The next morning, after waking up and getting ourselves organized things more, or less, went back to normal. I did take the time to call Vera and update her on most recent events.

"Mark, nice to hear from you." She said, and her tone said that she truly believed it. "Have you managed to eliminate most of the Hammers from your part of the world?" She asked, "I assume that is why you're calling me this morning."

"I hope so Vera, though to be honest we don't fully know, I am waiting till one of the members of the Hammers that we currently have here at the Pride is ready to talk about what she did for them and how they are organized." I told her grimly, and that really was the truth, Ilyanna was just about the only Hammer that had ever been captured that was of any consequence.

"Mark how can you be sure that she will tell you anything, other than lies?" Came Vera's reply, "Or she could just tell you nothing at all."

"Vera she has a fairly good reason to open up, she found her mate here, among the members of my Pride." I answered, "I know it may take her some time, but I have a pretty good feeling that eventually she may want to talk to me about what she's been through." I told her.

There was a pause at the other end before a soft chuckle began and I smiled, before Vera began laughing more deeply. It took her a few moments to fully regain her composure and she was still chuckling softly when she said, "I didn't consider that, but I suspect that you may be correct there. Who's the lucky cat?"

"Serina is her name and she's rather well known here at the Pride for being a strong, confident, and outgoing cat." I replied, letting Vera figure out that it was a lesbian relationship, I wasn't sure how she felt about same gender matings, but I suspected that she realized how beneficial they could be.

"I see, I take it there is more than that going on?"

"Yes, Serina has also adopted one the cubs that was orphaned by Vladimir and his group while they were here and it is causing Ilyanna, that's the Major's name, some confusion."

"I could see why." Vera stated softly, "From what you and William have told me, the cubs that you rescued from Vladimir will need decades of treatment to get over what they experienced."

"Yes, that much is true." I said, though we didn't say much more since there was no real reason to go over that subject again.

"What about the other one that you captured? Do you think that you can redeem him as well?"

"Anna and I are fairly confident that he'll make a full recovery." I said confidently, "He's young and only needs to be shown that there is more to life than what he faced in the Hammers."

"I hope that you're right Mark, I'd hate for your Pride to face more danger due to him being there." She said, and I could understand her caution. "I wish you the best in this endeavour and I will try and keep some kind of watch on events here in Russia, if things start going bad I may call on you again to help us with rescuing our Pride-Mates."

"I hope it doesn't come to that Vera," I told her, wishing her a good day before hanging up and looking to my mate. "Now we have to wait and see which one will come by here first? Ilyanna or Vasiliy, though I do have a feeling that before this week is out we will get a visit from both of them."

"I agree with you on that," Anna said shaking her head at the item in the center of her desk, it appeared that Katyusha had managed to catch an unwary pika and decided to bring it to Anna as a gift.

"She is surprisingly effective as a predator, isn't she?" I asked Anna with a grin, Katyusha was a fairly skilled hunter though nowhere near as effective as Caspian and Altair together, and when Katyusha joined them it got even more frightening due to the sheer intelligence of the three of them.

Anna simply nodded, "I only wish she didn't think that leaving me little gifts like this is a good use of her talents."

"I understand love." I said, "She is using that to express her affection for you." I commented with a grin.

"There are other ways that she could do that." Anna replied as she began to gather up the mess on her desk.

As Anna was finishing cleaning up the mess on her desk there was a light knock on the door and I looked up to see Serina with Ilyanna slightly behind her, between them was Pavel who's wide blue eyes were everywhere in the office, he'd never been in my office before.

"Good morning Serina, come on in." I invited with a smile.

She smiled to her mate and gently encouraged the smaller cat to follow her. Pavel, being the cub that he was focused on me and ran over before jumping into my lap, and when he did I rather quickly detected the pungent aroma coming from him.

I made a shallow smile, more to his parents than him and gave him a gentle cuddle.

"I'm sorry..." Ilyanna started to say but I held up my hand to stop her.

"It's all right Ilyanna, he's a young cub, and it happens from time to time." I stated, "It doesn't hurt him, though you do wish he would stop doing it right?"

Ilyanna looked to her mate who nodded slightly. "I mean he's a bit old to be using them, though after Serina told me all of the ugly details of what he'd had to deal with since he was born I kind of understand."

I nodded slightly, "Believe me Ilyanna, every single cub that had to live with the madness of Vladimir and his mate Yasmira have had issues like what Pavel is facing." I said as I stepped around the desk with Pavel in my arms to take the backpack that her mate was holding before clearing a space and spreading out a thin pad on my desk before laying the cub down on it.

"Surely they older ones wouldn't be acting like... well... a kitten?" She asked I shook my head as I continued to comfort Pavel while I changed him.

"The one I adopted is almost eight and she has her own issues, particularly when she's sleeping." I told her, "When I first got her it was worse, but she's gotten better since then and now she doesn't show her issues during the day."

Ilyanna nodded as she came over and softly began rubbing Pavel's tummy gently. I finished up with a smile and then replaced the cub's pants.

"There we go kitten nice and clean." I said with a smile and was rewarded with a tight hug from the cub.

"Thank you." He said, though his reply was a bit muffled as he said it into my shoulder.

Serina was looking happy and confident that her cub was safe while Ilyanna looked a bit nervous.

I took a moment before gently putting the boy down and cleaning up the garbage from the change. "Ilyanna you looked a bit nervous and surprised that I would change his diaper, why is that?" I asked as I handed the bag back to Serina.

"My earliest memories... our Pride Guardian was quite a bit more aloof with the cubs that you are, and he made a point to yell at my parents if my sister or I ever were near him and needed, well."

I nodded, though I didn't like that implication, "I actually like spending time with youngsters, I find their adventuresome nature and boundless curiosity to be invigorating." I told her with a smile, "We all have to remember that cubs are the future of the Pride and our species." I continued, as I watched Pavel look around the office poking everything that caught his attention.

She nodded as she too watched the cub exploring the office before he found a few of the toys that Anna and I had in our office for Tanya, Natalia and Nathan.

"Toys momma!" He exclaimed before sitting down and settling down to play quietly to play by himself.

I smiled softly before returning to my chair behind my desk, "Ilyanna I see that you'd like to try and build a life here, however; I need some information on the group that you used to be a member of." I told her, "I know that you might look on this as betraying an oath that you've sworn to those who are in charge of the Hammers, but, I think that you understand now that they only intended the destruction of our way of life here."

She shivered and nodded looking at Serina, before sighing softly, "It is rough, what your offering is tempting, but that would mean that I would be giving up on something I've been doing for more than fifty years."

"I understand that, however; you have to ask yourself something, are you truly proud of what you've had to do in that time?" I asked with a gentle smile, "If half of what I've read about the Hammers is true, they are bent on using terrorism and hatred to achieve their ends, which is a reversal of the collapse of 1990 and a return of the Soviet Union."

She stood there for more than a minute as she thought about what I'd said, and I was more than willing to give her as much time as she needed, though I did figure that Serina would have a few pointed things to say if they walked out of the office with everything remaining the same.

Ilyanna took a moment to sit down in one of the comfortable chairs in from of my desk before looking up into my eyes. "When I first joined, my pride was falling apart, we were heavily involved with the old Soviet government and when the collapse came, it took away all of our support systems. During my cubhood and youth I was a member of the Young Pioneers, I guess you can say that I was indoctrinated during that time to follow the Party Line."

"I am aware of those organizations, though there were many from that time that decided that they would rather follow democracy than stay with the rigid system they had prior to 1990."

She nodded, "I understand that, but my parents lost almost everything with the Collapse. My father was, at one time a well-placed officer in the Red Banner Pacific Fleet and my mother was gaining influence as a local politician." She said sadly, "When the Union was replaced both of them lost their employment and were left with only father's pension to support themselves on. Mom lost everything, but since she was a member of the Party she didn't even get that much."

I nodded slightly, I guess that for her it had made some kind of sense to join the Hammers, after all they were working towards restoring the order that had allowed her parents to have something of a career. "I guess, that under the circumstances it seemed like a reasonable thing for you to do."

She nodded and carried on, her tale wasn't something that I guess she was all that proud of, especially with her mate sitting beside her trying to give her support. When lunch-time rolled around Sergey came up to our office with food before gently leading Pavel away to the creche where he could play with other cubs his age instead of listening to the boring adults talking. As Ilyanna talked I took notes for a while before moving her to the couch and offering her a chance to snuggle up to a Pride Lord as she chokingly told us of some of the worst actions that she'd had to take part in for the Hammers. Her reaching the rank of Major hadn't been easy or peaceful and she'd had to prove, more than once, her loyalty to the ideals for which the group professed.

As we learned more and more about the inner workings of the Hammers my estimation of their capabilities actually decreased, while my understanding of their fanaticism grew more and more disheartening. They had, on more than one occasion purposely orphaned cubs so that they could be raised and indoctrinated in the Hammers way of thinking.

"This was Vasiliy's first mission, he's only sixteen..." She said softly, "I wasn't the one that decided that he should be here for this but..."

I nodded before turning to Anna, "Perhaps you should go talk to the boy, see if we can't do something for him." I stated softly, the fact that Vasiliy hadn't had a proper upbringing would be something that would haunt the young man, probably for the rest of his life.

As soon as Anna left to take care of that I returned my attention to Ilyanna and she carried on for a short while longer before there was a tentative knock on the doorframe and I saw, rather surprisingly, that Pavel had returned and was looking, not to Serina, but to Ilyanna. "Mommy?"

The shocked expression that came across her face was both amusing, and a bit sad that she hadn't seen her effect on the young cub. "Pavel?" She asked softly before he dashed over and leapt into her arms making soft sounds of appreciation.

"Ilyanna perhaps it is time to put aside the past fifty years and look towards a new path, one where you have a mate and a cub." I told her as she cuddled the cub in her arms.

"Yes, I think I am ready for that much, I don't want to carry on this path anymore," She replied looking over to her mate, "I haven't joined your Pride yet, that may take me a bit longer to be ready for, but for the time being, I will gladly remain here, and I will tell you everything that you should know about my former comrades." She said standing with the cub in her arms before walking over to her mate who nodded and smiled at me before they left the room.

Maybe ten minutes later Anna returned to the room with a slightly chastened looking Vasiliy following her. "Not even two days here young man, and you've managed to do something that violates a rule," Anna said in a disappointed tone of voice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to break a rule, please don't..." He stammered out in quick order before I held up a hand,

*Hon he's terrified of breaking the rules. I guess the Hammers had some rather nasty punishments for somebody who violated their statutes.* I sent to my mate as I stepped around the desk to look the young cat in the eyes before gently enveloping him a hug, meant to reassure him that we wouldn't be doing anything like what he'd faced in the past that so terrified him.

*I can sense that much, whatever it was, he is almost radiating almost blind terror of, poor cub.* She replied, also coming around her desk to join the hug. *It wasn't even that bad, really, he just was trying to get into a part of the House were all cubs his age aren't permitted.*

"Vasiliy," I said softly rubbing the now crying young man's back as he sobbed out his terror at what he thought his punishment would be. "Vasiliy we aren't going to hurt you." I said as I looked across his head to my mate, I also was finding it hard to keep the tears from my eyes. I'd never seen a young person his age that had been so beaten down, so abused, that he broke down at the first mention of a punishment.

*Mark, this is what makes you such a wonderful male,* Anna sent to me with a slight smile, *You care deeply for all members of your Pride, especially the weak and vulnerable.* She finished as I did my best to comfort the young man in my arms.

Vasiliy didn't even look up when Sergey came into the room and padded over before gently joining the hug, *Dad, he reminds me so much of myself when I was his age, though he is definitely no Junior he's been through way too much for somebody his age.* I found myself nodding before Sergey continued, *Dad, give him a chance, let him see that he is not too old to have a family that loves him.*

I cocked my head slightly at Sergey, I knew what he was suggesting, but I was starting to feel that I was approaching the limits on how many kids I could handle. I didn't really consider Sergey to really be a kid anymore, though he'd always be one of mine, nor for the most part, did Shawn qualify since he spent most of his time at Wild Valley with his team but I still had Katherine, Tanya, Natalia, and Nathan as well as the cub or cubs that Anna was expecting. Furthermore, I also considered myself as the primary caretaker for the Berekov Twins, Aleksander and Peter, and now Sergey was asking me to take in another. I thought about it for a moment and then gently worked my way from the hug before pressing Sergey to take my place. While Sergey may be Junior he was probably one of the most respected Juniors in the Pride and I'd long ago upgraded his stipend to that of a mid-ranked cat, he more than met the requirements to do the work of a mid-ranked and had proven, on more than one occasion, that he was willing to do anything to defend the Pride if need be.

"Vasiliy," I said softly as he began to regain control of himself,

"Yes sir," He shivered softly and Sergey gently hugged the boy, Sergey was only a few inches taller than Vasiliy was, and I suspected that he would end up a good deal larger.

"For the time being I'm going to leave you in Sergey's care, he's a good cat and probably has a better understanding of what you've been through than most here at the Pride." I stated before handing him a small e-reader. "Your punishment for violating our laws is to read them and understand them." I stated as gently as I could, "Next week, on Friday I would like a full report from you on what you believe you did wrong and what you'll do next time."

He nodded before Sergey gently took the young man's arm and lead him from the office.

As soon as they were out of the room and sat down in my chair rather heavily, "Damned that was close, I was almost ready to give him a paternal bond, but I realized that even I have limits love." I said to Anna with a groan. The boy's obvious anguish called out to the compassionate cat that I was and yanked at my heartstrings in the worst possible way.

"I know love and I was ready for you to make that bond, but you chose well in letting Sergey take your place, he knows how you would do things, you've taught him well." She said with a smile and we both stood up and headed for the door. It had been a long time to spend in the office and we were more than ready to enjoy the rest of the day among other members of our Pride.