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Chapter 20 - In a State of Flux

Mornings were my bane, and I tried to begin my day by avoiding my day for as long as possible. Sisi was convinced I had a little sloth in my ancestry. All I knew was I loved to sleep, and I could fall asleep anywhere at any time. It was my talent.

If it were not for Tee, I would sleep in until noon. But he had made it his mission to wake me up every day. Did my peaceful slumber offend him? Why did he resort to great lengths just to drag me from sleep? Was he jealous of my tranquility? I snorted and rolled over.

This morning Tee stole my covers and when that did not work, he dragged me out of bed and left me on the floor. As usual, he had underestimated my passion for sleeping because I did not notice and woke up confused wondering how I had arrived on the hard floor when I had a perfectly wonderful bed.

I vaguely thought I should get up on my own before Tee resorted to dousing me with hot water. That was usually where this escalated.

Shuffling to the bathroom with my hair covering my face and one eye partially open, I ran into Tee in the hall, literally. He had a pitcher of what could only be hot water in his hand and jumped back before it sloshed onto his shirt. I was not as lucky.

"You're awake. The gods have answered my prayers. Thank you, Luna. Thank you, Lycos.", Tee said.

"You're hysterical.", I said in my best sarcastic voice.

I held my soaked pajamas away from my body. I pushed my behemoth brother out of the way and glared up at him with one eye.

"Did you have a growth spurt?", I asked.

The only answer I got was a shrug.

Over three years that we had been living with the Wasgo Pack, Tee had grown to a height of 5'11" and was still growing. For an Arctic Wolf that was tall, average for a Wasgo wolf and below average for a Lycos wolf. I suspected they had been feeding us something because Tee did not get his height genetically. Father was 5'6" and Mother was 4'11". I was 5'2" and still growing, I hoped.

Pushing open the bathroom door, I kicked aside a pile of clothing so I could close the door properly. I had abandoned them yesterday or maybe the day before. Dust bunnies collected in the folds of the fabric and I stood accused by their presence. Taking my wet pajamas off I added them to the pile.

"I will put all of you away after I shower.", I said.

My morning routine, and I blame Ayla for this, was a multistep disciplined process that I worshipfully adhered to. Second only to my nighttime whole-body regime. I often wondered how I turned out this way. I came from an orthodox puritanical pack and a skin regime if such a thing had existed, would have been considered vanity.

Turning my back on the cold spray of water I grabbed my face-cleaning wand and dutifully poured a dime-sized amount of Korean face soap on its disc-like surface and tried not to feel guilty.

BBBBBBUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Someone pounded on the door.

"Char, doors open in 15 minutes. And you better eat something. I refuse to be persecuted by you because your blood sugar level is low.", Sisi said as she walked down the hall to the front door.

"Come to think of it, make it a protein. I don't want to deal with a sugar high crash either.", Sisi said.

Her voice grew fainter as she spoke. I heard the front door slam.

I took a deep breath blew a long lip trill and sped up my morning routine.

I was going to be late. On a normal day when I worked at the clinic, I didn't fuss over my appearance. Typically, I wore my hair in a single braid and comfortable clothes. Today was different. Pruk was picking me up after work. He told only me that he was flying into Vancouver. He had something important to talk to me about.