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Rand chuckled "We don't have more than three or four in a litter, but that's still a lot It's why having pack members is critical at that time When she does the shift, the event is planned All hands are on deck to help with the transition There's a celebration Like a birthday party for the pups, an accolade to the mother and her ood It ets a chance to be parents, even if they can't conceive or bring a litter to term"

"So when do they shift back to wolves again?" Cai asked His questions about less personal aspects of Rand's life was giving Rand more space to breathe Maybe he didn't have to talk about the other stuff He laid his spinning head back on the tree behind him

"About five years old They shift back and forth with no control, which et a handle on it That happens around puberty Most pups are home schooled until they reach their teens Until then, stress or unpleasant eain avoiding the dark chasm that waited beyond it

"Once they learn control, what's to stop the it to iers"

"Yes, but far e If you think about it, a non-shifter wolf lives to be soh life is on theevity, there's a certain level of accelerated maturation for pups A thirteen-year-old shifter is about a decade ahead of their human counterparts, at least in impulse control The bond with the parents is also extre They defer to theh to establish an adult role in the pack"

"Ah" Cai shifted, lacing his fingers behind his head Bare-chested and bathed by firelight, it increased the distraction effect Things probably weren't helped by Rand's nakedness, where every reaction he had to the vampire was all the more noticeable But Cai hadn't offered him clothes, and seee

Rand'sRand's thoughts, but his expression gave nothing away Holding the upper hand The vampire was just donificance of it, the gravity that attended such dominance Which hy Rand resented his own reaction to it, the craving it opened in hied by grief and alcohol to care

"Want to come sit over here?" Cai asked

Rand shook his head "Time for you to tell your sob story"

"Let "

"You're avoiding"

"Maybe But I find you farthan me Where were you born?"

Rand gave him a look, but relented It was an easier question "Colorado Lost my parents early, car crash But the new alpha of the pack, my father's beta Sylvan, did okay for a while He had Sheba, his alpha feh as nails Dylef was accepted into the pack soon after that He had left a pack in Washington state when there was a change of leadership I ht on a run in the forest"

Rand paused, re it He liked to run on his own at times, and that had been one of them When the unfamiliar scent crossed his path, he tracked it Dylef had shifted to hu in a deep-water creek, the noise and wind directionRand's approach

Dylef had a wolf tattoo that stretched across the broadest part of his back If Rand closed his eyes, he could al it like he had then, for he'd shifted, too Co at one another, knowing As rare as shifters were, what they were--male wolves who preferred males--was even rarer It didn't make Rand desperate He had had hookups with hu the scent of a felloho looked at hiht back at him

His instincts had led hiaze Dylef had not spoken, but after sohted moments, punctuated by the sounds of the creek, the wind and the birdsong, he'd averted his gray eyes just enough, dipped his head Rand had leaned in, pressed his nose to his crown, inhaled Dylef had dark blond hair, a little long, and it tickled Rand's nose He liked everything he smelled, and he let his ed hiers down his back Over the tattoo

Then, with a tilt of his head and playful flash of his eye, Dylef bolted fro beautifully into a silver and white wolf Rand had leaped after hiun

He'd been quiet for a while, he realized The crickets were chirping, the firenoise It had been war one and Rand didn't object to the aht

"Then Grey caht forth the words