like you’re evenly balanced. You can swing back and forth with hardly any effort.” He exhaled with a note of dry humor. “And it’s especially easy for your temper to knock you one way or the other.”
Susan snorted as she pulled into her driveway. Her two-bedroom unit was one of a new townhouse row with the garage hidden at the back, so she had to drive around to pull in. No wonder the pack seemed more emotional around the full moon. Dare’s metaphor did make a certain visceral sort of sense.
“Have you seen Seattle shift?” Silver asked.
Susan laughed raggedly and shut off the car. “It sounds sort of dirty when you say it like that.”
“Not particularly.” Dare opened his door and wrangled his cane out first to take the weight as he pushed himself up. “Seeing the exact moment of shifting is somewhat intimate, but no worse than being nude is for humans.”
“I’ve only seen him shift once.” Susan hardly remembered what it looked like, either. She’d been too shocked to process any of it at the time. He’d hidden it from her since then.
Susan started extracting Edmond from his car seat before she remembered she should have unlocked the house door for her guests first. She threw them an apologetic glance. They seemed unbothered, waiting on the step. Silver had her hand tucked into the crook of Dare’s elbow. They looked fantastical with their touches of white, an ice princess and a mortal king. “You should show her a shift.” Silver smiled when Dare started.
“No.” Dare caught Silver’s eyes in some sort of staring contest. The denial in his expression softened a second later. “What good would that do?”
“You don’t need to—” Susan started, but Silver forestalled her without breaking her stare, lifting a finger from Dare’s arm to point at her.
“Don’t be so low-ranked, Susan. We’re just off the full, it won’t be much work. Shifting will be good for his back. It helps healing. And I don’t mind if he shows you.”
Susan sensed more communication between them in the shorthand that long-term couples developed. Dare snorted finally and Silver looked triumphant, though nothing more had been said. They stepped out of the way to allow Susan and Edmond up to unlock the door.
Not really living there anymore was a two-edged sword, Susan decided as she surveyed the house with eyes critical in the face of company she wanted to impress. Not much time to accumulate clutter, but since it was out of sight and out of mind, not much motivation to pick up what there was, either. Her mother would have gone into silent disapproval mode immediately, seeing the mountain of opened but not recycled mail on the kitchen table and the clean glasses still in the dishrack.
Susan pulled off Edmond’s coat, set him in front of his toys in the living room, and started a quick clutter triage. She swept the mail into stacks and gathered jackets from the furniture to hang up. The sound of happy button smashing came from Edmond’s direction. No matter how many expensive, impeccably-researched electronic development toys her parents tried to press on her, Edmond always ended up back at the board of bright plastic buttons and pictures Tracy had given him as a present to take home. It was clearly a werewolf hand-me-down, as it had teeth marks on several edges.
Dare adjusted the blinds even more tightly shut, then gave Silver a look. Susan had dated enough guys to interpret it as “Do I have to?” Silver laughed and took his cane. Susan looked away quickly as he shrugged off his shirt. He was definitely eye candy. Time in John’s house had taught her Were walked around in the nude all the time, but it felt wrong to appreciate another woman’s man too obviously. Were all Were men this hot? Susan peeked again, catching sight of a line of hipbone as Dare pulled down his jeans. He was a lot leaner than John, muscles not so defined, but there still didn’t seem to be an ounce of fat on him.
Dare folded
Susan snorted as she pulled into her driveway. Her two-bedroom unit was one of a new townhouse row with the garage hidden at the back, so she had to drive around to pull in. No wonder the pack seemed more emotional around the full moon. Dare’s metaphor did make a certain visceral sort of sense.
“Have you seen Seattle shift?” Silver asked.
Susan laughed raggedly and shut off the car. “It sounds sort of dirty when you say it like that.”
“Not particularly.” Dare opened his door and wrangled his cane out first to take the weight as he pushed himself up. “Seeing the exact moment of shifting is somewhat intimate, but no worse than being nude is for humans.”
“I’ve only seen him shift once.” Susan hardly remembered what it looked like, either. She’d been too shocked to process any of it at the time. He’d hidden it from her since then.
Susan started extracting Edmond from his car seat before she remembered she should have unlocked the house door for her guests first. She threw them an apologetic glance. They seemed unbothered, waiting on the step. Silver had her hand tucked into the crook of Dare’s elbow. They looked fantastical with their touches of white, an ice princess and a mortal king. “You should show her a shift.” Silver smiled when Dare started.
“No.” Dare caught Silver’s eyes in some sort of staring contest. The denial in his expression softened a second later. “What good would that do?”
“You don’t need to—” Susan started, but Silver forestalled her without breaking her stare, lifting a finger from Dare’s arm to point at her.
“Don’t be so low-ranked, Susan. We’re just off the full, it won’t be much work. Shifting will be good for his back. It helps healing. And I don’t mind if he shows you.”
Susan sensed more communication between them in the shorthand that long-term couples developed. Dare snorted finally and Silver looked triumphant, though nothing more had been said. They stepped out of the way to allow Susan and Edmond up to unlock the door.
Not really living there anymore was a two-edged sword, Susan decided as she surveyed the house with eyes critical in the face of company she wanted to impress. Not much time to accumulate clutter, but since it was out of sight and out of mind, not much motivation to pick up what there was, either. Her mother would have gone into silent disapproval mode immediately, seeing the mountain of opened but not recycled mail on the kitchen table and the clean glasses still in the dishrack.
Susan pulled off Edmond’s coat, set him in front of his toys in the living room, and started a quick clutter triage. She swept the mail into stacks and gathered jackets from the furniture to hang up. The sound of happy button smashing came from Edmond’s direction. No matter how many expensive, impeccably-researched electronic development toys her parents tried to press on her, Edmond always ended up back at the board of bright plastic buttons and pictures Tracy had given him as a present to take home. It was clearly a werewolf hand-me-down, as it had teeth marks on several edges.
Dare adjusted the blinds even more tightly shut, then gave Silver a look. Susan had dated enough guys to interpret it as “Do I have to?” Silver laughed and took his cane. Susan looked away quickly as he shrugged off his shirt. He was definitely eye candy. Time in John’s house had taught her Were walked around in the nude all the time, but it felt wrong to appreciate another woman’s man too obviously. Were all Were men this hot? Susan peeked again, catching sight of a line of hipbone as Dare pulled down his jeans. He was a lot leaner than John, muscles not so defined, but there still didn’t seem to be an ounce of fat on him.
Dare folded
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