He wasn’t wrong. Jules wasn’t book smart, but he was smart in every other way. I was book smart. Book smart in a big way, though I tried to hide it. The last thing I needed was teachers and parents up in my business. Still, when he said it, the first rustle of an idea took hold.

“Come on,” he yelled. “Let’s run!”

“No fucking way. You know I don’t run unless something’s chasing me.”

“Easily arranged, my friend.”

He put his hands out at his sides, spreading his fingers dramatically and snarling as if he thought he was Wolverine. He tilted his chin down and started pacing toward me. Despite myself, I gave in. I always did. I started to run as we left the outskirts of town. My backpack bounced around uncomfortably on my shoulders and my strides felt too short and then too long. I looked back over my shoulder and saw Jules laughing. His hair was blown back off his face, and his eyes were narrowed from how hard he was smiling. When he smiled like that, the hazel-green ring around his pupils looked so vivid, I wondered how in the world people didn’t take one look at Jules and know he was magick. It was so obvious to me I didn’t know how anyone could miss it.

I found my pace. My legs and my arms settled into a rhythm. A perfect rhythm. One foot in front of the other. I felt the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. My heart rate was steady. So was my breathing. It felt easy. It felt right. It was right. I might have been kind of human and kind of magick, but I was all wild. Jules knew that about me. I guess, because he was the same.

We stopped at the willow tree near the creek just down the road from where we lived. We were on pack land. It was always a relief to me when I left town and my feet hit our land. I lay back on the grassy slope under the stooped branches of the tree and watched as Jules swung on the old tire swing. He was enjoying himself, despite the fact that his legs were crammed into the swing, and he was far too old for swinging in general. He was laughing like there was nothing wrong in the world. Jules was easy to please. Little things made him happy.

“Do we have the best life, or whaaaaaat?” he whooped again.

“You’re going to see your ass on that swing, d’you know that?”

As we walked the rest of the way home, my spirits lifted. Jules was right. We did have a great life. As we rounded the bend to the homestead, I thought the same thing I always thought when I saw it.

There’s no better feeling in the world than being part of a pack.