Page 39 of Fighting Furry

I pushed out of his arms, for the second time, because it felt way too comfy there. I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed off my bra, appreciating the way his eyes darkened at the sight of my naked breasts. I wished we did have more time to enjoy each other, naked. My willpower was shit when it came to him and sex. “I need to meet some people because I need a new place to live.”

He studied me with a lackadaisical grin. “Why bother? You know you'd be over here every night anyway.”

“What if I decide to see someone else?” I asked. “Didn't you say wolves have more open relationships than humans?”

His expression hardened the tiniest bit and his smile dropped to a firm line. “Some do. I don't. I won't with you. If you want to fuck someone else, you'll have to leave this pack first.”

What was I saying about him not being possessive? This felt different though. He wasn't trying to control me, he just didn't want to share. “And the same applies to you?”

“What?”

“You won't fuck anyone else in the pack while I'm here?”

“I won't fuck anyone else, period. Probably not ever again. You're it for me.”

I bit my lip to stop from smiling, because his sweet words were starting to get to me, starting to crack my tough shell. I pushed off my pants, so he wouldn't see my face. “Just as long as you remember I can't stand you. I'm only using you for your body.”

I straightened and stood before him, naked, watching the grin overwhelm his face. “Of course you are, sweetheart.”

He took a step forward, but I dropped to all fours and shifted before he could touch me. I raced toward the town center, but he caught up to me before I got there. I wasn't surprised. I had a feeling he'd always catch me.

I followed the scent of wolves and the sight of fur to the middle of town, not too far from where Jeremiah had bitten me. There was no fountain or statue or sign to identify the town center, but it was located right about the middle of Main Street. The wolves turned in an eerie unison toward us as we approached together. As soon as we'd reached them, they dropped their heads to their feet, a sort of lupine bowing. I started to lower my head, figuring it was the custom, but Axel pushed his snout under mine and lifted my head. Damn it, why hadn't I gotten more information from him before we'd started?

Axel howled and all the wolves stood and pranced in place with unbridled energy. The sun was setting behind them and it was a cool sight, their fur, all the conceivable shades from brown to red to gray, lit by the setting sun. I smiled and it seemed every wolfy head shifted slightly to stare at me. I looked to Axel and he was staring at me, too. He mimicked howling and I swear I could hear him telling me to howl. I lifted my snout and performed my best approximation of a howl. Even to my ears, it was pretty sad. Axel's chuckle rolled through my mind followed by one word, “Run.”

Axel took off and I followed without a thought, not because he'd used his alpha voice, but because the excitement and energy rolling off the pack had infected me and all I wanted to do was run with them. I matched pace with Axel and we led the way through the forest, the pack howling and yapping at our toes. It was the biggest adrenaline rush and the most breathless laugh session all rolled into one. If I was in human form and could laugh, my cheeks would be sore. Together, Axel and I ran full-speed up the mountain until we reached a field, larger than the one I'd run to the day before. He nipped my flank and I spun and landed on top of him, rolling him and digging my claws into his soft underbelly as the rest of the pack raced by us. In my mind, I could hear Axel's laughter. His wolf got the better of me and pinned me by my shoulders. “Just watch,” he said.

He released me and I stood shoulder to shoulder with him while we watched the pack race and play. Some wolves sat off to the side, watching like Axel and I were. Others approached each other cautiously, like teenagers at a school dance. The rest raced and leaped with abandon, from huge, scary-looking wolves to tiny pups. I wanted to play with them, I wanted to be close to them, to smell them, to know them. I looked to Axel and asked with my eyes and my mind for him to say it was okay.

The feeling of pride and joy that filled me threatened to overwhelm me. “Go,” I heard him say in my mind. So, I went. I raced out among the other wolves, chasing some, nipping and tumbling with others, sitting still with others when I got tired. I felt safe and at home, the same way I felt when I was with Shelly, only I felt that way with an entire town. My town. My pack.

When it was fully dark, we hunted. I helped take down a deer and then I actually helped eat it. It was delicious. Then, we all raced back down the mountain together and went our separate ways. I raced Axel back to his warehouse to get my clothes. We shifted together and he stopped me, there in the warehouse, lit only by the moon. He cupped my cheek with his hand and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “You are amazing.”

I shrugged off the compliment, embarrassed. “That was fun. I mean…I didn't know what to expect, but wow…Just…wow. The running and…” I rambled on as I dressed, aware of Axel's eyes on me the entire time. “I'm starving. How about—”

He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “You belong to the pack now. There's an official ceremony we'll have once you decide you want to stay here, but your wolf accepted and has been accepted by the pack. You belong here. You are the starburst.”

“Yeah,” I said. “About that. I don't think it means what you told me it means.”

He flushed. “It's hard to explain. The starburst is usually the caretaker, the protector of the pack. That's also the alpha's job, but the alpha has so many other responsibilities…it's a lucky pack who has a wolf to take on the role of starburst.”

“And I'm your equal?”

“In every way,” he said, not seeming the least bit put out about that. “If you went to another pack, you could be alpha, but here…You are the starburst, I just know it the way I know the sun will rise tomorrow.” He ran a hand through his hair. “The starburst is often also the heart of the pack, the person members of the pack go to when they need comfort or advice the alpha can't offer for whatever reason. It's like…” He looked toward the ceiling. “You fill in the holes in the pack. You become whatever we need and you hold us together when the alpha can't.”

I shivered, overwhelmed. “I can handle that protector thing, but the rest of it…That doesn't sound like me at all.”

He shrugged. “Every wolf is different and every wolf takes on their role in the pack differently. You just be who you are and it will be exactly what the pack needs.”

That sounded like some crazy ass mumbo-jumbo, and I didn't share his confidence that I could succeed. I'd always been a loner, Shelly my only real family, my only real friend. Now I was supposed to be there for and protect almost a hundred people who could sprout fur and fangs?

He pulled on his t-shirt and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Come on, there's a party at the barn.”

“Will there be food?”

He led me out of the warehouse. “Does my dick get hard every time you walk into a room?”

“I—”

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