Epilogue: Three months later
Pauline
“Quick,” Carlos hissed, slipping into the bedroom in their new house and closing the door behind him. “Troy’s off on the playdate, Drew’s out with Eva, and Val’s asleep. We have a very short window.”
Pauline laughed as he caught her up in his arms and transported her to the bed with all reasonable speed. “Are you sure Val’s asleep?”
“Totally, one-hundred-percent sure,” Carlos said firmly.
Val had recently started refusing to nap. Pauline wasn’t sure if it was a natural developmental progression, or some result of the tumultuous living situation she’d had for a while. Either way, it was always a good thing when she fell asleep during the day—fewer meltdowns in the evening, for one thing.
For another...”Well, then,” Pauline said, in her best come-hither tone, “we’d better get down to business.”
“Way ahead of you.” Carlos was in fact getting her jeans stripped off, his thumb stroking roughly over her clit through her panties. Pauline shivered, biting back a moan, and hauled him forward.
“Come on, come on—”
How long had it been? A week, maybe. Three kids was a lot of kids, and with Val’s erratic sleep schedule, and getting the community center off the ground, there had been a lot of nights where the only thing either of them wanted to make love to was sweet, sweet sleep.
Carlos was busy with his fly, so Pauline tugged her panties off, shivering at the breath of air between her legs. She was already wet, aching for the feeling of her mate inside her.
Carlos kissed her fiercely, pushing her back on the bed—both of them still half-dressed, stealing away in silence like they were teenagers. Pauline giggled with delicious joy at it all. Carlos didn’t ask her what was funny—maybe he already knew—just kissed her again and thrust into her in one long, gorgeous slide.
Pauline’s laugh fell off into a moan. Quiet, she reminded herself, and bit her lip, focusing on the hot expanse of man in her arms. Carlos was so big, and it was never more apparent than when they were in bed. He seemed to surround her with himself, until she was breathing him in, feeling his heartbeat as though it were her own.
Carlos groaned quietly as she clenched around him, luxuriating in the thickness of him inside her. He moved, stroking over all of her sensitive spots, and Pauline shuddered and bit his shoulder to keep from making any noise.
She could feel the tremor go through him as she bit down—did he like that? Experimentally, she tried it again. This time, his hips jerked forward and she could feel the groan rumbling through his chest.
“That’s good,” he breathed.
Well. Who said people’s sex lives got stale after they had kids? “Noted,” Pauline breathed back, and made sure to dig her fingernails in hard when he thrust in again. He shuddered and sped up, getting a hand between them to rub her clit.
He knew exactly the right way to touch her—the hard pressure she liked, the way he could slide his finger all the way down to where they were joined, and she’d scramble to hang on, to stay quiet. Pauline bit him again, loving the salt-warm taste of him, the heft and strength of him in her arms, and the feel of his cock inside her and his hand, so confident, knowing her inside and out.
He thrust in deep, hard, with his fingers circling over her clit once—twice—and climax ripped through her, orgasm darkening her vision, ringing in her ears. She panted for breath as she clenched around him, wet and shivery and weak with pleasure.
Carlos brought her through it, holding on with an effort that she could feel in the corded muscles of his shoulders, thrusting through her contractions and sending her up to dizzying heights, before the tremors finally started to subside. Then he let go. Pauline held him as he shook with climax, murmuring her name, holding her tight.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
When he’d caught his breath, he pulled back and kissed her tenderly. “I love you, too. Pauline, you’re—”
A wail sounded through the house.
They froze, listening. Val wailed again, settling into a solidly upset cry.
Pauline fell back against the pillows. “Well, at least she waited until we were done.”
“Very thoughtful of her,” Carlos said, chuckling as he pulled out, slipping into the bathroom for a quick wash.
Pauline tried to pull her scattered atoms back together. “I can—”
“No, no, I got it. I’m more dressed.” He stepped out, clean and buttoned, with no evidence of what they’d just been doing. He dropped a kiss on her mouth on his way out of the bedroom.
Pauline slumped back. “I love that man,” she said to the empty room.
***
“When do I get to shift?” Troy asked, halfway between petulant and excited. He was bouncing on his toes, clearly torn between running off to explore the woods and waiting to watch everyone change forms.
“When you’re older,” Pauline said patiently. “When you’re a teenager like Drew is.”
Troy sighed. “That’s forever.”
She held back a laugh. “I know it seems like forever. But for now, you get to run with us. Maybe if you’re good, Carlos will let you ride on his back for a little while. You want to ride a tiger?”
Troy lit up. “Yeah!”
“Okay, then no whining.”
He zipped his lips. “No whining.”
Val toddled over, arms out. “Fly!” she shouted.
“You want me to fly?”
“Fly!”
Pauline grinned at her, then crouched and shifted. Both of the kids watched her with wide eyes as she circled up into the air, then dived back down, pulling up at the last second. She alit on the ground in front of them and walked her slow bird-walk over to Troy.
He reached out and touched her feathers. “Careful with her,” Carlos cautioned from where he was standing behind them both. “Pauline’s other form is a lot more fragile than Drew’s or mine.”
“I’m careful,” Troy said, offended at the suggestion. “I wouldn’t hurt Pauline!”
He stroked his small hand softly over the feathers on her head, and Pauline leaned into it. Her owl preened at the attention.
Then Val wanted a turn. Drew came forward and held her little hand in his, petting Pauline’s feathers together. “Soft,” Drew told her.
“Soft,” she repeated, patting Pauline’s head carefully.
Pauline wished she could smile sappily in bird form. As it was, she waited until Val was done petting, and then she shifted back. “You guys run first,” she told Carlos and Drew. “I’ll watch the kids, and then we can swap.”
“Thanks,” Carlos said. “You’ll be all right?”
“We’ll have fun.” Pauline smiled.
Carlos turned to Drew. “Ready? I bet I can beat you to that cliff up there.”
Drew had been looking a little hesitant—he was still a bit unsure with Carlos, not used to a father figure and always half-expecting something to go wrong—but the challenge firmed him up. “No way. I grew up here, I know the terrain better than you.”
“I guess we’ll see.” Carlos blurred and shifted into his gorgeously powerful tiger form. Pauline still caught her breath every time she saw it, and she hoped she’d never stop.
Drew shifted too—he was starting to fill out in his wolf form just like he was as a human, looking more and more like an adult instead of a gangly youth. Pauline watched them eye each other, mock-wary, and then at the exact same moment—though she hadn’t noticed any signal—take off into the woods.
“I wanna run!” Troy yelled as they disappeared. “I wanna run with them!”
“Let’s run here!” Pauline redirected. Troy was still staring yearningly off into the woods, so she added, “Can you catch that rabbit?”
“Where?” he asked, immediately looking around.
Pauline came up next to him and pointed; she’d noticed the animal hiding in the brush while in her owl form. “See, over there?”
It took a couple of minutes for Troy to notice it, but when he did, he charged forward. Pauline caught Val up in her arms and ran after him, laughing at Troy’s cry of, “Raaaaaaargh!”
The rabbit, of course, leaped away as soon it noticed Troy running, but that didn’t dissuade the little boy one bit. Pauline wondered what he’d been planning to do if he caught it.
Eventually, he had to concede defeat, and slowed to a halt. “It got away,” he reported to Pauline.
“Sometimes they do,” Pauline said. “Where to next?”
Troy looked around. “I want to see if I can jump over that stream!” He pointed.
“Let’s do it!”
Troy could not quite jump over the stream, as it turned out, but wet sneakers weren’t the worst thing in the world, especially since Troy didn’t seem to care. “I’m going to climb that rock!”
“I bet you can do it!” Pauline had set Val down to let the girl pat curiously at the stream water while Troy made his attempt. Now she caught her hand and led her in a little jog after her big brother.
Troy summited the rock—with Pauline’s help—and leaped down from it to the ground, tried and failed to climb a tree, tried and succeeded to climb another tree, challenged Pauline to a race with Val on her back, and finally circled back to the clearing where they’d started (with a little bit of gentle leading on Pauline’s part), and flopped down in a sunny spot with a big whoosh of a sigh.
With perfect timing, too, because just as Pauline settled down next to him, she heard the underbrush rustling, and two predatory figures came bounding out of the woods. Val toddled up to meet them.
“Drew!” Troy shouted, sitting upright.
Drew skidded to a halt in the grass and shifted back, followed quickly by Carlos.
“Who won?” Pauline asked.
“He did,” Carlos said proudly. “He wasn’t kidding, he knows these woods like the back of his hand.”
“Mom took me out a lot, before the kids were born,” Drew said. His mouth twisted a little, and he looked over his shoulder.
Pauline looked at Troy, who had decided to try and climb Carlos like he had the tree. Carlos was Troy’s favorite jungle gym, these days. She stepped closer to Drew, keeping her voice low. “These woods must make you think of her, then.”
Drew hesitated, and then nodded. “I think—she’s out there somewhere, isn’t she? I wonder sometimes, where she is. If she’s happy.”
“You know you can talk about her whenever you want, right?” Pauline said quietly. “We’re not going to think you don’t like us, or anything. She’s your mom forever, even if she’s not here anymore.”
Drew nodded sharply, blinking a little—and then surprised Pauline by lunging forward into an awkward hug.
Pauline immediately wrapped him up tight, holding him close.
“Thank you,” Drew whispered to her.
“Oh, Drew.” Pauline’s heart felt like it was swelling. “You don’t have to thank me. We love you guys, we want you with us, but we don’t want you to forget your mom. Okay?”
Drew pulled back, blinking a little. “Okay,” he managed.
Pauline squeezed him tight one more time, unable to resist, and then stepped back and clapped her hands. “Okay!” she said. “It’s my turn to shift! Who wants to play hide-and-seek with an owl?”
“Me!” Troy yelled.
“Teams!” Carlos said immediately. “Troy, you’re with me. Drew, you want to take Val? Pauline, you close your eyes and count, and when you’re done, shift and find us.”
“You better do a good job hiding,” Pauline told him with a grin. “I’m not going to give up until I find you.”
He leaned forward and kissed her quickly on the mouth. “Can’t wait.”
“Come on, let’s go!” Troy tugged on Carlos hand, and Pauline let her grin bubble over into a laugh as she closed her eyes. “One...two...”
End