Page 41 of Fur-Ever Home

CONNOR

"Holy shit!"I exclaimed once Ben had shut us both inside the tiny bathroom. "Wolfy's a Wonderdog 3000!"

If I'd have known that, I could have saved Ben all that time searching. I was lucky the clerk at Wolf Brothers had taken pity on me.

Now, I needed to strip down so I could become Connie the Friendly Wolf. I raised my hands to unbutton my shirt, but Ben knocked them aside to grab me in a tight hug.

"You're the best boyfriend," he said. "The best alpha. The best everything. Thank you so much."

I hugged him back, rubbing large circles on the back of his t-shirt. "Nobody deserves to be ridiculed like that by their own family. Especially not by a nine-year-old boy." I kissed the top of his head. "The rest of your family is cool, though. Your dad's awesome." His blood relatives had his same olive skin and dark hair, so it was easy to tell them from their spouses.

"My pops is around here somewhere, along with Josie and Alex." He pulled back, and I missed his warmth. "They're probably hiding from the kids."

"Do you want to hide from them?" I asked. Hide and Seek wasn't my favorite game, but I would do whatever Ben wanted.

He shook his head. "Not if Connie's going to make an appearance!"

I grinned. "There's a fun game I used to play with my kin. These kids should like it, too." I explained it to Ben while I unbuttoned my shirt, but he didn't hear me. He was too busy staring.

"Ben."

He had to look a long way up from my pants zipper. "Yeah?"

"I need your help."

He stepped back into my personal space and shoved my hands away. With a tug, he had my pants and shorts down around my ankles.

I shifted before he could reach for my cock. He groaned and grabbed his own through his pants. "Unfair."

I pranced out of my pile of clothes, still wearing my socks. My wolf hated socks. I sat down on the bathmat and pulled them off my hind paws with my teeth. Yuck.

I gave a low bark to tell Ben I was ready, and he opened the door for me. I charged through the house to the living room. I circled the couch, rounding up the children to come play.

The patio door was open, so I led them through it into the backyard, if one could call it that. It was mostly patio stones, river rock flowerbeds, and succulents. The river rocks were slippery, but that only added to my comedy routine. I made the little girl who liked dogs laugh several times with my antics before Ben joined us on the patio. He'd been busy ushering the other kids outside.

"We're going to play duck, duck, goose," he said, "but when I say goose, you're running from Connie, not from me."

What? Those had not been the rules. The game was called duck hunt, and I was the hunting wolf. Instead of goose, Ben was supposed to say "shoot."

Oh, shoot. That was a bad game to teach a bunch of human children, no matter how fun my wolf thought it was. Duck, duck, goose made a lot more sense. I barked to let him know I approved, and then it was on.

The first kid Ben "goosed" was the little girl who stood up to Jeffrey. One of the other kids squealed her name, Brandi, when she got up, and I bounded after her.

Brandi was fast, but Ben had remembered the one rule difference. Since he wasn't the one chasing, he immediately sat in Brandi's spot, so she had no choice but to keep running once she got all the way around. She almost made it twice around before I grew tired of running and nosed her in the back.

She turned toward me, laughing, and wrapped her arms around my neck. "You're slow for such a big dog," she teased.

"Woof."

"Looks like it's my turn," she said. "The running is the fun part, anyway. I like this game better."

"Woof!" I agreed.

We played until every guest had a turn around the circle. Some of the children weren't as fast, and one limped, but they all enjoyed running from me like their lives depended on it. I didn't smell fear on them, either. These human children were brave.

When I caught up to the last child and nosed him in the back, Ben stood, ending the game. "That was fun! Let's thank Connie!"

The children hopped up from their circle and rushed me with hugs, pets, and scratches behind the ears. I rolled over on my back, and Brandi tickled my ribs while the other kids gave me belly rubs.

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