“I’ll check the fridge,” said Meg. She opened the door to find a slab of bacon, sausages, and three dozen eggs. “Bacon and eggs or sausage and eggs?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Luc looking around for pans.
“Huh?” asked Meg.
“Both. We have seven hungry kids and us to feed. Knowing Ginny, there is enough in there for everyone as well as bread or waffles,” he said.
“Okay, but I don’t think most kids eat that much,” said Meg as she got the stuff out of the fridge.
Luc laughed and started cooking.
Thirty minutes later, everyone was fed. All the bacon was gone, two sausages were left and six waffles, half a loaf of bread and nearly two dozen eggs were gone. Meg was amazed at the the amount of food they had gone through. As the kids moved out to the living room to watch TV, Meg collapsed in a chair and worked at finishing off her waffle and one of the remaining sausages.
” I can’t believe they ate all that food!” she said.
“I can. Remember, our metabolisms are faster than the average human. Therefore, we need more calories. I never understood how my mom kept us all fed,” said Luc.
“How many siblings do you have?” Meg asked.
“Started out with eight. Two sets of twins. One died in a car accident, two never came back after they shifted, so depending on how you count it, I have six or four,” he said as he ticked them off on his fingers.
“Car accident?” asked Meg.
“Ice on the road, and the truck rolled. She was 18,” he said.
“Oh.”
“It’s okay. It happens. I just miss my brothers that shifted. They were more wolf than most, so we weren’t really surprised,” he said. “Do you have any siblings?”
“A sister. She’d probably annoy the hell out of you. High pitched voice and knows she’s the only real authority on anything. Makes me want to introduce you two and have you shift, just so she’d shit her pants,” Meg said with a smile.
Luc laughed. He’d met a few people over time that he’d fang flashed. Sometimes it was worth it. Other times it lead to more trouble than he cared for. He started collecting the sticky plates and silverware. Rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher, they went to check on the kids.
Looking in on them in the living room, Meg smiled.
“They’re puppy piled,” she said quietly.
“Yeah, what did you expect?” he said. “They are all potential shifters, and even if they never shift, they will still have wolfish characteristics. You saw how they wolfed their food,” he said.
It was Meg’s turn to giggle. “You’re right. I’m still not use to thinking of you and others as duel natured.”
“Get use to it. Being shifter friendly is a good thing in some ways, but means you’ll end up with a whole lot of new friends. Especially if we ever break up,” he said.
“Huh?” she said puzzled.
“Meg, you have no idea of how rare a person you are. A non-shifter who is cool with who and what we are isn’t something you find every day,” he said.
“Oh, so if we broke up, every male in a hundred mile radius would be at my door?” she said half joking.
“Three hundred mile radius,” said Luc, and he wasn’t joking.
“Suush! We’s can’t hears the TB!” said the little girl who’d introduced herself as Sawa.
“Sorry,” said Luc who than sat down with the little ones to watch Bugs Bunny.
Ten hours later after lunch, dinner, bedtime snacks and two stories, the kids were asleep. Luc and Meg were curled up on the couch half asleep when Ginny came back. She walked in so quietly, that Meg didn’t hear her at first.
“Whoa! Where’d you come from?” asked Meg.
“The north forty,” said Ginny who flopped exhaustedly into the chair.
Luc took one look at Ginny, who shook her head in a negative fashion. He got up and headed for the kitchen. He came back with a beer and then went back to get Ginny some food.
After Ginny had time to eat the sandwich which was more meat than bread, she was ready to talk.
“No luck?” asked Meg at last, not being able to stand the silence.
“No, we found her,” said Ginny. She sounded so tired.
“What happened?” asked Luc.
“She got stuck, just like we thought. We finally found Bitty and were working with her to shift back. Her damn mother panicked. This panicked Bitty and made things worse,” said Ginny.
“How?” asked Luc.
“Bitty ran off. Her sister Isolda shifted and followed her. If we’re lucky, we’ll have a naked pair of teens to pick up in the next day or two,” said Ginny.
“So, that doesn’t sound too bad,” said Meg.
“Meg, the longer you stay stuck, the better the chance you don’t come back,” said Luc.
“Oh,” said Meg. There were days she wished she had an owners manual for life with shifters.
“I made it worse,” said Ginny.
Luc whipped his head up. “What the hell did you do?” he asked.
“I decked Penny,” she said. “Right there in front of God and everybody. She was yelling and screaming and making a fuss that was drawing attention. So, I punched her. Broke her nose, blacked both eyes and I think I broke my hand,” she said holding out her right hand.
Luc tried not to smile as he inspected the offending hand. Tracing the bones in the hand, he found two that weren’t right. “Hold still,” he said.
“Shit, afraid you’d do…” Ginny started to complain just as Luc pulled her hand swiftly. There were two loud pops and Ginny yelped. “DAMN!” she cussed.
“Meg, in the bathroom cupboard under the sink you’ll find a med kit. Looks like a fishing tackle box. Bring it here and a bowl of water,” he said holding onto Ginny’s hand.
Meg headed for the bathroom.
“Bastard,” Ginny said through clinched teeth.
“Yes, but my parents married eventually,” he said with a smile.
Meg came back with the box and the water. She watched Luc dig around and come out with a wrap of fabric. He dropped it in a bowl of water. Then he grabbed some gauze and wrapped that around Ginny’s hand before he took the roll out of the water. He quickly wrapped her hand in the wet fabric tape and immobilized her hand.