Page 27 of Midlife Wolf Captured My Heart

“It’s great to see you.” John extended his hand, which Dakota shook.

“Good to see you as well. How is retirement treating you?”

“I’m busier now than I was when I was alpha. My wife has me doing a million different chores. Plus, there are a lot of duties I still have for the pack. One of the upsides, though, is that I don’t have to attend a million meetings. I really hated those.”

“I imagine that they would get tedious.”

“Can I buy you a drink?”

Dakota shook his head. “I’m just having tea for now.”

“Two teas it is.” John waved at Jade and asked for the drinks. “How does it feel to be a celebrity in your hometown?”

“It’s a little awkward. Sometimes, I get people who recognize me in other cities and places. They only know me because they are animal lovers, biology buffs, and are enthusiastic about my work. It’s different here because a lot of people actually know who I am. I left a nobody and came back a star.”

“That’s the price of fame, I guess. Why didn’t you ever come back?”

Dakota hesitated for a minute, trying to decide whether to be honest with him. Then, he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “To be honest, I never felt as though I belonged. It’s almost like I have an imposter syndrome. I’ve always struggled to shift, and I always felt like an outsider.”

“I know exactly how you feel, but for a different reason.”

Dakota looked at him, shocked. “You are loved and accepted by everyone. I was a couple of years behind you, but I remember that you always had a group of people around you.”

John shook his head. “It was all superficial. When you are born to be the alpha, everyone treats you differently. Sure, you have friends and acquaintances, but except for your best friend, you never know who is trying to use you. Everyone always treated me with kid gloves, like they were afraid that I would banish them. Half the time I couldn’t tell who was my true friend and who was simply sucking up to me. Plus, I had to act a certainway. It was as though everyone was watching my every move and if I so much as breathed wrong, people would pounce.”

“I can see that. After I left, the stress of trying to fit in rolled off my shoulders. I didn’t have to live up to other people’s expectations. Outside of Angel’s Creek, I was just Dakota Higgins, photographer. Plus, after my parents died, there was nothing to hold me here.”

John nodded. “I envy you a little. There were a lot of times that I was incredibly overwhelmed and I wanted nothing more than to walk away from it all. Unfortunately, I was stuck. It had been ingrained in my mind that I had a duty to the pack.”

“I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. It gives me a different perspective on the same situation.”

“Everyone has their own struggles, regardless of where they stand in life.” John looked at Dakota speculatively. “I wonder if your issue with shifting is related to the fact that your paternal grandfather was human. You might have inherited enough of those recessive genes that make shifting difficult.”

Dakota’s eyes opened wide and he stared at John for a minute. “I didn’t know he was a mundane human. He died when I was a baby and no one ever talked about him. I just assumed he was like the rest of us.”

“No. He was actually passing through Angel’s Creek and met your grandmother atHowlers’.He never left.”

“Very interesting.” Dakota rubbed his chin as his mind tried to process the information.

“You know, the people who really matter in your life won’t care whether you can shift easily or not. They’ll love you for who you are.”

“True enough.”

John changed the subject. “It’s been almost thirty years since you left? Has Angel’s Creek changed any?”

“Nope. A couple of business names changed and there are new faces waiting tables here, but other than that, I think the town was frozen in time.”

“It might be. We’re just the same people doing the same things we’ve always done. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing.”

“I honestly think that it’s a good thing. People in the rest of the world have changed a lot, and not all of it has been for the good. A lot of people have forgotten common courtesy. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ are words of the past. Everyone is in such a rush to do whatever it is they need to do that they don’t care about who gets in their way. Angel’s Creek is still a community. Even the mundane humans, who certainly know about the shifters who live in the area, are a part of the community. They just accept people for who they are.”

“Why would you want to leave all of this?”

Dakota grinned. “Because animals have the purest souls of all. It’s an honor and a privilege to be around them.”

“I can understand that.” His phone buzzed. “Duty calls. It was good talking to you, Dakota.”

“Take care.”

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