“You can’t just say he’s yours because he’s a dog shifter. That’s not how domestic shifters work. You know that—” she stopped and the wheels behind her eyes turned, putting together what he meant.
“I speak some dog because of Mac,” he said to Evie. “I think he’s apologizing to Jade because he can’t be my boyfriend anymore.”
The lion’s face turned red. If he leapt at me, I’d stay behind Evie. Lions were big. Dragons were bigger. But in lion society lionesses kicked everyone’s butt.
“I’m not his boyfriend. Not—we’re just friends,” Jade said.
The lion rambled on, but I couldn’t focus on his words. If the lion was Jade that meant Eran was the cat. Eran was mine. My whole body vibrated and it was only then I realized my tail was wagging. Well, it wasn’t out, but my whole body wagged.
Eran stepped past Evie and opened his arms to me. I pounced and wrapped my limbs around him when I landed. A bear shifter joined the fray, smelling like my mate. His sire. I opened my mouth to say hi but stopped short. There was at least one bear who frequented the farm who used they/them pronouns who Canton had told me about. It wasn’t Philip but I didn’t remember who the bear was so I kept my mouth closed because I wanted Eran’s tongue in it instead of my foot. I didn’t get to keep my mouth closed for long because Eran’s mouth claimed mine and as my lips parted under his, his tongue slid inside of my mouth. I lost myself to him. His hair was everywhere. It flowed around me like it might capture me and keep me safe from the rest of the world.
Somewhere nearby Philip and the other bear shifter were telling people to give us some space. Everyone backed off except for them and the lion dude. I still couldn’t stop kissing Eran. His big, strong hands rested under my ass, squeezing and groping, until it took all my self-control not to hump any part of him I could reach.
“Eh, Eran?” Philip said. “Congratulations, but the school bus will drop off the kids soon. They don’t need sex ed in the fields any more than the horses already give ‘em, okay?” He patted my mate on the shoulder and I barked at him not to touch my mate. Eran stopped kissing me for a second and Philip met my gaze. He was trying to be scary but a bear could only be scary if he was willing to hurt you and Philip wasn’t willing. Not for kissing in the field anyway.
“Kieran,” the other bear said. “Maybe take him back to your place? We can talk about the mating feast later. Jacand will be here in a bit and unless you want to be followed….”
“Sire,” Eran groaned.
“Trying to save you the headache,” the bear grinned. “It’s a good day and no one hid under the bed.”
I blinked but before I had the chance to ask who would hide under Eran’s bed my mate started carrying me away. At first I thought he’d walk right off the farm, but he only carried me past Jade who opened the passenger door for us. Eran slid me into the seat and pulled the seatbelt across my chest and belly until it clicked. I grabbed his face and kissed him again. He didn’t taste like he’d been kissing anyone recently. Jade probably wasn’t his boyfriend but the looks they exchanged before Eran and I true-mate responded made me curious.
“Guys,” Eran’s sire said as a big green bus pulled to a stop. “That’s the little kids. In about five minutes the yellow buses will bring the middle and highschoolers.”
“Shit,” Eran whispered under his breath. He paused long enough to hug Jade and ask if he had a ride to pick up someone I hadn’t heard of before and then he hugged his sire who whispered something in his ear that I couldn’t hear before climbing into the truck. He cranked the engine and we were gone like the kids were from a zombie plague movie. Gravel flew up behind the truck and I wondered if Eran would buff out the little spots they left behind.
“Jacand is my brother. He’s a teenager but thinks he’s grown. I love him but…” Eran said. “He has this thing with always being at my place right now. He leaves like these little pieces of mice tails laying around. It wasn’t so bad when Bernard and Nashen were there – Oh, they lived with me until this morning. They were the reason for the moving party.”
“Oh! That makes sense! All of it – also our brains aren’t rated teen right now so keeping him out of the apartment is probably fair,” I nodded, gripping the seatbelt with both hands and squeezing it. “Is your sire non-binary?” I asked and started to explain what I didn’t remember from what Canton told me.
“Yeah. That would be them. Some of us call them Dad-Mom. I call them Sire because I couldn’t say it when I was younger. It came out like Dead-Moo. Another kid told me I called them a dead cow and I was not happy. So, my carrier said to call them my sire instead. Sire liked being called Sire. I was like five-ish. Jade bit the kid who said it. Jade – what can I say about Jade? We’re not together. We dated in high school and then fooled around in college. A bit since then but we were too differentto ever be serious. We’re still friends and I don’t foresee that changing.”
“I don’t want to take your friends from you,” I said. “I just saw him kiss your cheek before he got out and assumed. I was apologizing and trying to explain it, but I didn’t realize my dog had taken over. He does that sometimes.”
“I got the gist of it. Grew up around some dog shifters. It was sort of funny. Not what you said. That was sort of sweet, but just the look on Jade’s face,” Eran laughed as we zipped down the highway. He slowed down only when a big yellow bus appeared in the distance. “I almost want to duck down but Jacand knows my truck. It’s sort of flattering how much he wants to hang out. Most of the time I don’t mind but… Us. The kissing. The—” he stopped himself from assuming too much but I glanced down at his lap. His dick was threatening to tear through his jeans and I had to fight off the urge to reach over and grab onto it.
Eran glanced at me and followed my eyeline. He smirked and gripped the stirring wheel tighter as we passed the school bus. Once we could no longer see it in the rearview mirror he sped up again. I opened my mouth. A million questions danced on my tongue but most of them would probably be answered with the claiming vows.
“Where are you from?” Eran asked.
“The North.”
“Up in cold country, huh? I heard it doesn’t get above freezing very often.”
“Sort of true sometimes,” I shrugged. “Only in some places depending on how far north you go. Our winters are long and brutal.”
“I didn’t know there were any dog groups up there,” he said.
“Well, there are,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes. “I’m from a long line of Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers from the Other World. Not all shifters, of course, but still we have the pedigree. Some Duck Tollers started shifting on this side of the door, of course. Some of us -the collective us- have started going by Little River Duck Dog again, though. It just depends on who you’re talking to. There are other breeds that started out up there separately too and as a rule if a breed can be born, it can be a shifter. Though, we’ve been shifting for centuries if not longer. We have several territories, though, I never lived in any of them full time.” I told him the story about how my parents met. “So, I’ve lived with the polar bears most of the time and work with them mostly.”
“Aren’t they—” he started and stopped himself.
“Vicious? Violent? Cruel?” I filled in the blank for him. “Go ahead. I’ve heard all the stereotypes.”
“I was going to say territorial and then I remembered how you told Jade I belonged to you now and… Maybe being territorial isn’t a bad thing.”
“Nice save. I will say that yes polar bears enforce their boundaries but that’s because non-shifting humans about wiped them out with climate change. For a long ass time they had to live where it wasn’t cold because they turned Earthside into boiling soup. They also liked to hunt them. So, if you’re going through there either you obey the signs, know someone there, orbetter have a bear somewhere that will vouch for you and pick up on the first ring. Though, they’re less likely to off a shifter than a non-shifter. Shifters can have reasons like ‘Hey, my son ran away with a moose shifter and I haven’t heard from him in a few years. So I’m going there to try to find him and this was the best route I could find.’ They’ll probably get to live if they’re telling the truth.”
