Savy didn't go for her training session tonight. I hadn't noticed until I found Mount Savy on my bed.
"Why aren't you at your training session?" I asked her. I thought someone was even thinking of training harder so she could protect her future human mate.
"I don't feel too good," Savy moaned.
"MUM!!!!" I hollered. Immediately, all the red flags went up in my head.
Werewolves were generally very healthy. We couldn't catch a cold even if we chased one.
Well, maybe we could, but we usually healed super fast. Wait—Dean did get sick more often than most wolves. I didn't; even if I caught something, it would blow over overnight. Savy had never had a sick day in her life.
"MUM!!!" I hollered again so that Mum would know it was an emergency.
"Shhh…." Savy tried to protest. "I'll be fine. Just leave me here to die."
I looked at the quilted lump of Mount Savy in the middle of my bed and couldn't decide if her attempt at humor meant she was all right. Was she just avoiding training for some reason?
Mum burst into the room, still in her cooking apron. I think she wanted to ask what was going on, and I wouldn't have been able to answer—except at that moment, I heard a cracking sound and Savy sobbing.
I paled in that instant.
Mum screamed, "KingKong!!!"
If the fear in her scream had not frightened me so badly, I would have taken a double take at my dad's pet name.
Fifteen years, and I had never heard her call him anything but "dear."
Dad was still in his office at the pack house, and Mum definitely didn't call him loudly enough for him to hear her. But I think she had also mind-linked him an extremely panicked call, because Dad—oh my goddess—Dad!
The sound of glass breaking made me look out the window.
Dad's large form jumped through his second-floor office window, ran across the lawn, and scaled up to my bedroom window within what seemed like seconds.
It was closed—my window—so he pretty much smashed through it.
I suddenly appreciated the aptness of Mum's secret endearment for him.
Never in my wildest imagination would I have seen my dad in this light. His eyes glowed a steely gray, his wolf was on the surface, and he could only growl between pants.
I didn't make any smart-aleck comment about the broken window. I actually took a step back.
Then Mount Savy gasped, more crunching sounds followed, and a shriek that made my skin crawl.
Once he saw the problem, and that neither his mate nor daughters were in whatever danger had triggered KingKong mode, Dad reverted to himself.
He walked over to Savy, his boots crunching on the broken window glass, and then gathered Mum in his arms.
"It's okay," he soothed Mum, sending various mind-links out while holding her close. "The pack doctor and the other ladies will be here soon."
"I'm just going to wait downstairs for them," I offered, and I all but ran out before I could hear another sickening sound.
I paced the living room for what felt like the whole night. When I heard a car screech up our driveway, I opened the door for Beta Lucas and Mrs. Beta, then for Delta Simon, who was also our pack doctor, and Aunty Lily. Then again for Gamma Harry and Laura.
"Upstairs!" I told them each time, and they went—except for Beta Lucas, who decided to go see to fixing the pack house office window.
Gamma Harry stayed downstairs too. "Eh, I thought it would be you who was shifting Sam."
Me too. But I didn't say that aloud. I was actually quite relieved that it wasn't me. I think I'm afraid of pain.
{Self-preservation.}
Wolfie told me, sounding somewhat miffed.
Hey, you're talking! Why aren't we shifting? I asked Wolfie a little peevishly.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Gamma Harry receive a mind-link, then pick up his jacket from the pile on the sofa nearest the door to leave. "Beta needs me to go buy something."
I wondered what shop would be open at this time—it was nearly 9 p.m. Maybe if he sped to Gate City…
I nodded, again not answering him. I was preoccupied with the conversation I felt Wolfie might actually indulge me in this time.
Well? I asked in my mind.
Sigh. Wolfie decided to go quiet again. Always like this… I dub thee Wolf of One-Liners!
I spent the rest of the hour out on the back porch, trying to escape the sounds of Savy's suffering. Alone, I started getting really mad at the Moon Goddess.
I mean, first she accidentally showed me my mate's dream instead of my own. Now she accidentally shifted my little sister instead of me.
It should have been me! I was old enough, large enough, strong enough. Not Savy! I remembered reading how wolves who shifted early suffered much more pain and had a higher chance of not pulling through.
Goddess, you shouldn't be so careless!
{Your sister's wolf wants to see you.}
Eh, what? You can talk to my sister's wolf?
Unsurprisingly, Wolfie didn't answer me.
I ran upstairs. The door was open.
"Sam, not now," Mum said. "It's not safe. Savy just turned."
I didn't hear her, I swear.
"Sam, not so close. Be careful," Delta Simon said.
I didn't hear him either. Honest!
I don't know if anyone else said anything. I didn't hear.
I was just looking at a white, fluffy wolf on the carpet of my bedroom floor. It was baring its teeth, snarling. Savy had just shifted; she was probably disoriented, and the wolf, finding itself trapped indoors, probably felt caged and threatened.
"Awww…." But it was Savy! "Savy, your wolf is so cute!"
Unlike Savy, her wolf seemed to quite like being called cute. Its expression reminded me a bit of Jessica's baby cousin. I cooed a few more flattering bits of nonsense about her fluffiness and whiteness. Her wolf stopped growling and became quiet.
Then I plopped myself right next to Savy, lying down so I faced the ceiling. I used one hand to grab her under the chin. Her wolf mouthed my hand but didn't bite. I heard the collective sigh of relief from the adults around me.
"For a moment, I thought I would have to do a second shift," Delta Simon joked awkwardly.
"Well, they are sisters," Mrs. Beta explained.
"Sam has always had a calming effect on Savy," Mum said.
Mrs. Beta looked surprised at that. I didn't blame her. To my pack, I was the one who needed calming most of the time, not sweet Savy—whose wolf looked as sweet as her person.
I buried my nose in her fur—so fluffy and wolfy-smelling. Nothing like the smell of a just-shifted wolf! Well, no. It's a wolf, not a baby. I'm just making that up.
"It's because she knows I'm her Alpha!" I grinned and wrestled Savy's wolf down, stroking her back and grinning. Savy made no move to retaliate.
Then I laid my head on top of her wolf's head. "You can be my bed. Mine is…" I looked at the torn quilt, the bloody mattress—goddess, why was there so much blood?—the old wooden headboard clawed up, and the glass scattered all over the other side of the room.
"What savage beast came in and wrecked my room?" I gasped dramatically.
Savy's wolf looked down regretfully. Oh man, she was so cute. I hugged her tightly around the neck and jokingly called to Mum, "Hey Mum, can we keep her?"
The adults laughed. They had taken advantage of Savy's preoccupation with me to clean up the room as best they could. Now satisfied, they gathered their things to leave.
"Sam, can you help us lead Savy down for her first run?" Mum asked.
Oh yeah, Savy needed to run. The other ladies would run with her. I nodded. I saw Mum pull open my dresser and take out some clothes for Savy later. Laura took photos of me and Savy.
"Come on, Savy!" I got up. Savy's wolf staggered a little; her head bobbed unsteadily. I remembered how weird it was to be in a wolf body when I had to take control of the blue wolf in my dream. Oh boy, the stairs would be trouble.
Luckily, Savy wasn't a very large wolf, and Dad was waiting at the landing to carry her down the stairs.
I was quite sure my Wolfie would be much larger if my dream was anything to go by. I made a mental note not to shift upstairs. I seriously didn't think even my dad's KingKong strength could carry me down.
Delta Simon and Aunty Lily excused themselves. Dad thanked them for coming.
Mum, Mrs. Beta, and Laura brought their bags behind some large trees, and shortly after, they reappeared in their wolf forms. Savy's wolf was white like Mum's, just smaller. Instead of brown, tea-colored eyes, Savy had Dad's steel-gray ones.
Savy's wolf looked happy. She ran around a bit, then barked at me to follow. So bossy.
I shook my head from the porch. "Go with Mum," I told her.
The other female wolves called her from farther up. Savy hesitated, then decided to go with them. I watched as they disappeared into the tree line.
Dad sat on the porch next to me. "Wow, soon it will be your turn too."
I wasn't sure if this was the speech he had prepared to give Savy when I shifted. I smiled at him. Yeah. KingKong.
Aloud, I said, "Yeah, I know."
Apparently, that was it. It was a really short speech.
"Dad?" I said.
"Yeah?" he said.
"I'm going to sleep in Savy's room tonight."
"Ah, yeah," Dad nodded. "I'll have your room repaired tomorrow."
"Can I have a loft bed?" The request tumbled out before I even thought it through. I'd always thought loft beds were cool.
Dad nodded. "I'll look into it."
"Thanks, Dad," I said. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Dad said.
I left smiling. It wasn't so much the loft bed, but the memory of my dad KingKonging through my bedroom window because he thought one of us was in trouble.
Seeing that made me realize how I had underestimated my dad's fierce love for us all this while. I knew my dad loved us, but he was always so logical and frustratingly zen. Seeing him crash into my bedroom like KingKong made it obvious.
I hoped Dumbbell would crash into my life to save me one day—not that I needed saving. And if I did, I would probably save myself. But it would be nice to know that if I screamed "Dumbbell!" (though in reality, I never had), he would come crashing in for me too.
Was that what Jessica meant by imagining something romantic? I had always thought it involved flowers, music, or sharing an umbrella in the rain—things I'd heard girls talk about but never quite understood.
But going wolf and crashing through windows? Yeah. That was my kind of romance.
I lay in Savy's bed and imagined Dumbbell crashing through the window. He would look at me and say, "Why did you make me do that for? Are you stupid?"
Even in my imagination, Dumbbell couldn't say a romantic thing to save his life.
That was my fault, of course. I had no idea what someone was supposed to say after crashing through your bedroom window.
Maybe a "sorry about that"?
I decided to cut and paste the most romantic line I'd ever heard in my life, which was—
Wait. Let's rewind and make Dumbbell crash through the window again. Take two:
Dumbbell: "What again? What the hell?"
Hahahaha.
Again. Take three: Dumbbell crashes through my window, looks at me, and says, "Mine."
Yeah.
One word.
That was all I needed to hear from my mate.
Of course, he also had to climb up to my second-floor window and crash through the glass. Actions speak louder than words, you know. Hahahaha.
I felt quite pleased with myself after that. I had successfully imagined something romantic—with Dumbbell, no less. I felt a bit embarrassed about it, but no one would ever need to know.
I guess even Alphas can enjoy a bit of romance every now and then.