up. As she reached to put her phone away, she looked up to see all three werewolves grinning at her. "What?"

"Sweetheart?" Beta Wesley teased.

"Like your mom doesn't call you something," Absinthe grumbled back while rolling her eyes. The werewolves busted out laughing, Alpha Tyler slapping his knee. "It was not that funny."

"No, but your face was," Hank replied smugly. Shaking her head, Absinthe turned her attention back to the clouded leopard in her lap. He'd shifted with all the laughing but had managed to stay asleep anyway. She shifted her fingers through the fur on top of his head with a small smile. Then she frowned and looked up at the werewolf cops. "What's going to happen to the kids?"

The smiles slipped from all three werewolf faces. Hank frowned as he thought about his response. "Typically, we would contact the lair they belonged to, but since we didn't get anything off the parents, we don't know what we're going to do with them yet."

"Don't you have somewhere for them to stay until you can figure it out?"

Alpha Tyler shrugged. "We've never needed one before. Usually, it would be easy to tell where the parents were from and we could hand the kids off to the appropriate heads. However, there isn't a group of clouded leopards in this area and the leopards weren't even aware they were here."

Hank frowned as they all thought about that. "They couldn't have been here very long then or someone would have noticed."

"Hm," Alpha Tyler mumbled as he stood. "Wesley, stay here. I'm going to check on something." Wesley gave a mocking salute as he settled back in his chair. Just as Alpha Tyler was about to step out of the room, he froze and turned back to look at Absinthe. "Didn't you just lose your job?"