Father's Embrace by Arlene Webb

Heat Rating: None.

Content Warning: None

There's no line Rijo won't cross to feel his father's arms around him.

The moon had yet to rise the night my mother died and my sister's fate was sealed. Mother took the invader down, ripped through clothing, skin, muscle and slammed her incisors into bone before the man managed to slash his weapon across her throat.

Metallic. Salty. Arousing. My first scents of human and wolf blood had me reeling. I yearned to suckle at Mother, pull sweet milk into my mouth to chase the fear away. Gerra, bravest of the litter, fastened her jaw around the wound on the man's fleshy leg and chewed before a whack of his heavy hand sent her sprawling.

Tears on his cheeks, his shirt wrapped around his leg, the human left us nuzzling Mother's cooling body.

* * *

An alpha should have a mate. It'd been a year, and I watched the pack eyeing Father, yet he refused both unpaired females. My heart proclaimed him the strongest leader ever born; Father protected ten females, eight males, and two yearlingsómy sister and me. My litter brother perished four moons after Mother died. Father and three females killed that trespasser, and I tasted bear flesh for the first time. It stuck in my throat. I missed Rurick, and the pack cried with me.

After she'd reached adult size, Father never looked directly at Gerra if he could avoid it. My sister didn't snuggle beside him like I did, worn out from wrestling and being clobbered under his heavy paw. Gerra sat alone until I leapt at her. Being a male and larger, I knocked her over and nipped until her sadness eased away.

"Run with me, Rijo." Gerra bolted before I had a chance to get four feet under me. A pace behind her, I allowed her to lead for miles of dodging trees and slapping the ground hard. Then she veered from our territory.

"Gerra, no. Stop."

She didn't obey and I used all my muscle. Once she finished swearing beneath me and caught her breath, I let her stand.

"I can't stay." She paced along the wrong side of the line that bore Father's scent. "Father...the pack, they don't want me."

"Father knows," I said. "But he'd never banish you. I won't let any wolf harm you. It's not your fault."

Gerra halted. "He knows?"

"We smell it on you. The stench has grown strong these past two moons, but then you fade back to lupine. You're a good wolf, Gerra. Don't leave us."

"I'm afraid. I don't understand, and it hurts, and Father will kill me if he learns how much of a beast I'm becoming."

Publisher's Note: The image of the wolf on this cover was taken by a good friend of Michael Barnette's--our Editor-in-Chief--who works at the Wolf Sanctuary here in Colorado, Shadowfire Press LLC's home state. The Sanctuary cares for former zoo and circus wolves, as well as abused and abandoned 'pet' wolves. You can read their stories, find out more about the sanctuary and maybe even donate a few dollars to help them care for these wonderful animals.