***

“I think you bought more than enough,” Nikki laughed, looking through the grocery bags of black hair dye.

“I wanted to be sure,” Mrs. Carso said with an answering chuckle. “I’ve never dyed a wolf before.”

“Me either,” Taye agreed. She pulled on a pair of plastic gloves and began sorting the contents of each box.

Grace touched my shoulder. “Better go phase. We have the appointment at Mr. Davies’ vet’s this afternoon and who knows how long this’ll take.”

Jaze laughed at the look of dread on my face. “Don’t worry,” he said, his expression sympathetic. “It’ll go away tonight after you phase back.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” I said, eying Mrs. Carso, Nikki, Taye, and Grace. “I’m not sure about giving so many girls free range over me.”

Everyone laughed and Jaze grinned. “I wouldn’t be so sure either, but you don’t have much of a choice.”

“Yeah,” Brock echoed. “Or you could leave it to us.”

I looked at the partially eaten sandwich in his hand made up of as many meats and cheeses one could possibly cram between two pieces of bread, combined with pickles, olives, chips, and cheese whiz, and shook my head. “I’ll take my chances with the girls.”

“Lucky us,” Nikki replied with a dramatic eye roll and the girls laughed again.

“Oh, go phase,” Grace said, pushing me toward the stairs.

I sighed and obeyed. I phased in Taye’s old room that we had taken over and stalked back down the stairs.

“At least as a wolf you can’t protest,” Taye said with a teasing wink when I padded back into the kitchen. It was my turn to roll my eyes and the girls laughed.

“We’ll leave you to your fate,” Jaze said. Brock, Mouse, and Jet followed him from the room.

“You boys should go to school if you’re not planning to help out,” Mrs. Carso called after them.

Jaze poked his head back through the door. “We’re investigating the labs and looking for Grace’s pack with Roger. It’s more important than school.” He gave her a winning smile and disappeared back through the door.

Mrs. Carso turned to the girls with a sigh and a resigned shake of her head. “Boys.”

“Get over here, Kaynan. You’re not getting away that easily,” Nikki said.

I returned slowly through the door and sat down on the floor in front of them. Mrs. Carso gave me a stern look over, then eyed the back of the hair dye box. “We might need more dye,” she said after a moment. Nikki, Taye, and Grace broke into laughter.