Tatum and Henry
3. Initiis Novis

I hadn’t fully unpacked the car when I arrived at Genevieve’s, so it was a quick shove of clothes back in their bags when we finally got to move into our own little three-bedroom place at Waning Moon.

Alpha Quade generously gave us a house to live in on Waning Moon territory, and my only payment was teaching weapons classes on Saturday mornings. He also had his gamma sell my car in another state and then bought me a deep blue Toyota corolla.

I stroll through their small training room with a delta, giving her instructions as to what I wanted for the training room. I had visited Genesis pack, and from my observations, my mates pack had outstanding training facilities, and I wanted a smaller version of that.

From the conversation I had with Delta Commander Eamon, he was very keen to implement my suggestions for the pack. I was pleased that they had recently purchased two holo-rooms, Commander Eamon telling me we had some very cute water fay from Portersmouth coming in to install them.

“Men?” I ask cheekily. Eamon looked at me shocked.

“No, well, there were men, but one, Arial, she was very pretty,” Eamon had gushed. I laugh at what one of the deltas who had overheard our conversation had asked, ‘did she have red hair?’ It turns out she was blonde, but still, it made me laugh.

“And I want this storeroom to have shelves and prongs put in the walls for weapons, and I want a steel door installed with a keypad lock,” I say, pointing to a storeroom that currently held boxes. I watch as the delta, Jenny, I think her name is, wrote it all down.

“Who does she think she is?” I hear a voice sneer from the other side of the room. I turn and see three male werewolves watching me.

“Is there a problem?” I ask, walking over to them. All three men are tall, but not as tall or built as my mate.

“What is a human doing ordering things for this building?” another wolf asks, looking down at me.

I smile. Even though I’ve had a baby a few months ago, my best friend and commanding delta’s sister, Thea, from my old pack, encouraged me back into training and getting my pre-baby body back. And I may be human, but I’m really good at weapons use. I’m better than most of the wolves from my mate’s pack when it comes to weaponry. I’ve had good teachers.

“I’m your new weapons trainer,” I admit. The three scoff.

“Are you any good?” they ask. I pull one of my throwing knives out of my pants that I keep on me and run my finger down the blade.

“Do you want me to prove it?” I ask them, tilting my head. The first one rolls his eyes.

“Sure,” he states.

I walk over to one of the four target practices they already have aligned against one of the walls in the building. I’ve ordered another four and have already spoken to Commander Eamon about setting up some target practices out in the forest.

“Three tries. Top score wins,” I smile, offering him my knife. He goes to take it when I move it away.

“Careful, my stepfather had all my knives coated in silver for protection,” I state.

“Why, was your stepfather a hunter?” another wolf from behind us asks.

“No,” I reply, shaking my head, “he was a werewolf,” I smile, giving the male wolf a wink.

I offer my competitor my six knives, and he takes them from me, lining them all up on the bench in front of the target. He takes his time, and slowly throws the knives one by one. I watch his technique and notice that he’s holding the knives all wrong.

“Score!” he calls out when he finishes. One of his friends runs over and collects my knives.

“Eleven,” his friend calls out. They both whoop, happy with the results.

“Your turn, missy,” he smirks, taking a step back and folding his arms as he watches me, a smug look on his face. His pose reminds me of Henry.

I collect my knives and place them all in my hand.

“Conventional half-spin,” I state, looking at him. I fist half of the knife, aiming where I want it to go, before swinging it above and behind my shoulder, letting each knife slide out of my hand in quick succession.

“Happy face,” I smile, looking at the delta. He grumbles which makes me smile more. I had thrown my knives to make a happy face on the target.

“Thirty-two,” his friend calls out, bringing back my knives.

“My names Tatum, by the way,” I say offering him my hand.

“Liam,” he says, shaking mine. His friends then introduce themselves, laughing.

“When are your classes?” he then asks.

“Saturday mornings to begin with, once the weapons come in,” I smile.

<<||//||\\||>>

Jed was eager to get to school and make some new friends. The training classes for the younger children were okay, but they didn’t really cater for Jed’s ability, so during the last week of the holidays, Alpha Quade spoke with Alpha Thornton, the Alpha of Genesis pack, for Jed to do training classes with his pack instead.

The school Alpha Quade enrolled Jed into is on the boarder of both Waning Moon and Genesis pack’s territory, on neutral ground in Sefton. So the students at the school were a mixture of wolves and from both packs and humans. Jed had already made good friends with William, Margot’s son, and they were thick as thieves. It made me smile.

I had discussed my ‘dreams’ with Alpha Quade and he understood my need to go back to high school. Like Jed’s school, it sat between the boarders, and was actually on the same road as Jed’s school, just a few blocks away. The best part of the high school, though, was that it had a creche for the older students and teachers.

It turns out I was not the only one with a baby, which made it easier for me to fit my schooling in and spend time with my little girl.

>>Nine Months Later<<

“Jed!” I call out as I walk to my school gate. This is my last week of school before I had two weeks off for study and then exams. Jed and I had fallen into a good routine. I dropped him off at school in the mornings, then dropped off Rhiannon at the school creche before I went to school myself. Then in the afternoons Jed walked to my school and waited for my classes to finish, and then we picked up Rhiannon together.

“Tate!” Jed smiled as I walked up to him, enveloping me in a hug.

“Lets go get my niece,” he smiles, giving me his bag and running off towards the creche. I smile as I watch him run through the creche gates and into the building.

I follow him in and say hi to Evelyn, the receptionist, signing both Jed and I into the building. Rhiannon, typically, sat on a mat with the older children all cooing at her. She turned one last week and was already able to walk a few steps at a time before falling with a plonk onto her bottom.

“She’s clever, and popular,” Miss. Skyla, one of the early childcare teachers says as she walks up to me.

“Just like her dad,” I smile. Rhiannon was looking more and more like Henry, with her straight dark brown hair and light blue eyes. She had his eyebrows, eyes and lips, but my nose and face shape.

“Mama!” Rhiannon smiles when she sees me, placing both her arms up in the air so I can pick her up. I shake my head and smile.

“You can walk, lazy,” I reply, smiling and going over to her and hoisting her up onto my hip.

“How was she today?” I ask Miss. Skyla. Miss. Skyla smiles.

“Butter melts in her mouth, everyone adores her,” Miss. Skyla states. I smile. Rhiannon always has a twinkle in her eye that people are attracted to.

“Thanks,” I reply.

“Jed!” I call out, ready to leave. Jed walks out from a group of girls and runs over to me.

“He’s a charmer too,” Miss. Skyla says. I shake my head and nod, Jed loves coming here not only to see his beautiful niece, but to get attention from all the four-year old girls here.

“It starts young,” I admit.

“So I won’t see Rhiannon next week?” Miss. Skyla asks.

“No. I am studying for my exams and then she’ll only come in when my exams are on, and then, university,” I say, smiling. Skyla is a she-wolf and is a year older than me, so she finished her schooling two years ago. She hasn’t found her mate yet, and we’ve become fast friends.

//\\//\\//\\

Rhiannon and I drop Jed off at school in the mornings before returning home so I can study. I’ve had to get a playpen for her, which I feel a little guilty about, actually, but she’s begun walking and opening cupboards, getting into everything. I caught my sassy little lass in the flour and had to wash it all out of her hair. Flour and water equals paste, so it wasn’t the easiest to get off. At least it wasn’t nappy cream, I guess.

My phone begins ringing it and I answer.

“Tatum!” Vas greets on the other end of the phone.

“Vas,” I smile.

“What are you doing next week on Saturday?” she then asks. It’s my birthday next week on Saturday. I had thought about taking Jed and Rhiannon out to McDonalds for dinner as a treat but hadn’t thought about it any further.

“Why?” I ask, knowing what her intentions are.

“Well Margot and I are inviting you round to her house for a barbecue dinner, no if’s or buts,” she says.

“Oh, but Vas, you shouldn’t…” I begin.

“Uh uh, we’ll see you at six,” she says, hanging up. I smile. Margot and Vas have both become very good friends of mine, and with Jed being friends with Margot’s son William, and Zoe following Rhiannon around everywhere, getting together felt like being with family.

It also helps that I work for Vas’s mate at his packs café, ‘The Coffee Den.’ As I already knew how to make coffees, they didn’t have to train me, the only upskilling I got was baking tips from Sylvie, another werewolf from Waning Moon, and I often help her now with the baking for the café.

“Guess what we’re doing on the weekend?” I ask Rhiannon as I pick her up from her playpen. She tilts her head in question.

“We’re going to see Zoe,” I smile.

“So-ee,” Rhiannon states, and I grin.

//\\//\\//\\

After training I change out of my sports clothes and head for the pack day-care centre. I work every Saturday from eight to three, training the pack on their throwing, baton, and archery skills. I used to finish at twelve, but as those I trained got better, more pack members wanted to upskill in weaponry use as well.

I hear laughter from a side door as I walk out of the change rooms, and I stop to greet the wolves coming into the pack house.

“Tatum!” they cry out when they see me. Liam, the same Liam I competed against with knife throwing at the beginning of the year picks me up and throws me over his shoulder, spinning me around in a circle. I squeal and hit him on the back before he finally lets me down.

“How was it?” I ask him and Jude, the other wolf he had walked in with.

“It was so good, that idea of getting a model racing car and making it a target is great!” Liam smiles.

“Only thing is, is that he’s really bad at destroying the things,” Jude admits. I smile. I had asked for a couple of towers to be built in the forest, like the ones at my mates' pack, so our warriors could practice shooting and throwing their knives at different heights.

The towers were good, some were just platforms built onto trees and some were stand-alone platforms with a railing round all four sides. But I wanted to challenge it up, and asked if we could purchase some remote control cars and make them running targets. This became very popular amongst the pack, and already we were going through more cars quicker than our members could build or fix them. But I felt they were essential if we were ever protecting our land from the trees.

“I’m thinking we stick a balloon to the top of each car and have that the target, less damage,” I say. Liam’s eyes light up.

“That’s a great idea,” he says.

“Good, go tell Commander Eamon and suggest it,” I say, smiling.

“I’m going to tell him that it was my idea,” he calls out as he takes off. I laugh and pick Rhiannon up from daycare before heading out to Margot’s.