to her butt, sitting on her puffed tail, her face turning puzzled more than disbelieving or outraged.
Behind her, we’re starting to ask, “What was that for?” and similar questions.
Ginny turns to look at us—and Deek jumps forward and snaps his teeth at her.
Ginny makes a wolfish squawk and leaps back.
Deek stands then—and facing off with her like this, he’s just enormous. It’s like—
Well, it’s like a full-grown werewolf is in the room. And he’s picking on a girl less than half his size.
Suddenly, he bows. And for one moment, his eyes meet Ginny’s shocked ones—and his tail sways wide, swishing very deliberately in the air.
Ginny’s head jerks back in a very clear show of disbelief. Then comprehension—because she lunges forward at him.
Paws pounding the floor loudly enough to mimic gunshots, Deek darts around her and thunders down the hall.
Yipping shrilly, Ginny tears after him.
Maggie laughs. “They’re playing!”
She no more than says this when Deek shoots out of the hallway and leaps on the couch cushions between us and Charlotte.
Ginny flies out of the hallway, catapulting herself at him—
The sofa bangs into the wall, denting the plaster as Deek launches off just as Ginny flies into the space he occupied.
Deek, bowing on the carpet, wurfs playfully at her.
Charlotte is covering her mouth, shocked but looking happier, and Maggie is clapping. “Get him, Ginny!”
I recover from my shock enough to stand up. “Take it outside! You two—backyard. Now!”
There is a horrible shredding sound as Deek’s big, hard-as-rock claws dig into the carpet and he propels himself down the hall to the back door like a rocket.
Ginny growls and goes scrambling after him.
Following quickly, I manage the handle, and the two snapping wolves shove the door open, shouldering it aside with Deek streaking ahead of Ginny, who’s beginning to froth at the mouth as she gasps and scissors her incredibly sharp teeth as she races behind his flying tail.
Staring at the pair of them, wide-eyed, I turn to find an equally shell-shocked Charlotte. Maggie, however, is beaming. “Go Deek!” she cries. She turns to me. “Mom, can I play on the trampoline?”
It’s the first time since she got home that she’s wanted to do anything without me. “You absolutely can. I’ll help you up.”
She jumps while Ginny tries to catch Deek, and then Charlotte takes a turn on the trampoline while Ginny races away from Deek. The pair of them knock a birdbath over trying to get a drink as they speed by, prompting me to bring out the dish Ginny was drinking from earlier. I find myself laughing as Ginny darts up to me only to get ambushed by Deek, who turns the act of rehydrating into a game of keep-away.
Eventually, he lets her get her fill—and then it’s Ginny’s turn to drive him away from the H2O.
They play like this for a good hour, Maggie and Charlotte on the trampoline included.
And it’s a good thing Charlotte helped Ginny into that shirt earlier. One moment, Ginny is prancing by on four paws. The next, she lets out a startled yip and turns into a girl.
CHAPTER 35
LUCAN
OCTOBER, THREE WEEKS LATER
Ginny has been doing really well. She can Change at will, and that makes her life much easier. She’s been more settled—though we suspect that has a lot to do with the counseling sessions Finn talked her into trying out. He recommended she speak with Chessa, the wolf from Vlkolak House who’s spent the last eight years working towards earning her PhD in clinical psychology. She’s a loner, she’s tenacious, but Ginny hit it off with her and has visited with her several times now.
Separately, Ginny’s mom, Brooke, sees Chessa too. It seems like it’s helping.
Ginny has the option to stay at the dens whenever she likes, but she’s still choosing not to move into the Pack permanently. Being able to stay as part of Susan’s family makes her feel secure.
Despite this, more and more she’s beginning to feel the security of being Pack.
Just about every weekend, she’s been staying at the Pack dens to socialize with other werewolves and to practice being a wolf in her four-pawed form. Charlotte goes along with her faithfully, when she can. And when she has visitation with her dad and can’t, Susan joins Ginny.
It’s a crisp Saturday morning, and all of Susan’s household are at the Pack dens because not only do the girls not have visitation, today is a special day among the Pack: it’s Howl-o-ween.
Yes, three of the women I live with groaned when I