I get jolted from sleep when I feel a ball of something ice cold get shoved under my sweater.
My reaction is instantaneous, I yelp, rolling off the bed to the ground to get the snow out of my clothes before it melts.
Virgil is subjected to the same treatment if his huff of breath from thumping on the ground is any indication.
"Good morning sleepyheads!" Shana yells happily, high-fiving Dale.
They're both dressed for the snow in thick coats and scarfs and Mae runs in, dressed thickly as well, her cheeks red with exertion and I can hear my mom squealing from her room.
"What the fuck?" Virgil recovers first, getting to his feet but the three of them dash outside happily.
I change quickly, my sweater uncomfortably cold that I shrink into myself everytime it brushes my bare skin.
"There's inches of snow outside!" I say happily when I look out the window to see that the snow has been falling steadily.
"Good." Virgil tuts, flexing an arm with a scowl on his face.
"Wait, you need to put a scarf on!" I stop him in a panic when he's about to hurry outside. "And ear muffs, and"
"Don't wrap the scarf so high up, baby, I can't see a thing." Virgil complains, squirming impatiently.
"Sorry." I say absently, engrossed in getting him warm enough for the amount of snow outside.
My mom threw the door open a couple minutes later. "Ready to feed some people snow?" She asks with a wide grin, swinging her gloved left hand.
"Hell yeah!" I humor her.
We all hurry down the stairs, the entire Pack House is in a fray, people getting dressed to go play in the first snow of the year, it's just the second week of December but the excitement is thick in the air.
There's a clear spot beside the Pack House that had been cleared in preparation for the Dark Moon's Pack House but now is just an open space surrounded by trees and the first Pack House.
It's the perfect spot and it seemed to have collected all the snow because there are piles of it, rubber boots sinking in the soft, white powder.
Shana, Dale and Mae are waiting for us, they chose a corner to wait in ambush with fat snowballs in their hands.
Virgil blocks off the one coming for me and very quickly moulds another in his hand, Mae screaming bloody murder when it smacks her in the face.
It is so much fun and even though I'm panting and shivering at the same time from lumps of snow sliding inside my clothes, I'm grinning just as hard.
Soon, it turns into an all out battle with most of the teenagers from the Pack House while the smaller kids built snowmen and made snow angels with the adults.
I'm quick to dash behind a tree, I've lost sight of the rest and Werewolves are a mean bunch who throw snowballs so hard they feel like cannon balls.
I'm catching my breath against the trunk of the tree when I hear my name, I reflexively glance in that direction before realizing what a bad idea that was when Luke gives me a peace sign and throws a snowball at me.
It hits me smack in the chest and I go offer with a scream, the snow cushions my fall but I still get rattled pretty hard.
Luke panics at this - lots of people are terrified by Virgil - running over to check up on me.
"Hay? Hay? Are you oof!"
He had leaned forward to help me up and I had secretly folded a small ball of snow which I shove in his face when he bends close enough, scrambling away and making a run for it when he slips and falls face first in the snow.
I step out and freeze, a couple of small wolves run past me, happily nipping at each other and constantly shaking the snow off their fur.
I slowly look up to see that most of the people playing had shifted, I step backwards slowly, awe shining in my eyes as they carefreely ran across the snow, rolled around in it and pawed at it.
I bump into something unnaturally big and slowly turn around to see Virgil's familiar white wolf, bright blue eyes twinkling down at me.
I take a deep breath of relief and push my hands through his soft fur littered with flecks of snow, he nudges me forward gently with his nose but with how much restrained power he has and how light I am, I end up getting pushed a couple meters.
I pick myself with a wry smile only to see a huge black wolf dashing for me, my scream gets caught in my throat and at the last minute I see my mom hanging off Dale, laughing and screaming her head off.
Virgil doesn't appreciate this though and he easily jumps over me and tackles Dale from the side and they roll around a bit in the snow, mock biting each other.
My mom falls on the snow, laughing harder than I've ever seen and proceeds to immediately make a snow angel like she hadn't just been thrown off a huge ass wolf.
I barely get over that before I'm being tackled to the ground by Mae's coffee brown wolf, something like smug triumph in her brown eyes.
At least until Virgil harmlessly latches onto her tail and Yanks her away, blue eyes cold as he stands tall while Shana joins Dale and Mae, and I wonder what their devious plan is.
Oh
I think unhappily when I get licked for the umpteenth time, Virgil has his hands full with the three of them and it gets even harder when he has to watch out for me as well.
He actually holds his own but Dale and and Shana are sneaky, after a while he just gives up, either that or he's done playing because he uses his teeth to hold onto my collar with the most bored expression I've ever seen a non-human have and slowly makes his way back to the Pack House, eyes a smug gold.
I just hang on for the ride, laughing and waving my hands around.