Meghan sighed dramatically. “I had my purple socks on still.”
“That was funny,” Eliza said, nodding vigorously. “Whoever heard of a wolf wearing socks? I would have laughed, but I was a wolf too.”
“Yeah, then you tried to pull it off with your teeth and put holes in it. Then Momma got mad at both of us.” Meghan gave her sister a pointed look.
“I was just trying to help you take off your sock. I didn’t know my wolf teeth would put holes in it. But then you grabbed it back. So they weren’t all my teeth marks.”
“They were my socks and you were trying to take one away.”
“You were almost standing on your head, trying to pull off the one, and I was just helping you.”
“So you played tug-of-war with it?” Debbie could just imagine the two young wolf pups playing tug-of-war with the purple sock, both shaking furiously, growling, and finally catching Mom’s attention.
“Yes,” their mother said. “Believe me, with two wolf pups tugging on a sock, that was the end of it.”
Debbie laughed. “I can imagine.” She figured Meghan had forgotten her question, and Debbie was glad for that.
But then Eliza asked, “Did you ever do that? Shift when you were still dressed?”
“It isn’t polite to ask,” their mother said, “unless she wants to share on her own.”
The girls looked from their mother to Debbie to see if she would fess up.
No way was she going to say how embarrassing it had been to have to shift when she wasn’t ready. She hadn’t wanted Allan to see her like that, but he hadn’t laughed, well, smiled a little when she was still wearing her panties and bra one time. She could see where there was a real benefit to living in year-round warmer climates—fewer clothes to remove in a crisis.
“Your mother is right. I will say the first time I ever shifted, I was taking a bath, so I was one wet wolf.”
The girls giggled.
“Momma never washes us when we’re wolves because she’s a wolf at the same time. But we swim across a stream to practice swimming at night sometimes and then we’re wet wolves when we get home. Momma makes us shake a lot before we go inside.”
Debbie was having a lovely time with the girls and their mother. But while she and Cindy were having hot tea and chocolate chip cookies, she felt the urge to shift. She swore Cindy knew it, and so did the girls.
Debbie wasn’t sure what gave her away every time, but usually whoever was visiting would hurry to take over the conversation. She thought they were trying to help get her mind off the impending shift. In truth, she had to concentrate on making the urge go away while still acting as though she wasn’t zoned out.
“Do you want to shift now?” Meghan asked. “If you do, we can too, and you can remember what we look like as wolves if we see you later like that.”
Meghan and her sister looked back at their mom to see if it was all right with her.
“Sure, but only if Debbie wants to. She might not want to be a wolf right now,” Cindy said.
Seeing the girls really wanted her to, Debbie hesitated for only a moment. “All right. That works for me.”
The girls’ faces lit up. They dropped their crayons on the table and then jumped down from their chairs.
“Be back in a minute,” Debbie said, not sure what to expect or how to act around the girls when they were wolf pups.
For the first time ever, her company actually wanted her to shift. And she was actually happy to. When she returned as a wolf, the girls were wearing their wolf coats. Both were tan wolves with a little black on their faces and ears and the tips of their tails. Their mom was a wolf too. Debbie knew the girls were excited about it, but she hoped their mom truly hadn’t minded.
They were cute, just like most pups were. Instead of being five-year-old wolves, which would have made them full-grown adults, they looked more like five-or six-month-old pups or younger. She’d seen yearlings on a TV show and they had been bigger than the girls.
They came over and sniffed her, which was a way of getting to know her scent and greeting a fellow wolf in the pack. And then they wanted to play with her. She had a blast. It was so different from when she played with Allan. They growled viciously and she tackled them in fun, but gently. She loved it and was glad Allan and Cindy had suggested she visit with the twins. This did not change her mind about having a litter of pups herself. But she loved this added dimension to her new persona.
Maybe she could get used to this new business after all. Not that she really had much of a choice.
Chapter 20