Chapter 2
“Please, Dad. Other pack cubs my age are starting at the Etzgadol Middle School this year too.” Twelve-year-old Zev Hassick pleaded with his father, desperately hoping he could convince the man that his only son wasn’t too young to leave the shifter school and become exposed to humans on a daily basis.
“Zev, we’ve gone over this. There are very few shifters who send their kids to the city school until high school, and the ones who do are, um, activists.”
Zev was losing this argument. Again. And he didn’t have any more time. School would start next week, and this was his last chance to convince his parents to let him transfer from the pack school to the Etzgadol Middle School. It was the only hope he had of spending eight hours a day with his Jonah.
“Toby’s going to the city school, Dad, and he comes from a good family. You’ve known Mr. Harrison since you were a cub.”
“Yes, I’ve known Tobias’s father for many moons, and Jeremiah’s a good man. But his mother…well, Leah’s…unusual, Zev. She’s not from these parts. You know Jeremiah met her when he was away studying and being hosted by the Miancarem pack.”
Zev refused to back down. He kept his posture straight, his head raised, and his eyes on his father’s face. He didn’t like the way his father and the other pack males disregarded Mrs. Harrison. For that matter, he didn’t like the way they seemed to dismiss the importance of all the women in the pack.
“Mrs. Harrison is a strong wolf, Dad. She was very well respected in her old pack, and they were devastated when she left. Toby told me that when they go visit his grandparents, the Miancarem females still come to greet his mother and beg her to return.”
Gregory Hassick folded his newspaper and set it down next to him on the couch. He tilted his head to the side and appraised his son. Zev knew what his dad was thinking. How many times had he been told that he was different, different from other shifters his age, different from any shifter his father had ever known?
Even as a very young child, Zev remembered hearing his parents say that he had found his wolf more frequently and for a longer duration than they had previously thought possible. Most shifters didn’t make the change until they’d been in their human skin for at least five years, but Zev had spontaneously shifted not long after his first birthday. Even when they started shifting, young boys rarely managed to maintain their wolf form for longer than a few minutes, but Zev shifted for hours at a time. Not only that, but the discomfort associated with bones moving and reshaping never plagued Zev. His parents seemed proud of Zev’s unique nature when it came to strength in shifting. He’d often heard his mother brag to her friends that her boy was such a strong shifter that he needed space to run, and his father would usually follow those statements up with assertions about what a wonderful leader his son would make someday. But despite all the praise, Zev recognized his parents’ concern about what they perceived as his tendency to wander.
Shifters were social animals, always keeping close together, playing, eating, and sleeping with their pack. Zev was popular with his peers and adored by his elders, so his parents didn’t understand why he often wandered off alone, changing into his wolf skin and disappearing into the woods. What his parents didn’t realize, what he always kept hidden, was that he didn’t leave to be alone. He left to go play with Jonah.
Deciding to focus on what he knew mattered most to his father—Zev’s destiny to lead his pack—he gave one final shot at his attempt to attend the human school.
“The city school is bigger than the pack school, Dad, at least twice the size. Their teachers are younger; they understand technology and have a better grasp of the outside world. Things aren’t like they were when you were my age. I’ll need to learn all sorts of new things in order to be a good Alpha and to run the ceramics business.”
Zev immediately saw the change in his father’s expression. It was as if he’d finally heard a logical reason to allow his son to attend a school filled with half-souls. Zev was the latest in a long line of Hassick Alphas. Their family had produced the strongest males in the pack for generations.
“Okay, Zev. We’ll try it. I do agree that the elders teaching at the pack school are quite far removed from all the changes taking place in the world. And it will be important for the Etzgadol pack to have leaders who are ahead of the pack.” Gregory laughed at his own joke.
Zev’s wolf practically bounced with joy, but his human managed to portray a happy but not overly enthusiastic exterior. He couldn’t let his father know how fundamentally important that decision had been. After all, nobody could ever know about Zev’s attachment to a human. He got up from the couch and walked over to his father, giving the big man a loose hug.
“Thanks, Dad.” Carefully calculating his next move so it’d seem unrehearsed, Zev turned toward the hallway, then looked back over his shoulder at his father. “And don’t worry; I’ll keep a close eye on Lori.”
Gregory’s eyes widened, and Zev knew his father hadn’t considered Lori’s attendance at the human school. Gregory wouldn’t intentionally treat his children inequitably, but Lori was a female and therefore he automatically considered her vulnerable. Plus, no elder thought females had a need to learn the more modern methods they taught at the city school because those teachings wouldn’t help a female run a den one day.
Zev stood still and let his father process the situation, hoping the desire to keep Lori with Zev would be enough to sway things in his direction.
Gregory grunted his acquiescence and picked his newspaper back up. Zev hurried down the hallway, closed his bedroom door, and collapsed onto his bed, a radiant smile on his face.
“Come on in, sis, I know you’re waiting in there.”
Lori opened the door of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom that connected their rooms.
“Well?”
“He said I could go.”
She sighed and glared at her brother. “Of course he said you could go, Zev. You can be incredibly persuasive, and if he’d said no, you’d have probably managed a jailbreak. But what about me? Can I go to the city school too?” Lori bit her lip and shifted from foot to foot, her anxiety apparent. So much so that Zev felt bad about teasing his sister.
“Yes, you’re coming too, Lori. Go call Toby and give him the good news.”
Lori squeaked and jumped on top of her brother, giving him a big hug. Then she ran through the bathroom into her bedroom. Zev figured she’d be talking with Toby for hours. He was Zev’s closest shifter friend, and it was only a matter of time before he became Lori’s boyfriend.
Zev wished he could call Jonah and tell him the good news, but his human didn’t have that kind of relationship with the other boy yet. They’d been playing sports in the same league for several years, and it hadn’t escaped Zev’s notice that he wasn’t the only one who made sure to arrive excessively early to every game his team had against Jonah’s. The two boys used that time to run around together, playing and laughing. Zev’s heart soared when it seemed that Jonah enjoyed the time he spent with Zev’s human as much as that he spent with Zev’s wolf. For reasons Zev wasn’t yet capable of understanding, he needed Jonah to like both parts of him.
Although Zev’s human couldn’t call Jonah on the phone, Zev could still share his joy about going to Jonah’s school. He’d just have to do it in wolf form. Zev opened his bedroom window and shifted so quickly his clothes dropped to the floor without ripping. It was a handy trick and one he’d never seen another shifter accomplish or allowed another shifter to witness. Then Zev jumped out his bedroom window and ran through the woods, hopeful that Jonah would be playing outside or looking out his window so Zev’s wolf could celebrate with his human.