Shifting Hearts

Chapter 11 - Witch Hunt

My mind was still trying to process the information, but I had a good excuse. It's really too early for this kind of thing. Cooper rolled off of me and onto his feet before shaking the sleep off of his fur. The small, brown wolf pup was now darting around the room sniffing things and I got the feeling this version of Dylan may or may not be housebroken yet.

"No, Dylan! Bad!" I scolded while unsuccessfully trying to escape the confines of the beanbag. Grunting in frustration, I turned to Cooper and pointed at his little brother.

"Get him out of here before he has an accident. And I don't care if you're a wolf; you will be the one cleaning it up."

The giant alpha grumbled angrily, and I could almost hear him saying something about being the alpha and not having to lower himself to that level. So, I just leveled him with a signature 'you're-sleeping-by-yourself-tonight' look and he scrambled to his paws. He trotted over to where Dylan was sniffing the TV and grabbed him by the scruff. The pup protested angrily as he's lifted off the ground and was left dangling from his brother's jaws, but Cooper growled impatiently at him and Dylan fell moodily silent. Cooper threw me a put-upon look before padding out of the room towards the front door, jaws clenched firmly into the wriggling pup's scruff.

I turned towards where Sean was standing drowsily, and Katie was falling back asleep on the couch.

Huffing, I grabbed a pillow and chucked it at her head. My aim was perfect, and the ginger girl groaned and lifted her head to look at me.

"We have to fix this," I told her.

"Can't we just wait a couple more hours to fix it, though? I mean, what's wrong with being stuck in wolf mode? They usually wander around like that anyway," Katie mumbled as she stretched.

As an answer, Sean licked her, and she squealed and batted at his nose.

"Fine! This will probably just wear off in a little bit anyway. No need for a witch hunt."

I shook my head, "We can't be sure, and we also don't know if there are any other side effects of the spell."

I hauled myself up and grabbed Katie's wrist to drag her up the stairs. I pulled her into the rooms where my clothes were and shut the door in Sean's face. I smirked as I heard an indignant yelp behind the door.

"No wolves allowed!" I called as I strode over to the drawers and grabbed an outfit. I pulled the plaid shirt over my head and stepped clumsily into a pair of jean shorts. I still wasn't used to these clothes, and I squirmed slightly in the stiffer fabric.

Katie was wearing a blouse and jeans with her sneakers peeking out from under the boot-cut denim.

She looked pointedly down at my bare feet.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to put shoes on?"

I blinked at her before answering slowly, "No...?"

Katie sighed loudly but let it go. "Come on, ya' hippie." She turned and disappeared downstairs as I stood with my arms crossed. Why would anyone want to wear shoes? They're so confining and annoying and you can't feel anything that the earth is trying to tell you.

A scream pierced the air and I sprinted downstairs, going two steps at a time. I rounded the corner and pushed through the door to see Katie lying on the ground with Sean standing over her, growling at some of the other wolves who were gathered in the grass between the house and the barn.

"Sean!" I yelled. I ran over to the silver wolf but skidded to a stop when he turned to me with a snarl that exposed his fangs.

None of the men had ever threatened me, so I didn't know why he was acting this way.