“Are you working your Omega magic on me?” Shane asked, his voice a bit rough from lack of use. He’d been doing his best to listen and learn from the other man and hadn’t really spoken much that day other than to ask a question here or there.
Brandon smiled and shrugged. “Not really. It’s sort of inherent sometimes, so my wolf is forever reaching out to each Pack member to see what it can do to help. Some have learned to erect shields over time to prevent my help unless I push them, and others are content enough that I don’t need to help at all. There are only a few instances where I’ll go out and try to do what I can with pure thought, rather than allowing my wolf to use the bonds from a distance. With you, though?” Brandon frowned. “You’re a bit different, honestly.”
Just what he wanted to hear. That word, different, again. Shane ran his hand over his knee, annoyed with himself for hating that word. The wolves didn’t have to take him in or even like him. They didn’t owe him anything. And it would do him well to remember that.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not like other wolves, Shane.” The other man winced. “Sorry, that came out wrong.”
Shane waved him off. “It’s the truth, though. And we don’t even know if I’m going to change at all. Could be, come the full moon, I’ll die because I can’t shift, and all of this worry will be for nothing.”
The Omega pressed his lips together. “Shane, that’s not what I meant, and you know we’re not going to let that happen. Somehow, we’re going to find a way to make this work if it doesn’t happen the way it should. As for what I meant in the first place? Each wolf in this Pack is different. We aren’t a damn hive mind. If there is something deep inside hurting another person, it’s my job to try and fix it. With you, it’s like you have a natural shield. It could go away once you shift, or it could get stronger. I don’t know, but we’re going to figure it out, damn it.”
Shane didn’t say anything in answer to that and wasn’t sure there was anything he could say that would matter. He wouldn’t know what the future would bring until the next night when the moon shone high in the sky and his wolf, if he indeed had one, felt the urge to shift.
“Do shifters always have to wait for the full moon for their first shift?” he asked after a moment. They’d been sitting without speaking, listening to the world around them. He could hear other Pack members talking to one another as they went about their day, as well as animals in the forest who felt safe for the moment from the predators living in their midst.
“Not at all. For those born from shifters, they can transition at any time after age two, though I know a few who shifted a during their first year.” Brandon smiled then. “Startled their parents, that’s for sure. The first shift for a child can come during a time of great emotion, or for those like Brie, when they feel like it’s time.” The other man met Shane’s eyes. “According to her parents, one day she was toddling around, feeling like she needed to scratch her skin, and decided it was time to be a wolf.”
“And now she’s your Alpha’s mate,” Shane added.
“Yep, and my sister-in-law. I never would have picked a woman like her for my brother, and I’m glad I was wrong. Hell, she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to Gideon and our Pack.”
Shane smiled then. “And now she’s going to have a pup of her own.” One day, he’d get used to calling children “pups” interchangeably. At least, he hoped.
“It’s our first baby,” Brandon said softly. “I mean, the family’s first, you know? And because Brie is a submissive wolf, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”
“You mean because the eldest child eventually becomes the Heir of the Pack when they’re ready?”
“It doesn’t always work out that way, but yes. Finn actually became the Heir at a young age because their former Alpha, Finn’s grandfather, was killed during the Central war.”
Shane flipped through his notes. “I don’t know a lot about that time period. I was only a child then, and the humans didn’t know you guys existed. It’s still strange to think that all of you were fully adults at that time, too.”
Brandon looked over at him, a strange expression on his face. “Not all of us. Charlotte and Bram are around your age, so they’d have been kids, too. Brie as well for that matter. Once we hit adulthood, you kind of forget that some of us have hit a century of living and still haven’t lived.”
Before Shane could ask the other man what he’d exactly meant by that, the Omega stood up and rubbed his chest bone.