Chapter 8: How to Eat Like a Shifter

Thessalia POV

The delicious food and the noisy, joyful meal with the Cresta family made sitting with her bare bottom pressed against a hard bench less awkward.

After her startling conversation with Dirge, she’d gotten cleaned up and ready for dinner. With Calyx excited about everything. They’d been given rooms on the family’s floor, probably for security reasons. Although no one knew there were security reasons. Dirge said that most of the pack wasn’t aware of wood elves staying in their midst–but if they did know, they wouldn’t so much as howl at the moon about it. Speaking of which, they had howling lessons with Alpha Jiro tomorrow morning.

For now, they could relax over dinner.

The table groaned with three kinds of roasts and at least six different vegetable dishes as well as sides of rice and noodles, as well as all of Thessalia’s favorite fruits. Azandra’s parents Ransome and Titania had joined the noisy, large dinner. Everyone had a child on their laps, although Kodi, Winston, and Lucina all tried to sit up on their own. Patch’s Ziggy and Brandy crawled from lap to lap. The children were a part of the gathering, and their laughter lightened the already bright mood. 

Elf parents were like this, of course, they were. They cherished sproutlings as much as they did their trees. But Thessalia couldn’t help seeing a special magic in the way the shifter parents loved their children. 

She tasted the flavorful rice. It was the same wild rice that grew in the Brighmere Grove, highly prized, and sought after in the human, dwarf, and orc kingdoms. But the spice opened up her senses. She asked about the spices, and Lilia’s mother Ravyn started telling her the recipe, a traditional witch preparation. Like elves, witches believed that food is energy, and certain kinds of foods give people certain energies. Right now, the energy she felt was warmth and comfort and care.

“Do you like this rice dish, Dirge?” she asked.

He held up his plate. Empty. “I like it all. I love it all. But Mother Ravyn’s rice is incredible.”

“I love it too,” she said.

“It never tastes like this at home,” Calyx added, licking her fingers the way they both saw the shifters doing.

Thessalia wanted to object, but instead, she said, “I’ll have to share the recipe with … with my family at home.”

Wiping sauce off his chin, Dane said, “For this first casual dinner, you don’t need to hold back or be … elf-conscious.”

His brothers just sat expressionless. Petrified wood would show more emotion. 

“As if we’ve never heard that one before,” Thessalia shot back, with a giggle.

“He’s been practicing all day,” Lilia said with a loving but mischievous gaze. “And he gets an extra helping of noodles for the effort.”

Jiro passed the noodles to Dane, who looked inside the bowl. “I could have sworn we had more noodles,” Dane groused, emptying the bowl onto his plate.

Thessalia watched all the banter, intrigued. Elves were famed for their lively and eloquent conversation, but these shifters were verbal masters. Calyx leaned in, grinning. While Thessalia was sandwiched between Dirge and Garnet with Lucina on her lap, Calyx got to sit between Patch and Anneliese.

Those two, and their children, were going to make her best friend even more outrageous. 

Patch’s and Anneliese’s Brandy and Ziggy were crawling all over Calyx, smashing food in her face. The other Cresta pups thought this was a game and started imitating their cousins. Except for little Lucina, who was the perfect lady. 

Calyx rolled her eyes. “Elf-help. Elf-motivated. Elf-centered. Elf-sustaining. Elf-published. The list goes on. I’ve been collecting every bad elf pun. Wolves don’t have that.”

“We have ‘wolf up’ and ‘hungry like a wolf,’” Dirge offered.

“That’s nice,” Calyx said.

Azandra gave Dirge a sympathetic look. “When you only get two words from an elf, you know you better improve your game.”

Several of the family laughed riotously.

Lucina frowned, unusually sensitive, and hid her face in Thessalia’s shoulder. 

Thessalia instinctively stroked the little one’s wondrous red hair. “It’s just a family conversation, little one,” she said. “There’s nothing to fear.”

And she couldn’t breathe, because Dirge gave her the biggest, warmest smile. 

Azandra’s mother Titania, who could be part elf herself, gave them all a matronly glare of death. “REALLY? Is this how we talk when important guests are here? Azandra Eleonora Hemming Cresta and Kyon Denver Cresta, you should know better.”

“It’s quite alright, Mrs. Hemming.” Thessalia gave the woman a soothing look. “Besides, right now we’re just sisters from a remote part of the territory who are old friends of the Crestas.”

That was the backstory Jiro, Garnet, and Patch had helped them invent. They were farmers and sisters from the part of the territory around the wood elf border. If some little-known wood elf lore or knowledge slipped out in conversation, that could easily be explained away. And truthfully, as Tree Maiden who tended her tree, Calyx was even closer to her than a sister. 

Lucina Cresta looked up with a big smile, her turquoise eyes reminding Thessalia of certain flowering trees in the grove. “You are friends!”

Was it possible to fall in love with a child at first sight? Well, she had with the brave little Kodi, but Lucina was giving him competition. 

Kodi seemed to sense this and roared at his cousin. “MINE!”

Lucina just gave him a sassy look and climbed onto Thessalia’s lap to steal part of her food. Of course, Kodi howled and threw a royal fit. Weren’t his parents going to do anything?

Lilia grabbed Kodi and pulled him back as he climbed on the table. “Kodi, you know better than that. Lucina is your cousin. Thessi is a friend, and you shouldn’t bite at her.”

The Crestas had agreed that Thessalia’s nickname sounded much more “shifter” than her full name. Calyx’s name was fine since many shifters did have plant names. 

“Don’t worry,” Garnet said, looking directly at Dane. “She’s her father’s daughter–she knows how to stand up for herself with the more vocal Crestas.”

Kyon, Patch, and Dirge all broke up laughing. Dane good-naturedly grumbled while Jiro tried not to look too pleased with himself.

Kodi continued to whine but his parents cajoled, distracted him, scolded him, and did everything possible.

Dirge fed her a bite of dessert, a delicious pudding that melted on the tongue. It tasted almost as good as the elf Celestial Jewels of the Forest dessert. She closed her eyes in ecstasy. 

Noisily eating pudding, Calyx moaned in appreciation. “We are home!”

At this moment, Thessalia couldn’t disagree. She felt a bit guilty as if she’d somehow cheated on her tree and her grove. She couldn’t get too attached to the Crestas–especially Dirge.

“I hope there’s more pudding where that came from,” she said, opening her eyes.

* * * * *

Dirge POV

She might not know shifter ways, but Thessalia had captured his family’s hearts.

How did Dirge know this? Easy. They acted like themselves around her and Calyx. Bickering, laughing, offering help and way too much of it, being warm and loud and expressive, teasing each other. Jiro was quiet as usual, and so was Garnet, but he read their body language and saw how comfortable they were with Thessalia and Calyx.

Kodi and Lucina sealed the wood elves’ fates. Lucina was as cautious as her parents, while Kodi chased after life with a warrior’s passion. They were very different children, but they both instantly adored Thessi and Calyx.

Moon Goddess, he was even starting to think of the princess by her shifter name! 

Thessi. He liked it. It was short and sweet. Sassy too. Her brother had nicknamed her, which fit with everything. Dirge could not imagine a man who gave his sister a cute nickname forcing her to marry a stuffy High Lord.

“Oh, there’s definitely more pudding,” he said, and offered another spoonful to her, but Lucina’s greedy little mouth got in the way.

“Lucina!” Jiro gave her his Stern-Alpha-Dad look. 

“I don’t blame her,” Thessi said. “It’s heavenly!”

“YUM,” Lucina said. “‘Licious. I want more.”

Thessi fed the little one pudding while Garnet watched to make sure Lucina didn’t take it all. Thessi had such a gentle heart. 

His wolf was purring for her. Could wolves purr? Maybe not. But Shepard was making the most contented noises around Thessi. 

Lucina grabbed the spoon and flicked pudding at Thessi, trying to imitate her. Pudding splashed on Thessi and she shrieked. The parents in the group all looked nonchalant. They went through this with their kids at least twice a day.

“I think she likes you, Thessi,” Calyx laughed.

“Which says a lot,” Garnet murmured, wiping the pudding off Thessi. “She hides from strangers normally.”

Jiro beamed at his little girl. She had him wrapped around her finger. But then, Dirge always knew Jiro was going to be the toughest parent and the softest heart of all of them because that’s how he raised Dirge and Patch. “But no throwing food at her, Lucina,” he chided her.

“She gets that from you,” Dane called out from across the table.

“You were a menace,” Kyon said, piling on. “Worse than Dane.”

Titania sniffed. “Should you be encouraging bad behavior?”

“They’re only little once,” Ravyn shot back.

“And those messy days won’t ever come again,” Ransome added. 

A brick wall would move more than Titania. “You can still model good behavior.”

Dirge felt a warm surge toward her in addition to the urge to throw pudding, which he didn’t give into. Titania was overbearing, and she knew it and didn’t apologize. 

“What do you say, Azandra?” Kyon asked, wrangling little Fairmont, who was still hungry and demanding food.

“They’re both right,” Azandra said, passing Primrose to Tulaska. 

The white-blonde Wise Woman looked content to hold Azandra’s child. It was nice to see Cyran and his babies hadn’t completely lured Tulaska away. Dirge caught her looking at him and Thessi with an unreadable gray-eyed gaze. 

What did she see?

What did Azandra see when she looked at the elf?

Was it too soon to ask them if he’d found his fated mate? What would their answers be?

He watched Thessi eat the pudding with delicacy while Patch ribbed her about eating like a High Elf sitting on hot coals. He normally loved and spurred on his brother’s teasing, but right now he felt like smacking Patch. Was this how the nearness of a fated mate affected people? It must be. Kyon had stormed into the house with fire in the blood, ready to clobber Dane in the training area when he thought Dane had kissed Azandra. All Patch had done was to be, well, Patch.

To her credit, Thessi just continued to spoon pudding in her mouth in her refined way, which fascinated him. She showed a strength of will that definitely matched the shifter spirit. The smell of the pudding and her scent were driving him crazy.

He looked at Tulaska but saw nothing except intense interest. Azandra glanced at him and shook her head slightly, her expression fascinated.

Moon Goddess, he couldn’t wait to ask them!

“Tulaska, have you heard about Calyx’s and Thessi’s research?” he burst out.

Tulaska nodded slowly. “I’d be quite interested in hearing more. Why don’t you both come to my home after dinner?”

Calyx waved her spoon around enthusiastically. “I get to talk to a real shifter Wise Woman, gifted in plant and herbal lore!”

Thessi threw her head back and howled.

Or tried to.

It sounded like trying to play a lute with broken strings.

The kids all covered their ears and either laughed or shrieked while the adults muffled their own guffaws. Dane said serenely, “Good try. Jiro will help you improve.”

Thessi’s hand found his and he was blushing as fiercely as she was.