Chapter Twenty-Five
Knox
“Okay, it’s my turn.” Linc scratched the top of my head between my ears before lifting up our son, Toby, into his arms.
Toby had just turned six months old, and we decided to hire a photographer Linc had worked with in his FNL days to take family pictures.
It hadn’t been hard to find a nearby wooded area as the perfect backdrop for the photo shoot, and after we had pictures taken together in our human forms, we wanted pictures in our shifted forms with our son.
Though not with both of us shifted at the same time.
We feared something could happen to Toby in the instant it took us to shift, so we posed one at a time.
I returned to my human body after spending fifteen minutes laying in the grass in my deer form.
Linc was anxious to sit for his session with our son as much as I was anxious for mine to end.
As a deer, I couldn’t hold Toby, didn’t have the ability to take care of a child in the same ways.
After taking Toby from Linc, I removed his bunny costume, changed our son, then put him into his lion cub suit.
We didn’t yet know what animal form he would take, but the bunny and lion outfits had been absolutely adorable at the store, so I couldn’t resist buying them for the session.
When my mate shifted into his lion, I gasped.
I rarely saw him in that form, and it always caught me by surprise how big he was.
In the handful of times we’d shifted together, he still had a couple inches over my deer.
With his large mane, he seemed so majestic.
He was the gentlest predator I’d ever met, never doing anything more to my deer than rubbing the scent glands in his cheeks over me or pinning me to the ground so he could lick me with his rough tongue.
But nothing like that since we’d become parents.
We didn’t have much time alone where we didn’t just grab dinner and enjoy a couple of hours or an entire night without being interrupted while eating and sleeping.
Spending time in our shifted forms wasn’t a priority.
Linc had to go into Saramto a couple times a month, but he worked from home most days and helped me out in between his work and when I really needed a break.
For the times my mate was away from home, I’d gotten my driver’s license.
I didn’t drive much, usually only to the grocery store, or to our parents’ houses, but I had my license, so Linc didn’t worry so much when he had to leave.
He sold his sports car for a family friendly SUV, and I had a little hatchback, which was the perfect size for just me and Toby.
With Linc laying on his belly and his head turned to the side to face the camera, I placed Toby beside him.
At one point, Toby started to lean to the right, so I rushed in and caught him before he fell over.
The cutest pictures with Linc were taken with my mate on his back with his paws in the air, and Toby laying on his belly.
Once Tabatha was satisfied she had enough photos, we thanked her, said goodbye, and made sure she got back to the main road without getting stuck in the mud.
Then we returned to the photo shoot spot for a picnic lunch.
While it was still too cool to go without a jacket, the sun shined down on us and helped to push a few more trees toward sprouting new leaves.
Spring wasn’t far away, along with the possibility of another baby.
Linc and I had already talked about another child, but both agreed to play it by ear.
I wasn’t on blockers, but since I was breastfeeding, I didn’t know if I would go into heat right away.
Either way, we wanted to have our children while we were still young enough to run around with them.
Being lucky enough to have both of our parents nearby definitely helped.
Made me glad we’d left Saramto.
Though there were some conveniences of living in the big city that I did miss.
That didn’t mean we’d never move back.
We lived where we needed to be for now.
In the future, when our kids were older, they might beg to leave small-town living behind for the experience of living in a metropolis.
Both Linc and I would understand, as we’d been just as anxious to leave.
But regardless of whether we lived in a small town or a big city, home would always be with my family.
The family I’d found because of one ill-fated train ride at the beginning of my fortuitous vacation.
I really lucked out, even if I didn’t think so at the time.
I found my happy ending with the man I’d thought strange when I’d first seen him simply because he tried to keep his identity a secret.