March 18, 2016

Dani thought about numbers as she drove out of the city. Numbers and time. It had been three years since she and Santana had started dating. Three whole years, she thought with a smile. One year since she'd discovered that her girlfriend was a shapeshifter. A werewolf. Six months since Santana had admitted to Imprinting on her.

She pulled up to the big gates and pressed the button on the remote that was clipped to her visor. As she drove down the long drive to the old country house, she could hear the Pack out in the fields. She parked behind Santana's car, as always, and hopped out. The porch stairs creaked as she bounded up them, grinning when Santana's dad opened the door.

"Dani! Long time, no see!" Cris Lopez said, hugging her when she stepped into the house.

"You just saw me last week," she said, laughing.

"Far too long. Come on, dinner's almost ready. Santana's...er...she and a few of the boys are out doing Wolf things."

Dani smiled and followed him into the cavernous kitchen. He used that term, "Wolf things", a lot. He was still worried he'd frighten her off if the family was too Wolf-y around her. It amused her, because she wasn't going anywhere any time soon. "Can I help with anything?" she asked when she reached Santana's mother.

Maribel gave her a hug, and passed three baskets of rolls to her. "All of us are here today, so we're eating out in the garden. If you could take those out for me."

"Sure." She carried the baskets out to the tables in the backyard. As she was setting the last one down, a line of five guys came out of the treeline carrying firewood. Each nodded at her.

The last, a blonde man with a permanent air of mischief about him, smirked at her. He dumped the logs into one of the fire pits and came over to hug her. "How's it going, Blue Human?" he asked, kissing her cheek.

"Fine, Collum. Are you ever going to learn my name?" she asked him.

"One day, maybe. But it took me six years to stop calling my brother 'Crying, Stinky Blob', so don't count on anything soon," he added with a wink.

"Collum, are you hitting on my girlfriend again?" Santana asked. She'd just come out of the trees with her own stack of logs, and dumped them into the last firepit.

"Not this time," Collum said. "I still have scars from the last beating you gave me."

"She hit you with a fly swatter," Dani reminded him, snickering.

"It was a hard fly swatter! And she's got a mean swing on her." He tossed his blonde hair out of his eyes and gave Dani another side-hug. "Catch you two later."

"You're not staying for dinner?" Santana asked.

"You know how I am with family gatherings…" he muttered, shrugging. With a tiny salute, he walked off.

"How is he with family gatherings?" Dani asked. This was only her third time at an actual Pack event, and she was still getting to know everyone from the three families (Lopez, Garwin, and Raize) that made up their Pack. She had, however, noticed that Collum usually had something to do during these events.

"Eh...I'll tell you later," Santana said, kissing her cheek. "How are you? Did you survive midterms?"

"I did! Without decapitating anyone, I might add. Now I get to enjoy a nice, relaxing spring break."

"Okay, you two!" Cris called, carrying out an enormous roasting pan full of some sort of meat. "Enough snuggling - it's time for dinner."

Later that evening, the two girls were cuddled under a mountain of blankets, watching Save the Last Dance. Well, Santana was watching - Dani was writing in her notebook.

"You know something?" Santana asked, glancing over. "If we were at Hogwarts, I'm pretty sure you'd be in Ravenclaw."

"Why's that?" Dani asked, glancing over with a smile.

"Because you're on break and you're studying," Santana said, gently tugging the notebook away from her.

"Hey! Give that back. I'm studying Wolf stuff, anyway, so it's not like it's schoolwork."

"You don't need to," Santana said. "You'll get it eventually."

"Or, you could -"

"Dani…."

"You could change me," Dani said, rolling over so that she was lying on top of Santana. She rested her head against the older girl's shoulder. "Seriously. It's going to happen at some point anyway. And then I'd be in on the Howl, and I wouldn't have to study all this stuff."

"You seemed to do well tonight - knowing who everyone is," Santana said.

"You know that's not all there is to it."

"I know, but…." She trailed off with a sigh.

Dani propped herself up to look down at her girlfriend. "Am I really yours?" she asked.

"Yes," Santana said earnestly.

"Then make me yours. I want to be like you, San. My mind's not going to change."

"It's… it's not that simple. There's...it's… I don't know how to explain it. Besides, the whole 'turning' experience is involved. You don't want to deal with that your senior year of college."

"Okay, then after," Dani said cheerfully. "I'm fine with waiting a little bit. After I graduate?"

Santana bit her lip and nodded slowly. "Okay. After you graduate."

Dani squeaked happily and leaned down to kiss her. "I totally love you," she said, settling back down against Santana.

This brought a smile back to Santana's face. "Love you too."

"So…. You going to tell me what was up with Collum?"

"I'll tell you if you can explain his and your epic bromance," Santana said, grinning.

"Shut it. He's the only one who's never treated me like a fragile, breakable human. It's hard not to like him - he's a goof."

"He...he was turned by one of the Atlantic wolves. When he was around fourteen, I think. His mother and father took him on vacation to Boston, and...well, I don't know the details of the story, but when they got back to the Midwest, our Pack could sense a new wolf. His parents didn't want him once they found out, but promised to keep the secret if we took him. Dad was the only one who was okay with taking him in - so he lives here with our family. He still sort of feels like an outcast."

"Oh. That's…."

"Yeah."

May 10, 2017

It was the best day of her life, even though her family hadn't been there to see it. Whatever - it's not like they'd kept in touch for the past four years. She'd made it through her final year of college, and felt like she could strangle a bear at the moment.

"Dani!" Collum yelled, picking her up and swinging her about.

"Don't break my girlfriend, bro," Santana said. She hugged Dani tightly when Collum finally set her down. "I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks," Dani said, brushing a few pink locks of hair away from her face.

"We've got to get going. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I've said goodbye to everyone. Where are we going?"

"I'm going home," Collum said. "But Santana has some sort of romantic date planned for the two of you."

Santana flicked his ear. "Spoil the surprise, why don't you?"

"It's not like I told her where you were going!"

"Children, behave," Dani said as they piled into the car.

It took them about two hours to make it back to the farm to drop Collum off. There was a shuffle when he got out, so that Santana was now in the driver's seat, and Dani was riding shotgun. Before they drove off, Collum leaned on the top of the car and passed Dani a small package wrapped in gold paper.

"Go on - open it."

"It's not going to explode, is it?" she asked, smirking at him.

He gave her a look of mock offense. "As if!"

Dani grinned and opened the box. Inside was a necklace. There was a miniature hourglass on a silver chain. "Aww, Collum! Thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, but they could tell he was pleased that she'd liked it. "Happy grad day, Pink Haired Human. Don't say I never got you nothin'." With that he ran off in the direction of the field.

"I will never understand y'all's bromance," Santana said, chuckling.

"So where are we going?" Dani asked, as they continued to head east.

"To a bed and breakfast that the Garwins own. I figured I'd take you away for the weekend, so we could have some alone time."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Dani said, taking Santana's hand. She debated bringing up The Subject. She'd been really, really, good this past year, and hadn't badgered Santana about turning her. But now that she'd graduated, she really wanted to know. Especially if it was going to be soon.

"You're thinking way too hard and too loudly, baby," Santana said, squeezing her hand gently. "You want to talk about it?"

"What all goes into...changing someone?"

"Bite transference. Usually the shoulder, so we don't hit anything too major. The person will pass out, and stay out for about three to five days. It depends on how long it takes their body to adjust. The first day they're awake, they'll go through the first change - involuntarily. The Wolf just sort of takes over. That's about it, really."

"What's it like? Changing?"

"The first few times, it sucks. It's like...think of the worst case of hiccups you've ever had, put them all together into one giant one, then think of that, but backwards and when you open your eyes again you've got fur."

"Ouch. So when do we do it?"

"Dani," Santana began with a sigh. "All of that and you still want this?"

"Yes. Because the long term benefits far outweigh the initial discomfort. I mean it, San."

"It's just…."

"You don't want to do it," Dani said with a sigh, falling back against the seat. She let go of Santana's hand and crossed her arms, convincing herself in that instant that this wasn't actually petulance since it was serious.

"I want to do it, but I can't….I have to make sure it's going to go right."

"Like you won't actually eat me when you're just trying to bite me?"

"I could make a dirty joke right now -"

"Santana! I'm serious!"

"Sorry, right. No, I mean that I want you to be sure. This is about us, but it's not only about us. Being turned, becoming one of us, it ties you to life for a long, long time. And it ties you to other Wolves. Not just our Pack, but our Clan here in the Midwest, and the Atlantic, Pacific, and Mountain Clans too."

"You're telling this to a girl who got disowned by her entire family," Dani reminded her. "I'm totally cool with gaining a huge extended family."

"You haven't met all of them yet," Santana countered in a mumble. "Okay...how about this? One year, and if you still want to be turned, I'll do it."

Dani was silent for a moment, just staring at her girlfriend. "That's what you said last time," she said.

"No, I just said after graduation. I didn't tell you when. Give me a year - give yourself a year to think it over."

"Fine," Dani agreed after a long pause. "But if you don't, I'm going to find someone who will." She held up her hand when Santana started to argue. "No. I'm your…whatever - mate, partner, whatever. We've firmly established this. I'm not kidding, Santana. I want to be like you. I want our kids to be like us. And I want it to be you who brings me into your world, but it doesn't have to be. One year, and no more."

Santana bit her lip and nodded. "Good," she said, obviously trying to sound cheerful. "No more Wolf stuff this weekend though? We're supposed to be celebrating."

Dani smiled. "Fair enough."