Page 6 of Leave Me (Shift MC #1)

Chapter five

Fowler

D inner with my gramps and sister could have been awkward, despite the familiarity of sitting with them at the smaller wooden table tucked into the kitchen.

I thought they’d want to talk about Dad and the funeral arrangements, but Channing kept a running commentary on all the people in town and the upcoming reunion as if we weren’t burying our father in the morning.

She told me the casserole I was enjoying was one of many dropped off by neighbors, while the two of them had tea, but soon enough, I heard the rumble of multiple bikes approaching.

“That’ll be the boys,” Gramps commented, his hearing as strong as mine. “I’ll say goodnight and have fun.”

“Night, Gramps.” Leaning over, I gave him a one-armed hug before he wheeled himself around the corner to the first-floor bedroom. When I tried to wash my plate, Channing saw through my stalling tactic.

“Shoo, go catch up,” Channing gestured with her elbow, since her hands were wet and soapy. “You can help with the dishes after we have a houseful tomorrow.”

“I see. You want the easy task, so I have to do the harder task.”

Channing threw her head back with an exaggerated villain laugh. “Muah-ha-ha. You saw through my devious plan.”

Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t hold back my grin at her silliness. “I missed the hell out of you.”

“Shut up,” my sister turned back to washing, and I heard a distinct sniffle.

Sensing three shifters approaching after their engines cut off, I left my sister and walked to the front door. Before they could knock, I opened the door to find my friends racing up the steps to greet me. Enrique Bravo reached me first and wrapped me in a bear hug.

“First,” Ricky called out, bragging that he got to me first. His tanned arms and bleached hair shone in the porch light. Ricky was a beta wolf, but he was also an MMA fighter, so he had serious muscles. His woodsy scent was light, but familiar, mixed with the sweat of working in the sun.

His best friend, Aurelius Kazen, who only ever went by Rel, grinned over Ricky’s shoulder and wrapped his arms around both of us. “First idiot.”

My friends started roughhousing and let me go.

Rel was bigger than I remembered, his dark arms toned from working as a firefighter.

Even as an omega wolf, he’d always been bigger than me as kids, but I had filled out more and finally matched him in size.

I let them tussle and looked out to find the last of our pack I expected to show.

Leaning on his bike, Rowen “Red” Finley gave me a soft smile and nod in hello.

Red wasn’t a wolf shifter like the rest of us, and was a year behind us in school, but he was adopted by my dad’s second.

Uncle Clark raised Red, nicknamed for his hair color, as his own.

As an octopus shifter, he often kept to himself, but I was glad to see him.

“That your work?” Red called out, tilting his head toward my bike.

“Yeah,” I replied, making my way down to the parking area while Ricky and Rel followed behind me. “Took me months, but she’s all mine.”

“Nice,” Ricky commented, walking to the saddlebags of a Victory Highball.

It was a bold, stripped-down cruiser, with a cobra pipe for a deep, aggressive sound, matte black with cream details.

It suited him. He pulled a six-pack of cheap beer from the black leather saddlebag. “I came with libations.”

Rel muscled past him to a black and silver Triumph Bonneville, unsnapping his own saddlebag to reveal a handle of whiskey and four plastic cups. “And I brought the good stuff.”

“Guess we’d better start the fire.” I grinned, leading them up the path opposite my house.

We made our way along the well-worn path, and I was glad to find the pit was clear and even had chairs waiting. Rel served us all healthy pours while Red and I got the fire started with Ricky’s lighter.

“You still smoke?” I asked, eyeing his toned body. My friends liked weed and cigars in high school.

“Nah, can’t smoke and win fights.” Ricky shrugged and sank into a blue Adirondack chair to watch Red poke at the fire. “Edibles occasionally, though.”

We all nodded, because we were in California, and I was glad to see they hadn’t changed completely.

“Let’s make a toast,” Rel interjected, holding his cup aloft. “To King’s return!”

“To King’s return!” Ricky and Red echoed. I blinked before following them in taking a gulp of the whiskey. The liquid burned a trail down my throat, and I held back a cough.

“Damn, Rel, this is the good stuff?” Red eyed our friend, who only grinned wider.

“It’s the strong stuff,” Rel chuckled.

“This is why I brought beer.” Ricky hopped up and handed us all the beer as a chaser. “I tend bar at The Barn, and I know what Rel considers top shelf. ”

“I thought you did MMA?” I asked, swallowing down the beer before taking a seat. The fire was going strong, and I wanted to be sitting in case the guys started asking hard questions.

“Aw, you follow me, don’t you?” Ricky teased, sitting again and fluttering his eyelashes. “I follow your shop, Wolf Seal. You do good work.”

“Thanks,” I nodded, braving the whiskey again. It felt like we were moving on to the anxiety portion of catching up.

“And damn, man,” Ricky leaned over to squeeze my upper arm, where my half-sleeve tattoos showed below the sleeve of my white T-shirt. “You bulked up.”

“Keep talking like that, and I’ll think you’re flirting with me,” I warned, sipping my beer.

It wasn’t a challenge, not really, but I needed to know where the guys stood. Gym-bros had a thing where they complimented each other in a platonic way, but I was a queer man. I dated guys in high school, people of all genders in the city, but my old friends had barely left this small town.

“If you weren’t like a brother to me, I might,” Ricky chuckled and sat back, wiggling his eyebrows.

“That so?” I asked, a little in shock at his easy acceptance. Was Ricky saying …

“He’s bi and I’m fluid,” Rel interjected, pulling my attention. I didn’t know if he meant fluid sexuality, gender, or both, but I didn’t feel I had the right to pry. “It’s not like when we were kids, King. I use he or they pronouns at the fire station, and no one bats an eye.”

Taking in his words, I drained the whiskey and held my cup out for him to refill. Red hadn’t said anything, so I looked at him. “You a modern shifter as well?”

“Sure,” Red nodded, and I noticed he hadn’t touched his whiskey after the toast. “I’m pan, I guess.”

“You guess?” I couldn’t help asking. Red’s dad was family to me, and I always looked up to Uncle Clark, so I hoped he’d raised his son right.

“Yeah.” Red shrugged. “Hard to know when I’m more demi, maybe ace.”

Damn. I ran away because my dad said I wouldn’t be allowed in the pack, and the years of teasing in school told me I wasn’t going to be happy on Blue Lake.

I’d left for the opportunity to be myself and find those who would accept me.

Here my friends were, telling me they not only got it, they were part of the rainbow too.

“We should shift,” Ricky interrupted, breaking through the tension. He downed his second beer and stood to take his shirt off. “Shifting with an Alpha is more fun.”

He wasn’t wrong. I remembered the difference from when I was a pup. The sense of wholeness that came when the pack Alpha led us on a run. Except I wasn’t Pack Alpha. And I hadn’t shifted since I was a teenager.

“Sounds like a plan.” Rel twisted the cap back on the bottle, and I noticed there was less than half left. “It’s been ages, though Uncle Clark came on a run a few months ago.”

To Ricky and Rel, a matter of months was a long time between shifts.

“Have fun.” Red tipped his bottle in their direction. As far as I knew, his octopus only shifted in water. As a more reserved guy, he had admitted he didn’t want to be able to shift and run with us.

Still, I had my excuse.

“I’m going to stay back with Red,” I said, noting how our friends were almost naked beside the fire.

“Seriously?” Ricky whined, pouting in a mirror image of Rel’s full lower lip. They were older, but mentally, they were still pups.

How could I tell them I had only shifted my arms and legs in the past ten years since starting my transition? I didn’t want to go into the fear that came with the idea of shifting after a decade of changing my body to be what I imagined. So I didn’t.

“Yeah, you go on ahead. I don’t want to be worn out tomorrow.”

Rel shook his head but dropped his briefs onto the chair with his other clothes, and I watched as his body rippled before he fell forward onto four legs, his rich, umber skin shifting to thick black fur in a moment. His eyes glowed yellow, and he trotted over to lick my hand.

Behind him, Ricky shifted to a silvery gray wolf to match his dyed hair. He was a little bigger than Rel, taller in the shoulders, but he also approached me, his amber eyes glowing before his head dipped to show I was above him in rank.

While I felt I didn’t deserve their submission or their willingness to accept me with open arms, my friends didn’t hide anything in their wolf forms. The least I could do was wait for them.

“Have a good run. I’ll be here when you get back,” I promised. They yipped and ran off into the woods while Red and I settled into a companionable silence.

When I heard them howling, their joy and freedom apparent, I opened Rel’s bottle and finished it off.