The Alpha And The Baker

3

Before either of them could answer, a terrible crashing sound filled the air, followed by an alarmed howl. There was a beat of silence, then pure pandemonium broke out. Uh-oh.

I knew the sounds of a new wolf panicking like the back of my hand. Somewhere in our cluster of houses, a young one had

just shifted for the first time. And in the middle of the day, too! Rare, but not entirely unheard of.

“We’ll settle this later,” I said before taking off at full speed. Technically, I could run faster if I shifted into my wolf form, but then I would run into trouble if my destination involved doorknobs or anything else that required thumbs. And while I could shift into a wolf, then back into a human again, such rapid shuttling back and forth was pretty hard on the body, and I wanted to enjoy my day.

Halfway across the field, I managed to pinpoint the location of the commotion, which was growing louder by the second. It was coming from the western chunk of houses on our land.

Our houses were arranged in a bit of a complicated manner. They weren’t quite arranged in blocks, but also not scattered as far as they usually would be in the country. We had the main house, where my mother and a few of the other elders lived, and those of us who were single lived in small cabins that were scattered about. The couples and those with families had houses bunched together in threes and fours so all the immediate relatives were close together. It was a ramshackle community, but everything was in good repair, and it allowed us all to work wherever we were needed. While some of our pack had personal gardens or buildings that were their special pet projects, we pretty much shared everything within reason. “Calm down, Arietty!” Arietty?

That cry allowed me to home-in on Auntie Letitia’s house. I raced there, my long legs quickly crossing the distance. While my inner wolf was always jubilant at being able to run freely, most of his concentration and mine was focused on getting to whatever young pack member needed help.

The thing about first shifts was that, no matter how much we tried to prepare the young ones, it was still terrifying and confusing. Suddenly, their entire body was racked with agony as they were forced out of their human shape into an entirely new one. As if that weren’t enough, their senses were dialed up to a hundred-and-eleven, often overwhelming them with too much information way too fast.

Usually, there were signs that a kid was nearing their first shift—fevers, growing pains, a huge increase in appetite, as well as light and sound sensitivity. Once those symptoms started, we pulled them out of school for a week or so and made sure they were always with several other shifters. As the alpha of our pack, I ensured I knew when anyone was approaching the milestone so I could go on a run with the new shifter once they were ready.

To my knowledge, though, no one was scheduled to shift.

Finally, I made it to Letitia’s back door. I threw it open and came across quite the scene.

“Arietty! Stop! You’re gonna ruin the sau—No!”

The kitchen was just beyond the small mudroom. It was usually a warm, cozy place, but at that very moment, it looked more like a war zone.

The big wooden cabinet next to the fridge had toppled over, scattering flour, sugar, and various other ingredients across the floor. The door to the refrigerator was hanging at an angle that told me it would need repairing. For one horrifying moment, I thought there was blood everywhere, until I saw an upended stockpot of tomato sauce and two crockpots of chili now shattered on the floor.

Aw man, I had been looking forward to that chili!

What was more important than the mess or the ruined food was the brand new, very petite wolf currently horking down the spilled food and clearly having the time of her life.

She was beautiful. She had her mother’s roan fur, but the same tawny dappling that her father had, and her big tail wagged without a hint of aggression. That was certainly a good thing considering how dangerous new wolves could be. Even the loveliest young people sometimes turned violent because their wolf instincts were far more powerful than their human ones.

Instead of violence, however, Arietty was more focused on filling her belly. I supposed there were worse things in life.

“Hey there, Arietty,” I murmured, putting as many soothing tones as I could into the subharmonics that shifters could somewhat communicate in. It wasn’t anything like shifter-speak—the way we communicated in our wolf forms—but more like a subconscious way to share feelings, kind of like humans and body language. “Why don’t we go outside and get you some fresh air?”

I took a step forward, hands raised non-threateningly, but Arietty took it entirely differently, because she whirled toward me and started growling, as if to tell me that the cornbread on the floor was hers and she wasn’t going to share.

Fair. I often wished I could hoard all the delicious cornbread too.

“None of that now, Arietty. I need you to calm down and come with me, all right?”

I was doing my best not to escalate things, and I wasn’t really worried about my safety. Sure, maybe she would nick me or give me a bruise or two, but I would heal within minutes. Maybe she would bite me if things escalated really far, but I didn’t see Arietty reacting that strongly. As far as I knew, she’d only just started puberty.

“Your daddy and mama are gonna be real thrilled to see you! You take after both of them, ya know? You can’t see yourself yet, but I can.”

Apparently, my comforting needed a little improvement, because instead of settling, Arietty lunged forward as if she was going to snap at me.

I’d been around the block a time or two, and although I didn’t like fighting if I didn’t have to, I’d brawled enough in my life to know when someone was bluffing, and my niece was most definitely doing just that.