Page 10 of Tentacles for Christmas
“Red,canyouhelpme with this?” The voice of Valeria Ironjaw called out, and I turned to find her blocked by multiple boxes and in danger of toppling over.
Rushing across the parking lot to where the moving truck was being unloaded, I took the top two boxes so she could see. Val was in her sixties, with a long grey braid down her back, and couldn’t be taller than five feet with shoes on. Unlike some in her tribe and family, she wasn’t a full shifter, so I didn’t know how she lifted three boxes in the first place.
“Why did you try to carry so many?” I asked with a curious smile.
“Let an old woman believe she’s still young,” she teased and led the way towards the small building by the park where we were setting up for the tree lighting. “Besides, I knew you were nearby.”
Before I could comment on Val’s brazenness, a couple of kids ran up to ask her for help. She was still helping children as a social worker. I was forever grateful for her realizing what I was and placing me with my dad.
Val had no clue I would end up shifting into an eight-tentacled octopus, but she could sense my otherness and thought I might be some type of water-shifter. Her tribe was struggling back then, before the casino came to build up the Rancheria, but she knew about the wolf shifters and trusted them to raise me right.
She was right, and I was happy to help her continue to support kids in our community.
Before long, more people from Blue Lake showed up to help. My dad had tried to help over the years, but with Fowler King back in town to take over the pack and the club, they were throwing themselves into community service more than ever.
Riley was wearing a new club jacket, and I couldn’t help smiling at his, “Property of: King Pack MC,” patch. King’s mom had one for his dad, but it wasn’t common in our club. Riley was a shifter himself, and part of the pack, so it made sense that his jacket didn’t sayProperty of Fowler. They were modern guys, not the kind to take their mating literally, but it signaled his protection in a way I knew Fowler needed.
Fowler greeted me with a handshake and thump on the back I returned. “How’s it going, Red?”
“Can’t complain,” I nodded and smiled at Riley and Valeria chatting by the big redwood where we were setting up ladders to hang lights. It was foggy and cold in the morning, but had cleared by the afternoon. “I hope it’s not rainy for the ride and lighting.”
“We’ll still ride if it is. Slowly, but we’d do that anyway,” Fowler pointed out.
The charity ride to the tree lighting had been started by Fowler’s grandparents in the eighties, as a way to show they were a community-focused club and not outlaws like the bear shifters acrossthe lake. Not that we didn’t break laws too, but we wanted to be seen positively.
“True, we’ll be loaded down with presents.”
The ride went from the south end of Blue Lake to the north, with people lined up to watch. We threw them candy and carried presents to give out after the tree was lit. Everyone donated food to fill the food bank as well. It was important to help people make it through winter, and to brighten the season for local children in foster care.
Considering my background, I had been helping since I was seven and still new to town.
Channing walked up with Merle beside her and they greeted me before helping with the boxes of lights and decorations. Merle’s chair had all-terrain tires and he cracked jokes about being the pack mule. He’d gone through years of depression after his wife passed and an accident confined him to the wheelchair, so it had been great to see his old self come back with the return of his grandson.
My friend Rel was on duty at the firehouse, but he showed up with the truck to impress the kids and Ricky came soon after with water and snacks from the bar. My dad arrived on his bike just in time to help with decorations, but someone behind him caught my eye.
When I’d stopped by the café in the morning, Cam had been their usual friendly self, and I’d been tongue-tied remembering how they had asked to take a ride on my bike a few days before. I was terrible at reading into what people meant when it came to sex and flirting, but I was almost certain they’d been insinuating a different kind of ride.
Cam was tempting in all kinds of ways, but I had no clue what to do with that information. And now they were walking towardsthe park in a green cable-knit sweater that set off their hazel eyes and bleach-blonde tips. I couldn’t think of Cam as anything but beautiful.
“Oh, look! Cam came,” Channing commented, suddenly at my elbow. She was a wolf shifter, and quiet on her feet, but I still should have known she was there before she spoke.
Cam was distracting as fuck. But I didn’t think I minded.
“Hi,” Cam greeted us with a wave before Channing pulled them into a hug. “Fancy seeing you here, Red.”
“It is?” I felt my face scrunch up in confusion, but then I remembered Cam was new to town and knew very little about me. “I help every year, since it helps foster children.”
“Ah.” Cam nodded and smiled politely. “A meaningful cause.”
Right. I hadn’t said the important part. “I was in foster care for a while. Clark Finley is my adoptive father.”
“Oh! That makes sense.”
“It does?” I felt like I was always asking Cam to clarify, but if it had them talking to me more, I was happy.
“Yeah. You have red hair and he has blue eyes. Seems unlikely, biologically, but I never met your mom, so…” Cam stopped talking and I got the sense they’d admitted too much.
“Thinking about my biology a lot?” I asked, hoping they caught the teasing tone in my voice. My friends got my dry humor, but not everyone did.