I scratched at the bottom of my bedroom door enough to get my nose in the crack and swing it open. As I left my room, I marveled at the different perspective of my apartment in this form. I went into the kitchen where I could smell the potatoes Brandon had started cooking in the microwave, and the seasonings he was putting on the steaks. It all smelled so good. I heard him rattling things in one of the cabinets at the other end of the room. I walked over and used my nose to nudge the hand that was resting on the top of the cabinet door. He jumped. Brandon must have been concentrating on what he was looking for not to notice my nails clicking on the vinyl floor. 

“Oh! You did it. Great.” 

I snorted at him, Thank you, Captain Obvious.

“Hey,” he laughed, “that wasn’t nice!” 

I sat, shocked. I hadn’t intended for him to hear that.

“I guess we can say for sure about that telepathy now, huh? I might as well make use of it… do you have any corn?”

Yeah, it’s in the cabinet over the microwave.

“Great, I’ll fix that, too. You can stay like that for a while or you can go shift back. It’s up to you.”

I think I’ll go shift back, thanks. I’ll be back in a minute. I turned for the bedroom.

Once in my room, I sat in the spot where I had started earlier and concentrated for a few moments on shifting back into human form. When the tingling stopped, I stood up and dressed. When I left the bedroom, I found Brandon standing on my balcony in front of the grill. The scent of the steaks cooking made my stomach growl. 

“Wow! Those smell great.” 

“I told you, shifting twice takes a lot of calories and you need to replace them. These are almost done. Can you go grab a plate to put them on? We’ll separate them and add the rest in there.”

After shutting off the grill, Brandon carried the plate into the kitchen. “Just have a seat and let me finish here.” He dished the steaks onto separate plates and added the other things.

“You shouldn’t be waiting on me in my own kitchen, Brandon. How about I get the drinks?”

“Sounds good.”

“What do you want?”

“Tea would be great if you have any, if not I’ll take a soda.”

“You know me, if there’s no tea in the house it’s almost a catastrophe.” I pulled out two plastic cups and filled them with ice before adding the tea. “You’ll have to live with plastic, ‘cause I’m not risking handling any more glass for a while.”

He chuckled, “Not a problem.”

I put cups on the table in front of the two chairs then grabbed flatware and napkins out of the drawer for both of us. I was headed back to the table as Brandon set both plates next to the glasses. We took our seats and ate. I was surprised at how hungry I was and how quickly I devoured the food. 

“Are you more comfortable about shifting now?” Brandon asked in between bites.

“Some. I’m less afraid of suddenly shifting and being stuck in wolf form now. That’s something.” I shrugged one shoulder.

“It’ll get easier with practice. If you try, you can learn to shift fast enough to change in mid-leap.” 

“Really?”

“Yep. I can’t do it, but I’ve seen it done.” 

“I have to admit. It would be cool,” I said.

“It would be cool,” he said. “You’re gonna want to work on your reluctance to be undressed in front of others though. It isn’t that the Kindred are immodest exactly. It’s more that we’re comfortable with casual nudity. We learn not to make an issue of it.”

“Really?” I wasn’t sure I could become so casual about it.

“Think about it this way. We often run in groups, several of us will meet somewhere very rural, and shift, running in wolf form together then shifting back before heading back into town. No bedrooms, and no restrooms to change in.”

“I guess it makes sense, but still.”

“I know. The idea is new to you. It makes you uncomfortable. Think about it for a while, get used to the idea.”

“I’ll try.” 

We ate in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. When we’d both finished our meal, we cleaned our plates, loading them into the empty dishwasher, before going into the living room to sit down. Brandon broke the silence. 

“You’re going to want to tell Bill about the telepathy. He’ll most likely assign someone to work with you and help you develop it.” 

“I’ll tell him, but I’ll probably wait until tomorrow. I’m supposed to see if I can get some time off and then see him in the morning if I can, if not, I’ll call him and let him know.”

We visited for a while longer before Brandon left and I started getting ready for the weekly family dinner at my parents’ house. I changed into something a little nicer than what I wore around the house and took the time to comb out my hair on my way out the door. 

* * *

Sunday dinner at my parents’ house is mandatory for everyone. The only acceptable excuses, if you are in town, are sudden serious illness, and death. Yours. 

That Sunday I’d planned to arrive a little early so I could help Mom with the last of the cooking. When I arrived at the house, I didn’t bother knocking, none of us kids did, before letting myself in. I called out as I closed the door to let them know it was me. They both came to greet me, stepping out of different rooms, but with the same purpose in mind. My mother popped out of the kitchen while my father had a bit farther to come from the living room at the end of the short hallway. 

While hugging my mother, I noticed she carried the scents of yeast and cinnamon with her, they were like a soft dusting on the surface of her skin, which held a natural lemony scent, and it made me wonder briefly what she’d made for dessert. 

My father’s customary bear hug smelled of soil and the oils and fuels his tractors often smelled of, it hovered over the sweet, almost sugary scent that seemed to come directly from his skin. After greeting them both, I followed my mother into the kitchen while my father returned to the living room to the baseball game. 

“How has your week been?” Mom asked as we got to work.

“Busy,” I said. “Work mostly, but I went hiking with Brandon on Friday, spent some time with Izzy on Saturday.”

“How is Brandon doing these days?” she asked. 

“Pretty good. He’s still working up at the mine, but he’s on his seven-day, so our days off lined up and we were able to do something for the first time in a while,” I was referring to the week off that all the shift workers at the mine get once a month.

“That’s nice. How are his parents?”

“Good, as far as I know. He hasn’t mentioned them in a while and I didn’t think to ask.”

We visited a few minutes longer before my sister Brittney and her family arrived. I stepped out into the hall to see them. The kids were in their usual wild animal state of excitement. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought they hadn’t seen their grandparents in months instead of the matter of days that it had been. 

They were excited to see me too. I liked to think of myself as their favorite aunt. They knew that when Aunt Nickie was around, there would always be something fun happening. What could I say? I loved the little heathens and did as much as I could with them. I often picked them up and took them to the park for a couple hours of exhausting fun when I could make the time. But I’d admit that at the end of the outing, I was glad I could take them home to their mama and retire to the peace and quiet of my own apartment. 

I picked up four-year-old Jimmy as he raced by and swung him up above my head, he squealed and laughed before I lowered him until I could hug and kiss his squirming body. I inhaled the clean grassy scent of the little boy, savoring the freshness. He swiftly escaped the ‘baby kisses’ and ran off to see what mischief he could get into as soon as I set him back on the floor. Standing, I reached over and took the baby, one-year-old Tammy, from my sister. I tickled and snuggled her too before settling her on one hip as I hugged her tight. She had the clean scent of her shampoo like a halo around her. She also smelled of a sweet strawberry candy scent and something in me told me it wasn’t an added scent like her shampoo, it was just her. 

Leaving my sister in the kitchen talking to Mom, I carried Tammy into the living room to see Grandpa and say hello to Tracy. Once the kids had climbed all over and said their hellos to my father, I took them over to the corner of the room and we dug through the basket of toys Mom kept for them. Many of the toys were leftovers from when we were young. There were a couple of favorites from each of us kids in the basket, though there were plenty of newer toys mixed in. It made me feel good to see my niece and nephew enjoying the toys I had loved as a child. 

The kids soon chose a bucket of large plastic building blocks and I sat on the floor building with them for a few minutes. Once they were both engrossed in their creations, I left them under their father’s watchful eye and rejoined my mother and sister in the kitchen.

I walked into the room in time to hear Brittney say, “She said she’s been seeing him for a few months. I think she really likes him. If things continue to go this well, she may bring him down the next time she comes.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Pace,” she said, referring to our sister Payson. Pace wouldn’t be here tonight because she could only afford to make the trip from Tucson, where she lived, about once every month or six weeks, and this wasn’t one of those weeks.

“That’ll be nice, I look forward to meeting her new guy. She hasn’t brought anyone home in quite a while.” I went back washing the dishes that had been used.

“It will be good to see her, and him, too, if she decides to bring him,” Mom said. “I miss you all when you’re not around.”

“I told her to bring him, that we’d like to meet him, so who knows if she will,” Britt continued. “And I think Cam’s serious about Janelle. Like maybe ring serious.” Cam was Cameron, one of our brothers; he had been seeing Janelle for a couple of years. Currently, Brittney was the only one of us kids who’d married or had kids, and she’d been eager since she found wedded bliss to see the rest of us that way.

A few minutes later, right at six o’clock, Raine walked in the front door. He made the rounds, kissing Mom and hugging Britt and I before he went into the living room to see everyone there. But after just a few minutes, he came back into the kitchen. He insisted Mom have a seat and just visit while he took over her share of the dinner prep. 

I stopped what I was doing and stood looking at my brother. Something was different about him but I couldn’t put my finger on it. He looked the same as he normally did. His long dark hair was pulled back in a neat braid that hung half way down his back. His face had the rounded features of those with predominantly European ancestry, except for his chiseled cheekbones, though his skin was much darker. It was obvious, at least to me, that he had a mixed heritage. I’d never been able to figure out exactly what mixture, but then I’d never actually asked either. I kept my attention on him too long and he noticed.

“What’s up, trouble?” he asked, using an old family nickname. 

“I’m not sure…” I continued to look at him. “Something’s different but I can’t place it.” That grabbed my mother and Brit’s attention and they started trying to spot some difference in Raine. 

“Don’t know what it could be, nothing’s changed. I haven’t even changed shampoos in months,” he lifted one brow as he looked at me.

“I don’t know either, but I know it’s something.”

“I can’t see anything different, Nickie,” Mom said.

“Me either,” Brittney put in.

It suddenly occurred to me that maybe it wasn’t that something about him had changed but that I was now picking up something I’d always missed. That perhaps I’m the one who had changed. 

“I’m probably just imagining it,” I let the topic drop and went about setting the table for dinner. I finished filling the glasses and cups with ice while Brittney set the roast and sides on the table and Raine added the salad and dressing. 

Cameron showed up just as we were about to call the rest of the family to the table. He was just late enough that Dad would chew him out about it later. Like a typical sibling, I was just glad it wasn’t me who was in line for that ass chewing. 

I hugged Cam hello, noting the scent of leather, which seemed to come from his skin, and the sweat from his day, which was a thin coating over it. It made me think back and realize when I had hugged Raine I had smelled leather, but it was different. It wasn’t his scent, it was just the scent of the leather he spent so much time carrying as part of his uniform. Raine’s skin had had an almond scent to it, the sharp tang of sage mixed with the gentler milder aroma of oregano, and again I wondered exactly what it was about him that seemed so different now. 

We gathered around the table and took our seats, my father bowed his head and blessed the meal before we all dug in. 

“I’m sorry I was so late, I planned to be here earlier but got called in this morning. I got off with just enough time to rush home and change. If I had been five minutes later, I would have shown up in my uniform,” Cam said.

“I thought you were supposed to be off today?” Mom asked. 

“I was, but there was a three-car accident coming off the mountain and they called me in to help cover.”

“That’s too bad, anyone we know?”

“Nah, no one local, and no fatalities, but they had to fly a couple out to Tucson. They’ll probably live but they were pretty bad off.”

“So, what happened?” Cam asked.

“Driver thought he knew a lot more about mountain driving than he did. and I was stuck behind the backup the accident caused.” 

I heard a voice in my head, I wish we could talk about something happier during dinner. 

“How’s Janelle?” I turned to Cam.

“She’s good, I would have brought her tonight but she just got off an eighteen-hour shift and she was so tired she was slurring her words,” Cam said.

“I’m sure that a good night’s sleep will set her right, eighteen hours is a long shift,” Mom put in.

“It is, someone called in sick and she stayed to cover their shift. The money’s good but it exhausts you.”

We had a good meal and used the time to catch up with each other. Shiloh was still in Flagstaff, going to school. She had opted to take a summer class and stay there to make it a little bit faster to get her degree. It also meant that she could have her pick of apartments in the area when most of the other students cleared out for the summer. This meant she wouldn’t be at dinner that night, or much at all for a while yet. I guess, now that we were adults with lives of our own, four out of six wasn’t a bad average for Sunday dinner, but I did miss my sisters and I’d be glad when they were both home again. 

I always enjoyed Sunday evenings with my family, but it felt off tonight. I think it was mostly that I wanted to tell them the latest with me. I knew I couldn’t and I was afraid even if I could, how would they react? I was having a hard-enough time dealing with what I was learning about myself, they would think I was losing my mind. I wanted to share, but knew I couldn’t, at least not yet.