Then our little girl came trotting out of our own cottage, a house that appeared to have grown an extra room while we'd been gone—a bedroom for the wolfing in question perhaps? But I had eyes only for Ember, who I'd expected to have shot up at least a few inches during our absence. After all, if five months as a wolf had matured the youngster to approximately nine human years of age, surely another four weeks would have made her equivalent to a human middle-schooler.
But, instead, our daughter looked much the same as when I'd seen her last.
Well, my wolf added with a pointed glance at our beaming stepmother, Ember is definitely a little bit cleaner.
"I decided I didn't want to grow up any more until you came home," our daughter proclaimed loudly as she flung herself into my open arms. Then she leapt with monkey-like agility a foot to the side to end up latched onto my mate's torso as she continued her tactile greeting.
"So I stayed human the whole entire time," she continued without missing a beat. "Well, except for a time or two when I was just so bored to have to walk that slow."
Wolfie's pet limpet finally sucked in a single breath to fuel her continued explanation. "So I figure that means I've spent six hundred and ninety hours as a wolf...which should mean I don't have to be a girl for at least two years now. Right, Daddy?"
"Good try, Butterfly," Wolfie growled, pretending to bite her little snub nose. The girl giggled and nestled deeper into his shirt. "One hour a day is still the rule. But I do appreciate you choosing to share your childhood with us."
"We heard from Fen," Cricket spoke up, beginning to run through the news we'd missed due to cutting off all connection with the outside world. "She and her pack are fine, although that Tribunal member is still sniffing around." At another growl from my mate, this time a more serious one, the clan's unsung matriarch added, "Fen says she can handle him, though. And I believe it."
Beyond our little huddle of immediate family, the rest of our welcoming party was slowly beginning to drift back to their daily lives, giving us space to speak in privacy. Galena offered a quick wave and a smile that promised catch-up gossip in the near future before she stuck one dirty hand back into the crook of her mate's elbow and headed toward Haven's voluminous garden to continue her usual daily chores. Behind them, Lantana tumbled across the lawn, seemingly no worse for wear after her close call a month earlier. And the Barn rat contingent—smaller numerically now, but no less rowdy—was building a shifter pyramid with the express purpose of gazing into the bedroom window of the prettiest young pack princess who had refused to join them in their bachelor quarters.
Looking out across Haven's rapidly clearing green, I felt a twinge as I noticed how different our pack was from the one Wolfie and I had shared only two months earlier. And that had been a different assemblage yet from the found family Wolfie had opened to me when I'd first returned to shifter-kind after a decade spent in the human world.
In the interim, our clan had grown and then shrunk, changing day by day as each werewolf found his or her own path through the world...or perished in an attempt to let others live in peace. One day soon, I knew, our pack would grow and shrink and change again.
But I had my wolf and my mate and my family around me now. So I knew I'd not only survive that uncertain future. I—and every werewolf I cared about—would thrive here in Haven. Together.
From the author
I hope you enjoyed Alpha Ascendant! If so, I'd be eternally grateful if you'd consider writing a review (even of just a sentence or two) on Amazon or Goodreads. Your kind words help strangers decide to take a chance on a new author, and they urge me to hurry up and finish Fen's first novel, due to launch in early 2016.
For a sneak preview of my newest spunky heroine, you can also check out Fen's short story in the FREE anthology Beyond Secret Worlds. Then, if you sign up for my email list at http://forms.aweber.com/form/35/528967935.htm, you'll be the first to hear about new releases (and will be able to download a FREE copy of the story Bloodling Wolf immediately).
Bloodling Wolf is a short story about Wolfie's childhood that can be read as a standalone but that is also the first installment in a five-part serial. The next episode is In Deep Shift, or you can save a couple of bucks when you buy the bundle.
Meanwhile, if you love shifters, you won't want to miss Jaguar at the Portal. Ixchel is a veterinarian running from her past and Finn is a were-jaguar hunting for his future. It sounds like a classic case of boy-meets-girl, boy-holds-girl-up-at-knife-point, boy-and-girl-fall-in-love, but a honeymoon-like jaunt through the ruins of pre-Columbian Mexico turns into an action-packed chase through moonlit forests and across crumbling pyramids.
Before I go, I wanted to take one more moment to thank you much for reading and for spreading the word. Kind readers like you are the reason I keep on writing, so I hope you know that you've earned my eternal gratitude. Thank you so much!
Alpha Ascendant: A Fantastical Werewolf Adventure (Wolf Rampant Book 3) Page 17