Greg let himself get kicked out and trudged back over. Nathan had his good leg pulled up, hugging his knee with one arm and staring down at what remained of his other leg. Andrew and deLande were talking quietly, while David was cleaning his sword and barely seemed to listen.

Greg sat down across from his oldest brother. “What promise did you give Morgulon?” he asked bluntly.

David looked surprised when he raised his eyes from his blade. “Really? That’s what you two talked about?”

“Morgulon said it’ll depend on whether or not you keep your promise, whether I can see my daughters or not.”

“I see.” David pushed the blade back into its scabbard. “I promised her I’d do everything in my power to make sure George Louis wouldn’t screw you all over. I thought she was vastly overestimating my influence on him when she asked for that, but hell, he already named me his Royal Advisor, for all that he hasn’t been crowned yet.”

“Royal Advisor. Really. I thought you didn’t like politics.”

“I hate politics,” David confirmed. “Everything for you and my nieces,” he added, with a wry smile. When Greg didn’t smile back, he went on: “There never was much chance of avoiding the politics altogether, once we got involved with both George and Desmarais.”

Greg nodded slowly. That much was true at least.

“You’re gonna bring them to Courtenay, though, aren’t you?” Andrew interrupted.

“Depends on Morgulon, I suppose,” Greg said. “She did mention it, but – I can hardly force her to come, can I?”

“Just tell mother.”

Greg frowned at him. So did David.

“What, you really think Morgulon is ready to take on Mum on the matter of her grandchildren? Because she may be an elder werewolf, but I still seriously doubt she’s prepared for that fight.”

Greg managed a weak smile at that.

“Taking them to Courtenay might not be the best idea, though,” David said. “The house at Brines is as good as ready. Might be better if everyone gathers there.”

“What, don’t tell me you’re already missing your George that much,” Nathan jeered, finally looking up.

“Funny,” David said, completely straight-faced. “It’s rather unlikely that George Louis’ll stay at Eoforwic much longer, don’t you think? He needs to be at Deva. But Courtenay is too close to some southern lords who I personally don’t trust, and Morgulon might be needed on the line to Mannin still.”

“Royal Advisor, did I hear that right?” Andrew asked. “And when were you going to inform the rest of us about that?”

“It’s not official yet,” David shrugged. “But yes. He also wants me to try and form a cavalry unit that rides on werewolves rather than horses. Command it, too, if I succeed.”

“He really is a little mad, isn’t he?” Lane asked.

David shrugged a second time. “Who of us isn’t?”

“I resent that,” Nathan said. “I’m the picture of sanity.”

They all turned to stare at him. People all around glared at them when they all started laughing at the same moment.

“Psst,” someone hissed.

Nathan looked around, shaking his head. “You’d think this was a gravesite, not an infirmary,” he complained and held out a hand. “I need to get out of here. Seriously. Someone give me a hand.”

Andrew looked at David, who shrugged. Together, they pulled Nathan up. When the closest healer realized what they were about to do, he tried to stop them, but Nathan ignored the man completely as he struggled to hop past, leaning heavily onto Andrew’s shoulder. Navigating the stairs was terribly awkward. Nathan was barely strong enough to keep himself upright, and he was clearly in a lot of pain even with all the poppy milk the doctors had given him, but he was determined, and with Greg at Nathan’s other side, they made it into the courtyard.

It was raining when they stepped outside, but Nathan wasn’t slowed down by that. He looked around once and then threw himself forwards towards an open shack where fire wood was stored. Andrew could either follow him or let him face-plant into the muddy ground. Andrew followed, of course, and a moment later, they all sat on top of the remaining wood inside the shack. Only deLande must have excused herself while they were struggling down the stairs; Greg hadn’t really been paying attention to her.

He couldn’t even remember the last time it had been just the four of them together anywhere.

It didn’t last long, either. They had barely settled down when a messenger came that the duke wanted to see David.

“Two silvers says George Louis had someone watching the door of the infirmary and inform him as soon as David left,” Nathan said, while they watched their oldest brother leave.

“I already told you,” Greg said. “I’m not touching silver for odds that shitty.”

“It certainly looks like the good duke is pretty badly smitten with David,” Andrew noted. “I wonder how long it’s going to last.”

“Guess we can only wait and see,” Greg said.

“You guys think David actually still, you know – likes him?” Nathan asked, wrapping one arm very carefully around himself. He still couldn’t quite hide the strain in his voice or the shaking of his hands. Greg wasn’t sure if that was the injuries or the cold wind out here.

“I doubt it,” Greg said. “David told me how things ended between them – even if David still likes him, he doesn’t trust the duke.”

Andrew and Nathan both looked up in interest, so Greg told them everything David had told him on that first night of full moon at First Camp.

Andrew kept shaking his head throughout the story. “Sounds like George Louis wasn’t really all that interested in him back then,” he stated. “Or he really doesn’t know David at all.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Or he just wanted to become a duke more than he wanted David,” Nathan pointed out.

“Damn optimistic of him to hope to win David back now, though,” Andrew said.

“Dunno,” Nathan disagreed. “I mean, David is clearly helping him already.”

“Not the same thing at all,” said Andrew. “David’s helping him cause we actually need the duke to succeed, and we need someone to keep an eye on him.”

“We don’t know that George Louis is really serious about David today, either,” Greg pointed out.

“He gave him a sword,” Nathan said.

“So?”

“Oh, come on. It’s David. Giving him a sword? That’s like giving roses to a woman.”

“Yes, well, there’re plenty of men who give out roses to women they’re not all that serious about.”

“True,” Andrew said slowly.

“Roses are cheaper than swords,” Nathan mumbled, eyes closed. “So it’s like the duke is already at the jewellery stage of courting.”

“I wonder what’ll happen if David continues to turn him down,” Greg mused. “The duke doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who deals well with the answer No.”

“Cheerful thought,” Andrew muttered. “But since we’re discussing love lives: Greg, you should go and tell Thoko before she finds out for herself.”

Greg rubbed his face. “Right,” he muttered. He tried to think of some excuse why he should wait a day or three, but Andrew was right. So he pushed himself off the wood log he had been sitting on. “Right,” he repeated.

“Good luck,” Andrew called after him when he walked back towards the keep.

Greg asked and looked everywhere, but couldn’t find Thoko until he reached the room where the nurses had been put up. He would have walked straight past it, but there was a grim-looking older nun guarding the door, who caught his attention. Greg paused. He couldn’t think of any other place where Thoko might be, and it was the natural place for her to rest.

He lowered his head respectful to the guardian. She looked like she had been turning away soldiers all day and didn’t have much patience left.

“Good evening,” he said. “I don’t want to bother her if she’s asleep, but I was wondering if you had seen Thoko Banda? I can’t find her anywhere else.”

He half hoped that the nun would tell him to get lost. She did glare at him for a moment, but then she opened the door a little, and threw a look inside.

“Wait here,” she warned him. “I’ll let Miss Banda know.”

She vanished inside and returned just a moment later with Thoko.

“You’re awake,” Thoko greeted him, grinning. “When did you get back last night?”

Greg shrugged. “About four in the morning, I think,” he said.

“How’re your brothers?”

Greg grimaced. “Andrew and David are fine. Nathan is – I don’t know. But, uh, look. I need to show you something.”

Thoko paused, looking at him in surprise. “What’s wrong?”

“Not – not wrong, exactly.” Greg ran a hand over his head. “Just – really unexpected. And I don’t think you’ll like it.”

“Can you make it a little more cryptic? I think I might have understood some of that.”

Greg grimaced. “Here we are, anyway. Just – this happened on full moon. It was nothing I wanted to happen.”

He knocked against Morgulon’s door and heard a low rumble in answer. He hesitated a second longer, but pushed open the door, and led Thoko inside. Thoko raised her eyebrows when she saw where they had arrived.

He could have sworn that Morgulon was grinning at him when he kneeled down in front of her. He didn’t bother asking for permission before he picked up one of his daughters – if Morgulon hadn’t been fine with him doing it, he was sure to have known.

When he showed the baby girl to Thoko, she groaned softly. She didn’t look mad, not even particularly surprised. Just resigned.

After a moment, she said: “I thought it would be Fleur.”

Morgulon huffed.

“Fleur’s too young,” Greg dutifully translated.

Thoko smiled wryly. “Yes, I got that part. I did listen when David and deLande told us.”

“Sorry,” Greg said. “Morgulon mentioned it.”

“So, how many children do you have? I heard someone say there were five?”

“Just two are mine,” Greg said quickly. “Two daughters. Hard to tell who fathered the others.”

“That’s – you know, I really don’t want to think too much about how that must have happened,” Thoko sighed. “What happens next?”

“I’ve no idea,” Greg admitted. “I guess – you went with Ragna when she spoke to the duke last night, right? Did he say anything about his plans?”

Thoko shook her head. “Not to us, in any case. But I could tell that he was really uncomfortable, talking to a group of werewolves without a hunter standing at each of his sides.”

“I see,” Greg said. “Well, the duke sent for David a while ago. I guess we’ll learn more once he gets back. David did talk about all of us going to Brines.”

Thoko turned to Morgulon, gauging her reaction, before kneeling down to have a closer look at the babies.

“What’s in Brines?” Thoko asked, a question Morgulon was clearly interested in as well. “And where is that?”

“Brines is a small village outside of Eoforwic,” Greg explained. “Where my father bought that old, ruined estate last year, after I got injured and needed a place to transform?”

“Oh, that place.” Thoko nodded.

“Well, the village recently got a railway station, so you can get to Eoforwic really quickly,” Greg went on. “And from there, anywhere else. If Morgulon was there, she could be at First Camp within just a little over an hour in an emergency and be back with the little ones just as quickly. Or get to Deva and back within a day. Courtenay is less well connected right now.”

He settled down with his daughter when Thoko carefully picked up the other baby girl. Morgulon watched like a hawk but didn’t interfere.

“So what’s it like,” Thoko asked, smiling when the tiny girl started to suckle at her finger. “Being a Dad?”

Greg grinned. “I’ve known for less than a day. Ask me again tomorrow.”

Morgulon made a rumbling sound, sounding amused.

“Will you turn human for the next new moon?” Greg asked her, gently stroking his daughter’s head. “And what happens on full moon to them?”

Full moon won’t be much trouble for a while, Morgulon said. They can barely move and have no teeth. And yes, I will turn human again on new moon. I’m tired.

“But will they have the same anger?” Greg asked. It was hard to imagine, looking down at the tiny face and even smaller hands and feet.

Morgulon shrugged. They’ll be unhappy, she said. How angry can a new-born cub even get? Their eyes and ears will still be closed in their wolf shape. It will not be safe for them to be around you or me, she added.

Greg nodded slowly. When Thoko poked him, he relayed what Morgulon had said.

“Will you tell the other werewolves who’re potential fathers?” Thoko asked.

Morgulon looked surprised, as if that thought had never occurred to her. How could they miss that?

“Well,” Greg said. “I’m pretty sure that all the other younger ones don’t know any more about all this than I did.”

It wasn’t one of them, Morgulon said with conviction. It shouldn’t have been you, either. They’re almost certainly Calder’s.

“Because he was the oldest one around?” Greg asked.

Morgulon nodded.

“But it was me,” Greg pointed out. “So it could have been one of the other younger ones. Or at least Boris.”

Morgulon shook her head. You’re just different.

“I’m what?”

Morgulon laughed silently, huge tongue hanging out of her mouth. You very nearly defied Theo to his face, didn’t you? To protect her? She glanced at Thoko. A werewolf twenty years your elder.

Greg frowned. “But I can’t fight the Rot any better than any other werewolf my age, can I?”

No. My mother was a little like you, Morgulon continued. She had so much humanity in her she hardly needed to heed the other voice. The opposite side of insanity, my father called it.

Greg couldn’t help but grin at that. What had David said earlier, that they were all a little mad?

When he told Thoko what Morgulon had said, she laughed, too, but stopped when the child in her arms started to complain.

It’s not always a good thing, Morgulon added after a moment. It makes you two people, much more so than the rest of us.

Greg opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Does that mean that you can remember what happens to you on full moon?”

Bits and pieces. More than you, I suppose. When I decided to have children, it was a decision all of me made.

“Did you warn Calder?” he wanted to know.

Calder knew, Morgulon shrugged. Everybody who knew how to listen to their wolf-side knew something was up. Only you could get caught up in this and not even realize.

“Great,” Greg muttered.

He and Thoko stayed the rest of the afternoon with Morgulon and the children until the elder werewolf decided she wanted some more rest and kicked them out.