My pack seemed to be there in force for this one guy and they were all PISSED when they saw me naked and bloody on the floor. Samantha walked in and saw the blood on my thighs and flipped her shit. She shoved Aden against the wall so hard to get at Niko that I'm pretty sure she dislocated his shoulder by the crunch sound I heard. She lunged at him in the most vicious way imaginable and shifted mid-air and slowly started ripping parts off of him beginning with his manhood. Niko let out such a horrendously loud scream that his vocal cords must have snapped because suddenly he was silently screaming with blood dripping down his chin. She made him watch as she dropped his balls on the floor and squashed them under her paws before resuming her assault until her bloodlust was sated. When she had her fun, Russ and Jodie's parents walked in and Jodie's parents were given bats to beat him senseless with since they were human. Once they finished breaking all of his ribs and any other bones they could, Russ' parents shifted and tore pieces off of Niko but still left him alive. Before they let Aden and Irving go I spoke up with my rough voice "I want him alive. I deserve my own vengeance and you all know it." The pack doctor came up and cauterized all of his wounds with no anesthetic making him scream silently and thrash around violently.
When the doctor finally finished he did a quick check and confirmed the baby was gone which elicited hundreds of loud howls of sorrow throughout the pack members present. I just lay there crying until Samantha shifted back into her human form and wrapped me in a large blanket they brought with them. Aden was silently sobbing as were many of the other pack members and was about to pick me up to carry me but I stopped him and stood under my own power and used Aden and Samantha as braces if I needed. I refused to be carried out like a damsel in distress which in all honesty is what I was but I didn't want people thinking that. I was ashamed of what happened to me and of not protecting my baby better and rather than clinging to Aden, I clung to Samantha like she was my life preserver in a stormy sea. I knew I was hurting Aden by turning to his mother rather than him but I just couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye yet after losing the baby and Samantha feels like the safest person in the world for me right now which is what I need.
We made our way back to the pack medical center and they let me take a shower and I got into a hospital gown because it was time to let the doctor take the baby from me. When the doctor cut the baby out, he placed him in my arms at my request so I could see him and say goodbye properly. Aden, Irving and Samantha were there to say goodbye and see him as well. Samantha said through her tears "My god Ryan, he's beautiful. Nobody can deny you make some beautiful babies." I smiled at her through my sobs as my way of thanking her and nodded in agreement. Aden lost it and was sobbing while holding the baby and clearly about to collapse. Thank god for werewolf healing because I was able to get up quickly, grab the baby from his arms and wrap Aden in my arms to comfort him. He buried his face in my neck and sobbed while apologizing repeatedly for letting Niko get close enough to even consider abducting me. I reassured him and held my tears back for now.
I calmed Aden down and helped calm down Irving and Samantha just as Emmett came in with Shawna trailing behind. Emmett had a change of clothes for me and Samantha told me the children were with Jodie and Russ' parents for the night so I could have the night to handle whatever I need to handle personally. I changed and thanked them both and shocked everyone by saying "Have my schedule ready and filled with whatever I need to catch up on first thing tomorrow morning. I can't lay around right now for too long so it is best to be productive rather than fall apart and become a hopeless mess which I will right now if I stop too long. They agreed and Emmett and Shawna left. I asked Aden and Irving for some private time to talk to Samantha and they both knew why and the guys left without complaint waiting down the hall. Samantha and I had a VERY long VERY emotional conversation that I completely lost it during several times and felt like a completely weak useless shell of my former self but Samantha reassured me that I was anything but weak and already handling things better than she would in my position. I knew it would take time to recover from this experience emotionally but the logical side of me knew I would survive. The emotional side of me was in shambles and I just had to try my best to suppress that for now and focus on my logical side but first I needed my vengeance to be satisfied.
I went to the dungeons and saw the rogue wolves that we had in custody in one cell and Niko in another. I told the guards to strip Niko and toss him in with the rogues which confused them all. I smiled wickedly and said "The rogues know they are most likely going to die and they deserve a little entertainment before I kill Niko." I turned to the rogues and said "If you kill him, your deaths will be very slow and very painful so be sure not to kill him, that's my job." The rogues all nodded that they understood but smiled wickedly back at me. I told them "You have until morning, the guards will tell you when you have an hour left and when time is up he will be removed back to his cell so make the most of it." They again nodded that they agreed. Niko was thrown into their cell and we left.
I put on my best fake smile and said "I need to see the children to calm their frayed nerves before we go home." Aden asked nervously "Babe, are you sure you're ready? What if they ask you about the baby?" I sighed and looked him in the eye. I said "I can't avoid that question from them and want our children to know that I am safe and sound and let them see with their own two eyes. I love you even more for worrying my love but I have to put our children first. I won't fail the rest of them…never again will I fail any of our children, this I swear to the Moon Goddess herself and you." Aden had tears fall silently down his face and said "Ryan, you didn't fail any of us including the baby. There was nothing you could do. We found the dart of wolfsbane he shot you with and was obvious that he caught you by surprise. He was planning it for a long time from what we have gathered. If anything this is my fault because he was in love with me and thought I was HIS rather than who I truly belong to…you." I let a few tears of happiness slip free of my eyes and said "No, baby, this is NOT your fault. He is a psychopath and nothing you did or didn't do could have stopped him from thinking the way he did."
We then continued on after I stopped at the house to wash my face and headed for the old orphanage. When I stepped inside all of their eyes snapped to me and I knelt on the floor because I saw the childrens eyes well up and they all started rushing me. They tackled me to the floor hugging me and crying their little eyes out while speaking incoherently. I knew talking wouldn't calm them so I sang them a song by Nichole Nordeman called "Slow Down" and they all began to slowly calm down hearing my voice singing calmly to them while the adults in the room started crying earning an eye roll from me and a giggle from the children as I pointed. I looked up at the adults and said with a slight laugh "I swear you guys are worse than the kids, stop crying." They all laughed along with the kids who all but Jessie ran to their grandparents. Jessie wouldn't let go of me and had me in a death grip. He's my most loving child and I swear I wonder if I somehow didn't give birth to him myself without knowing it somehow because it's like he has known me forever and I have him as well which I LOVE. Hours later we put them all to bed and I sung them "A Whole New World" from Aladdin as a lullaby and by the end of the song, they were all asleep.
I heard Irving whisper to Aden "You're a VERY lucky man Aden. He's pretty damn amazing to go through all that and still come back strong and able to take care of your children so calmly and sweetly even though he's hurting so badly." Aden sighed and said "I know, that's why I have to make sure I do everything possible to let him know just how special he is and how loved he is." Jane, Jodie's mom whispered "I know Jodie would be happy knowing her children are here with him even though I wanted to take them myself. He's a great mother already in such a short time." They all nodded in agreement as I turned around. I thanked them and Jane asked "Aden, Ryan, would you mind if we moved onto your pack territory so we can spend more time with the children? I mean all of them because we consider you our son Ryan which means these are ALL our grandchildren." I burst into silent tears and hugged them tightly as Aden said "You are more than welcome, we'll have a house built next to ours so you'll always be near the children and until then you can stay with us if you like." I nodded in agreement and managed to say "You'll always be welcome here for as long as I live."
I text Emmett about contacting Jason for a meeting first thing in the morning as we walked back to the house and he replied almost instantaneously that he would. I felt eyes on me and looked around at everyone staring at me warily. I sighed and said "Please everyone, stop looking at me like that. I'm going to fall apart tonight until I fall asleep yes but not now. I want to do that alone and I love you Aden and the rest of you guys but if I need anyone tonight, I want Samantha and Jane. I just feel like I'm safer with them for now. I hope you can all understand." Aden said "Of course my love. We all understand that after all that you've been through." The other guys were nodding in agreement with Aden. Samantha looked at Jane and then me and said "Well, you have a California King bed so we're just going to sleep with you tonight and you can cry on us as much as you want or scream or yell or whatever. If you need to hit somebody, we'll call the guys in." The guys all in unison said "HEY" while we all chuckled.
I cooked us lasagna and got showered and changed into my pajamas while waiting for it to heat in the oven. I felt so comfy in my old flannel pajama pants and my moms favorite old baggy t-shirt she used to wear on laundry days. I hadn't even noticed everyone watching or the few tears that slid down my cheeks as I still smelled my mom on the shirt after all this time. Just then the timer went off and I got up without missing a beat and had a fake smile plastered on my face as I served the food and we all sat down to eat but first took a few moments to say our own silent prayers for everyone who should be here but wasn't anymore including the baby. I felt myself about to lose it a bit so I stood up and told everyone I would be right back. I walked up to my bedroom and locked the door before stepping into my bathroom and crying quietly for a few minutes. I calmed myself by grabbing my notepad and knew that as usual my best form of relief would be through my music so I decided to let the lyrics for new songs spill out as I went back to the dining room table after washing my face.
When I returned to the table, I didn't even look up and sat my notepad on the table and continued writing so fast that my hands were cramping but I didn't care. These words needed to come out and they needed to come out NOW. They slowly ate silently as I felt all of their eyes on me. When I finished the first song I handed it to Aden to read while I continued writing the next. The songs just kept coming and it looked like my next album would be a lot of ballads with an angry rap or two thrown in with a few upbeat songs about survival. I heard Aden sniffling and hand the paper around. I heard Jane say "My god that's beautiful. I can't wait to hear it sung with the music." I ripped the second and handed it off as I continued writing songs and handed them off. Irving kept paper clipping the song pages together in order so they weren't lost or out of order which I appreciated. By the time I finished I had an entire album worth of songs. I had to reheat my food but didn't care, this was more important because it was for my lost family and I planned to dedicate the album to them by first name only to maintain my anonymity for the sake of our kind.
That night was full of my sobs and I wailed a few times as I looked at pictures and the sonogram of baby Jonathon. Samantha and Jane just held onto me and cried with me. I was so thankful to have them more now than ever before. I talked things out with them when I calmed back down long enough and they listened when I needed them to and gave me advice and opinions when I asked for them. The ladies fell asleep around 1am which made me chuckle. I got up quietly, went downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of milk and sat at the table with a bag of Oreo's enjoying my mom and I's favorite comfort food in the middle of the night. A little while later Irving came down and grabbed a glass of milk as well and sat next to me. He put his arm around my shoulders and said "You know we're all here for you and always routing for you right?" I smiled and said "Yea, I do Irving." He smiled back and said "Don't you think it's time you just call me dad? After all, you'll be married eventually and then you'll have to or I'll just go crazy constantly. I laughed and said "Ok…dad, are you happy now?" He chuckled and hugged me close and said "Yes, thank you son." Soon, Edward, Jodie's dad came and joined us. He made me start calling him dad too which was sweet but I knew I would have to call their wives mom now or offend them. I said "You guys realize that you have now put me in the position that I have to not only call you two dad but your wives mom and then Aden will probably start insisting on me calling him something else." Aden spoke from behind me "I wouldn't mind the title husband when you're ready of course. I won't ever push you on that obviously." I sighed and said "baby, I really REALLY want to marry you when I've had time to heal from all of this properly and then we can have as many kids as you want, an entire fire department or football team if you want." He laughed and said "That might be fun but a LOT of work."
The night went on like that until around 3am when I finally cried myself to sleep. I had a fitful sleep full of dreams of all my mom, Jodie, Russ and baby Jonathon. My son would have grown into such a handsome man one day but now he was a handsome angel helping the moon goddess with whatever she had in store for our people. At some point my sleep calmed and I slept peacefully.