A Birth day

Jack smiled and looked at Angus as he held Moria he glanced behind Angus as he caught movement smiling more as he saw Fenrir's pack moving to grab as many of toms men and hold them he never took his eyes off the others as Fenrir walked out and spoke to Angus then to him " oh we got plenty of fresh meat, nice and frozen just for you2 he said now grinning wide. He knew nothing but the fear of Fenrir would happen to them. " oh I'll take great pleasure with this one, no alpha female or male hunts on ur pack lands" he said close to her ear even though she could not move he knew she could hear him as he played along with Fenrir's plan.

Aria chuckled and looked to Ruby " its all good Fenrirs here and I think if Im not mistaken has a plan" she added as she sat back down still with Diamond in her arms. Ruby placed a now calm Caprice in the pen to play happily as she looked out the window seeing Jack holding Moria close to him but not hurting her in any way.

Angus was scanning the faces of Fenrir's pack, and he recognized Dennis, the girls' biological father. He had one of Tom's large goons under control, but the man stupidly tried to escape from him. Dennis managed a fierce werewolf growl, took hold of the man's head and gave his neck a quick snap. The man fell limp into the snow, out cold. Angus was concerned for a moment.

"He's not dead," Edward told him very softly. "The big git's fainted. Brave, that one. What few seers abilities I have are still telling me he's very much alive.

"You know where to take them," Fenrir said. His pack men nodded.

"Why don't you tag along with me?" Dennis called to Jack. When Jack was with them, the men began apparating out, and Dennis took Jack along with him. They got to a London slum, and in an alley was a livestock lorry waiting, with the engine running.

"Get in there," Dennis told their 'hostages. "We're hungry."

"You're not going to...You can't just...we're all human, after all...." one of Tom's thugs stammered.

"You might be, but we're not," Dennis said darkly. "You're just a lowly human. We're werewolves, or have you forgotten already? Get in there." He pointed to the back of the lorry and the other people from Fenrir's pack forced the hostages into the truck. When they were all loaded, two of Fenrir's pack slammed the doors shut and locked them. Dennis tossed the truck keys to a friend of his from Fenrir's pack. He looked at Jack, and they walked a few steps away from the lorry.

"Two things," he told Jack. "When you live outside year round, you aren't moved much by weather. We can navigate this better than you can because we've had to. You lot aren't safe to do this. We are--but we sure do appreciate not being out in the cold after that tainted meat we got. Anyway, in case you're wondering, the lorry will drive them around for awhile until they're cold and sufficiently lost and afraid. Then we'll turn the lot of them over to the aurors. That will delay them coming back probably until the storm's over because the aurors don't come out in this crap. So once we get back to the estate, you'll probably be able to safely kick your boots off for awhile and relax. You all did good today--real good. That could have gone to hell in a moment, but it didn't. Your crew makes the aurors look like nothing more than a clean up crew, but maybe thats' how it should be. Oh, and when you see Donohue again, tell him that my girls could never be in safer hands. He's a good man. My dad would have said he's got one hell of a lot of moxie, but he's got even better friends. Let's go home, shall we?"

Jack held Monica and watched Angus with Dennis whom he recognised. when he was asked to go with them he nodded "Oh I would not pass up this morsel" he said inwardly chuckling to himself as he was having so much fun. He watched as Dennis made a man pass out, his ears picking up the faint heartbeat from the unconscious man he knew he would be okay once he cleared himself up.

He heard Dennis call to him and nodded "Of course this will be a feast." he said chuckling as he carried Monica over his shoulder over to where they stood glancing with a grin at Angus as he passed by him, " this shouldn't take long" he said to him as Dennis Aperated them away.

Apearing in London Jack still held Monica he saw a livestock lorry waiting and walked over to it with Dennis who made the men climb in he dumped Monica on the floor of the lorry stepped back and grinned at them men inside as Dennis spoke to them before indicating he wanted to talk once the back doors were shut. Walking with him to a point they could not be eavesdropped on by the men he listened to him talk and chukled. He listened to him explain how they were not affected as much by the snow storm and was relived.

" I exspected as much but I think Robert just wanted the older members of your pack to be safe after what they went threw, its what he does, and we pretty much use them the same way, and I will but you know they will always be part of your pack, Angus has always maintained their connection to the pack, no matter what it entailed." he told him

"I do know," Dennis nodded. "The girls' mother would be proud of them for how well they're doing. I still get an owl from them every week. They've never forgotten. She'd be so proud of them for making into Beauxbatons. She always wanted them to have what she believed was a better life. She still believed a human's lifestyle was better than the werewolf life that we had. She did it only to stay with me, and I understand that. She wanted different for the girls, though. She'd be happy at how they've turned out, and I honestly think she'd have liked those lads they've taken up with. They're good boys, who aren't afraid to work hard or to defend their family. I think they're gonna do alright together. Oh and speaking of families. The next time you get up towards the longhouses, one of our young males told me they saw a really young wolf pup early this morning, and it was by itself. No sign of a female around. I don't know if its mother died or what the story was, but I know you're interested in such things. You might want to keep your eyes open for a wee little pup. I don't know if it has somewhere its weathering this out or not, but if it doesn't you and I know things won't go well for it at all. I haven't seen it, but I'll keep my eyes open for it too. Come on. I'll apparate us home. You probably have a warm fire to go back and enjoy just like I do."

Jack listend to Dennis and nodded as he spoke of Ginger and Anise's mother being proud of them for getting into the school she ahd hopedthey would go to. Then he spoke of Sam and Victor and he chukeld " oh they are good guys, Angus sees to that , He makes sure they treat the girls right and not like their father did" he said " but I 've seen how those two are with the girls and , yeah they will be good to them"

Hearing the mention of the wolf cub he looked to Dennis and nodded " I'll come back now and search for it, can't leave the little thing out in the cold" he said " when I find it I'll make sure those youngun's know and thank them for saving its life by letting you know." he added then chuckled " far from it I have a barn full of animals that need feeding and the wolf cub to track down now" he told him " besides I hate sitting around , I prefer to be out and about."

"He can't be more than about three to four weeks at best. Barely has his eyes open, according to the guys. They say he looks like he weighs just a couple pounds, and if that's the case, he's probably a runt. Mama might have abandoned him. A pup at that age should be 3 to 5 pounds. 2 is too small," Dennis told him. "If I'd have seen him, I'd have grabbed him up, but I haven't seen him myself. If you find him, I definitely will let them know. I know you know that if he's been abandoned by his mom, he's probably going to need to be hand reared, bottle fed, the whole bit, if he's gonna survive."

He apparated them back to the estate and landed them within eyesight of the longhouse. "Good luck with your hunt for the pup," Dennis said. "Let us know if you need a hand finding him." He went into the longhouse to get warm.

Angus had gotten to finish supper now that the estate was quiet again, and with supper overwith, Simone was working on clearing the table. Sam and Victor were a bit frustrated that Angus had told them to stay inside, but they'd done as he'd asked. Now, they headed to the showers and then back to their puzzle upstairs. Edward had made a cup of Irish coffee and had settled in by the fire with the day's newspapers. Simone had a sweater for one of the girls she was trying to hurry and finish crocheting by Christmas so she was planning on getting back to it. Angus knew he had ordered some paperback books that were Christmas murder mysteries, and he was trying to remember what the heck he had done with them. He wasn't finding them on the bookshelf, so, for him, the hunt was on. And Marcus was playing a game of solitaire at the desk. They hadn't had a night to pursue their own interests in a long time. In a way, it was nice for a change.

Jack listened to Dennis and chuckled " not a proble I've done it befoe with Kates help" he said as he was apperated to the long house. Standing there he nodded " I'll talk to teh guys about where they saw it last, something that young won't stray too far from there" he said " I'll let you know if I find it" he said and turned to find the two young ones who had told dennis about the cub. Finding them he got the information on where they saw it last then headed out to find it. Closing in on the location he could hear faint wimpers hiden in the sound of the wind. Walking towards it he found the small cub curlled under a bush trying to hid from the harsh cold winds.

" its all right" he said as he knelt next to it " i'm going to take you some place warm with lots of food" he spoke softly to it taking off his scarf he wrapped the cub in it and gently picked up the half frozen cub placing it inside his jacket to warm it as he began the long wak back to the long house.

Entering he went to the fire and lifted out the cub and let it lay by the fire as the two boys walked over to him.

"What are you looking for?" Edward finally looked at Angus and frowned.

"I bought some Christmas mystery paperbacks last year that I didn't get to, and I was hoping to find one," Angus said. "They're not hear, though."

"You mean the ones you finished by Halloween because you were bored and gave to the girls? Those Christmas books?" Edward laughed.

"I finished them already?" Angus frowned.

"You had a stack of four or five of them and you got irked because the book you were reading was a dud. So you decided to break out the books early and read through them all before Halloween had even hit."

"Oh, crap. I forgot. Well, so much for that," Angus said. Edward accio'd a large, thick book.

"Here. Try this," Edward said. "Merry Christmas just a little early." Angus picked up the book and looked at it. It was a book that held five full sized mystery novels in the same book. "That should carry you through a couple days, I should think."

"This is terrific," Angus beamed. "Thank you."

"Or you could join Simone crocheting," Edward teased.

"Um, no. Definitely not," Angus said. "I've watched her do it, and it still makes no sense how you can loop string around a stick and come out with a sweater. I really would not be good at that."

"You mean there's something that I can do that you can't?" Simone teased Angus.

"Oh, Simone, you have no idea. I'm such a one trick pony. I cook. That's it. This is just a house full of continuously empty teenagers so all you see me do is cook," Angus laughed.

"Be careful, or you just might give me ideas for Christmas," she said.

"Do not buy me yarn and a hook," Angus scowled. "Don't even go there."

Aria chuckled listening to the men talking he placed down a tile made a word and lay it on the board as did Ruby crossing Arias word doubling her points before she looked up to see Angus with a large book " that I think will last a few days." she said smiling to Angus " he loves his books" Aria looked up at Marcus and frown at him.

"that reminds me what do I get for you fo christmas , not like you don't have everything already" she said now deep in thought over what to get him. " the kids are already coming for christmas , so can't do that, ex is locked up so thats done, not much left" she siad and chukled hoping he might give her some idea.

"Well, honestly," Marcus said, "there's only one thing I want, and I think it should be relatively easy to do. I just want an old fashioned, traditional family Christmas with my family, and without Evelyn and her drama. That's all."

"So tell me. Are you a turkey fan for Christmas or roast beef?" Angus aske

"Prime rib, if i had my choice," Marcus said.

"Brussel sprouts?"

"Hell, no. Yorkshire Pudding."

"Trifle?"

"What? Where are you from? Christmas pudding, of course."

"I was raised with the feast of the seven fishes," Angus laughed.

"Well, that explains it. No self respecting Brit does fish for Christmas," Marcus said. That made Angus laugh out loud.

"Laugh if you want, but I'm with Marcus," Simone said. "I rather like a traditional old fashioned Christmas too. Stockings hung on the fireplace, presents under the tree. The whole bit."

"We're not dressing up for Christmas. I refuse," Edward said. "I've always wanted just one Christmas where everyone got to stay in their pajamas all day long."

"Well, now that's pushing it a bit too far," Marcus frowned. "Why not just all be naked, then?"

"Why? Because it's not pretty," Edward said. That made them laugh