Coming of Age Ch. 09

"Yes... Serenity and Crystal are training her, they are both very high ranking in Wolf Haven Pack." Nhor commented.

"Of course the Next Alpha and her mate need to be strong warriors." Curtis agreed, Wolfgang had called the moment he knew Serenity's influence woke and explained that they hadn't known when petitioning for their children to be allowed on his land. Curtis had seen no harm in letting the young Next Alpha remain, and got a second call to warn him of Bastion coming and that he was mated to his other daughter and finally that Serenity and Crystal were mates. He was secretly pleased that Wolfgang had taken the time to call himself to inform him of each change, knowing that the Alpha was a very busy man. Curtis generally had a low opinion of Were Alphas but he was really starting to like Wolfgang and his family.

****

Serenity was curled up in the bay window reading a book with Crystal's head in her lap. The house was quiet and its inhabitants had finally settled into a relatively normal college life. Temperance walked into the room, "Hey... anyone want to go to the park and fool around?" She asked hopefully.

"Bored?" Crystal asked although she didn't open her eyes.

"A little itchy," Temperance replied.

Serenity looked inside her mind, her beast wasn't as impulsive as her sisters, but it would never give up a chance to be in its skin. "Have you asked the others if they would like to come?"

"I'll go ask," Temperance was suddenly out of the room.

"I am so glad she isn't my mate," Crystal stated.

"hey that's my sister," Serenity complained.

"And I am so glad I got the sane twin." Crystal added before she opened her eyes, "do you blame me? Your sister is on the nuts side."

"Says the woman whose idea of cutting loose is to mix spirits with her blood," Temperance stated as she re-emerged crossed her arms.

Crystal glanced to Temperance and glared. "If I remember correctly it was you who spiked my blood."

Temperance shook her head, "Nope it was Sage."

"I still bet you put her up to it," Crystal sat up. "Are we going to the park or not?"

Sky raced in after pulling on a sweater, "Hell yeah. I would love to see you guys up close."

"I'm in," Thais stated, "as is everyone else. We are going to have to hook up the trailer for Nhor."

"I'll go back the SUV up to it." Han said as he grabbed his keys. It took half an hour to get to the park which was only ten minutes away. Bastion had insisted on packing a basket with hot thermoses and snacks and now that they were out here those who felt the cold were glad.

The park was an area where Were could go to let their beasts out if they didn't have the time to go out to the forests, most if not all towns and cities had at least one 'park' dedicated to Were although humans and other non-humans were more than welcome to come. There were rules of course to prevent dangerous fights but play fighting was common as it let the beast expel built up energy. There were special stalls so that people could strip down and change, the triplets headed straight for them with Bastion and Han following. The others set up on a set of benches as Nhor went for a good gallop.

Temperance and Serenity were the first out of the changing booths, both in their hybrid forms as they knew their animal forms wouldn't be able to fit in the booth. Their brother followed them out also in hybrid form, once outside all three shifted into their animal forms.

"How do you tell them apart?" Sky asked.

Crystal studied the twins as they stretched, a few months ago Crystal would have said by the markings on their faces now the difference was more noticeable. "Serenity is bigger than Temperance." She said pointing to each twin.

Myth nodded, "that is the Alpha in her, they are always bigger. Before you could only tell the difference by looking at their foreheads. Temperance has three stripes two thick one thin and Serenity has two thick stripes."

Thais was off sniffing at everything and scent-marking over other scents. Temperance bounded off playing in the last of the autumn leaves. Bastion raced off to play with her as Han ambled over to the trees. Serenity went up to one of the hardwood posts that was concreted into the ground and started to sharpen her nails against the wood. The posts were for just this purpose and were to protect the trees from cats and bears destroying the parks wood land.

Sky turned to the basket, "I hope Bastion packed coffee or hot chocolate." She started to rummage around in the basket but stilled when she felt a hot blast of air against the back of her head. Turning she came face to face with Serenity. "Very funny, what do you want?"

"Probably a scratch, cats love it," Crystal explained and started to scratch roughly at Serenity's body causing the big cat to start purring. Sky started to scratch as well as did Jasmine and Rachel. There was a growl and suddenly Temperance was wanting the same attention and managed to nudge her sister out of the way. Serenity growled and went to push her sister out of the way.

"Jasmine, Sky, Rachel, hands up... if they are going to fight over you they don't get scratched." Crystal said firmly to her friends. Serenity chuffed and head butted her sister's side basically saying, see what you did. They moved away from their friends and started to play fight. People stopped and watched the two big cats as they playfully wrestled, it wasn't often that people got to see Sabre tooths since there were only five of them. Other Were in the park got down wind of the twins and sniffed the air to get their scents.

Thais playfully joined the fray and with Temperance, ganged up on their larger sibling. Serenity playfully swiped at her brother and when he was down she covered his body with hers and yawned widely, showing off her teeth. Temperance did the same, it was nonverbal communication and basically meant, look at my teeth aren't they big, and since they were no longer cubs their teeth were very impressive.

"How do they hunt with those teeth?" Jasmine asked.

"Hey Ren, open wide," Crystal called out. Serenity turned to her friends and opened her mouth all the way her bottom jaw almost unhinging to a 180 degree angle.

"Comparative to other big cats their bite strength isn't as strong but it is considerably stronger than that of true sabre tooth tigers according to palaeontologists. They go for the neck and once their teeth are in, they lock their jaw and hold on tight; since they are big their prey can't fight. Generally their prey dies from suffocation or blood loss." Crystal explained as Serenity closed her mouth.

"They are ambush predators, they generally find a spot, a tree that can handle their weight, a ledge, hell I even saw Ash use a gully. They wait and wham they attack." Myth added.

"How did Amy even turn into one?" Rachel asked as the triplets went back to their mock fight.

"A question even she wants an answer for. The same palaeontologists say that although they have pronounced eye teeth like Smilodon; that is where the similarities end." Crystal explained.

Rachel had her tablet out and was quickly googling so she could see what Crystal was talking about. "Tail is too long, body too long, they were believed to be covered with spots rather than stripes."

Crystal nodded.

"But I thought Were were meant to look different to their animal cousins." Jasmine stated.

"Look at Thais and Bastion, disregard their size, if you knew they weren't Were and saw them in the wild you would see wolves, only an expert would be able to tell you that they weren't wolves but back in the day they would have assumed that the reason was the local wolf population had bred with domesticated dog breeds." Crystal added.

"Back in the day... before the great reveal," Sky assumed.

Myth grinned, "which one, there have been two."

"The first one in the 1900's," Sky stated as if it was a given.

"Yep, and since then Were worked on getting their non-Were cousins protected and getting their own Were cousins out of captivity and back to their homes." Myth added.

Sky shivered, "If I knew it was going to be this cold I would have stayed at home, who wants a hot drink."

"Yes please." Rachel agreed eagerly.

Sky opened the first thermos and took a deep breath, "Hot chocolate."

"Ick..." Crystal said as she grabbed another thermos and opened it, "Coffee."

Rachel put out cups, "I'll have hot chocolate." She said as she offered a cup to Sky. Crystal grabbed a cup and poured herself a coffee. Once everyone had their hot drinks they huddled together and watched the Were play.

Nhor joined them after a good long run. "Any left?" He asked as he gestured to the two thermoses.

"Bastion packed six. Two hot chocolate and four coffee." Jasmine answered, "What's your poison?"

"Coffee," Nhor answered and was handed a whole thermos. They chatted about little things as they watched their friends play.

Sky grinned and laughed with her friends, a few years ago she would never have believed she would be in this situation. Having grown up in a HSL compound she had been conditioned to believe anyone who wasn't human was evil and they were out to get her. The government stepped in and took her out of the compound nearly three years ago as well as all the children. They had raided the compound because there were allegations of child sexual abuse, confirmed when they found out that girls as young as fifteen were being married off to men twice their age. Sky herself was to be married to their compound's leader. At the time she hadn't minded, now however she was glad the feds had stepped in and saved her from that fate. The leader and many others including her parents had been put in jail between the teddy bears picnic and the sex crimes convictions.

Laughing and joking with friends who actually could relate to her outside of the whole 'compound' was refreshing and a hell of a lot more rewarding. She just wished her aunt could be alive to see how far she had come. Sky suddenly frowned as she felt as if she were being watched, since the adoption her fight and flight senses had become sharper, slowly like Crystal had taught her to do she let her eyes scan the parked cars and people slowly.

"Sky... earth to Sky..." Jasmine said.

Sky made the same hand gesture Crystal had shown them for silence. Crystal's eyes suddenly went up and started scanning, her eyes couldn't pick up the threat but since she wasn't feeling it she had to trust Sky.

"When did they get out of jail," Sky said gently as her eyes focused on her parents who were less than fifty feet from them. To the best of her knowledge she had an iron clad restraining and no contact order on both of them, that wasn't meant to expire until after she turned twenty one.

Myth's bow was suddenly in her hands as was Crystal and Rayven's weapons. The triplets, Bastion and Han came to stand protectively before their friend.

"I still have FBI credentials, I might be able to get them to go," Rayven said gently.

Won't make them leave, trust me. Call the cops. Thais replied.

"Jasmine call the cops," Crystal said softly, "tell them there are parolees breaking their parole, HSL with guns at the park, children are present." Slowly she stood as did Rayven and Myth, Myth's bow was loaded and both Rayven and Crystal carried guns at the ready to start firing.

"You should leave," Rayven told Sky's parents firmly, at this distance Rayven could have them all dead in seconds if needed.

Nhor turned the bench over and pushed Sky, Jasmine and Rachel behind it for cover. Han stood up and roared a warning as his eyes had noticed the people with guns coming in from their left.

Han behind the bench, trust me. Thais stated firmly.

Han moved behind the bench, he knew better than to disregard any of Thais's warnings. Serenity growled even as her sister showed off her impressive teeth. Two people approached but they stilled stayed about twenty feet away.

"We've..." The man started to say.

"We know why you are here." Crystal interrupted. "Perhaps you should ask Sky if she wants to go or stay, she's a legal adult to human law, capable of making up her own mind." Her words were careful, they needed to stall for time for the police to get here. She could hear the hushed tones of Rachel's voice as she relayed everything to the 911 call responder.

Stall for time Sky, Nhor projected into her head.

Slowly Sky stood, but she wisely stayed behind the bench. "You got out?"

"Model detainees and prison overcrowding," he replied. "Time to go." He made a gesture that back in the compound days meant if she didn't obey she would be beaten.

"The law says I can make my own choices." Sky said firmly.

"You are a sworn member of the HSL." The woman stated.

"I was twelve... a child when I regurgitated that stupid oath." Sky shot back.

Easy Sky... stall don't anger. Nhor cautioned.

"You have a duty to the human race..." knowledge seemed to dawn in his eyes. "Oh... your aunt managed to brainwash you into believing that garbage that Were are harmless and just want to be our friends. They want to rule us... just look at our once proud country, run by a she daemon who probably magicked her way into office."

The triplets growled in unison at the slur on their mother.

"Of course the daemon spawn stand up for their mother." The man spat. "Regardless of what you currently believe we can put you back onto the right path. Carlton even says he'll still marry you... once your mind is back in the right place."

Sky saw police and SWAT cars pull up but there were no sirens, no shouting out until they were all in position. She no longer had to stall. Deliberately she took off her sweater leaving her in just the black singlet she wore underneath. "I'm no longer human... and you are no longer my parents."

"You defiled yourself," the woman screeched and lifted her gun.

"FREEZE POLICE!" "FREEZE FBI! PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!" Shouts came as Police, SWAT and FBI raced in and placed themselves between the HSL and everyone else. Parents had put themselves between children the moment they saw the guns, quickly they got their kids away.

Once the police had everything in control Crystal finally turned to Sky and glared at her. "Can't... take... you... anywhere."

Sky rolled her eyes, "do you know what I would give for normal? Do you think I like getting my life threatened every other week." She told Crystal. "I want to go to school, become a kick arse tattoo artist and have fun with my friends, is that too much to ask for."

Crystal turned to Thais. "Is it?"

Thais shifted, making sure to be in a set of sweats so as to not embarrass the humans. His sisters raced over to the booths to get back into their clothes. He grinned, "all is good now, no more death threats... at least for a while."

Crystal sighed, she could live with boring, live with normal. "I like the sound of that."

"Hear... hear..." Rayven said as she tucked her gun into the back of her jeans just like Crystal had.

Crystal sighed, "Let's go home, I need a coffee." She wrapped an arm around Thais. "Are you sure? No more death threats?"

"Remember... I'm never wrong..." He replied confidently.

Crystal gave him a shrewd look.

"Honest... no more threats..." he said honestly.

Crystal went to question his wording.

Leave it... please... Serenity asked her mate and Crystal sighed letting it slide. You know, normal might actually be fun? Serenity added as she nudged her mate.

Crystal snorted; normal... didn't she even know what that was.