Sofia would have loved to have had a moment to dwell on those thoughts, but the gentle caress that entered her body to tug at the energy contained in her chest brought her back to reality. As she became aware of what it was, a knot clenched her stomach and her gaze met her friend's in time to see him lick his lips. He was as nervous as she was, and it was no wonder. She may have already seen him in his real appearance, but this was going to be the first time he showed himself as he really was.

  With a small apologetic smile, Dave pulled away from her, closed his eyes and took a deep breath of air that swelled his chest. The change was as fast as he told her it would be, but it wasn't grotesque or unpleasant, quite the opposite, it was harmonious and fluid, as if for a moment he had become ethereal so that his true appearance could emerge from beneath his skin. His face elongated into the shape of a canid’s muzzle ending in a black truffle, his ears became triangular and a thick coat of white fur sprouted all over his body and filled his clothes.

  When it was over, the change in poise caused him to stumble forward, especially since his feet had slipped out of his boots as they elongated into the shape of a canid's paws. Sofia didn't even think about it. She took a step forward and grabbed him by the arms to help him keep his balance. Dave looked at her gratefully though also a little embarrassed, something that showed in the way he licked his muzzle and scratched the back of his neck. On his face was a sheepish expression remarked by the ears, drooping slightly to the sides. ‘It's him. Those are his mannerisms, that's his gaze, it's totally him and I didn't notice.’ Sofia bit her lip, but even so she was aware that the idiot's grin on her face was as evident as the blush on her cheeks.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Show me what you do when you come to the forest by yourself. I'll have to learn what it's like to live as a wild cinanthrope for when I change.”

  Sofia placed a hand against his chest and shoved him playfully, and a gleam of excitement lit up the boy's gaze. Dave, who had already gotten rid of his boots and was now stepping on the snow with his bare paws, gave her hand a gentle squeeze and ran toward the little cave's entrance. As he walked away from her, Sofia followed him with her gaze and noticed how much the fabric of his pants moved with each joyful wag of his tail. A smile very much matching the sparkle in those blue eyes appeared on her lips, and she brought her hand to her nose, the same one he had gripped with his rough pads and which now smelled of him. ‘Of course I still see you. You're my best friend and that's not going to change because this is your true appearance. You're still you’.

  Dave removed his clothes so easily, even with those hands with slightly thicker, clawed fingers, that it was obvious that wasn't the first time he'd stripped while being in his real guise. Sofia bit her lip as she admired his body. A warmth spread across her belly and her cheeks flared with a blush so bright she felt them burn. His back was to her and that allowed her to admire the curvature of his torso, the firmness of his legs and the way his tail curled in an elegant spiral. There was no denying that he was a very attractive male.

  After he hid his clothes inside the cavern, Dave shook himself like a dog would and stood up on his hind legs before turning to his friend. There was a sheepish expression on his canine face that showed in the way he ducked his ears sideways, though what gave away his nervousness were the short, quick wags of his tail and the way he scratched the back of his neck with his clawed fingers.

  “Don't be silly!” Sofia approached him and gave him a playful nudge on the shoulder. “I've seen you in your dog appearance many times, what are you ashamed of?”

  Dave let out a quiet sigh and the expression on his face softened, as did the wagging of his tail, which became broader and more relaxed. With his hand, he pointed to himself and then drew a circle in front of his face.

  “Hey, I know you're not used to me seeing you behaving like a dog yet, but I told you before…” Sofia grabbed his hands and showed him a smile that matched the blush she felt on her cheeks. Dave took a deep breath and looked at her with perked ears and a strange longing in his gaze. “Feel free to be yourself when you're with me. You’re my best friend and this doesn’t change anything.”

  Without taking her eyes off him, Sofia stepped back a few paces and bowed with her arms out to the side to do the game curtsy. The expression on Dave's face softened and his response to her invitation was not long in coming. Like the dog he was, he dropped down on all four, landed his elbows on the ground and let out a short, high-pitched bark. His tail, which was clearly visible at the top of his raised hindquarters, wagged with joyful swishes. Sofia let out a little giggle that was somewhere between shy and nervous, and the smile on her lips grew even wider to accentuate the blush on her cheeks.

  With a short bark, Dave jumped towards Sofia, and she let out a high-pitched scream that sounded like a yelp and ran to get away from him. The boy chased her for a good while and was close to catching her many times, but she dodged every one of his attempts. She wasn't stupid. Dave was faster and more agile than her even in human form, but he was letting her get away to keep the game going for a while longer. This was no competition, there was nothing to win. The only goal was to have fun, and their barks and laughter merging in the night’s silence showed just how much they were enjoying themselves.

  A pair of strong arms closed around Sofia’s waist and pulled her down to the ground. The girl let out a short cry of surprise that lasted the time it took them to land into a bed of ferns. The snow that covered a nearby holly bush fell from its branches and spilled all over them. As best they could, they used their hands to brush it off their faces, and the moment their eyes met and they saw how ridiculous they looked, they burst out laughing. Of course, in Dave’s case that translated to a sort of dry cough and vigorous wags of his tail.

  Once her laughter subsided, Sofia let out a sigh and rested her head on his furry shoulder. As she rejoiced in the softness of his fur against her skin, she took in a deep breath and let his scent, that musk that she liked so much, flood her nose. Dave let out a short gasp of surprise and looked at her with his head tilted to one side and his ears very straight, though there was a glint of hope in his eyes that he seemed to want to hold on to. The arm she was resting on went around her body, though he did so rather shyly, as if he wasn't sure he wasn't pushing his luck too far.

  “I missed this so much…” she said, her eyes locked on his and a smile on her lips.

  Dave let out a deep sigh and held her tighter against his body. Sofia was acutely aware of the softness of his fur and of his intense musk flooding her nose. The thought of kissing him flashed through her mind and ignited her cheeks with a blush so intense she doubted it would go unnoticed. The fact that he was in real appearance should have put her off, but it didn’t. That was the real him, and she found him just as attractive as the human disguise she was so used to. ‘I missed you so much’.

  While Sofia was still pondering whether or not to give in to temptation, Dave reached out to the bush, snapped a little twig and offered it to her. The girl took the gift from his hand and looked at it with her head tilted to the side, not quite sure of what to make of it. There was nothing extraordinary about it, it was just a little twig with hard, dark green leaves and small, red berries that her night eyes saw a pale, yellowish hue.

  “I don’t want to sound ungrateful but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this,” she said.

  Dave pointed at the plant and gestured at her to bring it closer to her face. Sofia wasn't quite sure what it was that he wanted to show her, but she still brought the holly to her nose, closed her eyes and sniffed it to inhale its scent. At first she didn't notice anything special, just the same forest aromas she was used to which felt dim compared to the strong musk from the boy next to her. However, as she concentrated, she began to appreciate the subtle nuances.

  “It smells like... something woody with a bitter touch, leafy, and autumn…” Sofia opened her eyes and looked at her friend with an awed expression. “Whenever I come to the forest I'm able to smell pine because it's everywhere, but I never noticed that each plant has its own scent.”

  Dave tilted one ear to the side and wagged his tail in an expression that was as close to a smile as he could muster.

  “This is how you see the world. You’ve always been in tune with your weredog side so you don’t recognize things by how they look but by their scent. You know my senses are like yours so you wanted to show me that the forest is not just pine trees and damp earth,” she guessed.

  Dave wagged his tail and nodded. Infected by a sudden curiosity, Sofia pulled away from him, removed the snow from a nearby bush and the thin branches of a fern peeked out. Then she leaned towards the plant, closed her eyes to make it easier for her to focus and sniffed. It smelled different, of something fibrous and damp that reminded her a bit of the soil under the falling rain.

  A few meters away from where they had landed she found a thyme that greeted her with its unmistakable perfume, and a chestnut tree that grew among the pines delighted her with wintry hues that evoked Christmas. Sofia looked around with her eyes wide with wonder and a broad smile on her face. She loved that forest, she loved going there and breathing in the scents as she took in the scenery, but she had never tried to see it only with her nose. Even though it was covered in a white blanket that dulled the smells, she was realizing that it was far more colorful and vibrant that she could have ever imagined. ‘And I had to meet a biology nerd to realize that. What a wolf I am!’.

  “Dave, this is amazing! It’s like seeing the forest for the first time,” she breathed as her fingers caressed the velvety surface of moss she had uncovered.

  Dave was kneeling right next to her in a very human-like way that no dog would ever do, and he was so close that, when she turned to him, their noses almost touched. A bit embarrassed and with a sheepish smile on her lips, Sofia pulled away from him, although not enough that she stopped feeling the warmth of his body next to her. Dave let his ears lean a bit to the side, giving him an equally sheepish expression, and his tail swayed back and forth in nervous wags.

  The snow crunched to their left. It was but a soft rustle, a faint noise, but their canid ears had no trouble catching it in the cottony silence of the winter night. They both turned in time to see a small deer like creature emerging from the vegetation a good twenty meters away from them.

  “Shit...” Sofia’s voice escaped her lips mixed with a quiet growl.

  Seeing the creature was bad enough but the moment she caught a whiff of its intense, pungent musk, her whole body tensed and all her predatory instincts flared. What was before her was a roe deer, prey for a wolf like her. To make matters worse, she was with her pack, with her mate, and she wanted to hunt with him. That was the reason why she always avoided the meadows, because it was not the first time she felt her hunting impulses awaken, and the temptation to run after a sheep was too strong to trust herself not to get carried away.

  From the corner of her eye she saw Dave tense even more than she did, and his nose flaps began to open and close with quick breaths. He hadn't hunted anything since Christmas and his instincts had to be on edge. Sofia bit her lip. She'd already seen him writhe in pain once when the scent of a deer almost made him change. The last thing she wanted was for her presence there to make him shy away from giving vent to his predatory nature. ‘Shit... why did I tell him I wanted to come?’ she told herself as she stifled the growl of frustration that had risen to her throat.

  “Go...” she told him in a quiet voice.

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  Dave looked at her in horror and shook his head, as if what she was proposing was unthinkable. Sofia clenched her jaw and the growl she had been suppressing emerged from between her lips.

  “Go! You haven't hunted in weeks. Don't stop just because I'm here.”

  Dave let out a high-pitched whine and shook his head again. His gaze went from her to the roe deer, that still hadn’t noticed them, and again fell upon her. Sofia not only saw the doubts in his gaze, but also fear. He was terrified of her seeing him at his wildest behavior.

  “I don't care! Don't you understand?”

  It was that stark cry that echoed through the forest what alerted the creature. The roe deer froze in its tracks and looked around in panic, although thanks to Sofia’s white clothes and her friend’s coat, of the same color, it seemed not to be able to see them. However, the two of them had and Dave, who was becoming increasingly tense and had his back fur bristled, moved one of his hands forward in a stalking step. The violent trembling of his muscles was evidence of how hard he was fighting his urge to hunt.

  Sofia bit her lip. She knew what she had to do or her very stubborn friend wasn't going to let go. After taking a deep breath of air, which only served to fill her nose with the many smells around her, she jumped up and ran towards the roe deer. The animal bounded and started to flee as fast as it could, which was faster than she could chase it. However, she had achieved her goal. A white blur that had far less trouble moving through the snow than she did dashed past her.

  As they chased the roe deer, Sofia and Dave opened to the sides in a fan formation to block its escape routes. It wasn't something either of them had planned, it was something they knew how to do by instinct. A wide grin broke across her lips and from them escaped a cry of glee that sounded very much like a cross between a bark and a howl. Yes, her feet sank with every step she took and she was falling behind, but it was the first time she gave in to the hunting impulses and she was having the time of her life.

  A sudden urge hit her full on and knocked the wind out of her. She wanted to change, she wanted to get out of that hairless skin to cover herself with her thick wolf fur, she wanted to drop down on all fours because only then would she be able to keep up with her pack mate. She couldn't, however, because she had never changed and she didn't know how. A high-pitched growl rumbled in her throat and she shook her head.

  “What's wrong with me? I've never felt... trapped inside my human body before, and it’s already happened twice” she whimpered between gasps.

  Sofia looked at her friend, who was getting farther and farther away from her, and bit her lip. Dave moved with a dexterity she found enviable, but it wasn't just because he could use the full power of his real body. In his human guise he was somewhat slower, but he was also able to move in that snow as if his feet barely grazed it. ‘He's an almost adult male and I'm just a pathetic pup who doesn't know how to change. Why would he want to become a pack with me?’.

  “Pack...” she whimpered.

  That word echoed in her head so strongly that it took her breath away, so much so that she put a hand to her chest and started to pant. Dave wasn't just her friend, he was something more, she felt him as something more even if he hadn't realized it yet. When they howled together, they didn't awaken bonds of friendship between them, they awakened something that was much more intimate and deep. Perhaps they did it without thinking, guided by an impulse and by the euphoria of having met another like them, but they began to see each other as a pack.

  Despite popular belief, a pack was not a hippy commune made up of wolves from different backgrounds led by an alpha. Sofia found that word so insulting that she let out a growl. A wolf pack, a true pack, was formed by a breeding pair and their pups. For all intents and purposes, it was nothing more than a family.

  As that thought sank in, her steps began to slow down and she followed Dave with her gaze as he pursued the little deer relentlessly. ‘Mate’. As that word flashed through her mind, a pang of longing mixed with pain shook her chest. That male was her mate, she saw him as her mate, and yet she couldn’t join him in the hunt, she couldn’t be the she-wolf he deserved. ‘I’m no proud wolf, I’m just a scared, insecure pup who can’t even hunt. No wonder he doesn’t see me as his mate’. A sharp whimper rose to her throat but Sofia bit her lip and swallowed it back, although she didn’t think he would have noticed had she let it out.

  Dave had been so long without hunting that his full focus was on the roe deer that was still trying to escape from him. The little animal was young and fast, but Dave was an experienced hunter and it didn’t take him long to make that obvious. When he was only a few meters away from the ruminant, the weredog picked up his pace and charged with all his might. Both, roe deer and dog, fell to the ground and raised a curtain of snow that concealed them. However, the growls of the canid and the sharp cries of the cervid echoed clear and sharp through the night forest.

  Then there was silence. As the snow settled, the place where the skirmish had taken place came into view. Silver moonbeams filtered through the trees and fell upon the cinanthrope. Dave was standing as tall as he was, chest puffed out, tail held high and the body of his prey at his feet. His sides moved with each panting breath and blood dripped from his maw and fell onto the white blanket that covered the ground.

  Sofia stopped and gawked at the scene. An intense blush rose to her cheeks. What was in front of her was no domesticated pet, it was a wild animal, a predator, and he had just shown her what he was capable of. That she was attracted to his canid features, like his fangs and tail, was something she already knew, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't find him very, very attractive at that moment. It made sense. After all, she was a she-wolf, and a male so skilled at hunting was an excellent mate.

  Dave looked up and his eyes met Sofia's. The silvery light of the full moon fell on his pupils and drew a greenish glow from them that accentuated his nocturnal predator look. When he saw the expression on her face, the boy ducked his ears and snapped his head away to avoid her gaze. He tried to wipe the blood from his muzzle with his forearm in a swift, rough swipe, but only succeeded in spreading it further over the soft fur growing around his mouth.

  Tension was evident in both his muscles and his jaw, but Sofia ignored it and approached him to admire the prey lying at his feet. The blood pouring from the wound in the roe deer's neck stained the snow crimson, although her night predator eyes were unable to appreciate that hue. It was the same wound she saw on the lamb, an expert bite made with the intention of killing quickly and with as little suffering as possible. There was no doubt, her best friend was a wild animal who enjoyed the freedom that life in the forest offered him.

  “Dave, that was... amazing,” she gasped.

  At her words, Dave turned to face her and looked at her with wide eyes and his ears perked up. In his gaze flashed a sea of doubt mixed with a certain hope, as if he wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. The huge smile on Sofia's lips and her hands closing over his only added to his confusion.

  “I've never given in to hunting instincts before and... Fuck, I didn't know it was like this!” she continued, her voice sharp with the enthusiasm that vibrated in it. “Running after the prey, feeling the strength of your muscles as you move, it's a mind-blowing feeling. No wonder you love to hunt!”

  Dave, who was watching her as if she too had grown a tail, lowered his gaze to the bloodied roe deer on the ground, and again raised it toward her. His head had tilted so far to one side that Sofia would have found it comical had she not seen the shadow of fear that dulled his blue eyes.

  “You thought I was horrified by what I'd seen, that I was going to reject you,” she said, her voice a bit fainter. The smile had faded from her lips.

  Dave let out a quiet sigh and nodded. A small light born of that hope he wanted to hold on to began to brighten his eyes again, though the shadow was still present in them. Sofia could understand it because she too felt that more than justified fear of being rejected for being a lycanthrope, for having the instincts and behaviors of a wolf.

  “Dave, I'm like you, too, and I feel the same instincts when I'm in front of prey. Seeing you hunt is not going to freak me out.” Sofia twisted her lips into an encouraging smile and let her hand slide over that furry cheek in a caress. “You told me before that all you want is to be accepted for who you are. I accept you. I'm here with you right now, aren't I?”

  The boy nodded somewhat uncertainly, though it was the way he looked at her what made Sofia's stomach shudder with a mixture of anger and affection. She was beginning to realize why he looked at her like that. He had done it every time she had touched him without hesitation, when she had talked to him casually or when she had leaned on his shoulder seeking his warmth. It was a mixture of excitement and hope, as if he couldn't quite believe that she was still able to see him behind that dog appearance.

  “Stop being so afraid that I'll reject you if you show me that dog part of you that you try to keep hidden. You're my best friend and I know you better than you think. I'm still by your side because I've seen the real you, the boy who stood in front of a rifle for me twice, who reminded Lola that I have a name and who always smiles when he plays with Kas. Hunting a roe deer, moving on all fours or rolling around on the ground isn't going to change that.”

  Dave took such a deep breath that his chest swelled. As if guided by a sudden impulse, he leaned toward Sofia and his tongue brushed her cheek in an affectionate kiss. He took her so much by surprise that her heart skipped a beat and the words fell silent on her lips, right behind the gasp that escaped from them. She was suddenly very aware of the tingling in her skin, caused by the touch of his muzzle's vibrissae, and of the warm shudder that emanated from her stomach and spread throughout her body. This was not play, not like when he bit her neck. This was the way dogs said ‘I love you’.

  As if suddenly realizing what he had done, Dave pulled away from her with an apologetic gaze mirrored by his ducked ears and licked his lips. The thick fur covering his face hid his skin, but Sofia didn't need to see the flush on his cheeks to know he was embarrassed. The way he sniffed the air to his left and the short, quick movements of his tail gave him away.

  Sofia, who was unable to take her eyes off him, brought her hand to her cheek to caress the spot where he had kissed her. She was well aware of how much her skin burned and of the idiot's grin on her face, but she didn't care. It was the second time he had kissed her and she could get used to such displays of affection. ‘I'm crazy’ she thought as she again felt like kissing him and a little voice in the back of her mind encouraged her to take the leap.

  Maybe it was the full moon, or maybe it was his scent that intoxicated her and almost didn't let her breathe, or maybe it was the fact of being in front of the boy who had the ability to make her smile. The reason didn't matter. The only important thing was that Sofia got carried away by that little voice and leaned towards him to brush the fur on his cheek with her tongue. A kiss to tell him that she loved him too, much more than he thought. A gesture of affection between canids, because she, despite her appearance, was a wolf.

  Dave let out a gasp and turned towards her. As soon as their eyes met in that dim clarity fueled by the moon's silvery rays, Sofia felt the warmth in her belly increase and she smiled shyly.

  “I'm a she-wolf,” she said, a little embarrassed that she had let herself get carried away like that.

  Something flashed across his face, a brief expression of surprise that showed in his widened eyes. However, it was so fleeting that Sofia didn’t know if she had imagined it. Dave let out a short whimper and engulfed her in a hug so tight she saw herself buried within a blanket of thick fur that smelled of him. His nose sank within her neck and he breathed in her scent so eagerly that Sofia giggled at the ticklish feeling of his vibrisae against her skin.

  When he pulled away, he looked at her with so much affection that Sofia felt her lips curl into that idiot smile she couldn’t restrain when she was with him. His furry hand cupped her face in a caress that was more gentle that expected, considering his pads were as rough as a dog’s. There was something in the way he was looking at her that she had never seen before, something that made her heart beat faster and her cheeks flare with a blush. ‘It's like he's seeing me for the first time’.

  After letting out a long, contented sigh, Dave looked up at the sky, where the full moon was clearly visible, silhouetted against a dark blue blanket dotted with stars. Sofia stared at him as if trying to memorize every detail of that face outlined by the silver light that was so different from the one she knew. His expression was peaceful, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, although there was something else, a smile implicit in the brightness of his eyes.

  A warm smile broke across Sofia’s lips. He was so close that his scent, that pleasant musk that he always carried mixed with that of pine trees, flooded her nose and enlivened the tingling in her belly. She could understand the relief he had to feel at no longer having to hide who he was, at least with her, because she felt the same way. Not only did she feel free by not having to pretend in front of him. Since she had begun to embrace her nature, since she had begun to behave and communicate with him like the wolf she was, she felt happier.

  She then looked down at her hands and the smile faded from her lips. A knot of disappointment formed in her chest and made a whimper rise to her throat, but she held it back because she didn’t want to spoil the moment. Human, completely human, just like her. Dave had shown her his whole world, but she could only appreciate it as a tourist. She didn't know what it was like to hunt, she didn't know what it was like to feel snow on her fur or run on all fours, because she was still trapped inside the human disguise. ‘What's wrong with me? Not being able to change has never bothered me before, why does it bother me now?’. The answer came so bluntly that it took her breath away.

  'Because now there's him’.

  Dear reader; thank you very much for reading. I hope you are liking it, and as always, likes and comments are greatly appreciated. ^_^