Chapter Text
The day after Ned returned to Winterfell, he sent the septa and the septon packing. Catelyn was furious at his callousness. It was bad enough that he had brought his bastard home and insisted on raising the child with his trueborn brother, he was practically forcing her to feel like a stranger in her own home. Ned tried to placate her with building a sept, but Catelyn coldly told him that a sept is not much use without a septon and a septa.
(Her husband built a sept anyway, and Catelyn can’t stay mad at him after that. There was something about those big grey eyes).
Ned didn't even have the decency to tell her why. He just cryptically informed her that Winterfell cannot have any outsiders living in the castle.
She would not find out the reason for two years.
One night, Catelyn had gone into Robb's room and found instead of her son, a red direwolf pup was lying in his bed, on his torn nightshirt. Naturally, she screamed bloody murder because for all she knew her a wolf had eaten her sweet baby boy.
To her shock, the servants who had come running into the chambers seemed more concerned about the wolf pup who was now yapping up a storm, scared out of its fur. Jory and Rodrick at least go to her, assuring her that everything is all right---why they would think that is beyond her. To her horror, a second wolf appeared, fully grown with brown fur. The direwolf charged at the pup----and started licking it fiercely, wrapping his whole body around it until it calmed down.
Catelyn just watched with bewilderment and confusion, wondering if she somehow stepped into some bizarre tale where this was normal and why wasn't anyone wondering where Robb was? The pup had stopped yelping and was now looking at her with...hurt. He yipped at her, causing her to step back, still frightened. She glanced around the room, trying to understand why she was the only one disturbed by all of this.
The adult wolf licked the younger one's head, a low growl rumbling from his throat. As if it could not get any more bizarre, the wolf began to change as did the pup. Their fur started fading away, their faces and bodies became more human until her husband and son were staring up at her. Her naked husband and son. Fortunately, Lord Poole had gotten a robe for Ned to put on and a second one to be wrapped around the toddler.
"See, Momma, it's me!" Robb exclaimed. "You recognize me now, right?"
"Ned?" Catelyn asked after she had grabbed her son and kissed his sweet head repeatedly.
"I didn't think you'd believe me," Ned explained sheepishly, ducking his head.
Catelyn sighed. She supposed he had a point. Still, a warning would have been nice. "Will all our children be able to do this?"
"If they are all Starks, they will," Ned answered.
Catelyn can't help but laugh at that. For she had been so worried that her son and her newborn daughter wouldn't be seen as Starks compared to Jon Snow and yet Robb turning into a wolf was all the proof for which she could hope.
Now Catelyn understood Ned's need for secrecy. Many followers of the Seven would call the Starks turning into beasts a wicked thing and they should be exterminated. In fact, only the people of the Starks immediate household knew and were sworn to keep it hidden. Not even the most loyal of the North bannermen were allowed to learn the truth. Granted, it was an open secret among most of them since the Starks had intermarried their bannermen so often, there was at least one wolf popping up in their descendants.
Despite still being still unnerved by the situation, Catelyn began to accept it. And when, years later, three wolf pups climbed into her bed, she was able to see that they were not wild beasts, but little children who missed their father. She can't even find it in her to push Jon Snow away when he laid his little grey head on her stomach, huffing cutely. Instead, she just wrapped all three of them in her arms and fell back asleep.
She just sighed and shook her head when Ned returned from the Greyjoy rebellion and she brought him into the nursery to show him the newborn Arya, only to find a brown wolf pup curled up in the crib.
Years later, Arya would declare herself the most Stark of all Starks because she had changed into her wolf form the earliest. She pouts when Ned informs her that her Aunt Lyanna had turned into a wolf an hour after being born.
Bran took the longest to turn into a wolf---something Catelyn was secretly glad for because she was tired of checking on her children only to find that they have shifted into wolves in their sleep. He was five when he finally managed it, and quickly gets back at Arya who had been teasing him for being a late bloomer. His method of punishment was jumping on her and licking her fiercely.
Rickon was like Ayra and changed just a few months after he was born.
(Catelyn didn't know when Jon Snow changed into his wolf form, but she suspected it was around the same time he arrived at Winterfell, considering how many nights, Ned had spent sleeping in his nursery and Sansa was three when she first changed).
Now Catelyn sat on the grass, stroking Sansa's head and scratching Rickon's belly as she watched the fully grown wolf being chased by bundles of red, grey and brown fur. She felt oddly sad by the sight, wishing she could join them, she could be like them.
"But then again, I suppose I would be a trout not a wolf," she mused out loud.
Rickon nipped at her finger, and she glanced at down at him. "Oh? You would like that, wouldn't you? I would make a fine meal," she guessed. Rickon's tongue lolling out makes his grin even more adorable. "Well perhaps this trout will gobble you up." She then buried her face in his fur and gave his belly a raspberry before tickling him.
She heard a bark and looked up in time to see five wolves charging towards her. Rickon and Sansa---the traitors---quickly get out of the way as Catelyn Stark found herself being smothered by kisses and furry bodies.
"Stop that, stop that, right now!" Catelyn shouted---at least she tried to in-between her fits of laughter.
She was a trout, but she was a member of the pack, nonetheless.