Epilogue

"Hello? Are you there Vince?" the soft voice of Stacy was hard to understand because of all the fireworks. Vince went inside. The house was dark and silent until he turned on the lights. His parents were not home. Like every New Year they were out partying. This year though they were not together but went to different parties. The silence in the house felt nice to Vince. The whole last week he had to listen to his parents fighting nonstop. "Happy New Year, how are you my deer?" Vince gulped and took a while before he answered with a shaky voice. Hearing Stacy on the phone just brought back the realization to him how terrible it was with his parents. He always had been used to it. He had been a shy and introverted guy who kept to himself and just lived with the tough situation he was in. But the time in Snow Valley had given him a glimpse of life how it should be. A friction of love and a warm home. "Happy New Year!" his voice sounded a bit shaky. "I'm okay." - "Something wrong?" she asked with a concerned voice. "Well... I just miss you all..." he said honest. There was no gain in telling her that his parents actually were even worst then they were before. They always had been fighting a lot and ignoring him most of the time but they never kept up with the fighting this long. "How are you?" Vince asked also to change the topic and Stacy seemed to notice that he did not want to talk about himself. "Good, good! I have seen a doctor two days ago." Vince winced. "Are you alright?" - "Sure, I told you I am good, right? But I have to congratulate you?" - "What do you mean?" - "Well... it seems you are a very rare case." Vince still did not understand. "I am pregnant Vince. And the only one that would come into mind to be the father would be you." Vince was speechless. That was a way to tell him that he would become a father of a cub. "Are you sure?" Stacy laughed. "Yes I am Vince. And it is not just me." Vince gulped and suddenly felt his throat dry. "What... do you mean with that?" - "Well, we got Sarah, Mia, Tracy and Lilly checked as well and they are positive as well." Vince dropped down to the floor. "Erm... I mean.... WoW... I do not know... should I say sorry or congratulation... I mean..." he was totally confused. "It is not your fault hon." Stacy said and giggled. "We needed a bit to take it in but we are all happy. So congratulation is in place I guess." - "Well then... congratulation... to all of you." Vince still did not completely believe it. They had told him that it was safe and he was told in school all the time that it was very rare for different species to breed... very rare...

"Are you still there Vince?" Stacy sounded a bit worried. "...Yes I am... it is just a bit sudden..." - "Oh sorry to break it to you so fast. I just could not keep it in anymore." Stacy seemed in a very joyful mood. "What about Sarah? I bet her husband will be furious at me..." - "He will not come back." - "What? Is it because I got her pregnant? I am sorry for..." - "I told you hon, it is okay." She interrupted him. "It is not your fault. Actually Paul still does not know about her pregnancy. When he did not come home yesterday Sarah called his company to ask if his trip would take longer. He stopped working there a year ago already they said. After a few more phone calls she finally found out that he is an imposter. He's got another family far away and his 'trips' were just an excuse to live with them for a few months. She had a talk with his other wife and when he came home she yelled at him to never come back." Vince was speechless again. "No worry Vince, she is okay. She sure was shocked and felt betrayed but in the end she said that she got the best from him with her kids and with the new child from you she would start a new life. Actually I am surprised how easy she takes it." There was a few minutes silence before Stacy spoke up again. "Are you still there?" - "Yes... sorry this is too much at once..." - "I understand. Take your time to process it." Vince took a few deep breaths before he spoke again. "How are the others; Mia, Lilly, Tracy, Miles and Alia?" - "They are great. It took a while to explain them that they were pregnant. Mia directly decided that she would marry you but then got into a fight with the others because they also wanted to take you as a husband." He heard Stacy chuckle. "Miles was a bit angry because he loves Tracy and you got not only to take her on Christmas and sleep with them the whole night but also got her pregnant. He feels left out. He told Tracy that no matter if she gets a child from you or not he would be the one to marry her." Vince had to chuckle a bit when he saw Miles in front of his mental eye raging over the fact that Tracy was pregnant while the girls fought over him. "You know you are welcome here any time to visit us, right?" asked Stacy and again the warm feeling that tightened his throat crawled up inside Vince. "Th...anks." He croaked and coughed to get the barrier inside his throat free. "Is this Vince... let me talk to him... no I am first... Happy New Year..." Vince suddenly heard the voices of the children in the background and it got so loud that it was hard to make out who was saying what. While they shouted into the phone he shakenly got up and went to the kitchen. After a big gulp from the milk he sat down on a chair and put his muzzle at the speaker again. "Happy New Year and Congratulation everyone." He said in a bit more steady voice. The rest of the conversation was happy and Vince slowly recovered from the shock of the news. Every one of them talked to them and said he should come back soon. When Vince disconnected the call an hour later and looked around in the dark kitchen that only got a bit light from the floor he emitted a deep sighed. He did not know how he felt right now. Scared, Happy, Lonely, Excited, Overwhelmed... ... it was a mix of everything. It took him half an hour until he finally got up and slowly went upstairs. He sent uncle Jaimy and aunt Milly a text wishing a Happy New Year. He did not feel that he could talk to anyone right now. He did not even undress but just fell into his bed and tried to process everything. He would be father of 5 cubs. It did not yet feel real for him but like a mix between a dream and a nightmare. After another thirty minutes he slowly drifted off to a real dream and did not even hear when his father came in early in the morning, drunk and singing or when his mother opened the door an hour later with a strong smell of booze and slammed the door shut. He also did not hear their fight while they were drunk when she just let herself fall on top of him in their bed. When Vince woke up both of his parents slept deep and it was silent in the house again.

"Hello Stacy? Sorry to call you this late but do you think you could jump into the car and get me from the city?" Two more weeks had passed. Vince stood at the bus station at the city near Snow Village. "Oh my Vince. You did not tell me you would come today. I am already in my night dress but sure. Give me a few minutes to put on some clothes." He heard her move up the stairs with the phone. "I am sorry I did not tell you before. It was kind of not planned." Vince apologized. He was muffled up in his new coat and had three big bags at his feet. Most of it was clothes. "What happened? Did you take the wrong bus again?" - "No I... well I kind of ran away from home!" There was a short silence. Vince heard Stacy shuffle and was sure she was just putting on her clothes. A minute later she was back. "Sorry, what did you say?" - "I ran away from home." - "Oh Vince, was it that bad? We can talk when you are here. And then we will tell your parents..." - "No!" Vince interrupted her and he was nearly shouting. "They do not need to know. They did ignore me the whole time since I was back. They don't need to know." - "But Vince, they will call the police and then..." - "I will tell my uncle. He can tell them that I will not come back." Stacy left it at that and he heard her telling the girls that she would be back in an hour and if something was wrong they should go to Sarah. "I will be there in around half an hour. We will talk later." She said and then she disconnected the call. While he was waiting he called his uncle and told him everything. Uncle Jaimy and aunt Milly promised him to not tell his parents where he was and that they were on his side. Like always Jaimy did defend his brother, Vince father, that it was maybe just a bad time at work or such and that he was sure he loved Vince and soon would call him because he would suspect that Vince would go to his aunt and uncle. Tracy arrived at the promised time just when he ended the call with his uncle. She helped him with the luggage after hugging him hard and pressing him against her chest. In the car he told her the whole story.

The fighting between his father and his mother did not stop at New Year. They continued to fight with each other every time they met at home. None of them cared about Vince. He spent most of the time outside the house but even when he was in they did not come to check for him, get him to the meals or even talk to him or react when he was greeting them. They just yelled at each other and ignored him completely. It had been much worse than it had been before until after two weeks Vince had have enough. He packed his clothes and a few of his personal belongings like his mobile phone, his tablet and a few books and went straight to the bus. He got the latest bus into the direction he wanted to take and just waited for his parents to call his mobile phone while the time kept ticking on. They never called. But that was not important for him anymore. With Stacy in the car he already felt more at home than he had felt in the past three weeks. "You can stay as long as you want." Stacy offered when she stopped in front of the house and turned off the motor. Vince pulled her into a long hug. "Thank you." He whispered and he felt a tear of joy run down his cheek. He was home again.

"Hello? Uncle Jaimy?" his uncle sounded a bit out of breath and Vince also knew from the tone of his voice that he was in a bad mood. "Hello Vince, will you forgive me?" Vince was a bit surprised. "I would not know what you did that would need my forgiveness."

The last months he had been in touch with uncle Jaimy regularly and kept him updated. It was one year since his sudden escape from his parents. In their conversations his uncle was clever enough to not talk about his parents. They talked about the school that Vince visited now together with Miles and Alia. Mia, Tracy and Lilly did not want to have all the children ask about their big bellies and decided to stay with the home teacher for the year. The kids stayed with Brad during the week. His apartment in the city was small because he normally only had it to sleep but the children did not mind that. On the weekends they went home with Tracy's grandfather and spend the weekends together with the others. It had been quite lively after the children had been born. Only Sarah's child had more traits from Vince and was a white wolf pup. The other babies looked like normal snow leopards with only their darker fur was hinting towards the father.

"I want to apologize that I never believed you how bad it was with your parents. Remember how I always told you that it may only look bad and that you need to give them a chance?" Vince was a bit surprised by the sudden mentioning of his parents and did not like it. He was happy that he did not have to think about them anymore. "Yes, but why are you bringing this up now? I do not want to..." - "Vince, my brother called me just a few minutes ago." A knot formed inside the stomach of Vince. He raised his eye brow and signaled Stacy who just came to him with a hand that he was not able to respond right now. She fell silent and watched him as he sat down on the stairs. "What did he want?" It took a while for his uncle to answer. He seemed to fight with his own anger. "This irresponsible jerk... sorry about that..." Vince did not mind his uncle cursing his father. He did much worse in the past. "...he asked me if I could drive by their house to get you a lift to the court." - "What? Why from their home? Why did he want me to go to court?" Jaimy had problems to hold back his anger and Vince was sure that he was out of breath because he must have yelled at his father. "Well, they finally are getting divorced and the judge noticed in the documents that they have a son and wanted to talk to you about to which of them you want to go. Your father told me completely innocent that you would not pick up the phone at home and so he asked me to get you." - "Is he crazy? I have not been there for a year now." Vince could not believe why his father would think he would be at their house. "And it is an hour from you to them." - "Yes, I know. First I was speechless. I asked him a few questions which confirmed it to me. Vince, both your mother and my brother never noticed that you left their home." - "You are kidding!" Vince laughed hysterical. "I knew they ignored me but they should notice that I was never there." - "I am as shocked as you are Vince." His uncle growled and Vince heard him hitting the table with his fist. "I still can't believe it. At first I was just shocked until your father started to speak again and asked me if my silence was an agreement to get you. Then I could not hold back. Your aunt Milly said she was near a heart attack when I suddenly started to shout at your father. I do not remember what I called him." Vince chuckled. "Sorry uncle Jaimy. How did my father react?" - "I think he was shocked from my reaction. He did not say anything at all. When I asked him to give the phone to the judge he did it right away. I told them Vince. I told them that you left home one year ago and that you do not want to be with your parents. They noticed that I was very agitated and told me to calm down and that they would call me again to make an appointment with you. For now I am your guarding until they do the final decision."

Vince looked into the air. He still could not believe that his parents did not notice that he was gone for nearly a year. Tracy came into the floor with her baby in her arms and Christmas decoration in her hand. She wanted to ask Vince something but Stacy signaled her to wait. Vince just shot her an apologizing gaze before he spoke to his uncle again. "Does this mean that I can officially stay here?" Vince whispered. His uncle took a while for the answer but also sounded a lot calmer. "Yes Vince, if this is what you want I have nothing against it." - "Thank you uncle Jaimy, I know you did a lot for me the past year." His uncle had been at the school with him. It had been hard to register him at school without the signature of his parents but they took Jaimy as a guardian in their stead in the end. "I am happy that I was able to help." Replied his uncle. "When will you be here?" Vince asked and changed the topic. His uncle noticed that the news of his parents was more than he wanted to hear from them and he already said what he wanted to say so he changed the topic. "We will arrive on Sunday in a week. The technicians come here next Wednesday for the wires and after that we will have to clean the house but don't worry. We will come." - "We are happy to have you. You will finally be able to see your little nieces and nephews." The conversation went on about happier topics for another half an hour and Stacy left for the kitchen after she noticed that Vince was okay now.

When Vince later joined them in the living room he was calm and explained to Stacy, Tracy and Lilly what happened. They were as shocked as he was but Vince just chuckled. "Well, I knew my parents were not the brightest lights in the forest." He stepped behind Lilly and Stacy and caressed their growing bellies. When they had been just out of the first weeks with their cubs he got Lilly, Stacy, Mia and Sarah pregnant again. "I will never be like them, I promised." He went by Tracy and kissed her on the forehead while caressing her round belly as well. "And I am sure Miles will also be a great father." Miles and Tracy now were a pair and he was responsible for her belly this time. They had decided to wait until they were 18 until Mia and Vince would merry but they would all stay together. Miles and Tracy also would merry when they became adult. It was just a formality for them because they did not need a vow like that to know that they would stay together forever.

The Christmas with his uncle was cheerful and nice. Vince and Jaimy took a few hours to themselves to speak about his parents and what the next steps would be. In the new year Vince would have to talk to the judge for the formalities and to give his own story about what happened. They never heard anything again from his parents.

From this Christmas on Vince and his big family of 6 females and a male and their children lived happily ever after