Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Charles Dickens

They were truly having far too much fun trying to find the chewing toys that his father had hid all around the forest.

Normally they did it for the younger members of the pack, for the primary school-aged kids, so that they would have their first experiences with tracking the scents of other werewolves.

Didn't mean that High School Students couldn't have fun with it as well. (At least Luke liked to tell himself that.)

Again Luke sniffed at the tree, trying to figure out the differing scents. He could easily pick out his father's but as he went south he realised that it got weaker.

Had his father doubled back towards the beach?

Apparently yes.

Luke fell into a jog, all four paws hitting the ground near silently. It was already getting darker around them earlier. Christmas would be coming in just a few months and the summer was officially over. In a few weeks, even they wouldn't try to swim in the ocean anymore. It would be too cold for them.

Werewolves tended to run a few degrees hotter than normal humans. Not much, but enough that they could actually go swimming in the ocean in Fairbury while most humans only did it on a bet or on one the few hot days of a year that they had.

He could hear Ollie trying to break up one of the brawls that had broken out between the cubs back in the forest and then jumped up the rocky shore so that he could go back into his backyard.

The scent of his father, warm and heavy still was there, not a surprise as he lived there. Luke could smell an older trace though and that was the one that he followed until he saw a bright blue plastic bone stick out between two of the rocks.

He picked it up with his mouth and then jumped back down to the beach again.

Breaking out in a run, he entered the forest again, jumping over the small river that cut through it.

*Did you find one?* his twin wanted to know and he turned towards Grace. While he was deep black, not a single white fleck anywhere, his sister was a deep russet brown, with black tinged ears and paws. She was thinner and a bit smaller as him as well, as it was normal for females werewolves.

*I did.* He gave back mentally and then let the bone fall to the forest ground. *Did Oliver break up the squabble?*

*If you want to call it like that,* Grace answered, sounding amused and he watched as a group of the younger wolves came running towards them.

Oliver also came trotting along, deep brown, darker than Grace was.

*It's like herding kittens,* he commented to Luke and Luke couldn't help but laugh.

*It's like herding wolf cubs,* Luke deadpanned, resulting in a shove from his best friend. Luke shoved right back, careful to keep it friendly ribbing and not actually put all his strength behind it. By now he was easily 5 inches bigger than Ollie and Luke knew that if he put all his strength behind it, he could seriously injure even other wolves.

Ollie just gave a high whine and then hid behind his mate, Grace rolling her eyes, well used to their antics by now.

It had been clear that Ollie and Grace were mates since Luke could think, but it had really changed over the last few years when puberty had set in.

And while puberty was hell for a normal person, for werewolves it was even worse. Hormones and animals instinct were piled on top of the normal stuff and Luke really couldn't wait until all of that finally settled down at least some.

Or as Oliver had once called it: They were a bundle of testosterone, inappropriate erections, and low impulse control.

Ollie and Grace were mates that had very much grown up around each other. Everybody knew everybody in Fairbury. It was as nice as it could be infuriating.

Just as his sister and his best friend could be. Luke loved both of them, of course, he did. But even he needed a pause from their ridiculous lovesick behaviour sometimes, and he also didn't need to see the two of them making out. He drew the line there.

Seeing them together was also a heavy reminder that they had what he didn't have. Luke had a few girlfriends, some of them human, some of them not, and none of them had ever been anything more than something to scratch an itch. He had been honest with them about that though. Very honest.

He hadn't always been able to stop them from getting attached, but he had never with any of them felt like they were compatible in the slightest.

*Alright, Alright, settle down everybody.* Their father came trotting towards them, through the forest, a big dark grey wolf. The whole alpha thing seemed to radiate from him and even the cubs knew that it was better to listen to him.

Most of them weren't exactly good at listening to orders yet and the whole 'still very much listening to their instincts' meant that it could happen that they suddenly decide to start hunting rabbits if the mood struck them. At least the rabbit colonies never got out of control on their land, he mused and his sister laughed, which probably meant that he had accidentally thought it loud enough for her to hear.

Wolves were able to communicate telepathically while shifted with other shifted werewolves that was a skill that actually needed to be trained.

Keeping thoughts private was difficult as was just sharing them with one single person. It was far easier to just send them to the collective of the pack but that could get noisy very far and they all tried to respect each other's privacy.

There was also the bond he and Grace shared, as they were littermates. They were twins and as that their communication went a lot easier and smoother than for most other were's, maybe apart from mates. That was another quirk of wolves.

*You all did a great job this evening,* he told them lightly before he turned towards Luke, Grace and Ollie.

*Ollie, your parents are waiting at the house for you. Luke, Grace, you two go back as well,* he told them, a tone in his voice telling all of them that it wasn't up to discussion.

This wasn't good.

*Any idea what that is about?* Luke asked Grace and Ollie as their father turned back to the house and broke out in a run.

*I have no idea. I didn't do anything.* Ollie gave back, sounding defensive and Luke couldn't help himself but huff. Ollie never did anything. Cue the sarcasm.

*Neither did we.* His sister huffed and broke out in a run.

She was faster than both him and Oliver and he and Ollie hung back to allow her to shift and get dressed in privacy.

They reached the house a few minutes later, shifting back to their human forms. It was as easy as breathing by now for them, the shift rippling over their body quickly and easily without a second thought. It took years to get to that point for everybody but as both Luke and Grace had changed for the first time when they hadn't even been a year old, it was a lot easier for them as it was for people that changed later in life.

The later they shifted the first time, the more problems they had adjusting to their new world.

Because that was what it was.

A new world.

Their eyesight was better, their sense of smell grew stronger. All of their senses were stronger than the one of a "normal" person.

He pulled over his shirt over his head, slipped on his jeans and then waited for Ollie to finish pulling his shirt over his head before they headed inside.

He discerned the people in the room quickly. His mother was sitting on one of the plush couches, being joined by Grace, while Ollie's parents, Caroline and Matthew were sharing the other couch.

He could smell that something was wrong immediately. The salty taste of tears hung in the air but there was something else, something pulsing around Caroline that he couldn't quite place.

"Mom, what's wrong?" His friend asked as soon as he entered the room behind Luke and Luke stood behind his mother.

"Sit down, Ollie," Matthew said softly and Oliver listed immediately, sitting down next to Grace.

Luke saw the expression on his face and couldn't help but swallow. Whatever happened, it wasn't good.

"What happened? Did somebody die?" Oliver asked, trying for amusement and failing spectacularly. Luke felt the subtle shift in the room.

He watched Caroline close her eyes for a moment, opening them again and Luke could see how they brimmed with tears. "Your aunt." She finally answered.

"Aunt Sarah?" Oliver asked, his voice breaking and Luke needed to swallow again. Matthew's sister lived in Los Angeles and only came down to Maine every few years, but she was nice.

But Caroline shook her head and Luke felt a bit of pressure fall off. At least until he remembered that Ollie's aunt had died.

"No. Michelle, my sister," Caroline answered quietly. "Daphne found her two days ago."

"Daphne?" Ollie voiced the question Luke had as well. Who was Daphne?

"Her daughter, your cousin?" Caroline asked but Ollie just shook his head.

"No, I remember her, mom. I just...she found her own mother's dead body!" Oliver spit out and Luke needed to swallow when he imagined himself finding...

God.

"What happens now?" Oliver asked and Luke looked up again to see that his best friend and crossed his arms and was looking expectantly at his parents.

"I got a call from social services this afternoon. We are the only relatives Daphne still has so we will be granted emergency custody." Matthews said calmly.

"So she is coming to live with us?" Ollie asked to clarify and Luke was surprised at that. Not a lot of people moved to Fairbury. It would probably be half a sensation in the small town.

"That's the plan," Matthew answered with a sad smile. "Are you okay with that, Ollie?"

"She is family. Of course, I am okay with it. She is going to need us around her. She doesn't have anybody else," Ollie huffed.

"What's with her father?" Luke's mother asked and Caroline's only reaction was a shake of her head. "Did you talk to Daphne?" Oliver asked and Caroline shook her head.

"No, not yet. I am going to fly over to New York on Monday morning and bring her back in the evening.

"How old is she?" Grace asked suddenly and Caroline looked at her.

"16 now, a few months younger than all of you. She will be a junior with you though."

"She won't be alone at school at first. We figure something out. Between the three of them, there should be someone in every one of her classes." Luke said quietly. They could at least do that for the girl. Give her something to fall back on. "I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you, Luke. It...I am not exactly surprised." Caroline said and rubbed over her face. She looked more exhausted and older than he had ever seen her before. Normally Caroline was always the person that was so full of energy, so full of life. "She took alcohol and sleeping pills."

"It was a suicide?" His mother asked nearly shocked.

Suicide...that was incredibly rare for their kind. Not unheard of, but it didn't happen often at all. Werewolves dealt well with Trauma, much better than humans. There was a reason why so many Wolves found their way into some kind of law enforcement or the military. Their kind could deal with death and violence so much better than most.

"They are classifying it as one. I don't know if she actually killed herself or if she just didn't care. I...I never saw her shift since she moved to New York...I saw her the last time nearly 8 years ago and then she was already...she already smelled nearly dormant to me. I tried to get her to let me help her, but she wasn't having it. I hoped she would get better, but clearly...clearly that didn't happen," Caroline whispered. She buried her head in her hands, her mate laying his arm around her shoulders, trying to offer comfort, but Luke could see that right now...right now even that didn't help.

"Caroline, Daphne never told you that...that there was a problem. You didn't know," Mathew tried to console his wife.

"I should have known!" It suddenly burst out of Caroline and Luke felt like he was watching something he shouldn't. "She was my sister, Matt."

"I should have done more. I should have done something," Caroline whispered. . "Daphne is the one who dealt with all of that...I don't want to know how bad it really was."

"And now Michelle is dead and left her only child behind," Caroline said and Luke could just swallow at that.

*****

The news had broken out over the pack quickly and quietly and the next day, everybody knew about it.

The gossip was already circulating and while Luke was used to it and knew that most people didn't mean any harm with it, it was still grating on his nerves.

Didn't that girl have enough problems without adding the unnecessary gossip from half of the pack and the rest of Fairbury on it?

Apparently not.

Normally they spent Saturday either with friends, in the summer oftentimes having pack barbecues or their father ended up making them help at some home renovation project.

(Apparently, he didn't have enough of that under the week. Their family owned the largest construction business in the state and while his father spent most of the week in the office and not really at the actual building sites, on the weekends he liked to get his hands dirty.)

(That also oftentimes ended with him deciding on Friday evening to rip down a wall in their house. They had all learned to live with that and to just go one with their lives. The wall was back standing on Monday. Two inches to the right.)

So it probably shouldn't have surprised that his father had decided that that weekend project was apparently the guest bedroom of Oliver's parents that was earmarked to be Daphne's future room.

Caroline and Matthew were just too happy to accept the help and so they spent the weekend there.

The parental units went to the hardware and furniture store, picking out paint colours, buying a bed and doing god knows what else.

Daphne's future bedroom had been used as a storage room more than anything in the last few years. It went out to the back, overlooking the beach and the ocean. It was a nice room, big enough to house everything she may need.

Only getting out all the stuff that had been kept in that room took the whole morning. They unearthed a myriad of things nobody seemed to remember where they had come from, including a broken lamp, a whole box filled with Oliver's artistic pursuit during Kindergarten and lots and lots of other knickknacks that nobody needed.

After the room was cleared out they actually had a much clearer look at what they needed.

They painted the room white, figuring out that Daphne maybe would want to pick out her own colour. The white was a good starting point then, she would be able to paint whatever colour she wanted over it.

They sealed the floor and then spent the whole Sunday assembling furniture that Caroline and Matthew had bought and trying there best to make the room seem inviting for somebody new there.

"I can't remember ever meeting her," his sister commented idly, screwing in one of the legs of the night table and Luke shrugged from his place on the ladder where he was doing his best to replace the light fixture with something that looked less like it had been once been trendy in the 70s.

"Neither can I," he gave back, finally figuring it out and screwing it down.

"You didn't." Oliver gave back, where he was fighting with the closet door. It didn't seem to want to close correctly, so Oliver was checking out the hinges and screwing them back down. "She used to come visit us a handful of times when we were younger, but mostly during Fall break or Summer and you were always with your grandparents. And I remember that Mom tried to keep her away from most of the pack. She is very much human."

Luke couldn't help but pull a face at that. "That won't work out anymore." He said calmly. "Keeping her away from the pack."

While keeping their entire species a secret was important...there were some things that you just couldn't keep a secret. And that was one of them.

"She is a member of your family. Keeping that a secret of her..." Luke just shook his head and climbed down from the ladder. "She will probably find out one way or another." And he would really prefer her to find out in a controlled environment and not because somebody decided to wolf out at her.

"Luke is right. When the time comes, we will need to explain it to her." His sister agreed and Luke walked over to Oliver, holding the door in place so that he would have an easier time screwing the hinge down.

"How do you explain that to her?" Oliver huffed. "Hi, I am a werewolf. The whole horror stories you heard probably aren't true. Well, we do bite people. But only if they want it! And the whole full moon thing is all lies!"

Luke couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"We should look through the barn...maybe we can find something for her room there." Grace commented.

Grace did find an old chest of drawers in the barn (That was what they nicknamed the building their father kept old furniture in that he either restored or finally threw away.) that Luke lugged down the road to Ollie's house. Grace dusted it off and oiled it until the dark wood shone again. It found a place on the wall next to the door and Grace also found an antique silver mirror to go with it.

They assembled the bed and then had a pillow fight before they actually got the bedding on the bed.

A desk was added as well, a bookcase and a chair.

They finished it on Sunday evening, then getting takeout and all of them scarfing town the better part of two pizzas each.

She had somewhere to come home to. And that was a good thing.