Once Maddison got out of her father's car she stretched, and then winced. Her sternum and shoulder were still bandaged and sore. The doctor said she would heal almost instantly once she could shift. Until then she would just have to let it heal naturally.

  The thought of shifting both scared her and excited her. The fact that it could heal most minor injuries completely, and major ones got a major healing boost, was astonishing. Honestly it hadn't really sunk in that she was a werewolf now.

  As her family, including Kalie, piled out of the car she watched Reece pull his blue mustang up next to them. As he stepped, out she felt another internal jolt, a strange sense of awareness...

  "Lets get inside." Said Greg, drawing her attention away from Reece. "Its cold this evening."

  "I hadn't even noticed..." said Maddison, looking towards the setting sun. It was a beautiful evening.

  "Werewolf blood runs warm." Said Kalie, stepping up next to Maddison. She was looking much better now, and had gotten her easy smile back. "We don't feel the cold as bad as humans. When in fur even the winter is warm."

  "Well us humans are cold." Smiled Chase, shivering in his too thin jacket. He must have grabbed his spring jacket by mistake in his haste to get to the hospital.

  Laughing slightly, Maddison lead the way to the house.

  "Why don't you all come into my place?" offered Reece, causing Maddison to jump. She hadn't known he was standing right behind her. "Sorry. Um, my place is set up for lots of company. I'm used to having a couple of pack members around, so I have a few couches and a big dining table. Also" he added with a roguish smile that almost made her whimper. "I am a king in the kitchen. I'll have you all fed, werewolf style, in an hour."

  "So long as that doesn't mean raw meat?" laughed Greg just out side the door. There wasn't enough room in the tiny foyer for all five of them.

  Kalie laughed as well. "He just means he will make a lot of food. You'll see Maddie, you are going to be eating a lot!"

  "I guess that explains how you could eat so much and not gain a pound." Maddison said with some wonder. Kalie was always a big eater.

  "So, is that a yes?" asked Reece, a hand on his doorknob.

  Maddison smiled gratefully and nodded. "Sure, thank you Reece."

  "My pleasure." He said, grin still in place, and opened the door with a flourish. Everyone filed in, murmuring their thanks, and Reece came in last, closing the door behind them.

  Reece's home was beautiful, just as the apartment he'd made up stairs. They entered into the kitchen, which was very large and up-to-date. Black marble countertops, mahogany cabinets, and stainless steel appliances. The kitchen had a large island with several bar stools.

  The dining room was, mostly, all table. The oak set was huge, able to seat about a dozen people. On the walls were several photographs of a hill with a large maple tree on it. Each picture was of a different season, or of some sort of celebration.

  "Where is this?" Maddison asked, pointing to the photographs.

  "My old home." He said standing next to her with his hands in his jeans pockets. "Before I moved here and joined my brother's pack a few months ago I lived in Ontario with my father's pack. These photos were taken at my childhood home. This one here was Ryan's naming." He said pointing to a photo taken in the early spring, the distant maple only just beginning to bud. Around the tree, on the hillock, were several indistinct dogs. Werewolves.

  "And this one here was mine..." he said pointing to the photo next to it. This one was taken in the fall, and a little closer to the tree. Maddison could see Reece immediately. It was strange that she could recognize him in his wolf form so quickly seeing as how she had only seen him once, and while suffering from blood loss. "Ryan took this one for me though, that's why it looks different from the others. Not the best photographer, my older brother."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "what's a naming?" Maddison asked, still staring at wolf Reece in the photo.

  "It's a werewolf ritual." Interrupted Kalie as everyone got comfortable at the table. "I had mine with the first pack I was with, when me and Mom moved here."

  "Werewolves are not born able to shift." Explained Reece. "True blooded werewolves are able to shift sometime after their sixteenth birthday. Turned wolves can shift even younger. Mind you, people rarely survive a werewolf attack that young... Anyway, once you shift into wolf form for the first time, the person and the wolf cement their connection. It is then that you learn your wolf's name." he turned to look at Kalie. "Kalie was your wolf's name? Sometimes turned wolves don't want to take on their wolf's name."

  "Yes. Before my naming- before I met you Maddie-" said Kalie to Maddison while everyone listened. "-my name was Amanda. Amanda Grace, after my grandmother."

  "Wait. You changed your name?" asked Maddison, surprised.

  "Yup. It's tradition, but also it felt kind of like a new name for a new life..."

  "You totally do not look like an 'Amanda'." Snickered Chase .Greg gave him a gentle whack to the back of his head.

  "You will hear your wolf's name too, when you shift for the first time." Reece told Stephanie.

  "I can hear her in my head..." she admitted in a whisper, assuming that the voice she had been hearing sporadically since waking up in the hospital was her wolf. that or she really was going crazy.

  "Really?"

  Maddison looked to him in alarm. "Is that not normal? Oh God, I'm not going crazy am I?"

  "No. No you're fine!" Reece laughed. "Its just rare for turned wolves to hear their wolf half. They can feal their wolf, but not many can speak with them."

  "I can't" Admitted Kalie. "I heard her name my first shift, but nothing since. Just get feelings now. Like when she is angry, or wants me to chase something."

  "Oh..." Maddison said, a little confused.

  "You are also very dominant. An alpha female. That too is very rare, not just with turned wolves but even pure blooded wolves. Just about any pack would welcome you." Explained Reece.

  "What does that mean?" she sat at the table next to Kalie, Reece took a seat one over.

  "In the pack there are dominate and submissive wolves. The dominate wolves vie for the top spot- to be alpha. The submissive wolves tend to stay out of such things. Correct me if I'm wrong but I would say that you, Kalie, are submissive?"

  "Yup. Thank God! I have enough problems." Maddison noticed that Kalie was leaning away from Reece and not meeting his eyes, like she was afraid to be near him. She is not his pack. But why would that matter? Not his pack and in his domain. Very dangerous.

  Reece nodded. "You, Maddison, are very much a dominate wolf. So much so that it is safe to say that you are an Alpha. With a capital 'a' not a lower case one. That means that you could easily take over any pack. So long as they don't have an Alpha already. Again with the capital 'a'."

  "That's confusing..." said Chase.

  "It can be, yes. But werewolves are notoriously convoluted. Many ways and traditions seem foolish to outsiders, but are perfectly natural for us."

  "Are you saying that I have to fight random men wherever I go?" Asked Maddison.

  "Not men, women." Said Kalie, as if she had all the answers. It was good to see her acting a little more like herself again. "In a pack the dominance is gender separate. The Alpha male is the leader of the pack, but the Alpha female is kind of like his general. She looks after, and keeps in line, the females."

  "Also, it is very unlikely you'll be getting in any fist fights." Laughed Reece. "The males duke it out often enough, but females usually do it through posturing, popularity contests, and verbal attacks. Every now and then another female may challenge another while in fur, but otherwise there isn't a lot of bloodshed between females."

  So when I join a pack what will be expected of me?" she was beginning to get a little nervous now.

  "Nothing." Reece said simply.

  "What do you mean by 'nothing'?" Greg asked with scrunched eyebrows.

  "Most everything will come naturally to you. You'll run with a pack, the Alpha will decide whether or not you will fit in, then you'll be accepted into the fold."

  "So I won't have to get into any of those messy dominance things?"

  Reece actually snorted. "I would actually like to see you try not to. You are Alpha Maddison. Just look how you were at the hospital. You were asserting your dominance to the whole room." He laughed, his eyes twinkling at her. "The moment you walked in there you showed everyone less dominate than you that you would be in charge. Anyone dominate enough to challenge you, you butted heads with them. Every time you snapped at Liam or declared anything, you were playing dominance games. You do it without thinking."

  Maddison grew quiet for a moment. Reece was right. She had always had that in her, but today she let it out for the world to see. People must know that we are not to be ignored.

  "So, how do you all feal about steaks?" Reece asked. He stood-up and made his way to the kitchen.

  "That would be great." Said Greg, ever gracious. "Do you need any help?"

  "No sir. You stay right there. You all have been through enough. Just sit back and let the master work."

  "That can be taken in so many different, yet equally cocky ways." Maddison mumbled, watching him move toward the fridge. Was it wrong that she enjoyed watching him move? No man should move that gracefully...

  "Ah, well, I am also Alpha, and so can not help but be cocky." He laughed. Maddison blushed; she hadn't meant to be heard. Werewolf hearing... Darn it.