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Honey stopped the car in the driveway of her home. She unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to face Dani. “Sometimes being an omega is more about perceived flaws and weaknesses than actual ones.”
“You mean because my shift is a prey animal? I worry about what the pack will think about my shifted form.”
She scoffed. “I can’t imagine it being an issue. First of all, you’re a mate, and mates are precious to the males in the pack. Even as an honorary member, you would still be entitled to the same safeguards and protections as every other member. It won’t matter to the males what you shift into, and a lot of that is because you’re a female. Females are automatically omegas. Now, if you were a male and the wolf was a female? Then maybe some of the pack would give the female a hard time for having a mate who’s prey.”
“Because in wolf thinking, the male should be the strongest?”
She nodded. “Exactly. I’ve seen natural deer fight back with their hooves and horns, so I’m not sure I think that just because you’re a prey animal that you’re helpless. But wolf males tend to think in terms of black and white as far as what is acceptable and what isn’t. Adam’s scars actually do affect how he moves in his shifted form. That matters to the males, and to an extent the females too. Males want to know that the male at their back is as strong as them, and able to fight if necessary. Females want to be with the strongest male. Being a truemate trumps all that ancient bullshit in my mind, though.”
Dani hummed in her throat. “I’m glad Adam’s not embarrassed by me.”
“He’d be an idiot if he was, and an asshole to boot.” There was a brief pause and then Honey said, “Jer is anon. Or, he was.”
“What’s a ‘non’?”
“A full-blooded wolf who can’t shift. When he was very emotional, he could sprout fur, but that was about it. That made him bottom-tier of the wolf pack. Adam’s scars make him an omega because he can’t run as fast in his shift as others. But you know what I think?”
“What?”
“I see how he looks at you. If you were in trouble, nothing would slow him down. I think packs start to see the laws as the be-all and end-all of life. They forget that underneath the laws are the people who are affected by them. Is Kammie less of a wolf because she has scars from childhood abuse? Is Jer less of a wolf because he’s a strange hybrid scary-movie-monster wolf? Or Adam because he’s got scars from a fire? Hell no. This is what Jer and I like to call hierarchy bullshit.”
Dani chuckled. “The sleuth didn’t have a hierarchy like that. It was just the king. Everyone did what he said, and everyone pitched in.”
“It would be cool if the pack was like that, but I think that in spite of the archaic laws there is something good about it. I think the laws have a place.”
“They remind us that we’re not human,” Dani offered.
“Exactly. Now,” she said, clapping her hands together, “are you ready to clean a kitchen and bundle up some old newspapers?”
“You bet.”
The two left the warm car and walked down the street to the home of a widowed she-wolf named Esrami. Honey knocked loudly several times and then opened the door.
“Ez? Are you decent?” Honey called.
“I’mneverdecent,” a woman answered.
Dani chuckled. She and Honey draped their coats over the kitchen chairs as they walked through into the family room, where a fire blazed brightly in the fireplace and a woman, gray hair piled high on her head, sat with fabric in her lap.
Honey bent and hugged the woman. “Esrami, this is Dani. She’s Adam Cruz’s mate.”
Esrami pulled her reading glasses off and looked up at Dani. “Well, hello. You’re a reindeer?”
“Wow, you can tell that so quickly?” Dani asked.
Esrami touched her nose. “Eyesight goes, but the nose sticks around. It’s nice to meet you.”
Dani shook Esrami’s hand. Honey pulled a chair over and said, “I’m going to start working on the kitchen. You talk to Ez. She’s a hoot. I’ll make some hot chocolate.”
“A hot toddy would be better,” Esrami told her.
“It’s too early to drink,” Honey said.
The old woman harrumphed. “Fine, I’ll wait until you leave and have two.”
Dani laughed. “What are you working on?”
Esrami blinked jade-green eyes at Dani and smiled. “I’m making a quilt for Honey and Jeremiah, for their first pup.”
