A few hours after the close of the meeting, his private jet landed in the Ruathe airport. There were escorts waiting, who drove with them to the land in question.
"I can almost smell home from here," Tolan observed as they stood in the center of the forest they now owned, after hours of walking as the witches did the land ownership rights ritual.
He closed his eyes and breathed in, channeling his shifter nose. Tolan was right, home was on the wind.
~I guess that means the ritual was successful? ~ Eva asked, standing next to them in wolf form.
"You're probably right," he said and looked up.
It was nearly midnight and the canopy of trees blocked the moon except for shifting gaps where the light managed to shine through.
He stood barefoot, still wearing suit pants and his dress shirt buthis jacket, tie and shoes were gone. The hem of his pants were folded and his bare feet treaded the mulchy ground.
He couldn't change forms till all rights were signed.
"We have finished," a voice said behind him and he turned to the native witches that had blessed the hand and handed over ownership to him. They had the customary witch tattoos everywhere visible except the face. "The land is yours." The words had magic infused in them and he could the strings and electricity of it as it moved through the wind.
Even in the dark of the forest, his wolf eyes could see just fine. "Thank you for doing us this honor," he said with a deep bow which they returned.
"You do us the honor prime, congratulations on your new territory," the head male said as the two females who flanked him smiled.
"Thank you, chief. Till we meet again."
The old witch man nodded at him and all three witched vanished, while he shuddered.
"gods I hate when they do that," Tolan said, echoing his thoughts.
"Tell me about it." He turned to the younger man and Eva.
"Time for a run." He said with a smile and he heard Eva chuckle in his head.
~bet you've been waiting to say that all day~
He triggered the change, first he nearly doubled in size and his musculature changed and shifted as fur sprouted first along his arms then chest and then everywhere else. He continued to grow, his hands and feet warped and he dropped down on all fours. He could hold half way stage but he had had enough of human form for the day and happily began to lope between the trees. Light on his feet. Eva and Tolan running on either side of him as they ran around their new land.
Far away in the Vhadland enclave, the huge clock in the middle of the Ruathe city tolled midnight and Mallon froze.
~what is it?~ tolan asked.
~why did you stop? ~ Eva rubbed along his side as he raised his head to catch an elusive scent on the wind?
~do you smell that? ~ he asked them both as he followed it. It was like nothing he'd ever smelled before.
~smell what? ~ Tolan moved to block him. ~what does it smell like?~
~I cannot describe it, it's like all my favorite scents mixed together~
The other two froze, having had different experiences of their own when finding their mate, they knew what it was.
~Mallon?~
~what~ he growled as they refused to move out of his way.
~I think…I think that is your mate~
~what?~
~that is your mate, don't you feel like doing something right now?~ Eva implored.
~It feels like there is a howl stuck in my chest~
~then howl, mallon. We will carry your mate song all the way to your mate and she will come.~
He lifted his great head and let lose the howl, it blew through the trees till it went beyond the canopy. Tolan and Eva joined, all the shifters surrounding them for security joined them, the song reached the everglade lands and the shifters there too joined, knowing what it meant. The Prime would soon find his mateafter more than a century of waiting.