Being Pack

By Vic James

vicjames2@hotmail.com

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This story is fiction. None of the characters are based on real people.

You can see a list of my stories at http://www.nifty.org/nifty/authors.html#vicjames

This story takes place in the same universe as my stories Plan of the Shusheen and Son of a Wolf. It takes place immediately after the events in Son of a Wolf. Plan of the Shusheen explains how three genetically-engineered shifter races were created.

Epilogue

Howard walked into the kitchen carrying a bulging manila folder. He placed it on the counter in front of me. I was eating a sandwich. I stayed hungry. First I was eating to rebuild after...Hephin. Now I was hungry because I was eating for three—me and the two babies growing inside me.

"What is it? Are my taxes due?" I asked. I panicked at the thought of taxes. "I didn't even think about taxes! How much of the money Dag gave me do I have to give to the government? Damn! I must owe about a billion dollars! I should have paid taxes before I gave anything to Alephin! Shit!"

Howard chuckled. He took me in his arms. "Calm down. It isn't taxes. Dag took care of them."

"Oh, thank god!"

I opened the folder and gasped. The first thing I saw was an 8x10 picture of Bob. But it wasn't a picture I'd seen before. Bob seemed different. I picked up the photo and stared at it. In the photo Bob was smiling. Next to him was a woman I had never seen before. She was pretty and she seemed happy. I realized they were standing in the doorway of Bob's parents' house. My pulse began pounding. The photo triggered memories. How many times had I knocked on that door? The doorbell seldom worked. That was a running joke at Bob's house. My eyes teared up when I realized that the shirt Bob was wearing in the photo was one I had given him two Christmases ago as a gift. Why hadn't I kept any of the things he'd given me? I thought about some of the things we'd done together, some of the good times we'd had.

Howard put his hand on my shoulder.

"What are you thinking?" Howard asked.

"He's alive. He's really alive."

"Yeah. It sure looks that way."

Howard picked up a sheet of paper from the folder. He handed it to me It was a summary of the investigation. I read the report about Bob and was amazed. There were holes in what was known, but Bob was definitely alive, married, and had reunited with his parents. His wife was pregnant. How weird was it that we were both pregnant?

The Vin-Ta investigators believed Bob had shifted immediately after he died of a brain aneurism in the emergency room of the hospital. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes later, or it wouldn't have been possible. The shift must have been automatic, like Luke's first shift had been when he fell while rock climbing. The hospital hid the fact that Bob's body was apparently stolen. Money changed hands and the funeral home cooperated with the deception, so his parents never knew they buried an empty coffin. His shifting repaired the damage of the aneurism, but according to the detectives' report, he had amnesia for a long time. There were no records of him during that time and the detectives thought it possible he stayed in wolf form. A Vin-Ta with no memories could function better as a wolf. Bob somehow made his way to Florida. I smiled as I remembered my dream. In it, Bob and I had been in Florida. I continued reading. Bob fell in love a woman named Sheila Parker in Florida. They met while she was camping. I could feel my pulse pounding. It was so similar to how Luke met me. Sheila found Bob's parents and took him to them. The sight of Bob's parents seemed to restore Bob's memory. The family sued the hospital and the funeral home and won a settlement of four million dollars. The hospital initially tried to claim that it was their treatment that saved Bob's life and that the parents should be grateful. I got furious when I read that. But then I read that in addition to paying off the Turners, those involved faced criminal charges. Good! Bob had visited my parents for a few minutes. Nothing was known about the conversation, but Bob left my parents' house angry. I wondered about that. Despite his resurrection, Bob didn't seem to realize he was a Vin-Ta, a wolf-shifter. According to a Vin-Ta who sniffed him, Bob hadn't shifted for a long time. His wife was not Vin-Ta. He was still being observed. I needed to tell Dag they could stop.

I put the sheet of paper back in the folder. I wanted to see Bob, but the problem was, neither one of us were who we had been. How could I explain my life to him? If I told him about Vin-Ta, would he believe me? I would have to prove it. And then what about his wife and child? They weren't Vin-Ta, none of her children would be, because only a Vin-Ta mother can give birth to a Vin-Ta. If he shifted regularly, Bob would outlive them by hundreds of years. I really wished she was Vin-Ta. It would make things so much easier. But that would also push things back a generation. Bob was Vin-Ta, therefore his mother was, too. But was his father? Probably not. I knew he had very little body hair. His mother would outlive his father by centuries. And then she would be unhappy. As I thought more about it, I realized that Bob was the only good part of an unhappy past I absolutely did not want to revisit. My parents thought I was dead. How on Earth could I explain to him why I had allowed them to think that? Bob would never understand unless I explained about Vin-Ta. And that put us back at the problem of his wife and child. I wondered if I could be happy just knowing Bob was alive. I chuckled when I realized I was very, very happy. I was happy. I smiled as I looked at the photo. Bob was happy. Let him go.

Good-bye, Bob. I love you.

The End