Tiger's Mate

Chapter 32

•Ethan•

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Was the first sound that greeted me not two seconds of walking through the front door as Maia came bolting down the stairs screaming, until she launched herself right at me. And I mean quite literally, launched.

I just barely managed to catch myself from the force of her collision — she did not hold back at all.

Which to be completely honest, would have been fine. She was what — a little over a hundred pounds with her short as fuck height? No problem for me to catch, even off guard, as a human without the use of wolf strength.

What I didn't register in time were the several pups that were chasing after her in their wolf forms. It seemed Maia had been in the middle of playing an exciting game of chase — therefore when she paused to find a new target of her own, so did they.

I stood no chance. Literally.

Each pup was at least in between fifty to a hundred pounds transformed, and there were more than I could count on one hand. How the hell was I supposed to keep standing when they followed Maia's poorly set example and vaulted themselves off the last stair straight in our direction — all at fucking once — to tackle me to the ground too.

Fuck — like come on, I was just one guy!

They took me down and hell — the damn brats were happy about it. My back hit the floor with a thud that knocked the wind out of me. It was a wonder I managed to save my head from doing the same. I groaned, and in response the pups yipped, wagged their stupid little tails, and kept swarming all around — and over — me.

It didn't help that Maia was still clinging to my chest like a koala bear, making it harder to regain the breath I had lost.

I raised my head just enough to glare around at the little fur-balls.

"Go away...ya damn runts," I growled, lacking breath.

They didn't listen, and continued to jump at me, nipping at my clothes with their teeth, trying to egg me on enough to transform so they could really try to tackle me.

Like I said; brats.

Maia, sitting up and backing off my chest until she sat cross-legged in the ground, laughed at the display while a pair of coffee brown balls of fur — Java and Kino — jumped around in her lap.

Another — a light grey coloured pup I recognized as Amélie — whined pathetically, pawing at my face for the insult. I glared half-heartedly at her and sat up at the waist, and then she began to yap again like all the others, rolling around like she wanted to play.

"No," I told her. She whined again, and I frowned, unfazed by her attempts to appear pathetic.

"What are you a house-puppy?" I demanded satirically, watching her continue to act in the way regular mortal puppies acted when they wanted attention. She yipped, and that damn little tail kept wagging.

Goddammit, these little mongrels were breeds of evil cuteness.

"I'm so happy you're finally back!" Maia exclaimed, deciding it was necessary to throw herself forward and hug me again, pretending to cry dramatically.

"Jeez, you act like I came back from war or something," I muttered with a roll of my eyes while she just kept hugging me like a weirdo. "It was barely four damn days — for gods sake!"

One of the pups barked pointedly at me and I shot the little guy a stern look, "It's not a swear word!"

Maia dramatically cried into my chest. "I knowww...but I didn't think about that part until you were actually gone! I was so bored and it felt like you were gone FOREVERRR!" she wailed, causing me — and even a few of the pups — to wince at the high tone.