Innocence is in the mind of the guilty

[Jace Wolfe]

710

The dawn greeted her not as it usually did, with a black world where the sun had yet to rise but with like pooling in through the gaps in the thick hide she used to keep the nursery in darkness. The female opened her eyes a world of darkness spotted with light and her very young daughter laid beside her. The woman yawned widely and felt the ache in her body from her fight, she looked down upon her paws, both of which were missing a finger each, on her right hand it was the middle finger and on her left it was her pinky. She sighed and turned to her child. Jace didn't remember any of her other children being this small, she was almost the size of the ones that she had lost, so achingly tiny. Jace brought her four fingered hand to the child and stroked her sleek fur gently, Victory yawned and stretched, her small legs pawing at the air. It was such a cute sight.

The newest of her family squirmed and squeaked as she picked the girl up and held her against her chest for the warmth. Victory Wolfe was less than a week old and yet her life had already seen more action that some adults. The traitor was dead after several years and her family's restless spirits could finally move on to the Aurora, this made her incredibly happy. The war paint was slowly fading from her fur, the majority of it had washed off when she had bathed to rid herself of all the encrusted blood left behind from her fight. The woman was still heavily injured but nothing would keep her from holding her child, the missing fingers didn't deter her nor did the inch and a half of her tail that was gone, claw marks were trivial and could be ignored completely, her back was a mess of slashes and jagged lines now, almost completely obliterating the ones left there by Lucifer.

Jace gently soothed the wriggling infant and hummed softly in her throat as she left the nursery that all of her and Temo's children had been born in. The child couldn't hear her singing but could feel the hum of vibration in her chest and it calmed her. Down the hall she padded softly with a slow swaying gait, the woman's compromised tail swung behind her and she ignored the tendrils of pain that swamped her entire body. On top of actual damage that bled she had a lot of bruising as well underneath her pelt and skin. If one were to shave her pelt they would see her riddled black and blue. Her child, Victory was a light grey color, like that of clouds. Her eye color was unknown just yet. She came into her living room and was pleasantly surprised to find Honrin and her two younger sons occupying the space. Norea had shifted early and so towered over his still four legged bound twin, Kail. Both of them were a dark brown color, block color like Dalgina and Honrin with pale blue eyes, not a deep sapphire like her own.

Instead of forcing her presence onto the three she simply stood in the doorway and watched them interact, her children were the pride of her life and the single greatest achievement she had. Her high rank and skills, her heritage, all of it never came close to the wonders that were her children. They were talking in quiet tones amongst themselves and if she strained her ears to listen in she heard her own name pop up a few times as well as Victory's and smiled despite herself, she did love her boys so.

Kail was the first to notice Jace's appearance, the two optime form brothers were sat on the sofa with their backs to the door, Kail had been sat on the floor looking towards the door and so had spotted her first. His two brothers had to bend out of the way as he suddenly leapt cleanly between the two and over the back of the sofa to land before her. Now that the other two had been made to notice her as well they stood up, Honrin moving forwards towards her.

[Honrin Wolfe-Denahlii]

572

Honrin had arrived at his parent's house in the early hours of the morning while his mother and youngest sister were still asleep. His father and brothers however were awake with worry in their eyes and hearts for the two females. Temo had not been able to stay long though, needing to head out to do his duties to the pack. Honrin should really be up in the abbey with Pripyat and Ansui looking after the temple and gardens, helping any who wandered in seeking council from them but Ansui had heard of Jace's fight by the ocean and had sent the younger male off to go see his old friend and make sure she was okay. It hadn't taken him long to reach the house through the snow drifts, he was part of the arctic like his mother. His lupus which was the smallest of his forms had allowed him to quickly move through the snow , his narrower chest pushing it aside like the bow of a ship. He didn't know where his three sisters were and had hoped to see Pandora at their mother's house as well but she must be off with uncle Ookami practicing or something, he smiled as he thought of his sister and his love.

The boy had quickly shifted into his optime once he had reached home, a feat possible for him as she shifted a lot like his mother did to keep her body always ready and tuned up for emergencies where a quick transfer between forms could mean life or death for somebody. As a byproduct of this it mean he had to eat a lot of food to keep his energy up which had led to his skills as a hunter being always constantly sharpened. His ever present bow and quiver of arrows was tied around his chest and rested against his back. And he joined his two brown brothers and black father in a discussion of how best to care for Jace and the new baby, Victory. He thought it was a fitting name given the fight his mother had endured to keep all of them alive.

It was strange that he was not the first one to notice her, usually he was aware of her presence before she had even revealed herself but today the lights fell silent in regards to her arrival and he silently cursed them for deserting him even in a matter so trivial. His amber orbs came to her form and he breathed in at how beautiful she was, as he always did. He understood why his father loved her and despite feeling attachment to her that was not very platonic he had no interest in trying to take her for his own and steal her away, she was his father's as his father was hers.

He stood to greet her, quickly moving around the sofa to embrace her with his brother who had shifted. The small child was the center of attention and curiousness. None of them had seen her yet, only Temo and Lady X'yrin had seen the newest child. He breathed in her scent and stored it away in his mind, he would always remember it along with the other seven that were of his own. They did not even know her name for she had not told Temo of it either, only Jace and maybe Lady X'yrin knew that so far.