“Hey, now—” Arlo began, as Tally stirred in Jacqueline’s arms and began to grizzle.
“But I thought we were going to—” Dylan’s face creased with confusion.
“Stop talking!” Kenna bawled at him, pink spots spreading like a fever across her cheeks. “Stop—they—you can’t just—and we—you’re going to ruin it!”
Tally’s grizzle blew into a full-out wail, and she kicked her legs like she was trying to swim out of Jacqueline’s grip. Jacqueline got a better hold on her and just managed to fling her other arm in front of Kenna as she threw herself down the cabin towards Dylan.
Dylan’s look of confusion morphed into mulish anger. “No, you’re going to ruin it all, because you’re yelling and you said humans couldn’t—”
“Shut up!”
“So it’ll be your fault anyway if—”
Jacqueline hadn’t been able to hear what humans “couldn’t” do over Kenna’s shriek, but her heart was breaking for both of them.
There were so many times she’d wanted to scream her heart out over the last few years. She knew how much they were hurting, and how much more it would hurt when they’d all calmed down and remembered what they’d said.
Arlo was still bent over double in the bed nook. He raised his head and clonked it on the ceiling. “Ah, blast—Hey, kids, that’s enough of that. Calm down.”
Kenna’s head snapped back like she’d been slapped, and her eyes filled with tears. She stared at Arlo, then Jacqueline, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “I didn’t mean—you can’t—oh no…”
Behind her, Dylan’s face creased. Arlo rubbed his forehead and groaned.
“Damn it, kids, it’s not like that. You’ll be fine,” he growled.
“But—”
The kids’ distress whiplashed through the air. Jacqueline let her hand drop on Kenna’s shoulder as the tears in the girl’s eyes threatened to spill over.
“I’m sorry!” Kenna gasped. Her face twisted. “I wanted everything to go perfect and now…”
“Everything’s still fine,” Jacqueline reassured her, and Kenna’s face pinched shut in a way Jacqueline knew too well.
She’s not going to believe me that easy, Jacqueline thought. And Tally’s still screaming, and Dylan’s on a knife’s edge to start crying, too. How am I meant to fix this?
Oh God. Arlo was right. I can’t help them. I’m completely out of my depth. I don’t belong here at all.
She met Arlo’s eyes across the cabin. She wanted to yell “Help! Do something!” but what could he do?
Arlo climbed out from the bed nook. Standing straight, his head almost brushed the ceiling. “Kids,” he began, and when that had no effect on the thunderstorm-heavy atmosphere: “Kenna, Dylan, Tally—”
Tally stopped screaming. The look of relief on Arlo’s face was almost comical—and then he realized she’d only been sucking in another breath to scream even louder.
He ran his hands over his face and gave Jacqueline a look that was half-bashful, half-determined.
What’s he doing? she wondered, and then watched amazed as he grimaced and shook himself. The shaking rippled down his body and he transformed into a huge black and gray wolf.
Kenna squeaked with surprise and transformed, flopping to the cabin floor as a spotted seal. Dylan changed shape, too, slipping awkwardly down the ladder. It was as though their transformations had caught them by surprise.
In Jacqueline’s arms, Tally’s kicking legs were suddenly kicking flippers. She wriggled through her sweater and Jacqueline kneeled to catch her before she hit the floor. She eased the tiny seal pup to the ground and bundled the abandoned sweater against her chest.
It was only when she started feeling light-headed that she remembered to start breathing again.
The three seal shifter siblings were gorgeous. They all had the same thick, glossy coats with mottled brown, gray and white coloration. And Arlo…
Jacqueline gulped. She was still kneeling down, and her eyes were level with Arlo’s. He was a wolf, a huge wolf, with pointed ears and long legs tipped with heavy claws.
He should have looked like something out of a bad dream. The big bad wolf from a fairy tale. But…