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And something about being surrounded by so many young pups actually unnerved Luna. It was an unlikely sight to Luna.
“Hey, Adrian didn’t say you could have seconds, Jenna!”
A small, button-nosed pup with bushy hair poked and prodded the girl named Jenna, who had just moments ago teased Luna.
“He said we could have what we wanted. There’ll be more bacon.”
“Nuh-uh!”
Luna noticed the girl’s mood was shifting from well-intentioned, but irritating, teasing, to annoyance, into fury. For his part, the boy wouldn’t stop poking her, even reaching over to try to grab a piece of bacon for himself.
It took Luna back to her childhood and the monthly pack dinners where children were staunchly reprimanded for teasing other children or losing their temper. Luna had seen firsthand that these interactions could end very badly.
Luna began to panic, having seen the ire of provoked pups. She watched as the girl’s pigtails shifted, becoming matted fur, and her face became that of a small wolf. The change was almost surreal, but Luna was more put off by the indifferent expressions of everybody at the table.
Shouldn’t they be handling this?
The young girl-turned-wolf snarled at the boy, who was now trying to take the bacon off her plate.
Adrian coughed to speak up, and Luna felt like things were suddenly more natural, though she feared what would happen next. She feared the wrath of an alpha, having lost control of his pack. She wondered what kind of strong disciplinary measures Adrian might take.
But no discipline came.
“Now, now,” Adrian said rather calmly. “You don’t want to upset our guest, do you? There’s plenty of food to go around.”
Luna looked with wide eyes from the girl, who had resorted to shifting into wolf form, to the young boy, who watched in a panic, drawing his hand back slowly from her plate.
It looked like the situation could escalate. He could imagine the young wolf biting the boy’s hand off or perhaps shifting himself to put them on a fair footing.
So she was surprised as the girl’s voice, in wolf form, entered her mind.
“Sorry …”
And rather than shifting back into human form, the girl pup sat beside her plate, licking it in wolf form.
Adrian chuckled, shaking his head as he regarded Luna. “I apologize. The pups can get a little out of hand sometimes.”
In disbelief, Luna shook her head. She had never seen pups transform in public like that without becoming a danger to the community. The children of the pack, herself excluded, were forbidden from transforming at public gatherings for fear that they might not be able to control their lupine side.
“How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
She didn’t know how to explain her amazement that the confrontation was casually de-escalated without so much as a scuffle.
“You’re all … very well-behaved.”
At first, Adrian looked as though Luna had grown an extra head, utterly unsure of what was so strange about the situation. Then, his eyes brightened with realization, their gold sheen enchanting her.
“Oh, right,” Adrian said. “I like to give the members of my pack the benefit of the doubt. I have faith in my pups.”
He reached over and patted Jenna on top of the head. She shook her head into his hand, enjoying the attention.
“Just like that? There’s no punishment, or discipline, or anything,” Luna asked, unable to contain her curiosity.
She thought back to how she had been poked and prodded when she changed in public as a youth and how she had been shamed for it, locked away with no dinner.
“Just like that,” Adrian said indifferently, then addressed the confusion in Luna’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m just not used to how other packs do things.”
