Solace

Chapter 4

Iris

A week later, after Iris had just brushed her teeth and exited the bathroom, she saw another dead animal at her door. It was a beaver this time. She squinted her eyes at it and saw a pack member snigger as she walked past. Confusion growing, she lifted it and carried it outside to bury it.

She found a nice spot next to the rabbit she had buried earlier and dug up a hole big enough for it, laid the beaver in it, and put the soil back on top. Wiping her hands on her jeans, she walked back to the house where she found Noah, tripping over a fold in the carpet, so she quickly ran to catch him in her arms.

"Noah! Are you okay?" She asked after setting him down on his feet.

"Pretty lady! Yup! I'm alright! Do you wanna see something awesome?" he exclaimed, the near-fall already forgotten.

"Uh, sure."

"Look!" He quickly shed his clothes—which shouldn't have shocked Iris but it did—and shifted into the small blonde wolf. Then—Iris nearly let out a giggle—he started chasing his tail like a dog.

See? It's awesome, right? Hold on! A few more round and lo and behold, he caught his tail. Look! I did it I did it!

"You sure did, kid. Good job!" Iris clapped and beamed at the cub, still spinning around madly.

"Don't encourage him, Iris!" Luke came from the office and picked Noah up, "He isn't supposed to do that inside! Isn't that right, Noah?"

Uhhh I forgot? Thanks for the reminder, Papa! He licked at his dad eagerly.

"Okay, play time's over, shift back, Noah, and put your clothes on. We're about to leave. Remember how Daddy and I told you we're going to drive to town today?" Luke said as he deposited the boy on the ground mid-shift.

"Yeah! We're gonna buy some new clothes for me!" Noah started putting his clothes on eagerly.

"Excited for the full moon tonight, Iris?" Luke turned to her.

Iris had been at the pack for a bit over a month now, but she had missed the first full moon after getting too anxious to run with so many wolves at once. Tonight was the first full moon she had promised everyone she'd join and the pack had been elated.

"Yes, I haven't run on one in years. I used to run with my mom and dad and my brother, but they were never the proper kind. The kind with a pack." Iris looked at Luke's brown eyes, filled with sympathy.

"How did that work? Not having a pack, I mean. How did you all not turn into Omegas?" Luke carefully asked.

"I don't know."

And she didn't. She had never had an Alpha before if she could even call Alex that. He didn't feel like her Alpha, not in the traditional sense at least. He was more on an equal footing to her, she had never felt the need to bare her neck at him.

Her dad had taken the role of an Alpha without being one. His eyes never flashed red, only the orange of a Beta, just like the rest of the family. Her dad would growl at them, sometimes even making them bare their necks at him by forcefully grabbing their heads. But it was all done from love, Iris knew. Her dad loved the family, he would have never done anything to harm them. He kept them together even when there was no Alpha around and she was grateful for that.

"Well, I'm glad you made it here without turning feral. You're a good person, Iris." Luke grabbed her nape and gently pressed down; an act many of the wolves did. They loved physical affection, whether that be lying in a pile together on the floor, sitting close together on meals, or holding others' napes.

The grabbing of the nape meant trust and love and caring. It meant family and safety, and Iris loved each time someone did it. For some reason, Alex had never done it for her, when it was usually the Alpha of the pack who was doing it to others. Iris would be lying if she said she didn't feel disappointed about it, but she had never asked him why he refused to do it, scared of sounding desperate. Maybe one day, she wistfully thought.