Shifting Boundaries

Chapter Eight

Everett

After we were done eating a quiet breakfast, Meleri and Magnus stood and started collecting the dishes. Felix waved me back into my seat, though. "You already did some cleaning. It's their turn. Actually, do you want to go on a run with me? I'd like to show you around Lakota."

And there would be the added benefit of having Felix to myself again. At least he didn't feel the need to bring up my indecision. "Yeah, okay. Will we shift?"

I didn't realize how uncertain Felix looked until the uncertainty melted and was replaced with excitement. "Definitely."

I followed Felix outside, where he took in a deep breath and stretched luxuriously. The way his muscles moved under his clothes as his movements pulled them taut captivated me. I looked at the wooded land surrounding Felix's house in a desperate bid to distract myself from the mouthwatering sight of my mate. It really was beautiful here. Delta land was more built up than this. We had more buildings, more roads. It felt like a little city. Here in Lakota, it felt like one of those hiking destinations full of cabin rentals. Only, Felix lived here all the time.

The price, of course, was having to deal with violence as other packs tried to claim Lakota's land. I glanced at Felix, who had taken off his shirt and thrown it onto the bench in front of his house. His body was a testament to how hard Lakota worked to keep their land. Looking around, I could almost understand how a person might think this was worth fighting for.

"You ready?" Felix asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.

I shrugged my shirt off and tossed it next to Felix's. "Ready," I said, turning to face him.

His eyes were glued to my body, pupils dilated with desire. The heat in them made my insides squirm. I was frozen under that gaze, just as entranced by him as he seemed to be by me. I don't know what would have happened if Felix hadn't visibly shaken himself and whirled away. "See if you can keep up!" he challenged right before shucking his pants and launching forward, transforming midair.

I usually only shifted once per week, during my weekly training session. We would spend the first hour in our human form and the second hour as wolves. I knew a lot of people liked to shift much more frequently, but that single hour each week had always been enough for me. As I watched Felix stretch out his wolfen form, eyes shut and ears flattened with the pleasure of it, I realized he was one of the people who absolutely loved running around as a wolf.

He noticed that I hadn't shifted yet and ran to my side, nudging me with his nose with the most adorable pleading expression I had ever seen. I couldn't help chuckling and said, "Okay, okay, I'm shifting."

I reached for the waistband of my pants and was grateful when Felix turned around to give me some privacy. My own shift wasn't as fluid as Felix's, or as quick. It always took me a good twenty seconds to shift – an ugly, sweaty process that always left me shaking. After the shift was complete, I lay down on the ground, catching my breath and adjusting to my new shape. I felt Felix's tongue lapping at my snout and snapped my eyes open. It was easy to see that he was concerned, so I stood up and shook out my fur, then trotted forward, looking back to Felix expectantly.

He ran his body along mine as he passed me, sending that wonderful tingling heat through my body. Then he yipped and darted forward, though Felix was careful never to let me fall too far behind as he led me through the forest.

I had to wonder whether Felix had any specific destination in mind, since the path he took had us winding through the trees left and right in a seemingly random and certainly inefficient way. After a while, when I was starting to get winded, Felix slowed down and gave me a long stare that seemed to convey a need for caution. We walked forward together, Felix slightly in the lead, until we reached the edge of a cliff.

I lowered myself to my belly and inched forward carefully until I could peek over the edge and see the truly staggering distance down. It was enough to send a wave of vertigo through me. I was no judge of distance, but I knew that if someone fell from this ledge, they would have time to think about their death before they met it. The trees below looked like broccoli, albeit big broccoli.

Felix lay down next to me, close enough that our sides pressed together. I didn't mind touching him so much in this form since there were few ways to communicate. Touching now wasn't sexual and wasn't about the bond between us. It was just a way for us to experience being here together.

It took a while, but I was able to tear my eyes away from the drop to look at the sky, which was incredibly exposed here. I never got to see out this far in Delta. There were too many buildings in the way, and anyhow, I didn't know of any good clifftops like this one. I hoped Felix didn't spend too much time out here since it would only take one moment of carelessness to send him plummeting to his death, but I could see why he had shown this to me.

I wondered how much of the land I looked out over belonged to Lakota. I knew it was a pack with a ton of land. Their population was almost as big as Delta's, though they lived much more spread out from each other. Having a ton of land was necessary for that, and it also explained why other packs tried so hard to take Lakota's land. It had to be difficult to patrol the whole border.

If I stayed here, would they expect me to learn to fight and to join their patrols? I wasn't cut out for that. Sure, I attended those weekly trainings, but they were a precaution against a remote possibility. Delta hadn't been involved in violence since well before Neil took over as our alpha. If Lakota was going to require me to fight for them, I couldn't stay. But no way would Felix come and live in Delta. He had a life here – a job he was passionate about and two siblings he was obviously close with. He was the closest thing they had to a father now; he wouldn't leave them. And he couldn't be a trainer in Delta, not like he was here.

I struggled to fit our lives together and couldn't find a configuration that would work, even if I was able to get past my own personal hurdles. But being here with Felix, spending this time together, was so easy. I had never been this comfortable with someone, not even my own mother, and it had been less than a day since the first words we spoke to each other. And that wasn't even getting into the way he made me feel physically.

Our situation felt impossible and I instinctively went to Felix for comfort, nuzzling my cheek against his neck. Felix licked my ears, which was wonderfully pleasant and relaxing. I pressed myself harder against him and he took a brief break from licking to chirp happily. I snapped playfully at him when he tried to start licking again and his eyes lit with excitement.

We stood and Felix herded me away from the edge of the cliff, nipping and swiping gently at me. When we were a safe distance away from the cliffside, Felix dropped his front arms down, sticking his butt in the air and wiggling it to warn me of an impending pounce.

When Felix did pounce, it was playful, slow enough that I was able to dodge out of the way. I braced myself, waiting for his next move, but Felix just waved his tail and darted off into the forest, glancing back at me to make sure I followed. I raced after him and soon we were zipping through the forest, faster than before, all the way back to Felix's house.

Felix and I faced away from each other while we transformed near our pants. I scrambled into mine, then hurriedly put my shirt back on, too. I glanced at Felix when he stood next to me, donning his own shirt, and grinned at the excitement that still lit his eyes.

He smiled widely back at me and said, "Thanks for that. I had a lot of fun."

At every turn, Felix broke down my walls further. I felt a rush of affection for him. Not many people would have the restraint not to comment on how close and cozy we'd gotten during our time as wolves. Sure, social rules are different as a wolf, but I had still encouraged a lot of familiarity between us that we didn't have as humans, and still Felix didn't say a word about it. If I looked at things from his perspective, it was obvious that he would want to talk about where we were going and about whether there could be a relationship in our future. Sure, it was only day two, but so far Felix had been true to his word. I set the boundaries.

Feeling secure in that fact made it a lot easier to get closer to him. Maybe that had been his plan all along.