Karen made lunch and we were still eating when there was a knock on the door. Karen went and answered it and I was relieved to hear familiar voices.

It was my brother, as Serge had promised, with his two best friends in tow.

"Why don't you all come in and have something to eat before you unload?" Karen invited in a friendly tone.

"Sure, thanks," Sean said easily. I could not hear any anger in his voice, but he was good at hiding it behind his laid back teasing mannerisms.

Plus, the real test would be if he still seemed calm while dealing with my false pack leader. I did not doubt that he was almost as frustrated as my father with this state of affairs.

Just the thought made me cold.

Sean strode into the kitchen, ruffled my hair in his irritating manner, and took the seat next to me. Dave and Terrence followed him. Terrence gave me a little wave and Dave grinned.

"How're you doing?" he asked me. I could see he was worried.

"Well... Okay," I said vaguely.

Dave and the black haired Terrence sat roughly on the bar stools next to him. Karen brought the three of them drinks and poured more water into my glass.

Dave was naturally blond and blue eyed and he had bleached his hair even lighter recently. My brother had claimed that Dave had tried and failed to get his human hair as light as the white fur of his wolf transformation.

"I've heard you weren't eating," Sean commented.

I frowned and gestured to my half eaten sandwich. "I'm eating, grandma," I said, since the insult had worked so well against Matthias.

Sean laughed. "You wish I was as nice as a grandma. As your future pack leader..."

We both paused at his words. So familiar, but no longer true.

I was never going to have to deal with my obnoxious older brother as my leader.

I swallowed.

"No matter what I'll always be your older brother so you have to listen to me," he recouped.

"Ha, you wish it worked that way," I shot back, using a tone that I well remembered, but could not quite feel. "You've got no power over me now, buddy."

"Like this dumbass ever did," Terrence added, giving Sean a joking shove.

Sean's friends laughed at him and I smiled at the familiar situation. Terrence's comment had been quite mild as far as they were concerned.

I had been privy to plenty of conversations of these boys growing up. If they had not been arguing about stuff like whether or not Superhero A could take Superhero B in a fight, or whether or not Villain A could beat a werewolf if the werewolf was armed with a machete and a flamethrower, then most of their talk seemed to revolve around insulting and mocking each other.

I had learned my entire repertoire of swears from these morons trying to outdo each other.

All of that was, of course, when they were not making plans to do something I thought was at least mildly stupid. The three got along well enough at those times.

But, they must have liked being rudely picked on, because Terrence and Dave had been friends with my brother for almost as long as Matthias and I had. The difference was Matthias and I were nicer to each other.

And I could give my brother and his friends one bit of credit; it was all very egalitarian. They were all equally offensive to each other. No one in their trio was the underdog.

However, both Terrence and Dave were way nicer to me than my brother was. Sean had teasingly complained that they treated me better than him, but I put that down to the fact Sean would probably have punched them if they tried anything nasty.

Sean had this weird philosophy when we were growing up where he would pick on me until I wanted to throttle him senseless, but at the same time no one else was allowed to say so much as a cross word in my general direction or face his wrath.

Sean thought he was the one in control since he was bigger and older, but I had always found ways to get my revenge in the end. I smiled a bit at the thought.

My smile was interrupted as Karen put sandwiches down in front of the boys.

The ravenous wolves practically inhaled them.

All three were done before I managed to finish mine even though I had a head start. Even before the curse, I did not eat like a beast like them, but now every bite was painstakingly slow, in spite of the fact it was getting mildly easier.

Sean did not nag me about eating again. He turned to business. "So, first you might as well show us where you're staying and then we'll haul all your stuff in. That's why I brought these two along."

"Wait, how m-much did you bring?" I asked.

"Not that much, relax. Just stuff you'll need."

"Serge knew they were coming," Karen put in as if it might make me feel better.

Maybe it did, a bit, but I was mostly calmed by the idea I could send stuff back if I thought it was too much.

I showed them to my guest room. I could see my brother inspecting it critically.

"It's smaller than your room," he pointed out.

I swallowed hard. "I-it's fine."

He did not argue.

I followed them out of the house and down the stairs into the driveway.

There were at least a dozen boxes in the back of dad's new pickup truck. I swallowed; I felt like I had done something wrong, but my brother and his friends could not read my mind. They started grabbing boxes and carried them into the house like a line of ants carrying food to the their hill.

I guess he did noticed my unease, because he pulled me into an uncharacteristic quick hug.

"I missed you," I told him.

He grinned sympathetically.

"But you're being weirdly nice to me. It's freaking me out."

He snorted. "You're one to talk. You missed me? Where the heck did that come from?"

I shrugged. "Absence and fonder hearts or something like that?"

He gave me the contemptuous look of an older brother. I wrinkled my nose at him and ignored the underlying concern he could not quite hide from me.

He walked over to the truck and grabbed a plastic box and thrust it into my hands. "You can at least help a bit," he commented.

I struggled to hold on to the box in my hands while the magic sent chilly prickles to where my fingers touched the handles. It was not actually heavy, but it felt like it was dragging me towards the ground.

Sean had the last box in his hands. "Come on," he said.

I followed him, fighting to move my sluggish feet until at last I stood in the guest room with him and his friends.

"Okay, thanks for your help, go wait outside," Sean said to Terrence and Dave.

"Wow, that's the thanks we get?" Dave asked with mock offense.

"He has a point," I said, mostly to needle my brother.

"Thank you, Elise. Too bad you weren't the elder child so you could be the pack heir," he said sweetly.

Sean cast a mock dirty look towards his friend. "You can challenge me any time once I'm leader if you don't think I can handle it, buddy," Sean snorted.

"You should, Dave, I'd like to see that," Terrence agreed.

My brother scoffed. "There's never been a successful challenge in our pack, so I'm not sure what you think you'd like to see."

Terrence shrugged and grinned. "One of you would get knocked on your ass, it's win win."

"Yeah, right. Dave couldn't even get the votes to get that far," Sean argued.

A pack challenger had to be born in our territory and also win a majority referendum in order to even be able to face the leader for the position.

In absence of elected challengers it simply passed from the leader to the heir, generation after generation. It was a whole boring process set out in our charter. I had been forced to learn about it in grade school, but it meant nothing to me because I had never had any interest in challenging anyone for the role.

Plus, it was unlikely anyone would ever want my father out. He was a good leader and though I would never, ever admit it to my ridiculous big brother, he probably would be a good leader too, one day.

It probably was a good system since it had been in place even before Canada's confederation, back from the time when our ancestors first joined together in the area.

The possibility of elected challengers served to remind the rulers of our packs that they were not absolute. If they acted unjustly, foolishly, or selfishly, there was always a legal way for any member of the pack to rise up and depose them if only the pack agreed. Of course, the challenger still had to win the fight after their election, so the pack could never be led by a completely weak person.

The whole argument these boys were having was ridiculous though. Sean would have to screw up big time before the pack would ever consider kicking him out. My father and grandfather had accrued too much good will.

At least their stupid conversation served as a nice distraction, but at the same time I could feel the magic unease growing inside me. Perhaps I was enjoying not wallowing in my misery a little too much for its liking.

I hated the way the curse attacked me for anything that did not feel like suffering, but I could not take it anymore.

"Okay, that's enough. Go bicker outside," I ordered them.

Dave and Terrence obeyed my words and left with quick farewells.

"See? I should have been born heir," I teased Sean.

He rolled his eyes. "Well, you're my heir if I don't have kids," he pointed out.

"Yeah, wouldn't that be great? A thrall leader? I don't think so. You better not let anything happen to you," I told him jokingly, but there was real worry that belonged truly to me under my teasing.

It was those fears that had gotten me into this mess in the first place, worrying about the people I cared about so much I walked straight into danger. I would never have been cursed if I had just stayed were I was told to be.

"So, do you need help putting anything away, before I go?" he asked. "I want to stay longer, but..."

"I understand," I told him quickly. He was almost as busy as my father.

I looked around the absurd stack of boxes now piled haphazardly in the guest room and felt pure terror go through me. Did I really need this much stuff? I did not feel like I could handle it. "I can do it later; it will give me something to do," I assured him.

I knew that my father did not really have many people to spare. He had even recalled some of our people who left our territories part time to work or for education. Plus, it was my fault that these three had wasted hours of their time bringing all this here, not to mention likely Moramay had spent hours packing it all.

I swallowed. I told myself I could deal with this, even if it took me countless hours. If I had anything the curse would not allow me to keep here, I could send it with whoever came to visit me next. Surely that would satisfy the demands of the magic.

* * * * * * * * *