“Can you take me on a run?”
I paused mid-chew and looked at Arietty. She’d stopped eating long enough to ask me a question. Just as we’d thought, her appetite followed her mother’s example, and she’d been eating pretty much non-stop since she woke up. It would taper off naturally once her body got used to the changes.
“You sure you’re up for taking your wolf form again?” I asked after I swallowed. “You only just got out of it after sunset yesterday, right?”
“I think I’ll be ready by tonight,” Arietty said resolutely. “Could some of the other new shifters come too? None of us can keep up with adults who go day-running, and our parents won’t let us go out on our own at night.”
And for good reason. While all the kids in our pack were solidly Good Kids, being newly transformed really inhibited their logical side. It wasn’t unusual for their wolf to take over. Granted, Arietty had been perfectly well-behaved during the reunion-she’d even cuddled with Felicia a bit-but that was when she had full supervision.
I hadn’t planned on spending my night with a bunch of preteens, but I wanted to be an alpha they knew they could come to, and I didn’t really have a reason to say no. So, I didn’t. Instead, I looked at her parents.
“Is that all right with you?”
Chris nodded. “Sure. We’ve taken her out of school for the week, so there’s no curfew.”
“All right then.”
Arietty was trying real hard not to wiggle in her seat.
“You and everyone else who wants to come can meet me out in the recreation field at sundown. We’ll make a night of it.”
“Yay! Thanks, Uncle Cas.”
“You’re welcome,” I said before putting on my serious voice. “But you’ve got to eat another serving of vegetables.”
“Ain’t no problem on my account,” she said before happily ladling a giant spoonful of roasted broccoli and cauliflower on her plate. “Bottoms up!”
I was sure Arietty might have tried to hurry us through dinner if she wasn’t so damn hungry, but as it were, she was still eating when I dismissed myself. I wanted to go home and change into something more comfortable. Sure, I’d be in my wolf form for most of my run, but my human side was always wearing the clothes I was last in. It was a weird shifter thing, but it was what it was.
Once I was dressed, I puttered around a bit until the sun began to set, and then I sprayed on some natural insect repellent before heading out the door. I wouldn’t need it when I was a wolf, but it would make the time I needed to spend as a red-blooded human a whole lot more comfortable. We healed from insect bites quite quickly, but they also were insanely itchy. Something about our rapid metabolisms processing the venom super quickly exaggerated its irritating factor.
“Hey everyone,” I said as I jogged up to the four kids already waiting for me. I still remembered the excitement of my first runs after I got my wolf form. “Everyone ate, hydrated?” They all nodded, and I figured none of them were lying to me because I’d probably be able to hear their stomachs growling. “All right, let’s give anybody else who wants to come along another ten or so minutes to show up. In the meantime, let’s stretch.”
“Is that necessary?” a girl I recognized as Aoife asked. Not in a challenging way, but curious. I was never one to discourage questions, however, so I happily answered.
“It’s not mandatory, no, especially once you get more used to your wolf form. But it does help a whole lot, especially for y’all newbies.”
More serious nods all around. A deep, rich fondness welled up in me. So much of shifter history was filled with pain, war, uncertainty, and violence. While things weren’t perfect now by a long shot, they were much improved, and I was hopeful that the young ones in front of me would be the first generation without any sort of pack war. They were good kids, and they definitely deserved peace.
So, I would do my best as an alpha to make sure that happened.
When all was said and done, there were seven youngsters in total, including Arietty. They were practically vibrating with excitement by the time it was dark enough for us to head out.
I hoped I didn’t disappoint.
“Follow my lead now. We’re going to do a nice, easy jog. No sprinting, no hunting. This is about getting to know all the new things your body can do. Try to communicate in shifter-speak if you can, but if not, there’s nothing wrong with using your wolf’s vocal cords either. Ready?”
“Ready!”
“All right then, let’s go for a run.”
It was hard not to be excited when their enthusiasm was so infectious. I reminded myself to shift slowly to give them a demonstration on how smoothly the process could go when one was attuned to their own inner wolf. It was a dialogue of sorts, perhaps even a dance, and once they learned to treat it like a mutual exchange, their transformations would be far less painful.
It took a couple of minutes, with one or two of them losing the shift and having to try again, but a gentle nudge from my cold nose and a few rumbles helped them find their center and give it another go. Soon enough, we were all wolves, and we lifted our heads to howl at the waxing gibbous moon above our heads.
We were pack.
So many feelings flooded me at the cute, young howls-all high-pitched and a little breathy. It was so goddamn adorable, but at the same time, gratifying. No matter how bad things got, no matter how stressed I was about my duties as an alpha, there was always the hope and joy that came from watching all my nieces, nephews, and very young cousins grow into the fully-fledged, well-adjusted shifters they were meant to be.
“Let’s run!”
I projected to them with shifter-speak.
And then we were off. I did forget to temper myself for just a moment, but I pulled back before I got too far ahead and let the young ones catch up to me. Already they were panting with happiness, tails wagging almost violently. It was joy incarnate-just a bunch of shifters doing shifter things together.
Strangely enough, I kind of wished that Felicia was running with us. From the jokes she’d made, I got the sense she wasn’t the biggest fan of cardio, but it seemed that she didn’t mind getting breathless and exhausted if it involved some sort of game. I was sure that all the young ones would love playing frisbee with her again, or even chasing a ball if she threw it.
And then maybe the baker wouldn’t be so lonely.
She hid it well, she really did, but there was no mistaking the longing I’d heard in her voice, especially when she spoke about her mother. She wasn’t a shifter, but humans were still pack animals. And right now, Felicia didn’t have a pack.
That was so incredibly wrong.
As much as my mind wanted to drift back to the beautiful woman and how it had felt to have her in my arms again, I needed to focus on the little ones.
“It seems counterintuitive since you’re all trying to keep your new wolves in check, but what you want to do is relax your mind. You’ve all lived in one specific body that had its own rules and functions. But now you have two bodies, and if you try to grip so hard onto everything you used to know or your new body, you will be in constant war. And we don’t want that, now do we?”
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