“Aber sie sind Kinder…Nein, ich werde Kinder nicht
töten…Sie haben nichts böse getan, wenn Sie diese Kinder töten möchten,
schossen Sie sie! Ich werde es nicht tun!...Nein Sie können nicht! Kommandant!
Nein, bitte! ¹” Josef shouts in his sleep, right before
he shoots up into a sitting position. He pants fiercely, looks over at me and breaks
down into tears, “Warum träume ich das? Immer die Träume mit den
Kindern! Er…Er wurde nicht halten. einhundertfünfundzwanzig Kinder wurden von
meinem Kommandant und seinen Männern geschossen. Ich kann noch ihre Schreie
hören. Ich hätte etwas können machen und ich habe nichts gemacht, nur habe ich
mich gesetzt und angesehen. Warum habe ich nichts gemacht?²”

I look at him for a half a second, this massive creature, 7’2”
and 240lbs of pure muscle, is crying like a child. Crying over a mission that
happened over several years ago is this hunk, my husband of fourteen years. “Shhh….Shhh… Es war nur ein Traum. Du hast nichts gemacht, weil du ein besserer Mann
als er bist, weil du ein guter Soldat bist, weil du den Gehorsam nicht
verweigern konntest, aber du hast niemand geschossen. Du hast nur deinen Gewehr
hingewiesen, nie ihn geschossen. Ihn wolltest du stoppen. Dein Wollen, um
diejenigen Kindern zu helfen, das ist, warum du ein besserer Mann als dein
Kommandant bist. Irgendein sagt, dass du Feigling bist, aber ich denke dir
brav, dass du versuchen hast, um ihn zu stoppen. Mindestens hast du ihm etwas
gesagt. Was anderer Soldat kann das sagen? ³”

His teary eyes meet mine as he looks up. The ice blue of his
eyes meets my golden and he gives me a giant hug and pets my head. I murr into
the crook between his neck and shoulder. His musk fills my nostrils and I just
end up murring louder. “Vielen Dank, meine Liebe! Ich könnte dies nicht
machen, ohne dich in meinem Leben.⁴“He
thanks me. He grabs the scruff of my neck and gently pulls me back to kiss me.
He does so with much gusto. “Bevor wir wiederschlafen gehen, möchtest
du Sex haben? ⁵”

“Let’s try and get
some sleep. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow. Rafe has soccer practice, Tristan
has ballet, Rob and Will both have football, and we got to help Jamie with his
hours. Gozé Christú! ⁶”

“Good night, love.”

“Süße Träume, meinem Liebe.⁷”

***

A loud blaring noise wakes me from my slumber, much to my
and Josef’s great displeasure. I look at my alarm clock and ask, “Fucking A!
Josef, why did we set my alarm so early?” as I read <04:45> from the
alarm clock.

“Doesn’t matter, we’re going back to sleep.” Josef grumbles
and puts his super fluffy pillow over his head.

I turn off the alarm and lay my head down to sleep again. I
look at the room, obscure from darkness as I think back to one of my first
missions. I was only a Lieutenant, Junior Grade back when it happened. All I
really remember is cold, bitter cold, and blood, lots and lots of blood. I can’t
remember whose blood it was or what the mission was; all I remember from that
mission were those two things. It perturbs me that I cannot remember a darned
thing about what happened. I’m sure that I could ask RDML Adler if he has my
debriefing from that mission and jog my memory, but I don’t think it’s worth
it. Instead, I let the lead weights attached to my eyelids take hold and I
drift off to a dreamless slumber.

***

“Dad, c’mon it’s time to get up. Practice is in a half hour…”
Rafe complains. I look at the time, the clock reads <07:45>

I look over to Josef who’s still sound asleep. “Wölfchen,
ich nehme Rafe zur Fußballübung. Kannst du sichermachen, dass Tristan zum
Ballett geht? ⁸” I ask the sleeping wolf before me.

He grumbles at me and waves his hand in such a motion as to
tell me and Rafe to leave. I chuckle. He’s obviously tired and doesn’t want to
get up quite yet.

“Tschussi, Vati. Erzähl
Tris, ich hab’ ihm gesagt, ‘Viel Glück’.⁹” Rafe says as he exits
the room. I walk behind him out of the room and ruffle his blond hair.

“Das war nett, um deinem Bruder zu sagen. Ihr zwei
seid so anders, aber ihr seid so nah. Es ist nett, zu sehen. Übrigens, wo ist
dein Zwilling? ¹⁰” I say to the ten year old wolf.

He looks up at me and smiles, “I don’t know, dad, he’s
around.”

The smile he gives me is one I know all too well. I’ve seen
it when Rob and Will lured me into one of their pranks. I don’t know why, but the
twins love teasing me. I turn around just in time to have Tristan try and stop
himself midflight before smashing into my chest. I grab the pup first to steady
him, and then I grab his scruff. “You know better than this, Tris. What the
hell are you trying to do? You aren’t a pup anymore; you’re a youngling, act
like it.” I say to him before setting him down, “Wake up your father when it’s
time for ballet, or if you’re scared, ask Jay to do it.”

“Ok, daddy,” he replies and runs off.

I grab Rafe’s hand and head out the front door after
checking that he has all his gear. I throw his gear in the trunk of the Audi
and head off to his practice.

***

“So how was the deployment? Oh wait let me guess…Classified?”
Ariel asks, she a giraffe that defies the stereotype, she iss actually only
about 5’10”, very short for a giraffe.

“I’m sorry Ari, but—”

“You’d have to kill me, if you told me.”

“Right. Anyways, how’s that hunk of a bf?” I ask her
changing the subject.

“I have no clue, Nick. Jayce dumped me a month ago. He’s a
giant ‘A’ word if you know what I mean.”

“How’s Eric? Is he still helping take care of Nico?”

“That shark can go to hell for all I care.” She wasn’t
joking, Eric was a shark, a white shark, to be precise. And Nico, was a hybrid
of a Giraffe and white shark. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. His neck
was about an inch longer than it should have been as a shark and he had hoofed
feet like a giraffe’s. Rafe and Nico were good friends since birth, pretty
much. So I was always checking up on him and his mother.

Ariel was always skittish around me, but she didn’t run for
the sake of Nico and Rafe. I never even understood what she saw in the shark,
her being so skittish around preds I
thought for sure she’d never date one. However Eric wasn’t only her boyfriend
and the father to her child, but he was her estranged husband. I couldn’t help
but snarl anytime I saw the shark. He pissed me off, to no end the way he’d
treated my friend.

“Alright, Coulter will you stop biting Del Rio? He’s a human
not a chew toy…” The horse, who was Rafe’s coach, yells.

I look over at Rafe, he is indeed nipping at Jaime Del Rio’s
ankles and giggling like a little school girl, whilst the human is trying to
get away from the much quicker wolf. “Raphael Gabriel Coulter-Gutenberg, what
the hell do you think you’re doing? Hör auf! Oder wir können nach Hause gehen.
Ist das, was du möchtest? ¹¹” I yell.

The pup yips in response, and looks down at his feet, his
ears plastered against his head and his tail tucked tight against rear. He goes
to the coach, who looks back at me and nods his head. I nod back. Ariel laughs
her head off.

“So that’s how you train your child?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what the heck I’m talking
about.”

I raise my eyebrow, when it dawns on me. “German? Oh, no,
They know that there’s only two situations in which I speak German: when I’m
angry and when I’m talking to their father.”

“How’s he doing, by the way?”

“Still dealing with those nasty dreams.” I respond and then
look to the sky. What I see, scares the shit out of me. RDML Adler is circling
above my position. I grab my MilSpec VisAR from my pocket and put on the pair
of glasses. “What is the situation, Goldilocks?”

“I’ve been tracking a thunder of dragons whose alliance is
not with our government. Last I checked, they were heading toward this area. I’m
providing my best with cover, DarkClaw.” RDML Adler replies.

“Understood.” I say, I don’t take off my VisAR, and I check
my pocket for my concealed carry weapon. It’s there, but I know that if an
entire thunder of dragons is heading this way I can’t hold them off on my own.

“What’s going on, Nick?” Ariel asks.

“Well, apparently Russia’s Drakon Corps has decided to pay California a visit. Get Nico home
as soon as you can, Ariel.” I respond

“Gotcha”

I walk up to the coach and ask him to dismiss the kids early.
He asks why and I just point up to the sky. He looks up and sees RDML Adler and
responds in the affirmative. I look over at Rafe, “Rafe, komm her, bitte! ¹²”

“Jawohl, Papa.” Rafe says and sprints over to me.

“Geh mit dem Adler!
Flieg nach Hause mit ihm! ¹³” I command the youngling as I point
up, then to Adler, “I’m sending Rafe with you, talk to Gutenberg. I’m going to
stay here. I’ve got enough armaments in my trunk to hold off ten thunders. What’s
there current twenty?”

Rafe takes off and Adler replies, “32.67 North, 118.24 West.
My, your kid’s grown up.”

“Take him home. I’m going to meet, their Commanding Officer.”

“Who’s whose Commanding Officer, Captain?”

“In anything I ask of you dealing with my family…Pull rank
again and I will separate your head
from your body.” I reply as I take off and head south by southwest.

***

“Ra sehkh há leks?¹⁴”
I ask the leader of the thunder.

“Vi sehkh há u kir ran
tess. ¹⁵” He replies vulgarly.

I laugh, “Huming spra ra leks? ¹⁶”

“Hé, we do, young wolf.” He replies in a very subtle Russian
accent as he points an AK74 right at my forehead.

I laugh and bring up my M4A3 Carbine. “I have a gun too. You
know?”

“Ah…yes, but you’re outnumbered.”

“And you’re about to invade a country that is among the top
five military powers in the world. Why do you think that you can waltz in here
without any resistance?” I ask.

He looks at me for a long while, then he re-aims his gun at
my wing arm and fires.

I scream in pain and start falling. As I fall through the
air I vaguely remember that wing being the wing broken in the car accident I’d
had almost fifteen years ago. Then I passed out from the pain.

***

1. But they’re
kids…No, I will not kill children…They’ve done nothing wrong, if you would like
to kill them, shoot them yourself. I won’t do it!...No, you can’t! Commander!
No, Please! <German>

2. Why do I dream
that? Always the dreams with the children! He…He wouldn’t stop. A hundred
twenty five kids were shot by my commander and his men. I can still hear their
screams. I could have done something and I did nothing, just sat and watched.
Why did I do nothing? <German>

3. It was only a dream.
You did nothing, because you’re a better man than he, because you’re a good
Soldier, because you couldn’t disobey, but you didn’t shoot anyone. You only
pointed your gun, never shot it. You wanted to stop him. Your wanting to help
those kids, that is why you’re a better man than your commander. Some will say
that you’re a coward, but I think you brave that you tried to stop him. At
least you said something. What other soldier could say that. <German>

4. Thanks a lot, my
love! I couldn’t do this without you in my life. <German>

5. Before we go to
bed, would you like to have sex? <German>

6. Holy Christ!
<Wolfyr>

7. Sweet Dreams, my
Love. <German>

8. Wolfy, I’m taking
Rafe to soccer practice. Can you make sure that Tristan goes o ballet?<German>

9. Bye bye, daddy.
Tell Tris that I say good luck.<German>

10. That was nice to
say to your brother. You two are so different, but you’re so close. It’s nice
to see. By the way, where’s your twin?<German>

11. Stop! Or we can go
home. Is that what you want?<German>

12. Rafe, come here
please.<German>

13. Go with the eagle.
Fly home with him.<German>

14. What are you doing
here?<Drak>

15. We’re here to kill
you all?<Drak>

16. Do you speak English?<Drak>