Page 25 of Shift Happens
I shook my head, amused despite myself. “Any other wolf customs I should know about before meeting everyone?”
He considered this thoughtfully. “Don’t maintain eye contact too long with dominant wolves—it can be seen as a challenge. Let me introduce you to people before interacting with them. And if anyone offers you food, accept it—it’s a gesture of welcome.”
“Sounds manageable,” I nodded. “What about your parents? Any specific etiquette there?”
“My father’s pretty traditional, but he’s coming around to human integration. My mother’s more open-minded—she’s the one who encouraged my interest in human culture from the beginning.” He smiled fondly. “They’re going to like you. Especially when they see how happy you make me.”
“I hope so,” I said honestly. “They’re important to you, so they’re important to me.”
His expression softened. “That right there is why they’ll like you.”
After dinner, we settled back in our newly arranged living room, Milo curled against my side as we watched a movie. The comfortable domesticity of it all struck me suddenly—how natural it felt to have him here, to plan our days and nights together, to consider his pack as an extension of my own family circle.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, sensing my contemplative mood. “Your scent changed again.”
I smiled, still amazed by his perceptiveness. “I was just thinking how right this feels. Us, together like this. Planning to meet your family.”
He sat up slightly to look at me properly. “It does feel right. From the first day in your store, something about you called to me. I thought it was just curiosity about humans at first, but it was more specific than that. It was you.”
“Even when I was criticizing your coffee-making skills and making you organize comics alphabetically?”
“Especially then,” he laughed. “You challenged me. Made me want to be better at human things.”
“And how’s that going?” I teased. “The being better at human things?”
He pretended to consider the question seriously. “Well, I haven’t broken the coffee machine in three weeks. I can operate a cash register without supervisor assistance. And I’ve successfully maintained a relationship with an extremely patient human who only occasionally looks exasperated when I knock things over.”
“I’d say that’s excellent progress,” I agreed, pulling him closer. “Though there’s still the matter of your sock-eating habit.”
“That was one time!” he protested. “And I was partially shifted during a half-moon. Hybrid forms get confused about appropriate chew toys.”
“My lucky Batman socks were not chew toys,” I reminded him solemnly.
“I bought you new ones,” he mumbled against my shoulder. “Better ones. With little bats that glow in the dark.”
I laughed, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”
“Fierce,” he corrected, nipping playfully at my neck. “Terrifying predator, remember?”
“Mmm, of course. Very scary. I’m trembling.”
His response was to tackle me back against the couch cushions, growling playfully as he pinned my shoulders. “Don’t mock the wolf,” he warned, eyes gleaming.
“Or what?” I challenged, easily breaking his hold to flip our positions, hovering over him. “What will the fierce wolf do?”
The playfulness in his expression shifted to something heavier, more heated. “Maybe I’ll show you,” he suggested, voice dropping lower. “How wolves claim what’s theirs.”
The atmosphere changed in an instant, playful wrestling transforming into something more primal. Milo’s eyes held mine, a silent question that I answered by lowering my head to capture his lips.
Our second round of “den-marking” was more urgent than the first, clothes hastily removed, positions reversed as Milo took control with surprising strength. By the time we collapsed, satisfied and exhausted, the living room was thoroughly disheveled.
“I think,” I panted, staring at the ceiling, “we’ve officially christened the new den arrangement.”
Milo made a sound of smug satisfaction, sprawled half across my chest. “Thoroughly marked. No one could mistake whose territory this is now.”
I laughed, wrapping an arm around him. “Do I even want to know what it smells like to your wolf senses?”
“Us,” he said simply. “Just us. Together. As it should be.”
