Striking me as a humorous comment about a posse of troublemakers, I woofed agreement to Nord just before my attention was promptly distracted by a puppy who obnoxiously claimed his kinship with me. I think I may have raised a brow at his unhindered enthusiasm. He looked very much like Nord, and I was certain his personality was quite taken from that side of the family. Fortunately, it was clear even this early that he was going to be a large wolf when he matured. Proudly, I’d claim it came from the Angel heritage… though even I lacked that impressive feature being the runt of my siblings.

My cousin’s EXCITED squirming, however, charmed my skepticism into an amused grin. Even with a head start, the squirt had no hope of beating me. Still, it was hilarious puppy-logic. My eye shifted briefly to Celeste with a smug, teasing tightness in my lips. We all knew that she was the queen of fairness. I didn’t believe him, but I kept that private. My glance to Aunt Celeste was merely to tease her about what I knew of her youthful days. I’m sure she’d become a mature adult… When I returned my gaze to the grey fur ball, my younger brother - who I was meeting for the first time - bounded up to enter the challenge.

I was struck my his likeness to me. His heterochromatic blue and yellow eyes, lopsided stars, plus his black and white fur. And he was small. A runt. It gnawed at me to know that I could could have passed for his father instead of an older brother. The idea made me itchy, like I needed to distract myself; there was no way I was old enough to potentially already have a litter (it was a lie, of course, which was why I needed to distract myself).

I wasn’t going to let either of them get away with calling me or making me feel old.

With an adoring coo, I taunted, “Are the pair of you claiming you need a handicap to compete?”