1
Red
“Uncle Red,how come you don’t have a mate?”
The question came from my blunt but well-meaning charge, a young wolf shifter female named Lupa, who was the oldest child in all of our pack. She had always been keen to ask questions, and the older she got the bolder her questions became. Still, it made me laugh out loud. I liked when kids weren’t afraid to hide their opinions.
“Well, you see, Lupa," I began, "that requires someone to be interested in me. Romantically, I mean."
“Oh. Why hasn’t that happened?”
I smiled. “Maybe it’s because no one likes my big bushy tail. Or my big pointy ears.”
“Nuh uh. My dads both have pointy ears and bushy tails, and they fell in love. That means it’s gonna happen to you too.”
I appreciated her enthusiasm, but I wasn’t about to tell her that was never going to happen. That was a topic I didn’t want to get into with her, or anybody to be quite honest. Too many complicated feelings for a small kid. Hell, even for me.
But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t a problem that needed solving. At least, that’s what I continued to tell myself.
I tried to steer the topic away to something else. “Lupa, why don’t we go play in the river?” The sky was starting to cloud over, but it didn't quite look like rain yet. “We can dunk Zak underwater again.”
Zak—short for Zakariel—was my friend Remington’s son. He was related to a water spirit, and had the power to breathe underwater. That was an ability that came in handy when you were a parent. Not that I had any experience with that. Being the pack’s go-to babysitter didn’t count. As much as I loved all the kids, they weren’t mine. Though since I wasn’t sure I would ever have my own, I figured I should enjoy the experience as much as possible before they outgrew me. As young shifters, they grew up pretty fast compared to human children. They were all capable kids and I had no doubt that the day would come when they no longer needed an outsider for a chaperone.
Geez, Lupa’s question sure did drag up old feelings that I didn’t want to feel.
Now I was trying to distract myself as much as her. I shifted into my fox form and bowed my front half, wagging my bushy red tail to entice her to play. She was always the rowdiest kid in the bunch and she would never turn down a wrestling match.
That seemed to grab her attention. She grinned, then shifted to her wolf form. She pounced on me but the movement was obvious and I sidestepped out of the way. She ate a mouthful of grass as I chuckled behind her. She growled and got into position again, narrowing her eyes at me. As she got older, I started noticing her father Hugo’s mannerisms in her more. They had the same glowing, piercing eyes.
Sometimes she would look at me and I’d be transported back to when I first met Hugo, an alpha wolf in the pack. It seemed like ages ago that he first tackled me to save his now mate, Len. That was a memory I didn’t like to relive either, but if it never happened, I never would have been standing here right now, safe and accepted by the pack.
Man, the times had really changed. Even if I was mateless, I still appreciated my life. I didn’t quite consider myself part of the family, even though I knew some of the others did. Especially Sage, the youngest of the wolf brothers. He was a sweet guy who took every opportunity to tell us how much he cared. It was a nice sentiment, but something in the back of my mind held me back from fully believing it. I’d heard it all before and I’d been burned in the past.
Lupa took the opportunity to launch herself at me while I was distracted. This time her attack knocked me to the ground. She was getting bigger and stronger, and soon a little fox would be no match for her. She giggled loudly as she sat on me.
“I win!” she cried. “Hey everyone, I beat Uncle Red!”
At her momentous declaration, the other kids hanging out in the grove bolted over like they heard ice cream was raining from the sky. Not that most of them knew what ice cream was. Maybe that could be our next field trip idea.
The kids gathered round to see the victorious Lupa sitting on top of me, cheering and congratulating her. I had to laugh at their antics. Even something as silly as this could be magical to kids.
These were the moments I loved the most. Not just because I enjoyed spending time with them, but because I felt like I was doing something important. Like I was useful. It almost made up for all the times in my life that I’d been a colossal fuck up.
“Let’s dog pile Uncle Red,” Ashe suggested.
The thought of him digging his deer hooves into my stomach did not appeal to me, but before I could turn him down I had already been dog piled by the two youngest, Starry the mountain lion kitten and Zak the wolf pup.
“Oof,” I said, even though it didn’t hurt. They were too small, although both had needle-sharp fangs and teeth, and didn’t quite know how to control them yet.
“No fair,” Ashe said, crossing his arms. “Now there’s not enough for me.”
I noticed one kid was missing. Leveret, Lupa’s twin brother. I craned my head back and noticed him sitting to the side, watching in amusement. He was never quite as rowdy as his sister, perhaps taking after his hare genes more. I knew some of the newer members of the pack, like Nero and Xander, had a harder time understanding Leveret, but I’d known him all his life. Reading him was second nature to me.
Even from my upside-down vantage point, I could tell there was something on his mind. “What’s up, Lev?”
He stared directly into my eyes, unblinking, like he usually did when he was serious about something. “All the grownups are paired up except you.”
I withheld a snort of laughter. He shared Lupa’s bluntness. They really were twins.
