“Did you ever think when you watched Phelan and the others shift that we’d be doing it too someday?”
“Nah. Remember when I scented like a shifter without the ring, thanks to me being pregnant, and I asked you if I had a beast?”
“Yeah, and I shut you down because you were as human as human could be. I never dared hope that I’d meet my own bear and dismissed you being a shifter entirely.”
“I need a tattoo.”
“What, right now?”
“No, silly. But everyone else has one, and I want my wolf etched onto my chest like Phelan.”
“I’d suggest we get one together, but Phelan might want to be present. It's a rite of passage. We’ll get the shifter tattooist to come here.”
Rawling said he’d sound out Phelan.
“Are we avoiding what happened in class with Professor Shaw?”
“Yes.”
There were rumors that he’d been disciplined. Phelan had said they couldn’t wait any longer, not with what we knew and what Rawling had been subjected to. In conjunction with his parents, he prepared a complaint.
“Phelan won’t let Eira go outside with Scottie or Mrs. Ardilla unless we’re both with her and the security guard. And while I hate having her be a prisoner, I agree that she’s too vulnerable after what happened near the woods and to us in the classroom.”
Not wanting to spoil our first shift together, I didn’t say what I was thinking, which was that he and Phelan couldn’t continue at Sombertooth while the professor was here, and he wasn’t going anywhere. For whatever reason the professor was fixated on Eira, she would be in danger, and by association, so would her parents.
The submission Phelan had prepared to the shifter council insisted the professor should be banned and outlawed from shifter society. But submitting that would enrage the man further, hence the reason for the guard.
“We’ve decided to leave, Jack. I don’t want to, but for Eira’s sake, Sombertooth is not for us. We’re waiting to hear back from a few colleges.”
“I’ll hate to see you go, but it’s your only option.”
Putting that out of my head, I removed my clothes and closed my eyes. Each time I brought forth my bear, I was thrilled, and I hoped I’d never treat it as an everyday occurrence.
Fur rippled over me, and I became so small while I was enclosed inside my bear. The air tasted of moss, bark, and berries.
She got on all fours and glanced at Rawling’s beast. He was glorious and so impressive, with that distinctive white streak on his fur. I imagined him in the wild, an omega protecting his pack from humans, other animals, and natural disasters. Maybe that was his destiny, not the wild animal thing but the leaving the world behind and living a life in the middle of nowhere with Phelan and Eira.
Rawling’s wolf padded over to my bear, crunching on pine needles with each step. The scent wafted over us, and I tucked the memory away, because when Rawling was no longer at Sombertooth, I’d want to remember this moment.
He moved as if he’d been waiting for this moment all his life, which in a way, his beast had. He nudged my bear’s snout, and she batted him away gently with her paw. Awww, they loved one another too.
Did you know he had a wolf before you and I communicated for the first time?
No. His beast was buried so deep inside him.
She bounded ahead, saying she was hungry. She knew where the sweetest berries grew, though I doubted Rawling’s wolf was interested in sweet treats. His beast didn’t tear ahead but kept pace with my girl.
Is it okay if I call you my girl?
I like it.
The woods were bigger with Rawling’s wolf beside me, and I wanted to explore every inch, though I’d been shifting frequently since the day my bear maimed Atticus. This was our new world, mine and Rawling’s, along with his wolf and my bear.
Phelan
“Did you have fun?”
Jack and Rawling were wandering back from the woods, arm in arm. They were both giggling. I didn’t want to know what was so amusing.
