A Boy Among Wolves

Chapter 20

Danny-

"Here," says Brenden as he hands me a cold glass of water."

I set it down, "I don't want it." I just barely calmed down from before. I don't know what came over me.

"Don't care. You need to drink it," he snaps and sits next to me. Then, he just gives me a weird look. Like he's trying to see through me.

I look at him for a second before I snap, "what the fuck are you staring at, man."

"You dipshit," he snares back. "what the fuck happened tonight?"

I shrug, "Theo broke up with me cause I'm not out, and I'm not honest with him."

"No," he says, "I heard that part. What was with your shifting business? I've never seen you act like that before."

"What was he doing?" Asks Jessica coming across the street with Megan in tow.

"Nothing," I say

At the same time, Brenden says, "he was freaking out and shaking."

"Fuck you," I snap. "I wasn't freaking out."

"But you were shifting? In front of Theo?" Asks Megan in a quiet voice. Brenden's parents aren't home, but he lives near several pack members.

I shrug, "it's a blur to me."

"I saw it," supplies Brenden. "He was shaking, and I could feel his energy downstairs. That's when I knew something was up. His eyes were glowing blue. It literally took 30 minutes to calm him down."

"Dude," I say quickly. "Shut up."

He ignores me, "Danny. You were shifting in the trunk as we drove over here, but not normal shifting. this was weird."

"Danny come over here," says Megan taking my hand. "You two pretend to not listen."

Brenden nods, and Jessica shakes her head, but a tap from him gets her to agree. They sit down on the steps, and Megan and I go over and talk.

"What happened tonight?" She asks.

"Theo broke up with me," I say quietly.

"What happened after that?" she asks.

"I. Don't. Know. Didn't you hear Brenden?" I say in a tired voice. I drink the glass of water in one move.

She shakes her head, "don't be dumb, Danny. What did you FEEL?"

I know what I felt. I felt scared and angry. I felt the floor come out from under me, and I felt Theo getting pulled into a dark room, and I couldn't find him.

When I finally tell her all of that, she just smiles. "That's what I thought," she says quietly.

"What did you think?" I ask.

"You turn 18 in a couple of weeks, right?" She asks, and I nod. "Did your Dad ever tell you about imprinting?"

I shrug, "of course. That it's rare. Like one in a million rare, but it only happens when you're 18."

"Almost. My parents imprinted on each other," she says, and I nod. The Bakers were one of those rare couples who were a perfect match.

Imprinting is when a shifter finds their soul mate. Unfortunately, most of us go our whole lives without ever finding that person. "They were drawn to each other at a young age, and no one knew why, because imprinting is so rare....but in the weeks leading up to my Dad's 18th birthday, he started to feel stuff."

"Gross," I say, trying to break the tension. Jessica laughs....proving she was listening.

"Shut up," hisses Megan. "18 is just when the official imprinting happens, but it starts long before that. I bet you've felt this way about Theo from the start, right?" I nod, and she continues, "Before he turned 18, my Dad shifted into his hybrid form. It's rare but can happen."