Lover Eternal

by Idella Breen

  Gwen looked down at the Cheetos in her hand and couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled up and out of her. She placed the snack into the shopping cart and began to push it away but was stopped by a warm hand on her arm.

  “Gwen, was someone here?”

  She was startled by the anger in Sam’s voice and placed her hand on top of his. Some of the tension in his body was released and he relaxed his hold. She smiled and shook her head. “Someone just helped me with getting the snacks down from the top shelf. Nothing you need to be concerned about.”

  His face was tense for a moment before a smile took over and he chuckled. “You always were short. I guess I take my height advantage for granted.”

  “Hey!” She slapped him in the arm as he placed the thirty-two pack on the bottom level of the shopping cart.

  “Was that supposed to hurt?”

  She frowned. “I guess not.” The omega muttered under her breath as she pushed the cart down the next aisle. The scent of jasmine still lingered on her clothes making her relax. She had been tense lately for some reason. Even the tingles were still running under her skin. Gwen abruptly stopped in the middle of the aisle.

  Shit! she thought.

  “Gwen? Why did you stop? Come on, we still have tons of stuff to get.”

  She absently began moving again but her mind was in chaos. Those weren’t just nervous tingles. Those were mating bond tingles. Shit! How did she not notice? That woman, Silvia, was her mate. She didn’t even know what she was! She was definitely a canine monster of some type if her scent revealed anything but she wasn’t another werewolf. Her scent had been spicy instead of earthen. It was a scent Gwen had never come by before.

  She wanted to be happy but for some reason she also didn’t want to tell anyone anything just yet. Because she was the omega of the clan, the truth was that rarely was she able to have any privacy in her personal life. Everyone was always in her business mostly because it was instinct to protect her and in order to do that someone was usually always with her. Just look! They wouldn’t even let her go shopping by herself. They sent Sam with her! What could possibly happen in a grocery store? Would the vegetables suddenly animate and attempt to massacre all the humans that were their enemy only for them to suddenly call a truce because the broccoli fell in love with the enemy. Damn that broccoli!

  “Gwen?”

  “Yeah?” She looked up meeting the concerned gaze of Sam.

  “Are you going to get that?”

  She looked down surprised that there was a bunch of broccoli in her hand. “Umm.”

  “I thought you hated stuff like that?” He snickered.

  She shrugged. “It’s good with cheese on it.”

  “Everything is good with cheese. But, I think that defeats the purpose of eating vegetables.”

  Gwen placed the food back down and pushed the cart onwards. Sam followed quietly behind her. They quickly finished up the rest of the shopping and Sam was driving them back to the Lander’s land in silence when he interrupted her thoughts again.

  “Gwen?”

  She turned to him. “Yeah?”

  “You’ve been distracted for a while now. Are you sure everything's okay?”

  Gwen looked out the passenger window. As the omega, she had always been protected. Most of the time she didn’t mind. It was like having a bunch of older siblings that were always looking out for her but lately it had really been getting on her nerves. She rarely ever had time alone just to think and everyone was always in her business. The omega had long ago given up on the hope of one day finding her mate simply based on the fact that no one in the clan gave her tingles. The most excitement she had in her life was that whole thing with Cait and Snow, a few years ago. Gwen smiled at the thought of the odd couple.

  “Gwen?”

  “I’m fine Sam. There is just a lot on my mind right now.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  She shook her head. “It’s not important.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  “I am.”

  “Okay.”

  They sat in silence for a while before Sam chuckled. “My goal for the trip is to tip someone's canoe.”

  “You better not tip mine. I’ll kill you!”

  “You and what army? I can squish you with my thumb.” He laughed.

  “I’ll set Remus on you!”

  Sam stopped. “Of course I won’t tip yours. I was thinking about tipping Chris’s. He’s been annoying lately with all the talk about his new motorcycle. The whole clan has been subjected to his monologue about it.”

  Gwen laughed. “I might even help you then.”

  They both shared a laugh before it was quiet again.

  “Gwen?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I want you to know that you can tell me anything. I would never judge you. You’ve been my friend since we were kids and I’ll always be there for you if you let me.”

  Gwen smiled. “I know.”

  He smiled. “Good.”

  She looked back out her window. “I’m just not ready to talk about it yet.”

  He nodded. “When you’re ready then.”

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded again and reached forward to turn on the radio. The sound of the Lord of The Rings soundtrack blasted through the speakers.

  Gwen giggled and relaxed fully into her seat as she watched the scenery whip by. He always was a bit of a nerd despite being one of the bigger wolves in the clan. He was in line to be the next beta. He still had to challenge the current beta though, before he can claim the current position, and Sam just never seemed to have the ambition to do it. Gwen always wondered why he didn’t. The current beta was old, but he was smart, and had battle experience. Sam was definitely stronger than him though. Gwen always just figured that he would do it when he was ready. She glanced over to the man. What was he waiting for?

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  Adventures of Elena the Werewolf

  Chapter 1

  Elena looked up, from where she was playing with her Wolfy in the center of the living room, when her mom exited from the kitchen.

  “Hey, baby,” Cait said as she paused on her way to her bedroom.

  Elena grinned. “Mom!” she yelled and jumped up, still gripping her stuffed wolf, and ran over to her mom, throwing her arms around her legs.

  Cait chuckled. “What’s wrong?”

  “I want to play. Play with me. Please!”

  Cait pat her daughter's head and glanced up at the clock next to the bookshelf. Elena heard her hum softly before she looked back down at her with a grin. “How about we wrestle? You can show me what Remus has been teaching you lately.”

  “Yay!” Elena cheered and Cait grimaced when she felt the slimy wet feeling of her daughter’s stuffed animal brush against her unclothed leg. They really needed to break her out of the habit of chewing on it.

  “We have to move some furniture about first though. You know how your mama gets when we mess things up too much.”

  Elena grinned as she remembered her mama yelling at her mom for a really long time after she had broken another lamp. The five-year-old giggled. “Okay!”

  “Great, show me those awesome muscles and help me move the couch.”

  Together the two of them moved the furniture to create a type of boxing ring around them so that if they went too far they would be stopped by some type of cushion. Elena couldn’t help the excitement that built in her chest. She couldn’t wait to show her mom all the awesome things she could do. She wanted her mom to praise her and be proud. So, she was
going to do her best. The little girl felt her wolf agree from within her and she couldn’t help it when her nails grew longer and her teeth sharper due to her wolf brushing up against her humanity. Aunty Gwen was always making her meditate to control her wolf but whenever she fought with her mom, she never had to worry about that. Her mom was the strongest and would keep her from going out of control.

  Cait grinned down at her daughter from the other side of the small ring. “Are you ready?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Then come at me.”

  Elena jumped and the fight began.

  * * *

  Cait Fallon lunged at her daughter only for the little girl to jump out of the way with a soft giggle. Her mother continued with this game of cat and mouse as she chased Elena around the living room. Her daughter had improved in her fighting skills in such a short amount of time that she couldn’t help the swell of pride that filled her. It didn’t take long for Cait to get lost in thought.

  Cait had dreaded the day when Elena’s wolf would finally manifest. It had been a personal source of anguish night after night. She would obsess over whether or not her daughter would be average and healthy. Cait could still remember the relief when the day finally came. They had been having their weekly play wrestling match in the house when it happened. The wrestling matches may drive her wife crazy, due to having to replace several vases and a broken coffee table once or twice, but it was important to help her daughter build good instincts for fighting. So, when she grabbed her daughter mid-air she was surprised to feel an armful of soft fuzz instead of the baby soft skin of her five-year-old.

  “Elena?”

  A tiny whine was her answer as she looked down into eyes as blue as the deepest ocean and the laugh she released was one of relieved joy. The Fallon blood was strong in her daughter. Everything was going to be alright. Cait held her little girl up to get a better look at her and was surprised at what she saw. Elena was small, about the size of a three-month-old puppy, with obsidian fur that lacked any shades of brown. What had Cait worried wasn’t the dark color of her daughter’s fur but the shock of ocean blue fur that curled around Elena’s left eye in the shape of the letter, ‘C’. On the center of her forehead was a small blue teardrop.

  Cait frowned. She had never seen anything quite like this. Some werewolves were known to have strange designs on their fur but never blue or any color besides the regular ones found on natural wolves. Elena yipped and licked Cait’s nose making her mother gasp before bursting into laughter. “Don’t worry baby, there is nothing to be afraid of. I’ll help you change back.”

  Elena whined again and Cait smiled. Right now, her daughter needed love and support. She could discuss the peculiarity with Snow when her wife came home, but for now, she needed to coach her daughter on how to change back.

  Cait was pulled from her trip down memory lane when her head collided with something hard. She had gotten lost in thought while wrestling with Elena, again. She grunted as she realized what had happened when her body was on autopilot. Cait had been chasing her daughter around the living room when Elena suddenly jumped out of the way resulting in her mother’s head getting stuck between the bolted in bookshelf and the wall.

  “Mom?” Elena whispered.

  The redhead growled and jerked backward only for a sinking feeling to settle in her gut when she didn’t even budge an inch. “Shit.”

  “Mom said a bad word!”

  “Elena, baby, can you help me?”

  “What should I do?”

  “Um, can you pull me from my waist?”

  There was a moment’s pause followed by tiny arms grabbing either side of Cait’s hips. Despite being young, her daughter had gained significant strength once her werewolf manifested. The tiny arms flexed with a surprising amount of muscle for such a young child as Elena pulled. Cait grunted and pushed with her hands but had to stop at the sudden pain on each side of her head. Her ears were burning as she sighed and slumped down.

  “Mom, what should we do?”

  “Elena, what time is it?”

  There was a pause. They were still working on teaching her how to tell time on an analog clock. “The big hand is on the twelve and the small hand is on the nine.”

  Cait sighed. Her wife should be home any minute. Snow’s abilities should help her with her problem. She would just have to wait. And wait she did.

  * * *

  Elena turned away from where she had been sitting and speaking with Cait who was still stuck when she heard the front door to their apartment open. She jumped up and ran to the door even as Cait called her back. When she saw her mama enter she couldn’t stop the burst of excitement as she dove at her.

  “Mama!”

  Suddenly, Snow had a handful of a dark-haired child in her arms. “Elena?”

  The little girl’s midnight blue eyes locked with Snow’s dark brown and she grinned making her mama laugh before yelling out, “You’re back.”

  Snow kissed the five-year-old on the cheek and carried her into the living room where she was met with another surprising site. She paused in the hallway while Elena giggled. “Cait?”

  Her lover and mate was in quite the predicament. Cait laughed pitifully. “Don’t ask. It’s too embarrassing.”

  Snow grinned. “Do you need some help?”

  Cait sighed. “I’d appreciate it.”

  Placing her daughter down, the little girl slipped her hand into her mother’s and dragged her forward further into the living room.

  Elena laughed. “I asked Mom to play but she got stuck!”

  Snow held back the laugh that threatened to escape as she kneeled down to where her lover had somehow gotten her head stuck between the bolted in book shelf and the wall. Snow placed her hand on the wall and let her power trickled out until both the wall and bookshelf were coated with a thin layer of ice. “Go ahead and try pulling out now.”

  Cait grunted but jerked around. Suddenly, her head slipped out and she fell back causing the startled Elena to cry out and giggle. “Mom has a big head!”

  Snow couldn’t hold it in anymore. “That’s because her ego inflates it all the time.” She burst into laughter as Cait grumbled and rubbed her freezing red ears.

  “Yeah, go ahead and laugh it up.”

  “Cait, honey. How on earth did you get stuck like that? And how long were you stuck for?”

  Elena smiled as she held her hands up and spread them out as if to measure the length of time. “Mom’s been stuck for hours upon hours.”

  “Baby, I wasn’t stuck for quite that long,” Cait said as she picked up her daughter and rubbed her face into her belly making the little girl cry out in laughter.

  “Mom’s gonna eat me!”

  Snow frowned and placed her hands on her hips. “By the way, why is Elena still awake? It’s way past her bedtime.”

  Cait met her wife's gaze and though Snow looked a little disgruntled her eyes twinkled with laughter. “Snowflake, my head was stuck between a bookshelf and a wall for half an hour.” She said stoically making her wife grin in response.

  Snow giggled while shaking her head from side to side. “Cait, what are we going to do with you?”

  The werewolf leaned forward. “Give me a kiss, to soothe my battered ego that apparently inflated my head.”

  Snow leaned forward and met warm lips. As her parents kissed Elena suddenly felt a sharp sting of irritation and reacted before she could coherently think her actions through. She nipped at Cait’s ear playfully but the answering growl was anything but playful. The little girl felt her wolf whine before pulling back into its safe place and Elena felt her heart drop. She didn’t like being scolded. It hurt. Her face fell when she met the disapproving look her mom was giving her. “Elena.”

  “Sorry, Mom.”

  Cait sighed and kissed the girl on the head. “It’s okay. Aunty Gwen will talk to you about it later, but for now, it’s bedtime for the little werewolf.”

  “Already?” she huffed.

&
nbsp; “Don’t you want to grow into a big and strong werewolf?”

  “Like you?”

  Cait chuckled. “Just like me.”

  “Will I be bigger and stronger than you?”

  Cait thought this over while exaggerating her actions when she tapped her chin. “I don’t know. It depends if you go to bed on time.”

  Elena growled but it was more like a puppies growl then the threatening growl that her mother could produce. Cait kissed her forehead again. “Keep working on that.”

  The redhead carried her down the hallway and into her bedroom before laying her down in her moon themed bedsheets.

  “I don’t want to go to bed yet.”

  “I know baby, but you have too. It’s your bedtime and you have to get up early tomorrow for your lesson with Aunty Gwen.”

  “But I--” she paused to yawn before frowning when her mom chuckled.

  “Go to sleep sweetie.”

  Elena glanced around looking for something. “I don’t have Wolfy.”

  Cait grimaced thinking back to the soggy toy. She needed to speak with Snow about how they could begin breaking that awful habit that their daughter had of sucking and chewing on the toy. She was getting too old for it and honestly, Cait hated having to wash the thing all the time but that was a problem for another time.

  “Your Mama is bringing it,” she said as she heard Snow coming towards them.

  “But--”

  “Shh.” Cait tucked a strand of dark hair behind her daughter’s ear and growled warmly from deep within her chest.

  Elena returned an answering growl as her wolf responded to the gentle prodding. Cait’s growls turned into soft hums that then turned into a lullaby in their natural language. Elena’s eyes began to close until she could barely keep them open. Absently, she felt her arm lifted and something soft placed underneath it. Shortly after the soft murmur of voices left her room she drifted off into darkness and succumbed to the call of sleep.

  Chapter 2

  Elena climbed out of her booster seat with the help of her mother. Cait smiled when her little girl smiled triumphantly after jumping out of the car and slamming the door shut.