Sept 2026 - the wolf > Likes and Comments

Here's the prompt picture for Sept 2026 - post anything - flash fic, short story, haiku; just keep it LGBTQ and YA-friendly.

My story - a werewolfy thing that is not quite the same universe as my adult werewolf books.

Fated

I lay under a bush, carefully downwind from the group on the big blanket. Alpha and Uncle Nolan sat naked, uncaring about exposed dicks here on our pack's home grounds. The new guy, Victor, lay on his side on the center of the woolen spread.

Hah. When they taught me to shift, I was flat on the rocky ground and there was a twig jabbing me in the ribs.

To be fair, I'd been thirteen, completely comfortable with my father and my Alpha, even if shaken by the revelation Alpha wasn't just scary Uncle Royston. I'd taken to shifting like a duck to water. Finding out you were a werewolf at the age of twenty-six, surrounded by strangers, was no doubt less comfortable. Maybe keeping twigs away from Victor's skin made sense.

"I can't do it." Victor sounded tired, resigned. "Maybe I'm not a werewolf after all."

Uncle Nolan laughed. "Scent doesn't lie. You just need to find your wolf."

"Let's try again." Alpha wasn't the most patient guy in the world, and his frustration showed in his tone. "I'm going to push you and Nolan over together. Watch him, see how he changes, let your body find the same path."

Victor rolled over to look at Nolan. That gave me a sharp-angled look at his face, which was well worth any kind of angle. Thick dark brows, heavy stubble on a square jaw that could've been the model for a medieval warrior. I couldn't see his eyes, but I knew they were a surprising pale gray in that darkly-weathered face. He'd lived rough for several years, worked fishing boats in Alaska, rode for a cattle ranch in Montana for a season. So much life, while I'd barely left the pack's hometown.

Ours.

I shushed my own wolf. My bond to Alpha was closed as tight as I could, and he was distracted, but I didn't want him catching a whiff of my presence.

"Now." Alpha turned an intent gaze on his two wolves. Even from thirty yards away in the wrong direction, I could feel the weight of that stare and the wave of command that accompanied it. Shift!

That push arrowed deep into me, and I had to clamp down hard on my control not to obey too. Usually, Alpha's commands were aimed at just one of us, but here he'd opened up to include Uncle Nolan and Victor, and I was catching the tail edge of that pressure.

Shit, that's strong. I wrestled my eager wolf back to watchful waiting, keeping human hands, human skin.

Uncle Nolan began shifting immediately, his bones changing, legs thinning, fur sweeping across his skin. He groaned, the almost-pain sound that's hard to suppress when every cell of your body's rearranging.

Victor stared at him as his wolf rose from within. I could hear how Victor's fast breaths echoed Uncle Nolan's, as if he was trying to sync their bodies.

He should only sync with us.

I shoved my wolf down harder. Shush.

"Shift." Alpha growled, command like a whip in his tone. "Be wolf! Find your fur, hunt, run, howl, join the pack. Be wolf!"

Victor gasped and shuddered. Uncle Nolan gave a gurgling yelp as his change rushed forward faster than I'd ever seen it. His newly forming muzzle opened and he panted with a tongue that lengthened as I watched. In less than a minute he sat up in fur, shook himself, and twitched his ears hard. Peering down at Victor's naked, furless body, he gave a series of little whines of encouragement, then he tipped his head to the sky and howled.

Wolf cry. Pack cry. My own wolf surged up, wanting to join in the song that binds us. Alpha added his human voice.

But on the blanket, Victor just trembled like he was having a fit. I couldn't see a single change in his shape or his skin.

The pressure from Alpha built higher, a wave, a wall, pressure that would crush and squeeze any wolf, and force it out from hiding. I couldn't hold out any longer and dropped on my side, letting my wolf free. The pain and stretch and tingling, numbing weirdness of the shift overwhelmed my senses, as my body transformed.

When I could see again, although out of grayed and dulled wolf-eyes, Alpha had shifted too. Victor lay on the blanket still in skin, bracketed by two large, powerful, and clearly frustrated wolves. I rolled up on my chest and eased back a fraction deeper in the undergrowth, fighting hard to breathe silently through my nostrils and not alert Alpha's sharp ears.

Alpha and Uncle Nolan nosed at Victor, giving him a good sniff head to toe. Some rough nudging went with it, wolf-muzzles shoving his naked body this way and that.

Then Alpha huffed, sneezed, and shifted back. When he was human, he stood, scooped something off the ground, shook out and pulled on a pair of boxers. "Well, that didn't work." He nudged Victor with his foot, no rougher than his wolf had, but not gently either. "You're a puzzle. You swore to me, became pack to my Alpha. I felt that bond take hold. I should be able to push you through a shift, but you're resisting harder than any wolf I've had."

"I'm not resisting." Victor's voice came hoarse and low. "I'm trying. It doesn't feel possible. Like if you took me to the top of a cliff and told me to jump off and fly. I want to believe, but my body says hell no, can't do that."

Alpha growled, "If I told one of my other wolves to jump off a cliff, he would."

"But even you couldn't give the poor bastard wings."

"Aarrrgh!" Alpha whirled away and yanked on his jeans. "You don't need to fly. Just let free something that's already inside you."

"I can't feel it. Can't believe it."

"Nick's thirteen, Liam's sixteen, you've seen them shift, seen all of us up to Joel who's a hundred and twenty. I'm asking you to trust your fucking eyes, not to believe some fairytale myth. Dammit, I'm your Alpha. Belief is not optional!" Alpha kicked Victor's hip.

Leave him alone! I wrestled with my wolf, choking on a growl. I had barely more rank than Liam, two months to go to adulthood, and a snowball's chance in hell of taking on my Alpha.

Victor accepted the kick silently, almost hopelessly, belly to the earth.

Alpha snarled again under his breath, then snapped to Uncle Nolan, "Come on back to the house, Fourth. Get something to eat." He bent, grabbed an edge of the blanket, and rolled Victor's naked body off into the weeds. "And you. Maybe we need a real cliff. A threat you can only escape as wolf. I'll give it some thought. You will shift for me, sooner or later." He slung the blanket over one lean, muscled shoulder and strode off with Uncle Nolan trotting at his heels.

When he vanished from sight between the trees, the air lightened like a thundercloud moving eastward. Victor sighed long and deep, but stayed there in the dirt, his breaths gradually slowing. Then his breathing hitched. That sob might've just been relief the pressure was off, but I could no more stay hidden listening than I could resist my Alpha if he said "Jump."

I crept forward, low to the ground, silently as I could, getting within five feet before Victor's human ears picked up my progress. He rolled to his side and stared at me, those gray eyes shining in his tanned face. I crouched lower and wagged my tail.

"Hey." He cleared his throat. "Which one are you?"

I admit, it stung that he didn't recognize me, but he'd only seen me shifted a couple of times and both in the middle of pack runs. My small dark wolf didn't stand out in a pack that included Alpha's majestic white, and Uncle George's two-hundred-fifty-pound bulk. I took a few more tentative steps, my ears down, trying to smile though the expression looks odd on a wolf's face. When I was almost in touching distance, I lay down and rolled over, exposing my paler belly with the white stripe Liam always teased me about.

"Aiden? Is that you?"

Hah. He recognizes my stomach. I told myself that was good, at least, and righted myself, creeping near until I could touch his hand with my nose. Then I wrapped my tongue around his fingers.

He choked a watery laugh. "What are you doing here? Were you watching me f-fail?" I saw his jaw clench at that little slip.

Slurping vigorously, I gave his hand a good bath while wriggling closer. The way he lay, on one side, let me move in against his chest and I lay down there and set my head on his arm, ears tucked under his chin.

"Don't you have chores or something? Homework?" He didn't push me away, though.

I nipped his thumb, because I might be just seventeen, but I had my priorities straight and I wasn't a child. Rising my head, I shoved my nose deep into the crook of his neck. His scent flooded my body. Mate. In wolf form, I couldn't deny that truth.

Closing my eyes, I wandered into the dark space in my head where my pack bonds lived. There, shining wide and silver, Alpha. There, warm brown, that's Father. And there… Most of the rest of the pack were threads, glowing fibers of blue or green or white, gossamer as cotton candy unless either desperation or our Alpha bound us tighter. But among them was a different one. A bond hung in pack space without the shine and the life, colored flat dull brass in a glowing field of neon, but that bond drew my attention over and over. Wider than the rest, thicker, with a heft and weight that called to me.

In my head, I reached out with my own essence and tugged on the dull bond gently.

Victor groaned a soft pained sound, and I stopped.

"Crap," he muttered, to himself or to me, I wasn't certain. "My head hurts."

Don't hurt mate.

If you know what to do, you drive. I rarely sat back and let my wolf instincts take over. Those moments tended to end with me fifteen miles from home after chasing a deer, or pinned under Wyatt's bulk when I'd challenged him again over some stupid shit. But I had no idea how to help Victor, and if my wolf instincts did, more power to them.

My wolf stretched inside me, then we began licking Victor's neck. Then his throat, arm, chest.

What're you doing?

Mate scent. My wolf kept it up, my long tongue tracing down to Victor's belly.

At that point, he fended me off, though his laugh sounded better. "Cut it out. That's not public territory, and it tickles."

I had to admit, if I was going to lick his— dammit, nice fat big— dick, I wanted to be in skin and able to appreciate it properly. I licked his other arm instead, breathing in the way his smell and mine combined. I felt stronger, wilder, every minute.

"I don't really need a tongue bath. I should head back." But he didn't stand up.

Lying flat again, my furry back to his chest, I closed my eyes and dove deep into my head. There, in the dark, was that bond, still flat and matte and yet… a little wider, the tarnished brass shaded a bit more to gold.

Wolf hides there.

I tried pulling.

Don't pull, push. My wolf thrust the essence of us toward that bond, not grasping or tugging on it, as we might for Alpha's attention, not sending a plea or cry along it, but letting a bit of who we were wrap that bond in a fuzzy blanket. Our essence caressed and warmed it, soaked into it, fed the lifeless tie leading off… somewhere.

This time, Victor sighed quietly. "Maybe a nap first."

We're putting him to sleep. I wanted my mate to trust me, not be bored to death.

Not bored, safe. My wolf guided more of us to that bond, using our joined scent to bathe the surface and soften the edges, until we seeped into that channel that led away, away, away, deep in a darkness where Alpha and pack became memories—

Stop! I clutched at the edges of that space. Wait, I don't want to get lost. I'd heard of werewolves who lost themselves in their wolf and forgot how to shift back, living years or decades in fur. No one knew what the underlying problem was, but getting lost in my head didn't seem smart.

Not lost, mate. My wolf shoved me, a mental push that tumbled me along that dull thread. Pulling myself together, I gave in, because I could feel a call now too. Something at the end of that bond appealed to me as nothing else ever had. That siren call was meat when I was starving, water in the desert, air when the lake closed over my head. I moved faster, pushing forward now, dragging whatever of my essence clung to me along for the ride.

Victor tensed at my back. "What are you doing? Aiden?"

His voice and the lean muscles of his body and the smell of his breath called me forward, not back. There at the end of that bond, the essence of my mate waited. Man and wolf, because I could sense his wolf there. I squeezed my lids tighter. His wolf wasn't sleeping, but he cowered, curled tightly, tucked away in some protected spot, metaphorical rocks of his human self barricading that cave.

Come out and play. My wolf had never sounded like that before— happy and light and wild with excitement. Come out!

Victor clamped a big hand on my foreleg, startling me. "There's something… Shit, this isn't good." He pulled away from me and sat up.

Don't let him leave us.

I agreed with my wolf, but the rush of fresher air to my nose also reminded me consent is a vital thing. Maybe not to an Alpha, but between mates, yeah. In fur, I could use nothing more than a tail-wag and a toothy grin to argue my case. As fast as I could, I rolled away from Victor and went human.

That still wasn't super-fast. My shift takes me several minutes, though I'm getting better at it every year. I was relieved, when my senses stopped their crazy kaleidoscope, to find Victor was still sitting in the same place, watching me.

"You didn't go." My words garbled together as I gathered my wits and my human tongue. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I need to talk to you."

"All right." But he leaned away and raised one leg to conceal his groin from me, which wasn't promising.

Shift first, then mate.

No kidding. I sat up too and rolled my shoulders, although I didn't hide my— good-sized despite my five-foot-seven frame— dick from him. Let him look. In fact, I leaned back on my hands in an open pose. If he wasn't gay, I'd eat my next burger veggie, without salt.

Mate. Of course he wants us.

"I want to teach you to shift."

"Seriously?" He glanced around and lowered his voice. "You think you can do better than your Alpha?"

I switched to a whisper too, because yeah, under other circumstances, that'd be a ballsy claim. But for this? "Yeah, I do. He's trying to force your wolf out. I'm gonna call him out to play."

"You're what?" A cute wrinkle creased Victor's forehead.

I wanted to smooth it with my finger and kiss those doubting lips, but now was not the time. "Listen. Lie down and close your eyes."

"A lot of bad experiences start like that," he said, but at the same time, he stretched out and did as I asked, seeming far less tense than when Alpha had demanded the same thing.

That expression of trust, whether he realized what he was doing or not, made me all warm and gooey inside. I lay facing him so we could look in each other's eyes, if his hadn't been closed. "I'm going to touch your arm." He jumped a little at the brush of my palm, but didn't pull back. "Going to hold your wrist." My fingers didn't come close to meeting around that wide span.

I tugged on his arm gently and he let me move his hand to my chest, pliant in my hold. Oh, yes, come to Poppa.

"Now I'm going to let my wolf find yours."

His fingers twitched against my pec. "You're going to shift?"

"No. My wolf is here with me, inside, always."

"I don't feel like I have one."

"He's hiding. But he'll come out for me."

"Why?"

Because I'm your mate. I said, "Because I'm no threat," which was part of the same truth. "Inside your head, now, do you see your bond to our Alpha? A light, silver in the darkness?"

"No. Maybe. No, I don't think so." He scrinched his eyes tighter. "Stupid sparkles. Maybe something greenish, a glow. No."

I'd been told my bond appeared green to my father, but that was hardly evidence. "Okay. Think about wolf things. Think how good it would be to run fast, leap over fences, feel the wind on your fur, howl to the moon."

"Sounds crazy," he muttered, but louder, "I'll try. Running. Howling."

I closed my own eyes and dove back into that dull-brass bond, the way my wolf had shown me. Not pulling or demanding, but pushing my essence into it, feeding it, finding my way along it. Lonely. Afraid. A fog of desolation crept through that bond with my mate's scent bound up in it. I fought against the tide, pulling life and hope and joy and running and rabbits and green living things with me.

There. My wolf took point, nosing forward. That other skinny gray wolf looked up as we approached, ears laid back, pale eyes wary.

Come on. My whole body wagged in invitation. Come out, come play.

I could read the reluctance in every line of that thin body. His lip curled, but he didn't growl as we crept nearer.

I'll protect you.

In the daylight, Victor would no doubt have laughed himself silly about that. He was twice my bulk, ten years older, far more skilled at surviving. But here in our heads, his wolf cocked his head and his ears rose slightly.

Run, play, sleep side by side, wake side by side. Not alone. I neared him carefully, ears forward, lips soft, until we touched noses. The touch flashed through me like an electric shock.

"Jesus!" Victor's arm jolted in my grasp. "What was that?"

"Just me. Just us, me and my wolf, you and your wolf." I'd lost the space where we met, but I found it again easily enough. That thickening bond glowed a little now, gold threading in the brass, and the gleam led me quickly to the inner sanctuary. His wolf eyed us as we approached, up on his feet now in that enclosed space.

Come out and play. I wiggled and pounced, panted and bowed with my tail waving in the air. Victor's wolf took a half step out of his hollow and licked his lips.

"I feel something. What do I do?" Victor's tone was caught between wonder and fear.

"Let him out. Let him find his strength, his paws, his tail. Become wolf, be the wolf." I was crap at words. "Just follow me." I let go of his arm, pushed away enough to have some distance, and told my wolf, Do it now. Let's have fun. I pulled shift energy out of the world around us and stuffed it into the bond too, as best I could. Here, take this, roll in it, wear it, use it. Be wolf.

Shifting was always weird, a space out of reality, where vision splintered and smeared, and breath came short and unsatisfyingly. This time I had double vision, part of me in that dark inner place, coaxing a gray wolf out of hiding inch by inch, the other part groaning with the pull on my ligaments and bones. The gray wolf grew bigger and healthier as he emerged. He looked around with eyes that wavered between gray and gold, and stretched, and rolled on his side.

Through physical ears, I heard Victor groan and curse, but had no bandwidth to respond. Shift with me, be with me. The bond between us thickened and brightened. I couldn't see Victor's body, had no idea what was happening to him, but the gray wolf in my head panted and began short, sharp yips, every muscle twitching.

It's okay, you're fine, shifting will be all downhill in a minute. I reminded myself as well as Victor of that truth, as we hovered on the familiar brink. Then I tipped over, the end of my shift rushing up on me in that joyful relief that was almost as good as an orgasm. The sense of everything aligning, becoming what I was meant to be, filled my being with its heady rush. I tried to share that with Victor.

Like a wave breaking over me, the world came back into focus. Victor's scent first, deep and rich with wolf-musk far stronger than he'd ever carried. The sound of deep hoarse panting. Then the sight. Victor's wolf lying there, pale gray eyes a foot from my own, powerful jaws open as he panted. I tried to shout "Yay!" out loud, and choked on a word that didn't fit a wolf's tongue.

When I got done coughing, Victor was breathing more easily and his eyes held a light of amusement.

"Yeah, you laugh," I told him. "Wait till you try to walk on four feet the first time. Oh, and congratulations!"

He blinked. "I can understand you. I didn't think we'd be able to talk."

"Sure. Be a bad evolutionary move to have to bark at each other in fur."

"I suppose." He pushed up cautiously to sitting and glanced around, flicking his ears. "Everything's blurry." He looked down. "Those are… paws."

"Wolf vision kinda sucks, but our hearing is awesome. And yeah, paws."

"I never thought—" I felt something break inside him, a wall, maybe a dam, and everything he'd held behind it crashed over him. He collapsed in a ball with a cry like he'd been shot.

I leaped forward, blanketing him as much as I could with my smaller body. "It's okay. You're all right. I'm here now." I pressed my chin to his head and tried to pour reassurance into our bond. He trembled under me, and I longed to be able to hug him properly, but the press of my weight on top of him seemed to help.

As his emotions ebbed, he stopped shaking, and I felt him tense under me. "Why were you able to help me shift? What were you doing out here anyway?"

As nonchalantly as I could I said, "Alpha was putting my mate through his paces. Of course I'd be here."

"Your mate?" I felt a jolt of… revulsion? My heart froze until he said, "Nolan is your mate?"

"Jesus, no." If I was human, I'd have busted a gut laughing. "My great uncle. No, doofus, I meant you."

"Me?" He shrugged out from under me and I let him, rolling off to one side and sitting up so our eyes could meet. "I'm nobody's mate."

"Are now." I raised a front paw and licked it like a cat.

He sputtered, wolf lips curled up. "That's not— I don't— I mean, you're a great kid and all, but I don't even know you."

I darted close, nipped his nose, and was away before he could move. Slow reflexes, but he was a baby yet, as wolf-time went. We'd fix that. "Not a kid."

"You're seventeen."

"For two more months. And wolves become men at thirteen."

"I call bullshit. Shifting doesn't make you a man."

If I'd been human, I'd have grabbed my man-sized dick and said, "This does," but it was probably just as well I was blocked from that kind of stupidity. "As for not knowing me, come play and we'll fix that." I leaped to him, nudged him off balance, and ducked away again.

He pushed to all fours, eyes darkening, and took a hesitant step. "I have too many feet."

"Come on. People learn to walk with crutches in five minutes, and this is even easier. Let your wolf out a little. He knows how to run."

"You talk like there's an actual wolf inside me. I thought I was the wolf."

"You are. But sometimes it gets a little crowded in there." I dodged the discussion. Some werewolves said they never felt their wolf-self as a separate presence, others of us had ongoing conversations. Time enough for him to figure that out later. "Running is the best. But maybe we'd better start with walking."

He got the hang of four-foot locomotion pretty fast. After five minutes, we set off on a gentle lope around the property, and after fifteen, he smugly leaped over a boulder I'd taken in two jumps. The more we ran, the more our steps moved in unison. His breaths echoed in my chest, his scent filled my nose, and the bond between us turned thick and gold.

When we returned to the meadow, he was panting. I wasn't. Although only by puffing hard through my nose and pretending. "You're out of shape," I teased him. "We'll have to do this a lot more."

"I don't mind. It was fun." He sat and looked at me. "But this 'mate' thing you talked about—"

"Let's shift back," I interrupted.

That knocked him back off balance a bit. "How?"

"Follow my lead." With the bond between us strong and solid, it was the work of a moment to slip into it and find his human self waiting impatiently, to hold out my hand and say, "Like this, when you want to shed fur." I showed him, and he found his skin almost as fast as I did.

I pushed up to sitting, then muttered, "Ouch," and tugged a burr out from under my ass. "Alpha could've left you the blanket."

"He was pissed at me." Victor eyed me warily. "What will he say now?"

"Probably something like 'About time?' and, 'Aiden, finally, your skinny ass is good for something.'"

"Your ass isn't skinny."

I preened and turned a hip toward him.

He flapped a hand at me. "No, stop. I mean objectively. You're seventeen."

"Since we didn't go through a time warp, yeah, for another two months."

"I don't do kids and I don't do mates."

That time I did accidentally-on-purpose brush my dick with one hand, and I was pleased to see him have to yank his attention back. "With wolves, mates just happen. Bolt out of the blue. 'That one's mine.' Dad met my mother at a music festival, followed her to her home pack, and never left. I saw you and my wolf said, 'Mine.' You're stuck with me."

"What if I don't feel the same way, though? That's crazy."

"Is it?" I raised an eyebrow. "You'd rather I went out and experimented, dated around for a while, screwed a few human guys?"

He ground out a "Yes," but I could hear his wolf growling in the background.

"Fortunately for both our sanities, I have no intention of doing that." I stood, dusting the weeds and sand off my ass, giving him a good look.

He scrambled to his feet too. Man, he looked good naked. Acres of muscles formed by hard work, on a wolf-powered body. A dick almost as big as mine, and low-hanging balls. When I forced my gaze back up, his eyes smoldered, although he crossed his arms across his chest. "I don't care who you, um, date."

I was glad of the chance to laugh. "Keep telling yourself that."

He bent— nice ass too— and pulled on a pair of snug boxer-briefs that didn't make him any less mouthwatering. "Listen, kid—"

"Aiden." I let a growl of my own escape and he colored. "And the age of consent here is sixteen."

"Aiden. Okay, but you gotta understand. I've worked where the age was sixteen and states where it was eighteen and places they'd beat your ass for being gay and string you from a tree for touching any local guy, at any age. I have my rules."

A hint of pleading in his voice made me melt. "Sure. I get it. I can wait two months."

He looked relieved enough at that to make me feel my own power.

"Two things, though," I insisted. My wolf nudged me. Touch. Skin.

"What?"

"We keep running together in fur."

"Okay." A little smile crossed his lips. "Got to admit, I haven't had that much fun in years."

"And one kiss."

"What?"

"One kiss." I tapped my lips. "Nothing big, no tongue. Seal the deal, and I promise I won't push for you to lay a hand on me again for the next two months."

He fidgeted, moving his weight from foot to foot. "Aiden."

"Come on. The kind of peck on the lips you'd give your grandmother. Or are you scared to touch me?" When he hesitated, I clasped my hands behind my back. "Look Ma, no hands."

"I'm not scared." He grabbed my biceps, his fingers biting in perhaps more than he realized, and pulled me near enough to kiss.

Our bodies didn't touch. Only his mouth met mine, dry lips and exercise-breath and a fleeting warmth.

The world exploded in my head, drenched in gold, filled with heat, and my wolf howled. Smugly. The bastard.

Victor shoved me away. "What the fuck was that?"

"Mates." I rubbed my lips with the back of my hand. "That thing you didn't believe in." I'd left my clothes half a mile down the trail to the house, so I turned my bare ass to him and sauntered off. Over my shoulder, I commented, "My birthday's September ninth. There'll be a party. Wear clean shorts. Or don't. I like your scents."

A sound followed me as I left, part growl, part whine. I wanted to see his face, but didn't wreck my exit by turning around. Instead, I put a bit more swing in my hips, and bit my lip to hold back a grin as the growl-part intensified.

The next two months, three days, and some odd hours were going to be frustrating as hell. But man, they were going to be fun!
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