Lifesong by Erin Lark

Fourteen
     
     
     
    Tucker
     
    The house changed a lot after Zarrius broke in. Emma pulled up the living room carpet with the pack’s help, and we even found a spare pane of glass to place in the front window. It was far from perfect, but it served its purpose. And even though Emma had scrubbed down most of the walls along with the floors, I could still smell him, the iron of blood and wolf fur mixed with sweat.
    Of course, the dog fur could easily be explained by the entire pack now living inside the house. Eight—six wolves as well as Emma and myself. I removed the kettle of hot water from the stove and filled two mugs. The other guardians couldn’t shift, and still the house felt like home.
    Retrieving two tea bags from the top cabinet—green for me and orange spice for Emma—I plopped them in their respective mugs to steep. Emma hadn’t moved from her perch for most of the morning. After settling in one of the recliners we’d moved in front of the window, she’d taken out one of her notebooks and started writing down our stories.
    The rest of the pack had curled up around her chair, some half asleep, but all ears perked with attention. She was smiling, and as she spoke, many of the tails in the room wagged from one side to the other as the wolves whispered amongst themselves. Leaning back against the counter, I took my mug in my palms, delighting in the warmth before sipping at the hot liquid.
    I watched Emma as she shifted in her chair, and I had to bite back the urge to pounce on her right then. We hadn’t spent any time alone in over a week, but the pack was better for it. Zarrius’ passing haunted my dreams, but after Emma shared her memories of him with me, I knew this was what Zarrius would’ve wanted. It had just taken a human, and not a wolf, to realise it.
    It felt odd having wolves in the house again. It was suddenly too crowded and empty all at once. I longed for the bodies that were absent—from the humans the guardians hadn’t been able to imprint upon, to Zarrius and Ika. Still, with the rest of the pack always under Emma’s feet, there were times I wanted to wish them all away.
    It was common for the pack to do everything together, but spending time with Emma wasn’t something I’d wanted to share with anyone. She belonged to me just as much as I belonged to her, but ever since she’d taken her place as alpha, she’d been distracted. You should’ve taken the offer when you had the chance. I bit back a growl and glanced out of the back window. At least then, I would’ve been able to send the rest of the pack away. As it was, they only ever left the house to hunt, and that was only in pairs. And since I couldn’t hunt on a bad leg, they brought enough back for the rest of us.
    Looking at Emma, it almost seemed as if she belonged there, as if she’d always been a part of the pack, and for some reason, that made things a lot easier. The crisis of the world was on standby. The pack was still together, minus one, and that was enough for me. The idea of a human alpha was absurd, but somehow Emma managed to pull it off. She didn’t bark orders or glare at the other wolves until they cowered. She listened. Not just to me, but every single one of us. In a pack where none of the guardians wanted to take Zarrius’ place, Emma had swooped in and done it for us. The pack was grateful as a whole, sharing their songs—the ones they’d taught to their guardians—with her.
    Her bond with the pack caused me to have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was with my family again, which I’d been with for over a century. On the other, it meant sharing Emma with them when all I wanted to do was claim her as my own.
    I set my mug on the counter and turned back to face Emma. Her robe was positioned in such a way that it showed off her curves perfectly. Heat prickled all over my body, and I blushed when the other pack members looked in my direction.
    Emma whispered something to them, set her notebook on