“You can get stuck? How? When you and River do it, there’s this glow and then…”
“Poof?” Wyatt teased.
Bel pointed at him. “Magic is just science we don’t understand yet.” Bel sighed and nodded. “But yes, poof.”
“Lots of practice,” Wyatt said with a smile. “We’ve had lots of practice over the years. It becomes faster and smoother. When you’re shifting the first few dozen times, it’s anything but smooth. And it’s painful. Some people panic in the middle of the shift and get stuck. Takes a bit of work and even more pain to get them to either continue or switch back to human. Add on top the embarrassment that it happened in front of all these people you know.”
“That sounds like a version of Hell.”
Wyatt shrugged. “Rite of passage, I guess. I was lucky that I had older siblings who’d gone through it already. They’d spent months coaching me so that my first shift went pretty easily.”
Some emotion that Wyatt couldn’t quite name flashed across Bel’s face and his smile faded. “I hadn’t thought of that. Your family. You must have siblings.”
Wyatt’s smile fell away. He hadn’t thought of his family much over the years. It was less painful that way, but the old ache was still there. They’d likely be married and have children of their own by now. They’d probably forgotten all about him. “Yes. Three sisters and four brothers.”
“Wow, you’re one of eight. Is…is that viewed as a large family?”
Wyatt nodded. “We were one of the larger families. A point of pride for the pack.” At least they had been until Wyatt came out and proclaimed his love for River. He hoped the rest of his family hadn’t been shunned because of what he’d done. He’d made his choice and hoped that his family had been able to move on without him.
“And I always thought the Variks were a particularly large family with four children.”
“I think you are.”
Bel smiled at him, but there was more to it. He could feel the vampire reaching out to him through their connection, could feel both warmth and acceptance from him as clearly as if he’d wrapped his arms around him.
“Whoa…things look bleak in here. Test go bad?” River said as he walked into the laboratory. He was still pulling on a dark-red Henley over his sleep-tousled hair as he stepped into the room.
“We were just talking about what it’s like when a werewolf shifts for the first time,” Bel replied. Wyatt smiled to see the man’s eyes caress River’s bare chest before jerking away to look anywhere but at the younger wolf.
“Oh, shit. I’m out.”
River turned on his bare heel and started for the door again, but Wyatt snagged his elbow and jerked him off balance. River tumbled backward with a yelp, landing between Wyatt’s legs. He wrapped his arms tightly around River’s, burying his face into his neck. He was still warm from the bed and smelled wonderful. River started to growl, but it ended up a hum of pleasure as he relaxed against Wyatt.
There was a low chuckle from Bel, and Wyatt wanted to ask him if he could feel the love and attraction between him and River, but he swallowed the words. Instead he turned his attention to his lover.
“You should tell him,” Wyatt nudged.
“Ugh. Why?” River whined.
“Because we’ve all got embarrassing events in our lives.”
River pulled away enough to frown at him. “You gonna volunteer up something humiliating too?”
Wyatt smiled at him. He didn’t mind sharing embarrassing things if it brought the laughter back to River’s greenish-brown eyes. “Like what? Like the first time we managed to get ten minutes alone together, I was so excited that I came in my pants?”
River groaned. “That’s not humiliating. That’s sweet and romantic.”
Wyatt nearly fell off his chair laughing. “Romantic?” he choked out.
“It is…in a way,” Bel said, sounding as though he was trying very hard not to laugh.
Wyatt sighed, getting the last of his giggles under control. “Well, it felt extremely mortifying.” He lifted a hand and ran his fingers through the stubble on River’s jaw, soaking in the love shining in his eyes. “After fighting my attraction for him for nearly five years, I finally gave in and went to secretly meet River outside of our pack lands. The sexiest man I’d ever seen and he wanted to meet me, of all people.”
“Only because you were the sexiest man I’d ever seen,” River chimed in.
“It was our second kiss ever. I’ve got him pinned to the wall and can feel his every muscle pressed along my body. The fucker grinds against me and lets out this throaty moan, and I lose it.”
“Still the best compliment I’ve ever received,” River murmured before kissing him gently.
“Maybe,” Wyatt murmured, kissing him again. “Okay, you’ve gotten my embarrassing story out of me. Tell Bel.”