“Yeah, when you were four years old. He’s your grandpa.”
Orson reached them, stretching out a hand for Adam to shake. “Hey kiddo, I’m Orson. But you can call me GP.”
“GP?” Adam asked, looking up at him.
“Short for Grandpa,” Orson said with a wink, causing Adam to chuckle.
Lyra looked at him, letting out a breath. She could hear the other members of the pack inside the house, listening in on the conversation. Orson nodded at Lyra, and she looked up. “Come on out, guys.”
A young man walked out, smiling at Lyra. She stared at him and felt her heart skip a beat as she recognized his face. Isaac had been just thirteen years old when she had last seen him. Now, he was well into his teenage years, smiling ear to ear at her. He had been a young street orphan who had been attacked by a rival pack during an attack on Ridgeshire.
Abandoned by the pack that had bitten him, Orson had taken him in as his own son and adopted him into the pack. He ran right at Lyra, hugging her.
“Lyra!” Isaac yelled.
“Isaac, what the…oh my God, you’ve grown so much!”
“Thanks!” Isaac took a step back and turned to Adam. “Hey, man.”
“Hey,” Adam replied, looking at him apprehensively.
“You play Pokémon?” Isaac asked with a smirk, holding up a console.
A smile spread across Adam’s face, and in a moment they had both vanished into the house. Lyra walked up to the house, pushing the door open. In the living room, she saw all of the pack seated with their hands crossed, frowns on their faces. Lyra wondered what Orson had told them, but it made sense that they would be upset.
She had told them she was leaving, but after Lyra gave birth she had never made contact. “Look, guys, I just want to—”
Something exploded behind her, making Lyra turn around quickly, her claws drawn instinctively. Confetti rained down on her, and she realized that Orson had fired a can of it. The rest of the pack erupted in cheers behind her, and a small banner rolled down the side of the wall as they all yelled in unison.
“Surprise!”
Lyra laughed, confused, as she watched their faces change from frowns to smiles and laughs. Aaron, the second-strongest shifter after Orson, shook her hand, smiling ear to ear. “Welcome home, Lyra. I have no idea why you ran out on us!”
“Yeah!” said Emma, the only other female shifter in the clan. “You left me alone with all of these guys, come on!”
“Yo, Lyra!” Jackson yelled from the top of the stairs. “Did you at least bring some gifts from the city?”
Lyra laughed as he leaped from the top of the stairs, landing softly and walking over to her, giving her a big hug.
She looked around. “I don’t understand, I thought you guys would be upset!”
“Oh we are,” said Emma, whipping her blonde hair to the side. “But, we missed you too much.”
“That’s enough, Lyra has something she needs to tell you,” said Orson, breaking up the group.
“You mean other than the fact that she kept a kid from the pack for so long? What’s the deal with that?” Jackson asked, dropping into a beanbag chair.
“Yeah, didn’t you want your son to be a part of the pack?” Aaron asked, looking at Orson as he rubbed his beard. “Wait, did you know?”
“She’s my daughter, of course she told me,” Orson replied.
“Okay,” Lyra began, “well, one of the reasons I didn’t bring him here is that Adam isn’t like us.”
“Like us—what do you mean like us?” Jackson asked. “Like, he doesn’t like s’mores or something?”
“He’s not a shifter.”
“I call bull,” Jackson shot back.