Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
S ienna: How’s my baby doing?
Lying across the bed after dinner, I eyed Duncan who was busy gnawing away on a bone while hooked on an action movie with immortal soldiers who were being hunted down.
He was too much.
The fact he loved television, and especially action movies, never failed to tickle the crap out of me. But just about everything he did had that ability. He could sit there snoring like an exhausted dad after a theme park visit, and I thought it was precious. His farts, ignoring the smell, were adorable. At least half the photos on my phone were of him in various stages of sleep. With his paws in the air, on his side, with one lone paw extended, with his butt on me and the rest of him on another surface.
It was crazy what love could do to a person. They could pick up and change their entire lives for it. And even if things weren’t absolutely perfect, and maybe they’d been better—or at least more familiar before—sacrifices for love had never been less painful.
Maybe they couldn’t even be counted as sacrifices. I had that in mind as I texted Si back.
Me: The baby is doing great. He has more friends than I’ve had my entire life, and he’s going on his first run tonight with the pack finally
Henri had given me the news that morning over breakfast, and maybe Duncan didn’t really seem to care—because he had no idea what he’d been missing out on—but that was all right. I was excited enough for him. I’d talked to Matti during his lunch break, and he’d mentioned how much fun they were and how good they would be for the donut. Running around playing tag and ball was fine and all, but a pack run was different.
I’d also given him a tremendous amount of crap for not telling me about his Great Wolf relative, to which he’d sputtered and explained that it was something his dad had told him never to mention to anyone. Long lived beings have long memories, and the Great Wolf had done some things that certain beings would never forget. Enemies probably remained enemies forever. Apparently, Sienna knew about his family tree, but I didn’t get the story about how she’d found out. I let it go, figuring that if there was something my dad had asked me to keep a secret, I would do it in a heartbeat. And I knew dang well that Matti had loved his parents as much as I loved mine. Of course he’d do the same.
And when I’d asked Matti if anybody would ever call him by that term, he’d laughed his butt off. His “ no ” had been half a hoot. I didn’t understand why that had been so funny, but all right.
Who was I to give him too much crap about family secrets?
But he had seemed way too interested to find out Henri had shared that information with me.
Another text came through.
Sienna: But how are YOU?
I missed her, I was still a little lonely, and I was struggling with how fast my boy was sprouting up. But I didn’t tell her that over text. Maybe the next time we talked and I was far away from the ranch.
Me: I’m fine. Just getting used to this new normal. [thumbs-up emoji]
I cringed inside right after sending the text. What were my chances she was going to buy my BS with a thumbs-up emoji? It was like I’d forgotten she’d known me most of my life.
Her reply came through even faster than I’d expected.
Sienna: [flat eyes and flat mouth emoji]
Me: I’M FINE. I promise
It wasn’t a lie. I was healthy, work was fine, Duncan was good. What more could I ask for?
A lick at my ankle had me glancing down my leg at the puppy who was resting his chin on top of my foot, his toy wedged between his paws as he peered at me.
“I’m all right,” I promised. “Just texting Sienna. I miss her and your uncle Matti. That’s all.” Those bright red inquisitive eyes didn’t blink, and I booped the tip of his nose. “I love you, Dunky,” I said. “I’m good.”
“Yes,” he told me. “Love.”
I smiled, trying to push down the little bit of frustration that had caught his attention. He gave me another lick before his head suddenly turned to the left where the wall was. His tail rose straight up in the air a second before there was a knock.
“It’s time,” Henri’s voice carried through the door.
Duncan’s fluffy black tail swayed, making me smile. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Duncan really liked Henri, but it had been weeks since the last time he’d growled at him. Whether my donut had been won over by how often he made the puppies their breakfast, or that one game of tag, I didn’t know, but the Great Wolf had slowly but steadily been winning my boy over.
When we got to see him, at least, which still hadn’t been a whole lot.
It had been a week since Henri and I had visited Spencer, and over that time, we’d had breakfast with him twice and dinner once. Poor Henri had needed to leave early all three times after getting phone calls that had him squeezing his utensils so tight his knuckles had gone white, but it still counted. It was something.
“Okay, coming,” I called out, already rolling off the bed. “Let me put my shoes on, and then I’ll go drop you off,” I told Duncan, moving to the row of shoes lined up next to the door. I put on my hiking boots, fanny pack, and a thin jacket as he jumped down. With a touch to the top of his head, I opened the door to an empty hallway. “Matti said you’re going to have a lot of fun tonight. You get to run around with a few other members of the pack. Howl at the moon; that’ll be great. And don’t worry that yours isn’t very loud because you’re small, so it’s in proportion to your size, buddy. Your howl is my favorite howl I’ve ever heard.”
His tail brushed my calf as we took the stairs side by side.
He’d gained another two pounds and at least an inch in height over the course of the week.
I was okay with it. Just ecstatic.
“Henri will take care of you, and Randall said he would keep an eye on you too when you’re out there. Agnes is probably already waiting, too. I’ll stay outside the whole time until you’re back.”
He nudged my leg when we got to the bottom of the stairs, his “ yes” strong.
The hallway was empty as we headed out the front door. In the same clearing where we sat every night to look up at the stars, which were dim at that moment with the full moon shining so brightly, were a handful of adults with not one but two young wolves.
Where was everyone else?
Duncan glanced up at me, and I gave him a nod before he took off, running straight for the white wolf and the slightly bigger and darker one that I had a feeling was Pascal from the color of his coat. I hadn’t seen him in his pup form since the incident with the Jenny Greenteeth. He hip-checked my boy when he got there, and it made me smile as I went toward them, recognizing Henri, the tallest adult of the group. Randall was by him, Ani to the side, Pascal’s dad, and another man who looked a little familiar. He was younger than Henri, not as tall, a dirty blond and?—
Glaring in my direction?
All right, maybe I wasn’t going to be making a new friend tonight.
Sticking my hands in my pockets, I was halfway to the group when Ani glanced over. I waved. “Hi, Ani.”
The woman who I’d spent some time with in passing when I’d run into her at the UTV warehouse beamed. “How’s it going, Nina?” She greeted me with genuine kindness. I’d learned she was forty-two, had two children, and was married to a Mexican wolf.
“Pretty good, how are you?” I asked as I came to a stop in a gap between her and Randall. “Hi, Randall. Hi, Pascal’s dad.” We had never done more than politely greet each other with nods and smiles at the nursery. Pascal had whispered to me that his mommy got jealous, so I didn’t take his distance personally. Now when his mom came to get him? That was a different story, and I could see where Pascal got his personality from.
Even though I didn’t want to, I aimed my attention at the stranger. I didn’t hold out my hand though. “Hi. I’m Nina.”
His hand stayed right where it was, just as unfriendly as I’d expected. “Hi,” the stranger muttered, his posture stiff, his glare definitely intense, maybe even a little confrontational.
With a sinking feeling in my chest, I turned to Henri. Him, I couldn’t help but smile at. “Thank you for taking Duncan out.”
There was something about Henri’s expression right then. This wasn’t the joking man who had rubbed his face all over me for protection days ago. This was bossy wolf Henri. Great Wolf Henri with his coolness and neutrality. That Henri dipped his head like we were strangers. “I’ll talk to him, walk him through what we’re going to do, and then we’ll get going. We’ll be gone about an hour.”
I nodded.
Henri approached the kids, crouching a few feet away from my puppy, and I could see his lips moving as he talked to them.
“It’s easier to keep track of the pups in a smaller group, so it’s only going to be us. The rest of the pack is meeting later,” Randall explained beside me. “We’ll keep an eye on him. We do this every time one of the pups hits a certain age.”
“Thanks,” I told him, trying to ignore the man who was burning a hole into the side of my face. He wasn’t trying to hide it either. But no one else seemed worried about his mood, so chances were, he had very good control of his emotions and maybe I was overthinking his body language since I was hyperaware of it. Henri looked serious almost constantly. Maybe resting bitch face was this man’s normal.
A moment later, Henri called out, “It’s time.”
Taking a few steps back, a wave of magic tickled my skin as the group went from five adult humans to five big wolves standing in their place.
Duncan pressed up against my leg, a small, uncertain “love” grabbing my attention.
Was he worried? “You’re fine, buddy.” I bent over as he lifted his head and met my eyes. “You know Henri and Randall. Agnes and Pascal are your friends.”
He pressed closer, the strip of hair between his tail and the base of his neck rising up.
Moving somewhere new hadn’t made him nervous, but this was? My donut.
“This is your pack, Dunky,” I promised him and the universe. “Henri won’t let anything happen to you. He’s been really nice to you since we got here, hasn’t he?”
Duncan looked at me, and it touched some huge part of me when I felt his “yes.”
A soft howl had me focusing on the biggest of all the werewolves standing with the kids. The rest of them looked like huskies in comparison to the black wolf. It made so much sense right then that the gnomes would call him Great Wolf. Under the moonlight, surrounded by the towering trees with their magical bark, circled by other wolves of every size, Wolf Henri, with his thick, dark coat and regal head and build, was something out of a fantasy novel… or a romance novel.
I gave him a thumbs-up.
Another howl rose out of Henri’s chest at that, starting off low and quiet and gaining depth and volume with every second. From the adult group, two other voices joined him, weaving through the air together as a high one erupted from the children. It was Agnes. Another adult entered the chorus before a small one did the same.
Their voices made me think of my parents. Made me miss them. Miss my childhood and all the people who had been my whole world. I hoped they called me soon. The last time we’d spoken, they’d said one of my mom’s sisters was going to pick them up for a mini family reunion, but they hadn’t said which sister, and she had six of them. I’d give them another week to check in and then I’d start trying to track them down.
A small, crackly howl came from my feet before it cut off, and Duncan gave it another shot. He tipped his head, his neck an elegant line, his ears the highlight of his whole body. His lips pursed together as he tried to sing too.
My boy. My donut.
His voice was thinner than the others, but he was no wolf, and he was a baby, and love filled my entire body when his little lungs ran out of breath so soon and he had to start again, the cutest howl to ever be heard in the world. You couldn’t have paid me a billion dollars to think otherwise. It was magic and life, and I couldn’t imagine what it would sound like when he was older.
A small paw landed on top of my foot, and Duncan gave me this look as he arched his neck some more….
“Love,” he told me, those red eyes intent, trying to tell me something else…. Lifting his paw, he stomped on my foot once more.
I laughed. “Oh, you want me to howl, too?”
His “yes” so joyful, I laughed again when he set more weight down on me.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
“Okay, okay,” I told him as the adult wolves’ song started to rise once more.
“Yes, yes,” Duncan’s telepathic touch urged. Like I could tell him no.
I might have not been a four-legged creature in any fairy or folktale, but I’d been a member of a pack before.
I lifted my face and howled with them, my donut’s weight settling even more against me, his voice gaining volume by the note.
I howled, and when I ran out of breath, caught it, and howled even louder, not letting myself feel like a poser because I knew who I was doing this for.
For this sweet child who was mine. Mine to keep. Mine to protect. Mine to love.
And as I looked at the growing boy who I’d centered my whole world around, I projected the same thought at him, at the universe in general, that he sent me. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, I sent him. ALL OF MY LOVE.
One day, I hoped he’d feel it the way I did when he shared it with me.
I lifted my head and howled some more, like I had done dozens of times over the years with my loved ones, and almost instantly caught the amber-colored gaze of a wolf the size of a horse. The deep foundation of Henri’s song suddenly seemed to get lost for maybe a second before he found it and awoo-ed an awoo that was both werewolf magic and so much more. I wasn’t the only one who felt like it was a call to the rest of the world to howl even louder.
And the moon in her infinite beauty and greatness seemed to shine even brighter as we sang and sang to her together.
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