THE SHE-WOLF AND THE RAVEN

Chapter 5: Phase

"Once there was a tribe living by the beach. The chief of this tribe had one daughter and they thought a lot of her. In her sleep, this daughter would dream about a dog, a handsome dog…One day she met this dog she dreamed about so much. It was the same beautiful little white dog. It was quite friendly, and she was interested in it. So she took it home…Later on, this only daughter gave birth to a lot of little dogs and the family were angry and chased the dog away. Being the chief, her father was ashamed and asked the tribe to leave this village and go across to the island. They all agreed to leave her and went to the island….

"In the meantime, the little dogs were growing rapidly…All this time, as soon as [the mother] had gone out [to dig clams, these little dogs had turned human. They had put on their (dog) clothes again when she came back. So now she beat them and put all their clothes in the fire so they would remain human. She started to tell old stories to her children, how to get provisions and what to use. Early in the morning, she would get them out in the water, and she would tell her children how to go out and hunt…The children did just as they were told by their mother….

"Raven got curious. He went across to see. On his arrival, he saw a number of whales. He did not see any dogs. He saw human beings, canoes, houses. He was offered much food to take home. He chose whale so he was given whale. On his return, he told the truth about what he had seen on shore. He was a little angry with the chief for leaving his daughter. After hearing the news, the people were excited and gathered to discuss returning. They tore down their houses and made a raft to go back to shore.

"The mother had told her children of what happened before…She told the whole story and the oldest son was very sorry for what his grandfather did. So to take revenge on his grandfather, when he found out they were coming back, he made it impossible for them [to leave Destruction Island]."

ooooo

There were certain decisions in Leah's life that she never regretted - not for even an instant. She applauded herself for going to college and learning to drive a motorcycle and traveling to Tahiti that one spring break - just to say she'd been there and done that. Of all the things she'd done, at the very top and center of her Best Life Decisions List was her decision to leave Sam's pack for Jacob's.

She could put up with the adolescent ramblings of the rest of the pack with only minor irritation, but hearing Sam's voice in her head was pure masochistic torture. For years, his voice lingered closer than her own thoughts while her own innermost secrets were laid bare for him to see and know and skim through. The only thing worse than listening to Sam's adoration of his new love was listening to his regrets over the loss of his former love and Leah did not hesitate before she fled to Jacob's pack.

The moment the telepathic communication between herself and her first love shattered, she howled her delight and raced through the forests around the Cullen house like a pup in spring. The silence that engulfed her felt like a warm blanket over her long naked heart. She could have kissed that strong, invisible wall that crashed down over her mind to protect her like a fortress.

She would put up with Seth's obsession with World of Warcraft, Quil's fascination with his imprint, and Embry's panicked worries over his smelly feet any day over hearing Sam's thoughts...on anything. She had nothing to prove with Jacob's pack and Jacob made a good alpha. He encouraged her to grow as a leader and he had her back when she needed it. Her relief was palpable and she could slowly release her pent up bitterness.

When she first phased, it was inevitable that she would be the omega wolf. Due to the combination of her complex history with Sam, her small wolf body, and her "otherness" as the lone female, she was immediately stuck in the lowest status in the pack. Her only way to upgrade her position from omega was through constant fighting. She had to prove herself and win their respect, so she fought fiercely and often. It didn't matter. She remained on the fringes, the butt of their jokes, and the scapegoat for the frustrations of the pack.

The day she joined Jacob's pack, she not only gained a blessed reprieve from Sam, but she also elevated her position to beta. The second-in-command wolf's job was to tend to the well-being of the others, support Jacob, and ensure order was maintained within the pack. The others looked to her with respect and she finally felt like she was something other than a squeaky wheel or an unwanted burden. She no longer felt compelled to cower or fight.

Initially, when she imprinted on the white wolf, she remained his beta. She supported him and filled her role well, but she never expected to become the alpha female. She was more than satisfied with their arrangement.

It all changed that day when he chose her as "mate" instead of "pack sister." She thought she had lost her mind when her wolf-hormones burst into overdrive and her instincts took full possession of her body, but she couldn't regret it now. She loved being the alpha female in her own pack.

She was firmly stationed as the alpha wolf's other half, the mother of the pack, and the one charged with the relational care and development of the entire pack, however many it grew by over the coming years. She could not be replaced by another and she loved her mate for it.

She mentally moved her decision to leave Jacob's pack to the number one slot on her Best Life Decisions List when she heard that little chorus of squeaks and grunts beside her. She loved her mate even more when she stared down into the pair of tiny faces that nestled into her side and jostled each other for their place to suckle. They were so very weak and blind and unable to do much other than search out milk, but the pups were hers.

She'd never been one of those girls obsessed with babies or who delighted in babysitting her noisy, messy younger cousins. She may have preferred baseball to dolls, but she still planned to have kids someday...far in the future.

When she started phasing and thought she had forever lost that option, she felt its loss. It was another thing to add to her ever-growing list of Reasons To Hate Being A Wolf, another choice taken from her, and another way she was forced into a life she didn't want.

She could cross that line off the list now. She was a mother.

Would they be only wolves? Did they have the same genes as her kin or did their wolf father's genes ensure they were more wolf than human? She wondered to herself.

She didn't know and she might have felt more uneasy about it, but she was so immersed in the maternal instincts of a wolf mother that she couldn't really worry about it. She was too caught up watching the pups' bright little eyes gradually open than fretting over whether they were more wolf or human. They learned to nose their way around the den, testing out everything with their developing sense of smell and she carefully kept them warm, fed, and clean. They were hers and she was theirs and that was all that mattered - for now.

It was shortly after they opened their eyes that she noticed foggy impressions in her mind that were not her thoughts. At first, she worried a former pack mate had discovered her and was trying to communicate, but she did not recognize the mental voice. She shook her head and closed her eyes to focus on the intruding images, but they were so faint, she could not fully grasp what they said.

The mental intrusion did not disappear. It only grew stronger in the days to come. She realized, as they gained clarity and voice, that the thoughts came from her pups. She could hear the simple thoughts of their young, developing minds and the realization overwhelmed her with joy.

Maybe, someday, she would be able to communicate with her pups through methods other than scent, touch, and wolf sounds. She savored her opportunity to listen to their growing curiosity, awareness, and absolute adoration for their mother.

They grew quickly. Within a few short weeks, they were ready to eat regurgitated meat and explore the world outside the den. Their oversized, clumsy paws made them trip as they tried to race to their father.

The white wolf waited to greet them with dignified amusement. His tongue lapped over the small faces that tried, unsuccessfully, to climb onto his back. He collapsed onto the snowy ground with a grunt and a warm twinkle in his eyes. The pups immediately climbed onto his back and nipped at his ears. Leah gave a wolfy laugh as they grey pup lost her balance and toppled over into the snow with a surprised yip.

The white wolf yawned before carefully rising and dislodging both pups from his back. They whined and jumped at his legs, but instead of laying down again, he barked and gave a sudden turn and lunged at them. The three descended into a riot of fur and snow and tumbling limbs. Leah watched them for a few moments before the white wolf charged her and pummeled her into their chaos with all pretense of dignity abandoned.

ooooo

She woke to the birds singing overhead, the chipmunks scurrying past, and the sounds of the forest in early spring. Her mate the the pups slept quietly around her and she yawned and tried to ground herself in the sounds and scents of the forest.

She couldn't quite shake the lingering miasma of her too human dreams from the night before. In her wolf body, she could try to pretend that she didn't just hear her father's laugh or Seth's shouts as clearly as if they had been with her. She could still smell the special scent that always clung to her mother's favorite blanket in the corner of the living room. Her dream was too real.

She woke with a heart weighed heavy with regret. Thinking of Seth's warmth and humor made her wish, not for the first time, that he was near. She didn't doubt he would win the award for "world's best uncle" hands down. She sighed deeply and closed her eyes, waiting for the nostalgia to pass.

She had tried to contact him a few times, just after she imprinted. She called and she called through the mental link, but she never found him. She planned to phase and call home, but those plans vanished when she realized she couldn't phase. Then she panicked - worried she was now trapped in her wolf form because she imprinted on a wolf instead of a human. While she had gladly lived as a wolf, she had no intent of remaining a wolf forever. Her anxiety grew when she realized she was cut off from her brother without any means of contacting him.

She thought of traveling back to Washington to seek Seth out and see if she could reestablish a mental connection with him through proximity, but she hesitated. What would the packs say about her imprinting on a wolf or being trapped in wolf form? She felt the shame of her "otherness" burn into her again and she dared not face the rest.

Freak. Outsider. Interloper. Abnormal.

The things the others said and could not hide from their thoughts…how much worse if they were to see her now? She was stuck perpetually living the life of a wolf instead of that of a woman and it proved how abnormal and freakish she really was.

She couldn't face Sam. She didn't want to see his pity or his relief at not being trapped to her. As much as Leah loved her brother, until she could face him as a human, she didn't want to show her face in La Push again. She missed him terribly and the worry her mother was going to have on her behalf nearly made her run for home immediately.

She couldn't. Not like this.

So, she gave herself over completely to her new roles of mother and alpha female for their growing pack and tried not to think of the family she left behind.

She named her pups as she watched them grow. The light grey she-wolf she called Sarah after her paternal grandmother. It seemed fitting. Leah always remembered Granny Grace's Bible stories about Sarah. The woman who thought she would never bear a child of her own laughed with joy when Isaac was born to her. She named the dusty cream pup Isaac for her own laughter.

Their names were almost as fitting as her own name: Leah - the unloved, rejected sister who was passed over by her husband for the more desirable sister, bound forever to a man she could never hope to please.

Sometimes she wished she could change her name.

She still dreamt of that terrible day with Sam. Again and again, he rejected her in her unconscious - as if living through it once wasn't enough. The dream was always the same. He came seeking her, came to find her, her traitorous heart rejoiced, and then broke all over again when it was not the woman but the wolf he sought. During her waking hours, she could pretend all her life was that of the wolf. However, it was when she slept, day or night, that she sometimes forgot she was a wolf. In her dreams, she was always a woman.

She wondered if she still migrated through Sam's unconscious in the same way he wreaked havoc in hers. She hoped so, just to make him feel a bit of her anguish, that she was not the only casualty of their soured relationship.

Stupid wolf things.

Would the imprint bond outlast phasing and the life of the imprint, or did it end when the "wolfy stuff" ended? There were not a lot of stories about the relational toll of imprinting, and even fewer of what happened "after". There were no stories whatsoever about what to expect when one's imprint was a wolf.

There was some deep, jagged, festering part of her heart which healed when she imprinted. That day in the forest, some sense of tranquility permeated her hard, protective shell and forced her to not be afraid to attach her battered heart to her mate. Still, that could all be the wolf part of her speaking, and not the woman. In a way, she thought it was so much easier to imprint on a wolf. She doubted she would have so easily let down her guard to another man, even with so deep an unchosen bond forcing them together.

When she woke from those dreams of her past to see the white wolf's lazy grin, the sparkle in his large eyes, and the way the fur stuck out just so around his cheeks, she knew this was easier. Even a strangely intelligent wolf was simpler, less complicated than a man. She had so many fewer expectations and a whole lot less baggage involved.

oooooooo

She was not the only one who dreamed.

Once again, she was roused from their midday nap by the weight of emotion pressing on her mate. She looked around them to ensure the pups still slept. They were curled up together in a gangly heap of growing limbs and ears and fur. Their breath rose and fell as they slept peacefully. Her mate kicked his feet and released soft whimpers beside her. She felt terror and the grief pound him like surf on the beach and she nestled even closer to him, running wolf kisses along his face as she waited for him to calm again.

It seemed to help. These dreams plagued the wolf nearly every time he slept and he only settled when he felt her presence next to him.

She knew what to expect next. He would wake with the weight of the world on his shoulders and it would take longer for him to come back, to reengage, and be present with them again from wherever he had wandered to in his dreams. There was something about the white wolf's eyes, the weight he carried, and the turbulent emotions she could feel stirring within him that revealed he was both ancient and scarred, though she could never fully explain how she knew.

She could still taste the nostalgia and regret cling to him like dew on a honeysuckle when he woke.

"Your father needs you," she whispered to the pups and they pounced on him with wagging tails, adoring eyes, and soft tongues. Their assault was always effective - eventually. His green eyes came back to the present, she felt the warmth of his affection soothe over his previously aching heart, and a slow mischievous grin took over his face before he pounced. Then the games began.

The pups gave a joyous chorus of barks as their father chased them straight into the nearby stream, throwing them both into the icy current, and then jumping in after them to join in the riot of splashing paws and tails. Leah huffed a laugh…which vanished as all three ambushed her from behind and soaked her through with their sopping fur. They pushed and pulled until they toppled her over the edge of the stream bank and she fell with an inelegant crash into the water with them.

Ooooooo

The small wolf pack fell into a quiet rhythm of play and hunts, rest and lessons. The pups grew slower than wild wolf pups, but faster than human children and they had a lot to learn. By their second winter, the weaned pups were strong enough to hunt alongside their parents. Though they barely reached the knees of their mother, they could take down a small deer on their own (and devour it just as single-handedly).

Leah took time each day to communicate with the pups through their mental connection to teach them what she could about life in the human world, about their people, and their family back on the Res. She didn't know what they would become (or what they could become), but she could not bear for them to grow without some knowledge of her old life.

Months, seasons, and years washed over them like the swollen cataracts of a river after the first snow melt. They were carried on through predictable changes, constant in their transition and comforting in their rhythms. There were some seasons which stood out apart from all the rest.

There was the fall that the forest caught fire. The pups barely reached her shoulders then and they found themselves trapped on top of a rock. The forest around them burned to ash after a strike of lightning. Leah's heart nearly burst as she caught their panicked thoughts and rushed towards the billowing smoke to rescue them. The white wolf, noting her panic, followed.

She never understood how she escaped the flames without getting burned. Despite how they roared and burned around her, not so much as a hair of her fur came back singed, her paws never felt heat, and the pair brought back their pups in their mouths without any injury. They nestled closer together that night, all the more grateful to be in each other's presence, alive and well, than they had ever been.

Then there was the year the Cold One came too close to their territory. She sensed the sweet fragrance from miles away and all her hackles rose as she growled in the direction of her ancient enemy. Her mate gave her a curious stare and tilted his head in question. She pushed the pups in his direction, turned, and ran in full pursuit. The Cold One did not survive the ensuing chase and her pups spent long hours that afternoon listening to all they needed to know to identify and kill a Cold One themselves someday. She forced them to practice and run drills for weeks until she was satisfied they would be able to hold their own in a fight. Her mate watched on with an amused glint in his green eyes, but did not participate in the drills. He gave the body of the Cold One a disinterested sniff and turned his attention to chewing on a stick instead.

She called the pup's third year the "Year of the Great Silence." One midsummer day, as the pack hunted elk, a great unsettling fell over the forest. It was as if a cosmic force extinguished a candle or a spirit of the woods had woken and all that lived felt it in their bones. The singing of the birds ceased, the elk grew wary and fled, and all their internal lupine instincts screamed at them to follow their example and hide, though they could not identify the reason to run.

That was the day the great silence fell over the woods, as if a blanket muffled out some hidden spark of life. It was followed by a time Leah thought of as the "Great Hunger". Overnight, game grew so scarce, even in the warm summer months full of rich grass and flowing streams, that the pack barely managed to survive. The winter's blanket of snow and ice made conditions infinitely worse.

If it were not for her mate's inexplicably adept skills at hunting fish beneath the ice, they would have starved. His offerings of fish weren't quite enough and none of the wolves were fully satisfied with their menial meals. They all grew gaunt and weak. The corresponding illnesses that swept through the forest nearly claimed Isaac's life. He never gained full strength back after he recovered and was always slightly slower and weaker than his sister.

Perhaps Leah would have paused to wonder what the strange silence was about. Perhaps she would have gone into a town to investigate. But after five years living exclusively as a wolf, she rarely listened to her human thoughts anymore. She never thought about phasing or leaving their territory. Her world was the pack and the pack was her world. In these seasons of scarcity, her world was in danger and all that mattered, all her instincts screamed at her to focus on, was the well-being of her pack. Her human life was buried under thick layers of day-to-day survival.

The strange silence lingered and they scarcely heard a gunshot or a human voice in the forests that year or the one that followed. It took two years for the game to replenish enough for the pack to easily hunt.

When the pups reached their sixth winter, they towered over their mother. Their childlike thoughts were replaced with the depth of understanding of adult minds and Leah was forced to acknowledge that her babies were nearly grown. The trio conversed easily through their mental link but Leah failed to explain why their father was excluded from their conversations.

Game increased long enough for the pack to grow sleek and fat and strong again. Conditions were so favorable that it was not only their bodies but their pack size that grew.

Sarah stayed close by to tend to her mother as Leah bore her second litter of pups. The whole pack worked tirelessly to hunt enough food for the three new pups. While all rejoiced to expand their pack, they were not regular wolves. Leah knew that seven wolves of their size and appetites would not be easy to keep fed. The pack could not easily add any more to their numbers without increasing their territory or splitting into two packs and seeking more productive hunting grounds elsewhere.

When the three pups came careening and tumbling through the snow to meet their family, the entire forest rang with their shared delight. The easy grin and warmth emanating from Isaac reminded Leah so much of her brother that she was hit with a sudden homesickness like she hadn't felt in years. She caught her mate's curious gaze and she wondered, not for the first time, if he was as attuned to her emotions as she was to his. She wished again that she had some way to communicate with him, like she did with her children (though, with five voices careening around her head now, it was getting a bit crowded).

As Leah watched the small pups leap onto and wrestle with their older siblings, she met her mate's green-eyed gaze and came to nestle into his side. He gave her a wolfy kiss with his tongue, letting her know he'd missed her and was well-pleased with their new litter. She closed her eyes to take in his scent and the feel of the warmth radiating from his fur and she felt overwhelmed by a sense of having found her "home."

ooooo

The white wolf collapsed beside her in a panting huff of fur. He lunged and rolled over the top of her, pinning her to the ground before she could react. She gave him a half-hearted snarl in response, snapped her teeth in his direction, and tossed her head in a dare. He fell into the grass at her side and rolled onto his back. She jumped and playfully bit at the cuff of his neck, but his mouth caught her muzzle before she could grab a firm hold. They tumbled over together in the grass till he gave her a much harder bite. She yipped and bared her teeth at him and he growled in response.

His eyes glowed with mischief as he backed away from her, slowly and carefully, until he reached the tree line. Then, looking over his shoulder to ensure she followed, he ran. He hid and she pursued until he grew tired and he chased her until the moon alone lit their way.

When he tired of play, they both rested near a stream. Leah used her teeth and tongue to groom his thick, ivory layers of fur. He nearly purred in satisfaction as she did, wallowing in contentment from her ministrations and basking in her focused attention.

While he lacked the mental communication link that her pack mates and pups innately developed, through their imprint bond she could still feel brief flashes of emotion. She was acutely attuned to his overall well-being at all times, whether she wanted to be or not. After nine years sharing life together, she knew him even better than she knew her pups.

She could sense the restless energy that sometimes boiled to overflowing within him that made him break his feigned dignity to embrace the antics of a young pup. He was both old and young, solemn and merry, and she knew he couldn't make any more sense of himself than she could. He was an ancient child and that contradiction fascinated her. It was not due to a lack of responsibility that left this impression as much as a wide-eyed curiosity, an insatiable appetite for play, and the unwavering expectation that no matter what mischief or irritation he caused, he must be warmly welcomed without a grudge by those around him.

He reminded her of the old family dog which once shredded her favorite pair of shoes. The dog, after destroying her shoes, still expected to jump on her lap and be given a treat. At such audacity, how could she help but laugh and concede to his exasperating demands? In the same way, she tolerated her mate's antics with fond amusement.

Above all else, her mate demanded her attention. She could sense it when he bent his thoughts on gaining her eyes, being the sole object of both her admiration or ire, or the jealousy with which he followed her movements. He was as territorial with her attention as with their hunting grounds. It was on days like this she knew to let the grown pups take care of the young ones so she could give their father the undivided focus he craved more than fresh meat or water. How could she begrudge him that when he rewarded her with his unrestrained delight in response?

He yawned and nudged her with his nose. She agreed with him and they both fell into a dreamless sleep.

ooooooo

A few months after the new pups were weaned the chill of autumn crept into the edges of the pine forest. The wolf pack lay in a clearing in the forest, a moose split between them. The pups, already satisfied, rolled over each other and chewed on the paws of their elder brother, who indulgently watched and wrestled them as they sank their teeth into his fur.

Isaac had taken over the self-appointed role as beta and pack babysitter and he spent most of his time tending to the needs of the little pups. His sister, while the more domineering and prone to leadership, proved much less interested in the pups than in hunting. She preferred to spend more time at her father's side or on her own than putting up with the antics of her younger siblings. Sarah was as fierce of heart and spirit as the sea during a storm, while her brother remained as placid as a mountain lake and the young pups barely left his side.

As they played, the pups ears perked at the sound of human voices. It was not the first time humans wandered a bit too close to the wolves, but these voices came closer than any ever had in the past and the pups had never heard such sounds before. The human voices drifted through the forest, growing nearer. The pack froze to listen.

"I'm telling you, Bob," said one. "I've never seen wolf prints that big. They have to be huge!"

"They are fresh. Let's see how close we can get and maybe we can set traps out for them later," said another.

Leah gave a grunt of warning under her breath and mentally told her children to flee. They silently obeyed and rose to disappear into the safety of the deep forest, when a shot rang out. The bullet grazed Isaac's shoulder, leaving a small trail of bright blood across his light fur. The wolves bolted into action with a chorus of growls and angry howls.

Her mate bared his teeth fiercely and lunged in the direction of the shot, his every movement taking on that of the territorial wolf about to defend what was his. He gave a toss of his head and a glare to the rest, clearly telling them to hide and take cover. The pups shrank away into the forest, carefully herded by their elder siblings. Sarah led the way as Isaac limped behind, his focus still on keeping the young ones safe. Leah stayed in the shadows, resolutely set on being there in case her mate required her assistance.

The white wolf started off in a fast four-legged lope in the direction the shot came from. In a shimmering waterfall of green light, he transformed before her eyes. The white fur melted away to reveal layers of metal and leather. He stood tall on two legs instead of four. A shower of black hair tumbled down over the layers of long, antiquated green cape. In his pale hand, he gripped a dagger as he snarled at the footprints, now empty of the feet that made them as the hunters fled in the opposite direction.

In a clear, eloquent, accented tone, her mate shouted in a voice she had never heard, "Be gone! You are not welcome here!"

He buried the dagger to the hilt in the trunk of a Douglas-fir near one of the fleeing men and another dagger materialized out of nowhere in his previously emptied hand. He lifted to aim, but did not let the dagger fly. His targets disappeared behind a hill and could no longer be reached with his knife.

He paused for a moment, as if debating whether to continue his pursuit or not, but instead he chose to stay. The dagger vanished. As he turned to face her, their eyes met and she could not escape the weight of recognition that rushed over her. The oceanic depths of those eyes -- eyes that roiled with an ancient sorrow -- met her own and she knew him, though she had never seen that face before. While the form he inhabited was now decidedly humanoid rather than lupine, by the power emanating from him like invisible tidal waves, she knew he could not be purely human. He was something Else, something Other.

She felt within herself for the long-neglected sense of humanness

She used to feel this was her "true self," but now it felt as rusty as a long-neglected Model T. She pushed and pulled until it answered and grew. She felt herself turning inside out. She remained crouched on all fours though now covered in bare skin instead of fur. The instincts and emotions of a human woman crashed over her like a breached dam and she shivered involuntarily under the incongruity of it. She rose to her full height before him, clothed only in her human skin. Her dark eyes lifted to meet his and a look of surprise fluttered like a shadow across his strangely familiar facial features.

"What are you?" he whispered as he drank in her face for the first time.

"I should ask you the same question," she replied.

They circled around each other, staring transfixed on the other, as if separated by repelling poles of a magnet. She could feel his surprise as strongly as she felt her own as they appraised each other.

He was tall, though lean, and he carried less muscular brawn than any of her Quileute brother wolves. Instead of hair cut short for ease of phasing, his black hair fell down his back in loose waives. His face was as pale as his wolf form but he was entirely and inexplicably clothed. She felt no heat radiate off his body and his scent was not that of a wolf but of something…something she couldn't identify. It was not quite human, but not like the Cold Ones either. It was unlike any scent she had ever come across among humans or in the wild and yet it was still so distinctly him it was as if she had always known it.

She faced her mate…her mate…Who was he? What was he? And she felt completely lost and yet found at the same time.

They were two intertwined spirits who had been inseparable for years, now meeting for the first time.

They were the lyrics to a song they had always known and yet never learned...finally sung together.

They could both feel it when one magnet flipped directions and the poles called to each other. He gave her a cocky half smile and approached. He ran one finger along her cheek, his curiosity bubbling over as he felt the heat of her skin for the first time.

"Your eyes are the same," he whispered.

"So are yours," she answered.

He caught her hand and enveloped it with his own, overshadowing her small fingers with his long, lean digits. They stood palm-to-palm, eyes fixed on their fingers before drifting back to each other's faces in shy fascination. She reached up with her other hand to run her fingers through a strand of his long, dark hair. She let her hand fall to against his cheek. Where they met, her human emotions hummed and sparked in ways her wolf form never had and it was as if she imprinted all over again.

Her mate dropped her hand and pulled back so her hand slowly fell from his face. One dark eyebrow lifted over his green eye as he stepped farther away from her.

"It appears we have some things to discuss," he said and he motioned for her to follow him into the shadows of the forest.

oooo

Author's Notes:

The Dog Husband comes from Reagan, Albert B., and L. V. W. Walters. "Tales from the Hoh and Quileute." The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 46, no. 182, 1933, pp. 297–346. JSTOR.

The Biblical tales of Leah, Sarah, and Isaac come from Genesis 29, Genesis 18, and Genesis 21, respectively.