The Legacy of Kilkenny (24 page)

He pulled away a little bit looking down at me.
 
“Are you okay?
 
Did something happen to you?”
 
He put his lips to the top of my head and whispered “It’s okay, P, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I melted.

I love when he calls me P, he hasn’t called me that since before I started going to school at Piedsville High.
 
I wish we could just stay like this forever.
 
I rested my head on his chest with his arms around me.
 
I’ll take what I can.
 
“Hey, you want to go run for a while?
 
I just had dinner with a vampire and I want to get his stank off of me.”

“I wanted to tell you that you smell
kinda
funny, but didn’t think it was a good time to say anything.”
 
He kissed the top of my head and pulled away just in time for me to slug his arm.

“Oakley!
 
You’re so going down!
 
The last one to the property line is a smelly dog!”
 
I yelled and
changed
in a matter of seconds.

We ran and horsed around until we were both exhausted, falling asleep curled up together on the back porch.
 
I woke up first; I had shifted back to human form and was curled up against Oakley while he was still in wolf form.
 
I didn’t want to wake him and I didn’t want to lay there all naked up against him.
 
I snuck in the house and hopped in the shower so I could get ready for school.
 

ABEL

“Hey, I have an FBLA meeting after school and then I’m going to Pru’s house to work out with Oakley.
 
Don’t worry about dinner!
 
I love you! Have a good day at work.”
 
I yell out to my mom as I head out the door.

“Abe, your sister called late last night, she said you had gone out there for dinner.
 
Next time, you need to let me or your dad know where you are.”

“It’s all good mom.”
 
I think she muttered something about not knowing what that meant, but I was already in my car.

After an uneventful Julie free day at school, I drove over to Pru’s house.
 
“Hey Oak, are you ready to be schooled?
 
I’ve been practicing; Bryon and I’ve been getting in some late night spars.”

“Good, you’re going to need it,” he said then bopped me on the back of the head.
 

“You know, you don’t want to get on the Great Wolf’s bad side.”
 
I bopped him back and the next thing you knew we were squared off in a big wrestling match.
 

After dinner Oakley and I sat out on the back porch drinking a Coke.
 
“So what gives Oak, why aren’t you and Pru dating?”

He leaned forward and choked. “What are you talking about?
 
I don’t know if you realize this, but she is the Alpha’s daughter.”
 
He cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair.

“Really?
 
I didn’t notice.
 
Seriously, I know you like her and I know she likes you.
 
This sounds so high school but I know that you two would make a good team.”
 
I took a drink of my Coke and leaned back too.
 
I tried to see if I could get in his head and hear anything but I rarely get anything from the
weres
.
 
I don’t know why, since they can communicate all of the time.

“Because you try too hard.”
 
Oakley said.

“Dude, you heard me?”
 
I turned to look at his face, great!
 
He can hear me but I can’t hear him.
 
Fail.

“I don’t really hear a person when I’m in human form unless an Alpha is talking directly at me, and
dude
it looks like you’re the big cheese.”
 
He took out his cell phone and I could see him frantically sending out a text.

“I’m not the big cheese you dork.
 
You’re not going to get around my question.
 
You’re afraid of her dad?
 
Is that why you won’t go out with her?”
 
I try sounding casual.
 
“And before you ask, no she didn’t send me to talk to you.”

Oak stood up and starts pacing back and forth on the porch.
 
“Man, it’s like this.
 
General Phelan told me I needed to give her the opportunity to find out if she can imprint with you.
 
He thinks you being the almighty wolf, that you two will make a good team.
 
He didn’t order me not to pursue her, but it’s true.
 
I’m not going to interfere with nature.”

“You’re lame.”
 
I stand and walked over to him.
 
“Man, she doesn’t have a thing for me! Trust me, I
know
, she only has eyes for you.” I slap him on the shoulder.
 

“We’ll see.
 
My main concern right now is to help with your senses.
 
Let me ask you
somethin
’, last night, did you know I was following you home?”
 
He headed to the tree line.

I nod yes and look away, I really didn’t see him until we got closer to Piedsville but I don’t want to let him know that I was oblivious until the last ten minutes.
 
What kind of Great Wolf would I be not to notice someone following me for 60 miles.
 
“Well, yeah….uh… okay, it had been a while before I did.
 
I was wound pretty tight after dinner with Allie and that walking dead man blood sucker.”

“Pru filled me in about Arien, man I don’t know what to tell
ya
, but you’ve
gotta
get your sister out of his sights or you’re going to be related to a vampire.”
 
He kept walking further into the trees.
 
“Keep up pokey.
 
I want you to watch as I shift back and forth.
 
I want you to see if you can pick out my tell.”
 
He snagged a branch with his hand letting it swing back on me.

I twist out of the way too late, the branch smacks me in the arm.
 
“You suck!
 
What’s a tell?”

“Tell, you know… like when a person is lying their eyes may shift right before they tell the lie.
  
If you start looking for a person’s tell, it helps when you have to fight them.
  
For example, Dolly touches her earlobes before she shifts.
 
She didn’t even know she was doing it until I said something about it.
 
She told me there is a pair of diamond earrings that she doesn’t want to lose, she will double check that she took them off before she shifts.”
 
We stop near a cluster of pecan trees and he starts taking off his clothes.

“You’re not taking off your underwear are you?”
 
I look up at the tree, trying to keep my eyes adverted from looking at him strip.

He laughs.
 
“You don’t think I can shift in them do you?
 
Yea, I have to take off my underwear.
 
You’ll get past it, I promise.
 
We all see each other naked all the time.”

“Everyone?
 
Naked?”
 
I laugh.
 
“I can’t even begin to imagine being okay with seeing Pru naked.
 
You can just see her naked and not get you know…”

“Yeah.
 
It’s hard to explain, but you’ll get it when it happens to you.
 
Okay, I want to get this done so let me get started,” he said, as he pulled off his underwear. “In the beginning it takes a little longer, actually it is like waiting for water to boil.
 
First you have to concentrate, clear your mind from everything else and focus on your skin changing.
 
You’ll feel your skin get itchy and a burning in your stomach, it only lasts as long as it takes to shift. You’ll probably throw up, I know I did.
 
The heat comes from every cell in your body and it can get the best of you.
 
It gets easier, eventually.”

“You make it sound so glamorous.
 
How old were you when you shifted for the first time?”
 
I’d been wondering about that question for a while.

 
“Abe, it’s all good.
 
Some of us are raised in the Pack so we’re more apt to shift earlier.”

I try not to sound whiney and ask again. “Really, how old were you Oak?”
 
I shake
 
my head knowing the answer as he said it.

“I was 8, but like I said Abe, I was raised with it everywhere I turned.
 
For the record, I barfed my brains out at least the first ten times I shifted.”
 
He patted my shoulder.
 
“Wow, you must be working out, I can feel those muscles, man you’re getting buff.”

“Oakley, really you
are
a dork, could you not touch me while you’re naked.
 
It is a rule I have, no naked dudes touch me.
 
Just so you know, you trying to change the subject isn’t working.
 
So you were 8 years old?
 
Great.
 
How old was Pru when she shifted?”
 
A feeling of defeat washing over me, and I can’t help but hate the fact that it bothers me at all.
 
It isn’t like I’ve known I’m a
were
for very long.

“I don’t know, she was really young though.
 
Younger than most, she was maybe three or four.”
 
Oakley stopped talking and nodded towards a tree.

Leaned up against the tree I see Pru standing there in her jeans and blue sweater.
 
“I was two and there is talk I was younger than that, but no one saw it.
 
I
was
a little young to shift.
 
Alistar
was the one that was with me.
 
I’d been in my playroom, crawling around on the floor pretending to be a dog like
Alistar
.
 
If I remember right, he started whimpering and I shifted.
 
I don’t think I knew I had shifted, I was playing make believe, so I figured I had a great imagination, until I was following
Alistar
and he took me to my mom.
 
At first she didn’t think it was me, I was just a little wolf so she thought maybe an orphaned one found us, until she couldn’t find me in the playroom and then she figured it out.”

“That’s
kinda
cool.
 
I feel like a grandpa compared to the two of you, I’ll be an old man before it happens for me.”
 
I shake my head, tired of waiting for answers neither of them could give me.
 
I leaned on a tree, discouraged at best.

Not even paying attention to the real task at hand, watching Oakley shift into a wolf.
 
Knowing he is only trying to help me prepare for my ‘natural change’ I try to stay focused. “Oakley was going to show me how he shifts. Did you bring some popcorn for the show?”
 
I flash them my biggest cheesiest grin.

“Oh Lord.
 
No, I’m not staying for the show.
 
Good thing too, with him standing here naked and you standing there staring at him was on the creepy side.”
 
Pru shakes her head, grin on her face.
 
“Unless of course Oakley wants my critique on his shifting abilities.”
 

Oakley looks at her, his face serious when he says, “I’m not too proud to have your critique, I’ve shifted with you many times P, I’ve nothing to hide.”
 
He winks at her.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think she blushed about three shades red.

“
Toodles
, you two.
 
I’ll see you in a bit.”
 
She took off towards the house.

“How do you do it?
 
I mean, how do you shift in front of a woman and not be a little shy?”
 

“Don’t worry, once you shift on a regular basis, it comes naturally and we don’t see it as a sexual interlude.
 
I mean, of course I can appreciate a naked woman, but when you’re in the wolf state of mind, it isn’t like that.
 
Just like when Dolly shifts, many times she shifts back and forgets she is naked until the General reminds her that her boobs are dangling over the kitchen stove.”
 
He laughs. “Really, you’ll figure it all out soon enough.”