“N-no. They are kids...and I think having them remembered will do them good.... They think I am their warden spirit. Might keep them out of trouble.” She reasoned to him, sensing that if she failed to explain he would go right ahead and do that. This time she failed to read him, too distracted by his cuddling to notice that he was laughing.
“Your reaction makes me feel like some unhinged Sith Lord.” -She snarled at his teasing, he continued-“My powers aren’t that manipulative. I just charm some folks and make suggestions; they’ll follow it if convinced well enough. I can easily tell people to block out certain events and the human mind is capable of doing just that.”
How is that not being manipulative? Instead of arguing with the strange male, she hugged him back. Her body disobeyed any attempts to punish him. Her scowl was very pronounced on her face. “Don’t care...even if you give them cookies and milk right after. No weird brainwashing on minors.”
“Heh, I promise?” He sounds really confused, probably not expected to be berated about hypothetical brainwashed children. This man probably doesn’t even acknowledge children as more than just background characters. Nea still had to make sure and felt ‘triumphant’ when he wasn’t trying to argue his way out of it.
Then he made a very strange comment, pulling away from the crook of her neck and facing her. His dumb grin showed that he really didn’t think this through, and really, he didn’t, because there was no way he would comfortably say this so early on in their relationship. “Does this apply to our kids...?”
THIS SAP?! “Pfft....now I know you’re crazy.” Her hands reached for his face and squished his soft cheeks, noticing that some facial shadowing was growing in. His stubble is prickly to the touch.
Wasn’t having kids the reason I left my pack? At one point, it was the very thing that broke her back. Her mother, the great pack alpha, used her status to arrange a mating contract with the son of some pack outside Sweden. It used to be weird that this male would try his hardest to spend time with Idonea, and her mother would make such odd comments.
“You don’t have to marry him. Just get pregnant.”
It would make her shiver just at the thought of it, but Leas’s warmth and presence kept her from reacting too negatively. He must have sensed her short grief and pushed close enough to nuzzle her forehead. His lips formed a pout that almost looked so childish that she couldn’t take it seriously. “Really? You can’t imagine us ever having kids?”
“Bahaha, not this early!”
The time spent was filled with a lot of sweet banter back and forth. Although it wasn’t serene, she didn’t know how else to spend it. Especially when he made her feel so cherished. That night was the dance, and it was uninterrupted. Nea wasn’t the type to enjoy these fancy outings, but that has changed now. Leas was very attentive to her and even brought the fun to those stuffy events. They danced together the whole time, even though neither of them was good at it.
That night, he finally ended up taking his guitar out of his luggage and playing the song he wrote and edited so extensively. He, of course, wasn’t shy about it. Falling into the tune and singing in the Norse language her Swedish ancestry and his Icelandic background shared. As soon as the song ended, they spent the rest of the night not sleeping much and having more back pain.
It was all worth it.
Soon two days passed, and the crew attendees made constant reminders that they were closing in on an island well known for its mythic background, Roan Inish. Why does that sound so familiar?
She remembered a few drunken tales of this island housing merfolk, or those things called selkies, but the island is nothing but a tourist site. Or so she thought. This is another morning of casually dressed down, long loose jeans and shirt with Leas purple coat over her frame. She looked on over the horizon to see this flat rock bed of an island. It didn’t have anything to it, making her feel unsure what was the point of all this tourist attraction. Humans are such easily amused creatures.
The crew attendants hollered about organizing a few boats to reach the island, and only had an hour to sign up for it. It weirded her out more that they even threatened that they would not have enough space for everyone to go.
How popular is this attraction? Apparently popular enough for Leas to slide right beside her and whisper next to her ear, his arm hugging her waist immediately. “Time to go.”
Her neck turns to peer at him. The first thing she notices is the fur coat he wore the day she met him. It still stank of seal, but its sweet smell permeated from him like perfume. She didn’t think too much about his coat, so distracted by his beauty that it made her forget all about their serious conversation earlier on.
He must have noticed, his blond brow curved, and he smiled so nervously. A very rare expression of his, one that she wouldn’t foolishly take lightly. “My elskan...this is when I show you.”
“Y-yeah...right.... Sorry. I am ready.” She shook her red shoulder-length hair, waking herself from her stupor. They should have traveled with their bodies enough not to get so stupidly distracted, but apparently, she can’t stop herself. What am I? A 75-year-old again?
Leas kissed her temple a few times, before he guided her away from the boat rails to the lines that led to a smaller travel boat.
Apparently, he had signed up for them ahead of time, so all they needed to do was wait for a boat’s men to start this motorboat. She even noticed that he somehow convinced this sailor to only start with them, which honestly seems a bit selfish for a rock bed. She will come to understand his precautions once they reach the little island. Leas and her were the only ones on this rock bed, the sailor bringing the motorboat back to the cruise ship for more people. He never let go of her hand once, only squeezing it to get her attention.
“Welcome...to my othala...”
She didn’t understand what he meant by home. Looking all around her for this home that he spoke of only to see just a flat rock bed and the sea horizon. She snapped her neck back to glare at him, ready to accuse him of trying to make a fool of her. Until he raised his free hand, touching the shiver of an invisible wall where his hand hovered over, any of his markings that poked out of his sleeves and coat glowed this light blue hue. He just smiled at her shock, pushing through the ‘wall’ until he vanished into it, taking her with him. She would scream if she found the voice and her vision filled with what appeared to be a giant island with a whole forest line, a few houses dotted on the cliffside, but what really caught her attention were the strange-looking harbor seals that rested on the shoreline. All of them peer up in their direction, with very similar purple eyes like Leas’s and that strange woman on the cruise ship. When they saw her, they barked at them, while bouncing into the ocean to hide in the water.
They are scared of me...
It doesn’t come as a surprise that animals fear her. What took her breath away was when those creatures shared the same eye color as the man she obsessed over.
This man faced her, taking her other hand and bringing them both to his lips to kiss. There was a certain sadness in his motions, as if he was trying to say goodbye gracefully even though he made it very clear that he wouldn’t be leaving her side last night.
“Listen..Nea....Whatever happens here...please know that I love you too much to ever despise you for leaving...and that I respect any decision you make today.... I am going to show you something that might make you reconsider.... I hope you’ll stay, but I don’t want you to feel forced to if it’s too much-”
“Shush... You just showed me a secret magical land...and I haven’t tried running. Don’t try to convince me to leave yet...” She snarled, feeling the anticipation fueling her annoyance, but she would be damned to have someone make decisions for her. He can’t possibly predict how she will react to whatever else he has in store. Not when she felt so sure that he had nothing but good intentions for her.
“Heh, of course...my Nea.” He released her hands and backed away from her a considerable amount. She wondered why, and even tried to close their gap, but the shaking of his head froze her to the ground.
It wasn’t clear why, not even when his markings glowed beneath his coat and gave him a small aura around his tall form that gave her a clue. It was only when the coat grew and covered his body, and as it engulfed him in a ball of fluff, that is when she panicked. She thought for the briefest of a second that his own seal coat engulfed him. A final ghostly revenge for the seal that owned that coat.
The big fluff of white fur spots with silver speckles slumps hard on the sand and takes a more notable shape. The shape of a seal, rather large ones with speckling going from the tip of its black nose to its flippers and tail. The flippers and the tail were darker. On closer inspection she could see darker shapes of the runes, with a belly white as the snow. Very familiar purple eyes rested on her, and it wiggled its whiskered nose a bit nervously and a glint of a fang peaked from underneath its black lip. Trying the darndest to smile but hiding its muzzle with a flipper when realizing that it doesn’t translate well with sharp teeth and long snout.
It fumbled around just like Leas would when she would stare too long while he expected her to say or do something. Even more damning is that she recognized this seal as the one she caught stealing fish from her job. The one she saved.
A lot of feelings washed over her as she closed in, the slight annoyance she felt at him making her job briefly difficult drowned by this overwhelming affection. The relief of knowing once and for all that he was sharing a secret of his that is as mythical as hers, and proving to her that he truly did trust and love her enough to share it.
“You...cute...níðing....I-I ″ She didn’t know what to say, this seal that was Leas tilted his head to the side to show confusion. He wasn’t prepared for her reaction. Thankfully, Leas wasn’t going to back away. She took his head in both of her hands, taking notice how soft his dry fur is, laughing. “You...stole all that fish....then you had me thinking you were some wizard...Sith lord thing....I want to be mad at you-”
He ‘oofed’ meekly, looking rather guilty for all the things she had said so far. Even the ones that she hasn’t mentioned yet. She cackled even more, leaning in to touch his snout with her face. This confused him, but he didn’t pull away, just tapping his flipper tail slowly. She continued, not caring how crazy she looked, cuddling and speaking to a seal. “More than that.... I am glad to have met you and my fe-! Listen, before I lay out my feelings...it’s time that I showed you something...”
He ’arf’ed low, stamping his wet nose on her forehead two times. Probably his way of showing affection, at least in his seal form.
Now she was even more confident to show him what grieved her this whole time. Now being the one to back away, her hands reached for his jacket that she was still wearing. Slipping it off, then grabbing the excess of her shirt to start pulling it over her head.
The seal barked a few times, glancing around him for anyone that might be watching. She could tell he thought she might be stripping.
He isn’t wrong, though he might be wrong as to why she is undressing. She snickered with a smile so bright, “I just don’t have any spare clothes.... it’ll be quick.”
He grumbled, lowering his head as if bothered that he could not assist her. She already glared at him a few times if he tried to get close to her.
Once all her clothes were folded in a neat pile on top of a rock, did she allow the change. The first thing to grow on her is the fur, covering her naked skin in this reddish-brown coat. Then her tail sprouted out of her while her ears morphed into wolf ears. Her snout elongates while all four of her limbs turn into haunches and paws.
Her body fully morphs into this wolf form, teeth and all. She shook her fur from the transformation, always feeling like she had just taken her bra off for the first time in hours. It was the kind of relief she sought out every night, like taking some time off from work. She nearly forgot that Leas was still in front of her, only remembering when his scent wafted in her nostrils. Her tail shook behind her when she caught the seal staring at her, he even hobbled over just to peer down at her. He was considerably larger than her, and if she wasn’t sure who he was, she might have tried to run. No, this time, she sat on her haunches and kept her head low. Now fearful that he might reject her for any reason. After all, she is a creation of Fenrir. Also, she pretended to be some dog to spy on him.
But instead, he poked his muzzle at her head, making a noise that sounded very much like giggling. He nuzzled her head harder, not realizing that he had over a hundred pounds of weight on her.
She whined, uncomfortable by the sheer weight but not scared that he hurt her. Licking the side of his head to shower him with some of her own affection, if he didn’t already notice her tail wagging a mile a minute.
Eventually, he pulled back with a curt bark. And his seal form dissolved in a ball of fur, now changing back to the human Leas that she fell so deep. Still clothed, he knelt before her, taking his fur skin coat off and placing it over her wolf form while sporting a smile so beautiful. “My Jenna is really my Nea this whole time...I should be mad too, but I had an amazing strip show earlier that I can’t think of anything else....”
She snarled, making sure that she truly was annoyed by showing all her sharp teeth. Perv...
“Haha...elskan...” He laughed, pulling her wolf form into an embrace. He was considerate enough to have his fur coat covered her whole body with one goal in mind. “I... beg you to change back so that I can kiss you.”
Her yellow eyes rolled with a wolfish sigh, but she could not deny him anymore. She could barely deny her own self now. Her body twists and shifts back to human, hugging him with two very naked muscular arms. Her heart matched his when they were this close, she welcomed his heat and aroma to cover her body. Now she wanted nothing more than a kiss, satisfied that they now had nothing to hide. Her lips kissed her way back to his, not caring how she was still naked under the fur, very unlike him, that somehow his clothes had survived the transformation. Their lips melded exactly right together, their tongues dancing with the rhythm of their racing hearts.
And finally, nothing truly mattered except for those sweet minutes that they shared kissing on the shores of Roan Inish.
Nothing mattered...