Sebastian's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he continued to stare at me. I couldn't hear his thoughts, but I felt the appreciation in his gaze.
"Bad dog."
He made a chuffing sound in his throat. Even as a wolf, he laughed at me. The more he did, the less it chafed my dignity. I didn't mind his wolf checking me out, either.
I closed my eyes and willed the change to come over me, same as I had after we'd landed the shuttle. With each shift, the transition became easier. My wolf's thoughts were so much simpler than my human ones. All he wanted to do was play in the snow with his mate.
I pawed at the door and whined. Sebastian chuffed again, and tapped the wheelchair accessibility button with his paw. The door inched open. We bounded outside as soon as we could fit through the opening.
Human me would have worried about getting lost, but my wolf knew he could find his way back. All he wanted was to explore. He sniffed the air for the first sign of mischief, and then we were off, tracking a hare.
Sebastian followed on my heels, his nose too closeto my backside. He sniffed me more than he did the wind. I could smell him, too, but my wolf wasn't as preoccupied with mating and claiming while we had open air and a chase before us.
My wolf's love for the outdoors and nature was foreign to me, but I welcomed it. The first time I had shifted in space had felt all kinds of wrong, except for Sebastian. Here in the untouched snow, I felt at home for the first time in my life.
After a few minutes of circling, we bounded on top of the hare, startling it as it drank from the trickle of rushing water through a mostly frozen creek. The white animal with black tufts on the insides of its ears leaped for the bank, its large feet allowing it to bound on top of the powdery snow, while we sank in to our knees. We relished the chase across slippery terrain, though it continued to gain ground. Finally, it dove into a thick copse of thorn bushes. The tines stung my nose, and I yelped.
Sebastian dug under me with his front paws until he fit beneath me. With one powerful thrust of his head, he lifted me onto his shoulders and dragged me backward into a small clearing. Once I was free of the painful bush, he dropped a heavy paw on top of my head, forcing me to the ground. Then, he licked my wounds until they healed, far faster in wolf form than as a human.
I hated the attention as much as I'd hated a foster parent washing my face. I could do it myself.
"We should go back."Sebastian's wolf voice filled my head."Get warm and dry."
I nipped at his neck to show I understood, and heled me back the way we'd come. It was my turn to sniff his musky rear end. His tail fanned his delectable scent with each step. I opened my mouth, letting my tongue hang out to take in more of the flavor.
When Sebastian slipped on the circle drive's frost-covered pavement, he gave me an opening. I pounced, shoving him to the ground and rolling him into a snowbank.
He yipped and tossed me off him. I landed on my back in a foot of snow, paws in the air, flailing to find purchase. Before I could, Sebastian landed on top of me, paws on my chest, nose deep in my neck ruff. Instead of shielding my most vulnerable spot, I stretched.
"Mark me,"my wolf said to him. "Claim me."
I didn't know what those words meant, but my body reacted. My cock, which had been tucked inside my body, kissed the cold air. My asshole clenched, and dripped something warm and wet.
I howled in alarm as the sudden changes came over my wolf. Anxiety forced me to shift. I huddled on the ground, shaking violently as cold snow bit into my human skin.
Sebastian hopped off me and ducked his shaggy head."Grab on. I'll pull you out."
I sank my fingers into the thick fur at his ruff. He backed up until I pulled myself to stand in the snow. A few leaps over drifts, and I made it back to the frozen drive. Then, it was only a few more icy steps. I left patches of skin on the pavement.
Sebastian nudged the automatic door button with his flank, and I shivered as I waited for it to creak open.My feet burned from the cold, and my back ached from the constant muscle spasms.
Once inside, Sebastian shifted from beast to man before my eyes. "Are you all right?"
"I panicked." The oversimplification sounded like a lie to me, but my body no longer betrayed me. Thanks to the cold, my erection had retreated. My balls were tucked all the way up against my body to stay warm. My ass still felt cold and wet, which was strange.
"Switch back to your wolf and have a seat while I get the fire going."
I wrapped my arms over my chest and tried to keep my bones from shaking apart. I stubbornly resisted the urge to shift. What if the strange mating urges returned? Sebastian and I barely knew each other. If he was as helpless to the demands of his wolf as I was, I didn't want to do something we would later regret.
"You'll be warmer," he reminded me.
Yes, I'd felt those desires, and I'd panicked, but I'd shifted back before either of us had acted on them. As long as one of us stayed in human form, our wolves wouldn't be tempted, or so I hoped.
The change was even easier this time. My wolf wanted to be warm. I followed Sebastian to his pile of clothes and padded down the hallway behind him until we reached the same bedroom as before. I climbed onto the settee by the fireplace and curled into a ball while Sebastian prepared the logs and started the kindling ablaze.
He changed back into his wolf, and I was too comfortable to care. When he hopped up onto the seat beside me, we curled together into a cozy wolf pile. Itucked my feet against his side, and he buried his nose in the fur at my neck. We lay like that until Sebastian hopped down, panting.
In a flash, he was human again. I watched him unpack our bags, wondering when he found time to build all those toned muscles, until my sense of duty called on me to help. It was either that or pounce on him.
