Dusk had fallen by the time the train stopped at a proper station. Lane frowned and pushed the door open, to see what was going on, and maybe, where they were. All she could see though was a group of men walking up to the passenger compartment. They looked like they might be in uniform, but it was hard to tell in the low light.

A minute later, David climbed up into their waggon.

“The duke decided he doesn’t want to cross the Savre in the dark,” he explained. “So we’re staying here at Deeshire for the night.”

He sat down between Lane and Andrew and made himself comfortable.

“How is dear old George?” Nathan asked.

It was the first thing Lane heard him say all day.

“Same as usual,” David shrugged.

“In a ‘won’t shut up about his dogs’ way, or in the other way?” Andrew asked promptly.

“Mostly the former,” David said. “Though it’s equal parts his dogs and his son these days. The kid kicked my ass at chess, which didn’t help. How do you even know about George’s dog obsession?”

“You used to drag me along to the races?” Andrew replied. He sounded amused.

“Oh. Right. Sorry about that.”

Lane could only guess that Andrew had been David’s cover for going out with the duke. She still wondered what exactly Andrew meant by “the other way,” but she could hardly ask while Dr. Barnett was listening.

“I don’t suppose His Highness had a hotel booked for us?” the doctor asked. He was looking out the open door, watching George Louis and his escort.

“No,” David said. “You are welcome to look for one, of course. We’ll be moving out again at five in the morning, though, if all goes according to plan. So it’ll be a short night in any case.”

The doctor nodded slowly. He didn’t look happy at all, but he said: “I guess I’ll stay here then.”

Lane actually managed to catch a few hours of sleep, despite the baby werewolf still curled up against her chest, who continued to kick out with his hind legs with annoying regularity. She barely woke when the train started to rattle, blinked into the dark, and dozed off again.

The sun was fully up by the time they reached the end of the line. Lee and Greg shrugged out of their clothes and transformed as soon as the engine stopped, and then had to wait until Andrew opened the waggon door for them so they could jump out.

Once he was out, Greg shook himself and leaned back onto his hind legs, until his chest almost touched the ground, and then stretched into the other direction. Lane followed more slowly, rolling her shoulders and trying to get the kinks out of her back, too. David and Andrew were already dealing with the horses.

“Ah, my thanks,” George Louis said. He and his son showed up only after Andrew had finished feeding, watering, and saddling their animals.

Prince George stared at all the werewolves with wide-eyed excitement. His father held onto his shoulder to stop him from running up to them.

Andrew sighed and held the reins for first the prince and then the duke while they climbed into the saddle. Then Andrew and David together helped Nathan get onto his own horse, strapping him in just in case. Andrew would lead the stallion since Nathan couldn’t really steer him with only one good leg and arm.

Lane had been wondering about how they would transport the werewolf cubs, but Dr. Barnett had prepared for this: their one pack animal was loaded with big wicker baskets, padded with fabric to make them warmer and more comfortable for the babies to ride in.

They still couldn’t travel as fast with the young as they would without, so it took them a couple of hours to travel the handful of miles still separating them from the Savre. Once they reached the river, all cubs started to wail at the same time, burying deeper into their baskets. The grown werewolves, too, sped up until they were halfway across the makeshift wooden bridge.

A group of soldiers was waiting for them at the gates of the New District of Eoforwic. They quickly formed up as an escort around the duke, who said a terse goodbye and then took off with his son. He seemed very eager to get to the safety of the Lackland Company’s headquarters.

Lane, David, his brothers, the doctor, and the werewolves had to make their way to the station without an escort. A crowd was quickly gathering around them to stare at the werewolves, especially the cubs who poked their noses out of their baskets, now that they were further away from the river. The reactions to them were somewhat mixed – most people were instantly taken with the “cute little things,” but Lane heard one group who was debating loudly, “if werewolves can breed, what do they bite people for?”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The doctor left them outside the large main station of Eoforwic. He pointed out one of the new hotels around, where he was going to take a room, and then hurried inside.

David went into the station house and booked them a whole carriage on the next train to Brines, just so they wouldn’t be constantly accosted by people. It was a mercifully short ride, and then a bit less than half an hour to get from Brines station to the actual house.

Lane was a little surprised when they finally got there – from everything Andrew and Greg had said about the place, she had expected little more than a barn with a fireplace. But now she was looking at a nice and quite large residence.

“Five frozen hells, this place has changed.”

Everyone turned around to stare at him when Nathan broke his silence.

“What?” he snapped. “It has!”

“True,” Andrew agreed.

“Yeah, I guess someone finally got around to weed the rose-garden,” David said, which made all his brothers glare at him.

“The rose-garden, sure,” Andrew said after a moment. “And someone fixed the roof. And white-washed the walls, set new window panes, and I remember that chimney being a lot more crooked than it is now, too.”

“New fences as well,” Nathan added.

David laughed and jumped out of the saddle to open the gate of said fence. “You guys do realize that it’s been a whole year since you were here last, right? I’ve been living here! Did you really think I’d have insisted on coming here if it were still the ruin it was last fall?”

He held the gate open for everyone else to pass through. Before Andrew made it to the door, it was thrown open, and Lady Feleke ran outside. She hugged Andrew briefly and then turned to the horse Nathan was still tied to.

“Help me help him down,” she ordered Andrew.

Lane climbed out of the saddle herself and turned to the pack animal that carried Morgulon’s cubs. She gave her best to pretend she didn’t notice how Nathan tried to duck away before his mother could hug him. Nathan wouldn’t get far, seeing how he was depending on Andrew for support.

David picked up one of the baskets the cubs had travelled in and Lane carried the other one inside, down a short hallway and into a generously appointed, yet cosy sitting room. Baron Abraham Feleke pulled David into a brief, one-armed hug before he had even put down the basket. He then turned to Lane and bowed courtly.

“Countess deLande,” he greeted. “There’s a place ready for the – ah, younglings right here. And the mother, too, of course.”

Right next to the lounge seats, someone had prepared a big nest of blankets and pillows. Lane placed the basket in the middle, and gently let it topple over, so the cubs could crawl out.

“Will you keep an eye on them while I find Morgulon?” Lane asked David, who followed her example.

“I don’t think you need to,” Lord Feleke said.

Morgulon was already padding into the room. The she-wolf shuddered once and looked around warily, but settled down quite calmly with her young.

Thoko came inside with her mother, who glared at Morgulon once, and began to berate Thoko in a language Lane had never heard before. Thoko smiled, but rolled her eyes at the same time over whatever her mother had to say. Lane couldn’t understand her answer either, but by the time Greg and Lee joined them, fully dressed, Yamikani had stopped scowling.

Lane felt slightly awkward when she sat down on the couch next to David. This was the first time she ever saw the whole Feleke-family together like this, and the first time she faced David’s mother since they had announced their courtship, too.

Imani was staring a lot at her, even while Greg and Thoko told them all about their journey west, and the packs they had met in the mountains, and finally about how they had gone with Lenny to go see his daughter.

At dinner, it was David’s turn to explain what had happened at Oldstone Castle. Lane couldn’t help but grin when he tried to sum up the whole horror of fighting the Rot in three sentences, and Andrew took over instead to tell the story properly of how David had become “the hero of Oldstone Castle”. Even Nathan broke his gloomy silence to add a couple of things, and Lee chipped in with his perspective, too.

Both Lady and Lord Feleke raised their eyebrows when Andrew went on to tell them how Lane had informed them of Greg’s fatherhood the morning after the battle, and that David hadn’t given Greg any warning before. They didn’t comment on this, though, or much at all.

“So how long will you all stay?” Imani asked, once the dessert plates had been cleared away by a couple of servants who could not stop themselves from staring at Greg and Morgulon.

“I don’t know,” Greg said, when nobody else spoke. “David hasn’t told me yet where I’ve been slated to go.”

“That’s because I didn’t add you to the lists,” David replied. “I figured you’d either want to stay here or go back to First Camp, though ideally, you would go with Lee back into the Argentum Formation and try to convince more elders to help us.”

“We really need to work on you keeping the rest of us in the loop,” Andrew commented.

Greg didn’t look thrilled, but he nodded. He hesitated a second, glancing at Thoko, but said: “All right, guess I’ll go back into the mountains.”

“Awesome,” Lee said.

“Lane would like to stay here with Morgulon,” David continued, looking at her. “I told Morgulon that she is free to stay here with the babies, though we’d all appreciate her help if there’s another attack or any emergency involving the Rot.”

David paused, looking at his father, and added: “It might be really helpful if you could get yourself a telegraph connection. In case Morgulon is needed somewhere in a hurry.”

His parents just nodded.

“I’ll stay here as long as George Louis stays in Eoforwic and then go with him when he leaves for Deva,” David continued. “I’ll check in on the Lackland Company tomorrow, so Greg and Lee can take the day to prepare; I also need to brief them on what to tell the elder werewolves, but they should leave the day after tomorrow.”

Lane felt herself relax when she followed Lady Feleke after dinner to the room that had been prepared for her. Morgulon was settled down with her cubs and appeared more comfortable than Lane had expected her to be, considering that she was to sleep inside.

Lane was relieved, too. She had been worried about Lady Feleke’s reaction to her “engagement” to David, but at least Imani didn’t seem to hold it against her. The only one she now had to worry about was David himself. She didn’t like that he wanted to go to Eoforwic the very next day – he hadn’t taken a single day of proper rest since the battle.

But she would see what she could do about that tomorrow. For now, she went to bed.