Being a werewolf was way more fun in my books than it was in real life. I fell constantly when I had just two legs, so having four was a horrible trick of fate. As if to emphasize the thought as it flashed through my mind, my paw caught on an exposed root, sending me tumbling through the underbrush with a yelp. I could feel my wolf’s irritation with me—that sensation had become my constant companion since I’d woken up. My new wolf didn’t appear to be too thrilled that my coordination remained at newborn levels, she wanted to run with her pack now, not later. Amused yelps echoed around me as my packmates surrounded me. I hobbled my way to my feet, shaking my fur out to remove the leaves and twigs that had gotten caught in the multicolored strands.
“You’re getting better at that!” Chann’s amused voice sounded behind me, and I grumbled, shifting slightly as the pads on my paws throbbed. Apparently I needed to build up calluses on them, though I wondered how that was going to translate to my human body. “Aw, come on, Tinkerbell. You’ve only been running in your shifted form for a week, and you were asleep for like six days before that! Don’t be so hard on yourself. We all tumbled over when we were pups.”
My wolf snarled at him, lips peeling back from her teeth. Chann merely arched a brow, apparently unfazed by the threat. Shannon nudged me, her wolf’s fur silky against my own. I could feel her shift begin, feel the magic she called crackling over me, and I kept my eyes firmly on the ground. My wolf snorted in my head, amused at my behavior. To her, Shannon was pack. Her form didn’t matter.
“You really are doing better,” Shannon assured me. My ears flicked, listening as she grabbed the clothes Chann tossed to her.
“As amusing as this is, it’s time to shift back,” Chann told me. “Alarick and Raff are waiting for us.” My wolf growled, a sound I reiterated with enthusiasm. I had hardly seen Alarick in the past few days. He had been in meetings with Raff and the adults of the pack to decide on Rhiannon’s punishment, as well as the punishments for her cronies. The debates had gotten fairly heated from what Zev had told me when he checked in each evening, exhaustion weighing him down and darkening the green of his eyes. I looked up at him, huffing as I waited for him to turn his back. He smirked, his teeth flashing in the light, before he tossed a set of clothes to me and spun away.
I breathed deeply, letting the change wash over me the way I’d been shown. I’d fought it at first, the sensation uncomfortable as my bones cracked and popped, my joints lengthening and tendons stretching. Now, though, I’d begun to grow accustomed to the feeling, it had become less unsettling and more natural, evoking a sensation not unlike stretching first thing in the morning. It hurt, but in a positive way. I grumbled to myself as the fur faded, tugging on the sweats and sweater bearing the school logo as quickly as I could. I was sure Shannon had her back turned, but with the grounds open to all students, I never knew who I might be flashing my bare bits too. I’d been assured that I would grow used to nudity and it wouldn’t bother me. I wasn’t certain, however, that would happen nearly as easily as getting used to my bones breaking, as odd as that sounded.
“I still think I should have been allowed to know what they were talking about.”
Chann chuckled, though there was little humor in the sound. “I can’t see you sitting through days of debates. You’d hear one person say something you didn’t like and end up yelling at them.”
Okay, that might have been a possibility, but it wasn’t like I was going to admit it. I stuck my nose in the air as I brushed past him. “I am far more evolved than that.” Not really, but at least I’d have a clue what was going on, and the nerves in my stomach wouldn’t be dancing a constant cha-cha. The first time Rhiannon had tried to kill me last month, she had merely been demoted within the pack, a betrayal that had stung more than I wanted to admit. She was a manipulator in the most supernatural sense of the word—her