Hannah

88

Hannah asked Max, Caspian and Holland to wait for her in the family room on the floor, Everything was quiet as she approached her fathers room. Stoking her fears that something was really wrong. Hannah, standing tall with her head up, bravely facing her fears.

She had steeled her nerves, wanting to be strong when she learned what had happened to her father. She stumbled when instead of her father dead or back in his semi conscious state; He was sitting up, in a large padded chair looking out the window. The quilt Judy had made by hand on his lap. A large touch screen with a keyboard under his left hand on the arm of the chair. Deloris was sat far on the opposite corner. Out of Colton's line of sight as he looked out the window, eyes moving back and forth like he was looking for something along the tree line and worried.

Hannah knocked at the open door, her father turned his head, most of a smile followed by a frown, then a profound sadness Hannah and Aspen could almost feel as she went towards her father. Lucid and sitting up in a chair, looking out a window for the first time in three years. He looked the same as yesterday, even better Aspen thought. 

Hannah's father typed on the screen, and the electronic speaker spoke for him. "Deloris, go. Please?" Deloris nodded at a shocked looking Hannah. Smiling and nodding at Aspen on her way by. Aspen took her place in the chair. All his hope returning that very moment. He hadn't been wrong.

"Dad?" Hannah questioned, sitting on the bench window seat. She didn't understand, he was calm, present, he was looking at her like she was his daughter. The same focus and love she had ached to see in his eyes every time life had gotten hard and there hadn't been anyone to catch her. This time when life felt hard, she knew there was an army's worth of men waiting to make sure she never fell.

Colton's eyes searched the room, landing on Aspen and seeing no one else. His finger went to the mute button on his screen, as he typed again. Only Hannah could see his words. 

I think I'm crazy Hannah. My eyes or my mind are gone. I'm seeing impossible things.

Hannah read the words her father had typed out. "What did you see?" She asked him he was on a wolf pack and a dragon had flown over the area just yesterday in the night. Emma was planning to take Deloris aside and reveal everything, except Deloris already knew she had accepted a contract on a wolf pack and was coming to protect Hannah and Colton if need be. She was a shifter and that was all she said. It would be rude to ask more. None of the wolves mentioned that Deloris smelled like whatever beast she had, so that did narrow down the variety,

No one had a chance yet to explain the exceptional nature of his new home to him. Hannah had wanted to make sure Colton settled in, one shock to his system at a time. Take things slow. Colton turned away. Not wanting to look at Hannah. As she took "Crazy people don't think they're crazy, you said that." Hannah told him, for three years starting when she was six, they had insane neighbors, the kind that stole flowers from gardens, apples from trees, walked their three dogs off leash and let them poop anywhere. As the tamer examples of their behavior. Everytime Colton had tried to talk to the neighbors to improve the peace of their community, the neighbors had reacted with such offense and pique that Colton had firmly decided that crazy, never knew it was crazy.

Colton looked at Hannah, looked at his Hannah. Remembering her learning to walk, and turn a cartwheel not long after. His fearless Hannah Banana. If he was going crazy, he need to spend as much of the time he had lucid left talking to Hannah. She might as well know what he had seen.

I saw three teenagers head towards the woods and they- There was a pause in his typing as Colton looked to the tree line, Hannah followed his eyes, and could see the path in the grasses and wild flowers that many feet had worn in the field and towards the deep woods. She suddenly had a better idea what it was that had upset her father. She shouldn't have waited, she should have made sure he knew that he might actually see people turn into wolves yesterday. 

While Colton's fingers were still hovering over the digital keyboard, Hannah took a guess. "You saw a bunch of teenagers walking into the woods and they changed into wolves and that's impossible?" Hannah said softly. Her dad's head slowly turned towards her, eyes wide in shock, so many questions on his face.

Hannah looked at her dad, and watched his eyes that were the same beautiful blue her own were, react to hearing Hannah tell him people turned into wolves. Eyes that were almost just like her own.  She should have told him everything yesterday. "Dad, I wasn't entirely honest before, about my relationships and our new home." Hannah started, before Aspen joined her, standing at her side for strength. Colton looked at Aspen with suspicious eyes. He had given his blessing to the slight man only yesterday. Clearly able to see that Hannah was happy with him, and Aspen was clearly devoted to Hannah. He did not enjoy learning that the first of four men now in a relationship had kept something from him.

Colton was doing his best to be the supportive dad he always said he would be. Just Hannah hadn't dated or introduced him to anyone, until yesterday. When his Hannah Banana told him she was essentially married to four men. Plus werewolves were real. "What is he." The robotic voice was the same monotone pitch and pace, Colton's eyes were aflame as he looked at Aspen.

"I am not a werewolf sir," Aspen said, as Hannah held her dads hand. "Two of Hannah's mates are. They both know in their heart and souls that Hannah was made to to be theirs to love and cherish all their lives. One of her mates is a dragon who has chosen her as his, no marriage would ever be stronger than his devotion to Hannah. I am of the woods, elf or fairy is easiest for you to get the general sense. I too have bound my soul to Hannah. She is ours and we are hers." Three heads leaned around the door frame as Aspen spoke. Looking in on Hannah and Aspen with her father. 

"I could feel you all sneaking up, you might as well come in." Hannah called over her shoulder. She should have done this yesterday. Hannah's father turned to the doorway. His brain struggling to meet all of Hannah's men, while still struggling to comprehend the teens who had streaked past his window before shifting into wolves and bounding into the forest as real werewolves. Not some trick of his mind as his brain turned to mush inside his skull. That two of Hannah's mates could do the same change, and what exactly did Aspen mean when he said one was a dragon and he was a fairy. He was left with so many more questions, and more than a healthy dose of skepticism. It might have been easier if he had just lost his mind.

"Dad, this is Max a wolf." Max waved at his father in-law and possible future step dad. "Holland, also wolf." Holland nodded at Colton.

"Max is also my mate." He announced, as though Colton didn't have enough to think about or process already, that he needed the granular details of his daughter's relationships interpersonal tangles.

"Yes, Holland and Max and I are all bonded, together, I can feel how much they love me and how much they love each other. Its wonderful." Hannah told her father. Who did not need nearly so many details about his daughter's love life.

"Caspian, is a dragon, his whole family can really, actually turn into dragons." Not entirely accurate, but Caspian knew better than to try and get all the facts right in one sitting. "Caspian wants to take care of everyone and he does it so well." Hannah praised Caspian. Making him near preen with pride. "And Aspen, his himself, he is exactly the man you met, just more in touch with the magic in nature, you like him, I know you do already." Hannah finished introducing all her mates as Colton looked at her like gravity might be working in reverse right now and everything was floating into space.

Not possible. He typed on his screen.