Wolf Bonded (Wolfish 1)

This time, I do as I’m told. When I do turn, I see Marlowe still sitting on the tree trunk and Rory, well wolf-version of Rory, standing in the middle of the clearing with his blackish-silver fur blowing in the soft breeze.

I tense up a bit as the wolf approaches.

Kaleb rubs his hand against my back and reassures me that there’s nothing to be afraid of, so I swing my body around so that I can face the wolf head on.

If I’m going to do this, then I’m going to do it right.

It stops when it gets directly in front of me and immediately lays its head down in my lap. It looks up at me with the biggest and darkest eyes I have ever seen, wide and full of emotion. Human emotion.

Unable to resist the allure of the soft, dark fur, I reach my hand down and stroke the top of its head, letting my hand run down the course of its long nose. The wolf’s fur is so soft, and it sits perfectly still as if we are both trying to figure each other out. I can feel Kaleb’s chest bouncing behind me as he chuckles.

“So this is—” I start to say as I turn around to ask Kaleb if my theory is correct.

“Yeah,” he smiles. “It’s Rory.”

I turn forward again as the wolf lifts its head and stares at me, and I reach my hand out to scratch behind its ears as it licks the top of my forearm.

“Can he understand me? When he … when you …”

Rory makes a sound deep in his throat. I think it’s meant to answer my question, but the sound still rattles me.

As if sensing this, Rory suddenly steps back, wolf-eyes searching for a moment until, in one swift movement, the wolf seems to stand on its hind legs before reversing its transformation back into a human.

The entire process lasts less than a couple seconds but looks pretty painful.

Certainly not as graceful as the other wolf. The girl-wolf made it look effortless.

But then again, I wasn’t looking for it last time. There’s a good chance my brain just saw what it wanted to see. In the moment, that was already enough to send me into a tailspin.

Now, instead of a wolf with dark and silver fur, Rory stands before me … his clothes shredded in a heap around his feet.

I guess that isn’t the only thing the other girl was more adept at.

I can’t breathe; and I’m not sure if it’s because I just found out that Rory is some kind of wolf person, or because of the way he looks as he stands completely naked in front of me.

Kaleb must have noticed my ceasing breath because he smacks me on the back to snap me out of it.

“You’re—”

“Werewolves,” Rory finishes my sentence for me.

“But,” I try to wrap my mind around this, “werewolves don’t exist.”

Rory laughs as he walks toward me. “Oh, we definitely exist.”

He kneels down in front of me, turning me into a hot mess of wanton desire mixed with the fear that I’m finally losing my mind.

“Okay you two,” Marlowe says as he gets up and walks toward me as well, “you’ve got her all flustered and confused. This isn’t supposed to be a cock-fest. It’s supposed to be an explanation.”

Marlowe pushes past Rory and grabs my hand as he pulls me up from Kaleb’s lap.

“Oh please,” Kaleb says. “Don’t pretend that you’re immune to the effect she has on us. You want her every bit as badly as we do.”

“Okay, what’s going on?” I ask. “Every time I think you’re starting to make sense, you all say something super weird again.”

“Put pants on,” Marlowe says to Rory before turning back to me. “I think you’re going to want to hear us out on this one, Sabrina.”

Once everyone is sitting back down on their respective tree trunks, fully clothed thanks to a spare pair of pants that Marlowe had the foresight to bring, the real discussion begins.