Tatum and Henry
14. New Beginnings

I follow the boys outside where I see a long table where people are sitting at and talking. Tatum is speaking to two women, and I recognise two of the three men as Beta Adrian from Iunae Lumen pack, and Saxon Hembry. The other male I don’t know but smells like a witch.

“Henry?” Adrian asks, looking at me. I smile as he walks over to me, greeting me in a fist-bump and hug.

“I haven’t seen you since Alpha training!” Adrian smiles. I nod. All children of Alpha and Beta’s are expected to attend Alpha training in Capital State when they turn eighteen. Adrian and I were in the same year.

“You’re not…?”

“Yeah I am,” I agree, watching Adrian smile. A wave of relief washes over me as I see Aidge smile; I felt apprehensive towards how Tatum’s friends would react to me coming back after all this time.

“Welcome to the family,” he grins, walking us over to the table. When I get there Tatum looks up and smiles at me, her whole face brightening.

“Everyone, this is one of my oldest friends, Henry Erstad, Henry, that’s Saxon, Clayton, Saxon’s mate Margot and my mate Vas. Tatum, you know, and the kids, William, my daughters Zoe and Eleni, Sam and my son Eros,” Adrian introduces.

Saxon and Clayton get up and greet me.

“Henry, I saw you on the battlefield, you were amazing, it’s an honour,” Saxon greets.

“Thanks. I’ve seen your work too, thank you for joining the war,” I say.

“I had to, Vas would have kicked me if I didn’t,” Saxon replies, looking over at Aidge’s mate, who grins and looks at me.

“Hi Henry, I’m Clayton Jones, I was in Tatum’s squad during the war,” Clayton greets.

“Thank you for looking after her,” I say, shaking his hand.

“It was more like the other way round,” Clayton admits.

“I hear you,” I say, looking over at my beautiful mate who blushes.

I walk over to the empty seat next to Tatum and sit down. She grabs my hand as I lean in and kiss her on her cheek.

“I love you baby,” I whisper in her ear. She turns her head and gives me a chaste kiss on the lips.

“Henry, I want you to meet Margot, she’s my dad’s cousin’s cousin, if that makes sense, and Vas, Saxon’s cousin. They helped me a lot when I arrived in Sefton,” Tatum states.

“Thank you,” I say to both of the woman, who smile back at me. They look genuinely pleased to see me which helps put my mind at ease.

“We were told what happened to your relationship. I’m sorry that it happened,” Vas states.

“Thank you,” I reply.

“Do you know who did it?” Margot then asked me.

“Yes, Alpha Bridget from Little Rock Pack worked with Alpha Andre in turn for blocking and love spells. They were quite effective,” I sigh, squeezing my mates’ hand. Margot’s face softens.

“I heard she was put in Silverlock Prison.”

“Yes. She admitted to everything,” I agree.

“Daddy? Daddy!” Rhiannon yells out when she notices me. I chuckle as she runs over to me followed by a slightly older girl who I think is Zoe. Rhiannon grabs my arm and I pull her onto my lap as she snuggles into me.

“Daddy this is my B.F.F. Zoe!” Rhiannon says happily, introducing me to Adrian’s daughter.

“Hi,” Zoe says shyly.

“Daddy are you going to stay with us now?” she then asks, wrapping her little arms round my neck.

“I sure am,” I agree.

“Thank you thank you thank you! You keep your pwomise!” Rhiannon cries out.

Dinner went by quickly and by the end it felt like I had known Tatum’s friends for a long time. I mean, Aidge I already knew, and it was great to get back together again. I mused at what a small world it was. I knew Aidge from Alpha training, Aidge was Vas’s mate, Vas was Saxon’s cousin, and his mate was Tatum’s dad’s cousin’s cousin by marriage. If you can follow that. Fate has a way of making everything work out.

“Henry,” little Zoe says, crawling onto Tatum’s lap and looking at me. I look over at the little girl. She is the spitting image of her father, with light brown hair and light green eyes, but with softer feminine features.

“The moon goddess knew this was going to happen and put you with Aunty Tate for that reason. She knew you were both strong enough,” Zoe says, her eyes silver.

“I’m sorry?” I ask, a little stunned. I look at her mother who just smiles.

“That’s one of Zoe’s gifts. She’s a white wolf,” Vas explains. I look back at Zoe who looks at me and smiles, her eyes fading from silver back to light green. She smiles at me and then yawns. Vas laughs.

“I think it’s time to go home,” she then says, looking over at Aidge who nods in agreement. We all stand up and say our goodbyes before going back into the bar to pay for our meals.

\\//\\//\\//\\

I learned at last night’s dinner that Clayton is a witch and lived with Tatum after the war, after his coven had been decimated. He had gotten a job as a Network Engineer for the pack, which Clayton explained was just a big fancy title to mean he works with the pack’s information technology. Shortly after accepting this position, he moved into the packhouse to give Tatum her space with her family.

Clayton met me in the pack’s foyer the next morning.

“Hi Henry!” Clayton smiled as I walked up to him.

“Clayton. How did you sleep last night?” I ask. Clayton laughed. He had been drinking Zucchini Meade all night, a witch’s brew that the Wolf’s Den had started to bring in for the witches that had moved into the area.

“The good thing about witch’s mead is the hangovers only effect our ability to cast spells for a short time,” Clayton admits. We walk through the pack house and Clayton talks to me about all the things he’s learned about the place, explaining where things are and what times food is served in the dining room.

“Are you the only witch here?” I ask Clayton as we walk along.

“No. There are three others from my coven, one who found their mate here, and there are other witches from other covens too. There is also a few fairy and vampire families,” Clayton says, giving me a look. I smile. Having whole families from different species move into wolf packs was an unexpected after-effect from the war. Our wolf packs were becoming more multi-cultural, and that was a good thing.

“We also had some water fairies, but they left, they missed the ocean, and as you know, we’re not that close to the coast or any bodies of water.”

Clayton leads me down a hallway past a sign that says ‘Gymnasium.’

“Everyone in the pack have access to the gym, and we’ve been talking with Tatum and Beta Connor about opening training rooms for us witches and fay to practice different defence and attack spells,” Clayton explains.

“That sounds exciting, I can’t wait to see how that pans out, maybe we could train different species in combat together,” I say. Clayton smiles.

“I know, this world is becoming more accepting,” he says, “this is the throwing room, and down the hallway is the Commanding delta’s office as well as another gymnasium,” Clayton says.

“Thanks,” I reply. Clayton nods and we say goodbye to each other before he leaves.

I walk into the archery room and see eight targets set up on a wall as wolves and other supernatural’s practice their throwing techniques. On the opposite wall two holo-rooms were built and then more targets set up. I walk up and down and watch the delta’s throwing techniques.

“General Erstad?” a delta asks from behind me. I turn and see a young, short female in sports clothing looking at me.

“Just Henrik. I’m not a beta at the moment,” I admit. She blushes.

“I’m sorry, Commander Eamon asked me to get you and…” she blushes again, and I smile at her shyness. She looks to be around Leora’s age.

“Lead the way…” I begin. She nods and turns, walking out the room.

“Excuse me, your name is?” I ask, smiling at her meekness. I hope she’s not this shy in the field.

“S-sorry. I’m Gabby. I am a delta…” she begins.

“No problems Gabby,” I say.

Gabby leads me down a hallway and we pass an office with a big window that allowed us to look inside. A man was working at his desk and when he looks up and sees us, he smiles, getting up from his desk and walking over to the office door.

The door to an office opens and a delta walks out.

“Beta Henrik! I’ve been expecting you!” the man smiles, shaking my hand.

“Come in, too many eyes and ears out here,” He then says, dismissing Gabby who turns and walks back down the hall.

“Commander Eamon?” I ask. He nods, walking over to the couch on one side of his office and moving some boxes off it so I can sit. The office is quite messy and needs a tidy, but it doesn’t seem to faze the commander as he takes a seat opposite the couch and waits for me to sit.

“General Erstad- Beta Henrik…” he begins.

“Henrik. I’m not the General or the beta here and I’ve stepped down from my role temporarily to be here with my mate,” I explain.

“My apologies Beta… Henrik. You’re well known with that title, and it will take some time to get used to,” he says. I nod and listen as the commander speaks. He wants me to take over the morning training sessions with the warriors and then discussed the different features of their training grounds. I asked him questions regarding how many of his warriors participated in the war and was surprised when he told me most of them did.

“We have a human in our pack who convinced our members to defend the pack ideologies,” Eamon explained.

“Tatum?” I ask. Eamon has a surprised look on his face and then smiles.

“Yes, she’s one of our best warriors as well,” he admits. I smile, my mate surely is something.

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