“It might. I feel like I’m melting.” And the blood pooling on the surface of my skin certainly wasn’t helping the situation any.
“It’s a low-grade fever. We all get one right before a full moon. You’ll get used to it.”
I didn’t bother explaining how I ran more than a low grade fever for thirty days straight and knew that this was something different. Charlie would only think I was whining and begging for attention.
“I’m going to go find Talley.” And some clothes.
Of course, that’s when Talley opened the door connecting my bedroom to the bathroom that separated mine and Jase’s rooms. “I’ll be there in thirty seconds. I’m looking for a pen.”
“I’ll come—”
“Nevermind, here’s one!”
Or maybe I’ll just sit here feeling overwhelmingly naked and embarrassed.
Talley bound into the room, a pad of paper and pen in hand. “Okay, I’m ready to take minutes.”
“Pack meetings have minutes?” I certainly didn’t remember anyone jotting stuff down at the last Pack meeting I attended, but I had been a little distracted with the whole getting kicked out part.
“They should,” said my super-organized best friend. “Are you okay? You look very… red.”
“I’m hot.”
“Obviously. I would kill for your legs. And waist. And boobs.” She examined her own chest, which wasn’t so much flat as not curvy. “Maybe I could get Ashley’s plastic surgeon to give me your boobs. Would you go with me to the office so that he’ll know exactly what I want?”
She was spending way too much time with Jase.
“I meant, I feel like it’s a a hundred and fifty degrees in here, smarty pants.”
I’m not a complete moron - I had an acceptance letter to William and Mary hanging on my wall - but I sometimes miss simple, common-sense things. Thankfully, that is Talley’s area of expertise. “Well, I guess summer in Kentucky would feel rather warm to a species designed for sub-zero temperatures.”
Jase’s face scrunched up in concentration. “You mean because she turns into one of those snow wolves, right?”
At least I wasn’t the only one a step or two behind the curve.
“Coyotes are native to Kentucky. Arctic wolves, not so much.” The frown on her face would have looked patronizing if anyone else attempted it. “Poor Scout. Do you want me to go get you an ice pack or something?”
“Nah, I’m cool.” I held up my hand. “Don’t want hear it, no matter how witty it is.” Jase’s promptly shut his mouth.
“Are you calling the meeting to order?” Talley asked, pen poised.
“Do I need to?”
Talley nodded enthusiastically.
I looked around for something to used as a gavel and settled on one of Jase’s basketball trophies. “I hereby call the meeting of the Donovan-Hagan-Matthews Pack to order,” I said, banging the trophy on the floor. “Does that work?”
“I think we need to shorten the name of the Pack.”
This was the reason we quit doing school projects together in the sixth grade.
“The name stands. You can refer to it as DHM if you want.” I took a deep breath, giving her plenty of time to declare that we needed a logo or mascot. When she didn’t, I continued. “Tomorrow night is our first full moon together as a Pack.” And only my second full moon as a Shifter. “We’re going to run an exercise tomorrow to ensure that we can work together as a team to accomplish a goal.”
“Like not accidentally stepping over an invisible line?” Charlie asked.
“That’s part of Talley’s job. She’s been studying maps for weeks now and thinks she can keep us wrangled into the accepted boundaries. Right, Tal?”
“I think so.” She sound less certain than I would have liked, but I trusted her.
“She’s also going to guide us to the same spot. We’re starting off at different points.” I handed out maps I printed off the computer. “Jase, you’re going to Change on the north end of the county. Charlie, the south. I’m changing on the far eastern boarder. As soon as Talley senses we’ve all completed the Change, she’s going to pick a fourth location from a hat and guide us all there.”
“That’s it?” Jase looked less than impressed. “We go on a scavenger hunt for one another? That’s our big exercise for the night?”
“No, that’s our communications lesson. Then we have our physical training.”
“Which is?”
My mind conjured up an image of snowflakes dancing around a beautiful boy eagerly sharing his love of the hunt. “Then we take down a deer.”
Chapter 13
I lay crouched on the ground, my clothes tucked away in the backpack I hid nearby. Being naked in the middle of the woods wasn’t exactly my idea of awesome, but I couldn’t really afford to lose an outfit a month.
I can’t do this.
They said it would be easier this time, less painful. When I was climbing out of Charlie’s mammoth truck he grabbed my arm, the first non-training physical contact we’d had in forever. “Just relax out there, okay? Try to initiate the Change yourself instead of waiting for it to happen. Your body will respond better.”
I tried. Really, I did. I crouched down and thought about my muscles stretching and shifting, my bones reorganizing themselves. I thought about the hundreds of thousands of hairs poking through my skin. Unfortunately, I also thought about all the pain that came with those things and couldn’t do it. I knew it would actually kill me this time.
The first convulsion ripped through my body as the last light of day disappeared from the sky. It hurt just as much as I remembered. I stayed conscious the entire time and only threw up from the pain once.
As soon as the Change was complete, I headed for the hamburgers I stashed by my backpack. The food was Talley’s idea. According to her, the animal wouldn’t be quiet enough for Human Scout to be heard until some of the calories incinerated during the Change were replaced. She theorized that having a vast amount of food ready to eat immediately post-Change would give us a huge advantage. Since I didn’t want a Thumper repeat, I was willing to give it a shot.
Of course, Wolf Scout didn’t agree. She ate the burgers because she was hungry, but she regretted the lack of fresh meat. She missed the hunt.