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NINETEEN
Dax rubbed my wolf,murmuring soft words to her as he snuggled her and nuzzled her and petted her. He told her she was strong, and brave, and brilliant—and told her that I was, too.
After he’d decided there had been enough snuggling, he opened the door and the two of them slipped outside together.
He stripped on the porch, and it was around 11 PM so I didn’t think anyone would see him.
When he’d started shifting, my wolf nuzzled him in the hip, and then streaked off toward the forest.
I heard his low chuckle as she sprinted away, leaving him in the dust.
Lizzy had told me about this—before her wolf bit Elliot, the wolf had wanted him to chase her, so she could find out if Elliot’s wolf could track her by scent alone. I’d wondered what would happen if the wolf couldn’t smell or something, because Lizzy had found out that all female wolves did that before biting their mates.
Lizzy hadn’t known the answer, though she was pretty sure there had never been a werewolf who couldn’t smell. Their genes were too perfect or something.
I still hoped Dax’s wolf could smell me, though. Because it sounded like just my luck for my scent to be all wonked because of the one stinkin’ drop of magic in my blood.
My wolf raced through the trees for ages. So much time passed that I started to wonder if Dax’s wolf really couldn’t track mine.
But finally, she heard footsteps behind her, and Dax’s wolf launched himself in front of her.
She skidded to a stop just before she would’ve collided with him, and her tongue lolled out as she gave him a wolfy grin.
He nuzzled her face, licking her and sniffing her as he walked around her, checking her out.
They sniffed each other for a couple more minutes, poking and prodding at each other for a while before they finally decided they approved of one another, then, they jogged into the forest together. Neither tried to run ahead, and I got the impression that they just wanted to explore together.
Hours and hours passed as they jogged together, stopping to rub up against each other, to lick at each other’s faces, and to drink from pretty little creeks. They stopped for wolfy “snacks” more than enough times to make me vomit if I’d been in my human form, but no way am I going into details about that.
Shudder.
When the sun started to rise, the wolves found a shaded place and snuggled up together. They fell asleep as the morning came around, and made absolutely no move to get up or leave.
We were dragged into sleep with the furballs, too, so apparently Dax and I were sleeping the day away with our wolves.
They wokeup in the late afternoon, and then hunted and drank some more. Neither of them seemed like they were in any hurry to get back, and I didn’t blame them. It was peaceful in the forest, particularly for me since I was in shifted-limbo. But the fact that shifting was particularly painful for me and my wolf probably encouraged their lingering; we likely wouldn’t shift nearly as often as other werewolves. And if we didn’t shift as often, they probably figured they should get the most bang for their buck while furry.
They ran around the forest for a few more hours, playing some kind of adorable game of tag, before they decided to crash again. Heading back to the shaded area they’d picked earlier, they curled up together, snuggled, and went back to sleep.
It wasn’tuntil the next afternoon that they finally started heading back to my place—our place? I hadn’t let myself consider everything the witch dude had told us, because I still didn’t feel ready to accept it. But I knew I’d have to acknowledge it and work through it eventually.
Maybe if I could go talk to Lizzy about it, I’d feel better.
Or maybe feeling shitty and uncertain and in pain was just going to become part of my life.
Yay.
The wolves got back to my place, and my wolf waited while Dax’s wolf shifted back to human. The shift still looked uncomfortable for him, maybe even painful, but he wasn’t reduced to a screaming mess by the awfulness of his pain.
And shit, I envied him for that.
He crouched down and scratched my wolf’s ears, grinning sleepily. The wolves had been out in the forest for a long, long time—crap, I hoped we hadn’t missed the thing with his parents. The plan was for breakfast, wasn’t it?
My wolf nuzzled his, snuggling up with him and resting her head on his gigantic shoulder. He stroked her fur, holding her close.
I wondered whether she was just trying to put our pain off a little longer, or whether she was trying to sneak-attack him with a bite.
She didn’t make me wonder long.
