"I hate waking up in the forest. It still freaks me out," Meera muttered and spun her cup around in her hands.

"It's alright to be freaked, but keep reminding yourself, you're not alone in the woods. We've got the dryads and all the other wolves," I tried to say as reassuringly as possible. I still didn't really feel a hundred percent secure in the role as... A therapist, more or less. To a bunch of scared wolves. Who had come here because of me. It felt weird anyone would come to a town because of how I had made it smell.

"The dryads are alright. But there's this one that keeps wanting to give me knitted clothing." Samuel was newer than Meera. Meera had come at the beginning of the summer and Samuel had shown up maybe a month after that. Tasha had come almost right after our battle with the dryad. So, she was the 'oldest'.

Tasha had been turned too early like me. She had been twenty when she had been turned. She was twenty-two now, just like me.

Samuel had been turned last year, at the right time. He was twenty-five.

Meera had been turned when she was twenty-three. Five months ago. Everything was new and scary to her still, and I pitied her. Lord almighty, I pitied her. Her turning had been traumatic too, I could tell, because she still refused to even talk about it slightly. She had large scars on her arms, which was all she had showed us. It was hard getting her to open up. It was so very relatable.

"They're happy the wolves are back in the woods. And they wanna give us presents. Mags says it's rude to not accept them, so if they do wanna give you something, just take it. Still a lot better than what another dryad tried giving me." My ribs were still aching just with the thought of it.

"What if something like that happens again?" Samuel asked.

"Well," I said and leaned back in my favourite chair. Dave announced his presence by his claws click-clacking against the wooden floor. He sniffed at all the wolves, got pats on his head, and came to me, sitting right under my hand, that hung from the armrest. I smiled down at Dave, letting my fingers run over the whitened hairs on his head. He was getting old. "I don't think something like that will happen again, to be honest. One dryad is one dryad. One bad seed. We can't judge an entire species on one acting in bad faith."

"I meant more like... What if another monster shows up and decides this town is just right for it to ruin?" Samuel said, rolling his eyes a little.

"This isn't a tv-series. There's not gonna be a new monster per episode." I shrugged and took a sip of my coffee.

Before anyone else could say something, the door opened and Abel stepped into the small hall, kicking his shoes off and coming into the living room.

"Well, hello there," he said, sliding the aviators up his forehead. "Hey babe," he murmured then and bent down, kissing me.

"Hi," I said with a small voice. There was something about trying to be all 'big, good wolf leader' and then my boyfriend coming home and making everything entirely domestic. Didn't matter that he was a vampire and could turn into this big bat-looking creature with claws and all. But it was hard to be all serious, when he came prancing in and called me 'babe' and kissed me and I was blushing like I had never been kissed before.

Tasha caught my gaze, and her lips slowly pressed into a smile, them paling in the process. She always had this sly way of smiling at me. As if she knew something and I did too. We had this shared secret at all times.

It wasn't really that, it was just that she knew me so well by now, she knew what I was thinking, and she could totally tell I was feeling like a kid whose mum just arrived at school, screaming out 'come here luv' and wanting to kiss him in front of all of his cool friends. And the kid couldn't bear to not let his mum kiss him, because he loved her.

I guess in this scenario, Abel was my mum? That was a really dumb comparison but it's about the feeling.

My point was, I was embarrassed, but I'd never deny Abel a hello-kiss because I loved him way too much to put my pride over him.

"Do you need anything? Want me to make a cuppa?" Abel asked and looked around.

"I could go for some tea, yeah," Meera said and rose to her feet. "I'll come help."

"Thank you!" Abel chirped and showed her to the kitchen.

Samuel looked after them before settling his eyes back on me. "So, how long have you been together?"

"Abel and I?" I asked and reached for my coffee only to find the mug empty. I frowned and rose to my feet. "A little less than a year now, I reckon. We got real u-haul, you know."

Tasha snorted but it didn't seem like Samuel got the joke.

"Gays have a hard time pacing themselves sometimes, so they move in together fast. They say it's only lesbians, but Gael and Abel are out here breaking stereotypes," Tasha explained and rose too. Her mug was empty as well.

"I still don't get it," I heard Samuel mutter from the living room. I poured myself another mug and then handed the pot to Tasha. She had this particular way of pouring coffee, that included pouring some coffee first, then some milk, coffee, then sugar, then more milk, then coffee. Don't know if that makes a whole lot of difference, but I had learned fast I shouldn't pour her coffee for her.

"How was your day?" I asked and took Abel's hand in mine. He and Meera had been looking at the kettle brewing. In silence.

"It was fine. Lecture was alright, but a lot of it could've been in an email. Like the lecturer was basically just explaining the text and I knew the text, so it wasn't necessary. Could've stayed here and figured out what I wanna write for my master's thesis."

"Dumb school," I said in lack of something better to say. Abel was ridiculously smart and could probably write his master thesis and his Ph.D. now if he wanted. He didn't need school, really. His self-studies were more than enough.

"Eh," he said and pulled me closer. "How's that coffee?" He straight up took the mug out of my hands and took a sip, the dirty thief.

"You tell me," I said with a laugh bubbling out my throat.

"It's alright." He shrugged and turned back to the kettle as it started screaming. He poured hot water into two mugs with tea bags in it and handed one to Meera. "What're you studying?"

"Law."

"Phew, that's a heavy one," Tasha said and hauled herself up on the kitchen counter.

Samuel came into the kitchen too, leaning against the door frame.

"You?" Abel asked and nodded towards him.

"Biology."

It was as if Abel had just gotten a present. His entire face lit up and it looked like he was about to jump out of his own skin.

"Biology?" he said with a massive glee.

"Uh, yeah. What about you?"

"Nano physics! But I'm definitely considering a Ph.D. in biology. Love sea wildlife."

"Marine biology, maybe?" Samuel said and smiled softly. He was so patient with my dumb smart boyfriend, and I really appreciated him for it.

Samuel was in a lot of ways exactly like Cal. Very big. Very patient. Very calm. But where he differed was how talkative he was. Cal said something when she wanted to, which wasn't often. Samuel liked to fill the silence with chatter. He'd ask a tonne of questions to find a subject you liked over what he liked.

He was about as anxious as me, socially, which oddly... Made me calmer? I knew I had to be calmer and less anxious because he needed that from me. And my social anxiety demanded I pleased people around me so... I guess it kind of nullified itself in an effort to please Samuel.

I felt overly protective of my new wolf friends already. Like it was primal. I knew it was absolutely primal. It felt very different to how I felt about my friends.

I had two boxes to put people in. Either they were in my human box, or they were in my wolf box. Some crossed over. Abel had been the only one who had crossed into both boxes.

The wolves here were in the wolf box. Fred, Cal, and Creek were in my human box. It was two very different feelings that were involved in those relations. I relaxed more with my friends in the human box. I didn't have to be anything but Gael.

The wolf relaxed a lot more with the people in the wolf box. And as I had given him more wiggle-room, I felt him a lot more on a day-to-day basis. I'd teach him about my world, and he'd lend me his senses from time to time. We'd go to the forest together and experience it together. He'd show me all of his favourite places. Where to find food. Where to find water. What to avoid. He knew a lot about nature I didn't know fuckall about, so I appreciated him teaching me.

And I taught him what to do in the human world. What to avoid. Like, we didn't touch the stove if there was food cooking on it. That'd hurt. He didn't know things like that.

Still though, it felt weird having mixed my wolf box friends with my human box friends. Tasha had had a good time at Creek's, and we had all agreed to go out next weekend together. She just fit right in. Her and Cal and Fred had become friends fast. Something about Fred and Cal being starved for more girl friends. I was just happy they had taken Tasha under their wing. Same with Liza. Her and Tasha had really hit it off and were gonna hang out too.

In the end, I think Tasha was the one who had been truly starved for a community. She had been alone, struggling with the bite.

She wasn't aloneanymore though, and I was happy to provide her with the security of thiscommunity.