***Warning:  This is an alternate ending to the canon storyline for Bad Wolf.  If you have yet to read the true ending (chapters 9 and 10), it is highly advised you do, so that the differences between the two can be more completely appreciated.  This is the first chapter of the Harem Ending and takes place immediately following the events of Bad Wolf 8.  And so here is the beginning of the end.***

	Joseph the nineteen year old Snow Leopard dashed out into the hall outside his apartment wearing nothing more than a pair of jeans hastily pulled on, not even bothering to fasten them in his rush to catch up to his quickly escaping girlfriend.  Misha, the twenty-seven year old Bobcat mother, was quickly walking away from him.  She had just walked in on him depositing a thick load of his young cum deep into her previously virgin ten year old daughter Athaisce.

	Words could not describe the fear Joseph felt as he saw her walking away from him, but instinct drove him forward, making him jog towards her until he caught her arm in his hand and spun her around.  Panting, not even sure what to say, he saw the tears in her eyes and saw her stare at him with such hurt as she broke away from his grasp.  “How could you? My daughter, Joseph! She was my daughter!” she cried, standing her ground now.

	Joseph took a slow breath and exhaled, his vision tunneling until he only saw her.  Those eyes with sparkling golden flecks buried in the gray-green irises watched him with a complex mix of emotions and he met their gaze with his own silver eyes as his body calmed.  “Misha, please listen to me for a moment.  If nothing else, let me explain,” he said calmly and she snapped back that there was nothing to explain before he held up his hand for her to stop.  “There is a lot to explain- and the very fact that you ran away rather than confront me then means you’re hurt rather than angry.  Let me soothe things,” his voice was calm and gentle, so much calmer than he was on the inside.

	Terror coursed through his veins but he fought on passed it before she could rebuke him again, “I did not force myself on her, Misha, nor did I talk her into it.  She came to me.”  When she gave him a disbelieving look, he explained what happened, not a single detail left out.  He was so graphic at times that she took a small step back, clutching one hand to her chest, but once he finished, her ears were lowered and her shoulders had slumped.  He’d managed to completely turn her from what she had believed had happened by overloading her with information.

	He sighed and reached out, gently rubbing her upper arms until she stepped forward into his embrace.  She asked him why he didn’t just say no and he sighed as he stroked his fingers through her hair, “Because I’m a guy and sometimes guys are very stupid.”  She gave a weak laugh at that and he nuzzled between her ears, “Honestly, I didn’t even consider saying no.  She looked at me with those needy eyes and I just couldn’t refuse.  I was as gentle as I could be and if you don’t believe me, when she wakes up later you can ask her yourself.”

	She sighed and clung to him, willing to believe him- whether it was the smart thing to do or not.  Inside, Joseph knew he should just let her go, let her take her daughter and leave him for what he’d done, but he was just too selfish.  He couldn’t commit that sacrifice, even if it was for the better of them all.  Call it love or call it greed.  He couldn’t watch her leave.  He felt monstrous for it, but he just couldn’t watch her leave.

	He hugged her closer, rubbed his cheek against the top of her head, thankful she hadn’t looked up to see the pain in his own eyes.  Now that the drive that had propelled him to catch up to her, the drive to talk her into staying, had faded, he felt raw and scared, comforted only slightly by the warm press of her body against his.  He’d fix this, he really would, if only to keep her here in his arms a little longer.

	When finally he felt he would break down and cry, he gently pulled back and took her hand in his.  She squeezed it, gave a little smile, which only grew when he kissed her knuckles, then he lead her back to the apartment.

	Inside, Gena had somehow managed to move Athaisce from the living room, was even sweet enough to collect all the discarded clothes and take them elsewhere.  He sighed with relief as he stepped over the spilled Chinese food by doorway and led his girlfriend over to the couch where he’d stolen her daughter’s virginity, guiding her to sit.  “I’m going to grab us something to drink and we’ll talk some more, okay?” he said softly and watched her nod, her eyes watching him but the look in them was undeterminable.

	Just as he entered the kitchen, he heard Gena come back into the living room, heard the two of them chat a little- heard the frightened tone in Gena’s words.  She knew she was partly to blame as well, and was scared of Misha disapproving, but surprisingly Misha’s voice was calm and soothing as if her own feelings had smoothed out.  He didn’t know what that bode for their relationship but he didn’t get to ponder it long.

	When he opened the fridge to grab some cokes, the phone rang, nearly making him jump out of his skin.  Heart racing for the umpteenth time that night, he reached out and picked the wireless phone off its charging base, hitting the button to answer it before holding it up to his ear.  “Hello?” he greeted, only to stop dead in his tracks at the voice that spoke over the line.  The person had no more than said a few terrified sentences before he pulled the phone from his ear and called for Misha.

	She came in, looking confused, and hesitated when she saw the look on his face, then when she advanced and held out her hand, he gave her the phone.  While she spoke into the phone, he rushed through the living room and into his bedroom, passing a confused Gena.  He dressed in record time, donning a shirt and grabbing his wallet, phone and keys before fixing his pants.

	“What’s going on?” Gena asked as Joseph came back into the living room.  The little ten year old black Timber Wolf looked up at him with scared eyes as he rushed over and kissed her forehead, telling her he’d be back in a little bit.

	“Misha! I’m going. Please, please be here when I get back,” he called to her before rushing out the door, breaking into a full on run as he got into the hall.  If she replied, he didn’t hear it.  All he heard were those terrified words spoken through the phone by Tiana.

	“There was a shooting.”

	When Joseph arrived at the hospital, the only one the victims would have been taken to, it took nearly ten minutes before he could talk a nurse into taking him to Tiana.  He nearly bitch slapped the cold woman so many times, but finally, she did as he asked and when he rounded the corner with her and saw Tiana sitting there in that quiet, sterile hallway on a bench that looked only slightly more comfortable than a hole in the head, he abandoned the bitchy nurse to rush over to the Arctic Wolf’s side.

	Just twenty years old at the time, Tiana had given birth to Gena, and Joseph had believed before this point, not aged a day since, but seeing her there, blood on her blouse, her hair a mess and her eyes swollen and red from crying, she looked far older than her now thirty years.  She looked worn down, defeated, and he could not even fathom how long she’d been sitting here, alone, waiting to hear the news about her husband Loric, who even now was still undergoing emergency surgery to hopefully save his life.

	Joseph sat beside her and she barely seemed to register him there at first but when she did, fresh tears formed in her eyes and she practically tackled him, burying her face against his shoulder as she sobbed.   He wrapped gentle arms around her and wondered when she’d gotten off the phone with Misha- and if his girlfriend was even still at the apartment.  He prayed she hadn’t abandoned him, even as he prayed that Loric would be okay.

	Very gently, he ran his long fingers through her messy white hair, fixing it a little while also trying to calm her.  He wasn’t sure how a wolf would react to such comforting, as he himself was a cat, but she didn’t tremble as much after a while.  It actually took ten minutes after the last time he felt her tremble that he realized she’d passed out, unable to keep up with the stress of the day any longer.  The old saying of ‘keeping yourself awake worrying’ really just does not apply to everyone.

	He gave a soft sigh and stroked her back for a bit before his phone buzzed in his pocket, scaring him into jumping just a little.  After checking to make sure he hadn’t woken Tiana, and seeing that he hadn’t, he opened his phone to find a message from Misha.

	“How is she?”  A simple message that required a reply so complex he had to break it up into two messages, typing frustratingly slow with only one hand.

	“She looks awful and only just fell asleep.  I don’t know what happened beyond there being a shooting, but from what I understand, Loric got shot a lot and is in surgery right now.  They’ve been in there for ages.  I’m not sure if he’ll make it, judging by how much time has passed since I got here- and I can only assume he was in there sometime while I drove over.”

	“I hope it will all be okay.”

	“Me too, babe. Me too.”  No sooner had he sent that text than he saw something- some one- in the corner of his eye.  As he stuffed his phone back into his pocket, he turned his gaze and froze, eyes going wide.

	Loric, who should be in surgery, stood there, leaning against the wall, his muscled arms folded across his chest.  He wore simple clothes of an unremarkable color and design but Joseph didn’t really notice that.  It was just the fact that this wolf, whose daughter had taken so much after, was standing there unharmed.  “Joseph,” he spoke but his lips did not move and it was then that the Snow Leopard understood.  Loric wasn’t unharmed.  He was dead.

	“That’s not fair, Man.  That’s not fair at all,” Joseph said quietly, shaking his head, chin quivering a little.

	“I protected Tiana as best I could, and she got away unscathed.  It’s all I could have wanted for,” Loric replied quietly, his expression sad as he gazed at his sleeping wife with amber eyes that lacked the fire of life.  When those eyes turned to Joseph again, the black Timber Wolf stood up straight and rested his hands on his hips.  “I’m leaving them in your care, Joseph.  Be the pillar that holds them up, the rock they can hold on to when the waters try to wash them away.  You make Gena happy… Maybe one day you can make Tiana happy too.”

	“I don’t understand,” Joseph replied but Loric only gave a tired smile and told him he would soon.  With that the wolf walked over, his feet making no sound upon the cold tile flooring, and reached out, gently stroking his wife’s head.  There was no way she could have felt it, but she still stirred in her sleep, drawing Joseph’s gaze for but a brief second.  When he turned his gaze back, Loric was gone.

	“Tiana… Tiana, wake up,” Joseph whispered softly, gently shaking her as a doctor came striding out of the operating room just then.  The badger doctor sighed as he pulled the mask from his face and looked from the waking Tiana to Joseph before announcing that Loric had died on the operating table, despite their best efforts.  Tiana clutched tighter at Joseph’s shirt, the fabric tearing in her grip.