Matt lazily growled as he blinked into the morning air. Back flat against the warm soil, he stared up into the sky and watched the branches sway and leaves rustle in the morning breeze. Sweat matted his hair to his lightly tanned brow as he rested. The glistening sun broke through the cover of leaves above and spread its rays across the green vegetation. One beam, in particular, decided to dance upon Matt's squinting face.
Midshift, he lay sprawled like a puppy, listening to the cacophony of sounds. One hand scratched his bare chest while his tail idly brushed across the forest floor, lifting an assortment of twigs and dirt. His breath had finally evened out from the rigorous training with his father. Now there was nothing he would like more than to lie beneath the trees and feel the wisps of wind brush through his hair and across his face. He wanted relief from the summer's baking heat. The temperature already had him sweating buckets.
He sighed to himself in contentment. Ears twitched as a bird chirped from amidst the branches, and a chipmunk scrambled up the trunk. Its nails were digging into the bark in a low rhythmic tempo.
Nature's very own symphony.
Nothing but blue skies and green vegetation as far as the eye could see.
It was the perfect day for the festival.
Casually his golden eyes turned to observe the hustle and bustle of the village. There was a pleasant hum of excitement in the air. Due to the upcoming celebration, teachers canceled lessons. All around the compound, kids played while the older teens were helping with the preparations, some of them sitting on the bamboo porches of their huts weaving together baskets.
Matt snickered to himself as his eyes landed on Simon's older brother. The tall man was yet again chasing after Ricky's elder sister. Curiously he raised a brow, watching humorously as the man circled Jade, a smile the size of a crescent moon on his face. Gillian had been running circles around her for about a year, waiting for her to finish phasing. And it seemed that Jade was just about to.
Matt smiled as he caught them exchanging secretive glances. Instead of smacking the besotted wolf upside the head as she usually did, Jade was giggling. It looked like Ricky was finally going to get a brother.
He grunted to himself, losing interest in the pair. Aimlessly Matt looked around, finally turning his attention to the women sitting in the village center. His tail flicked upwards as he spotted his mother, along with the others sitting cross-legged in a circle, their sleeves pulled up past their elbows while their hands worked energetically at washing the large amounts of rice for the festival. Wooden bowls dripped with water as the women chatted, rubbing the grains together, identical smiles of cheer on their faces.
"Matt!"
The young Lycan's ears perked at the sound of the familiar voice. His head immediately jerked to the side, mouth morphing into a wide grin as he caught sight of his best friend.
Ricky was running towards him, an armful of apples pressed to his bare chest. His beaming smile reaching from ear to ear as strands of his ebony hair bounced along with his gait. Halfway to him, the slender teen began to shift, tail sprouting from his backside and escaping through his patterned shorts while his ears took on the more defined form of a wolf. Before a coat of golden fur could even start to think of sprouting and covering his skin, the hair rising screech of his mother sounded through the bustling hub.
"Don't you dare, Eric Kim!"
Ricky winced at the sound of the familiar shrill voice, losing his balance and almost tripping over his own two feet. The young wolf immediately stopped in his tracks and cautiously turned his head at a painfully slow pace, his body closely following.
Standing straight with one hand on her hip was his mother, Marianne Kim. Her long ebony hair was tumbling freely down her shoulders, vexed as ever. The large wooden bowl cradled to her side as she glared at her only son. In denim jeans and a loose-fitting top, she looked every bit the scowling wolf.
"M-Ma—"
"How many times do I have to tell you?" His mother growled, eyes changing from coal black to her lycan crystal blue. "No shifting into your wolf with your clothes on!"
Even from this distance, Matt could feel a shiver roll down his spine.
The sound of Marianne Kim's voice had even roused Max. The youngest of Matt's friends had been sleeping soundly by his feet, fully in his wolf form. Like a daisy, Max's head popped up, amber eyes focusing on the scene a few paces away. His ears twitched, anticipating the harsh scolding their friend was about to receive.
"You've already destroyed five pairs of pants this week!" She continued, not letting up even though she now had the majority of the pack's attention. Her eyebrows furrowed something awful. None of the women beside her said anything. They had all turned to pinpoint their own offspring. Making sure their children weren't leaving them a present of torn trousers that needed sewing—each finding the task incredibly tedious.
"I wasn't going to shift fully!" Ricky nervously replied, biting his lip as he stared at his mother, eyes wide. "I swear!"
Matt bit back a snort as Ricky's tail plunged between his legs, hiding. A telltale sign that the teenager was quite spectacularly lying through his teeth and would have ripped through another pair of shorts without a second's thought if his mother hadn't interfered.
That was pretty much obvious.
Marianne's expression relaxed, her features softening as she exhaled. She gave her son a skeptical look, doubting the truth of his words. However, she too could see the way his tail shivered between his legs. Unable to stay mad at her dangerously adorable pup, she decided to be lenient. "Well…then, alright. Just remember, if you're going to shift, take off your pants, alright?"
Ricky furiously nodded and waited for his mother to reclaim her seat beside the rest of the women before turning back to Matt and heaving a sigh of relief. His ears twitched unconsciously as a huge mischievous grin spread across his face. Bounding towards Matt, he jumped at the mid-shifted lycan, pressing him into the dirt and biting down on his ear playfully, apples tumbling from his arms.
Max's brain instantly sprang into action, forming a plan as he spotted the rolling apples. Taking this chance to steal himself a few tasty morsels, he got up on all fours and quickly padded over to the busy duo.
As Matt was busy play fighting with the ever-playful Ricky, he nimbly clamped down on a rolling red apple, seizing it in his teeth. Hurriedly he began to shift, his paws morphing into hands to better grab at the fallen fruit. Gleefully he grabbed two more apples and then proceeded to bound towards another tree, taking cover underneath its canopying branches before allowing himself to enjoy the saccharine joy of a bright red apple fully.
Matt headbutted Ricky's chest, leaving a sweaty imprint before dislodging his best friend and breaking his ear free. "Yah!"
Ricky grinned wolfishly, his ears twitching in amusement as he took in Matt's ire. As the more dominant wolf in their circle of friends, Matt would never allow anyone to bite down on his ear. However, Ricky was the only exception. Even though the teen was weaker than him, Matt allowed for the action. And Ricky, knowing that, exploited it at every chance he got.
Matt growled before turning his head away from his best friend, fighting the urge to swat the smaller boy. Nonetheless, he grinned, flicking his tail as he reached for one of the apples that had rolled towards him. His ears twitched happily. Matt rubbed the dirt from it across his bare chest before bringing the fruit to his lips and taking a monstrous bite. Proudly, his eyes glowed as he took in the imprint his teeth had left in the fleshy fruit.
Beside him, Ricky scuttled back over to Matt. Ebony hair fell into his midnight eyes as he opened his mouth and locked his teeth back around Matt's twitching wolf ear.
"Ricky!" Matt tugged his head away, pulling a firm Ricky along with him. "I'm trying to eat!"
The smaller teen let go and licked his lips. Leaning back to rest against the base of the tree, he turned to brushing the dirt from his skin, tail swishing back and forth across the forest floor. "So? Tell me where you went! I looked for you this morning, but you weren't home."
Matt chewed thoughtfully, mind traveling back to earlier this morning when he was out with his father. He grinned to himself, recalling the feel of being a part of the pack bond. "No place, really. We just went down by the river. My dad was instructing me on how to maintain the barrier with moonshade. Then we did some training." Maybe it's better to leave out the pack bond for now… I need to finish eating this first, Matt thought to himself, taking another bite out of his apple.
"Oh?"
Matt nodded, swallowing his mouthful before breaking out into a toothy grin. "I didn't get my ass kicked today." He wiggled his eyebrows, causing his ears to twitch yet again. "First time!"
"In your wolf form?" Ricky quirked his brow, disbelief marring his features. "Really?"
Matt grumbled, feeling a little dejected. "You think I'm lying?" He flicked his tail in annoyance, hitting it against his naked torso.
"But your dad is the Alpha…" Ricky pointed out. "You sure he didn't just let you win?"
"Wow." Matt furrowed his brow, more annoyed than before. "Thanks, Ricky. Real nice. And here I thought you would congratulate me."
Ricky was just about to reply when suddenly, out of nowhere, a bright red ball slammed straight into his pouting face. A high-pitched yelp escaped his lips. Both hands instinctively grabbed at his nose while his eyes began to water. Matt turned his head in the direction the ball had come from to see two forms bounding towards them at high speed.