"I can't believe they're gone," Felicity spoke softly as she sat on the edge of Brian's bed,"You won't believe this... but I have memories of us always being together... a pride... well... maybe not Fran and Darla, as they have their Pack to be with... but I can remember us always being together. I remember all of us at the academy... Elise had such a great sense of humor. Even with pinhead instructors."
"You really didn't like the weapons training they had us do, don't you, sis?" Bernie asked.
"Even the wolves have paws too big to hold a gun effectively, and we don't NEED mechanical weapons to be powerful," Felicity answered, "and in a town like Glendale... the worst crimes in Glendale are all "curse" related, and Serenity will likely be making up a new batch of the cure to end that, so we and our friends aren't haunted by it anymore."
"Amen to that, sister," Bernie nodded, "Amen to that."
There was a pause in the discussion paused, and Felicity looked down for a moment. Mostly pondering what she had just said and partially in mourning for the loss of two pride mates. Then she noticed it. Hanging by a chain between her brownish gold fur covered breasts was a badge... a police Sargent's badge. She glanced at Brian. He wasn't wearing one, but saw a similar badge hanging from part of the bed he was on. That made her pause for a moment.
"Brian and I haven't gone through the training yet," Felicity thought for a moment, "How can this be here?"
No sooner had she asked that question to herself that memories of her being there flooded her mind. Meeting Brian at the academy, watching him and Gary discussing things, befriending Bobbi, who seemed to be close to two identical she wolves, Fran and Darla, who acted the same, looked the same, and might as well have been the same. She remembered being at Jensen's wedding to Fran, Darla, their identical triplet, Julie, and Jensen's chosen Alpha Female, Kaylee.
She remembered marrying Brian with all of the pride as well as the Pack's triplets in attendance, Jensen and Kaylee too busy with Kaylee's first pregnancy. Then she became pregnant with Mary, which puzzled Felicity's mind a bit. Lions typically had three to four cubs at a time, yet she only had one... but Mary was born healthy and was growing up healthy. She wasn't going to complain about that. It was during that pregnancy, that Elise came to Brian, obviously in heat and wanting cubs badly. She hadn't found her true love to take as a "prime mate" yet, but she wanted cubs badly. Felicity couldn't refuse a pride mate and let nature take its course. Elise was there when Felicity gave birth to Mary, with Julie doing the delivery, so when Elise gave birth to Moja, Mbili, Tatuli, and Nneli, Felicity and Brian were both there for her as well.
"We need to so something for them," Brian spoke, breaking the silence, "They died fighting the curse... they did it to save Trevor, their daughters, and Mary... us... the Pack... everybody."
"What can we do though?" lioness Megan spoke, her eyes wet with tears, "Darla was right when she said about not seeing them actually get killed in the battle or finding bodies after the battle. We have nothing to bury or cremate. Only our memories of two brave pride mates and their legacy in their daughters."
"Darla said something about Jensen funding a memorial to them," Lexi commented, "if he can, maybe we should talk with the artist to put in a plaque that lets everyone know the heroic dead our pride sisters did."
"Knowing Jensen though, it'd be something grandiose, and image of them attacking Kurse directly... probably with Trevor, Amy, and Paul with them," Bobbi spoke, the fact the Pride had been created to restrain the Pack rapidly fading into nothing as reality gave both a history that was non-violent, and her memories of ever being "Bob" beginning to fade as well, "both Fox and Elise were not for making such a fuss over things."
"Maybe just a simple statue of them standing side by side," Gary suggested, "with their daughters around them. With a small plaque that says who they were, what they stood for, and why they died. A somewhat "standard" police funeral can go along with it."
"That would be nice," Nellie nodded, "something simple, yet elegant. Fox and Elise would both approve."
+++++++
Amethyst quietly made her way through the manor until she came to the room she had been looking for. She was now humming the theme to Disney's "Gargoyles" cartoon, ironic, given what had helped stop the gem wolves from defeating their pack mates completely during the battle on the island. She glanced at the name plaque and looked at the names listed on it.
Roger, Amethyst, Terri, Sandi, and Jasmine. Her mate and sister-wives. Who loved her always being perky. Who knew she was far smarter then she let on, and knew how much she loved children. She remembered agreeing to help Martha in her duties as Pack nanny, as Martha was close to her limit with Jensen and Zack's pups, though Jenny and Bart were prodigies among children. Amethyst remembered overhearing one of their teachers warn Jensen that his children might be smarter then he was when it came to business and legal matters. Her Alpha felt proud at that.
That wasn't what she thought about though as she entered the room.
"He looks so rugged," Amethyst though, looking at Roger's wounded eye, which she remembered him receiving while with her looking after the gem pups. Jay and Pence had gotten into a squabble over a rabbit they'd killed, and accidentally caught Roger in the eye with their claws when he tried to break it up, "he's so cute."
She wanted to talk to him, but found that hope dashed as she had also found him sleeping. Tired from the battle with the chimeras and then working without breaks to help Fran tend to the wounded before returning to his bed and collapsing from exhaustion.
"I wonder what our puppies will look like?" Amethyst wondered silently to herself, "will they be pastel green fur like their father? Or will they have my fur color? I hope they're girls... of course... we've yet to have puppies yet, but I hope they're girls when we do... they'll be sooo CUTE!"
"MISS AMETHYST!" came Jay's voice from the hallway, "MISS AMETHYST!"
Amethyst turned and let her mate sleep and came out into the hallway to find the group of gem twins running to meet her.
"Keep it down, kiddos," Amethyst spoke, "Most everyone here has had a long night."
"Aww... the other pups were asleep too," Pence groaned.
"We wanted to play with them today," Zulema spoke, "but Miss Martha said they were sleeping too."
"Then it's best you do as Miss Martha says," Amethyst spoke, "She is the pack's nanny."
"We want to go outside," Paula said.
Amethyst nodded, "Want to play tag?"
"What about hide and seek?" Laura asked.
"We can do that too," Amethyst nodded, "so long as we don't wake anyone up."
+++++++
"Amethyst will have to do for now," Martha sighed to herself as she looked over her charges, all still asleep, now with Amy sleeping beside her brother, "forcing it on someone would be wrong... and well, dating isn't my priority... so it's not likely that I'll ever have the time to meet a man who will love me and let me dance for him..."
She then sighed and returned to her own room, next to the pup's room. She did want a mate... a partner... like nearly every other wolf had a mate, but that wasn't likely to happen. Her options would be to to use the game and force it on someone, which she wouldn't do, or date and hope she could find a man that would fall in love with her and then dance willingly with her, which wasn't likely given her responsibilities. She thanked heaven that Amethyst had agreed to help and that occasionally the teen wolves pitched in as well from time to time.
"I'm forever destined to be single," Martha sighed in a defeated tone, but in a manner that accepted her likely fate, "but then, with all these pups to look after, I'd probably never have time to please a husband the way Kaylee, Fran, Darla, and Julie please Master Jensen. The way June, Pearl, Hope, and Grace please Zack. The way Nicole, Alexandra, Beatrice, and Isabelle please Nick. The way Megan, Anne, Ashley, and Margot please Lawrence. The way Amethyst, Terri, Sandi, and Jasmine please Roger. The way Akane, Umeko, Chiyoye, and Eri please Yamato. The way Wendy, Jessica, Rose, and Betty please Robert. And when they all begin having new litters... my work will only increase... no... dating I suppose will only be a dream for me."
+++++
"What do we do, dear?" Marcine asked Jack as she and the rest of herd moved about a clearing on Big Bad Island, "the wolves killed Eve and ate her fawn... before it could even be born!"
"It is our purpose," Jack sighed nervously as he glanced to see several teenage wolves laying at the edge of the clearing and a spot where a large oak tree was growing... which puzzled the buck as he somehow knew that oak trees didn't grow on tropical island.
Marcine looked at the nervous looking bucks and does with them, all of them now sporting the same brownish gold fur that Jack and Marcine had. The velvet was gone from Jack and the other buck's antlers thanks to Kurse, and Marcine was certain that her mate and the other bucks felt some pain at that, as it wasn't time yet for their velvet to be naturally shed.
"We knew something like this would happen when we brought to herd to the pack's estate," Jack continued, "that they and their lion friends would hunt us."
"But what was done to Eve wasn't hunting," Marcine protested, "and they treated her with no respect or reverence for her sacrifice. And they didn't eat her. They just scattered her blood and threw her limbs about the island."
"That was likely all Kurse's doing," Jack spoke, nuzzling Marcine's head, trying to comfort the pregnant doe, "the wolves were held enslaved to that witch... and so were we really. I mean Eve never ran. We've all long accepted that the wolves and lions would prey on us... but I do not recall agreeing to simply stand there and let them kill us. But now... Kurse is gone, and maybe the wolves will let us return to our home at the manor... and the acres of forest land that Jensen owns around it... and we can get back to the business of preparing for the arrival of our next generation."
"Jack and Marcine Jr." Marcine replied, "all the same... I don't think I can trust them anymore. They killed a member of our herd and were disrespectful to her body and spirit."
"I know, dear," Jack sighed, "but we can't tell them that. Remember, we are only deer."
Marcine could only nod in agreement.