Hammers in the Shadows

Part Two: Hammers in the Night - Epilogue

In the months that followed things had settled down quite a bit and we got almost no indications that the Hammers were ready to attempt anything more for the time being. While things had settled down they still had remained interesting and I'd quickly learned how to make time, during my afternoons and evenings for all of my cubs and for the rest of the members of the Pride.

During the first Winter Solstice festival at Silver Peak Anna and I finally inducted Ilyanna to full membership of the Pride, it had taken her some time, as well as some sessions with William to be fully ready to join the Pride and cast aside her past as a member of the Hammers.

While I can't say that any of us enjoyed the bonding headache the whole Pride was overjoyed at her joining us, we'd seen too many deaths, in the past six months and to have somebody join the Pride and increase our numbers was something that was very welcome.

As winter carried on more and more attention in the Pride was taken up with watching Anna's ever-growing stomach, during one of our first ultra-sounds it was revealed that she was in fact carrying twin cubs. The party that followed had been almost as vigorous as the one that had come when we'd first informed everybody that she was pregnant and it had taken some time to pour some of the more determined celebrators into their beds the next morning.

While Anna's stomach expanded one thing also grew less pleasant, her temper was, at times, almost vicious and I was the only person that was able to calm her down. Often-times she'd apologize to whoever she'd snapped at, but that was the price that we paid to bring new life to the Pride. All of our cubs, including Sergey were looking forwards to the coming arrivals and I could see that they were happy for us. That happiness was a bit muted in the youngest three, due to their experiences with the Hammers, but they were slowly healing and William and I both acknowledged that Tanya's childishness at night would probably last for years, but that it wasn't causing her any harm at all.

As the time of birthing came the females who were expecting grew increasingly snippy with those that surrounded them, but it was easy to tell that they were looking forwards to seeing their kittens for the first time.

On the appointed day I found myself pacing outside of Medical waiting for my mate to finally welcome our cubs into the world. While human males liked being part of the birthing itself, for Weres that would be a rather more dangerous thing since female Were could become violent if they thought their cubs were in any kind of danger while being so vulnerable.

I stopped pacing when I heard the squalling of a baby in the other room and looked down at my feet for a moment before resuming my pacing since I was still worried. Birthing was hard on Weres and I'd attended more than a couple of funerals for infant kittens who'd not survived the process.

I stopped again when the second baby cry started and I found myself wanting to go and see my mate and our cubs, though I knew that I had to wait, or else risk bloody retribution from both Anna and my own mother.

A short time later I was allowed in and I smiled at my mate as she softly held two tiny bundles to her breasts. "Mark, we have two wonderful additions to our family," She sighed showing me the tiny faces of my cubs. "A girl and a boy," She smiled softly before carrying on, "The girl will be Tatianna Marinova McEwan and the boy, Michael David McEwan she finished with a smile." I found myself smiling as I gently took my son into my arms and regarded his tiny face and pale blue eyes.

I felt a fullness in my heart as I gently held the tiny bundle in my arms as I smiled at my mate. The Hammers didn't seem to understand that terror, fear, hopelessness, death, weren't the mightiest force in the world, instead for me, and those who believed as I did, that life was so much stronger that those things that they believed in.

I knew that in time we'd find them, flush them out of their rat-holes, and expose them to the light, but until them we'd do as we'd always done. Live our lives, create new ones, train those cubs to follow our footsteps and reject everything that the Hammers stood for.

(Here we go, the end of the second book in the series. I do plan on another book, but for the time being this is it. I am working on a different project right now and in a few weeks I may be ready to post the first chapter. Hope you all enjoyed the ride.)