Bound

Cake

CLAIRE POV

When the Alpha of the Blood moon pack had sauntered over the boundary of my territory this evening it had been a very near thing. Hackles rose, growls rumbled, and power electrified the little clearing where Alexi had been trussed to the tree. Where we had subsequently sunk passionate teeth into fevered flesh without thought for the consequence.

I shivered at the memory, which gave birth to a wonderful idea. With a twist of my lips I doused the snarling creatures with the sensation of iced water dripping from hot head, to feet supporting fighting stances.

"The full moon calls us all to madness." I said once the Triplets had regained some composure and Alexi was no longer shaking his human body like a dog. "Let it be of the celebratory kind."

From the depths of the forest, the were bear burst forth and lumbered through the clearing with a wolf shaped Denvy riding his back like an unruly surfboard. The hermit was roaring with wild abandon, and nine year old Denvy joined in on the chorus with his high pitched 'Awoooo's'.

"We could all stand to learn a thing or two from Denvy." I said, and the four flabbergasted were wolves all nodded solemnly for different reasons.

The deep shadows of summer swallowed the town before the full moon bathed it all with a silver glow. As the first stars showed a pathway through the heavens, our resident engineer Pablo constructed a bonfire worthy of the name, and Otto lit the adults on fire (metaphorically) with a festival version of his gin. It tasted like christmas and burned through our alcohol tolerance like tinder. The full moon probably helped with that.

Ben didn't heed the warnings of Otto, and drank at his regular pace of consumption...

...Ben got white girl wasted, and decided to fly to the Moon Goddess.

What actually happened was that he shifted in his dinner suit and got stuck. Eventually tearing free of his clothing with a triumphant "Screech!" and careening into every possible obstacle around the fire. It was quite impressive, he was flapping and hopping clumsily enough to be a danger to himself, but with enough dexterity to avoid the three drunk werewolves trying to detain him.

Ben lept into a careening, flappy beeline straight for the bonfire. I gasped at the impending horror as Alexi executed an extraordinary flying lunge to thwart Ben's attempt to barbeque himself. Ben hooted and barked indignantly at the incursion on his freedom, so we set him loose in the playpen set up for the baby wolves. Mila - the resident kindergarten teacher - volunteered to keep an eye on him, and plonked the disgruntled owl in the shifter proof playpen with the other entirely unreasonable creatures. Otherwise known as toddlers that were also wolves.

Now we were swaying not quite front, and not quite center, of a writhing mass of celebration around the bonfire. I leaned into Alexi's chest and enjoyed the thrum of his heart beat steadily through my chest.

"Can you be quiet Alpha?" The man behind me whispered dangerously in my ear, eliciting a fire that burned with the remembrance of a balcony far away. I shivered and bit my lip before turning my face into his and murmuring "Can you?"

The past few days had been tumultuous at best. I flew and ran between the city and my pack with enough regularity that even my endurance was getting a workout.

Mornings were with my pack, gathering their routines and folding them into mine to build our life together. Mid morning to afternoon was in the city, holding court or hammering out trade agreements with the Eurasian avian delegation. In the late afternoon as the sun was stealing towards the horizon I stole an hour here, and an hour there with Alexi.

Getting to know this mate was so very different from the same process with Xavier. Entwining my life with Xavier's had been as natural as breathing. With Alexi it was more like drowning; breaking the surface gasping, only to be dragged under again.