First Shift (The Wolves of Rock Falls Book 1)

by AJ Skelly

  “Everyone happy?”

  I nodded.

  “Come on out. The quarters are a little close, but I think you’re ready to try out your new skin for a little bit.”

  I felt ridiculous, but it felt good to stretch my wolf limbs, and I made a few clumsy laps around the small room. The more we paced, the more in sync we became.

  After a few minutes, I stretched my back, reaching my forepaws out as far as they would go, my hind legs bunching up. Coils of muscle and sinews waited to spring into action. It was a strange sensation to have heavily muscled limbs at my disposal, waiting to launch me into the air or pad silently across the floor.

  “A full body stretch feels good, doesn’t it?” Sam grinned at me. He’d given suggestions of how to move to maximize the wolf’s abilities my human muscles didn’t have. I nodded my shaggy wolf head.

  I was suddenly struck with the thought that I had no idea what I looked like in this form. Or for that matter, I had no idea what Sam looked like as a wolf either.

  Opening my mouth to ask him about it, a harsh bark came out. Sam cocked his head as I scowled, forgetting I couldn’t talk to him. I sighed. I was ready to be back in my human skin anyway.

  Trotting back to the bathroom, I couldn’t be sure, but I think Sam was checking out my backside. Wolf tried to wiggle her hips, but I gave a quick yank on her will. She settled.

  “You shifting back already?” Sam called as I entered the bathroom.

  I yipped at him, irritated for no apparent reason. My emotions had been a rollercoaster the past three days. I was ready to be human and up to my elbows in flour. Emotionally, I was completely drained, but physically, with the moon in the sky, my wolf was too excited to let me sleep. Assuming I would have to just go until exhaustion took over like it had last night, I blew a breath out. It came out sounding like I’d blown a raspberry through the wolf’s muzzle. My flopping tongue had gotten in the way. I rolled my eyes and commanded wolf to shift back.

  It took a minute, but then I was standing on two legs again, totally naked, my legs needing a good shave once again. Exasperation must have leaked out into my sigh.

  “Megan, you all right in there? Do you, um, need help?”

  “No. Just figuring out these new…wolf things.”

  “Wolf things?”

  “I’m fine.” And then I realized I had no underwear. Gah.

  Squeezing my eyes shut and pinching the bridge of my nose, I swallowed my pride.

  “Sam, could you please drop the blue bag right outside the bathroom door?”

  There was a plop a minute later, and I reached around, dragged it the rest of the way into the bathroom, and shut the door. This was going to be an embarrassing month.

  Chapter 23

  Sam

  Meg came back out of the bathroom pensive and thoughtful. I couldn’t read her expression but wanted to know what was going on behind those hazel eyes.

  “Did you like being more in control once you shifted?”

  Her head came up. “Definitely. I like being the one in control of myself,” she replied dryly with a twist of her lips. “Sam,” she started. I raised my eyebrows, encouraging her to continue. “I’ve never actually seen your wolf.”

  Wolf jumped around inside me like he was on steroids. I hadn’t let him out in three days, which was three days too long for him. I needed to let him out, but I hadn’t, putting Megan’s needs above my own discomfort. I hoped she was asking me to show him to her, to share this intimate piece of me.

  “Do you want to?” I asked, biting back hope.

  “Do you mind? I am a little curious.” She smirked. “In fact, I suppose I can’t even be sure you are a werewolf.” She was teasing me. Sarcastically, sure, but I took this as a good sign as a smile tipped my lips. I shushed Wolf, another few minutes, and he could be free.

  “I wouldn’t mind at all. In fact, I need to let him out.” Surprise flashed across her face, slowly coming to the realization that I’d been denying my wolf. Smiling, I took my turn in the bathroom while Meg went to sit on the couch.

  I stripped, more eager than I’d been in years to let the wolf out. Without another thought, I leaned my shoulders back, letting them roll and pop as they moved back into my spine, my limbs lengthening and shortening, cording up with hard muscles. Resisting the urge to let go and howl, I pointed my nose to the ceiling and let myself have a tremendous shake. My silver-white fur rippled, and I shivered at the pleasure of feeling it and not my skin.

  Anxious and proud to show myself to Megan in this form, I hesitated only a second before exiting the small room and coming into the light of the kitchen.

  “Ooh,” Meg breathed, her eyes like saucers, as fear, uncertainty, and…was that appreciation? lingered on her face.

  She didn’t say anything, and I slowly padded over to her seat on the couch. My head reached her shoulders as she sat, and with the slightest tilt of my head, we were eye to eye. Her hand raised, and then stopped midway. Was she going to touch me? I bobbed my head under her hand, relishing her fingers on the silky fur behind my ears. No wolf would admit it, but it was a weakness a lot of us shared. We loved having our ears scratched.

  An appreciative whine came out as she scratched down a little lower.

  “Aside from being terrifyingly large, you aren’t that scary. I was afraid you would be.”

  Her face had relaxed a measure, and I was glad for it. I sat, enjoying her hand on my head for a full minute before she jerked her hand away.

  “Sorry, I guess that’s kind of like playing with your hair.”

  As if I would mind either way.

  A quick knock at the door saved us any further awkwardness. It was Raven. I could smell her.

  “Because this isn’t going to be weird,” Megan mumbled as she got up and went to the door.

  “Um, hi, Raven.”

  “Hi, Megan,” Raven replied, curiosity banked. “I’ve got the groceries. I’ll just bring them in.”

  “Let me grab some shoes, and I’ll help you. I can’t thank you enough for doing this.”

  “It’s no problem at all. We do stuff like this for each other all the time,” Raven implied the pack without actually coming right out and saying, which I appreciated.

  I ran back into the bathroom and shifted back regretfully, promising Wolf he could come out again soon, and threw my clothes back on.

  “Hi, Sam,” Raven said around an armful of groceries.

  “Raven. Thanks. I’ll get the rest.”

  “Okay, there’s not a whole lot more,” she answered as Meg came in behind her with a few more bags.

  Her eyes were glazed. She had a one-track purpose now.

  Raven didn’t stay to chitchat, and within five minutes of the door closing, Meg had items laid out on the counter, plotting some demise for each of them as she grouped them together and organized her battle strategy.

  “Meg?”

  “Hmm?” She didn’t turn around as she dug out a new set of measuring cups and spoons and put them in the sink.

  “Do you mind if I let my wolf out for a little while longer? I’ll stay here in the cabin in case you need me.”

  She paused and turned. “I don’t mind.” She hesitated. “Did you not shift because of me the past few days?”

  I nodded, unsure how to answer her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

  “It’s fine. If it had been dire, I would have found the time. You needed me in skin.” The slightest blush stained her cheeks. She nodded and went back to sorting her items on the counter.

  Chapter 24

  Megan

  I stared at the glorious array of foodstuffs lining the counters. I could have my little piece of baker’s paradise now.

  Without having to think, I gathered the ingredients for double chocolate chunk cookies and set the oven to preheat. Within minutes, I was breezing through measurements. I had been baking long enough that I had a general cookie recipe down that I could modify to make all sorts of delicious
treats.

  I noticed when Sam came out of the bathroom, his wolf’s presence taking up the space, but after a quick nod to each other, he went to the other side of the cabin and did some strange stretches, and I turned my back to him and let my mind wander. This was the way my subconscious processed best, and heaven knew I had mounds of things to work through.

  The flour was soft and light as I sifted it down with the cocoa powder into the metal bowl. The whisk clicked gently and whirred as I flipped it around the bowl. The sounds and the rhythms of doing what I loved lulled me into a temporary peace. Even the wolf settled. She nudged me and without giving it a second thought, I held each new ingredient to my nose, letting the wolf get a whiff.

  Everything smelled so different. There was new depth, new dimension. Smells I’d smelled a hundred times before were suddenly brand new. Cinnamon, a spice I loved, was entirely different. There was a new heat, a dark, rich spiciness that went further than the spice itself. Smelling with a wolf’s nose was almost like being able to feel a color. And without realizing it, the wolf and I were working together. We were synching. More than when we walked around in fur, more than when we worked together to shift. This was my world, and I was including her, and we were moving and working as one.

  By the time the chocolate chunk cookies were ready to come out of the oven, I had a new batch of caramel almond and praline cookies ready to go in and was finishing up the batter for mini cheesecakes to take to Raven as a thank you.

  It startled me when Sam walked by me in the kitchen to go back to the bathroom, his tail fur swishing over the skin on my elbow ever so lightly. I had been in the zone. And I was feeling tons better.

  Sam came out as I was dishing the first of the double chocolate chunk cookies onto cooling racks.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he commented.

  “Aren’t these similar to the ones your aunt makes?”

  “Oh, yeah. The cookies look amazing. That’s why I decided to shift back,” he chuckled. “Chocolate doesn’t taste great as a wolf. What I meant, was how you and your wolf were working together. I’ve never seen the human side draw the wolf in like that. It’s always the other way around.”

  I shrugged as I processed his comments.

  “I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but it felt like the natural thing to do. To use these weird new senses. I didn’t think about letting her in. She nudged, and I just did. Is that what it’s always like?”

  His eyebrows raised. “Yeah. A lot like that. You get to the point where you don’t even think about it—it’s the first response. She’s still you. You are still her. It will settle.” He grinned and wagged his eyebrows suggestively at the steaming cookies and light-fingered two of them.

  He groaned and licked chocolate off the side of his mouth. “Megan. These are the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. Please don’t tell my Aunt Lora. I told her that her cookies are my favorite.” He took another bite and groaned again as his eyes slid closed, drawing a tiny smile from the corner of my mouth. “But seriously. These are so much better than hers!”

  Chapter 25

  Sam

  It was possible I was entering a chocolate coma. I’d eaten seven of Megan’s cookies before I forced myself to stop. They were so good. I was going to get fat with her around if she continued to be this stressed. That sobered me some.

  I heard her gasp and glanced over to where she stood at the sink. Her back was arching in the familiar pattern of a shift.

  “Gah!” She gasped again as she dashed to the bathroom.

  “You okay?” I called, still not sure how she’d prefer me to react to her sporadic shifting.

  She grunted.

  “Talk inside my head if you need to.” She didn’t respond, so I moseyed over to the sink and started washing up some bowls and the wiry thing she’d stirred stuff with. This was a completely foreign world to me. I didn’t bake. I could grill like a boss. But baking? I could barely tell the right end of a spatula.

  She came out a few minutes later, human, and completely beat. Her eyes were shadowed, and her whole face sagged. She was on the edge of exhaustion. She blinked slowly a few times, looking right through me. I wiped my hands on the towel by the sink.

  “Come on. Time for you to try and get some rest.” I wasn’t going to be far behind her. The past few days hadn’t been as shocking to me as they had to Megan, but they’d still been taxing and emotionally straining. I needed sleep.

  She mumbled something incoherent and dropped like a rock as soon as I led her to the edge of the queen bed off the kitchen. Her eyes were shut even before her head found the pillow. I smiled, watching her for a second as she slept. I moved a wisp of hair and let myself indulge in a soft kiss on her forehead before I sighed. It was all the action I was going to get on my wedding night. The comforter was lax and moved up easily with a quick tug.

  Moving quietly with the grace of the wolf, I finished up the dishes and fell into my own bed, needing rest. It wasn’t the wedding night I’d dreamed of, or hoped for, but at least the woman of my dreams was sleeping under the same roof, if not in my bed.

  Chapter 26

  Megan

  Sunlight slanted through the blinds at the front of the cabin. I think it had been somewhere near three a.m. when the last shift happened. I didn’t remember getting into bed, but I must have slept overly hard because I could distinguish the soreness of not having moved in bed for too many hours with the soreness of shifting. It wasn’t the most pleasant combination, but I’d felt worse over the past three days.

  Gingerly stretching my back brought a wave of lactic acid-induced pain biting into my muscles and a noise somewhere between a grunt and a groan somersaulted up my throat.

  The noise was enough to bring Sam to life on the other side of the cabin.

  “You alive over there?” His voice was still thick with sleep.

  “I’m not sure yet. I’m not usually alive in the morning until I have caffeine.” My stomach sank. “Please tell me there is coffee and a coffee pot somewhere in this cabin.”

  His laugh was gravelly but somehow pleasant to my ears. Wolf perked up, and I rolled my eyes.

  “We have pack meetings out back. There’s always coffee here for that. But unless you want an entire percolator’s worth, we should probably get a regular coffee pot for the cabin.”

  I moved my head up far enough to glance at his across the room. He smiled and pushed himself up so he was sitting against his headboard. No one should look that good in bed head. My tongue felt thick, and I could tell my breath was bad. I swallowed. It didn’t help. My head flopped back down to the pillow. Everything felt poufy and slow like I was encased in a giant marshmallow. And I was tired. So tired.

  A genuine groan slipped out as I scrubbed my hands over my face, trying to snap out of it.

  “What time is it?” I asked as my stomach rumbled.

  “Wow. It’s four o’clock.”

  “Four in the afternoon? Are you serious?” He grinned at me as I poked my head up again.

  “You had an emotional, stressful few days. I think you and your wolf have finally started coming to an understanding, and that’s helping you to relax, sleep more, and sleep more deeply.”

  “I hope so. I need her settled so I can figure out how we’re going to do school on Wednesday. Test in Kellerman’s class. I can’t afford to miss it.”

  “You’ll be fine. If worse comes to worst, I can calm her between each class.”

  Panic must have shone on my face because his face slid into its unreadable mask. “I don’t think it will come to that. You’ll be fine. Especially during the day. I’ll be surprised if you have more than one or two uncalled-for shifts tonight.”

  That was at least reassuring. While I’d made temporary peace with the wolf, I still didn’t like being a wolf. I missed my uncomplicated regular skin where the worst thing I had to worry about was the odd pimple. My eyes closed again, and I massaged my temples. Also, kissing Sam was an unc
omfortable topic.

  “I can’t decide if I’m more tired or if I’m more hungry,” I offered as a subject change.

  “I’m starving. I vote we order pizza for tonight.”

  My stomach rumbled in affirmation as Wolf sent images of sausage, bacon, ham, and chicken topping a slice of pizza.

  “Does your wolf send you images of what it wants to eat?” I asked, trying to keep the shudder out of my words. I liked meat, but it was weird to have the wolf sending me thoughts about it. I was still adjusting to having someone else in my head with me.

  “Sometimes. Let me guess. Meat, meat, and more meat?” He chuckled at my grimace.

  I forced myself to sit up and regretted it as it sent my pulse pounding through my head. I was overdue for my morning cup of coffee, and the lack of caffeine was kicking in.

  “I need coffee,” I croaked.

  Sam lightly got to his feet and walked over to my bedside.

  “Come on, let’s get up, eat, and then you can sleep more if you want to.” He held his hand out. I took it, hoping fervently that his nose couldn’t pick up my morning—afternoon—breath.

  Sam ordered pizza while I brushed my teeth and washed my face. My skin still felt too tight for my body. I didn’t exactly feel bloated, but still like I was trying to wallow my way out of the giant marshmallow.

  My phone was sitting on the table where I’d left it last night, and I snagged it to find fourteen texts and five missed phone calls. From Rachel. And one call from Grandpa.

  I smiled and punched in my pass code to skim the texts from Rachel. They were all variations on the same theme.

  How was I?

  Was I okay?

  Did I need anything?

  Should she come over?

  Had Sam tried anything last night?

  I fired a quick text back to her. —Sorry. Just woke up. Slept like the dead. So far so good.—

  She pinged back within the minute. —Good! Keep me posted!—

  I sent her a smiley face.

  “Here’s the coffee,” Sam called, holding up a giant percolator and economy-sized tub of French roast. My mouth watered. It was possible I’d drink an entire percolator’s worth.