Hammers in the Shadows

Part Two: Hammers in the Night - Chapter Twenty-One

The next morning, after waking up and getting ourselves organized things more, or less, went back to normal. I did take the time to call Vera and update her on most recent events.

"Mark, nice to hear from you." She said, and her tone said that she truly believed it. "Have you managed to eliminate most of the Hammers from your part of the world?" She asked, "I assume that is why you're calling me this morning."

"I hope so Vera, though to be honest we don't fully know, I am waiting till one of the members of the Hammers that we currently have here at the Pride is ready to talk about what she did for them and how they are organized." I told her grimly, and that really was the truth, Ilyanna was just about the only Hammer that had ever been captured that was of any consequence.

"Mark how can you be sure that she will tell you anything, other than lies?" Came Vera's reply, "Or she could just tell you nothing at all."

"Vera she has a fairly good reason to open up, she found her mate here, among the members of my Pride." I answered, "I know it may take her some time, but I have a pretty good feeling that eventually she may want to talk to me about what she's been through." I told her.

There was a pause at the other end before a soft chuckle began and I smiled, before Vera began laughing more deeply. It took her a few moments to fully regain her composure and she was still chuckling softly when she said, "I didn't consider that, but I suspect that you may be correct there. Who's the lucky cat?"

"Serina is her name and she's rather well known here at the Pride for being a strong, confident, and outgoing cat." I replied, letting Vera figure out that it was a lesbian relationship, I wasn't sure how she felt about same gender matings, but I suspected that she realized how beneficial they could be.

"I see, I take it there is more than that going on?"

"Yes, Serina has also adopted one the cubs that was orphaned by Vladimir and his group while they were here and it is causing Ilyanna, that's the Major's name, some confusion."

"I could see why." Vera stated softly, "From what you and William have told me, the cubs that you rescued from Vladimir will need decades of treatment to get over what they experienced."

"Yes, that much is true." I said, though we didn't say much more since there was no real reason to go over that subject again.

"What about the other one that you captured? Do you think that you can redeem him as well?"

"Anna and I are fairly confident that he'll make a full recovery." I said confidently, "He's young and only needs to be shown that there is more to life than what he faced in the Hammers."

"I hope that you're right Mark, I'd hate for your Pride to face more danger due to him being there." She said, and I could understand her caution. "I wish you the best in this endeavour and I will try and keep some kind of watch on events here in Russia, if things start going bad I may call on you again to help us with rescuing our Pride-Mates."

"I hope it doesn't come to that Vera," I told her, wishing her a good day before hanging up and looking to my mate. "Now we have to wait and see which one will come by here first? Ilyanna or Vasiliy, though I do have a feeling that before this week is out we will get a visit from both of them."

"I agree with you on that," Anna said shaking her head at the item in the center of her desk, it appeared that Katyusha had managed to catch an unwary pika and decided to bring it to Anna as a gift.

"She is surprisingly effective as a predator, isn't she?" I asked Anna with a grin, Katyusha was a fairly skilled hunter though nowhere near as effective as Caspian and Altair together, and when Katyusha joined them it got even more frightening due to the sheer intelligence of the three of them.