Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
Liam grunted, twisting the wrench as hard as he could, trying to get the stubborn pipe to move.
The plumbing was caught up with some rust and some sheer stubbornness, he thought, and he needed to get it working so he and Theo and his brother Ryan didn’t have to come up and back every damn day.
Which was what they were doing right now.
“Hey, bro, what you doing?”
The words startled him so badly that his hands jerked up, the bolt letting loose, the wrench hitting him in the chin and knocking him back on his butt.
“What the fuck?” he roared. The sound huge and loud and sharp.
In the house, the baby began to cry.
“Dude, chill! Oh you’re bleeding. I came to help. I brought stuff.”
“Shit.” He grabbed the rag he’d been using and put it over his knuckles. “Sorry. You scared the bejeezus out of me, man.”
“Yeah, um…” Ryan waved his hand a little bit. “I think you need to talk to Theo and stuff. Like right now.”
Ryan was the color of milk. It was a little unnerving.
“What’s wrong?”
“I hate to tell you this, but you’re all fuzzy on the face, and your eyes are kind of weird, bro.” Ryan pointed to his mouth, and he touched his lips, then jerked his fingers away.
So, that was longer than he expected.
“Huh.” He very carefully set the wrench down. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be right back.”
“Right on, man. I’ll get this taken care of. I know how.”
He vaguely heard Ryan whistling as he hunted his lover, sniffing hard.
Mate, are you okay?
I don’t know. Ryan says my hand got cut. It was getting hard to think. Really all he wanted to do was… scratch.
Cut! Theo came wandering up, little Gael in his arm, frowning at him, and then Theo blinked. “Oh. Oh, my. Come on, let’s take off your clothes, and I’m going to see if Ryan can watch the baby.”
“Watch the baby? Why should he be watching the baby?”
“Because I don’t want you to bite him by accident. First shifts are challenging, at least so I’ve heard. I don’t remember mine. Just take off your clothes. I’ll be right back.”
Why on earth did Theo sound so damned satisfied?
He smelled so good, and Liam wanted to follow him, but he’d said to wait right there and take off his clothes, so Liam stripped down, shaking, his hands and arms not his own…
Theo walked back into the bedroom, body relaxed, and began stripping down as well.
Mate, I’m worried. He used his mind because his mouth wasn’t making words.
“Don’t worry, this is normal, natural, easy. It’s just your first time, so you haven’t practiced.” Theo stood there before him, and then slowly his mate began to change. Long white hair became white fur, hands became paws, and face lengthened into a lovely wolf.
Suddenly, they were staring at one another, and his tail was wagging.
His… tail was wagging. Mate, I have a tail.
Theo nodded to him, his head bouncing up and down. His tongue lolled out, and he said, You do. It’s lovely. You’re quite red. It is a beautiful color. I hope our baby is red like you.
I want him to be white. Liam wanted a baby who looked like Theo. But then, Gael would, right?
Do you want to come run? Theo asked him, blue eyes lit up from within.
Yes, should you? I don’t want anyone to hurt you or the baby.
No one will hurt us. Theo smiled at him, long teeth gleaming in the sunlight, and their muzzles rubbed together. The scent of his mate was an explosion in the base of his brain. This is a safe space. This is our territory.
Our territory. He chuffed softly, his body shivering. Let’s go! I guess it doesn’t have to happen on a full moon.
No, and it doesn’t take a silver bullet either. Those are stories. We’re not fiction.
No, no they weren’t fiction. Not at all. In fact, he didn’t feel the slightest bit fictional.
They headed out the door, which Theo had thoughtfully left open for them, not even acknowledging Ryan as he walked by.
The baby needs to be changed.
Theo chuckled. He’ll figure it out. I have no doubt. He’s a good uncle.
Outside, it was as if the world had exploded— not into a million colors, but into a billion scents.
He was sensing things he’d never thought he could smell. He could smell beetles crawling, smell every single different tree and all of the birds. They each had different scents.
And the squirrels.
I hate squirrels. He bared his teeth and sniffed. Are there going to be squirrels?
Theo chuffed, tossed his head, and that sent another rush of scent at him, which made his knees tremble. Yes, but what you’re smelling, that strong one, that’s a porcupine.
His eyes went wide and he caught himself dancing a bit. There’s a porcupine? Where?
No. Bad dog. Theo stared at him, very stern, and a low soft rumble sounded. No porcupines, they hurt. And that porcupine’s name is Dave. He’s nice, but you’re new, and you might scare him.
The porcupine has a name? He hadn’t expected that.
Theo tilted his head as if he’d blown a whistle, paws stilling in the mass of pine needles. Do you have a name?
Things that you want to eat don’t have names, don’t they?
The fact that things you want to eat might have a name should make it important when you need to eat it.
Lesson number one of being a wolf.
Okay, I won’t eat Dave. But we can run.
We can absolutely run. The grin Theo gave him was wide and happy, his tail wagging like a flag in the air when he turned and made a run for it.
Liam gave chase, his bark ringing out through the woods.
God, this was fun. He felt as if he was flying over the ground, and the sights and smells, the feel of hard-packed earth and the occasional mossy rock under his feet was stunning.
He’d never realized how disconnected his human form was from the earth, but now he knew better.
At one point, he stopped, sniffing around for whatever it was that had caught his nose, and then he dropped to his side, kicking to his back so that he could roll in it.
Oh, Liam. Theo’s laughter carried through across their bond. Now you’re gonna have to have a bath.
I’ll go run in the stream. Liam popped up, shaking out his fur to do exactly that, heading down toward where the stream mapped the edge of the property, closer to Loyal’s part of the pack than his.
His. His path, his family, his land.
Theo nipped at his tail, and he turned around to bounce on his mate, play fighting, and soon Theo would smell just as bad as he did, but it was perfect and wonderful and huge, and Liam couldn’t believe this was his life.
He was a wolf, and it wasn’t like Rory. It hadn’t been hard; it had just happened.
Well now, the hard part might be changing back to human. Theo told him. Sometimes, on the first or second shift that’s a little challenging.
But that’s with kids, right? Liam paused, tilting his head, then lifted his muzzle, sniffing the air, distracted.
Sometimes it’s that way with teenagers, too. It’s all about hormones, and this is your first time, so it could be that your wolf doesn’t want to let go. Theo walked up beside him and rubbed their bodies all along one another, before nuzzling his cheek.
I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. He nipped Theo’s nose and then took off running, his paws beating on the ground.
They ran for what seemed like hours, hitting the stream, splashing through it to wash off the scent with a bath, and then stopping for long drink of the cold water.
Theo showed him the best place to hunt for small creatures like rabbits.
They had to go below the tree line for that, way down the mountain from where their underground home lay.
That was all right. They had his brothers and cousins to bring up supplies, and they would be able to hunt on Loyal and Jameson and Keegan’s land and pack it back up if they needed meat.
Or they could just do what they were doing now and hunt in wolf form, though that would be tough for Gael and the baby to begin with, of course.
Finally, when his tail and ears were drooping because he was exhausted, Theo pressed up against him, turning him, herding him back up toward their house.
We need to get back before you drop and just sleep where you are.
I could do that.
Theo bumped their shoulders together, trusting him not to fall. No, Gael needs us, and Ryan is going to need to know where we are. It wouldn’t be fair to leave them to wonder.
No. No, that’s true. He’s my brother; I can’t leave them defenseless.
Theo’s snort was loud. Ryan carries a shotgun on his four-by-four. I don’t think he’s defenseless.
I still need to get back up there now, baby. I don’t like the idea of leaving him alone like you were, up there for so long. Especially not with our Gael.
Well, then, let’s go.
Theo urged him to head back, and they didn’t run so much as trot, still eating up the ground. He had to admit he was tiring, his body flagging and demanding rest.
Liam felt bone-weary by the time they got back to the house, gravity pulling hard and trying to suck him down into the ground.
Rest, mate. Theo licked his nose, the touch one of warmth and gentleness. I’ve got to go rescue your brother from Gael.
A pile of blankets waited for him, and the sight was so welcome. He curled up in the softness, his bone’s aching. Are you sure you don’t need…
I’m fine. I’ll bring you some water in a minute. Maybe some turkey.
He liked turkey.
He liked turkey a lot.
His mate was so good to him.
Liam panted, his body relaxing, a profound stillness taking him. Love you.
I love you too. I’m so proud of you.
Sleeping now.
And he drifted off before he could hear if Theo even replied.