Hammers in the Shadows

Part One: Shadows and Ice - Chapter Nine

Six hours later I woke up with Kat snuggled in between myself and Anna, before we'd fallen asleep she'd cried her fears about the battle out to me and Anna and we'd found ourselves comforting the young pup until she managed to fall asleep.

I smiled at her as her eyes were closed and her face was calm and relaxed it reminded me just how young my fourteen-year-old cub was. I gently stroked her smooth forehead before looking over to my mate, who was also still fast asleep.

After looking at two of the most important females in my life so far, I sat up and climbed from the bed, as much as I wanted to lay there relaxing and enjoying my time with my family I knew there was still a lot that I had to do. We'd won the first battle, but I was no fool and I knew that the war, so to speak, was far from over. Without the assistance of our allies I'd probably mourning the death of more than the twelve cats that I'd felt die in the Pride Bonds in the past thirty-six hours.

I quickly dressed, grabbing my weapons belt and strapped it on without a second thought, since our Pride was effectively at war I would continue wearing it for the time being, until we were no longer under any threat.

After having a quick meal down in the dining hall, I headed up to medical, with a tray of food for both Zane, when he woke up, and Simone. They'd both done so much for the Pride that the least I could do for them was to bring them something to eat. When I walked in Simone was there and she turned her head and glared at me for a moment before she realized that I was carrying a heavy tray of food.

"Sorry, right now I'm a bit grouchy since my team leader is hurt." She told me, quickly coming over to relieve me of my heavy burden.

"That's okay Simone, I understand. Hell, I half expected you to growl at me." I told her before looking over to where Zane still slept in the bed, his chest wrapped in heavy white bandages. "He doesn't look to terrible, though he had help..." I said.

She nodded. "I hate seeing him down like this, but I understand that it comes with the territory." She told me as she set the tray down on a table and pulled one of the lids off. "Oh... this smells fabulous." She smiled picking up the provided utensils and began eating.

"Yes, our chef is rather skilled," I said with a smile, "I hope that with good food and plenty of rest Zane will heal quickly."

Simone nodded, though I could tell that she was currently mainly concerned with filling her growling stomach. "Mark, this should help, though don't be surprised if he's a complete grouch and a real pain in the ass for the next few days."

I nodded knowing what she was talking about. At the best of times my friend was... a bit prickly, but now that he was hurt I fully expected him to fit all of the stereotypes of a complete ass. "I can handle it Simone, I also know that since he's hurt most of the Enforcers in you team that are here are going to be a bit hard to handle, for the time being, so please, keep them in line."

Simone growled, and I could see that she was feeling pretty much as I'd expected. "Duh... two years at the Academy and we don't know how to handle being at a strange Pride... you think we are..."

"Simone!" I growled, putting a touch of my command presence into my growl, "I am merely saying that while Zane is down you are in charge..." I told her before I turned. "You will let me know when he wakes up?"

I could see the fire of her wolf in her eye but she bowed her head slightly, acceding to my dominance. "Yes, Pride Lord I will." She said before I left the room and closed the door behind me. Until Zane woke up I knew that she'd be as touchy as a she-bear with a bee-stung nose.

Since I knew that she was liable to stay that way for the next little while I headed down to security where my father, who'd also recently woken up from his own nap, Alexander, and Jerome were sitting around the table that we used to map our movements. It wasn't anything like that which was used by Wild Valley, but it had to do. We'd made it here by simply placing a highly-detailed map of our territory underneath a glass surface which we could mark on with erasable markers.