Chapter 5 #2
“Yeah. That would be them. Some of us call them Dad-Mom. I call them Sire because I couldn’t say it when I was younger.
It came out like Dead-Moo. Another kid told me I called them a dead cow and I was not happy.
So, my carrier said to call them my sire instead.
Sire liked being called Sire. I was like five-ish.
Jade bit the kid who said it. Jade – what can I say about Jade?
We’re not together. We dated in high school and then fooled around in college.
A bit since then but we were too different to ever be serious.
We’re still friends and I don’t foresee that changing. ”
“I don’t want to take your friends from you,” I said. “I just saw him kiss your cheek before he got out and assumed. I was apologizing and trying to explain it, but I didn’t realize my dog had taken over. He does that sometimes.”
“I got the gist of it. Grew up around some dog shifters. It was sort of funny. Not what you said. That was sort of sweet, but just the look on Jade’s face,” Eran laughed as we zipped down the highway.
He slowed down only when a big yellow bus appeared in the distance.
“I almost want to duck down but Jacand knows my truck. It’s sort of flattering how much he wants to hang out.
Most of the time I don’t mind but… Us. The kissing.
The—” he stopped himself from assuming too much but I glanced down at his lap.
His dick was threatening to tear through his jeans and I had to fight off the urge to reach over and grab onto it.
Eran glanced at me and followed my eyeline.
He smirked and gripped the stirring wheel tighter as we passed the school bus.
Once we could no longer see it in the rearview mirror he sped up again.
I opened my mouth. A million questions danced on my tongue but most of them would probably be answered with the claiming vows.
“Where are you from?” Eran asked.
“The North.”
“Up in cold country, huh? I heard it doesn’t get above freezing very often.”
“Sort of true sometimes,” I shrugged. “Only in some places depending on how far north you go. Our winters are long and brutal.”
“I didn’t know there were any dog groups up there,” he said.
“Well, there are,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes.
“I’m from a long line of Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers from the Other World.
Not all shifters, of course, but still we have the pedigree.
Some Duck Tollers started shifting on this side of the door, of course.
Some of us -the collective us- have started going by Little River Duck Dog again, though.
It just depends on who you’re talking to.
There are other breeds that started out up there separately too and as a rule if a breed can be born, it can be a shifter.
Though, we’ve been shifting for centuries if not longer.
We have several territories, though, I never lived in any of them full time.
” I told him the story about how my parents met.
“So, I’ve lived with the polar bears most of the time and work with them mostly. ”
“Aren’t they—” he started and stopped himself.
“Vicious? Violent? Cruel?” I filled in the blank for him. “Go ahead. I’ve heard all the stereotypes.”
“I was going to say territorial and then I remembered how you told Jade I belonged to you now and… Maybe being territorial isn’t a bad thing.”
“Nice save. I will say that yes polar bears enforce their boundaries but that’s because non-shifting humans about wiped them out with climate change.
For a long ass time they had to live where it wasn’t cold because they turned Earthside into boiling soup.
They also liked to hunt them. So, if you’re going through there either you obey the signs, know someone there, or better have a bear somewhere that will vouch for you and pick up on the first ring.
Though, they’re less likely to off a shifter than a non-shifter.
Shifters can have reasons like ‘Hey, my son ran away with a moose shifter and I haven’t heard from him in a few years.
So I’m going there to try to find him and this was the best route I could find.
’ They’ll probably get to live if they’re telling the truth. ”
“That’s sort of fair,” Eran nodded.
“We can take a trip up there at some point. I don’t think you’d like living up there. It is really cold but we could visit. Meet my parents and all that.”
“Will they be upset if you move?” he asked.
“Not really,” I shook my head. “They have kids every few years and most of them are litters of five to eight. Not always all puppies of course. Usually, some bears thrown in. Even if they’re all bear cubs there are usually at least two.”
Eran’s pupils dilated as I spoke.
“Don’t worry. We might not have that many. I did come from a litter of eight but you’re not a twin, are you?”
“How do they afford to feed them all?” Eran blurted out the question and I laughed.
“My family is wealthy, but we don’t buy most of our food.
We hunt, fish, farm a bit of what we can.
We gather a lot. We trade with the moose shifters and the dog groups.
Some other lesser-known ones too. I’m not at liberty to speak of all of them because they value their privacy.
Were you part of a litter?” I tried again now that his pupils were back to their normal size.
“No, I was a single birth.”
“I think more babies are born in wilder places because of two things. We have more natural diets and back before all the modern stuff – which we do have a hospital and a midwifery house – more babies died. So, evolution said ‘I’ll give you more babies and at least one of them shall live to carry on the family line!’ Do you want kids? ”
“Yes,” Eran said without skipping a beat.
“I know how to build big houses if we end up needing one,” I said, starting to vibrate all over again because my dog was wagging his tail inside his inner sanctum.
“I’m not a musher but we all learn to travel through snow and how to get around with our stuff if we need to as well.
I can also hunt and cook and of course fish.
I’m really good at catching waterfowl, obviously. I’m a canine therapist by trade and…”
“Therapist, huh?” Eran grinned.
“Are they going around saying I’m only a trainer? Some people do that, but I went to the Northern Academy of Shifter Well Being. We’re an inter-world recognized medical school even if we don’t get spoken about as much as the Moonscale and Hemlock Academies.
“I have a similar degree. My sire is a therapist too,” he said.
“Oh. Wow. We have that in common too,” I smiled and vibrated again. “I really want to stick my head out the window and howl.”
“Go for it,” Eran said and pressed a button on his door to make the window roll down.
I wiggled out of the top of my seatbelt and half-leaned out of the truck. Even my howls sounded like the screams my ancestors were known for but it was exhilarating to let it out with the wind ruffling my hair and pushing my face this way and that. Life was good.