“I told them we were a theater troupe doing an impromptu performance,” Dominic said once they were someplace safe. Together with the wolfen Edwin, the Chambers family had raced away from Rittenhouse Square, leaving only a small crowd of people who had borne witness to what had happened. Dominic smirked while sitting at Edwin’s dining room table. “They gave me their email addresses for free tickets to our next performance.”

“That’s as good of an outcome as could be expected,” Shawn said. His entire body felt exhausted, though the warm arms of Edwin circling around him brought with them a wave of comfort and relief. He glanced behind him, seeing his boyfriend had shifted back into his human form, and nestled up against him. “What the hell happened in the coffeeshop anyway?”

Joseph Chambers explained the power being cut off, and panic setting in when the sound of people rushing the café had occurred. Instinct, he explained, had told them to leave and so they ran, with the Laurents in pursuit the moment they realized the coffeeshop had been abandoned. “But why?” Shawn asked. “Why did they try to take all of you?”

“I can only imagine they weren’t interested in any sort of peace,” Joseph responded. “We’ll have to head back where we’re from if we want to stay safe, I guess.”

Before he could respond to questions asking where that was, Mallory called him away. Shawn asked Edwin, but all he could get was a warm smile and an, “I’ll explain it to you soon, I promise,” as a response. Nodding, Shawn rested his head on Edwin’s shoulder and took a deep breath.

“You smell amazing,” Shawn murmured against his skin.

Edwin kissed the top of his head and kept him in his arms for the rest of the night.

The Chambers family left the next day, and as the days which followed ticked from the calendar, Edwin both apologized for the rash decision he’d made, and explained to Shawn better who he was and what he had done. “I had no right biting you without you knowing what I was about to drag you into,” he said while walking through the very park that had played host to their confrontation mere days beforehand.

“No, you didn’t,” Shawn said, clutching Edwin’s hand. “And you should be damn thankful that I was already planning on spending the rest of my life with you, because seriously? A permanent mating mark?”

Edwin chuckled at the obvious presence of humor in Shawn’s voice. As he turned to face him, he pulled Shawn close, pressing their bodies together. “I love you.” Edwin touched foreheads with Shawn. “I don’t ever want to know a single day without you.”

“That makes two of us.” Shawn shut his eyes and took a deep breath. “So, where do we go from here?”

“I’m going to take care of you. I promise. It’s not going to be pleasant at first, but you’re going to love running in the moonlight after your first shift.”

“What happens before that?”

“A really terrible night, when the next full moon happens. And a couple of unpleasant weeks leading up to that, but I’ll be with you through it all.”

“You better be. I’m scared shitless.”

Shawn felt Edwin’s lips press against his and immediately, became enraptured in the smell and feel of the other man. They stumbled home and as Edwin threw Shawn onto the bed, he devoured Shawn with hungry kisses. “People say that sex helps this all pass better,” he said between kisses, pulling off his shirt and helping Shawn struggle with his.

“You would say that,” Shawn said. He wriggled beneath Edwin. “It’s a damn good thing I like you screwing me, otherwise I’d challenge you on that.”

“Right now, you could make me beg for you.”

Edwin dove into another deep, hungry kiss, silencing them both for the time being. As Shawn felt his shorts being stripped, hands encircling his cock before it became Edwin’s mouth, his back arched, and the universe felt aligned in some strange form of blissful synergy. Edwin had barely entered him before the surge toward completion swelled within him and as Shawn cried out, he couldn’t be sure, but he swore he heard himself howl.

It wouldn’t be the first time. A second, third, and fifteenth time would follow in the days to come and as the days drew closer to the next full moon, an itch that couldn’t be scratched overcame Shawn. Something grew in shape and scope, contained under his skin, and by the night before the full moon cycle, Shawn could only seek relief during the moments when he and Edwin shared the race toward pleasure. The day of the full moon, Edwin and Shawn drove out to the Chambers’ home in Lancaster.

Shawn couldn’t summon coherent thought by the time they arrived. Otherwise, he might have asked about the For Sale sign out in the front yard.

Instead, Edwin led him inside. Mallory fed him, and Joseph offered him two shots of whiskey, looking as much like the proud father-in-law as the elder leader of the pack, riddled with concern. The hours leading up to night felt like a special kind of hell for Shawn and when the sun finally set, an awful, queasy feeling racked him, forcing him into the bathroom.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he emerged. “I think something’s starting.”

Edwin nodded, grabbing Shawn and helping him to limp outside. The rest of the Chambers family stayed indoors, gathered in the kitchen, while Shawn and Edwin stumbled toward the tree line and collapsed on the edge of the woods. A sharp pain racked Shawn from head to toe, running along his spine, causing him to cry out toward the heavens.

“Let’s get you undressed,” Edwin said, taking the initiative to help Shawn with his shoes.

Shawn felt helpless, unable to assist but to shimmy here and lift there. The grass felt sharp and cool on his sensitive skin and when the next pain assailed him, it cracked against him like a whip. Ones with as much intensity followed and before he knew it, his entire world was pain.

Until the moment it wasn’t. Until a rush of euphoria ran through him and something about the world felt irrevocably altered. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed, nor where Edwin had gone, except to know that he was close. His eyes shut, he took in a deep breath, smelling a strange potpourri of scents on the wind and yelping when a cold nose touched his face and began to nuzzle. The instinct to nuzzle back became pronounced and as his body moved, he realized it had changed.

When he lifted, it wasn’t onto two legs, but four. His body shook, unearthing a fresh coat of fur, and though the night air had been hot and muggy, it didn’t bother him. The colors of the world had changed, shifting to tones of blue and silver and though it had lost some of its hues, it made up for it with crisp sharpness. Shawn lifted his head, peering up to the heavens, and when he saw the moon, he felt an instant kinship with it. Somehow, without knowing he had been lost, Shawn Anderson had been found.

A nip broke him out of the moment. He meant to spun around, but his limbs failed to cooperate and Shawn spilled unceremoniously onto the ground. Edwin snickered, giving him another nip and this time, when Shawn lunged for him, he got his feet to all move in the correct direction. Rolling with Edwin felt like a level of ecstatic happiness he’d never experienced before in his life. When Edwin nudged him on toward running, he toppled over a second time, but within minutes, his instincts took over. He could barely believe it when he ran in tandem with his lover. His boyfriend.

His mate.

But everything in his life felt like it had been leading up to that moment.

Edwin taught him later how to shift back into human form. The next shift into wolf form didn’t hurt and by the end of the three-day cycle, Shawn had embraced his newfound state. Joseph and Mallory saw him and Edwin off with tight hugs and kisses.

“We’ll miss you both,” Mallory said.

The tears in her eyes haunted him all the way home.

“I keep meaning to ask you,” Shawn said while lying in bed with Edwin, both men naked with Shawn’s head nestled in the crook of Edwin’s arm. “Your parents mentioned going somewhere else a while back. Where are they headed?”

“Where we’re from,” Edwin said.

“I thought that was Lancaster.”

Edwin chuckled. As Shawn rolled to rest the side of his face against Edwin’s shoulder, Edwin gathered him closer. “Yes. And no. We have family elsewhere. Mostly cousins and distant relations, but they live somewhere safe and I think my parents have decided that being out here isn’t safe for them anymore.”

“Being out here?”

“Out in the human realm. I’m sorry, I’m being vague.” He breathed a chuckle. “And I know that I brought you into a world where people can turn into wolves, but somehow saying, ‘I’m from a different plane of existence,’ seems like a reach even then.”

“I’m sorry.” Shawn lifted enough to look Edwin in the eyes. “Another plane of existence?”

“Yeah, like…” Edwin paused to think. “If you think of this world like a level –” He held a hand aloft, then covered it with his other hand. “Then the Wolfen Realm is an entirely different level that sits on top of it. Overlaps it in places, but you can’t see it unless you step into something called a portal.”

Shawn raised an eyebrow. “A portal. Like to another dimension?”

“Sort of. There are all kinds of layers to our world. Some of them go up and some, go down. There are all sorts of things on the different layers, though I’ve only ever heard of them. I’ve never met them.”

“Like what?”

“Demons. Fae. Succubae. You name it. Everything this world considers myth has some foundation in the truth, even if it doesn’t fully match the stories. Werewolves are one of them.”

As Edwin lifted, Shawn allowed him to claim back his arm. They both turned on their sides to face each other. “My father was born in the Wolfen Realm,” Edwin continued. “It’s… perfect. Gorgeous. He’s taken me and my mother for visits and each time I’m there, it takes my breath away. The light feels just a little brighter, the colors just a little more vibrant, and when you go for runs in their forests, you swear you’re walking in the footsteps of the gods. He even told me once that we worship the goddesses because they gave us our home, though even I don’t know how much of that is nonsense.”

Shawn shrugged. “Like you said, this is a world where people can turn into wolves. Who knows what else is real?” He paused in obvious thought, causing Edwin to wait until Shawn’s gaze drifted away and returned to him. “Do I get to see this place, too, now that I’m one of you?”

Something about the question seemed to please Edwin. He wrapped his arms around Shawn and plunged them both into a deep kiss. “Absolutely,” he said with their foreheads still touching. “I’ll take you there for the next full moon.”

Edwin’s happiness became contagious. While the discussion continued in bits and pieces throughout the month that followed, when September rolled around, Shawn found himself hiking in the deepest portion of the woods just outside Lancaster. The sun on their backs, and a light coat protecting Shawn from the elements, he followed Edwin along a creek and toward a home nestled on the top of a steep hill. By then, he had been a wolf long enough to know it would’ve been easier climbed with four legs. But he continued forward on two, thanking himself at the top for prolonging the reveal.

When he spied the portal, he felt the wind take away his breath, the sight leaving him bereft of words. Edwin chuckled, jogging ahead and pausing in front of what looked like a collection of amber-colored fireflies, dancing in front of thick trees and brush blocking the house from view. Shawn stepped forward a pace and laughed, looking from the portal to his lover’s eyes.

“Come on,” Edwin said. “Nothing will be as much home as Rittenhouse. But I think this might be a close second.”

“I’m already convinced,” Shawn said, smiling. “But that’s because anywhere you are is home.”