Wolves of Alverton

Chapter 35

It was now the day of the full moon, and Lilly stayed home again. We had a half-day at school, because of a three-day weekend, so we all met up after school and raced to Lilly's house. Our adrenaline was pumping and our spirits were high, because Lilly was happy again, and we knew that we would have nothing to fear on this full moon. I had texted the Davenport's before school got out and told them that I would be spending the night at Lilly's. That would become my usual go-to cover for full moon planning with my parents. When we arrived at her house, she told us that they had taken Jethro out to the shopping center to buy him some new clothes. We still had no idea why he was here exactly, or how long he would be staying, but we were all remaining supportive, because we knew that it made Lilly happy. When we walked into the kitchen, Jethro was standing by the back door. He was dressed in very fashionable clothes for a normal boy our age. He didn't seem to mind his new look, in fact, it seemed to boost his confidence a little more. Lilly let him keep his old clothes in a bag, in case he decided he wanted to leave like her father.

We all applauded Jethro for being able to acclimate to human life so well. We found it impressive that he was able to pick up rather quickly how to act and behave like a normal teenage boy. Lilly was helping him out a lot with simple, mundane tasks like working light switches, or flushing toilets. At this point, Jet was the only one who seemed slightly on-edge about his sudden arrival. He thought it was peculiar that he decided to show up a month after her dad left, and on the night before a full moon. I could tell that Jet was having a hard time trusting Jethro to be honest about his intentions for coming here, but when we arrived, he told us that he came to Alverton so he could finally meet his sister.

I had fun throughout the day watching Jethro perform simple tasks, like making a sandwich, or being fascinated with a sink. It tickled me to see someone my age know so little about the everyday life of a human teenager. Lilly told me while we were having lunch that she hoped Jethro's arrival would bring back her father. She said that she hoped that Scott would notice Jethro had gone missing, and would come here looking for him. I was just enjoying seeing her interact with her twin.

All day, the pack spent time getting to know Jethro, so by the time we had to head out to transform, almost everyone wanted to welcome him to the pack properly. Jethro asked us not to make a fuss over his welcome, and instead asked us to treat it like any other full moon. Seeing as this was my third full moon with the pack, I had an idea of what it would be like. The first time I transformed, it was a celebration. The second time I transformed with the pack, it was my birthday, another celebration. However, the third time I transformed with the pack, there was no celebration. I didn't know if this full moon would be different because it was just a normal full moon.

We put on our jackets, and walked out onto the porch. The parents decided to transform on the other side of town, so we could spend time together without having to worry about them watching us constantly. Since Jet was the selected Alpha-in-training, he was in-charge of our smaller pack of just teenagers. We often referred to him as our Alpha, even though Corbin was the true Alpha of the Alverton pack. He led us down the street and into the wash behind the last house on the cul de sac. The wash was dirty, and smelled horrible, but there was plenty of room for us to run around and still have cover in case we needed to hide. Jet texted his parents one last time to let them know we had arrived at the location safely, and that we would be staying there all night, in case they needed to find us for some reason. When Darryl responded, he mentioned that all the adults had already transformed and were keeping watch on the edge of town in case Scott decided to return, or a random wolfie tried to enter our territory. When Jet put his phone away, we were all itching to transform. The moon was peeking out from behind a cloud, and our veins had darkened and our eyes had already changed color. Jet finally gave us a signal that meant it was safe to transform. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them I was looking through my wolf's eyes.

All the sensations were the same as my first transformation. This full moon felt a lot like my first one because everyone was happy again. I looked around at my packmates, and recognized Jethro as the one wolf I hadn't seen. He was a darker, cream-colored wolf with a black mane and back, a dark gray face, a light cream underside, and reddish-brown legs. He had a sandy brown tip on his tail, light cream-colored cheeks, and a sandy brown marking running from under his mouth down the front of his neck. He also had a few recognizable facial markings, but he was unlike anyone else in the pack. He and Lilly looked nothing alike, except for Lilly's tail. She has a noticeable stripe that runs from her backside down towards the bottom of her tail. This stripe is the same color as Jethro's coat, a darker cream color. It was hard to believe that they could look so similar as humans, but look so different as wolves. I figured since they were twins, that they might look similar as wolves as well, but I was wrong.

Jethro acted differently than the rest of us in wolf form. He seemed more comfortable in his natural state than we were. He never tripped over himself like some of us did sometimes, and he ran more gracefully than we did. When Jet started a pack howl, we all noticed that Lilly and Jethro's howl's sounded exactly the same. It's unusual for male and female wolves to have the same tone of howl because male wolves usually have a deeper howl than females, just like human males have a lower voice than female humans.

Jet wasn't feeling like himself that night, and I finally realized why he was so unnerved by Jethro. Jet was jealous of Jethro, because he was taking all of Lilly's attention. He wasn't used to seeing her act so giddy around another male, and I thought he just felt threatened by his arrival. None of the boys ever challenged Jet for the Alpha position, and I began to think that he worried that Jethro might try, given his father's status in the wild pack. Jet sat next to a large rock for the better half of the night, watching Jethro and Lilly play together. I was enjoying playing with the twins as well, because Jethro was overflowing with energy. Eventually, Jet walked over to Lilly, and she licked his muzzle. He pressed his head to hers, and Jethro barked at them in an amused manner. Jethro had nothing against Jet, and he actually admired him for his leadership skills.

Once Jet was done showing affection towards Lilly, we all watched something amazing happen. Jethro slowly approached Jet, and lowered his head in a submissive manner. He was accepting Jet as his Alpha. The rest of us jumped and howled with excitement, as Jet lowered his head in agreement. Jet had finally accepted Jethro as an equal, and we watched as he gently lifted Jethro's head with his muzzle. When he and Jethro were making eye contact, he lightly rubbed his head against Jethro's mane. This made Lilly howl, because Jet was showing affection towards Jethro. The rest of the night exploded with excitement, as the pack took turns getting to play with Jethro. He was fast, agile, and incredibly smart while in his wolf form, and we all had to assume that it was a result of being able to transform whenever he wanted to in the wild.

Jet led our pack over to a small cave, and stopped us at its entrance. He faced towards the opening, and howled into its depths. The howl echoed, and was amplified to make it sound like we were all singing in unison. It was bone-chilling, so we all decided to try it, and our howls must have been heard all across the town, because when we stopped, dogs started barking, and we heard distant howls. Jet looked at us when he heard the distant howls, and he whined. It was the parents on the other side of town. They were howling in response to our howls. Their howls made all the boys whine with excitement, because their parents had heard them, and it made them happy.

As we walked away from the cave, we looked out across the desert, and saw the lights from the town illuminating the sky. A cool breeze rushed down from the mountainside, and ruffled all our coats. We shook our manes to brush off the cool air, and continued walking back towards the wash. Jet and Lilly walked side-by-side the whole way back, and Jethro followed behind them. It was quiet the whole way back, and by the time we arrived where we had transformed the night before, the sun was beginning to rise.