But hunting down a confused teenage werewolf seemed easy in comparison to the task Wolfie faced. The young alpha seemed confident in his ability to beat my father at pool, and my father had agreed to the proposed challenge, albeit with a mocking laugh, so the winner would be Haven’s leader. But Crazy Wilder had filled the pool room with my most scary-looking male cousins, and Wolfie had no one to back him up. Plus, my father had won 95% of the games I’d seen him play during my childhood, and I couldn’t quite imagine how Wolfie could have honed his skills enough during the last week to provide any kind of competition for the billiards master. It was traditional to put the losing werewolf in a pack-leader challenge to death, and the notion of returning from my own hunt to a world lacking Wolfie’s calm presence made me shiver. Still, this was the best plan we’d been able to come up with, and the only one that could possibly result in everyone leaving the room alive … assuming Wolfie’s skills were up to par.
“Trust me,” the younger alpha said quietly as he walked past my dithering form and into the pool room. Wolfie had gone outside a minute earlier to pick up the cue stick he’d left on the doorstep, proof that his challenge hadn’t been a spur-of-the-moment decision, and now he was screwing together the two halves of his stick even as he strode toward my father. Looking over Wolfie’s shoulder, I could see the Chief frown slightly, aware that he’d lost one of his home-court advantages—knowledge of which cue sticks were perfect and which had just enough of a warp to send a ball swirling off in the wrong direction.
“Best two games out of three?” Wolfie asked, the phrase nearly a command instead of a question, and I saw the wolf behind my father’s eyes snarl as the Chief nodded without thinking. As hard as it was to believe since I’d seen my father dominate everyone in his path for my entire lifetime, Wolfie was the more alpha of the two. But my father was far from whipped.
“As the challenged party, I assume I go first?” he asked, and I could tell that the Chief’s words were meant to make Wolfie echo my father’s earlier unconscious agreement. But, instead, my favorite alpha pursed his lips and shook his head slowly.
“I thought we’d go traditional and lag,” rumbled his wolf.
I wanted to stay and watch, but I knew Keith was waiting, and there was nothing I could do now that the challenge was underway. So I turned away, the sound of pool balls on the sidewall echoing in my mind as I walked past my cousins and out the door.
***
I assumed it would be a struggle to shift, but as soon as I stepped out of my clothes on the back stoop, my wolf surged to the forefront and we became canine so easily I didn’t even notice the change occurring. After fighting against the shift and then fighting to force the shift for so long, it felt strange to realize that I was now able to change forms as seamlessly as Wolfie did. But I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I just relaxed into the transformation.
That thought reminded me of the competition going on inside, though, and my wolf and I scented the air, feeling my father’s annoyance and Wolfie’s elation as the younger alpha won the right to go first. A good sign. Let’s hope Wolfie could keep up his lead while I was gone.
Before the two of us had descended from the loft a few minutes earlier, Wolfie told me that the rest of his pack was waiting along the highway at the location where Keith had left the road and cut into the woods. The younger alpha had given his pack instructions not to leave the vehicles, knowing that my father had wolves patrolling Haven’s perimeter, and that those wolves would attack first and ask questions later. I, on the other hand, could come and go as I pleased, so the plan was for me to meet up with Wolfie’s pack and then to follow my nephew’s trail wherever it led.
I could smell the anxiety, but also the cohesiveness, of Wolfie’s crew before I rounded the bend and padded to a stop beside their cars. The yahoos were in wolf form while the older adults sported their human bodies, ensuring cool heads all around due to Wolfie’s calming effect on the wolves in his pack. As soon as I came into sight, Wade and Fen trotted up to greet me, licking under my chin, and I was so gratified by their acceptance that I shifted back to human form so I could take them into my arms like a pair of lap dogs.
“Not quite what a passing motorist should see,” Chase said gruffly, interrupting our greeting and tossing an oversized t-shirt into my arms so I could shield my nudity from non-werewolf observers. Despite his tone, though, I could tell that even the pack’s beta had forgiven my betrayal of his milk brother. Then Chase went a step further, dipping his head to me as if I were his alpha’s permanent mate, and I couldn’t prevent the blush that snuck up my neck at the gesture. Imagining what it would be like to act as Wolfie’s mate was tantalizing, but I needed to keep my focus on Keith, so I was glad when Galena pulled me into a simple hug and cut off that train of thought.
“So, what’s the plan?” Quetzalli asked, her words abrupt but her body language telling me that Galena’s partner was as glad to see me as everyone else was. She dipped her head slightly as she met my eyes, and I couldn’t really believe the pack had forgiven me so easily. I was sure there would be some lingering issues, but now was not the time to deal with hurt feelings.