Page 20 of The Alpha and the Baker

Castiel

Out of the Mouths of Babes and Wolves

I should have asked her out.

That was what I told myself as I walked into my cabin after we’d packed away the groceries in the communal storage area where people could go and grab at their leisure. I had a bag of greens myself, but I left them on my kitchen counter so I could flop down on the couch and turn on my TV.

I wasn’t the biggest television watcher, but I enjoyed certain YouTubers. Some mythology buffs, some deep-divers who did iceberg videos on fantasy shows, some survivalists, some homesteaders, some animal channels, and slime reviewers.

That last one had thrown me for a loop. I had zero desire to actually touch the stuff, but for some reason watching it when I was particularly agitated or anxious always helped me settle and feel a bit more in my body.

Chris said it was something called ASMR, but I didn’t want to look into the reasoning behind it lest I ruin the magic.

Insomnia was a fairly common issue for shifters given the constant fight between our human natures of being diurnal and our wolf selves being crepuscular, and I didn’t want to sabotage a reliable way to settle down.

“Can I survive three nights alone out in the Alaskan wilderness?”

I listened with half an ear to the video I’d picked to play, but my mind was most certainly on other things. Namely, the strange and perhaps even exciting bundle of emotions building in my chest.

I was attracted to Felicia—there was no denying that. Besides, I was a red-blooded man. Even though I was insanely busy as an alpha, I still noticed when a beautiful woman entered my orbit. I never had any desire to do something about it, but I noticed it.

But with Felicia, I wanted to do something about it, which was pretty wild to me.

The last—and only—serious relationship I’d had was with my high school sweetheart, Layla.

Chris, Bethany, Layla, and I had grown up together and formed our own little friend group, so it had been natural that we ended up together.

In all honesty, the whole thing was so easy.

Or it was, until high school ended and we had to make it work while she went off to college and I began to fully step into my alpha duties.

Before, we could ignore that country life had never really been for her and that she’d always had greater dreams. It had been hard to let her go, but our breakup in her sophomore year was amicable.

Well, as amicable as a broken heart could be.

There was no bad blood between us, and I’d even attended her wedding to a very beautiful witch who was a part of the Velka coven in NYC.

The two of them lived in the city, which struck me as particularly uncomfortable for a wolf, but she seemed happy enough, and that was what was important.

“By putting the hot coals under this raised frame, it can keep me warm all night.”

It wasn’t like I’d been celibate since her.

Back in my twenties, I’d had a short relationship with another wolf shifter who moved to our area.

Mara was a strong, independent wolf I’d really admired.

Again, no messy breakup there. Neither of us had had the time to get serious, and she’d ended up moving to Scotland to claim some ancestral land and married into a huge wolf pack there.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, it seemed.

And I’d always been okay with that. Unlike some alphas, I never felt like I needed a mate to properly lead my pack.

It wasn’t like our numbers were hurting.

Some packs were dwindling so much because of various modern reasons that there was pressure to procreate, and I was beyond happy that we weren’t in the same boat.

No, our biggest worry was not pissing off the fairies any more than Barris had.

Still, even if I didn’t have the overwhelming pressure to breed, as I got older, the idea of not coming home to an empty den was kind of appealing.

My mind was getting too full again, so I stopped the survival video and hunted for a slime one. Maybe a nice nap was in order.

“Can you take me on a run?”

I paused mid-chew and looked at Arietty. She’d stopped eating long enough to ask me a question. Just as we’d thought, her appetite followed her mother’s example, and she’d been eating pretty much non-stop since she woke up. It would taper off naturally once her body got used to the changes.

“You sure you’re up for taking your wolf form again?” I asked after I swallowed. “You only just got out of it after sunset yesterday, right?”

“I think I’ll be ready by tonight,” Arietty said resolutely. “Could some of the other new shifters come too? None of us can keep up with adults who go day-running, and our parents won’t let us go out on our own at night.”

And for good reason. While all the kids in our pack were solidly Good Kids?, being newly transformed really inhibited their logical side.

It wasn’t unusual for their wolf to take over.

Granted, Arietty had been perfectly well-behaved during the reunion—she’d even cuddled with Felicia a bit—but that was when she had full supervision.

I hadn’t planned on spending my night with a bunch of preteens, but I wanted to be an alpha they knew they could come to, and I didn’t really have a reason to say no. So, I didn’t. Instead, I looked at her parents.

“Is that all right with you?”

Chris nodded. “Sure. We’ve taken her out of school for the week, so there’s no curfew.”

“All right then.”

Arietty was trying real hard not to wiggle in her seat.

“You and everyone else who wants to come can meet me out in the recreation field at sundown. We’ll make a night of it.”

“Yay! Thanks, Uncle Cas.”

“You’re welcome,” I said before putting on my serious voice. “But you’ve got to eat another serving of vegetables.”

“Ain’t no problem on my account,” she said before happily ladling a giant spoonful of roasted broccoli and cauliflower on her plate. “Bottoms up!”

I was sure Arietty might have tried to hurry us through dinner if she wasn’t so damn hungry, but as it were, she was still eating when I dismissed myself.

I wanted to go home and change into something more comfortable.

Sure, I’d be in my wolf form for most of my run, but my human side was always wearing the clothes I was last in.

It was a weird shifter thing, but it was what it was.

Once I was dressed, I puttered around a bit until the sun began to set, and then I sprayed on some natural insect repellent before heading out the door.

I wouldn’t need it when I was a wolf, but it would make the time I needed to spend as a red-blooded human a whole lot more comfortable.

We healed from insect bites quite quickly, but they also were insanely itchy.

Something about our rapid metabolisms processing the venom super quickly exaggerated its irritating factor.

“Hey everyone,” I said as I jogged up to the four kids already waiting for me.

I still remembered the excitement of my first runs after I got my wolf form.

“Everyone ate, hydrated?” They all nodded, and I figured none of them were lying to me because I’d probably be able to hear their stomachs growling.

“All right, let’s give anybody else who wants to come along another ten or so minutes to show up. In the meantime, let’s stretch.”

“Is that necessary?” a girl I recognized as Aoife asked. Not in a challenging way, but curious. I was never one to discourage questions, however, so I happily answered.

“It’s not mandatory, no, especially once you get more used to your wolf form. But it does help a whole lot, especially for y’all newbies.”

More serious nods all around. A deep, rich fondness welled up in me.

So much of shifter history was filled with pain, war, uncertainty, and violence.

While things weren’t perfect now by a long shot, they were much improved, and I was hopeful that the young ones in front of me would be the first generation without any sort of pack war.

They were good kids, and they definitely deserved peace.

So, I would do my best as an alpha to make sure that happened.

When all was said and done, there were seven youngsters in total, including Arietty. They were practically vibrating with excitement by the time it was dark enough for us to head out.

I hoped I didn’t disappoint.

“Follow my lead now. We’re going to do a nice, easy jog. No sprinting, no hunting. This is about getting to know all the new things your body can do. Try to communicate in shifter-speak if you can, but if not, there’s nothing wrong with using your wolf’s vocal cords either. Ready?”

“Ready!”

“All right then, let’s go for a run.”

It was hard not to be excited when their enthusiasm was so infectious.

I reminded myself to shift slowly to give them a demonstration on how smoothly the process could go when one was attuned to their own inner wolf.

It was a dialogue of sorts, perhaps even a dance, and once they learned to treat it like a mutual exchange, their transformations would be far less painful.

It took a couple of minutes, with one or two of them losing the shift and having to try again, but a gentle nudge from my cold nose and a few rumbles helped them find their center and give it another go.

Soon enough, we were all wolves, and we lifted our heads to howl at the waxing gibbous moon above our heads.

We were pack.

So many feelings flooded me at the cute, young howls—all high-pitched and a little breathy.

It was so goddamn adorable , but at the same time, gratifying.

No matter how bad things got, no matter how stressed I was about my duties as an alpha, there was always the hope and joy that came from watching all my nieces, nephews, and very young cousins grow into the fully-fledged, well-adjusted shifters they were meant to be.

“ Let’s run!” I projected to them with shifter-speak.