Into The Mountains(COMPLETED)

Chapter Thirten~Epilogue

Jennie POV

I missed solar's advice, and her calm assurances. The few times I'd allowed myself to think about birthing Lisa and I's pups, I'd been reassured by the assumption that she'd be there. She'd told me how long I'd be pregnant, when I'd feel certain things. It was hard at first to even believe she was dead. It seemed like she'd just taken a long trip, and she'd be back anytime. I'd think of things I wanted to tell her when I saw her again, and then have to remind myself that was never going to happen. 

The first few days were tense, there were several fights. Many had died, and still more suffered in those first few days while the pack pecking order got shuffled around and reestablished. It seemed brutal to me, for people capable of reasoning to act that way. Hanbin wasn't disturbed at all though. He was in two more fights, and only received very minor injuries. Of course, he didn't have protective fur or thick werewolf skin, so to receive a good strike from one of them would have been far more devastating than for another werewolf. I'd seen him fight only once at home, but I imagined these battles were far harder and required far more use of his brain to keep himself from harm.

Thankfully, Hanbin had a good head on his shoulders as well as strength behind him.  I knocked on Han's door, I checked on him every night to be sure he didn't need tending to. Hanbin cleared his throat. "I'm fine Jen." He called, voice deeper with whatever trouble he was feeling.  I laid my head against the door, I figured I knew what it was about. "Invite me in Han." I told him soothingly through the door. "I know you're upset."  Hanbin grunted. "Fine, come on in then." He was sitting on the bed we'd set up for him, arms crossed behind his head as he sat propped up against the wall.

He looked like he might have been crying, but he'd wiped off his face and had a deep, sad frown on his face.  I got up onto the bed with him, sitting, and I took his hand in my lap. "Solar made an impact with a lot of people Han, you don't have to hide that you miss her and feel bad that she's dead."  Hanbin forced a small smile. "I didn't know her for very long, I'll be alright Jen. I can't shake some of the rules of home. I wouldn't be allowed to mourn her there, so it feels awkward for me to do so here. Her wife has every right to mourn her." 

"And her friends. And you were a friend." I rubbed the back of his hand with my thumb. "A very good friend. It's not as though her husband doesn't know she was closer to some than others, that you and she were close since you'd arrived." I pulled him into a hug. "At least let yourself mourn her when you're alone and when you're with me."  "Alright Nini. Favorite brother." Hanbin mumbled against my hair, and I smiled though I knew we were both crying a little. Solar was certainly worth our tears.  At first, I wasn't sure what was happening.

About the third or fourth time I felt it in half so many days though, I remembered what Solar a told me about when certain things would happen in my pregnancy. I was feeling the babies move within me, their size having finally gotten large enough that I could feel them. After a few days I knew about when I'd feel them move, that they responded to when I ate and was then still for a while. I found myself eating and then sitting on the couch reading, waiting for the little fluttering kicks.  Something about being able to feel them there and not just the effects they had on my body was exciting.

One day I couldn't help myself and I got a very nice, wolf style cradle for the babies that would sit right up against our bed. I lined it with rabbit furs. I sat on Lisa's and I's bed, knitting them a blanket. It wasn't until I heard the front door open and I knew it would be Lisa that I blushed, realizing she'd find this sudden interest in the pups odd. "I'm in the bedroom!" I called to her still, knowing she'd be looking for me. Lalisa walked in, uninjured. Well, not sporting any new injuries. As things began to settle, and she was no longer the hunting party's flogging girl, she was coming home uninjured more and more often. She looked at me, and a wolfish grin lit her features.

"That's new." She said, looking at the cradle. "And that is an awful warm smile you have on your face."  "I like when you come home in one piece and I don't have to fetch my sewing kit." I told her teasingly. I pat the bed next to me. "Do you like the cradle? I've seen it a few times at Bora's, and I just had to get it today. I couldn't leave it there anymore. It felt like ours already, with how much I looked at it." I laughed and felt a fluttering kick. "Ooo! Come sit, come sit!" I told her. 

She crossed to the bed and sat down next to me, a particularly loving expression warming her gaze as she looked at me. She nuzzled against me as she settled onto the bed at my side. "Can you feel them?" She asked, excitement hidden behind her gruff tones.  "Yes." I said excited. "You might be able to too, that's why I wanted you to sit." I put her hand on my belly, which was now quite noticeable. I had just over a month out of three to go though, and they'd pick up the growing pace during this final stretch, I was told. There was another fluttering under her hand and I grinned at her, lifting my eyebrows in question, hoping she'd felt it. 

She didn't have to say anything. She had a large wolfish grin spread across her face. She lowered her muzzle to my stomach and pressed it against my belly as there was another kick. A moment later she lifted her head and pressed it against mine. "Our pups." She said proudly. "I love you, Jen."  I hugged her tightly, pushing my face into the fur of her neck. "It's so exciting." I told her in a whisper. "Still scary, maybe more scary, but it's so exciting." I nuzzled the side of her face. "I love you too."