“That’s awesome. We have two young wolves too, they’re sixteen and eighteen.”
“Oh, that’s great, I’m eighteen too.”
The man with a military posture nudged Anton aside.
“I’m Noah, I’m a jaguar. Originally from the States, as is my mate here.”
The taller man was the mystery shifter, then. He wrapped an arm around Noah’s waist. “I’m Dallas. I’m a tiglon.”
Well, that definitely explained the confusion. Hybrid shifters were extremely rare, just like hybrid animals were in the wild.
Mikael smiled. “Normally, we have two others in the house, Lark and Shani, they’re a lynx and a cheetah respectively, but they’re abroad, visiting Shani’s family. They will be back for Christmas though.”
“How many wolves are in the pack?” Kit asked, excited to be around his fellow canids.
“There are the alphas, Sean and Rider, their two teenagers and then the three little ones,” Mikael said. “So there’s a lot of people here.”
“Yes. We will take you to the Metsala farm tomorrow. For peace and quiet,” Maxim said gruffly.
“Is it close?” Kit wanted to know, because he’d most likely want to hang out with the young people.
“There’s a marked path through the woods. We’ll show it to you tomorrow,” Anton piped up.
“All right, well, we made a lot of sandwiches for you guys, so that’s what’s for late dinner.” Noah grinned. “We’re going to go watch TV in our room. Talk to you tomorrow.”
“I can show you guys your rooms,” Anton volunteered enthusiastically.
Mikael nodded. “You do that, and we’ll make some tea to go with the sandwiches.” Before they could move, Mikael added, “If you two want to eat upstairs, that’s fine. Anton will bring your dinner up, Cal.”
“Yeah, I can get my own or eat in the kitchen, but Dad probably wants to eat in his room,” Kit spoke for both of them, because he was no doubt sensing his energy reserves dwindling slowly but surely.
When Mikael looked at him, Cal nodded. “Sounds good.”
“All right.” Mikael left the room with Maxim in tow.
Kit jumped up and went ahead with Anton to the porch to grab some of their stuff.
“Dad? I’ll leave most of the luggage out here. We don’t need much, right?” Kit called back.
Cal made his body move off the couch and into the open doorway. “Yeah, give me my backpack and leave the rest, please.”
“Here you go, sir,” Anton said politely, handing over Cal’s battered old backpack.
“Call me Cal,” he forced out the words, hoping they sounded neutral or even positive enough.
At least they weren’t horrible, because Anton smiled at him and nodded. “Okay, this way.” The fox slunk past Cal like his animal side might’ve and headed to the stairs.
The house was nice and modern, despite being a log house. Cal found the mild scent of wood comforting.
They followed Anton to the long hallway and were shown two rooms on opposite sides.
“That’s my door, and next to it is the bathroom that’s shared by one of your rooms. That one used to be Noah’s, but he moved into Dallas’s room downstairs. There’s another bathroom down the hall there and since the girls aren’t home, you’re free to use it if you want to or this one’s taken,” Anton explained, gesturing at the correct doors.
“Thanks. Dad, preference?”
“Which way do the windows face?” Cal asked, without even entering any of the rooms.
“That side is to the yard, the other side is to the backyard and the veggie garden. Some of the pastures too.”
