Page 1 of Reformed Wolf

Chapter 1

Tristan

The plump, brown-speckled hen flapped her wings and launched herself at my face with an angry ba-gawk! as she slipped through the gap in the fence. While I was distracted by protecting my face, she hurtled straight for the garden as fast as her little clawed feet would carry her. I ran after her, knowing if she got into the garden where the spring’s early sprouts were just pushing up through the soil, she could easily cost us future meals.

“Martha, get your fluffy ass back here!” I shouted at the damn bird. I was usually pretty good about not cursing around our pack’s newest member, but these damn chickens were the bane of my existence. My blood pressure was spiking.

“Ass!” Malachi repeated with the unfettered delight only a toddler learning a new swear word could manage. “Ass, ass, ass!”

My Alpha, Shan, shot me a look. “Seriously, dude. Brody’s gonna kick your ass.”

“Ass!” Mal chirped again, and Shan winced when he realized he’d said it too. I smirked at him. Now his mate would kick both our asses.

I managed to catch the flailing bird at the last possible second and pinned her under my arm. “It’s not my fault you guys decided to have the first baby in a pack full of young, virile, swearing, fornicating wolves.” I waggled my eyebrows at him. “You knew what kind of influence we would be when you decided to start a family.”

“Speak for yourself,” Jude grumbled, plucking Mal off the ground and hefting him up to sit on his broad shoulders. “I’ll have you know I’m a great influence.”

“It’s true, he is,” Shan agreed, laughing.

Jude was our unofficial second Beta, but he would never admit it. He wasn’t much one for taking credit. He just had a tendency to step up when we needed him most.

The young pup gripped Jude’s hair in tiny chubby fists and squealed in delight. “Joo-Joo! Run!” he demanded, kicking his little legs, dimples on his knees. Jude, already totally whipped by the rugrat, did exactly as instructed and trotted around the clearing in the center of camp.

Watching them caused an ache to pulse in my chest. It was an image that reminded me of the pack I’d grown up in, surrounded by love and family. My moms had been the absolute best at making me laugh like that, big belly laughs. They would tickle me until I was rolling around on the ground, tears streaming down my face as I begged for them to stop—while also hoping they wouldn’t. And after my first shift, they taught me to hunt by playing hide-and-seek and tag as our wolves through the forest. And when Bianca was born, they gave me the greatest gift, being a big brother.

They would’ve been amazing grandparents…

I cleared my throat roughly, trying to dislodge the boulder doing its best to choke me, and deposited Martha back into her pen, making sure the fence was properly closed. Passing Shan the basket of eggs I’d collected, I asked, “So, boss, what have you got for me today?” My eyes still burned a little with the threat of tears, and I was sure Shan could tell the emotion I was doing my level best to brush off. Our grief was shared, after all.

Thankfully, he didn’t press for me to talk about it. That was why he was not only my Alpha but my best friend. Instead, he cuffed me on the back of the neck and pulled me in. “My cabin’s got a leaky roof with your name on it. In fact, if memory serves, I’m pretty sure you were the one who put the shingles on the cabin roof the first time, and that was only a few years ago…”

I rolled my eyes. “Geez, it’s like you think I have even a trace of construction knowledge. You get what you pay for—oh wait, you don’t pay me. Go figure,” I sassed.

Jude paused on his way by. “Hey, while you’re making renovations to his cabin, can you add a layer of soundproofing to his walls? I can’t handle listening to the two of them going at it anymore.”

“If you don’t like it, you should find your own mate,” Shan said, arching a brow. I could tell he regretted the words immediately, when Jude’s face fell a little. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine,” he grumbled. Nobody wanted a mate more than Jude did, but so far, nobody had managed to get past his gruff outer layer.

Malachi started pummeling his tiny feet against Jude’s chest. “More, Joo-Joo! More!” he demanded, and off they went.

I could sense Shan’s regret and knew he’d be kicking himself for a while. “I’m gonna be sad when your son finally learns how to pronounce Jude’s name,” I said, trying to keep things light.

“Yeah…” He sighed.

I bumped him with my shoulder. “Hey, you can’t force fate to deliver him the perfect mate. It’ll happen when it’s meant to happen.”

“I know, but I didn’t have to rub salt in the wound.”

Nudging him toward his cabin, I decided distraction was the best tactic. It always worked for me, anyway. “Come on. You’d better show me this leak while Mal is busy.”

After climbing around on the roof with a hammer and a few leftover shingles, I had no choice but to shrug and call it good. Only time would tell if I’d fixed it or not, but there would be a spring storm soon enough to test it out.

In our old pack, we’d had tons of experienced builders, but I hadn’t taken any time to learn their skills. Just like with most things in life, I’d taken them for granted, assuming that they’d be around to teach me later. Now, the knowledge was lost, along with all our loved ones.

Ideally, we would hire a company of professionals to come out and help, but it wasn’t so easy when you were a pack of wolf shifters living off the land in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Humans asked questions, and there was no answer we could give that wouldn’t have them assuming we were some weird-ass cult, and word would absolutely get around. The whole point of us living out here was to stay hidden.

“How’s it look?” Shan asked with that naked trust he’d completely misplaced in me.

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