SPOV

I sat next to Leah on the couch. She had said we needed to talk.

I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. She was the prettiest girl I had ever seen in real life this morning. Now she was prettier than anyone I'd ever seen on tv or the movies, prettier than anything I'd ever imagined. She was divine. And she was my wife.

"Why did Seth and I phase?" Leah asked me. "You were six men strong. Why did you need a woman and a child?"

"You know I have no control over this, who phases and when," I said.

"I know. But I also know that you have a good understanding of how it all works. So what's your guess?"

"Well first, Seth is not a child." I swallowed and looked at her, knowing she wasn't going to like my answer. "Seth's the same size as Paul and the others. So I think we got him because we need the numbers. You know we've been following vampire trails in the forest."

"Seth is a child," she said. "He is fourteen. He's going to get hurt if you have him fighting vampires."

"We've taken down one vampire, Leah, and it was five of us together. I'm not going to put Seth in danger."

"Promise?" she asked hopefully.

"No, actually. I can't promise that. It wouldn't be fair to him. But I will keep your feelings in mind. You're the alpha female, Lee-lee. You have as much say as I do. I think that's why you phased, because I needed you. I needed a partner in this, my better half." I really believed that too, but I didn't really know what it all meant.

"What does that mean, though, alpha female? Can I order you around?"

"I don't think so," I said, eyeing her. "My alpha order didn't work on you, when I told you and Seth to go outside into the woods. You just stood there, observing, while Seth followed the order. So I don't think we can order each other around."

"But I did order Paul not to turn Seth into a womanizer," she pointed out.

"Yes, you did. I was thinking that if the pack got any larger, I would make Paul the beta, but I'm so relieved that I don't need to do that now."

"Eh, we still might want to do that, for when we need private time." She smiled at me. I could nut just looking at her. She was so fucking pretty.

I closed my eyes to recenter my thoughts. "We're going to need to do a pack run. We've never added two new people at once, and one of them is an alpha female. Some of the guys are going to have a hard time with it."

"Paul didn't."

"Paul knows you. He adores you. He's been jealous of me for years."

"He has not!" She was smiling hugely now, clearly flattered. "Were you ever jealous of him?"

"Why would I be jealous of him?" I had no idea what she was talking about. "Because he has a rich step-mom? I guess a little. She got Paul that truck for a graduation present. It's a nice truck." Paul's truck definitely cost more than our whole house and I was actually jealous.

"No! Because he had all those girls."

Was she being serious?

"Lee-lee, none of them compared to you. None of them are worth a second look. You are worth a lifetime of looks."

"That's sweet. Does the rest of the pack not like me?"

"No, they all think you're great. But I guess, me as alpha, they all accepted it without question since I was first to phase. But for you to phase in and immediately start giving alpha orders, it's kind of amazing, I think. I just don't know if they'll all feel the same way."

"Well, we can make them," Leah said, grinning.

I knew she was joking but I had to say, "You can't ever take an alpha order lightly. They are serious. You are forcing someone to execute your will."

"I understand," she said seriously. "It was really weird seeing Seth follow your command. He was so confused and uncomfortable. I didn't like it."

"I don't like to make commands either. I only did it then so I could figure out what was wrong with your dad."

"Yeah, my dad… it's so fucked up that he died like that. I feel bad that we were fighting but I don't regret how we got married against his wishes, you know?"

"Leah, it's possible that we didn't need to get married at all."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," I took a deep breath. I wanted to explain this right. "If we were destined to be the alpha pair, maybe we were never going to imprint on anyone else. And maybe that bite has something to do with all that. It's impossible to know about the imprints though, unless we actually imprint on random people, and your dad was still standing against us, but I can't help but wonder."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"No," I said apologetically, "I just wanted to share my thoughts."

"Ok, so tomorrow is Tuesday. You usually have a pack meet on Tuesdays after school, right?"

"Yeah, so you and Seth need to be there for it. You need to be there for all the pack shit now. I'll have to schedule your patrol runs, and patrols for Seth too."

"Can you show me the route of the patrol run?"

"Yeah." I smiled at her and then kissed her. "What do you think of the pack mind so far?"

"I like it a lot when it's just the two of us. It's so intimate. I feel like I could explore you forever, you know? Ask about our memories and share the highlights of our day. And it makes me trust you so much, having that access. I mean, of course I trusted you before, but this is a whole new level."

"But," she continued, "it was chaos at first, when the guys were phasing in and out to see what was going on. Even when it was Paul and me and Seth, it wasn't peaceful. Seth had a lot of gross imagery of girls that I wish I never knew about and Paul… well, he was trying to hide his thoughts but I could tell he was thinking about me."

"He does that sometimes. He tries to hide it so I ignore it and just give him more tips to hide his thoughts."

"There are ways to hide your thoughts?"

"Let's phase and I'll show you."

LPOV

We undressed in the living room and we fucked again. His body turned me on like crazy today and he was hard just looking at me.

Then we ran to the woods and phased. We were thinking about each other and it was so sweet.

We were running through the woods and I could smell the strong wolf scent along the trail. This trail had been run over and over. It was more worn down than the rest of the forest.

DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS A PROBLEM, HOW WORN DOWN IT IS? Sam asked me.

MAYBE. THAT DEPENDS WHERE IT MEETS WITH PUBLIC PLACES.

We continued running. I asked, WHAT CAN YOU SHOW ME ABOUT HOW TO GUARD YOUR THOUGHTS?

YOU JUST HAVE TO BE DOUBLE MINDED. FOCUS ONE OF YOUR SENSES VERY INTENTLY. THAT WILL BE THE DOMINANT THOUGHT.

He breathed in and out slowly and my thoughts were on his breathing now.

He continued, THEN WHATEVER YOU WANT TO THINK ABOUT WILL BE MUFFLED. THE MORE YOU CAN FOCUS WITH YOUR SENSES, THE BETTER THE OTHER THOUGHTS WILL BE MUFFLED.

I slowed down and he slowed down beside me. I walked around him and sniffed his butt like a dog. I liked it and I didn't know why. I was thinking of the blow job I gave him when we moved in together, the one I gave him right before we went grocery shopping.

When I stopped sniffing his butt, he said, YOU DON'T LIKE BLOW JOBS. He sounded a little surprised.

I MEAN, I DON'T MIND THEM. SOMETIMES THEY ARE THE BEST OPTION AND THAT'S WHEN I DO IT.

I COULD HAVE JUST WAITED. Sam sounded kind of irritated about this. I'D RATHER WAIT THAN YOU DO SOMETHING THAT YOU DON'T LIKE.

I had to argue that point. YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN HORNY ALL OVER THE GROCERY STORE AND WE BOTH KNOW IT. YOU WOULD HAVE ENDED UP TAKING ME IN THE ICE CREAM SECTION AND WE WOULD HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM WALMART FOR LIFE. A BLOW JOB IS A MUCH BETTER SOLUTION.

I WOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN YOU IN THE ICE CREAM SECTION! He insisted.

MAYBE NOT, BUT YOU'D HAVE GOTTEN ME SO WORKED UP I WOULD HAVE JUMPED YOU IN THE ICE CREAM SECTION AND THEN WE WOULD HAVE BEEN BANNED FOR LIFE. AGAIN THE BLOW JOB IS THE BEST SOLUTION.

BUT YOU DIDN'T LIKE IT! He really was mad about this. NOW THAT I KNOW THAT, IT WILL PROBABLY BE A TURN OFF NEXT TIME YOU OFFER.

I DON'T MIND IT. I PREFER FUCKING ANY DAY. I NEVER COME GIVING YOU A BLOW JOB, BUT I LOVE TO SEE YOU PLEASURED TOO. SO LET ME DO IT WHEN I CHOOSE, PLEASE. LET ME MAKE MY OWN CHOICES.

IT'S WEIRD, I LOVE LICKING YOUR CLIT AND EATING YOU OUT BUT YOU DON'T LIKE BLOW JOBS. Then he showed me how it felt and how he felt and he did love it.

I DON'T MIND BLOW JOBS, BUT YOU CAN EAT ME OUT AND THEN FUCK ME. WITH BLOW JOBS, IT'S ONE OR THE OTHER. IF YOU COULD CHOOSE TO EITHER EAT ME OUT OR TO FUCK ME, NEVER BOTH, HOW OFTEN WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO EAT ME OUT?

NOT OFTEN. He admitted.

AND IF YOU DIDN'T DO IT OFTEN, YOU WOULDN'T BE PARTICULARLY GOOD AT IT AND YOU WOULDN'T ENJOY IT MUCH. THAT'S PRETTY MUCH WHERE I'M AT WITH BLOW JOBS. SO IF YOU DON'T LET ME PRACTICE SOMETIMES, I'LL NEVER GET TO YOUR LEVEL.

FINE, he conceded.

We were approaching the beach. It was a dark night so I wasn't worried about being spotted. I was looking at where the forest trail met the open field. It was an obvious trail.

HAVE PEOPLE WANDERED INTO THE PATROL TRAIL? I could smell that they had.

Sam was embarrassed. He said, I HAVEN'T RUN INTO THEM, BUT QUIL HAD A NEAR MISS ONCE.

THAT'S A PROBLEM, SAM. WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE ROUTE AND PREVENT THE TRAILS FROM BEING SO OBVIOUS.

We ran along the beach as wolves. It was so beautiful. It was almost a new moon, or maybe just after it, so nearly pitch black to human eyes. The beach was rarely completely empty like this.

I could see in Sam's mind the beauty he saw, too. He was watching the crashing waves and I was watching the clear stars. Then I saw a crab and his focus shifted to the sliver of a moon, setting over the horizon. We were both enchanted by the moment.

All too quickly, we approached the forest on the other side.

CAN WE JUST SIT HERE FOR A MINUTE LONGER? I asked.

YEAH, DO YOU WANT TO PHASE TO HUMAN AND ENJOY IT THAT WAY. He wanted to fuck me again. Oh, I wanted that too!

But I hesitated.

WE CAN SIT AS WOLVES. SORRY, he said.

NO! DON'T BE SORRY. I JUST LIKE SEEING EVERYTHING THROUGH YOUR EYES. LET'S SIT AS WOLVES FOR A FEW MINUTES, THEN WE CAN HAVE BEACH SEX.

AWESOME!

We watched the entire moon set, both engrossed in the play of the light on the water. When the last of the moon's light faded from the water, I phased to human.

He sat next to me, still a wolf. I looked into his eyes. They were Sam's eyes, but different. The color was paler, almost yellow. I put my hands on both sides of his muzzle and I touched our noses together. His eyes were twinkling with joy.

"Are you going to join me?" I asked.

He stood and then he was a man. My man.

He stepped toward me. He reached for my cheek, then slid it around to the back of my neck, brushing my bite mark on the way.

I gasped at the intensity of the touch.

He pulled his hand away. "Is it still painful? The bite?"

I reached up and touched his bite mark.

"Oh wow," he said. He put his hand back on my neck, running his fingers along the scars. The feeling was so intense.

SPOV

These bite marks had me spinning. It felt so good when she touched it. Why did it feel so good?

I pulled her close, kissing her, rubbing the bite mark, and cupping her breast. I laid down on the beach and she got on top of me. This was the best way on the bare sand. Otherwise I'd be driving sand into her pussy and that was not easy to get out. We learned that over the summer.

She lay on top of me after we finished fucking, not ready to separate yet. "So since I've phased I've been kind of hot for you," she said, smiling, "even more than usual. That's got to be some wolf libido or something. But why do you want me so much more now too? I don't get it. I mean, I know I'm hotter, but I didn't want you this much when you phased."

"You were pretty into it, though." I grinned at the memory. "I have an idea of why, but I'm not sure you're going to like it."

"You still have to tell me."

"I know, I'm just warning you."

"Consider me warned. Now tell me."

I was a little nervous, which was silly considering all that we had shared. "I think it's because you are my equal now and that's why the pull is so strong."

"Why wouldn't I like that?"

"Because it implies that you weren't my equal before."

"Yeah, but I wasn't and it was kind of laughable how much I tried to be."

"I don't think we'll fight over chores anymore." I said hopefully.

"I think we still will, but I think we need to renegotiate who gets what."

"What? Like how?" We were about to fight over chores again. I could feel it coming.

"I don't know. We'll see what I'm good at now with my superpowers."

I was livid. "You're plotting to steal my chores!"

She was laughing. It was disarming, but I wasn't going to let her win so easily.

"Hear me out, Sam. I think one of our problems with chores is actually scheduling."

"That makes sense," I agreed.

"So I work and go to school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I shouldn't be doing chores on those days."

"Totally! I feel like I've said that a bunch of times," I reminded her, rubbing her back.

"So you do everything on those days and I'll take care of the rest of the week." She declared.

"Bullshit," I said. "I'll do everything on those days. You can take Mondays and Tuesdays and we'll split the weekends."

"That's not fair either," She protested.

"You can make breakfast on the weekends, both days. You always get up before me anyway. And we'll make lunch and supper together."

She considered the proposal. "So you'll make breakfast on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday?"

"Yes."

"And I'll make breakfast all of the other days?"

"Yes, if you'll agree to it."

"Oh, it's on."

We laid on the sand for a bit, enjoying the scenery. Then she asked, "What do you think that bite is? I've bitten you during sex before. This is definitely different."

"Yeah, it is different. Leah, no one has said anything about girl wolves before. You might be the first, ever."

"Yeah, I'm obviously special," she said confidently.

I chuckled. "You really are. The fact that we bit each other at the same time, we were both preparing the spot beforehand and we both cleaned it after, it had to be some kind of instinct. And the sensation now. It is obviously not just another love bite."

"You called them love bites? That's adorable, Sam!"

"What did you call them?"

"I didn't have a name for them," she said. "I didn't do it a lot, just sometimes it felt right. And it always made me giggle after. Did they hurt before you were a wolf?"

"A little, but it was like a spanking. It was a good hurt. I always loved it. It made you seem feral almost, and it was so hot."

"But if I bite you now, will it make more of these scars?"

"I don't know. We'll need to talk to Billy about it. I just don't know."

She climbed up my body and gently bit my chin. "Let's continue our patrol."

When we phased back in, Quil was running his patrol.

SORRY QUIL, I WAS JUST SHOWING LEAH THE ROUTE.

IT'S SO COOL THAT LEAH IS ONE OF US NOW! He spoke with genuine enthusiasm. I'M PSYCHED THAT WE'LL GET TO SEE INTO THE MIND OF A WOMAN.

THANKS, QUIL, Leah said. The magic was over, sharing the pack mind, just the two of us, so we ran the rest of the route, then ran home.

I held her in my arms in bed, so thankful for her. "What a full day," I said, trying to word it delicately.

"That's a nice way of putting it. It was a fucking roller coaster. Sam, I have such mixed feelings about my dad and it's all fucked up."

"Yeah?" I had wondered when she'd be ready to talk about this. From what we went through with Emily's death, I knew that my task was to keep her busy and functioning and be there when she was ready to talk. She may be ready to talk now, sooner than I expected. But her grief now was so different from her grief over Emily.

"I'm obviously sad that he died. I wish he hadn't died. But he trashed our relationship and I'm still so angry and hurt about that. It's making it hard to grieve with clarity."

"It's ok to have mixed emotions while you grieve."

"Sure, but I feel guilty about being angry."

"So do I, Leah. I kind of hated your dad for a while. I feel awful now."

"He was such an ass hole to you."

"I know. But that doesn't make it better. I used to really look up to him, and even when he thought I wasn't good enough for you, I still respected him until I phased."

"That's just it, Sam. Since I phased, I understand your perspective even more, how angry you were that he withheld information, how he didn't support us trying to bypass imprinting."

"But some of it is because we can share a mind. Maybe if you shared a mind with him, you would understand his perspective better."

"You think?" She asked.

"Maybe. I know he loved you. He wanted you to have a full and happy life and for whatever reasons, he didn't want that to be with me. He didn't want you stuck on the rez either, which I totally get. I think all of his decisions were trying to make your life better. He was just misguided."

"And he was nasty to you."

"He was, yes."

"But I love you."

I sighed. "Someday we're going to have a daughter and I'm going to be skeptical about her boyfriend. I'm going to need you to remind me not to be an ass hole, ok?"

"Maybe. But if I don't like him, you can be an ass hole, ok?"

"Ok."