14 years later

" Jasper Rhydian, no, don't do that!" the scarlet haired woman yelled, "No Jasper, don't you dare! No Arianne, do not even think for a minute… Just wait until you're uncle gets here!"

The doorbell rang, and Jana swept a tendril of hair away from her face, aware of the fact that she looked like a mess and the guests had arrived.

"I'll get it!" her kids yelled in unison, dropping their pet cat and an opened tin of macaroni cheese on the floor and darting towards the door, pushing and shoving each other as they ran.

"Uncle Rhydian!" the yelled before hugging their uncle.

Rhydian waved sheepishly as he was hounded by the young cubs, "Jana, rescue me. Please!"

"I would love to but the meat loaf's going to hell over here!" she yelled back.

Rhydian laughed before freeing himself of the cubs and embracing his sister.

"It's been too long," Jana said, "Please tell me why I took that job."

"Because the Segolia office in New York has the best security department in the whole corporation," Rhydian said, "Though I didn't actually expect you to live in the city."

"It's temporary," Jana said, "I can reassure you. How's Maddy, Adrian and Cassie?"

"Maddy's great," Rhydian began, "Adrian and Cass are great too, excited about having a little brother or sister too. They've been waiting nearly twelve years. What about your two?"

"It's a joy most of the time," Jana said, before yelling at her daughter, "No Arianne, cats do not eat macaroni!"

The small carroty haired girl smiled, "What about dairylea dunkers?"

"No, just put Monty down," Jana said firmly.

"Hey!" the girl said as her brother swiped at her.

"You're it!" he yelled before running off, his sister following him.

There was a knock on the door.

"That'll be Maddy and the kids," Rhydian announced, before opening the door for them and kissing her. Adrian and Cass screwed up their noses before running to join their cousins who were playing x-box in the lounge.

"This is nice, Jana," Maddy said, hugging her friend, "I never imagined you living in New York though."

Jana laughed, "It's only temporary, Segolia's sorting out a place out in the country."

"Good, the parking's terrible," Adrian said, grabbing a cookie out of the cookie jar, which Jana had tried to place out of reach of the kids. He was almost the mirror image of his father at that age, with his golden blonde and blue eyes. And of course, just like his father, he was tall and never seemed to stop growing.

"Adrian!" Cassidy yelled, hands on hips, her straight brown hair swishing around her shoulders, "Auntie Jana's gone to all this trouble cooking a meal for us and all you can do is fill your face with cookies."

"I'll still have room," Adrian shrugged, grabbing another cookie from the jar.

"When are Auntie Shannon and Uncle Tom going to get here?" Arianne asked entering the kitchen, she held a terrified Monty in her arms.

"Once they find a parking space," Adrian said, passing a cookie to his cousin, "I wouldn't put the kettle on just yet."

Arianne wolfed down the cookie, and raised an eyebrow at her cousin.

"What, do I not even get a thank you?" the boy protested.

Arianne rolled her eyes, "It was only one cookie, you've scoffed down at least five in the past five minutes."

"Well," Jana said, taking the cookies away from them, "You've both had enough."

Rhydian laughed at his flustered sister. Whilst motherhood had come naturally to Maddy and Shannon, Jana was definitely a fish out of water. She more used to looking after other people's cub than raising her own. She was definitely a good mother but she found it all very stressful. With an eight year old daughter and a six year old son, there was never a dull day. Worst of all their father was often away on business, leaving Jana to deal with cubs on her own.

"Mummy," Jasper began, "I think Monty's poorly, should I sing to him? It's what you do when we're poorly. Or should I give him some Dol-drink?"

"Look, just leave Monty alone," Jana said, taking the cat from her son, "I think he wants some peace and quiet."

The cat yowled before scratching Jana. Like all cats, the tabby hated wolfbloods. It was expected- dogs and cats never got on. Of course, being half-human half-wolfblood meant that Monty didn't mind the cubs too much, as long as they weren't trying to feed him anything dodgy or pulling his tail.

"I'm sure Auntie Shannon will fix him," Adrian said, "She experiments on animals doesn't she?"

"You mean she does research into wolfbloods," Maddy clarified.

There was a knock on the door.

"I bet that's her and Tom," Rhydian said, "Do you know if Liam's coming as well?"

Jana laughed, "I invited him, but you know what he's like. You remember him at the wedding, I asked him to look after the kids for five minutes. He immediately passed them to you and ran out."

"That was because Arianne was projectile vomiting," Rhydian explained, "You should have stopped her eating all those glace cherries off the cake."

"She was two years old," Jana argued, getting the food out of the oven, "She wasn't supposed to be able to reach them."

Maddy welcomed in Shannon, Tom, Eliya, Darius and Lily.

"Nice place, Jana," Tom said, "Do you need any help?"

Jana smiled, "Just a SWAT team."

Jana heard yelling from the corridor and saw the Shannon and Tom's kids go running into the living room.

"Jesus, Arianne!" Lily yelled, "How can you make so much mess?"

"Just sit down you lot!" Cass yelled, taking charge. As the eldest she could often be bossy, but at least the rest of the cubs listened to her.

Jana let out a sigh of relief, "I think a crisis has been averted. Just."

"How's Xander?" Shannon asked.

"You know what works like," Jana replied, "Works sending him here there and everywhere. He's off in Norway at the moment. If it weren't for school I'm sure we'd have joined him out there."

"Send him our love," Maddy said, "He'll have to visit us in Alberta. I hope it can make the annual camping trip."

"You know I never thought I'd meet a human who loves the wilderness so much," Jana admitted adding chocolate sprinkles to the top of a giant gateau.

"I never thought you'd marry a human either," Rhydian added.

They had been shocked when they learnt that Jana was marry a human. At first they had speculated that it was Liam or Jimi and had been horrified at the idea. But after meeting Xander they were reassured. Where Jana was easily flustered and stubborn, Xander was calm and level headed. They balanced each other out. Although it appeared that Jana's kids, especially Arianne, had inherited their mother's personality.

"My father didn't take it well," Jana began, "He's still not taking it well. Although Aran and Meinir seemed of with it. I guess they would be what with Meinir being a human for so long now- did you get the invitations to her engagement party? Gerwyn and Ceri say she's marrying a wild wolfblood. Did you know about that Rhydian?"

Her brother nodded, "We've known about that for ages."

"Well you know my emails have been playing up," Jana explained, "I think the kids have hacked the parental controls again. Aran got an email from them last week- you know he gets about the whole rabbits thing, it was all very embarrassing."

Everyone laughed. No one really knew what it was about Aran and rabbits, but he did seem to have a very unhealthy obsession with them.

"Did you see that article in Nature?" Shannon began excitedly, "I sent you a copy in the post, I can't believe they published my work!"

"That's brilliant, Shannon," Jana said.

"Becca thinks that one of us will get the Nobel Prize soon," Shannon continued, "Imagine that. Imagine the funding Segolia could get."

Jana smiled, "I think I should get some of the credit. If I didn't hate pizza as much as I do you would have never got my DNA."

They laughed.

"I'll go round up the cubs," Tom said, before heading off to the living room.

Cass darted into the kitchen, "Mum, I really think you should reconsider letting me go to that party."

"Your father and I told you no and that's final," Maddy said.

"Well, I…" Rhydian began.

Maddy shot him a warning glance.

"Your mother's right," Rhydian said.

"But everyone else is going!" Cass protested.

"There's going to be alcohol," Maddy said, "There's no way you're going to a party like that."

Cass sighed, "Fine whatever."

"Don't even think about sneaking out just because it's on a full moon," Maddy added.

"You know she's not even a teenager yet," Shannon said, helping Eliya and Darius, the three year old twins sit down.

Jana's kids and Adrian barrelled into the room, fighting to get the best seats. With so many of them, it had been a struggle to fit them all into the small flat. They had somehow managed but Jana was prepared for chaos.

The doorbell rang.

"Maybe its Liam," Rhydian suggested.

"No," Jana said, sniffing the air. Wolfbloods- she could tell, but their scent was so familiar.

She opened the door.

Xander stood there his jet black hair messy, his deep blue eyes full of love for Jana. Next to him stood a slightly younger man, with straight ginger hair and an older woman who Jana recognised instantaneously.

"Mum," Jana said shocked, "Pedr."

The man smiled.

Xander pulled Jana into his arms, "I knew how much you wanted to find out the truth about what happened to your mother and brother. I never imagined they would be living on the outskirts of Portland."

"Xander, you're amazing," Jana said before kissing him, hearing retching noises from the cubs.

"I love you," Xander said.

"I love you too," Jana replied, before kissing him again.

"Is there going to be enough food?" Adrian asked concerned.

Jana rolled her eyes.

She was just glad to be with her family.

THE END