Wolf Landing

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

“Uh uh,” Lupe disagreed a few hours later as two of the bloodlings grabbed hold of her sweater sleeves. The duo attempted to drag the newly arrived teenager back out the door she’d so recently walked in through, hoping for a two-legged addition to their game of tag. And despite Lupe’s planted feet and surly disposition, they likely would have gotten their way had their playmate’s book bag not slid down along one arm to wind around Rain’s tan neck.

The pale-furred wolf considered the entanglement to be yet more fun and games, but Lupe yanked the strap off her companion’s body so forcefully that the animal’s teeth rattled together within her jaw. “Why can’t you leave me the hell alone?” my protégée hissed.

And the wet blanket has arrived. As disloyal as the sentiment seemed, I couldn’t help thinking that our celebration would have been much more fun had our off-site pack member stayed with her human family where she thought she belonged. But I didn’t let any of my indecision show in my voice when I took her to task. “Lupe,” I warned.

Now that the teenager had arrived and my mother had left on a date, the entirety of our lupine pack was gathered in the open-floor-plan community house, waiting for the display of sunset colors that would signal the beginning of our celebratory hunt. To the merriment of all involved, Ginger was busy mimicking bloodlings’ voices on the other side of the room, while Hunter wrestled with Cinnamon on a patch of cleared floor.

I, on the other hand, was hanging back on the outskirts like a coward, glad no one had noticed my distance in the excitement. The decision definitely failed the What Would Wolfie Do test, but it was the best option I’d come up with for minimizing confusion among the sensitive bloodling contingent.

In stark contrast, Hunter had no problem monitoring the entirety of the room without losing hold of his inner wolf...or of the real, live wolf he was gently trouncing. He caught my gaze from the opposite corner of the L-shaped room and raised one eyebrow questioningly in the face of Lupe’s ill humor. Want me to smack her into line? he asked with a quirked lip, meaning a verbal alpha compulsion rather than a physical human rebuff.

I wish, I responded silently. We’d become so attuned to each other’s expressions over the last few months that I actually wasn’t entirely certain whether Hunter was using our mate bond to communicate versus just staring pointedly in my general direction and figuring I’d understand what he intended to say. Either way, though, I shook my head glumly to reinforce my reply. No, Lupe was the one shifter present who considered me her sole authority figure rather than looking upon Hunter as an equal pack leader. So I’d have to rely on halfie heckling to get my way.

“I just don’t see why I have to keep coming here every weekend,” the bloodling in question muttered barely loudly enough to be heard...and at the same time quietly enough so she could say she’d been talking to herself if I called her on the insubordination. Yes, we’d played this game many times before.

“I can handle my shifts,” she continued. “I’ve got a place to stay. And I have friends out there in the real world. So maybe you should all just forget I exist and let me live my own life.”

Having disentangled herself from two sets of friendly lupine fangs, the party pooper now sank down into an armchair and buried her nose into a smartphone. Conversation over. Was it really possible that this stereotypical American teenager had lived entirely in lupine form until less than six months earlier?

Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t quite ready to let Lupe wiggle out of our discussion. On the other hand, I also wasn’t willing to deal with her grumpiness head-on since that tactic often provoked a screaming match bound to squash the pack’s celebratory mood. So, instead, I changed the subject. “How are Mrs. Sawyer and the twins?”

“You can call her Nina,” Lupe countered. “She’s not my teacher anymore.” But, despite herself, the young woman glanced up from her device and allowed me to see the joyous wolf wiggling with pleasure beneath her furless skin. Lupe’s human nature might be feigning disinterest about the matter, but her inner animal was thrilled to act as foster sibling to a pair of newborn human cubs.

The excitement of hunt preparation continued to build elsewhere in the building. But for an instant, Lupe and I became locked in silent communion not so different from the conversation I’d recently shared with my mate. Okay, so there was no overt show of affection between the two of us. But I could still see the young woman’s thoughts almost as clearly as if they were my own.

Yes, Lupe was handling herself ably in the human world where she spent the majority of her days. But her inner wolf’s enthusiasm for the newest additions to her human household suggested a certain loneliness that couldn’t be wiped away by two-legged acquaintances. Instead, while Lupe might think she was too good to be a member of a shifter clan, I clearly saw that deep down inside she still possessed the inevitable werewolf yearning to call herself part of a pack.

Make me run with the pack, the teenager’s eyes begged as I c****d my head to one side and focused on her inner wolf. So I shrugged and laid down the law.

“You’re here to train your wolf and you aren’t going to train anything while staring at that cell phone all day.” Swiping the device in question out of her hand, I finished. “I can’t make you enjoy yourself, but you are running with the pack.”

Whether or not she’d wanted me to force the issue, Lupe clearly hadn’t been prepared to lose her cherished possession in the process. And while a one-body might have sprung to her feet and initiated a game of keep-away to reclaim her technological safety blanket, Lupe was a bloodling. In other words, she was more wolf than human at her core.

So, between one breath and the next, she embraced the typical bloodling solution. Her spine shortened, her legs bent, and fur broke out along her lupine neck. Finally, ignoring the tailored fabric that still clung to her altered form, she lunged in my direction preparing to bite.

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