Finding Somewhere to Belong

by C. C. Masters

  I tried not to laugh. Where were they going with this?

  Mason grinned and rubbed the top of my head, messing up my hair. “Paintball actually isn’t just a fun game -”

  “Although it is fun,” Jason interrupted.

  Mason ignored him and continued. “It lets you use all of your wolf senses and indulges your urge to hunt.” I started to see where he was going with this.

  “The adrenaline from the hunt should bring some of those senses to the surface for you,” Jason explained helpfully.

  “But you will be having fun, so you shouldn’t feel the urge to automatically suppress those instincts. You might even use them without realizing it,” Mason added.

  I nodded. This was making sense.

  “We just need to clear it with Austin. The best place to go for this is about a thirty-minute drive from here. But he told us not to take you out of a two-mile radius from our property.”

  I frowned in disappointment. “Does that mean we can’t go on another run?” The run we had yesterday was a lot of fun. “I think it was really helpful for my wolf – I mean…” I decided to just start over. “I think it was really helpful for me to interact in my wolf form with other wolves and people.”

  Both guys grinned at me with approval. “We are definitely making progress here,” Mason told me. “It would be a shame to slow that down. Austin did tell us to teach you about wolves…”

  “Technically, he told us a five-mile radius from the property, not the house,” Jason said impishly.

  “And our property extends for miles…we are on the very edge of Seaside. Not many people head this way and out into the wilderness.” Mason grinned roguishly.

  They were both grinning, and I think we had just talked ourselves into getting in more trouble. That didn’t stop me from grinning right along with them.

  Jason jumped up. “We have to finish our tasks for today before we can have fun.”

  Mason stood and pulled me to my feet. “Let’s go get your iPad so you can make food magically appear again.”

  Jason stretched out. “Last one to Anna’s room has to clean up after lunch!”

  Mason and I looked at each other, and all three of us exploded into motion. They might have been larger than me, but I was quick. I used it to my advantage; every time they were shoving at each other, I used the distraction to slip under their arms or around them. I also wasn’t above tripping anyone.

  We were all laughing as we pushed and shoved our way up the stairs at top speed. Jason was the first to make it to my door. When he paused to turn the handle, I used my momentum to push him to the side and fall into my room first.

  The twins pushed through the door at the same time. I was laughing too hard to even stand, so I just rolled around on the floor, watching them argue.

  “I said first one to the room, not in it. I was the first one here,” Jason insisted.

  “Nope. Anna made it in first; you lost.”

  They were pushing each other back and forth until Jason tripped over the luggage that I had packed up and left near the doorway this morning. Mason and I laughed at the surprised look on his face as he fell.

  He rolled over on the floor to where I was. “You think that’s funny?” he asked. “I’ll show you funny.” He started to tickle my ribs, and I tried to wiggle away while laughing hysterically. I had never been tickled before.

  I screamed with laughter and begged him to stop. Mason decided to get in on it and pulled off my sneakers before tickling my feet. We were all laughing hysterically and rolling around on the floor when Caleb walked in.

  “What the fuck? I could hear her screaming all the way down the hall. I thought you were murdering her!” He tried to keep a serious look on his face, but I could see a grin forming on his face and a sparkle in his eye.

  Austin and Cody pushed past Caleb and into the room next. The twins and I froze. Now we were in trouble.

  Austin and Cody were both impeccably dressed in tailored suits and looked amazing. I tried not to stare and sat up on the floor. Damn, they cleaned up nice.

  “Let her up,” Austin ordered.

  Both twins just held their hands up to show they weren’t touching me. It seemed like Austin was more amused than angry. Cody just looked exasperated. “We could hear you all the way downstairs as we were about to head out the front door.”

  “Did you get your assignments done already?” Austin asked. “If you need something else to do –”

  “Nope,” Jason quickly interjected.

  “We just came upstairs to help Anna find something in her room before we did the shopping,” Mason added.

  Austin eyed my luggage, still packed and sitting near the door. “After you go to the store and get her what she needs, make sure you help her unpack and settle in.”

  He smiled at me. “I want to make sure you feel comfortable here.”

  Both the twins nodded enthusiastically. “We will make sure it’s done right after we feed her lunch.”

  I tried my best not to roll my eyes. I think it was much more likely that I would be preparing them lunch. Cody thought the same because he snorted and rolled his eyes. “God forbid you miss lunch.”

  Austin glanced at his expensive looking watch. “Just don’t be late to class.”

  Both the twins murmured an affirmative and nodded.

  “Cody and I have meetings out in town. We won’t be back until late tonight, so don’t wait for dinner.”

  All of us nodded, and they headed to the door. “Have a good day!” I told them out of habit.

  Cody and Austin both looked surprised and turned back to me. “You, too,” Cody told me. Austin nodded and gave me a smile. That was odd; was I not supposed to say things like that?

  The twins and I stayed on the floor until we heard Austin and Cody go down the stairs and out the front door. Caleb was still watching us and laughing a little.

  “Make sure you bring her to my room before you leave,” he told the twins. They nodded, and he gave me a smile and a wave. “See you a little later.”

  I smiled back at him and gave him an awkward wave. “Yup.”

  Then the twins and I were alone again. “Well, that went better than I thought it was going to,” Mason said with a chuckle.

  “Yeah, thanks for being cool and not tattling on us,” Jason said.

  Mason gave him a faux stern look. “Anna wasn’t ‘being cool’; she is cool.”

  “That’s true,” Jason said. “I think the other guys stormed in here thinking they were going to find you crying or whining, but you looked just as guilty as we did when they burst in. I think it threw them off, and they weren’t sure how to react.”

  Mason threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, I think they kinda realize you aren’t really like the other females, but they don’t get just how different you are. The pack is not going to know how to interact with you.”

  I wasn’t sure if I should take it as a compliment or be worried that I was so weird.

  “Do you think your pack would prefer a more…traditional female?” I asked hesitantly, wondering if I should try to start acting more lady-like.

  “No way!” Jason said adamantly.

  “Yeah,” Mason added. “Don’t start wearing dresses and heels all the time and get mad if your hair gets messed up.”

  “And don’t start wearing tons of make-up and acting fake.”

  “Uh, OK.” I looked at both of them, not sure of what else to say.

  Mason stood up and held out his hands for me. I put my hands in his, and he pulled me up. I went over to my pile of stuff, grabbed my iPad and jumped on the bed. I piled a couple of pillows up against the headboard so I could sit comfortably. Mason sprawled out on his stomach next to me, and Jason lay across the foot of the bed.

  I searched for another location of the grocery store close by to see if they would deliver to this address. It turns out that there was a location 5 miles away, but they didn’t deliver. I could still order online, but we would have to
pick up the groceries.

  The twins were fine with that. They shouted out things they wanted, and I added them to the list. Eventually, we were satisfied that we had enough food to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of the week.

  I clicked through the prompts to check out and finalize the order, but my heart dropped when I saw the total. “Uh, guys? Is Austin going to be OK with this?” I flipped the screen around so they could see the outrageous sum.

  Mason chuckled. “That’s over the budget, but I don’t think we should mention it to him until after he eats a couple meals you cook. He won’t care about the cost then.”

  I blushed at the compliment. “I think you meant to say ‘we’, not me.”

  “Huh?” They both looked at me.

  I patted Mason on the arm. “There’s no way I could prepare enough food for six wolves without my two helpful sous chefs.”

  Jason shrugged. “Technically, it is our job.”

  Mason groaned but nodded.

  “It will be ready to pick up in ninety minutes,” I announced.

  Mason rolled off the bed. “Next task, get Anna unpacked.”

  I sighed. “It’s OK, guys. I can unpack my own stuff.”

  “Nope,” Mason said.

  “Yeah, we all know you’ll just leave your stuff in your luggage if we leave you alone with it.”

  I shrugged; they weren’t wrong.

  Mason went over to the largest bag. “What’s in here?”

  “Just clothes,” I answered. “Dump it out on the bed so I can figure out what to do with it.”

  Mason dumped it, and Jason started going through it. “Damn, Anna, where’s all your girl stuff? I don’t see any dresses or anything.”

  I just laughed. “Hey, sometimes I wear jeans instead of yoga pants. I even wore a purple sweater the other day.”

  Mason grinned. “Don’t you remember? We just told her not to wear dresses.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t see any lacy thongs or anything in here either.”

  Mason punched him in the arm before I did. “Don’t go through her underwear; it’s creepy.”

  “I’m not going through it, it’s all mixed in,” he complained, rubbing his arm. I wasn’t embarrassed about any underwear he might find. I wore mainly sport bras to hide my 34Cs and either cotton boy short or bikini panties to be comfortable. My underwear usually covered more than what most girls wore to the beach.

  I just rolled my eyes at them and went to work. We had everything put away in a very short time. The closet was one of those insane rich people closets, with built-in drawers and shelves to keep your stuff organized.

  There were enough shelves to fit at least a hundred pairs of shoes; I thought it looked funny with just my two pairs sitting there. The hanging space for the closet was also mostly empty, with only two hoodies hanging there. I could not imagine owning enough clothes to fill this space.

  “I’m glad your stuff is put away in here; it makes it feel like you’re really here,” Mason said quietly, standing next to me and gazing into the closet.

  “Yeah, like you’re not going to suddenly disappear the same way you just appeared one day,” Jason added as he walked up to us.

  I was surprised at the emotion from these two pranksters. I had felt myself grow attached to them fairly quickly, and I was surprised at how comfortable I was becoming with them, but I hadn’t considered that the affectionate feeling could be mutual. Evelyn was the only person I had who truly loved me; Kelsey was my friend mostly when it suited her needs.

  It had been easy to slip into a camaraderie with the twins, and a part of me had wondered if they were like this with everyone. I found it difficult to believe it was just me. I was nothing special. They probably had leagues of human females that wanted to hang out with them just as much as I did.

  I felt a flash of jealousy and chastised myself for it. Why was I jealous? Of course they would date other girls; it’s not like they could both date me anyway.

  “When are we getting the rest of your stuff?” Mason asked.

  I didn’t know how to break it to them that I was only here for the week. It seemed like they wanted me here longer. I guess it would be worse if they found out later from someone else and I hadn’t said anything to them about it.

  “Well, Austin only invited me to stay here for the week. Plus, I’m on a trial membership in the pack. And isn’t the house only for the high-ranking pack members anyway?” I spewed all of that out in a rush and then took a deep breath.

  The twins exchanged glances and replied together, “We’ll talk to Austin.”

  Jason glanced down at his phone as the alarm went off. “Time to get the food!”

  The mood was broken, and I followed them downstairs and to the Jeep. We had just enough time to get to the store and unload the groceries into the kitchen before the twins needed to leave for class.

  “Hurry up and get your stuff. I’ll make you some sandwiches to take with you for lunch,” I told them. “I don’t want you to get in trouble with Austin for missing class.”

  They both broke out in huge grins and ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs to get whatever they needed for their classes.

  I looked around at the mess of groceries piled all over the kitchen; it looked like I was on my own to figure out where all this went.

  I had just put together some sandwiches when they came back in the kitchen with a backpack slung over each one of their shoulders.

  I handed Mason his sandwich. “Roast beef and Swiss.” Jason held out a hand expectantly. “And for you, turkey and American.” I had wrapped their sandwiches in foil to keep them warm since I toasted the bread.

  They both looked happy and gave me an enthusiastic ‘Thanks’, so I had remembered their preferences correctly from our earlier shopping session. Mason reached out a hand and mussed up my hair on their way out, and then I was alone.

  I looked around at the mess and sighed. I decided to start with the fridge and freezer items first. I hoped they didn’t mind if I reorganized so I could fit everything.

  I was rummaging around when I heard, “Hey.” I turned around to see Caleb heading into the kitchen.

  “Hey, Caleb,” I called to him. “I didn’t forget about you. I just wanted to get some of this stuff put away before I headed up to see you.”

  He laughed. “I was heading down here for lunch anyway. Got anything good?”

  “I have sandwich-making items,” I offered, gesturing to where I still had everything out from making the twins lunches.

  “Cool,” he answered. “You want help getting all this put away?” He gestured to the food items covering every available surface of the kitchen.

  “Nah, go ahead and make lunch. I enjoy a good organizational challenge.” I grinned. “I didn’t spend all those years of my childhood playing Tetris for nothing.”

  He laughed. “We wouldn’t want those skills going to waste.”

  “Hey, do you think the guys would mind if I got rid of some of the expired stuff and…mystery items?” I asked as I held up a GladWare container that may have contained food at some point. “I’m guessing this isn’t a science project for one of the twins’ classes?”

  He chuckled. “I’m pretty sure no one will mind, especially if you are replacing it with edible food.”

  “Excellent,” I replied.

  Caleb made his sandwich while I sorted through the contents of the fridge. “I brought my iPad down. Do you mind if I get some info from you while we’re down here?”

  “No, that’s cool.” Truthfully, I was glad to have something to do while we talked. I would be a lot more anxious if I had to sit still while we stared at each other and talked about personal stuff. This way, half my attention was on other things so I would be doing less blank staring and stuttering. Hopefully, that meant that I would also be embarrassing myself less.

  Caleb finished making his sandwich and took a seat at the counter. “I’m going to just have you start from the beginning, wh
en you first met Evelyn. Even the smallest detail that seems insignificant can be important when you put it together with other information. I’m going to take notes while you talk, and I’ll try to keep any questions I have until the end, unless you need prompting.”

  “OK.” I felt awkward getting started but decided to jump right in.

  “I changed for the first time one night when I was around 10. It was a stressful night…Evelyn thought that had something to do with why I might have changed.”

  Caleb raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything; he just patiently waited for me to continue. I chewed on my lip. That probably sounded weird to him. I’m sure he was thinking, How could life be stressful for a 10-year-old?

  I had no desire to explain my uncle, or the fact that I lived most of my childhood buried in fear and anxiety. I was willing to let him think someone had stolen my Barbie or something and just continued with my story.

  “I had no idea how to react to what happened to me when I changed. Obviously, I realized it was not normal, and a part of me wondered if I had imagined the whole thing.”

  I paused, thinking back to that day.

  “I had seen Evelyn outside before, working in her garden but had never spoken to her; I was really nervous around strangers. I had changed back to human in her garden, and it was only after she came out that I realized later she must have seen through her window. She came out of her house in a fury, marched in front of me, and crossed her arms across her chest.”

  I laughed. “I was huddled up with my knees up against my chest and my arms wrapped around myself, just staring up at her with really wide eyes. She glared at me and asked, ‘What do you think you are doing in my garden?’ I was so scared and overwhelmed, I just burst into tears, hiding my face up against my knees and barely managed to stutter out, ‘I don’t know what’s happening to me’ in-between my sobs.”

  I paused for a moment to see if I could move a shelf in the fridge up a level to make some extra room. It took some wiggling, but I got it. I glanced back at Caleb; he was watching me with a small smile and waved at me to continue.

  I told him how Evelyn had brought me inside and cleaned me up. I did not mention that one of the reasons why she took pity on me was the bruises she found on my body. “She asked me a lot of questions about my adoption and my parents, but at that age I didn’t really know anything.”