After James had peeled out angrily in his filthy Range Rover, Mason and Jason burst out laughing. “That was pretty awesome!”

“Did you see his face? Totally worth it.”

I bounced up. The cold air in my wet coat was starting to bother me now that I was sitting still. The temperature was only in the lower 50s, but the water had soaked through my thick coat to my skin, and I was ready to be dry.

Jason had tossed the rest of our clothes and shoes into a pile in the back seat of the Jeep, so I jumped in through the open door and made a nest in the pile of clothing. Mason grinned. “I guess Anna is ready to head out.” I just yawned in response.

During the trip back, I took advantage of having access to the guys’ scents on their clothing. I inhaled deeply and picked out Mason and Jason’s individual scents. Under the human scent, I could pick out a muskiness that I now recognized as wolf.

Their wolf scents were very faint and hidden under the stronger human scent, but I could now see how their human and wolf scents were related. I think now that I realized how they were connected, I could potentially recognize wolves in their human forms.

Investigation done for the night, I settled into a nap. I was lulled to sleep by the warmth of the Jeep and the scents of my new pack members surrounding me.

I was awakened by the sounds of the car doors opening. I stretched my back out before I leapt out of the door Mason held open for me.

“Sorry, pretty girl, no wolves allowed in the house. Austin’s rules.”

I gave a wolf pout. I had made a mess by lying on the clothing with my muddy and damp fur, and I did not want to have to put those clothes back on.

The front door opened, and Cody stepped out. My ears and tail perked up. “Sorry, dudes, James told me not to let you back into the house until you were relatively clean. I saw the pics.” He smirked and then caught sight of me with a smile.

“Hey, is that Anna?” I ran up the front stairs to greet him with a wolf grin.

He crouched down to let me smell his hand. This time, I could easily recognize the musky scent that identified him as a fellow wolf under his human scent. He ran his hand down my back and grimaced a little, as my coat was still damp and slightly muddy.

He straightened back up. “I’ll take Anna inside –”

“No way!” Jason interrupted.

“Yeah, we are not going to let you turn her into a spoiled brat,” Mason added. “She gets the hose just like the rest of us.”

Cody gazed down at me. “Well, I’m not really spoiling her. It’s only her first day -”

“Nope,” Mason interrupted again.

“Get down here and stop trying to disrupt our pack with your cuteness!” Jason teased me.

I flicked my tail at him but bounded back down the stairs toward them.

“You should grab her stuff out of the Jeep, Cody,” Mason added as an afterthought in Cody’s direction.

Cody sighed and grabbed the keys that were tossed at him.

I nervously ran circles around the twins as they headed down the stone path that lead around to the back of the ridiculous mansion. We weren’t really going to be hosed down with freezing cold water, right?

They led the way up to a fenced in area that included an Olympic-sized pool and looked like it belonged at a 5-star resort. The pool was surrounded by cushioned chairs, cabanas, and there was even an outdoor bar attached to the pool house in the back. Behind the bar and under the alcove there was a giant outdoor TV. I didn’t know that was even a thing.

Mason walked over to an outdoor shower. “This is pretty cold water, it’s not bad in the summer, but -”

“Fuck that,” Jason said and launched himself into the pool.

“Austin and Cody are going to be pissed if they find swamp muck at the bottom of that pool!” Mason shouted at him.

“Now that I’m already in, we are going to be in trouble anyway. The water in here is nice and warm, it’s heated to a delightful 70 degrees.” He floated in the pool on his back, the caked mud slowly streaming off him and floating in a dark cloud around him.

Mason shrugged and looked at me. “They installed the outdoor shower so we wouldn’t get the pool dirty, but he’s right, we are going to be in trouble now anyway. Might as well make it worth it.” He grinned and launched himself into the pool, trying to splash Jason with his cannonball.

I trotted over to the edge. I couldn’t tell how deep it was, but it was definitely too deep for my shorter wolf legs to reach the bottom. I decided to jump in and change back to human once my body was mostly submerged.

Jason saw that I was back to human once I came up for air. “Well, since Anna is naked…” He pulled off his pants and chucked them back onto land.

Mason punched him. “You’re embarrassing her. Don’t talk about being naked.”

Jason punched him back. “She needs to learn how to be a wolf. Wolves are naked a lot.”

I ignored them. I had spent enough time with them to realize play fighting was just something they did.

They got into a splashing match, and I dunked my head under the water, scrubbing out what was left of the mud. I felt bad getting the pool muddy, but the amount of dirt on me was minuscule compared to what was coming off the twins.

Their splashing fight had escalated to a wrestling match. I decided to take advantage of their distraction and see if I could make it out of the pool without them seeing me naked. The splashing noises had stopped when I made it over to one of the cabanas and hurriedly wrapped a towel around myself.

I shot a glance back over my shoulder to see both of them carefully not looking at me.

“Are you getting out already?” Jason asked disappointedly.

“I think I need a shower more than a dip in the pool,” I replied. “I did get almost all of the mud off, but I’m a little sticky now from the salt water.”

Mason nodded and dipped his head under the water, scrubbing his hands through his hair. Jason was splashing around and wiping mud off himself, too.

They both headed for the side of the pool to climb out after a couple minutes, and I averted my gaze. Mason’s pants were lying on the side of the pool near Jason’s, so he had stripped down at some point as well.

They got out and wiped themselves down with towels. I avoided looked at them as I took a second towel and wrapped my dripping hair.

Once we were all dry enough that we wouldn’t drip water through the house, we headed toward the back patio area. This also looked like a resort area with a couple of tables placed on top of the stone patio. The giant area had a sun room off to the left, but we headed through the glass doors that led into a sitting area inside.

The boys headed through the house and to a stairway that looked like it belonged on the Titanic. The floor was cold under my bare feet, and I looked at the floor; was that marble?

“Cody!” Jason shouted as we went up the stairs.

There was no answer. “We need to know where he put your stuff,” Mason added.

Jason was impatient. “Just look in the guest rooms as we pass by for her luggage.” They opened a couple of doors as they headed down the hall.

“That’s weird. I know Cody would have brought it upstairs.”

Jason shrugged. “Guess that means she’s going to have to shower with us.” They both grinned, and I turned bright red.

“We each have our own room here, but we have to share a bathroom,” Mason explained. I nodded. “We can let you use one of the guest showers, but we don’t have any extra girl clothes.”

“I guess you will just have to wear mine,” Jason added.

“She’s not wearing your clothes. When is the last time you did laundry?”

“My stuff is cleaner than yours.”

I just rolled my eyes as I listened to them argue.

“Where’s the shower I can use?” I interrupted, knowing this could go on for a while.

Mason headed back down the hallway and opened the door to one of the rooms we had looked in for my luggage. “This room has its own bathroom and is empty right now.”

I nodded. “Just how many rooms does this house have?”

Jason shouted down the hallway, “A lot!” and went into one of the rooms, closing the door behind him.

Mason shrugged. “I think, like, twelve. Only six of us live here full-time, but we always have pack members staying here for pack events or guard duty.”

I thought back to the two wolves who had chased me through the woods. They would have been pack members on guard duty. I was sure that I had not officially met them yet, now that I had the scents of James, Cody, and the twins.

Mason gestured into the room, and I walked in. “I’ll leave some clothes on the bed for you.”

He closed the door behind him, and I heard his footsteps head down the hallway.

I headed toward the bathroom attached to the bedroom I was standing in. The bedroom was large but only had a bed taking up one corner of the room.

I entered the bathroom, and it seemed normal but nice. There was a shower with a glass enclosure and a garden tub. I really needed a nice hot shower with good water pressure, so I fiddled with the knobs until I had the temperature just right and slid under the cascade of water. This was nice.

There were a couple of bottles of shampoo and conditioner for me to choose from. To my surprise, there was a flowery-smelling body wash for me to use. I thought this pack didn’t have females? Maybe they had human girlfriends?

I took my time showering and washed my hair several times until I was completely free of the marsh smell. When I stepped out of the shower, the bathroom was full of steam, so I flicked on the fan. I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped out into the bedroom. There was a pile of clothes on the bed.

There were hoodies, sweatpants, T-shirts, socks. Some smelled like Mason, and some like Jason. So, they were going to let me choose whose clothes to wear?

I picked out a T-shirt and sweatpants to wear from Mason and socks and a hoodie from Jason. Now that I was warm and comfy, I headed back into the bathroom to see what I could do about my hair. I looked in the still foggy mirror. My hair was a tangled mess.

I looked through all the drawers in the vanity until I found a small plastic comb and a little trial sized bottle of leave-in conditioner. This would have to do.

I heard pounding on the door. “Anna! Are you still naked?” That would be Jason. I was finished doing what I could with my hair, so I just left it down to dry in waves and headed to the door to meet Jason.

When I opened the door, he was leaning there, waiting. “We are going to have movie night! Mason’s getting the screening room ready. It’s our job to get the snacks.”

Of course this gigantic house has a screening room. I would not be surprised if they invited me to the bowling alley in the basement next.

I followed him to the kitchen, where he started to raid the pantry. “We are going to have popcorn - do you want cheesy or butter?” he asked me.

“Both, obviously,” I answered.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you.” He winked at me.

“What is taking so long?” Mason interrupted as he walked in the kitchen.

“I had to wait for Anna to make herself pretty,” Jason answered.

I gave him a dirty look. “I know you were the one who wanted to look pretty for Anna,” Mason told him. “Don’t even try to put it on her.”

I laughed and walked over to the microwave to start making the popcorn that Jason passed over to me from the pantry.

Jason grabbed drinks out of the fridge and grabbed three pints of ice cream out of the freezer. “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” I told him.

Mason grinned at me. “I’m pretty sure you like me just as much, because I can smell my scent on you.”

I blushed. I was wearing some of each of their clothes; was that more significant to wolves than to humans? I decided it would be better not to ask right now.

Jason started scribbling on a white board that was attached to the front of the fridge. I looked closer to see what he was writing.

Sorry about the mess in the pool. We will clean it ASAP in the am.

-J&M

Mason read over his shoulder and then took the marker from him and added “&A” to their initials.

“You’re going to get her in trouble,” Jason scolded him.

Mason just grinned. “She’s one of us now.” I had a warm feeling fill me. I had never been accepted into a group like this before.