the house. My mind was only half focussed on her words, the familiar amber incense smell of Nan’s house, mixed with lemon floor polish, dried lavender, and aged wood filling my nose. I took a deep breath in, then out again, dropping my keys into the beautifully glazed bowl on the entranceway table. Home, safe.
“Don’t say the D word,” I hissed, but the dogs’ ears pricked, their bodies whirling with my every step as they blasted me with images of their second love—food. “C’mon, mutts. Outside.”
I opened the big sliding door at the back that gave us a picturesque view of my land beyond, stepping out with the dogs clustering around my feet until I gave them a mental shove.
Sit, be polite, and wait, I admonished them, and they dutifully sat quietly as I measured out their biscuits. Don’t touch each other’s food, I growled mentally before placing their metal bowls down.
“I’m thinking pizza. If we’re about to get a massive pay rise…” Janey said, hanging out the back door with a winning smile. She didn’t get to finish her suggestion, as a long howl cut through the late afternoon air. She sighed. “Off to go and answer the call of the wild again? Tell me what you want on your half, and I’ll have it ordered before you get back.”
I sighed.
“Just get what you want,” I said, eyes scanning the treeline beyond the paddock. “I might have to go around to Aunty Beth’s tonight.”
“You could just call, y’know,” I said. Max had left off eating his food to follow me down to the stand of trees, no doubt to Buster’s delight. I’d have to measure out some more for him when we got back. My dog bristled when he saw the wolves come melting out between the blond trunks of the gum trees, their paws crushing the leaves, releasing an astringent perfume. But he settled, sitting back on his haunches as the pack shifted, the silvery grey canids becoming a group of six very tall, very naked men.
For a lot of people, the sight of a mob of fit young men appearing out of nowhere would be scary enough, and the fact that they’d just shifted to this form from their wolf one impossible to believe, but it was a common enough thing for me growing up. These men were part of the pack, wolf shifters that had been here for over two hundred years. Jai, the leader, nodded to me and then Max.
“Hello to you, little brother,” Jai said. “We called, just the old way, Shan.”
“What do the old men want now?” I asked, knowing the answer but not wanting to hear it. Pizza with Janey and then flumping in front of the TV sounded like a great way to end a draining day and prepare for another.
"There’s a big meeting tonight,” he replied, his men moving restlessly behind him. “Things are changing.” His eyes lifted to the ridgeline, where this new ‘institute’ had been built. “Affects you as well. You want to be there.”
“I’m supposed to be having pizza with Janey.”
“Pfft…no pizza can touch Aunty’s cooking.” Eddie shouldered forward with that big broad body that served him well on the rugby field as well as his job as a carpenter. His grin was bright against his bronzed skin, his eyes much more active in their inspection of me. “Must be something else keeping you away.”
I shook my head and looked away, down at the setting sun, bleeding red on the horizon. Anything but looking at them.
We’d gone to the same school and I’d had to go around to pack houses with Nan when I was a kid, so I’d known these guys since I was young. Part of me felt betrayed, that those gangly bodies of theirs had filled out and become those of warriors. Ten years ago, they’d have had those skinny little arms wrapped around my neck, ruffling my hair, pushing me around.
And now? They were men now, and when I glanced over to inspect those now muscular arms, Eddie flexed so his biceps popped. Because with their change came mine.
“Rob just wanted us to tell you to come home. Didn’t want you spooked,” Jai said. “See you around seven.”
“Right,” I replied, but by the time the words were out of my mouth, the lot of them had shifted back into ghost-like wolves, who trotted between the trunks until disappearing completely.
Chapter 6
“Hello, love, it’s been too long! And look at you! Grown up beautiful, hasn’t