| The Story Of Us - Thiam |

Part 44

Theo had figured out that Hope wasn't human after he found about her parents, so he wasn't too shocked.

Hope, however, was a squealing mess, and was apparently extremely excited about her new discovery.

"You tell me what you are and I'll tell you about me!" She exclaimed, pulling at Theo's hand as he smiled at her giddiness.

"Okay, okay! Sit down, princess, you'll get tired." Hope only nodded and looked at Theo eagerly, which made Theo take a deep breath.

"Have you ever heard of a chimera?" Theo asked gently, tucking a loose strand of strawberry blonde hair behind the girl's ear.

Hope furrowed her eyebrows together, racking her brain for any information that she had heard about 'chimeras'. Eventually, after around a minute of thinking, Hope shook her head.

"I didn't think you would have. I am basically three things; a human, a wolf and a coyote."

"Like a hybrid?" Hope asked, her eyes filled with joy.

"I suppose, yeah. But I wasn't born supernatural and I wasn't bitten, Hope, I was made. I was made as an experiment by a very bad group of people." Theo explained carefully, trying not to give awya too much information because he vowed to protect Hope at all costs.

"So you're different? Like me?"

"I am very different, yeah. What do you mean like you, though, sweetheart?"

"Well I'm so cool! I'm a human, duh," Theo began to love the sass that the seven year old carried around with her, "And I'm a witch, and I'm a wolf too!" Hope exclaimed excitedly, a bright smile on her face.

"That is so cool, darling! Have you learnt to control it all yet?" Hope nodded her head in response to Theo's question and the chimera looked at her proudly, as if she was his own daughter. He wished she were, though.

After giggling around some more, Theo asked the little girl a question. "Would you like to see something cool, little wolf?" The nickname took a toll on Hope's heart but she learnt to get used to it, because she thought it was nice to have someone calling her that again.

"Hey," She began to correct the boy. "It's actually littlest wolf. That's what my dad called me anyway, because my mum was his little wolf." She explained accurately, but she nodded all the same.

"Okay, littlest wolf, I'll be back in a few seconds, okay?" Hope nodded and Theo dashed behind a tree, taking his clothes off and throwing them to Hope. They landed on her face with made the young girl fall back and laugh.

Theo shifted into a black wolf and bounded out of the trees, running up to Hope like it was the last thing he would do. Hope's eyes widened but they eventually softened again and she began to stroke Theo's head. She knew all of the right spots, and particularly focussed on the area around his ears.

They began to mess around shortly after. Theo would chase Hope around the field for hours, his heart fluttering every time he playfully tackled Hope to the ground and lapped at her. She would giggle for ages and would have to wait toget her strength back before getting up and running away again.

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It was night by the time they were both completely worn out. Theo, still in his wolf form, nodded at the tree but Hope shook her head.

"Stay like that, your cute when your furry!" She laughed at her own statement.

Theo smiled on the inside and wrapped himself around Hope's legs. Hope seemed to understand and followed the wolf to the back of his truck.

The little Hope climbed in and grabbed a blanket, laying across the back seats. She patted her stomach and Theo took it as a sign to jump, and so he did. Hope quickly closed the door behind him and layed back down, Theo's wolf now on her stomach.

She placed the blanket over the both of them and cuddled Theo like a hot water bottle, and jsut before she fell asleep, she whispered,

"Goodnight, wolfy."