Wolf's Pack (Wolves Next Door #3) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,25

thumped her hand on the table. "You deserve more than that! I've only had a few moons as a wolf, and know what that feels like. My boyfriend's dad never learned his wolf form, and he hates it. Sitting there, watching us all run is almost torture for him. Why would it be fair to do that to you just because you aren't wolves?"

"Do you even run?" Ian asked.

Vic huffed. "Not the same way wolves do. We celebrate the moon, and we do hunt it, but it's more a charge, a little bit of cavorting, and a lot of milling about. We don't exactly run long distances like you do."

But Gabby's tirade had Seth looking just a little too thoughtful. "Do you play?" he asked Vic. "Games, I mean. Tag, keep away, and that sort of thing? Do bears have games like wolves do?"

"Some," Vic admitted. "The guys and I wrestle. Why?"

Gabby sucked in a breath as she whipped around to look at Seth. "Like, capture the flag?" she asked.

He held out his fist for her to bump hers against. "Knew I liked you for a reason. But yeah. As soon as the moon comes up, we want to run. So, hide and seek, capture the flag, point holds. Take some ideas from video games, and there's no reason we can't literally hunt the moon."

I could actually see where he was going with that, and it wasn't a bad idea. It also sounded like something the pack would enjoy. At least the younger wolves. A few of our older and more traditional types would hate anything but running as fast as we could and howling at the top of our lungs.

Ian was shaking his head in confusion. "What are you talking about, Seth?"

"Like, a flag," Gabby told him before Seth could say a thing. "An actual, real flag, Ian. No, I know! A plushie! Say, give Vic a stuffed moon, right? The bears go out and do their thing. We take off running. For the rest of the night, it's a game of keep away. Wolves can work together. Bears can too. Winner gets some prize."

Henry chuckled. "Half off rent for the month?"

And the air rushed from Vic's lungs in a rush. "That's a serious prize."

"And a very good reason to keep it all in good fun," Henry pointed out.

"I can get medals made," Elena added. "Trophy shops make them pretty cheap. Put the month and year on them so the winner will have something to remember it by. It could work, right?"

"It's worth trying," Bridget said. "Would satisfy all of our instincts. The only question I have is if we can keep the wolves from getting triggered and the bears from losing control. The last thing I want to do is patch up some kid because he took a swipe from a grizzly paw across the face."

"A test run might be a good idea," Vic admitted, "but it's the kind of thing we do anyway. We just feel the need to shift and use our bodies. Not just lie around, but actually do something with them."

"It's worth trying," Ian relented. "Because, in all honesty, I want this to work. I want to figure this out, and you seem like a pretty decent guy, Vic. I just have to think of my pack first. You can understand that, right?"

"I can," Vic assured him. "But I can tell you that I'm not the first person to have this idea. When that video played, my tiger friend called me. He wants a home where he can raise his son without worrying. Lev's his name, and he's also been taking care of a trio of vixens. The youngest isn't much older than Gabby. Sisters. Their parents were both killed by hunters. Years apart, but the mom was lost a couple of years back, and Lev's been looking out for them since."

"The tiger?" Ian asked.

Vic nodded. "Yep. And trust me, I know exactly how you wolves feel, because running into a pair of male tigers in the middle of nowhere? Yeah, my balls - " He stopped, glancing over at Gabby. "Sorry, kid."

"You freaked out, huh?" she asked. "Don't worry, Vic. Seth's as bad about it as you are."

"I'm getting better," Seth grumbled.

She just rolled her eyes. "You really aren't."

"Wait," Pax said, waving them all off. "So, three bears just happen to know two tigers, who are coincidentally friends with three foxes? And all of you talk on the regular? Did that start before