Two weeks later, I bring Greg over to the Smaten house to hang out with Sammy and have a lesson on shifter’s from Doug’s mother. I was surprised to see Jake there with Dang, “granddad said that Mrs Smaten is the best teacher on shifters especially for people learning about it late.” Which generally when we discover a ‘luck born’ they’re taken aside and given a very structured education about shifter and the government policies governing them, not to mention shifter history. The most amusing part is when they come from human parents and are adults, then they find out that George Washington was a wolf shifter. For some reason human textbooks keep that out of their history books.

Greg grabs my hand tightly, “you sure she’s not going to eat me? Alice said her mommy might,” I chuckle and squat down to Greg’s level Jake giving me a questioning look. “Greg you don’t have to worry if you behave yourself and be a good boy. I promise Mrs Smaten only has a mean bite when she has naughty little boys not listening to her.” I hear a throat clear behind me, and I see Mrs Smaten standing in the garden entrance; the Smaten’s have an old Victorian home on the very edge of town. This way the children could spend time in town and be sociable and local shifters could bring their children to their house for Mrs Smaten to watch, while she could still have a large garden. “So my little Alice has been telling stories about me again has she?” I could see a twinkle in Mrs Smaten’s eye, she knew that some of the children who tended to misbehave share stories about how horrible she was and it amused her greatly. She looks at Greg, “well if you listen to Nancy then you shouldn’t have to worry about what might happen if you don’t listen to me Greg. Now I think Sammy is in the tree house out back, you two can play for a bit then we’re going to do some schooling.” Greg nods his head and shifts into his cat form and bolts, Mrs Smaten calls after him; “now I told you to stay in human form Greg.”

I chuckle, and Mrs Smaten turns to us and speaks to Jake; “am I see your grandfather has sent you for a history lesson today.” I chuckle again, knowing this one will surprise him; “well come on Jake I need some potatoes dug up while you learn. Nancy, Doug is in the kitchen putting a lunch together. The four of you will be taking my car seeing as how it holds the most people.” I nod my head and head inside her house as I see Dang wander off, probably to follow Greg and give the boy a lesson of his own.

I find Doug in the kitchen packing a cooler with containers of food, I notice they are from Mr Lee’s restaurant. Doug sees me and raises his hands, “hey; he found out we were going to see Drake. So he stopped by this morning with food for everyone.” I smile, the shifter community really came together to make Greg feel like he was part of everything since his parents were killed. The twenty local families all made a point to come out to my little home when we had their funeral, and they all left presents for the little boy; and Mr Lee fed everyone that day.

I look around, “were are Brenda and June?” Doug looks to the door to the kitchen, “oh; Brenda is making sure June looks her best before we leave. Seeing as how this is the first time she is seeing him since the day they found out about each other.” I nod my head, I knew that Doug was visiting Drake every few days; to try and civilize the wolf. He had also been very up front about using June as a reward for Drake’s good behavior, thankfully we did find out that Drake had managed to escape the facility without killing any of the guards. It seems his wolf took over and somehow found a way to sneak past the vampire guards without them smelling him. Considering a vampire’s sense of smell is almost a hundred times better than a wolf’s, that is no easy trick.

Brenda comes into the kitchen with her sister, who is wearing a blood red dress that form fitted over her hips and chest. Thankfully though she was wearing some sensible flat shoes, “I don’t know sis; isn’t this a bit much?” I raise my eye brow at Brenda and answer June, “no I think you might change his mind on how well behaved he needs to be.” I turn to Brenda, “I see the red riding hood joke there.” Brenda smiles, “someone had to make the joke. Is your father coming today Nancy?” I shake my head, “would you believe he has a doctorate in biology? Specializing in shifter biology? The local collage asked him to do a week long seminar on shifters, when they offered to pay him he told them there was no need to.” Doug smiles, “I am not surprised considering how long you guys live that he decided to get that degree.” I lever him a look, “Douglas Smaten; we all know how long you will live. I met your great grand mother last year who was on her twentieth baby, who is positively adorable; and she’s still considered a spring chicken. You certainly have the time to earn a doctorate in something in your spare time.” He chuckles and waves a hand, “yes I could; and I might consider an engineering degree at some point. However, for now I enjoy working on cars.”

We then pile into the car not commenting on ages, considering the look June gave us. Wolves have a habit of dieing before their first century mark, generally due to how stupidly territorial they are. The drive to the containment facility takes an hour, and we aren’t hassled on the way as the government already knew I was going to the facility on this day.

We arrive at the facility and once Doug finds a parking spot he comments, “there’s never this many cars here. I wonder what is going on?” The parking lot was full to the brim with cars of all types except for the spot Doug pulled into, which to him was probably odd seeing as how it was right by the entrance. We get out of the car, Doug grabbing the cooler and I say; “well I may know why there are so many cars here.” Doug turns his head to look at me, “what do you mean?”

A voice comes from behind Doug, “why young raccoon; the cars are all here because I am unfortunately.” Before Doug turns around I smile and incline my head, “greetings uncle Lobo.” Doug goes white and slowly turns around to see an older man, not yet white haired. However his straight black hair has some streaks of gray in it. I had found out that he really was my uncle, and that my great grandmother had produced two ‘special’ children; her other children had long died during some of the fighting during the pioneer days. Lobo had told me of our family connection when Simon had me visit him on the way back from Drake’s former home.

“I didn’t know you were Nancy’s uncle Sir Lobo.” Doug stammers out, and my uncle smiles. “Yes well, Simon knew she was. Since they had to go through my territory to take her home, they stopped and we had a lovely chat about our families. Seeing as how the families of ‘specials’ tend to be a bit odder than most.” I chuckle. My father tried explaining how he knew of two ‘specials’ who were mates and sibling, they had been so scared to tell the government. My father was able to convince them that in their case there was nothing wrong, as specials tend to have different genetics than even their parents and proved it by taking samples and having a test run to show them they weren’t genetically related.

I nod at my uncle, “so why are you here today uncle?” He smiles, “well the same thing I have been doing through Drake’s former Pack. To invite him to join my Pack, which of course he refused. That boy is a stubborn one, but maybe he just doesn’t want to deal with a Pack anymore.” I hear buzzers going off inside the facility and my uncle turns towards it, “or he is being foolish.” Then there is a mastodon sized white wolf standing in front of us.