Chapter Twenty-Six (Zaid's POV)

Most people get a car, or money, or lottery tickets when they turn eighteen.

But, I've always known I wasn't most people.

Let's start with the fact that I'm a werewolf. That's right, howl at the moon, run with a pack, hunt all night werewolf. I also mated with one of the most powerful werewolves of all time, Scythe Rider. He had this deadly saunter to his walk, his smirks made me melt, and his voice was enough to lull me to sleep whenever I was plagued by nightmares.

I also recently found out that I was adopted. I'll probably never know who my real parents were, and part of me is rather glad. I'm not sure whether they would be proud or disappointed in me and I already had people watching me constantly.

So, while everyone else was getting these nice fancy things for their eighteenth birthday, I had not only gotten a surprise from a psychotic freak named Jack Runningwolf, but I also discovered that I was from some ancient legendary pack made up of only males. Males that could get pregnant. I used to think getting a splinter in my foot hurt. Stepping into a bear trap on accident was awful. Stubbing my toe or falling off the banister or getting into a bike accident was just pure agony.

Being pregnant made all of that sound like rainbows and sunshine.

But when you broke your arm, you didn't get to see two pairs of eyes staring at you like you were the greatest of all beings.

And that's what I was rewarded with after I went through not just a hell of a pregnancy, but a hell of an adventure.

"Zaid, don't let Aidan climb on everything." Scythe scolded as I sat on the sofa in the warm living room of our plantation house. Aidan was the smallest of our pups. His fur was very white, as white as snow, tinged with streaks of gray and brown. He was really nosy and adventurous. Why, I had no clue. Currently, he was trying to climb up the side of the sofa to get near my hair. For some reason that went unexplained, he liked to nuzzle my hair.

"I've got him." I said, reaching up and taking Aidan into my arms. He whimpered, pawing at me as I held him to my chest. I felt someone pawing at my thigh and I looked down to see our other pup, who was a closer match to Scythe with more gray scattering across his back and tail and only a smidge of brown on the tips of his ears.

"Hi, Cal." I greeted him with a smile, reaching down to stroke him. I heard a little bark and looked down to see a ball of black fur hopping up in an attempt to get on the sofa. The black pup, I was sad to say, wasn't biologically mine.

He was one of two that Scythe and I had taken from Jack's lab. We named him Raven for his black fur and the fact that he was very watchful of everything that went on at home. He was always watching out for his siblings, Aidan, Cal, and our final pup, who we also rescued. His name was Rylan and he was white with russet patches on his paws and tail.

"I'm exhausted." Scythe announed as he came away from the window, coming to plop on the sofa beside me and making Cal jump in the air. Cal immediately started to climb all over Scythe, who rolled his eyes, but smirked anyway, taking him into his arms.

"You should've went to sleep." I told him, referring to the last night's bonfire in celebration of actually surviving everything that had happened no more than two weeks ago.

"I wanted to, but it'd be a waste to leave all that booze out."

"So that's why you reeked when you finally came to bed."

"I do not reek."

"You smell like cur." A voice declared. I looked up to see Kyler walking into the living room. He still looked a bit banged up from the mission to Jack's lab. He was limping a little from the busted ribs. He was still wearing bandages around his wrists and throat as well as a gauze pad over his foreheaed, but he seemed the same as usual other than that.

"You smell like p-"

"Oh, Goddess, no. Stop." I commanded, wrinkling my nose in disgust. Scythe smirked and Kyler scowled a little before sighing, leaning against the frame of the archway, folding his arms over his chest as he frowned, watching the pups climb over each other in excitement.

"What's wrong?" I asked with a frown, noticing his discomfort. Kyler shook his head.

"Nothing. Tired, I guess. You wolves are way too loud when you celebrate. Good thing you don't know when my birthday is." He snorted.

"We had good reason to celebrate." Scythe replied. Kyler made a face, but said nothing more as he came over, taking the pups and plopping them on mine and Scythe's laps before he wedged in between us. Scythe scowled at him and I just sighed as Kyler draped his arms over the back of the sofa.

"Well. Bad guy's dead. Zaid's not pregnant anymore. Puppies are safe. And all's right with the world." He announced, cocking his head as he let it run through his mind. Scythe and I shared looks studying Kyler.

"And what'll you do now?" I asked at last, knowing it was on all of our minds. Kyler frowned slowly, withdrawing his arms to clasp his hands in his lap, his thumbs twiddling.

"Dunno. Chill here until I can get back on my feet, unless you don't want me corrupting your pups." He added, turning to look at Aidan, who was sniffing at his face. Kyler stuck his tongue out and Aidan yelped before tilting his head curiously, flicking his tongue out to lick Kyler's.

"Eugh!" Kyler tore away, wiping at his mouth vigorously. Aidan barked excitedly at his reaction, clamboring over my lap and into Kyler's, sitting there and looking up at him. Kyler moaned.

"Gross, now I have rabies and parvo and all sorts of other mutt diseases." He complained, glaring at Aidan, who continued to gaze up at him with pure affection. I smirked and Scythe snorted.

"You're such a drama queen. Stop infecting my sons with your diseases."

"Yea? My diseases? Name one."

"Stupidity."

"I hate you."

"The feeling's entirely mutual."

"Kyler," I spoke up, making him glance at me, "If you're serious about staying, I hope you know that we don't mind at all. Whether you want to admit it or not, you like it here. We know you do. It's perfectly fine with us that you stay here with our pack." Kyler blinked, looking at me perplexed before he quickly looked at Scythe, who reluctantly nodded in agreement. Kyler turned to look at the floor thoughtfully for a while before he closed his eyes, smacking his hands on our knees to heave himself up.

"Well! Looks like I'll be staying here for a while longer. If that's indeed so, I'd like to change the menu for dinner." He declared.

"Oh Goddess." Scythe groaned. Kyler ignored him and faced me, holding out his fingers and ticking them off as he spoke.

"Stop using the whole damn pig. It's absolutely terrifying to see it staring back at me, even if those aren't its real eyes. Also, try some salmon for once. Don't get me wrong, chicken is just heavenly, but we seriously need some fish in our diets. Oh, and stop with the raccoon stews. I keep thinking about that raccoon Remi told us about that one time with the rat. Oh yea, and next time I see a rat on our table, I'm eating it. Right there. In front of everyone. Speaking of rats, there's another rat in my room and it's fucking huge. Scythe, we're goin' into town for more traps."

"Oh. You have got to be kidding me." Scythe complained and dropped his head back against the back of the sofa, covering his face with his hands as Kyler went on and on with his list of accomidations and rules. I rolled my eyes, smirking a little before I looked down at Aidan, who was watching Kyler and his father argue with sparkling green eyes, looking rather excited about the whole thing.

"Meet your Godfather, Aidan. He's a snow leopard. And he's insane." I added, watching Aidan tilt his head back to look at me, his tongue lolling out as he barked as a response. I laughed, then held him close to my chest, sighing at the feel of his fur on my skin.

Things seemed to finally settle back into their normal states again.

My parents, whom I still had yet to forgive for lying to me this whole time, seemed to understand that I wasn't going to speak to them until they apologized and seeing as they were too proud to admit it, just stayed silent and obeyed mine and Scythe's orders.

The rest of our pack seemed to finally get along far better. We were relaxed with each other and there was hardly a secret between us. Well, save for the secret relationship between Kylan and Alek. That was still left untouched. Thalia still didn't know. Kylan still pursued Alek, but it seemed Alek had stopped letting Kylan get close to him. He had his wife and pups to think about.

Kyler did stay with us, but I was concerned by what Jack had told us back at the van.

Now that Jack was dead...

What was Kyler going to do?

I guess that was a story for another time...

FIN

A/N: WHOA. It's done! Hope it wasn't too sappy or rushed or anything. I hope I tied up... most of the lose ends, because... Yes, my dear readers. You've probably been wandering about our lovely snow leopard, Kyler Mercy. Who is he? What's his story? Does he ever find love? Well, all those questions and more will be answered in the sequel to The Full Moon called Dreamscape! Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed! See you in the sequel!

EDIT: This is a series now! Here's the reading list:

1) The Full Moon

2) Dreamscape

3) Into the Woods

4) Moonstone Romance

5) The Pauper's Dream

6) The Sorcerer's Lullaby

7) Passion and Danger