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Violet
"Arabella, come on. It's time for us to go home."
Violet’s six-year-old daughter Arabella hopped right back into the rushing water of the stream.
The sun was hot, and Arabella liked splashing in the water.
Currently, Arabella was in her wolf form. They were in a remote area far enough out that no humans would accidentally stumble upon them and get spooked. Violet did not want to draw attention to them with a small gray wolf pup hopping in and out of the fresh clear water.
Arabella let out a sharp barking sound. She knew better than to get too loud.
“Yes. I know you're having fun, but it's time to get back.” At night, they all circled the wagons so to speak. There were all kinds of creatures that would be happy to discover them. She had to make sure she could keep her daughter safe.
There was a flash of movement and Arabella was a little girl again. Sometimes she looked so much like Tristan that it was uncanny. Even after six years, it still caught Violet off guard. Violet tossed a sundress at her daughter, and Arabella tugged it on. Too late, she realized the dress was inside out. Oh well.
Although the heat did not affect them in the same way it did humans, their natural wolf habitat was a much colder climate. They thrived in snow and could easily live out on the tundra. Several months in Arizona's scorching dry heat was enough.
Violet had been lucky to find a group of people who were like-minded. They did not want a traditional pack. They did not care about pack roles. They didn't consider a male’s opinion any more valid than a female’s. Her original two friends, Angelina and Onyx, had stuck with her and now there were fifteen of them total in the pseudo-pack. There were twelve adults and three children. Although there was another baby on the way soon enough, which Arabella was very excited about.
They'd been discussing where to go for a few weeks. No one had narrowed it down. Until tonight.
Austin got the fire blazing and then he sat down. "I have our new place if everyone's agreeable."
"Where is it?" Violet asked.
"Alaska."
Violet froze. They'd all avoided Alaska so far because of her. They all knew that's where her original pack was from. They all knew that's where Violet’s father was from. And they had respected skipping Alaska as a possible home – until now.
Austin flipped a rock over in his hands. "Violet, I know how you feel. But it's been six years. Actually, it’s been seven, and it's a great place for us. Just think about it, okay?”
She swallowed hard. "Okay. What's the opportunity?"
“A friend of mine knows someone with a commercial fishing boat there. They need help, and all of us are qualified. We can make a little money and save up."
She knew he was right. It was a job they were well suited for. They'd all been brainstorming for weeks about a new home, even going into town to use the library's computer. They'd spent a few months not working and just taking some time off in the desert. But now their bank account was dwindling. Traveling took money. Human money, whether they liked it or not.
"What town?"
“Not far off the coast of Cordova.”
Cordova. That was not where Tristan lived. He lived further north, not on the coast. She imagined the map in her head. Tristan would not be going out on a fishing boat in southeast Alaska.
Austin held his hands out wide. “Alaska is huge. It's not like it's the size of Vermont. We’re not going to run into anyone you know. If by some horrible chance we do, then we'll get you out of there." He patted her knee. "Trust us."
It was still hard for her. They all had their own reasons for not belonging to a pack, but she was still the most skittish out of all of them.
She certainly wasn't the only shifter with trauma in her past, but some days that's how it felt. It felt like it had been harder for her to let go than it had for the rest of them.
But this was a good opportunity to prove to them that she was trying to move on with her life. She had been the one to insist on moving every few months and never putting down roots. The rest of them had liked the idea so they'd gone with it.
They’d liked it so much they’d kept up the pattern until they had fifteen steady members. Every now and then they'd collected someone who wanted to settle down and quit roaming, and they said goodbye with fondness.
Violet didn't always like packing up and starting over, but she needed it. It did something for her; it made her feel complete. Each time she stuffed her clothes into her pack and rolled her tent up, she felt a surge of energy and a rush of gratefulness to the universe.
She was thankful that she was not accountable to anyone else’s plan. That she lived under no one's rules. She was the only person making her rules, and she was free to go any time. The reason she and Arabella were still with her small pack was because she chose to stay. No one else. That gave her a piece of mind and security that belonging to a large, established pack would never grant her.
Of course, sometimes Arabella complained. At the last camping area she'd met a bear shifter cub. She'd wanted to stay and live there for good. She’d cried, pleaded, and begged. She was still too young to understand why it was necessary for them to keep moving. Why her mother refused to have ties to any one place or group.
But in time, Violet would tell her. And then her daughter would understand.
