I make a whining noise when I see it and nuzzle her leg. She laughs and slips to the floor, wrapping her arms around me.
“Oh, Wolfy,” she murmurs. “What would I do without you?” She settles down and leans against the bed, still petting me. I decide to take a risk and crawl over her lap. She’s warm and sweet and smells like sunshine. I rest my head on my paws. My body is across her. Red just pets me.
“I was so scared when I came here,” she tells me. “I was so scared, but you saved me. You know that, Wolfy?”
The only thing ruining this moment is the damn name.
Wolfy?
She couldn’t get more unoriginal if she tried. Well, maybe if she tried. I try not to let it bother me, but I’ve always been Nash. Nothing but Nash. The nickname drives me nuts and I’m tempted to shift, roll over to look at her, and ask her to call me Wolfy to my face.
How would she react?
What would she do if I revealed myself to her as a shifter?
Part of me thinks Red is strong. Part of me thinks she would be brave in the face of something so insane. Would she laugh and wrap her arms around me? Would she whisper that she hoped it would be true? Would she kiss me and call me hers?
I don’t know, but I want to think so.
There’s another part of me, a darker part, that thinks Red would not react well. This part of me worries she would see me and either run away or try to kill me. This part of me thinks Red would feel frightened, scared, and betrayed. Would she run off into the woods again, only to be lost forever? Would she go crazy? Would she feel like another person had let her down?
I don’t know.
She keeps talking, murmuring little sweet nothings, before she finally lets out a yawn. I climb off her lap and Red starts to take her clothes off. It’s not the first time I’ve seen her take off her clothes, but it’s no less exciting.
Oh, she’s going to be upset when she finds out I’ve been oogling her this whole time.
She places her clothes in a neat pile on the chair, then pats me one more time.
“Bedtime for me,” she murmurs. Red slips under the covers on the bed and closes her eyes. I settle in the middle of the floor to guard the cabin. My eyes are on the door, but after a few minutes I hear the tell-tale shifting of her blankets, and I glance over.
Sure enough, her hand is moving beneath the blanket and I can smell the scent of her arousal.
Red’s masturbating, yet again. I’ve never met a human female who was this aroused all the time, but I can’t complain. I lay there silently as she finishes up. Red lets out a tiny little mewl as she comes and it’s all I can do to keep from shifting and claiming her as my own.
Patience.
I have to have patience.
Only there’s no one as amazing as Red. She’s the one I want. Someday, someday the time will be right and I’ll tell her who I really am.
I try not to imagine how horrible that conversation is going to go.
“Hey, Red, sorry to be weird, but I’ve actually been a man this whole time!”
Yeah, not so well, I imagine.
Not so well indeed.
7.
Red
I can't catch my breath.
I stop and lean against a tree, telling myself that it's only for a minute, telling myself that if I just stop for one second, I'll be okay. I try to breathe, but it hurts. I hear the howls again, and I push away from the tree, the bark stinging my hand as I do.
I keep running.