A Simple Touch

Haphephobia

We stayed with her for two hours. Coba felt like a pup again, chasing sticks she threw, licking her face and acting like a child. Anything he could do to make her laugh or smile. Sitting next to her we watched as she wrote in her notepad. Her facial expressions were all over the place. One second she's happy and smiling, the next she has what I assume is a flashback and looks terrified. Then she's back to a more neutral state of mind. It both intrigues and gives me whiplash.

"I hate to see her frown." Coba lets out a high pitched whine making our beautiful mate look our way with curiosity. After a moment she smiles and reaches out to touch Coba's face. The sparks nearly buckle his legs from under him, so he leans his weight into her hand.

"I'm sorry Blue. Sometimes I get caught up in my thoughts." She slowly leans forward and Coba freezes.

"Don't... fucking... move." I warn him. He stays completely still as she presses her lips onto the side of his nose and scratches under his chin. I feel him trying very hard to hold back a shiver. I could feel his protective instincts kick into overdrive. She checks her watch and sighs.

"Its getting late. I need to make a good impression tomorrow." She smiles and gathers her things. As she stands up, Coba is immediately on his feet. She touches his face one more time and turns to walk away. Coba whines and barks, taking just a few steps closer to her.

The mate bond is the most powerful thing about us wolves. Our mates enhance everything about us to the max. Our speed, our strength, our hearing, our abilities... like healing. You could be within minutes of death, and just being around or touched by your mate will speed the healing process.

There are also downfalls to the mate bond. When you're mate is hurt, you feel that very same pain as if it was happening to you. If you go to long without being around your mate, you feel physically sick. Pain racks our muscles and bones, not yielding one bit until your mate is near you. That however is only for the human side of us. The wolf side is worse and more dangerous.

One possibility is our wolves could go rabid and attack anything in sight. Ripping it to shreds within seconds of contact, if gone too long without being around their mates. It gets harder to control them and they take over the human side without permission. Not to mention are stuck that way for quite a while. Only their mate can bring them back to human form. Although, if your wolf gets to far gone, it can't tell the difference between targets anymore. Attacking anything that moves or drawls it's attention. Thus turning into a Rogue.

The other possibility is a wolf blocks all contact with the human side. Basically going into exile. Slowly dying without their mate. A painful heartbreaking sight to watch and feel... and seeing as the human side has a life line connection to our wolves, it slowly kills us too. She turns around and stares at us for a moment before shaking her head and smiling.

"Well come on then slow poke." She laughs as Coba jumps excitedly and sprints towards her.

"After we know she is safe, we need to go home and talk to mom and dad." I could feel his apprehension not wanting to leave her and trust me I was feeling the same, but I needed some help.

We make it to her apartment and I was less than amused at the small size and dirty living conditions. She reaches inside her purse and pulls out a key. Opening the door to reveal the inside looked way nicer than the outside. Let's just say it wasn't what I was expecting.

"It's not five star, but it's home." She smiled and hung her purse onto a rack with hooks. She wasn't lying when she said she was organized. There wasn't a single thing that didn't have a place and didn't look cluttered. "I don't know if you're hungry and I don't have much to feed a big fella such as yourself but I do have a steak if you want it?" She smiled and held up a packaged steak. As sweet of a gesture as that was, Coba huffed and turned his head to the side, a sign of telling her no. He would never take food away from his mate. In fact, it's custom in our ways, for the male to bring food to his mate. She comes first. After a few seconds, he turns to look at her. "Okay then, how about we get some sleep?" He wags his tail and barks softly.