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A/N - Apologize for the delay. I had half of this written before Christmas, but changed my mind. Now I have half the prologue to a sequel and this epilogue. Just had a bit of block in how to write this.

All characters fictional. New London (No relation to actual New London, NH) and Thompson State Park are fictional.

Epilogue - Life Goes On

"Birds sing after a storm. Why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?"

Rose Kennedy

Thompson State Park

New London, NH

August 5, 2012

I could feel the cool night air caressing my body as I lay crouched in the thick underbrush of the springtime forest beneath Luna's luminous light. The cool breezes whistled quietly through the woods, ruffling my black pelt and reminding me of how everything had changed just over the past half year.

The amount of twists in my life over the past year had me waiting to walk into some drab, cigarette smoking man in a suit. Only a year ago, I would have laughed at anyone who said that within a year's time I would be not only married to a high school love that I thought was lost to me forever, helped stop not one but a total of four domestic terror attacks, from and against groups that I had never before heard about, within the span of six months, and be a member of the top domestic law enforcement counter-terror/special operations task force in the United States, but here I was. And, the clincher was that before this year, I would have institutionalized anyone that said that man-wolf hybrids actually existed...never mind the impossibility that I would become one of them, I thought as one of my pointed, black furred ears unconsciously flicked to get rid of a mosquito that had tried to alight on it. The dank smell of the wet earth of the forest cascaded through my nostrils as I silently breathed, just waiting for that one scent that I was here to greet.

Suddenly, crashing hoof-falls to my left caught my attention as a loud growling and barking came into focus, my head and ears both jerking toward the source of those noises. I moved from my crouch into a springboard stance...claws out and digging into the soft loam for grip as I tensed my powerful legs and forearms. My tail was straight back behind me, ready to help counterbalance me a little bit. It was a little surprising, how easily I had fallen into allowing my mind to accept all of these new appendages and just how good it actually was at using them. I could understand how dangerous these instincts could be since I had just fallen into using them and treating my newfound abilities as old habits. It was a little disturbing, but...I thought...I had them well under control...for now.

The crashing footfalls and hoof-falls continued to get louder as dinner got closer and closer. Salivating slightly at the prospect of perfectly fresh venison, I waited, mouth slightly agape and waiting for that first sight and smell of my prey. David had been trying to flush these bucks this way and from the sounds of the crashing creatures rushing through the underbrush, it seemed like he succeeded.

As a pair of full sized bucks crashed through the scrub brush ahead of me, I saw that I was right. Energy surged through me as I pushed off with my arms and legs, propelling my body forward faster than I would ever have been able to run through these woods as a man. The smell of that delicious meat on four hooves ahead of me was propelling me faster and faster toward that near buck. A small part of me pitied the buck. Between me on its right and David on its left, there was nowhere for it to go...but a greater part of me knew exactly where that buck would be going and how to get it to go where that part of me wanted it to go.

Putting on an extra burst of speed, I caught up to the buck, part of me reveling in the feeling of the wind rushing through my fur, the feeling of the mossy ground beneath my bare paws and the musky scent of my prey almost upon me. With a powerful lunge and roar, I leapt for the deer, catching it on its side and sending it careening into the second deer, putting both of them on the ground in a heap, with myself atop them.

Pulling myself and my catch off of David's deer, I went about finishing the job. With a powerful bite, I latched onto the deer's throat with my jaws, piercing the creature's skin with ease, shaking my head as I tasted the creature's coppery blood washing across my tongue. Feeling the deer rapidly going limp, I released its neck, licking the blood from my muzzle with a long dexterous tongue. That...rush...of physical predation was something that I doubted that I could ever get used to.

"You're doing better, Hoover," Came David's gruff voice from beside me. "I remember your first hunt...or rather first miss, was it?"

I chuffed at the memory of the deer managing to evade me into the woods as I lost track of my footing and plowed into Amy on my right, who plowed into David, who plowed into Seamus until we were nothing but a pile of multicolored wolf fur stretched along the forest. Thankfully the other hunt teams had been successful, although I was last at the table.

"It was self preservation. If I didn't catch it, Amy would eat me...And as for that night, I was still learning," I retorted back, grinning in that canine fashion. "That's why we had the whole town together." Every full moon every Lycan in town who did not have pressing matters went into the forest for a hunt and informal meetings. It worked well, making people take their Lycan form and get rid of some of the pent up aggression that builds up in everyday life...not much different than what I needed as a human, what with needing recoil therapy or some other hobbies to turn my mind off once in a while. On the first full moon after I was turned, we actually managed to turn most of the town out. A few of the older, sicker Lycans could not come, but pretty much the rest of the town was out...I guess a proximity to Christmas didn't hurt. Amy and I had been training so that I was more comfortable in this body...hell, I don't think I have had a weekend night when I was here where Amy and I didn't curl up together in the fur since that cold November evening. Apparently the training didn't catch as well as we had hoped over those first few weekends...at least not the hunting portions.

Hearing a rustle beside me, I saw David heft his grey bulk from the ground and look down at me, as I still knelt beside my kill, salivating over that delicious hunk of bloody venison...even as I knew I had to wait.

"I'll go get everyone," David intoned from beside me. Throwing a quick grin at me, before he walked away, he called over his shoulder. "You may want to finish up with that deer before Amy gets here...She may get jealous."

As he walked away, leaving me with just the cool, softly rustling breezes sweeping through the cooling evening. Heaving the deer off my lap, I started the practice of gaining access to its most important morsels, its organ meats. As my claws pierced the buck's underbelly and began to open avenues to reach the organs I desired, I couldn't help but feel a little shocked at how I had gotten here...and what I was getting myself into.

One of the rules of the pack was that the pack had a fixed bag limit per year, self enforced, of course. That was why we typically had group hunts where everyone feasted, or individuals contributed parts of their personal limits toward hunts with smaller groups. There were nowhere near enough deer in the forest and reserve to allow for these hunts to be uncontrolled, but there were a few circumstances where the pack would allow for individual hunts. David and I, well, our families filled a few of those criteria right now.

I heard the snap of twigs approaching from the direction that David had headed off in, signaling his return, but also from the woods behind me. Quietly putting the deer down, I rolled back onto my haunches in such a way that they would act as a spring if I needed to move quickly as I spun around on my paw to face the woods, a low growl escaping my muzzle, trying to warn off whatever creature wanted my meal. A quick sniff of the air gave no additional information and my eyes could not see anything in the dark brush.

Suddenly a dark shape launched out at me from those woods. Springing to the side, I reached out a paw and clotheslined the interloper, dropping it to the ground. Using my massive paw, I pinned the attacker down, spinning myself around snarling at it, anger and intent to harm floating through my mind; the inner beast just boiling under the surface begging to be let out just as it had against that deer...a sensation that, while it didn't take all of my willpower, took more than I would have preferred. I was no longer a human animal, at great risk without my tools, but a predator among men...a creature where my mere hands...paws could inflict death without the years of training I needed as a man.

It still scared me, but as my breathing took in the air around me, I recognized my assailant. I hoped that I had put at least a little fear into her, I thought as my beast backed down, raised hackles following it as my fearsome paw went from holding the creature to the ground to torturing it...tips of claws lightly raking the pup's belly as it squirmed under my touch.

"Thought you could surprise me, did ya?" I growled softly at the giggling, whimpering mass of fur under my paw.

"Uncle Mike..." a voice below me panted out between giggles, "Stop!"

Before I could reply, I heard a husky familiar voice reply to the pup's pleas. "You asked for it, Sarah."

Letting the dark furred pup up from the ground, I looked up to see that our families had been roused from where they had been waiting for David and me to take down the game.

As I looked over the group, seeing David leading his own mate, Michelle, as my mother and Amy followed the two of them. Sarah had apparently run ahead and split off to unsuccessfully try and surprise me.

Moving to take Amy's paw, I couldn't help but recognize why I was the only one hunting out here and smile.

"Hey there, beautiful," I greeted her as I gave a loving swipe of a lick across her muzzle as my paw gently rubbed her gravid belly as a soft thump greeted my touch. "Yes, you too."

"Look who's talking," she replied as her own paw met mine as she returned my lick. "Thomas's been a little active recently. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get out there again. He's getting a little heavy." Her smile was a little tired, but still lit up the night more than I could have ever expected. Ushering her to sit as my mother followed the two of us, I returned to my prey, not so deftly extracting my target for her. Her eyes were glittering in mirth as she saw what I was presenting her in my paw as I nuzzled her neck. Her voice was filled with the same mirth as she replied.

"You know, Mike, most of the time when someone gives you their heart, they are being figurative."

"You deserve it," I replied back. "After all, we can't have Thomas being a weakling can we? Eat up, the organs are yours." I knew that she needed the additional nutrients filling the organs, and that was why the pack typically gave the expectant families special permissions for these solo hunts. Part of me wanted to taste that deer's liver, but I knew Amy needed it more than I did, so I contented myself with one of the deer's hocks, ravenously tearing into it.

As the six of us ate, the air was actually rather still and quiet, only the sounds of our, albeit unsociable for human company, eating. As I sat after finishing off one of the deer's hocks, I couldn't help but marvel at what had happened, but as I stared at the deer carcass, the words from that autopsy report floated to the front of my mind. I just had to know.

I turned my body to my mother, who was just as ravenously attacking her portion of the deer as I had, and realized just what had happened that cold, December night, so many years ago, but had to get the answer directly from her own mouth.

"Mom," I started as she looked up from her meal to me, amber eyes meeting amber eyes. "Did you make that bite that the ME found on Dad?" For me, there was no other answer. From everything I understood about that night, there was no other Lycan in the area that could have made the bite, and Amy swore to me that it wasn't her. I thought I knew why...but I needed her to acknowledge my suspicions.

"Michael...I...I..." She stuttered in reply, "Yes, it was me...but it wasn't why you think." I stayed silent, waiting for her to go on, and she obliged. "When those bastards came back to the edge of the slope, Amy assumed that it was due to them wanting to check on me, so she had to hide. She didn't expect me to change as I did, so she thought she had enough time to get help. As you now know, she was wrong.

Those...those bastards just tossed Tom onto the slope and left. I just sat there, looking at his lifeless body as he gasped his last breaths as I felt the change start to sweep through me, but I had no one to help me through my change...no one to tell me what was happening...no idea what was going on at all. Once it had all ended...after I found that I could move, I just crawled over to him and cried over his body until the thought crossed my mind. If this change could give me back my mobility, could it save him? I...I...I just bit him to see if I could save him...but I couldn't. He was already dead. I just sat there...crying over him until Amy came back and found me. She somehow recognized me, and her and her father managed to drag me off. The police made it in and the presence of the bite couldn't be covered up by the time Amy got back there. That's why you knew. I'm sorry, Mike."

"Why are you sorry?" I replied. "I expected all that. I know neither you nor Amy appear to be bloodthirsty beasts...well, unless your Amy and pregnant," I semi-joked, earning a swift paw to the back of my head. "Oof. No, I figured that that bite was for the same reason as Amy bit me...I just needed to hear you say it."

I turned back to Amy, licking her muzzle as we both just sat beneath the starry sky, luminous moon shining down from above us as the sounds of David and Sarah roughhousing filled the air. Nothing new there, that kid was always trying to pick a fight with one of us, even if she normally lost, but that's how they learn.

We all learn. The changes in my life had been so sudden and so complete over the past year that I really had no way to even contemplate how I had learned everything I had in just the past few months, but I had. The brain's funny that way, adapting and growing in response to the environment. My new job was proving just how much.

Amy and I had been working on new training methodologies in between assignments with my new department with the bureau...assignments that thrust me into a darker underbelly of the creatures that I had never heard of which inhabited the world. I had fought alongside harpies and orcs, been fang to fang with a vampire and even had the displeasure of dealing with a minor zombie invasion. This was my first full week off in months...and the first week in months that I hadn't been dealing with either humans trying to kills mythos or mythos trying to kill humans.

Honestly, though, none of that scared me as much as my new responsibilities did. My paw absently rubbing my mate's gravid belly, I lay down in just the right fashion so that I could hear the heartbeat of my pup...my pup, two words that scared me every time that I thought or heard them together. I prayed that I was ready...that I wouldn't fail this too, but I had realized long before that I had not failed Amy all those years ago, and that my other failures were not mine alone. I had realized that I was a better man for them, and, looking over at David and Sarah, tussling on the ground as Michelle chuckled behind them, my mother beside me, and finally my mate below me, I realized that I had a lot of help.

I had to face this with arms wide open...and I would. The future wasn't mine to take, I finally realized. It was mine to give. Life would always go on.

~C'est Fini

A/N - Thanks to everyone who's been reading, voting and commenting. I've definately learned quite a bit from this foray into writing and hope you have enjoyed reading it. It was definately enjoyable pulling these characters out of my head, although I have a lot of points that I want to get significantly better at when writing fiction. As I alluded, I think there will be more to come, although whether it will be in episodic format or as smaller standalones, I don't know. Best to all.