25
REINER
Becky and I followed the kids out of the cabin half an hour later, right after getting the sandwiches and food for the picnic ready: the two little monsters, who’d grown bored while waiting for us, had started to play in the river that ran right next to the house, splashing around and giggling. The water barely reached their ankles, and the river flew gently: a perfect spot for them to have fun and freshen up when it was hot.
“You stay put here,” Becks told them. “Daddy and I will go shift and be right back, okay?”
“Okay!”
As we started toward the tree line, Becky tossed me one of the backpacks we had packed
with everything we needed for the picnic ahead: inside, there was also an additional bag to
store our clothes.
“You go there,” she ordered, pointing to a tree … and at the same time heading toward one on
the opposite side. Not that I hadn’t expected it, though… after the rather hot moment we had
just shared in the kitchen and after that little instance the night before, I honestly wouldn’t have minded peeking at some bare skin.
And, from the way I’d seen her breathing get heavier and her eyes get languid just minutes. before, I had good reason to think the feeling was pretty mutual.
Trying not to think about how well I knew her naked body (after all, we weren’t alone), I undressed and, without even thinking about it, shifted into my wolf.
f**k, yes, I sighed as soon as I landed on all fours. I took a breath, savoring all the smells of the forest that I couldn’t perceive with my human sense of smell, though more developed – I enjoyed the breeze on my fur, and the feel of the soft moss under my paw pads.
At least until a familiar scent wafted through the air.
Calm down, I said, as my wolf began to pant and paw at the scent of his mate. Calm the f**k down. Don’t pounce on her.
Becky and I stepped out of the tree line to join our pups almost at the same time – but when I saw her standing there, among the luscious green of nature and bathed in the sunlight, I felt my heart skip more than a beat.
I had … goodness, I’d forgotten how beautiful she was. How her light gray fur glowed silvery in
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the sunlight, or how brilliant her violet eyes, a similar but different shade than her human eyes,
were. Or how elegant and powerful her body was in wolf form, perfectly mirroring her human form.
Of course, my heart stirred even more when I realized that she was looking at me exactly as was looking at her.
Goddess help me, for this woman will be the death of me.
“WOLFIE!”
Suddenly, I felt something tugging hard at my fur – a sensation so unexpected and foreign that, reacting out of pure instinct, I moved in the opposite direction, trying to get away from it. At
Becky’s giggle, however, I realized that something was none other than Jim and Violet, who
had slung themselves at me and who, now, were trying to climb over me.
Now that I was in my wolf form, I was much more in tune with his emotions: and in seeing, for
the first time, my pups through his eyes… the pride and love that filled me was as powerful as the first time I had seen them as a man, but infinitely different.
Having them and my mate beside me, I finally felt fulfilled: the side of me that needed to feel
like the head of the family, the protective Alpha male, was finally at peace.
They, my pack, my family, were there with me, where I could see, smell, and hear them, and
most importantly where I could protect them.
“MOMMY LOOK DADDY DOES WOLFIE TOO!”
She nodded, swiftly licking Jim’s cheek, who laughed cheerfully.
“Daddy you have a super beautiful wolfie,” Violet whispered, her soft brown eyes full of wonder
and admiration.
That shocked me, and for about ten seconds I stood petrified, staring at my pup, dumbfounded: I had heard my wolf described in so many ways over the years, but never as … beautiful. Imposing, regal, terrifying, if anything: never beautiful.
“Very very soft,” Vi added, patting me on the side and sinking her little hands and face into my dark gray fur. “The pwettiest wolfie ever.”
Oh, baby…
With my heart full of tenderness and wonder, I watched her bend down to pick up a daisy from the ground.
“But you’d look even cuter with this!” she exclaimed smilingly. “Wait – I help you put it on!”
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It was really hard to hold back the laughter: eventually, however, I ducked down to allow Vi to do as she wished. Pursing her lips to focus (something she had definitely taken from her mother) she took her hairclip out and used it to fix the daisy right at the top of my head.
“There,” she smiled. “Now you’re very super cute.”
And who could ever deny, Becky chuckled in my mind as I thanked Violet with a lick on the cheek, still too shocked to be able to speak. She had a familiar twinkle in her eye – one that I
could now see in our daughter: love and mischief.
Partly as a joke and partly out of instinct (which is natural when your mate is paying you a compliment), I stood up straighter, puffing out my chest – which, logically, made her laugh even
harder.
“We go run now?” Jim asked after a while, when both he and Vi had tired of playing chase.”
Me on Daddy!”
“No I go on Daddy!” Violet protested.
I can carry you both, don’t worry, I told them. Since they were werewolves, I could speak to
them with my mind and they could hear me: however, since they were still little and didn’t have
access to all their wolf abilities, they couldn’t reply.
I crouched down, to help them climb up. It was clear that they were very familiar with that sort of thing, because their hands were sure and steady, but climbing on my back was still no easy feat – mainly because they were three–year–olds anyway, and my wolf was bigger and taller than Becky’s. In the end, Violet, whose legs were shorter than her brother’s, gave up and, with a few deft moves, settled on top of her mom’s back.
You have to take it easy, and go slow, Becky warned me, emphasizing that slow – knowing full well that, as an Alpha who hadn’t been able to shift for more than two months now, I had just a little pent–up energy to kick out. They’re small.
Of course, I knew I couldn’t go at my top speed, however…
Exactly–how slow are we talking about?
After all, carrying a puppy on my back was something I had never done before.
Becks shrugged. Just stay behind me and follow my lead.
That woman had a lot of guts to say that to an Alpha. Hadn’t she been my mate and hadn’t I loved her so much, I probably would have felt offended.
And it was never good when an Alpha took offense.
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We waited for the pups to let us know they were ready and at their “GO!“, Becky and I set off.
Ah. Very slowly, then, I thought as, as had been suggested, I stayed behind her and kept up with her pace. We were running, sure, but the pace was more of a fast trot than the wild gallop to which my legs aspired: on the other hand, I imagined it was the safest thing to do, with a
kid on my back.
“Daddy” Jim asked me. “When I grow, can I do wolfie too?”
Of course, kid, I replied, amused.
“So I’ll be big and gray like you too?”
It’s very likely, yes.
Jim was silent for a few seconds, reflecting.
“But if you’re blond, why you have dark fur?” he asked. “And why Mommy has dark hair but
when she does wolfie she’s light? And when Vi and I are big we switch too? Like, I go light and
she goes dark?”
I… I’m not sure, I said, jumping a log and trying not to lose Becks. Following her over
unfamiliar terrain and simultaneously explaining genetics to a three–year–old was not the
easiest thing to do. You know, some kids look like both their mom and dad, don’t they? Like
you – you look like me and also like Mommy. Then some look completely like their mom and
not at all like their dad, or the other way around…
“Mmh,” Jim said. “Like Mommy and I have the same eyes and hair but Kyle looks only like his
dad?”
Exactly. The same goes for our wolves… we get them from our parents, just like our eyes and hair. I, for example, look like my dad – both when I’m a person and when I’m a wolf, and he looked like his dad as well… so it is likely that you will also have a wolf similar to mine when
you grow up.
I swallowed, trying to lock in the pain that thinking back on my father had triggered. The old man would have loved his grandchildren. James, in particular, reminded me so much of him, especially when he made certain faces.
As for your first question, I continued. Well, I don’t really have an explanation. I don’t think our hair color and our fur color are related… and by the way, I don’t think I’d look good with this
color on my head.
My answer seemed to satisfy him, and he chuckled. “Nope“.
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Wow. Thank you, kid, I muttered to myself.
“And what if I look like Mommy?”
That’d be great, I replied. Your mom is super strong and powerful – and super pretty too.
“That’s true! Mommy’s the pwettiest. And makes the best apple pie too!”
Are you two boys gossiping about me back there?, Becky giggled, turning to both of us. What
are you saying?
I sprinted forward, making James shriek with fun, and nipped her tail.
Only good things.
