Page 46 of Fifty & Feral

“Did you have a nice run?” he asked, his fingers lacing into mine. He was more awake now that he was standing with me. I was more awake, too. Maybe it wasn’t quite bedtime for us.

“Yes,” I said, as we walked toward the house. “It was great.”

“Claim your mate, Alpha!” one of the pack members called out, and the ones around let out a few wolf whistles and hollers, congratulating us. Even though tonight wasn’t about our mating, the pack wasn’t shy about naming us both alpha and alpha consort. Everyone knew that eventually Connor would be a part of us. They already treated him as a full member of the pack.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes or to command them to be quiet. Connor laughed good-naturedly.

“I think that’s probably something else we’ll have to get used to,” he said.

“Indeed. I don’t think there are many secrets amongst the pack.”

“And no secrets between us anymore, right?”

I kissed his cheek, letting my scruff nuzzle against his skin lightly. “No, mate. No secrets.”

Chapter 24

Connor

One Month Later – Strawberry Moon

This wasn’t complicated, or at least it didn’t have to be. Then again, six weeks ago, if someone had told me that I would be shifting into a wolf for the first time after having met my mate, who was also a wolf, and the two of us would join a wolf pack, and we would spend our evenings sitting outside enjoying the moonlight, I would have told them they were fucking crazy. So, I supposed technically it was quite complicated, but somehow in the past month, it all became so normal.

A week after having Jack officially named as the alpha, and the two of us, plus Maya, officially joining the pack, I had started to feel different. At first, I thought I was imagining it or that it was the stress of the new situation, but then when I had mentioned how my skin felt itchy and I was more irritable, Mason and a few other pack members had sat me down, asked me a few more questions, and it was determined that yes, the change had taken, and I would be having my first shift probably on the next full moon.

And so now I sat with Madison, Tim, and Maya as we discussed how tonight’s full moon was going to go. It was the strawberry moon, and I had no idea that so many things could be made from strawberries. For the past two weeks, the pack had had an abundance of strawberries from their patch. We made jam so that every household in the pack was stocked with jam. Then we made pie, and when we got tired of pie, we made other stuff—strawberry cheesecake, strawberry tarts, strawberry shortcake. And smoothies, so many smoothies. Tonight, the dinner would be very strawberry themed, with strawberry basil chicken and a strawberry spinach salad. Once this full moon was over, I never wanted to see another strawberry again.

“So, do you want to shift with the whole pack, or would you rather just be with Dad?” Maya asked.

I shrugged. I hadn’t really given it a lot of thought. But now that I was thinking of it, I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t really want to be naked around everybody.”

Madison and Tim laughed.

“Oh, you get used to that right away.” Tim patted my shoulder.

I had gotten used to seeing everybody naked, but it was quite different to be the one who was naked, or maybe it wasn’t and I was overthinking it.

“I think for this first shift, I might like to be alone,” I said.

“I don’t blame you,” Madison said. “When Blake’s mate joined the pack, it was the same. First shift, they wanted to be alone. There is no shame in that.”

“I don’t want to take Jack away from his responsibilities. So maybe for the pack, I should just deal with it and—”

“Connor, it’ll be fine,” Maya said. “We want your first shift to be comfortable, not scary. And if you don’t want to be in front of a crowd, you don’t have to be. Dad’ll make the call for everyone to run off, and then the two of you can go behind the shed or something.”

Madison and Tim snickered at that.

“Keep your minds out of the gutter,” I said.

“Oh, I’d be able to, Alpha Consort, but I have it on good authority that just last week the two of you spent some time behind that shed.”

My neck heated, red probably spreading all over my face. “You know, I was told that even with everyone’s heightened sense of smell that everyone would just be too polite to mention things like that.”

Maya put a hand over her ears. “Okay, good for you, but ew. That’s my dad.”

“I know, sweetheart. I’m sorry.” And I really was. The two of us had just gotten carried away. We did that a lot. Mason wasn’t exaggerating when he said going through the transformation was like a second puberty. Everything was heightened for me. Smell, taste, sight… and especially arousal. Add to that that I had a sexy mate who was still feeling the effects of his own transformation? Well, we didn’t leave the bedroom a lot.

“The nudity didn’t bother you then,” Tim said.