Page 31 of Branches of the Willow

“Are you okay?” Mikael spoke softly to me, and it was only then that I realized I had stopped walking to take in the sight of this woman, and what her belly meant.

I nodded my head. “I’m ok. It’s just a little overwhelming.” Mikael rubbed his fingers across my back to comfort me, before I finally pulled away, and walked closer to the woman... “Hello, I’m Jessica.”

“Allo.” The woman didn’t look up.

“You are Tatianna?” Upon hearing her name, she finally raised her eyes to mine.”

“You are,” she thought a moment, then shook her head and added, “lupul alb?”

“She’s asking if you are the white wolf.” Mikael offered the translation from behind me.

“Yes, I am.” I nodded my head to indicate that I was indeed the white wolf, since I wasn’t sure how much English she understood.

“Nu vreau sa pastreze copilul.” The woman’s eyes filled with tears, and I turned to look at Mikael, waiting for a translation. He appeared to be taken aback by her statement, whatever it was.

“What did she say?” I had to ask because he still hadn’t offered up a translation for me.

“She said she doesn’t want to keep the baby.”

When I turned back to Tatianna, shame colored her cheeks red, and she took my hands. “Please,” her accent was even thicker than Natalia’s had been. “It remembers me…” She was struggling to put her thoughts into English, but then continued. “Aceasta îmi aminte?te de ceea ce a avut loc.”

“It reminds me of what took place,” Mikael translated without being asked that time. He was trying to remain calm and neutral, but it was not a natural thing for our kind to abandon our young. Tatianna asking to give up her baby had a lot of stigma attached to the request. I understood how she felt though. If Zach had managed to have his way with me while I was still drugged, and possibly in heat, I’m not sure how I would feel about my pregnancy. The best thing I could do for Tatianna though, would be to honor her request.

“We will honor your choice, but maybe you should wait until you have the baby before you make a final decision.” I looked back at Mikael, and he offered up a translation to make certain Tatianna understood what I was saying.

“Thank you.” She managed, again with a thick accent that made it hard to understand. I turned to my mother then, who was still there beside the pregnant woman.

“Did you know?” My mother shook her head indicating that she did not. “I think Sierra will be needed after all. I will talk to her as soon as we are done here.”

I spent the next few hours getting to know most of the women, at least a little, and learning their stories. A few of them were added to my mental list of people to deal with sooner, rather than later. They were the ones that seemed to have developed Stockholm Syndrome, and were in love with their previous captors.

Ashley had come by to bring fresh clothing, blankets, and food with some of the other women from the pack. I had seen Asi come in with her, but now that I was ready to go, I looked around and noticed that the men were all absent. Well, all of them except Evan, who was off in a corner talking to Natalia.

“Where are the guys?” I asked Ashley.

“I sent them outside a while ago. Some of the women in here were starting to get that hungry look in their eyes, and I thought it best if those two were gone. Evan can fend for himself.” She laughed as she nodded in his direction. Another woman had walked up to talk to him, and Natalia was not having it as she quickly growled and sent the she-wolf on her way. Not surprisingly, the one who had made the attempt was on my ‘watch and be wary of’ list. “That’s the reason I thought it was best to send our men out. I’m not sure I’d care what they’ve been through if they tried to get their grubby little paws in my man, I might punch one of them.” Ashley eyed me for a moment. “Hell, you might punch somebody, too.”

I laughed. “Well, let’s just be thankful you had the foresight to send them away then, and call it good. Ashley and I made our way over to the door, and I called to Evan. “Hey, Evan, we’re heading out, are you coming?” He held up a finger and continued talking to the golden blonde. The last time I’d seen that look on Evan’s face, it had been aimed at me, in a club on the first night we met. It was strange how things had a way of working themselves out, and not always how you imagined it would go.

As soon as we got outside, we found Asi and Mikael talking with my father. “Well, what do you think?” My father asked me. My stomach betrayed me and growled out a loud protest about the fact that I hadn’t eaten since this morning.

“I have a list of women who cannot stay here, and who need to be transported to another pack as soon as possible. They may even need to be transported back to their homeland, but they may not stay here any longer than necessary.”

“That’s drastic, especially considering how the old capital is now on a steady influx to come here,” Evan mentioned, his brows furrowed with concern.

“I know that, but they have emotional connections to Antoine, Malachi, or both, and I wouldn’t put it past any of the ones on that list to do something stupid in order to earn more favor with Malachi. I also don’t trust them around the other women. Some women in their situation are victims, others are not, and others still would be the abusers too if given a chance. I want them gone before we begin the process of finding permanent homes for the rest of the women in there. The ones who made my list should not know where the others end up. That means they can’t go to the same packs, so keep that in mind too.”

“Okay, we’ll start making arrangements right away.” My father leaned in and kissed me on the top of my head. “Why don’t you guys head back to the house and get some dinner.”

“I still have to go see Sierra.”

“I think she can wait. Unless of course, you want Sierra to think you’re there to eat her. Your stomach has already given you away, and if you wait much longer it’s going to grow a mind of its own, and make you eat the first thing you see.”

I laughed at my dad. It’s the same thing he used to tell me when I was a little girl and didn’t want to stop playing to come in to eat.

“Seriously, your body’s been through enough, let’s get it taken care of today.”

“Yes, sir.” I turned to see if Mikael was behind me still, but he wasn’t there. Evan came strolling up though. “Mikael is going to be coming along in just a minute. He’s doing something for me.”

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