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"Oh yeah, Christmas. " Jake rolled his eyes. It wasn't sugarplums running through his head, not with the full moon only hours away.
"What did you ask Santa for, Jake?"
"Huh?" He looked away from his game of WarCraft for a second, which was enough to blow his chance for a high score. "Shit!"
"Language!" said a voice from the kitchen.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"I'm sure Santa won't mind you saying one bad word," Ruby said, trying to make him feel better.
"Yeah, maybe not," Jake said, wondering if she was jerking his chain. Did the kid really still believe in the guy in the red suit? She was nearly nine, for freak's sake. Of course, Ruby had been raised in a real house with a real family - so real it was scary - while he'd been shuffled from foster home to foster home. It hadn't taken him long to realize that he didn't need to bother sending change-of-address cards to the North Pole.
"So what did you ask him for?" Ruby persisted.
He hadn't asked for anything. It hadn't occurred to him. "Um . . . It's kind of a secret. "
"Like when you don't tell anybody your birthday wish?"
"Yeah, like that. "
"Mom said it's okay to tell Christmas wishes, because sometimes Santa Claus can't get me everything on my list, so Mom and Dad have to help. Didn't your mother tell you that?"
"Ruby!" the voice from the kitchen chided.
Ruby put a hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry, Jake. I forgot!"
"It's okay," he said, and it was. "I don't really remember her anyway. " The only memory he thought he had was a vague one of her scent. "I'm used to it. "
"Besides, you have us now," Ruby said, putting her hand on his arm. "We're going to have the best Christmas ever!"
"Dam . . . Darned straight!" He wasn't some loser on his own anymore - he had a home, and a pack to watch his back. The full moon was on the way, and with it, his first honest-to-God, away-from-school-grounds run. Knowing that had been making him antsy all day long - if he'd been in wolf form, his tail would have been whipping around like crazy.
Felicia, Ruby's mother, came out from the kitchen with a well-filled plate. "Cookies!" she said brightly.
One whiff, and Jake was happy to put down the joystick. He reached for an iced gingerbread man and chomped on the head with even more gusto than he would have before finding out what he really was.
"Do you want to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with me, Jake?" Ruby asked around a mouth of crumbs.
"Yeah, as if I wanted to watch a prey species prancing around. " Reindeer were for eating.
Felicia didn't have to speak, just gave him a look, and he saw Ruby was looking half-confused, half-troubled.
"I mean CLAY species," he said. "You know, made of clay. That's why they call it claymation. "
Ruby still wasn't convinced, and Felicia said, "No time for Rudolph right now. We're going to put out the manger scene. You can help, too, Jake. "
"Sure, if you want. " Not only did she make awesome cookies, but it was always a good idea to stay on the good side of the pack's alpha female.
Brian came down the stairs from his trip to the attic, carrying a dusty cardboard box, and Jake was amazed once again that anybody could look so boring in human form, yet so freaking cool as a wolf. He was just this guy, in a college T-shirt and jeans.
"Are you ready for me?" Brian stopped at the archway into the living room, trying for casual.
"Mistletoe!" Ruby exclaimed and rushed over. He put down the box to pick her up and plant a kiss on her cheek.
Then Felicia joined Brian under the mistletoe, and after she'd been thoroughly kissed, she turned to look at Jake. He held up one hand and said, "Thanks, but I'll pass. "
Brian just grinned. Despite being pack leader, he was a pretty good guy. He'd been the one to track Jake down and spring him from the system to get him into Dogwarts, the boarding school where packs taught the young werewolves the ins and outs of their world. Of course the school had some innocuous formal name to throw humans off the scent, but none of the kids used it.
