Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 85: Grace: Wild Child

I reach for the fluttering brown sparrow darting through the room, but my fingers close on empty air as Bun zips toward the ceiling.

"Damn. You were so close," Ron says.

"Yeah, damn," Jer echoes.

Sara sighs. "You’re not supposed to use bad words."

Meanwhile, I’m waving my hands frantically as I shout, "Bun, please come down!"

The tiny bird chirps manically, wings beating frantically in hunger-induced chaos. She’s been shifting nonstop for twenty minutes—from bunny to kitten to fish (a terrifying thirty seconds of flopping), and now this. My heart hammers against my ribs even as I wonder how a toddler who can barely walk a straight line has already figured out flying.

"She’s losing it," Ron says beside me, craning his neck upward. "The pizza’s taking too long."

Jer nods grimly. "Sugar crash. Plus she’s still growing."

He sounds so wise, but I don’t think her growth has anything to do with her current state of mania.

I watch helplessly as the little brown bird dives toward a particularly threatening-looking piece of wall. "Can’t you guys do something?"

Sara crosses her arms, shaking her head. "She’s too fast. Last time she went bird, Owen had to use a net."

"And Sara can’t figure out how to fly, so she’s useless," Jer adds.

"Shut up, Jer!"

The sparrow swoops directly over our heads, chirping what sounds suspiciously like swear words. Except she’s a toddler, and I’m pretty sure she only knows about fifteen actual words.

Ron sighs, sounding so resigned, you’d think he was asked to work overtime. "I’ll get her."

His transformation happens in a blink—one second he’s a gangly preteen boy with messy hair and eyes too old for his face, the next he’s a young gorilla, his fur glossy black.

My jaw drops.

with a shrug. "Ron can turn into anything. Well, with

powerful hands finding invisible holds in the rock. Sparrow Bun flutters in panicked circles as he approaches, her tiny heart probably racing twice as fast

call out uselessly, my hands

beak open as she trembles. Do birds pant?

Gorilla Ron’s massive hand cups around the tiny bird. She pecks at his fingers, but he doesn’t flinch, just

ground, carefully extending his palm toward me.

a bright red apple in her hand. "Look, Bird Bun! Food! Want the yummy apple?

barely has time to set

tiny palms. "Here, eat this before you transform into a freaking pterodactyl!"

with momentary satisfaction—before her face scrunches up in disgust. She hurls the apple

every surface, amplified by the

shift again, lifting her squirming body against my chest. Her back arches in my arms like something possessed, her spine bending at angles

contain her flailing limbs as she twists, doing her baby damnedest

mouth and eyes wide with horror. "Oh my Goddess, Bun, stop! The Lycan

in my

forearm, and I bite back

the ceiling. "We’re doomed. Ron, can you turn into a

pizza—"

and Bun are both dressed,

hisses, like I’m not

rolls his eyes. "Don’t be so dramatic, Sara. She’s not

is!" Sara insists, backing further away from me

moment when Jer jumps in, rounding on Ron. "Dude, don’t you pay any attention? The King wiped out an entire

intervene in the escalating, inaccurate facts being thrown about, but every time I open my mouth, another kid’s shouting

hundred wolves because one

over Bun’s continued screaming. "Caine didn’t—I mean, he did kill some of my pack, but

all stare at me with

Ron.