Fratricide, Werewolf Wars, and the Many Lies of Andrea Paddington

  * * *

  Lisa’s time came, and of course they were there for her. It was illegal. By rights they shouldn’t even be able to get back to Archi, but Finlay McGregor kept backups. He always did, methodical man that he was.

  Skylar couldn’t even imagine what the last few months had been like for Mrs Paddington. She’d heard about it. About how Will and Curt had taken care of her: brought her food, kept her hidden from the citizens, given her company in wolf form sometimes. Clarkson had offered to help, apparently, but Lisa would try to attack him. McGregor figured it was something animal: the smell of a vampire, or a perceived connection to the Andrastes.

  And now was the time. The time for the birth.

  McGregor was in charge. He’d spent most of the last six months teaching himself to be a veterinarian and combining that with his medical and scientific knowledge so that Paddington’s baby would have the best chance of survival.

  The birth took place in the best room of the largest doctor’s surgery on Archi, which was as close as the island came to a hospital. McGregor had filled it with the best equipment he could afford, steal, or requisition through some trickery. Fake email addresses or doctored request forms or something. He’d found a way.

  Lisa lay on the operating table. Will was at her head, McGregor at the tail-end. Skylar and a few trusted Archi doctors were there to assist him, but Fin­ had set up the instruments himself in gleaming lines on lovely pale blue trays. It was all very calming and made Skylar feel that everything would be fine.

  The birth proved otherwise. Nothing went wrong, but it wasn’t “fine” by any traditional definition. Something about a human baby emerging from an enormous wolf that howled in pain as it lay on a metal operating table just… Skylar couldn’t get the image out of her head.

  It wasn’t that she’d expected a wolf baby, not since McGregor had performed the first ultrasound when they’d arrived a month ago, but… well, she still had expected a wolf baby. This pale pink, blood-covered bouncing baby boy shouldn’t have come out of that great white wolf.

  It all seemed monstrous. Until the wolf looked around, saw the baby, and kept looking through those brilliant blue eyes. Skylar hadn’t thought wolves capable of emotions like joy, but there it was. Perhaps it was the sudden calmness in the face. The relaxation. Maybe it was the slowed panting. Mostly, though, Skylar thought it was the eyes. They’d stopped rolling back with the pain of pushing and instead focussed clearly on the baby, then they moved to McGregor, then Skylar, then Will, and nodded to each of them as if thanking them for being here.

  Then she ruined the moment by curling around and licking the baby clean, which was something Skylar could have done without seeing.

  “How is she?” Skylar asked McGregor.

  “She’s good,” he said.

  Skylar nodded to the tiny person in McGregor’s hands. “And him?”

  “A little small for a usual baby, but that’s to be expected. I think. It’s all guesswork at this stage, Skye, but I’d guess things are going well.” McGregor smiled at Skylar and took her hand. Their gloves stuck and snapped as their fingers entwined.

  Going well? That was a change. After that mess of a war with the Andrastes, and the losses of Beck and Paddington, and the disbandment of the Team, and Truman going back to America, and Mitchell disappearing…

  After all that, something going well made Skylar nervous. But when she felt Finlay’s hand in hers or saw young baby Paddington suckling on his mother, she felt that finally the worst of the horrors were behind them.