Finding Somewhere to Belong

by C. C. Masters

  “Did you see his face? Totally worth it.”

  I bounced up. The cold air in my wet coat was starting to bother me now that I was sitting still. The temperature was only in the lower 50s, but the water had soaked through my thick coat to my skin, and I was ready to be dry.

  Jason had tossed the rest of our clothes and shoes into a pile in the back seat of the Jeep, so I jumped in through the open door and made a nest in the pile of clothing. Mason grinned. “I guess Anna is ready to head out.” I just yawned in response.

  During the trip back, I took advantage of having access to the guys’ scents on their clothing. I inhaled deeply and picked out Mason and Jason’s individual scents. Under the human scent, I could pick out a muskiness that I now recognized as wolf.

  Their wolf scents were very faint and hidden under the stronger human scent, but I could now see how their human and wolf scents were related. I think now that I realized how they were connected, I could potentially recognize wolves in their human forms.

  Investigation done for the night, I settled into a nap. I was lulled to sleep by the warmth of the Jeep and the scents of my new pack members surrounding me.

  I was awakened by the sounds of the car doors opening. I stretched my back out before I leapt out of the door Mason held open for me.

  “Sorry, pretty girl, no wolves allowed in the house. Austin’s rules.”

  I gave a wolf pout. I had made a mess by lying on the clothing with my muddy and damp fur, and I did not want to have to put those clothes back on.

  The front door opened, and Cody stepped out. My ears and tail perked up. “Sorry, dudes, James told me not to let you back into the house until you were relatively clean. I saw the pics.” He smirked and then caught sight of me with a smile.

  “Hey, is that Anna?” I ran up the front stairs to greet him with a wolf grin.

  He crouched down to let me smell his hand. This time, I could easily recognize the musky scent that identified him as a fellow wolf under his human scent. He ran his hand down my back and grimaced a little, as my coat was still damp and slightly muddy.

  He straightened back up. “I’ll take Anna inside –”

  “No way!” Jason interrupted.

  “Yeah, we are not going to let you turn her into a spoiled brat,” Mason added. “She gets the hose just like the rest of us.”

  Cody gazed down at me. “Well, I’m not really spoiling her. It’s only her first day -”

  “Nope,” Mason interrupted again.

  “Get down here and stop trying to disrupt our pack with your cuteness!” Jason teased me.

  I flicked my tail at him but bounded back down the stairs toward them.

  “You should grab her stuff out of the Jeep, Cody,” Mason added as an afterthought in Cody’s direction.

  Cody sighed and grabbed the keys that were tossed at him.

  I nervously ran circles around the twins as they headed down the stone path that lead around to the back of the ridiculous mansion. We weren’t really going to be hosed down with freezing cold water, right?

  They led the way up to a fenced in area that included an Olympic-sized pool and looked like it belonged at a 5-star resort. The pool was surrounded by cushioned chairs, cabanas, and there was even an outdoor bar attached to the pool house in the back. Behind the bar and under the alcove there was a giant outdoor TV. I didn’t know that was even a thing.

  Mason walked over to an outdoor shower. “This is pretty cold water, it’s not bad in the summer, but -”

  “Fuck that,” Jason said and launched himself into the pool.

  “Austin and Cody are going to be pissed if they find swamp muck at the bottom of that pool!” Mason shouted at him.

  “Now that I’m already in, we are going to be in trouble anyway. The water in here is nice and warm, it’s heated to a delightful 70 degrees.” He floated in the pool on his back, the caked mud slowly streaming off him and floating in a dark cloud around him.

  Mason shrugged and looked at me. “They installed the outdoor shower so we wouldn’t get the pool dirty, but he’s right, we are going to be in trouble now anyway. Might as well make it worth it.” He grinned and launched himself into the pool, trying to splash Jason with his cannonball.

  I trotted over to the edge. I couldn’t tell how deep it was, but it was definitely too deep for my shorter wolf legs to reach the bottom. I decided to jump in and change back to human once my body was mostly submerged.

  Jason saw that I was back to human once I came up for air. “Well, since Anna is naked…” He pulled off his pants and chucked them back onto land.

  Mason punched him. “You’re embarrassing her. Don’t talk about being naked.”

  Jason punched him back. “She needs to learn how to be a wolf. Wolves are naked a lot.”

  I ignored them. I had spent enough time with them to realize play fighting was just something they did.

  They got into a splashing match, and I dunked my head under the water, scrubbing out what was left of the mud. I felt bad getting the pool muddy, but the amount of dirt on me was minuscule compared to what was coming off the twins.

  Their splashing fight had escalated to a wrestling match. I decided to take advantage of their distraction and see if I could make it out of the pool without them seeing me naked. The splashing noises had stopped when I made it over to one of the cabanas and hurriedly wrapped a towel around myself.

  I shot a glance back over my shoulder to see both of them carefully not looking at me.

  “Are you getting out already?” Jason asked disappointedly.

  “I think I need a shower more than a dip in the pool,” I replied. “I did get almost all of the mud off, but I’m a little sticky now from the salt water.”

  Mason nodded and dipped his head under the water, scrubbing his hands through his hair. Jason was splashing around and wiping mud off himself, too.

  They both headed for the side of the pool to climb out after a couple minutes, and I averted my gaze. Mason’s pants were lying on the side of the pool near Jason’s, so he had stripped down at some point as well.

  They got out and wiped themselves down with towels. I avoided looked at them as I took a second towel and wrapped my dripping hair.

  Once we were all dry enough that we wouldn’t drip water through the house, we headed toward the back patio area. This also looked like a resort area with a couple of tables placed on top of the stone patio. The giant area had a sun room off to the left, but we headed through the glass doors that led into a sitting area inside.

  The boys headed through the house and to a stairway that looked like it belonged on the Titanic. The floor was cold under my bare feet, and I looked at the floor; was that marble?

  “Cody!” Jason shouted as we went up the stairs.

  There was no answer. “We need to know where he put your stuff,” Mason added.

  Jason was impatient. “Just look in the guest rooms as we pass by for her luggage.” They opened a couple of doors as they headed down the hall.

  “That’s weird. I know Cody would have brought it upstairs.”

  Jason shrugged. “Guess that means she’s going to have to shower with us.” They both grinned, and I turned bright red.

  “We each have our own room here, but we have to share a bathroom,” Mason explained. I nodded. “We can let you use one of the guest showers, but we don’t have any extra girl clothes.”

  “I guess you will just have to wear mine,” Jason added.

  “She’s not wearing your clothes. When is the last time you did laundry?”

  “My stuff is cleaner than yours.”

  I just rolled my eyes as I listened to them argue.

  “Where’s the shower I can use?” I interrupted, knowing this could go on for a while.

  Mason headed back down the hallway and opened the door to one of the rooms we had looked in for my luggage. “This room has its own bathroom and is empty right now.”

  I nodded. “Just how many rooms does this house h
ave?”

  Jason shouted down the hallway, “A lot!” and went into one of the rooms, closing the door behind him.

  Mason shrugged. “I think, like, twelve. Only six of us live here full-time, but we always have pack members staying here for pack events or guard duty.”

  I thought back to the two wolves who had chased me through the woods. They would have been pack members on guard duty. I was sure that I had not officially met them yet, now that I had the scents of James, Cody, and the twins.

  Mason gestured into the room, and I walked in. “I’ll leave some clothes on the bed for you.”

  He closed the door behind him, and I heard his footsteps head down the hallway.

  I headed toward the bathroom attached to the bedroom I was standing in. The bedroom was large but only had a bed taking up one corner of the room.

  I entered the bathroom, and it seemed normal but nice. There was a shower with a glass enclosure and a garden tub. I really needed a nice hot shower with good water pressure, so I fiddled with the knobs until I had the temperature just right and slid under the cascade of water. This was nice.

  There were a couple of bottles of shampoo and conditioner for me to choose from. To my surprise, there was a flowery-smelling body wash for me to use. I thought this pack didn’t have females? Maybe they had human girlfriends?

  I took my time showering and washed my hair several times until I was completely free of the marsh smell. When I stepped out of the shower, the bathroom was full of steam, so I flicked on the fan. I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped out into the bedroom. There was a pile of clothes on the bed.

  There were hoodies, sweatpants, T-shirts, socks. Some smelled like Mason, and some like Jason. So, they were going to let me choose whose clothes to wear?

  I picked out a T-shirt and sweatpants to wear from Mason and socks and a hoodie from Jason. Now that I was warm and comfy, I headed back into the bathroom to see what I could do about my hair. I looked in the still foggy mirror. My hair was a tangled mess.

  I looked through all the drawers in the vanity until I found a small plastic comb and a little trial sized bottle of leave-in conditioner. This would have to do.

  I heard pounding on the door. “Anna! Are you still naked?” That would be Jason. I was finished doing what I could with my hair, so I just left it down to dry in waves and headed to the door to meet Jason.

  When I opened the door, he was leaning there, waiting. “We are going to have movie night! Mason’s getting the screening room ready. It’s our job to get the snacks.”

  Of course this gigantic house has a screening room. I would not be surprised if they invited me to the bowling alley in the basement next.

  I followed him to the kitchen, where he started to raid the pantry. “We are going to have popcorn - do you want cheesy or butter?” he asked me.

  “Both, obviously,” I answered.

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you.” He winked at me.

  “What is taking so long?” Mason interrupted as he walked in the kitchen.

  “I had to wait for Anna to make herself pretty,” Jason answered.

  I gave him a dirty look. “I know you were the one who wanted to look pretty for Anna,” Mason told him. “Don’t even try to put it on her.”

  I laughed and walked over to the microwave to start making the popcorn that Jason passed over to me from the pantry.

  Jason grabbed drinks out of the fridge and grabbed three pints of ice cream out of the freezer. “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” I told him.

  Mason grinned at me. “I’m pretty sure you like me just as much, because I can smell my scent on you.”

  I blushed. I was wearing some of each of their clothes; was that more significant to wolves than to humans? I decided it would be better not to ask right now.

  Jason started scribbling on a white board that was attached to the front of the fridge. I looked closer to see what he was writing.

  Sorry about the mess in the pool. We will clean it ASAP in the am.

  -J&M

  Mason read over his shoulder and then took the marker from him and added “&A” to their initials.

  “You’re going to get her in trouble,” Jason scolded him.

  Mason just grinned. “She’s one of us now.” I had a warm feeling fill me. I had never been accepted into a group like this before.

  Chapter 10

  Our arms full of snacks, we headed down stairs to the screening room. It was a huge room with two rows of movie theater seats in the back, a couple steps down there were couches, and then the “pit” of the room was lined with cushions and full of different shapes and sizes of pillows. This was where we plopped down with our treasure trove of snacks.

  I was really glad I had the metabolism of a wolf. Under normal circumstances I would have already eaten too much food for today, but the stress had me burning calories at a higher rate.

  “We are on the Avengers theme this week. That OK with you?” Mason asked me.

  “Yup.” I loved Thor and Ironman, so no complaints here.

  “We just saw Captain America and Agent Carter, so today is Ironman,” Jason informed me.

  I settled back and made myself a comfortable nest among the pillows as the beginning credits started to roll. It was quite late at night, so I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to stay awake; I was nice and warm after my hot shower and quite comfortable in my nest of pillows.

  We were towards the end of the movie, and the latest popcorn fight between Jason and Mason was on the way to progressing to another wrestling match when Cody came in.

  “Dude, what did you do with her stuff?” Jason asked as both guys disengaged from each other.

  “It’s in my room,” Cody answered. “I didn’t know where she was staying.”

  “Not in your room,” Mason stated adamantly. I looked over at him in surprise.

  Cody rolled his eyes. “I know that.” He turned to me. “What room are you staying in?”

  I shrugged. “Austin didn’t really say…” I trailed off in embarrassment.

  “I’ll put her into the room between Austin and I,” Cody decided. He stood up. “C’mon, I’ll get you settled.”

  The twins protested him interrupting movie night, but I said I was tired anyway, so I headed up with Cody.

  We walked upstairs, and I played awkwardly with the sleeves of my borrowed hoodie, trying to think of a way to start a conversation. “So, where is James going on a trip to?”

  Cody glanced at me in surprise. “He had a lead to check out.”

  “On an investigation?”

  He frowned and ran his hand through his hair. “Something like that.”

  I wondered if he was working on the case with Evelyn. I missed her. There was so much that I wanted to tell her; I wished she was here now.

  Cody must have sensed the sadness that settled over me, because he smiled reassuringly at me. “I’m glad you’re here,” he murmured to me and reached out to squeeze my hand.

  I gave him a smile in return. These guys were pretty awesome.

  He led me to one of the bedrooms and gave a dramatic bow as he opened the door. I laughed and walked in ahead of him.

  This bedroom was even larger than the first one, but there was still only a bed in the corner of the room, no other furnishings. I thought it was odd for such a fancy house to be so sparse, but I didn’t mind. All I needed was a bed. I had just moved into my house a few months ago, so it was lacking in furniture as well.

  Cody took a step into the room behind me, then stopped. “I’ll go get your stuff.”

  I followed him back out. “I’ll help. I had a bunch of stuff.” I was a little nervous to be left alone in a new place, and I left the door open on my way out of the room.

  He led the way back to his room and handed me my backpack and purse, then picked up my other two pieces of luggage for himself.

  I led the way back to my room, and Cody followed. He set down my luggage, and there was an awk
ward silence. He ran his hand through his hair. “My room is right next door if you need anything.”

  I tried to think of something to say to keep him here for a little longer. “Thanks,” was the only thing I came up with.

  He nodded and closed the door behind him as he left. I stood in place for a moment and gazed at my pile of luggage. Loneliness overcame me, and I tried my best to push it away. It was already very late at night, and I was tired. I thought about unpacking and finding some PJs, but I liked wearing my borrowed clothes.

  I jumped on the bed and snuggled down under the covers. The scents lingering on Mason and Jason’s clothing were comforting and helped lull me to sleep.

  Chapter 11

  I woke up to sunshine hitting my eyes. The sun shone through the window and onto the bed where I had been sleeping. I stood up and walked over to the window, squinting as I gazed out the window. I could see the sparkling water of the pool down beneath, but there were some dark shadows on the bottom of the pool. I winced; that would be the mud from last night.

  I decided to get ready for the day with pool cleaning on my mind. I brought my bag filled with toiletries into the bathroom and dug through it to find the items I needed. I decided not to unpack and leave my stuff everywhere, because I wasn’t sure if I was really supposed to be staying in this room.

  After a shower and an attempt to make myself look presentable, I started digging through my luggage to find appropriate clothing. I decided yoga pants, sneakers and a T-shirt with a zip up hoodie to layer over it would work for any cleaning I had to do today. I left my borrowed clothes folded on the bed; I could return those later. Before I left the room, I repacked my bags just in case I was going to be kicked out of the room.

  I was ready to leave the room and go in search of breakfast but nervous at who I might run into. Four out of the five of the guys I had met so far have been welcoming, but how would the other 50 or so pack members feel?

  I squared my shoulders back. I wasn’t going to hide in this room because I was afraid of people not liking me. I opened my door and stepped into the hall. I didn’t see or hear anyone as I walked down the hallway and then down the stairs. I headed toward the kitchen so I could investigate what they might have for breakfast.