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That meant parents spent years worrying that a frightened eight-year-old might suddenly become a frightened wolf in their math class before anyone could call in regional backup.

At the moment, though, Levi looked entirely human and deeply committed to never moving again.

My mother had caught wind of the situation and had beaten me to the tree. She stood below him with both hands on her hips. She wore old work boots, jeans, and a sleeveless shirt that revealed the muscle in her arms. Her gray-streaked hair had been cut close on the sides for most of my life, though the top was currently long enough to curl in the humidity.

“Hudson’s here,” she called up. “Will you come down now?”

Levi shook his head violently.

“I told him I’d catch him,” she said to me.

“It might be too terrifying for him,” I said. “You know, free-falling.”

“I’ll catch him. Everyone knows I will.”

Twenty feet above us, Levi made a distressed sound.

Mom lowered her tone so only I could hear her. “Fine. Handle it.”

There was no resentment in the order. She knew when to press and when to hand over a problem. It was one of the reasons she’d held the pack together for so many years.

A Carpenter uncle had already leaned an extension ladder against the trunk, but it ended several feet below Levi’s branch.

I squeezed Caldwell’s hand once before releasing it. “Can you stand near the ladder for me?”

He nodded.

After testing the ladder’s stability, I looked up. “Hey, Levi.”

His head lowered a fraction. “I can’t get down.”

“No, buddy. You definitely can’t from where you’re sitting.”

That earned me a wounded look, which was better than panic.

“We’re going to move you first. You don’t need to think about reaching the ground yet.”

His arms tightened around the tree. I climbed slowly because wolves could hear distress in breathing long before humans noticed it.

“Do you know why everyone’s standing under this tree?” I asked.

He sniffed. “Because I’m stuck.”

“Partly. Mostly it’s because they’re nosy.”

A few people below objected.

Levi looked down despite himself. “They are nosy.”

I shook my head, jokingly morose. “Terrible problem in this pack.”

“You came too,” Levi said. “Are you being nosy?”

I laughed. “I’m the worst of them.”

His grip loosened a little.

When I reached the top rung, I was still several feet below him. I hooked one arm around the trunk and studied the branch arrangement. “How did you get up there?”