Loss

Chapter 7

In the morning, Asher stretched himself and stood up, shaking the morning dew out of his fur. Raising one leg, then another, then another he gave a hearty yawn, showing off his rather magnificently large teeth.

Wait three legs? Looking down, Asher blinked as he saw a pair of furry paws instead of hands. Oh. Right. He thought, then, OH. RIGHT.

Last nights shift had not been lost on him, contrary to popular belief, werewolves didn't lose all control when shifted, they remembered things just a little bit... fuzzier. Wolves had better senses than their human counterpart, and remembering everything could be overwhelming.

Leaning forward on his paws, Asher took a deep breath, then another as he began reaching for his human side. He slowly felt his bones and flesh start to stretch out, growing longer and reshaping as they grew slowly, morphing into his human form.

When he was finished, Asher rubbed his hands over his arms and shivered a bit, the fall weather nipping at his human form. He opened the back door and slipped inside, grabbing the clothes off the chair and heading upstairs.

Tossing them in the corner of his room on top of some other dirty laundry, Asher hopped into the shower and made a mental note to buy a laundry basket. God this was too much trouble to go through this early in the morning.

In the middle of his shower, as Asher was busy lathering soap through his hair, he suddenlyheard the ringing of a doorbell downstairs.

"COMING IN A MOMENT!" he hollered, rinsing off the soap in a rush and switfly drying himself off with a towel. The bell rang again, and Asher scowled, marching down the stairs. He flung the door open about to complain, when he saw it was Jerry.

Not only was it Jeremiah, in his hand he clutched the scruff of a small, very familiar, dark brown wolf.

"Hello Asher." said Jerry with a smile, "Delivery for you." Asher extended his hand and picked Raven up, and she squirmed a bit and gave a yip.

... hi dad. She thought to him. Asher cocked a brow.

Don't you "Hi dad" me, you are in SO much trouble. He communicated, then dropped her down onto the floor. Go to your room and change back. Raven hesitated for a bit, pawing at the wooden floor with her paws. Now.

As Raven scampered off, Asher sighed and turned back to Jerry.

"I cannot thank you enough-" he started, but Jeremiah shook his head.

"I found her sitting around the ice cream shop. It's lucky no locals saw her, it appears everyone was either inside or possibly mistook her for a dog."

Asher blinked in surprise. "The... creamery? The one we went to?" he asked. Jerry nodded.

"The exact one. I think you should uhhh... talk to her." he said, looking away awkwardly, then patted Asher on the back. "She has something very important to tell you." Asher furrowed his brow.

"Ok..." he said, nodded, then watched as Jerry turned and walked back to his car. Once he was out of sight, Asher marched back inside, to Raven's room.

"Go down into the kitchen. You are in so much trouble, I'll talk to you after I finish my shower," demanded Asher. Raven gave a sullen nod, then stood up and headed down.

When Asher quickly finished up with his shower, he went down to talk to his daughter. She was slumped in the chair at the dinner table.

"Care to tell me what that was about?" he asked impatiently, as he filled up a glass of water. Asher watched as Raven twisted a strand of hair between two fingers, and raised the glass to his lips.

"... I found my mate?" she said weakly. Asher spat out his water.

"No fucking way." Raven shrunk down even further and shook her head. "Oh. My. Lord. Well? Who is it?" Raven looked to the side.

"It's Minty," she said. Asher sighed and sat down, rubbing his head.

"I- wow okay. Let me just... take that in for a moment."

Most werewolves found their mate at an older age, usually around high school, 16 or older. However, it wasn't impossible for them to find true mates at a younger age, some even meeting as little children, hence your childhood lovers trope etc. etc.

But Raven was now mated to the beta's daughter. There was no way in hell that they would let him leave, or at least Raven wouldn't want to leave. Asher knew how it felt.

"Ok," he finally said in a defeated tone. Raven glanced at him.

"Ok?" she asked, her expression morphing into poorly concealed hope. Asher swallowed.

"Ok. That's great!" he said weakly, trying to put on a farce. Raven blinked.

"... So no moving?" she asked. Asher shook his head.

"Why would we move? This is great!" he said, a bit firmer this time, as the strength returned to his voice.

"Well... we move a lot and I figured something like this might spook you," said Raven in a small voice.

Asher stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. "Raven, my experiences are rare and almost never happen, a true mate is something you need to cherish. Of course we aren't going to move. Minty is an amazing person. The only thing I request is... talk to me. Tell me what troubles you instead of running off in the middle of a full moon like that." 

Raven perked up. "Really!? Thank you so much dad!" and flung her arms around him. Asher tensed for a moment, then hugged her back. "I'm so, so sorry that I ran off. Never again, I promise."

"You're still going to be grounded for five months," he said, and felt her groan. 

"Noooooo," whined Raven, but all Asher did was smile and hold her tighter.

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Re-edited 7/31/2021