“Hey,” Seth said, buckling in. “Sorry. I couldn’t decide if this looked too much like I was trying.”
I stared at him for half a second too long.
“Nope,” I said finally. “Looks good.”
Seth smiled a little, though I caught the nervous energy underneath it. It was obvious in the way he adjusted his sleeve, checked the mirror, then checked it again.
“You sure this is okay?” he asked after a minute. “Me being there?”
The question hit strangely hard, because humans didn’t really get what it meant to bring someone onto pack land, into pack gatherings and around family.
Sure, there were a few humans mated to wolves, but not many.
“Yeah,” I said, softer this time. “It’s okay.”
Seth nodded, though he still looked uncertain.
The drive out to pack territory took about twenty minutes. The farther we got from town, the quieter Seth became. Not uncomfortable exactly, but more observant.
I caught him glancing out the window at the trees, the familiar dirt roads, the cabins scattered deeper into the woods.
“So this is all pack land?” he asked.
“Most of it.”
“That’s…” He shook his head slightly. “Big.”
“Comes with being territorial oversized dogs,” I said.
That got a laugh out of him. Good. I liked that sound more than I should’ve. By the time we reached the main clearing, the cookout was already in full swing.
Music drifted through the warm evening air. Kids tore across the grass at alarming speeds while adults shouted warnings they ignored completely.
Smoke curled up from massive grills near the picnic tables, carrying the smell of burgers, barbecue sauce, and grilled corn.
Pack members filled the clearing in loose groups. They were talking, laughing, and eating. A few wolves were already fully shifted.
They lounged near the tree line or wove through the clearing while children chased after them, because apparently the second the temperature hit eighty degrees, some pack members decided clothing and basic human behavior became optional.
Seth slowed as we got out of the truck, not enough that anyone else would notice, but I certainly did. His shoulders tightened slightly as he took everything in.
And yeah, okay, I understood why.
If I put myself in Seth’s shoes, I’d probably be overwhelmed too. A human walking into a massive wolf pack gathering for the first time? That was a lot.
There were probably too many unfamiliar faces, too much noise and energy packed into one clearing.
Wolves moved differently in groups too, looser and louder around family, brushing shoulders, crowding space without thinking about it. To me, it was normal.
To Seth, it probably felt like getting dropped into the middle of someone else’s ecosystem and hoping you learned the rules fast enough not to embarrass yourself.
Apart from Michael, Griffin’s mate, there were no other humans present at today’s cookout.
Still, no one looked hostile. If anything, people barely glanced our way before going back to their conversations.
Seth stood a little closer to me than before, and my wolf noticed immediately.Mine.I ignored that aggressively.
“You good?” I asked quietly.
