FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 1

"Twins? Three billion people on this planet and you boys find twins to love?" Will whined. "Do you realize how many decades it took me to figure out which one of you was which?"

The twin leaning with his hands against Tuff's chest was gasping for breath. "You will know I'm Damien because I will always be with Tuff."

"And I'm Darius because I'm with Tiff," the other twin huffed. He took a deep breath and let it out. "Easy-peasy."

Will stared at the two men. They were tall and muscular, with a stocky build the twins loved. Their dark umber skin highlighted the sweat that captured the cool blue light of the field as the last of the sun slipped behind the mountains. Tiny rivulets flowed over their faces and chests. Part of it came from the run they had taken around the glade at Will's insistence, but equal to that was the sheer nervous tension he inspired in them. If there was anything about the two that Will liked after an afternoon of questioning and tasks, he wasn't letting on.

"Yeah, easy-peasy until you're off running in the night with us," Will griped. He wagged his hand toward their hanging genitals. "One of you couldn't have your dick hang to the opposite side? And why are both heads shaved and the two of you sporting the same goatee? I swear if I counted every hair on those beards, they'd be the same for both of you."

The twins gave an apologetic shrug. The two were trying to get the last two members to approve their joining the pack. But of greater importance was the reason for their request. They wanted to be part of the pack so that they could mate with Tiff and Tuff.

In the open field of the highland, surrounded by a group of naked men, Will was ensuring they jumped through every hoop he could think of. Finally, the grizzled man yielded his first sideways compliment. "Oh well, love is strange. I guess I can't fault you for loving the two of them. I certainly do." Will looked at the twins. "Testing done. On to more important things. Can you cook? Do you do dishes? Do you like big guys? Are you a top or a bottom?"

Darius laughed out loud. "We didn't believe them when they said you would be this way."

Damien walked over to Will and rubbed under his bearded chin. "Are you a top or a bottom?"

"Bottom. And like a five-star, been doing this for centuries, kind of bottom."

Damien rubbed the sweat off the tightly knit black hair that covered his chest. "Then, I am a top," he answered with a wicked grin. "At least for one night a month."

"Okay, you can marry this one," Will capitulated.

Derrick shook his head. With a chuckle, he stepped forward. The rotund man's pale skin glowed in the light of the setting sun. He rubbed the sparse patch of hair that covered the middle of his chest and smiled at the twins. "My turn, since time is getting short here. I have only one question to ask you, and it's something the entire pack deserves to know. Do you know, and I mean really know, what you're getting yourself into when you say that you love these two beautiful souls?"

Everyone could tell the twins were thinking. "No, I don't think we really do," Darius answered.

Damien nodded his head in agreement. "But did you, Wolfy?"

"Hell, no," Derrick laughed. "That's why I asked. If you had said yes, I would have doubted either your sincerity or your intelligence."

Will shook himself into his werewolf form and growled, "And this part?"

Damien smiled again. "Tuff told me you were handsome as a man but irresistible as a wolf."

Will snorted. The breath came out of his nose like smoke into the cold air. "One, I don't particularly like anyone calling me a man. And two, I mean, did they tell you if you ever hurt my boys, or give them cause to regret this night, I will hunt you down and chew your nuts off?"

"Actually," Darius replied, "I kind of got the impression it was going to be both our dick and balls."

Will shook back into his human form. "Just so we're clear."

"Crystal," both responded together.

"Oh, and that brings up another thing," Will added. "If you ever start talking in tandem like those two, so help me..."

Darius interjected, "no, no... frankly, even we think that's weird."

"We don't do it intentionally," Tiff and Tuff objected in unison.

Jean Pierre laughed. "Okay, Old Wolf, Pup, what do you say? Is it unanimous?"

The two looked at each other, and Derrick smiled. "Welcome to the family."

"Yeah," Will said with a nod. "If you can hold up to what I put you through, I figure you love our boys. The pack has two new wolves to run with."

Jean Pierre stood up and shook himself into his werewolf form. "It's a beautiful night. The moon is full, and I see the love in these two men's eyes." He nodded toward Will. "And in deference to the wolf who prefers not to even hear the word 'man' in polite company, I say we change their status as soon as possible." The Eurasian wolf looked at the four. "We seem to be a pack that is all about breaking tradition. If you boys would like to head out into the forest on your own tonight, you can run with the pack another evening. Sometimes this group can be..." the alpha paused, trying to find the right word, "overwhelming."

Darius and Damien looked at each other. Damien spoke. "Tiff and Tuff told us about tonight. We will honor the traditions that you have had for centuries. And if we're too sore to walk tomorrow, then so be it. But one request. The werewolves who will be our mates should turn us. After that, our bodies and our affections are at your whim."

Jean Pierre looked at the four as they clung to each other. "We wouldn't have it any other way." He held out his hand to Jason and the young lad shook himself into a fox.

Derrick shook and became the black wolf with sparkling blue eyes. Will shook and became the pack's Iberian wolf.

Tiff and Tuff shook and became the red wolves of the clan. They reached out to the twins and took their hands. In unison, they spoke, "Werebeasts live a long time. Mating between wolves is for life. We have lived for centuries and to us, it is second nature to love so deeply. Are you sure this is what you want?"

Darius spoke first. "We have talked about this for days now. I can't say we're not intimidated by the idea of forever. But we are here tonight because we can't imagine our days ahead without you."

"You two come from excellent stock," Damien added. "If we can be as fiercely protective of our love as your pack has been, we will have done ourselves proud. We're ready."

The red wolves grabbed the two willing men and pulled them into the dark woods. The evening passed, and the pack paced as they sensed the men yielding to the red wolves. Derrick was the most agitated. Once the novitiate, this was his first time as a part of the pack preparing to induct another. "Is... is... this... this always so overwhelming?" he whimpered. "Their scent is driving me crazy. It's never been like this before." There was a short, guttural growl and a snap from his jaw that betrayed his turmoil.

Will reached over and held his mate. "Initiations are always tough for both sides. The turning does something to us. It's like every sense, every hormone, is in overdrive. And by the time those four have mated, we'll be beasts in full-on musth."

Jean Pierre reached out to the black wolf and gave him a loving rub. "Let it happen, Pup. Fighting the instincts only makes them worse. Soon enough, the four will be ready for us and you'll find release."

"I'm so hard it hurts," Derrick cried.

"We all are, Pup," Will said, trying his best to calm the young wolf. "We'll help you through this night, the same way as we did your first night. This, too, gets easier with experience. The beast in us learns. We control it; it doesn't control us. But we find a compromise during times like this. Don't fight who we are. Let it be. But don't ignore the love right underneath all that carnality. We are beasts. We are not animals." He listened to the labored panting of his mate. Pulling him down to the ground, Will held him even tighter, hoping that the four would call for them soon.

Moments stretched into what seemed like hours for the struggling young wolf. Every muscle strained in a flood of desire. He didn't know how his mate contained it; but there Will sat, holding Derrick's head in his lap while the young wolf shuddered uncontrollably. Both Will and Jean Pierre knew before the young ones even sensed it. Their muzzles twitched as they caught the scent of new wolves on the highland. "Soon, Pup," Will said. "We only have to wait for their call." When they heard the howl of the initiates, they raced into the woods, raising their voices in greeting.

As dawn gave way to morning, the pack staggered out from the woods. All still in their werewolf incarnations, they blinked back the brightness of the sun. "Oh gawd," Damien groaned, rubbing his new teeth with a paw. "The old wolf might have dislocated my jaw."

"It will heal," Will mumbled. "Don't be such a wuss."

"Will!" the black wolf barked.

"Sorry, Damien," Will apologized. "We can be rough sometimes." He walked over to the new werewolf and stroked his muzzle. "Your body will get stronger in time, and such things won't be an issue. I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"You've got a big cock, you know that?" Damien moaned.

"Well, it seems to be a common trait in our pack. I've noticed you two are no slouches in that department." Will reached out and stroked Damien's cock. "Thanks for being true to your word about being a top."

Damien smiled as he sat down. "Old Wolf, if I have to fight past both of our husbands, I will find a way back to that ass of yours, I promise you." He looked at Will quizzically for a moment and then said, "Wait a minute. How do you know I'm Damien? I thought you couldn't tell us apart."

"I can't," Will admitted. "Especially now that all four of you are red wolves. Couldn't make it easy on the old wolf, could you?"

"Sorry. That whole thing about tradition, you know."

"It was a wonderful gesture. You four do the red wolves a great honor," Will agreed.

"So?"

"Oh that," Will said nonchalantly. "You're the one with a dislocated jaw and cum all over his face." He leaned over and licked across Damien's muzzle. "Yep, that's mine," he said with a leering grin.

Damien laughed aloud. "Now I know why Tuff loves you so much. You're the first ma..." He caught himself mid-word. "Sorry, Will. You're the first individual I've ever fucked and sucked off simultaneously," Damien said with pride. "That was pretty amazing. It's fantastic what these bodies can do in the heat of the moment."

"Yeah, but these bodies will take some getting used to," Darius said as he stumbled out of the woods and wobbled toward his brother.

Derrick laughed. "You're doing great for the first night, trust me." He stood up and helped Darius to a fallen log where he sat down. "It gets easier with time."

"God, I hope so," Darius laughed. "I thought Tiff tore me a new one until Jean Pierre pinned me down." He looked toward the Alpha and added, "No disrespect meant, Sir."

"None taken," the French wolf replied. "I can be overzealous welcoming our new pack initiates."

Jason looked up from where he sat. "Point of fact, he can be a lot overzealous with his pack. I suspect it's one reason he's the alpha." He sat thinking for a moment. "It's one of the many reasons I love him."

Jean Pierre leaned over and helped the young fox to his feet. "Darius, Damien, before we leave you to share this day alone with your mates, there is another break with tradition I would like to share with you, if I may." The two looked up and nodded their consent. "Tiff, Tuff, help your husbands up. It's a bit of a walk to the cave and they're going to need your support." Derrick and Will looked at each other and smiled.

Inside the cave, the two initiates watched the crystal, enthralled by the flowing tide of green light. "Is that Eric and Kris?" Darius asked.

"That's them," Derrick said, reaching out and touching the stone. "Papa Bear, Husband, we have new initiates to the pack to introduce to you."

"They're Damien and Darius. The twins mated with twins. Can you believe it?" Will said. "And they choose to honor the fallen by becoming red wolves themselves. We have a quartet of them now. Believe me; it will be some time before we sort them all out. But they are beautiful."

Damien looked at Derrick. "Can they hear us?"

"To a degree," Derrick answered. "It's more like those quiet moments when you know what another is thinking, even without words. But we talk to them. We want them to know they're missed and loved, and still a part of our family."

"And while they are not a part of the pack," Jean Pierre added, "They are a part of your extended family. The great white bear raised Tiff and Tuff. He is like a father to them."

"No," the twins corrected. "He is our father. As are Jean Pierre and Will. They raised us. They deserve the title of the ones who did so."

"But you also call Will 'Old Wolf'," Darius said in confusion.

"Same wolf, different title," the twins responded. "Just as we all have many titles in our lives; the pack will be many things to you and carry many titles in time. Will is father, brother, lover, mentor, friend..."

"Playtoy," Will interrupted. "Don't forget playtoy."

The Twins smiled. "And playtoy. We have never thought to limit his titles. Because he has never limited his willingness to be whatever he needed to be to ensure our safety and happiness."

"Does that mean you are our fathers-in-law?" Damien tried to confirm, looking at Jean Pierre and Will.

"No need to stand on ceremony," Jean Pierre replied. "You can call us whatever name you grow comfortable with. There is some ceremonial claptrap about my title that you have to observe in the presence of other packs, but when we're alone, I don't care."

"Except Papa," Will corrected. "Only the fox gets to call Jean Pierre that."

"You have a point there," Jean Pierre smiled, pulling the fox in close to him. He rubbed the fox's head gently. "I'm not all that sure he will get to call me Papa forever; but for now, I'm comfortable with it."

Darius looked at Damien. "We're going to need a flowchart to sort out this family."

Jean Pierre chuckled. "You will have a great deal of time to sort us all out. I believe it will take one of us even longer to sort the two of you out."

"You would think that you wouldn't make fun of the guy who's going to make your breakfast," Will grumbled. "Have you heard about the horrible things upset chefs do to people's breakfasts when they can't see the cook?"

Jean Pierre grabbed the old wolf and hugged him. "We all have a great deal of time, Old Wolf. I'm sure the twins are in no hurry for you to sort them out."

"Unless you want to sort us out by taste," Damien said, looking at Will with a smile. "We could help with that."

Will looked at Tuff. "Whatever possessed you to marry this horndog?"

Uncharacteristically, Tuff answered by himself. "He reminds me of my father."

The family laughed in unison except for Will, who did his best to fight back his smile. "Okay, I'm making breakfast," Will blustered. "After that, whose sausage you eat is entirely up to you." He looked at Damien and Darius as the two wrapped their arms around their husbands. "I used to think that no one would be good enough for our boys. I was wrong."

Derrick came up and put his arm around Will's waist. "Okay, let's get this day going," he said. "If you want breakfast, we better see you headed out of this cave now. We can reveal our secret approach to cooking eggs and sausage to no one." He looked at the two pairs of twins and smiled. "Don't worry, we won't cut into your honeymoon day any more than we have to."

The crowd of werewolves pushed toward the cave's entrance in a disorganized fashion and stumbled back into the sunshine. Derrick and Will set about making breakfast. The twin twins moved the newly delivered picnic tables into a single line to accommodate their family. Jean Pierre and Jason rocked quietly on the porch swing. The family of wolves was preparing to meet the day. Deep inside the cave, the green crystal glowed brightly.

Chapter 2

Derrick felt himself jostled by the big man looming over him. "Wakey, wakey," Will said, far too perky for so early in the morning. "Time to get up Sleeping Beauty. Do you know what day this is?"

"The day the news reports talk about the tragic death of a werewolf killed by his husband who insisted on waking him too early in the morning?"

"Nope. Already been dead. It's highly overrated. Won't be doing that again soon. Today is our anniversary."

Derrick struggled to clear his morning head. "Really?"

"Yep. It's been thirty-eight years since we bit the bear's neck and he bit back."

"Oh jeez. I can't believe it's come around again."

"Yep, so, we get to bite each other's necks as we agreed. And you get to fuck me silly in absentia for the bear."

Derrick propped himself up on his elbows. "And why is it every year I play the part of the bear and you play the part of the wolf?"

"Oh, that's easy, Pup. I've been a wolf much longer than you. I know how to play the part better."

"If you weren't so much fun to fuck, at some point we would have to open negotiations about how this anniversary celebration always plays out."

"Well, that and you realize I also play the part of the wolf who fucks the bear until he shoots his load all over the ceiling."

Derrick smiled. "Well, there is that." He looked up at the ceiling. "Although I do sometimes worry about us developing jizz stalactites over the bed if we don't break up the routine one of these years."

"It's a tradition, Pup," the old wolf said gleefully. "You bite my neck and fuck me, I bite your neck and fuck you, and then we go in and visit our husband and his son. You tell them all sorts of nice things about how we miss them, and I kick the bastards for not coming back soon enough."

"Yeah, true love runs its course for yet another year."

"Maybe you should kick them this year," Will suggested.

"I don't want to kick them, Old Wolf," Derrick said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "You might find it cathartic, but it just hurts my foot."

"But honey, you know the saying. 'The family that kicks together sticks together.'"

Derrick looked at Will and shook his head no. "They don't say that. Even if they did, the answer would still be no."

"I made French toast and eggs."

"Is that a bribe to kick our husband?"

"Will it work?"

"No."

"Okay, then it's one of those fancy meals that make you feel as if you have to put out after all the hard work I went to."

Derrick reached up and grabbed his husband, pulling him down on the bed and into a tight hug. His lips pressed up against Will's and as they kissed, both men shifted into werewolves. The anniversary celebrations had begun. Later in the evening, they would eat the cold French toast and eggs for the thirty-seventh time in as many years.

Night found the two outside staring at the stars as they so often did. The Milky Way spread across the horizon and the two pointed out constellations. Long ago, the two memorized all the recognized constellations of the Greek, Aztec, Druid, and Indian Vedic. Soon afterward, they started creating their own constellations. They were to honor their loved ones and make playful pictures in the night sky.

Tonight they pointed to Ursa Major and Minor. No longer the greater and lesser bears, the two would call them Kris and Eric and laugh. On this one night a year, they were the husband and his son. The two watched as the stars did a slow pivot around the North Star, although it was harder to see them through the tears. Still, each year, the wolves stayed in the moment, watching them rotate through the sky. Tonight, they stayed until the fog blocked the sky and convinced them to return to the cave.

Inside the cave, the two slipped back into their human forms and kissed. Will never admitted it to anyone, but he enjoyed his human form. When he was with his mate, the ape skin was alive with feelings and sensations unique to that form. He never abandoned his human self any more than he abandoned the species from which he came. But his fondness for both always lay concealed.

Derrick walked over to the green stone and rubbed it. "Hello, Husband. Hello, Papa Bear," he said, beginning the tradition anew. "Happy anniversary. Please come back soon, Husband. We miss the feel of your teeth on our necks. And you, Papa Bear. We dream of the day when we will feel yours. Come back soon. Let us bite your neck as well."

"Yeah, Old Bear," Will added as he touched the crystal. "Let me be picking out white fur from my mouth for days."

Derrick looked at Will and shook his head in disbelief.

"What?" Will protested. "You know Papa Bear sheds."

"We all do, goof."

"Yeah, but I mean he's a major shedder. You know his recliner back at the ranch? The one he sat in when he was a bear? If it weren't for staff vacuuming that thing every day, that white fur of his would have buried it within a month."

Derrick looked back at the crystal. "Come back and shed all over us, Papa Bear. I miss burying my face in your fur."

"And I miss burying my face in your crotch, Husband," Will said, the longing clear in his voice. "Both of you come back, please. It's not good for a family to be apart this long." Will's foot struck the rock. "Fucking Changelings. Late to everything, including their own anniversaries."

Derrick smiled. "Fucking Changelings."

Will's face flushed with a look of concern. "What's the matter, Old Wolf?" Derrick asked.

"I may have caused a problem, Pup," Will answered. He lifted his foot to reveal the glowing green liquid dripping from it.

"Oh god," Derrick cried out. "What have you done, Will?"

"I don't know, Pup. I didn't kick it any harder than normal. We have to do something." Will cast his gaze about the room in confusion. "Grab the duct tape. Maybe we can seal up the crack."

Derrick, having no better option on hand, ran out into the antechamber and rummaged through the junk drawer, looking for the tape. When he returned, he found his mate trying to push the liquid back into the seeping crack. "Fucking Changelings. You said I could kick you. Now, look at the mess I've made. I swear if this goo is even an inch of your dick disappearing, I will never forgive you or myself."

Derrick took a big swath of tape and pressed it over the crack. "They'll be fine, Old Wolf. Don't worry." Derrick was not confident in his words, but regardless of the outcome, he gained little by making Will suffer even more.

A few more pieces of duct tape over the crack and the dripping stopped. "See?" Derrick said, smiling at his mate. "Duct tape fixes everything."

The two were starting to calm down when a noise like shattering glass startled both of them. Near the top of the stone, another breach had opened. "More tape, Pup," Will cried out.

Before Derrick could move to cover the oozing gap, a shape like a fist of the green-colored liquid burst through the crystal. It bubbled up from the chrysalis like a fountain, the liquid rising, and spilling back into the shattered hole. Another appendage of flowing goo sprung up out of the breaking rock, and then another, and another. Pieces of the rock crumbled as two familiar figures rose from either side. The one on the left began taking on the characteristics of the polar bear. On the right, taking his time was the Kodiak, growing bulkier and more disheveled with every moment. The body rounded and lengthened until; at last, it outgrew the polar bear next to it. When the ruddy color returned to the bulky beast, he shook himself and groaned happily. "Oh, that feels good," the brown bear said.

The polar bear rose and placed his paws on the ceiling, pushing into a long stretch. "Yeah. Nice to have the body back. Thank you for everything, Dad." The polar bear reached over and pulled the Kodiak up to him. The kiss they shared was as passionate as one would expect from having watched them kiss others in their previous lives. As passionate as expected, had it not been for the word Dad.

"You're welcome, Son," came the Kodiak's reply as he caressed his child.

Derrick fidgeted at the interaction. "Here we go again," Will mumbled to himself. He dreaded the conversations in the days to come.

The bears separated and stretched out their arms. Derrick and Will noticed that the two bears remained tied to the broken shards of crystal and goo by their glowing hind legs. The shattered rock of the chrysalis turned slowly to liquid. The absorbing liquid shaped itself into the fur and claw of the bears' lower feet.

The two humans continued watching as the glowing liquid flowed around the two reconstituting bears. Their heads cocked in curiosity when, between the two great bears, another glowing mass lifted. The gelatinous blob soon took on the characteristic of the Kodiak, but with a less arched back. However, it seemed oblivious to the relative size of the other two bears.

Growing without a sign of slowing, the hulking shape rose onto what were now hind legs covered in green fur. The main body pushed up and outward. When at last the head pushed up against the ceiling of the cave with no room to grow, it slouched back down and fell onto all fours. Dwarfing the other two bears, its glowing fur faded, and the warm browns and whites one expected from a bruin replaced it.

The forelegs were longer than any grizzly either Derrick or Will had seen, and the rear legs were more muscled. This was a bear used to standing on its hindquarters. As the colors shifted, the fur turned a warm, dark brown except for the short, flat muzzle. The muzzle was white, and the white fur spread out across the face and up over the eyes like a comical pair of glasses. The chest below also showed signs of white fur, but how far it reached was indiscernible, covered by the mass of the beast's forelegs.

"Well, he's definitely a bear," Will said. "I guess we best shift to greet him properly." He shook his head and the fur of the werewolf moved across the changing body like a wave. Derrick shook himself, and the black wolf watched the transformation continue.

As the bear continued to take form, Derrick and Will could see a sense of pride in the two other bears. "He's a short-faced bear," the Kodiak said.

"Arctotherium Angustidens, to be exact," the polar bear added. "A South American subspecies of short-faced bears. The largest bear to have lived on this planet."

The short-faced bear opened its mouth and snapped it shut several times as if trying to loosen up the muscles in the jaw. In one motion, it fell back onto its hind legs and plopped down on its butt. The two wolves stared as the bear began the all too familiar rocking motion of their beloved bears.

The bear made a wide grin and spoke. "How's it hanging, wolfies?"

The bear looked at the flabbergasted wolves and sighed. "Dad was right. I should have gone with 'greetings, Earthlings'. That seemed to work for him."

In unison, the wolves asked, "Dad?"

Eric clapped his paws together happily. "Derrick, Will, meet our son, Nathaniel."

Derrick waved a confused hello. Will waved his hand once and said, "How's it hanging, Bear?"

Nathaniel looked down at his crotch. "Pretty good, if I'm not mistaken. It's tougher to piece things together when you're working from a fossil record." He reached down and pulled a pendulous cock from the sack it hid in. "What do you think?" the bear asked.

"I think you're your fathers' kid," Will muttered.

Derrick shook his head in disbelief. "Welcome to earth, Nathaniel."

Will continued to stare at the bear. "So, the father and the son give birth to a baby boy. But the son is an extinct bear species that is older than the avatars of his two dad bears. But his dads are in reality older than he is, and they're both father and son. We've passed the limit where even Keldo Ramses would think we're too fucked up for TV."

"Keldo Ramses?" the polar bear asked.

"Jerry Springer or Maury Povich back in your day, Old Bear," the Iberian wolf answered.

The polar bear looked crestfallen. "You don't approve?"

Will waved his hands back and forth. "No, no. Nothing like that. I'm thrilled to see all three of you. You know me. The more bears the merrier." He approached the short-faced bear and extended his arms. "How about giving your old Uncle Will a hug?"

"Uncle?" the bear asked.

"We'll sort it all out later," Will said, pulling the bear into a hug that the bear happily returned.

Derrick moved to hug the bear when he felt a tug at his nape. The polar bear yanked him away and planted a kiss square on his muzzle. "Welcome home, Papa Bear," Derrick whispered.

"It's good to be home," the bear said, never letting his hug or kiss ease up.

Nathaniel watched the two kiss. Will could tell by the way the young bear's hands moved he was trying to duplicate the positioning of the bear and wolf. "Here, Kid," he said grabbing the Kodiak, "watch your daddy and I show you how it's done. Those two never use enough tongue." He kissed the ruddy bear and sighed. "God, I missed you, Husband."

"I missed you too, Husband," the bear concurred. "Now, if you don't mind, let's add a bit more tongue."

Nathaniel rocked back and forth, watching the foursome and their long-awaited reunion. He looked down between his legs and smiled. "So that's a boner," he said gleefully. "Dad was right. They feel great."

When the foursome broke from their greetings, Nathaniel wasn't the only one with an erection. The polar bear looked at the young werewolf and smiled. "I have more than a few necks to bite, but yours is..."

"Papa Bear," Derrick interrupted, with hesitation in his voice.

The white bear put his paw up to the young werewolf's muzzle. "Before you say anything, let's go walking." He took the paw of the werewolf into his massive paw and clenched it. "It's always been easier for you to sort through your thoughts when we're walking." Together, they walked from the cave.

Inside the cave, Will looked at Kris. "So, now they're going to have the big 'can I marry the father and the son' talk, followed by the 'you want to do what with your father?' talk. Do you think we have a chance, Bear?"

"Wasn't it you who said he was worth waiting for?" the brown bear asked.

"I still believe that," Will replied. "But damn, the three of us are going to have blue balls for weeks if the pup doesn't figure it out sooner than later." Kris laughed and kissed the wolf once more.

Nathaniel looked at the two. "You four need to mate. I may not understand much about this world, but I know when people should be together. You four are like poster children for why people should marry."

Will looked at Nathaniel. "You haven't been here long, Kid. Not only are we not 'one man and one woman, but we're also four guys, two of which are father and son. That's not exactly poster material for the world out there on any level."

Nathaniel nodded in agreement. "Maybe not for humans, but then I'm not talking about the humans. First, they're polygamists; but only if you're a man. Then they decide polygamy is bad, and that they have to be monogamists. But then they don't do monogamy all that well because they're bouncing around being bigamists behind each other's backs. But that's forbidden, so they get all jealous, divorce, and walk away from it all. And they forbid divorce as well. It doesn't matter what humans choose, they can't help but break their own rules. And don't get me started on that 'which sexes can get married' crap." Nathaniel's brow furrowed. "Humans are the last species I'd want setting the standards of morality and righteousness in my life. Aren't they even at war right now, killing each other over metal and oil?"

Will held up his hand. "Actually, it's over water this time, but take a breath, Kid. Don't go thinking about the humans too much. It will fuck up your new brain and we can't go having that."

Nathaniel took a deep breath and relaxed. "Thank you, Uncle Will. I guess I was getting a bit carried away." He shifted his position. "I was talking about the Weres. You're the poster children for what marriage should look like between the Weres. And I'm also talking about myself. Your children need to see that love endures, that it's okay for us to be in love with whomever our hearts tell us to love.

"Do you know why I'm not afraid of love?" Nathaniel asked, looking toward the antechamber's doorway where the polar bear and the young wolf were now standing.

"Back so soon?" Will asked.

"Nathaniel was about to tell us why he's not afraid to love," Derrick said, pointing to the young bear.

"Because of you four," Nathaniel confessed. "Because I know how hard you work each day to surmount any obstacle that stands in the way of you being together." He looked at Derrick. "Sometimes that means getting past your preconceived notions." He glanced at Will. "And sometimes your self-doubts." He looked up at his parents. "But from the moment I formed, I knew my fathers weren't struggling to be reborn. They were fighting to get back to you two. I hope one day to find that kind of love here on this planet."

Will looked at Nathaniel and shrugged. "You've already found it, Kid. You just don't know it yet. It is possible to share that kind of love without marriage.

Kris nodded. "We weren't only fighting to get back to these two, Son. You were always in our thoughts, but you never felt us worry because we knew you would have all the love you needed the moment you were born."

"Our kind has always been one," Eric continued, "but they are a galaxy away from us now. We needed you to be born into a world where you were already one with those around you. We knew and trusted that would be the case here. Here you have a family."

Nathaniel smiled. "That I do." He looked at Will and touched the wolf's shoulder. "I'm sorry if I forgot."

Will shrugged again. "It's okay, Kid. I forget all the time. I have folks willing to pull me back."

"And that is why you need to mate," Nathaniel pushed. "Here in this cave are those closest to you. The ones who will always pull you back. Don't worry about the rest of the world. Worry about you four for a change." Nathaniel thought for a moment. "Grab the brass ring is the saying, I believe."

"And what about you, Nathaniel?" Kris asked.

"I'll have four fathers to pull me back, Dad," he answered. "How cool is that?"

"So we have your blessing?" Eric queried.

"Of course you have my blessing, Papa." Nathaniel laughed. "And you know what else you have?" he asked, lifting onto all fours and turning toward the mouth of the cave. "You have me leaving so you can get started on whatever kinky sex thing it is you do to mate without worrying about me freaking out." He took a few steps and then paused. "Unless, of course, it's okay for me to watch." He paused again. "No... no... definitely not a good thing for me to see. I'm new to this body and I don't need to go diving into the deep end right away."

The four laughed as Nathaniel turned back once more and left the cave. In the cavern's quiet, the four looked at each other. The short-faced bear had set the stage, but they sat uncomfortably wondering how the play would act out.

"Short walk you two had," Will said, looking at the polar bear and his pup.

"Papa Bear kissed me, and all I could think about was how much I missed him," Derrick replied. "I might always be confused because I mix up human and Changeling biology. But I'm not confused about how much it tears at my soul to be apart from the ones I love." He walked over to the Kodiak and kissed him. "I can't have my husband ever feeling that he has to hide even the least bit of what he feels for Eric because of my confusion. How could I when I love the same bear?"

"So we're good?" the brown bear asked.

"We're better than good," the black wolf replied.

Will looked at the three, perplexed. "So how is this going to work?" he asked. "Are we going to form some daisy chain of neck biting or what?"

Eric smiled. "That's logistically impossible with this many economy-sized bodies in play. I say we take turns until we've all committed to each other. It's like a math problem that's fun to work out." He looked at Derrick and said, "You should be my first. You've waited a long time for this day."

Derrick smiled. "Thank you, Papa Bear. But there is one who has waited much longer than I have. It's Will's neck you should be biting."

The white bear looked toward the old wolf. "Be my mate?" he asked.

Will smiled and dropped his head to expose his neck. "I thought you would never ask." He looked up and, still smiling, added, "literally... I thought you would never ask." His head bowed again. "But I'm glad you asked of me what I never could ask of you."

Eric put his muzzle up against the old wolf's neck. "If we had a few more centuries of this dance, I'm sure we would have figured it all out." The old wolf felt the jaws of the bear tighten around his neck and yielded to their joining.

Kris rolled back onto his butt and watched his son bite into Will's neck. The polar bear pushed the wolf down onto four legs and mounted him. The Kodiak smiled, reached out, grabbed Derrick, and pulled him into a warm embrace. Looking him in the eye, he asked, "And you, Husband. Will you marry me all over again?"

Derrick's ears pinned back and his tail tucked up between his legs. "Of course." He bowed his head as Will had done before and felt the Kodiak take him in his mouth. He felt the canine fangs first, then the sharp incisors. The molars followed. When the bear had pressed as deeply as he dared into the young wolf's neck, he shook playfully to let the wolf know he was as sincere as the first time. Derrick yielded to all that the bite meant. Pain, pleasure. And then the disorienting sense of being picked up like a rag doll and impaled on the brown bear's cock.

When the post-orgasmic bears had released their grip, the two wolves struggled to regain their balance. Kris looked at them lovingly. "While I have no problem renewing my vows with you, Will, I am an eternal, and that means the warranty is still good."

"I like the feel of your teeth on me, Husband, and I expect to feel them sometime today," Will said. "But I see your point. There is only one bear here that needs to have his neck bit by the ones who love him."

Eric rose and grabbed the young black werewolf. "And you will all have your turns soon enough. But I have waited too long for this wolf to be a part of my life completely. He turned the wolf around and bit deep into his neck. He fell backward, taking the pup with him. When he slammed into the floor, his erect cock pushed into the pup. There was a short bark of pain, but the white bear had learned. His embrace never yielded as he waited for the wolf to adjust to the feelings.

Kris and Will watched the other two as their rocking became more heated. Will looked back at Kris. "Oh fuck it, Husband. Take me." The wolf bowed his head, exposing his bruised neck. The bear didn't hesitate to clamp his jaws into the fur. With an aggressive shove, the bear positioned the wolf and mounted him. Will tried to howl his approval, but the only voice that he could muster was a happy whimper.

Outside the cave, Nathaniel looked up into the sky. The moon was nearly full and shone down on the glade as if it were daybreak. He found his way to the creek and leaned over the diving ledge, looking into the water. "Hmmm. I look like I'm wearing glasses," he said with a laugh as he looked at the shadowy figure in the water. He took a deep breath and savored the smells of the glade. Then, as primal as any smell from the undisturbed forest, he smelt his fathers' sweat and cum mingling with the wolves'. He smiled and plopped down on the rock. "So that's what loves smells like," he sniffed.

Inside the cave, the wolves had their teeth clamped into the great white bear's neck. He yielded to their fangs with only a groan of satisfied longing. Kris rocked happily next to them, getting caught up in the moment of watching his son mate for life with the two he loved. When they released their grip, he tottered forward onto all fours and walked toward the threesome.

Will and Derrick stepped back. The Kodiak rose to his full height, scraping the top of the cavern roof. Below, the white bear bowed his neck, exposing it to the other. "For all that we are to each other and all that we will ever be," the brown bear growled. Hunching over the submissive polar bear, he bit into his neck.

This was no ordinary mating, though. It shocked even Will with the fierceness of the jaws digging into the polar bear's flesh. When the red blood began trickling down the white bear's fur, Derrick moved forward to intervene. Before he could take a step, the polar bear rose with a roar, the Kodiak still clinging to his neck. With a massive snap of his neck, the polar bear sent the other reeling. The Kodiak slammed into the side of the cave and fell to the ground on his side. In one bound, the polar bear had crossed the expanse between them and bit down into the russet fur of the great bear. The Kodiak roared out in pain, trying to shake loose the white bear, but to no avail. Droplets of blood spun out from the two bears as they grappled for dominance.

Will stared at the melee as Derrick moved to separate the two. The old wolf grabbed the young one and pulled him back. Dragging him to a corner, he said, "We stay out of this one, Pup. This is between them."

Blood spilled from the polar's mouth as he released his hold and stood up. The Kodiak pushed up from off the floor and rose to his feet as well. The two bears bellowing at each other filled the cave with a deafening roar. Upright, they slammed into each other again and this time both their jaws locked into the space between their shoulders and their necks. Their heads shook back and forth as their front legs shoved and pulled at the other.

Slamming from one side of the cave to the other, the bears seemed determined to kill each other. With a mighty shove, the Kodiak separated himself from the polar bear. Bloody drool flung from his mouth as he shook his head defiantly and growled. The polar bear returned the gesture.

"Will," Derrick begged, "we have to do something."

"No, Pup. No, we don't. These are Changelings. This is not our world."

The two massive beasts worked to regain their balance. Righted again, they once more slammed into each other with bone-breaking force. Their bodies crumpled to the ground as they fell to their knees. Bloodied, their bodies heaving as they gasped for breath, the two bears rested their heads on each other's shoulders. With a slow, even gentle movement, the heads turned toward each other and the two kissed.

The white bear fell backward onto the ground, exposing his neck and belly to the Kodiak above. This act of submission signaled the bout was over. The Kodiak looked at the bear below. "Son."

"Father."

"Husband?" the russet bear pleaded.

"Husband," the white bear agreed. The two intertwined and kissed. In one moment, the Changelings reaffirmed their first relationship as eternal. In that same moment, they established their second as sacred. The brown bear pulled the polar bear's legs onto his shoulders and mounted him in a smooth push forward.

Will and Derrick watched the two in fascination as what once were battling beasts now were the most loving of creatures. Their union was slow and unhurried, and despite their size and girth, almost poetic in its motions. "I know I'm supposed to be appalled and all that," Will whispered, "but this is giving me a major boner. Those two don't hold back when it comes to love."

Derrick sighed with relief at the outcome. "Come on, Will," he whispered. "Let's leave them to share this moment together."

"Can I just watch? I promise I won't jack off or anything." The old wolf paused. "Well, maybe just a little."

"We're going now, Husband."

Will laughed. "Yeah, I know. We're going now."

The two tried carefully slipping around the bears when two paws shot out from the pile of rolling fur on the ground. The brown paw grabbed the young wolf, and the white grabbed the old. Both paws pulled the wolves back into the center of the bears. They heard the gravelly voices of the two bears say, "Stay."

The Kodiak added, "If you do, I promise Will won't have to jack off while watching anything."

Derrick took comfort in the closeness. "We'll stay." He felt the white bear's muzzle move across his chest and up to his neck in a soft kiss.

"Husband?" the white bear begged.

"Husband," Derrick replied.

Will separated from kissing the Kodiak long enough to agree. "Husband."

Kris picked up the old wolf in his arms and held him above the ground. "Husband?" he entreated.

"You have to ask?" Will responded.

"Yes, I do," Kris replied.

"Then, yes," Will said. "Husband."

"Husbands," Derrick corrected. "Husbands all?" he asked.

"Husbands all," the three responded. The great brown bear, never having slipped out of the polar bear below, renewed his slow, rhythmic motions. With one arm around the old wolf and one supporting his weight above the polar bear and pup, the Kodiak consummated his union with the polar bear. He gritted his teeth to stifle the roar that was a signature of his orgasms.

Hours later, there was quiet as the bears and wolves gave gentle bites and kisses to each other. The mating rituals now performed, the tired foursome languished in their feelings of exhaustion and pure bliss. Will broke the silence. "Let's say we go clean you bears up at the creek."

Eric rolled out from under and sat up. "That sounds like a good idea." Sliding up on all fours, he began walking toward the cave entrance. "Who's joining me?" He asked.

"I will, Husband," the Kodiak answered, rolling over and beginning his walk.

"Me too," Derrick chimed in as he ran to catch up with the lumbering beasts.

Will took his time. Outside, he blinked back the morning sun and watched the butts of the three walking away. He took a deep breath. "God, I love you all," he whispered to himself. He caught up to the three and pushed himself between the two bears. He leaned into them, placing one arm on each of the bears, letting their weight drag him along through the grass.

"Oh, and when we're done cleaning up, Derrick can show you a thing or two about honeymoon sex."

Both Kris and Eric looked over at Derrick, who smiled bashfully. "That would be fun," the bears declared together.

"Dibs on the bottom bunk," the old wolf yelped.

From the creek, Nathaniel watched the four walking toward him. He sniffed the air carefully. "Not even close to being done," he said as he picked himself up and walked toward the forest.

Chapter 3

Within hours of contacting the pack, the wolves were on board the Gulfstream, jetting to British Columbia. There they transferred to the waiting AgustaWestland and made their way over the mountains to the highland. The first one bounding out of the chopper was a surprise to all but the white bear.

The bear extended his arms and cried out, "Chetanluta!"

"Father," yelled back the exuberant brown-skinned man. Running up to the great bear, they embraced in a tight hug as the bear twirled the shapeshifter around.

Will walked up to the pair. "Father?" he asked, frowning.

Damien looked at Darius. "Grab the flowchart. This should be interesting."

"Sorry, Father," Chetanluta apologized.

"It's okay. The cat's out of the bag now," the white bear sighed.

"Exactly which cat? And this had better be good," Will growled.

"Chetanluta was the first I was with. We were both inexperienced. I thought he was going to become a polar bear, but his heart had a different idea."

"Wait, you... what about the pack? There's that rumor about a pack turning him. Where do they all fit in?"

"A bit of erroneous padding to the story. People speculated. I never denied the rumors. A bit of misdirection makes magic and a simple story for others to tell."

"You fucking bear," the old wolf stormed. "You tease me for how many centuries because my first turns into a Chow, and your first is a bird?"

Chetanluta looked at Will. "I became what I always dreamed of becoming."

"That's not the point, Chet. The old bear conned me. For years he goads me because I can't even turn a werewolf correctly and now I find out he can't either."

"Well, where's the fun of teasing you if you know the complete story?" the white bear said with a shrug.

"You son of a b..."

"Watch your next word, Old Wolf," boomed the voice of the brown bear. "That's my son, so you best carefully consider your next choice of words."

"Oh, no way! You bears don't get to team up on the wolf. You're my husband, Kris. I claim the right of spousal bitch support here."

The Kodiak smiled and picked up the wolf. He hugged him, and then, without lowering him to the ground, he turned him toward the polar bear. Staring the white beast in the eye, the Kodiak glowered and snarled, "Fucking Changeling." He turned the wolf back toward himself and kissed the angry canid until he felt the anger yield to desire. "That support enough, Old Wolf?"

"Yeah, for now. All I'm saying is some husband better be ready to get fucked sideways tonight." All three of Will's husbands raised their hands.

Darius looked up at Damien from the small notebook he held in his hand. "Did you get where the Chow fits into this?"

Tiff and Tuff came up from behind and snagged the book. "You can figure this all out later, husbands. It's time for you to meet our father." They walked up to the white bear and hugged him. "Welcome back, Notaku."

"Telutci, Tuketu. I have missed you both so much," the polar bear said. He nodded to the two beside them. "I believe introductions are in order."

"Father, this is Damien, my husband," Tuff said.

"And this is my husband, Darius," Tiff said.

"How many years has it been?" the polar bear asked.

"A dozen now," the two replied together. "But it's been like the blink of an eye."

The white bear bowed his head in greeting. "I've heard so much about you; all of it good. And coming from the old wolf, that is high praise indeed. Is it true that you are both red wolves?"

The two men shook into their wolfen forms. "You make such handsome couples," Eric said as he watched the other set of twins shift as well. His hand extended out toward the Kodiak bear, who grabbed the white paw lovingly. "This is my father and husband, Kris."

Darius looked at Damien. "I hope they give us back the book before we forget all this."

"And the shy one behind us is Nathaniel, our son."

The two red wolves looked confused. "Don't even try to sort it out," Will said. "Give it a century or two and it will probably all make sense."

Nathaniel waved to the twins, and they waved back.

"And of course, you know my husbands, Will and Derrick."

"Of course," they said, still confused. Tiff and Tuff remained unfazed by the introductions. In fact, their husbands wondered if they didn't take a certain delight in how confused they had become.

The brown bear stood up and looked over the top of the twin husbands. "Where is the little fox? He hasn't kissed my cheek in thirty-eight years and I'm long overdue."

Jason made his way through the crowd and up to the Kodiak. The brown bear bent low and, in a quick motion, the young fox kissed the bear on his cheek, backing away as the reddened fur bristled across his face like a blush. The bear smiled, pulling the fox up into a kiss that left the young one breathless. Kris grinned as he placed the fox back on the ground. "It was worth the wait, Little One."

"Yeah, it was," the fox sighed as he stepped back into the pack.

The Kodiak bear looked up. "And there is one we have yet to see."

"I would not stand in the way of my pack saying their hellos, Ancient One," Jean Pierre said as he moved forward. He looked at the Kodiak and bowed. "If I might have a moment with your son, I will save my greeting with you for later."

The brown bear nodded his head. "Of course."

The French wolf looked at the polar bear with tears in his eyes. "Hello, Old Bear."

"Hello, Gray One."

"It's good to see you return."

"It's good to be back."

There was a pause. The bear extended his arms. "I doubt it will cause a breakdown of the pack order if they see you hug me."

The graying werewolf moved toward the bear and wrapped his arms around the white fur. "Old Bear, nothing would keep me from this moment. The pack already knows that." Six hundred years of friendship and decades of longing melded into one great hug and kiss between the two.

From the back, Nathaniel watched everything that unfolded since the doors opened on the helicopter. Derrick smiled as he watched the young bear pantomime the actions of the beasts. "Don't worry too much about how we do things, Nathaniel. It will all come to you easier than you think. As it grows closer to nightfall, you can expect some changes. Greetings between Weres and Changelings rarely stay this formal."

"Oh dear," Nathaniel said. "Is this going to involve more sex?"

"It might. We have always been a very affectionate pack."

"Perhaps I should go for a walk."

"You don't have to join in if you don't want to. No one will pressure you." Derrick paused a moment. "Well, Will might say something thoroughly inappropriate because you're like your dad. He finds it irresistible when a beast gets a hard-on at the drop of a hat. But you can ignore anything Will says because he's harmless. Horny, but harmless."

"I like Will. He's... uninhibited. I think that's the word."

Derrick laughed. "He is that. Just know he's teasing you. He will never pressure you to do anything you don't want to do. For the entire Were Nation, that is a sacred promise we make to all."

"And what about you, Derrick? Will you tease me?" Nathaniel asked.

"Not so much. I'm a bit like you in that I spend a lot of my time watching from the sidelines. Most of the time, I am not the one who makes a proposition. I wait for the others to do that."

Nathaniel sat watching the crowd talking, and then he looked back at Derrick. "I wouldn't mind it if you teased me from time to time. Maybe even a kiss now and then. That would be fine, I think."

Derrick looked at the short-faced bear. Even sitting, he was nearly as tall as Derrick. "Ahhhh, you had to say that, didn't you?" he sighed. He leaned over and kissed the bear. As with so many of Derrick's kisses, it lasted longer than anticipated and explored more than expected. It caught the attention of the group, but no one said a word. Of course, the Kodiak had his paws firmly clamped over the muzzle of the old wolf. The bear was not willing to take chances by interrupting the two. When they broke, they looked out to see the pack and the two bears staring at them with wide smiles. They returned the smiles and left it at that.

The day sped by far too soon. With the last of the sun setting behind the mountains, Chet made his goodbyes to the group and a special one to the great white bear. The pack marveled at his transformation and watched as he sped eastward into the encroaching darkness. The pack, having long before chosen to spend the night, milled about in the field. Nathaniel wondered if this was the moment Derrick had spoken of. With one wave of motion that began with Jean Pierre, the entire pack shifted into wolves, prepared to run into the night.

Jean Pierre looked at the three bears. "Traditions are always best when we shake them up a bit. There is no full moon tonight; nowhere our pack needs to be. Would you three bears like to run with us this evening? We understand the newness of your bodies, and we will be happy to accommodate your needs in that respect." The three bears nodded happily, each with different expectations.

That night, without the aid of the full moon, the pack made their first run in thirty-eight years with bears by their side. The wolves' contentment to sing through the night surprised Nathaniel. There wasn't a single move toward the sexual excess he anticipated. At first, he was relieved, but then a sense of disappointment set in. It seemed almost mundane to him until his fathers convinced him to raise his voice in concert with theirs. As he spoke in his native tongue, he heard the voices of his people from across the galaxy. It warmed a part of him he didn't know existed. When the wolves joined the chorus, he realized there were no mundane moments in life. He only needed to be open to the joy when it presented itself.

The next morning, Tiff and Tuff were performing their flight checks. By their side, their husbands tried to fill out their recently returned notebook. Jean Pierre was saying his goodbyes to the father bears while the fox was wrestling in the field with their son.

"Jason," Jean Pierre called out to the fox, "we best get ourselves back to Vancouver. You know how Tiff and Tuff hate the canyon winds this time of year."

The fox shook himself and became human. He looked down at himself and shook his head. "I guess I don't need to do this anymore. No one would see the fox if I stayed that way." He looked up and smiled at the bear. "Your dad did that for us."

Nathaniel smiled. "I like your naked ape suit. You're so skinny. It's cute." The bear leaned over for the kiss he hoped for since seeing the lad the day before. Jason didn't disappoint. The naked youth pressed his lips against the bear. The bear grabbed the youth and rocked backward, holding on to him as he enjoyed his second kiss in two days. When he set the young man down, his paw reached out and thumped the lad's erection. "It's kind of small, isn't it?" the bear asked.

Jason laughed. "It's a human dick. We're not the most well-endowed species on the planet."

"I didn't mean to be rude," the bear apologized.

"I didn't take it that way," the young man replied. His hand reached out and thumped the bear's hard-on. "It's kind of huge, isn't it?" If the bear could blush, he would have. Jason had enthralled another with a demeanor that was both shy and forward at the same time. The naked lad turned and ran toward the chopper.

Derrick and Will relaxed on their porch swing, swaying slowly; content to ignore all the final preparations for departure.

"Come here, you two," Jean Pierre said, beckoning them over as he put on his shirt. The two hopped up and ran to their alpha. "Give me a kiss goodbye, you beautiful wolves." The two willingly complied. "Thanks for so much good news," the Frenchman added. "Lord knows this world could use a bit."

"The war will end," Derrick said optimistically.

"I hope so. Let us hope this good news will be contagious. It will be welcome news for the Weres who have waited so long for the return of the Changelings."

The Frenchman hugged each of the bears one last time and boarded the helicopter. Jason pulled a shirt over his head. With a speed befitting a fox, he pecked each of the four husbands on the cheek and dove into the open chopper door.

The short-faced bear came hurdling from the field toward the aircraft, hoping to give one last wave goodbye as it lifted off the grass. The chopper moved up and headed west over the mountain. "I like my family," the young bear said enthusiastically.

"Me too," his fathers answered in tandem.

"Papa, Dad?" the short-faced bear asked.

"Yes, Son?" the fathers responded.

"Could we go out again tonight like last night? I mean, the five of us." The bear looked at the wolves. "If that's okay with you two. I don't want to interrupt any plans you already made."

"No plans, Kid," the old wolf said. "Will you be willing to sing for us? You have a beautiful voice."

"I would like that," the young one said.

"I'll show you where your fathers are in the sky," Derrick said, smiling.

The polar bear rose. "And I will show you where home is. It is time you see where the voices come from."

The young bear fell back, rocking eagerly. "This is even better than the boner," he said, smiling.

Will snorted through his muzzle. "Then you're not doing the boner right, Kid." He gave the bear's bicep a friendly punch and walked back toward the cave. "Lunch is ready in an hour. Don't be late or you're fishing for your meal in the creek."

Chapter 4

The short-faced bear and his fathers huddled together with the werewolves out in the field. A night of stargazing found them falling asleep together outdoors. Nathaniel could feel Will's erection pressing into his backside, and he giggled. "Best be moving out of here before they wake up," he thought to himself. Once they stirred, the foursome would surely find erect body parts irresistible.

The young bear shuffled off toward the creek where he would await his fathers' arrival later in the day. Sure to be sweaty messes of sticky fur, he knew they would come there to bathe, and he enjoyed bathing with them in the cold water. They would laugh and joke about life and love, splashing around like children. It was one of Nathaniel's favorite times of any day.

As the young bear reached the diving ledge, he realized today was not to be such a day. There were concerns far greater on the horizon than those of the family's bathing antics. In the distance, the short-faced bear heard the din of war along the coast. The noises were too distant for his family to hear inside the cave. He alone could sense the destruction beyond the black plumes of smoke that rose from the west above the mountains.

Jean Pierre had tried to calm Nathaniel about the war. He told him the attacks were the last ditch effort of the opposing side to incapacitate the Royal Air Force's defense of the West Coast Naval bases. The gray one was confident that the war would not reach the highlands. There was no strategic value in bombing a mountainside.

Yet as the morning progressed, even the stirring fathers were aware of the closing proximity of the battle. The foursome came rushing over toward their son. "It sounds too close," the polar bear said, wrapping his arms around his son and pulling him up from his creek-side seat.

The short-faced bear nodded in agreement. "There are four of them heading this way. One huge, three smaller." The bear had no sooner spoken the words than a black bomber roared over the top of the mountains. Following close behind was a Canadian CF-18 Hornet firing on the bomber. Two trailing escort jets defending the bomber were close on the tail of the RAF fighter. The roar of the air battle was deafening as it approached.

The blazing guns of the jets behind the CF-18 tore across the fuselage and sheared off a vertical stabilizer. A turbine burst into flame. The jet was going down, but not before the pilot had launched all his missiles at the retreating bomber. Brown smoke billowed from the front of the jet and an explosion from the cockpit vaulted the ejection seat into the air. The bomber countered the missiles as bright flares of white heat shot from the back, attracting the missiles. Two exploded in the air, but the others veered from their intended target and headed straight for the cliff above the highland.

Before the missiles could reach the crag, there was a shock wave of bright blue light and an all too familiar silence covered the highland. Knocked off their feet, the family looked up toward the sky as a dome of blue light retreated. The sky was clear except for the single ejected seat floating slowly toward the earth. The battle was over, ended by someone other than the warring humans. All eyes turned toward the Kodiak. "What?" the bear asked defensively. "I had nothing to do with this."

The polar bear looked at him unbelievingly. "Husband?" he growled.

The Kodiak crossed his paw over his heart, kissed the paw, and held it up. "Pinkie swear. I had nothing to do with this."

"Then who did?" the old wolf asked. The ejected fighter pilot was nearing the treetops. "I guess it doesn't matter. He's going down in the trees. Judging from the damage to that seat, he won't make it to the ground alive."

"No," the short-faced bear pleaded. "Don't let him die." As if on command, the trees moved in one accord, reaching for the seat as the parachute fell over the top of the airman beneath. A wave of fir limbs pushed the mass of metal and fabric toward the glade until it dropped from the forest canopy and dumped onto the grassy field.

"Son?" the polar bear asked.

"I didn't do it. I just didn't want him to die."

The five stared at the ejected seat covered in its parachute. Four of the group hesitantly moved toward it. Kris stood back, watching all that was going on. "My love, you've opened a can of worms," he sighed.

Tendrils from the field grass reached up and pulled at the parachute, dragging it off the ejected pilot. The torn fabric shredded even further and dissolved into the ground below. The twisted metal seat slipped into the earth, leaving only the pilot on the ground. Eventually, even the clothing and his sidearm flowed off the pilot's body and dripped into the earth. The only remaining vestige of his military status was the helmet that covered his head.

When they reached the pilot, Eric leaned down and gently rocked the helmet a few inches in either direction. Blood spilled out from the back. "Not good. We have a cracked helmet here. He took a serious blow to the head. I'm afraid the damage might be beyond anything we can do."

Will looked at the human laying on the ground. "I thought we weren't supposed to interfere in this fight."

Eric stood up and stepped away from the pilot. The polar bear looked at Will and frowned. "He's a sentient being, Will. He's hurt, and he's on our land. We have to do what we can."

"But that's violating the prime directive, Captain," the wolf retorted in a Scottish brogue. "You're the ones who made the rules."

Kris objected from a distance. "Those were guidelines, not rules. He needs our attention."

"I don't see why we have to help..."

"Husbands," Derrick barked. The three became silent and looked toward the young wolf. "It would appear that your son has made the choice for you."

The three looked toward the fallen pilot. They saw the short-faced bear cradling the head of the human while his other paw glowed pale green against the helmet. "There, there," he murmured. "Don't let the arguing husbands upset you. They would have gotten around to you in time. I only have to make sure you don't die before they sort that out." He looked up and smiled at his fathers.

"Well, don't I feel like a total human?" the wolf said. "I'm sorry. I was wrong. If someone needs our help, we give it. I should never think differently."

"Well, there's no time for recriminations," the Kodiak said, approaching the group. He stared at the light emanating from his son's paw and asked, "how long have you been able to do that, Son?"

The son looked up. "I didn't know I could. To be honest, I don't even know what I'm doing, but it feels right."

Kris looked at Eric. "Looks like we have another doctor in the family, Husband."

The polar bear knelt beside his son and said, "here, help me remove the helmet. He has broken bones in both legs and a few fractured ribs, but the actual damage is going to be under that helmet."

The two unbuckled the helmet and removed it. Even more blood spilled out from the helmet as Eric placed it on the ground. The flow of blood had stopped, but it was obvious to the polar bear that what was holding it back was temporary. "We need to get him to the cave." The bear looked at his son. "You... you keep doing what you're doing to keep that brain inside his skull."

"Okay, Papa."

The polar bear looked at Derrick. "Do we still have the backpack from our trip out here?"

"Of course."

"There's a trauma kit in it. It's a beige mini-pack. Everything inside is in Cryovac. You need to find the package marked Hemostatic Gauze." The bear looked at the pilot. "Screw it, Pup. Grab it all. I'm going to need all the gauze we have and the suturing kit as soon as we get him back to the cave. Move it, Pup." He looked up and saw the dark wolf already entering the cave. "How I love you, Pup. I forgot about those wolf's ears of yours."

"Will, I need that strong back of yours," the polar bear said. He looked into the old wolf's eyes. "Please, for me, if not for him."

Will leaned over and gently lifted the airman off the ground. Turning, he ran toward the cave as if floating. There was no bounce to his step, no shaking. The pilot was as motionless in the werewolf's arms as if on a gurney. And beside him, each step of the way, was the concerned young bear holding out the glowing hand, completely mystified as to what good it might be doing.

The polar bear pushed his thick paw into the ground and lifted himself up. He looked up at the Kodiak. "Dad, if what I think happened, happened, we will need to talk. We can't be ignoring another Changeling in our midst."

Kris nodded. "Time enough for introductions later."

The polar bear smiled a moment, and then the look of concern returned. "Can I get you to call the pack? Let them know what's happened. Tell them to talk to Doc Rosen. He'll put together what I need."

"A veterinarian? You're going to ask a vet to put together a human medical package?" The Kodiak asked.

"He's a good doctor. Aside from the head injury, this is all about broken bones and bruises. Doc knows all about taking care of those."

In the moments that followed, each family member moved in one accord to stabilize the pilot laid out on the bed. Eric looked at his son. "I was hoping to remain a bear for your first years so that you would be comfortable being a bear, but what I need to do, I can't do as a bear. It's been too many years since I've held a scalpel. This form won't remember the techniques, and they made the supplies for a human."

Nathaniel watched his father shake into a muscular, gray-bearded human. Eric looked down at himself for a moment. "Well, here we are again; back in the middle of a war." He rubbed his hands with sanitizing gel and sighed as he stared at the old wolf. "Husband, I need you beside me."

Nathaniel stared as Will shook himself into the bulky human the bear first saw on the day of his birth. After rubbing his hands with the sanitizer, Will pulled a Nitrile glove from a small box. In one smooth motion, he put it onto the other human's hand. The second one went on as easily. Without wasting a movement, the heavyset man gloved up. He irrigated the open wounds and slapped forceps with trailing thread firmly into Eric's hands.

His other hand came up, and with a flash of silver, the old wolf said, "clamping... your move, Husband." Nathaniel's eyes widened. He had never noticed the old wolf was ambidextrous, nor known his father was a surgeon. There was never a miscue between the two and rarely a word as Nathaniel watched their skilled hands remove bone and suture wounds.

An hour into the operation, Will spoke. "Watch your throws, Old Bear," he advised. "You're a bit rusty at this."

"Noted," the doctor answered.

"This is pretty old school, you know," Will said, his hand slipping into the activity seamlessly with white gauze and returning with a red square.

"Tell me about it," Eric agreed. "This stuff is forty years old. Who packed this trauma kit? Damn, polar bears never think things through."

"You're doing fine, Husband,"

The doctor looked up at his assistant and smiled. "I love you."

"Love you, too." There was another flash of silver. "Clamping."

Throughout the whirlwind of activity, Nathaniel watched as the unconscious human breathed in and out. "Papa?" the bear asked with both fear and hope in his voice.

"He's going to have a nasty bald spot before this is all over, but he'll survive."

Will looked at the airman. "It looks like he was working on that bald spot before he banged his head." He handed Eric a roll of bandaging, and the doctor wrapped it over the wound. "Look at him. He's got to be at least forty and well over the weight limit. I didn't think they let flyboys fly when they weren't boys anymore."

"Why not?" the young bear asked.

"Old men run wars, Kid, but they're fought by the young. Humans always kill their best and brightest souls while they're still too young to know better. They let old leaders march them into harm's way without a second thought."

The polar bear looked up crossly at Will. "Old Wolf, my son doesn't need to hear this now."

Will extended his hand to the shoulder of the young bear. "Forgive me. This brings up too much history, Kid. I'm not ready to go through this all again. I can't watch them die."

The short-faced bear leaned over and kissed the massive human's bearded cheek. "Then we will have to make sure he doesn't die."

Eric looked up from his work. He rubbed his gloved hands together, shaking out the tension from over three hours of surgical detail work. "He won't die on our watch," the Changeling said. "It would be nice to have some plasma, but he'll be okay until the pack gets here." He reached out and pulled Will into a tight hug. "I'm sorry to put you through this again, my love. But sometimes having you by my side is the only way I can make it through." He pulled off his bloodied gloves and reached his hand up to the man, pulling their lips together. As they kissed, the men became bear and wolf once more.

Chapter 5

The next few days were a flurry of activity. The pack brought in a rollaway bed and the gear that Doc Rosen had prepared. There were IVs with antibiotics, extra bandages, and casting material for both the airman's legs. Setting the bones didn't require Eric or Will to become human again. It was easier for the polar bear to snap the bones back into place with his massive paws. But the polar bear was grateful that the pilot never regained consciousness until days later.

On the morning of the fifth day, Will was watching from a distance as the young bear put a spoon up to the lips of the pilot. He listened to the laughter shared between the two and frowned. Derrick came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his mate. "Problem?" he asked the old wolf.

"There will be soon enough," the wolf said, turning and walking from the room. Derrick stared at the young bear and airman for a moment and nodded his agreement.

Derrick entered the room and approached the two. "How goes the recovery?"

Nathaniel looked up. He held a bowl of soup in his hand. "It goes very well," he replied. "He's taken some soup today."

"Well, that is progress." He looked at the airman. "How do you feel?"

"Like a building dropped on me. But better." The pilot shifted out of an uncomfortable position. "The doctor said to expect some gaps in my memory." He rotated his hand awkwardly. "I seem to have lost some dexterity in my hands. I guess you lose a chunk of your brain and some things are bound to get messed up. To be honest, I didn't think I was going to make it. I don't remember much after launching my missiles and grabbing the eject handle."

"All things considered, that's probably a good thing. Rest as best you can." He looked at Nathaniel and smiled. "Seems we have a young man who's taken an interest in your care, so you should be up in no time." Derrick turned and walked out of the room. He shook his head. "You nailed it, Old Wolf."

Nathaniel smiled at the airman. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Me too," the pilot said.

"My Papa said you should be able to use your legs in a week. You have some sort of experimental casting material that is promoting the healing of your legs."

"I've never heard of anything like that."

"Yeah, neither had I, but I think that's what he said."

"Actually," a voice said from the doorway, "I said that something is helping you heal faster, airman, but I never said exactly what. My son's theory is as viable as any other on the table at this moment."

The airman looked up at the polar bear and saw a doctor wearing a white gown. "Whatever it is you're doing, Doc, thank you. The sooner I get back to my Wing, the happier I will be."

"I suspect we'll all be happier to have you back where you belong," the unsmiling polar bear said. Eric moved to the side of the bed and pulled out a Mediscan unit. He clamped it onto the airman's wrist, pulled it off thirty seconds later, and read the data. "Well, you're doing great. I'm stopping the antibiotic IV today. You're not showing any signs of infection, and your vitals look good."

The father looked at the son. "Nathaniel, I'm going to be gone for a few days, so I'll have Will look in on the airman from time to time to make sure he gets the medications he still needs. I have a feeling I can rely on you to keep him entertained." The white bear looked at the pilot. "There's a couple of more days with a shot or two and some pills for a week and by then you should be up and walking. Nothing too intense, mind you. Your legs may be capable of walking, but your head is still recovering. Keeping your balance might be difficult."

Nathaniel looked up at the polar bear. "Does it have to be Will, Papa?"

"Sorry, Son. No one else in this house has the medical training."

"I can do it. Dad can do it. We know all about it. We've read the books."

"Knowing and doing are two different things. I'm not having either of you experimenting on this young man trying to figure out the difference between paper and practice."

The airman smiled. "No one has called me a young man in years."

The polar bear smiled. "From my point of view, you're a very young man."

The pilot laughed. "Well, thank you."

The white bear leaned over and kissed the young bear. "If all goes well, I'll be back in four days. You take good care of our guest."

"Of course." The short-faced bear paused. "Can I ask where you're going?"

"Not without discussing something this house alone needs to know."

"Maybe later?"

"Of course, Son. I won't leave for another hour. The pack is preparing for the trip now. You pull yourself away from your friend and come see me. We'll talk."

"Okay, Papa."

The airman watched the polar bear leave the room. All he saw was the doctor, who now looked somehow older than before. "Your Dad is a good man."

"Well, my dad is a good bear; but you haven't actually met him yet."

The airman laughed. "A bear? My god, I haven't heard that term in years. So, your parents are gay?"

"Yeah, it seems to be a family trait."

The airman's face showed his curiosity. "Like father like son?"

"More than you know."

The airman took the bear's free paw, pulled it up to his lips, and kissed it. "I wish I could be that open about it. I mean, we've had equal rights for over half a century in Canada, but I still defer to the Wing and play the part of a straight guy. Why is that, I wonder?"

"Because you're a sheep," said the voice behind him. The airman turned around into the belly of the seven-foot-tall furred behemoth that was Will. What he saw was a large man wearing a nursing outfit. "Apparently, Nathaniel thinks you're a cute-looking sheep, but you're a sheep nonetheless. It comes with your job description. All military without brass stars are sheep who think they're wolves."

Will looked at Nathaniel. "Time to step outside for a bit. He has an injection prescribed, and I don't want you fawning over his ass while I poke it. HIPAA and all that crap, you know. Come along with me while I put everything together." Nathaniel frowned, but complied and exited the main hall with the wolf.

"Uncle Will?" Nathaniel asked with his best smile, hoping to get the frown lifted from the old wolf's face.

"What is it, Kid?" the werewolf said, turning away from the bear as he sorted through bottles of pills and vials.

"I know this is a lot to ask, but could you please go easy on the airman?" Nathaniel begged. "I kind of like him. He's not that bad a guy."

Will sighed. "I'll try, Kid." He turned back and grabbed a small vial and a syringe. "I can't promise anything more than that."

"That will be enough, Father," Nathaniel said.

"Aww, hell, Kid. That isn't fair throwing the Father title at me. You know how much it means to me."

"And you know how much it means to me."

The old wolf looked at the bear and put the vial and syringe down. He grabbed the bear and hugged him tightly. "I promise I'll do my best, Kid." He turned back toward the cavern's main chamber and prepared himself to attend to his patient. He paused and looked back at the bear. He sighed and corrected himself. "I promise I'll do my best, Son."

As the werewolf returned to the family's bedroom, the airman looked at him. "You're kind of large for an orderly, aren't you, corpsman?"

Will looked back at the airman. "You're kind of fat for a pilot, aren't you?"

The airman shifted uncomfortably. "I'm Canadian Forces Supplementary Reserve. I was just called up."

"Well, I guess that explains your flying abilities. You're not much use up there in a dogfight."

"I don't see a bomb dropped on your head."

"Yeah, that had nothing to do with you. Ground control down here is pretty lethal when it chooses to be."

"I don't remember much after they hit me. I assumed I took out the target when I launched my missiles."

"Your missiles would have taken out the west face of a mountain and not much else."

"Then what happened?"

"Sorry, airman. That's on a need-to-know basis." Will put his paw up to his lips. "Very hush, hush... top secret stuff, you know. Can't be divulging secrets you're not ready for." Will picked up a syringe and a vial. He measured out the dose and looked at the airman. "War going that badly, huh?"

"Why would you think that? You hear the war reports every day."

"They call up a retired flyboy and stick him in a CF-18 fighter they haven't used in, what, 20 years? You can barely maneuver the thing, but you're trying to take down one of the most advanced bombers on the planet. Screw the propaganda; you're the news flash."

The airman looked at him. "It's been better, but it will turn around if we can keep them off our coast for a few more weeks."

"Well, I would appreciate that. As coasts go, I'm fond of that one because it keeps this mountain from sinking into the ocean. I'd like to see you keep it that way." The pilot stared at him in confusion, trying to piece together what Will had said. Will tapped the syringe and barked out his order. "Roll over, this one goes in your butt."

"You can't use my arm?"

"Nah. It has to be something thick, so I guess it's either your ass or your head," the old wolf replied.

The airman rolled over and pulled at something that wasn't there. Will realized the pilot wasn't seeing the werewolf before him because of Kris's actions years ago. Yet it seemed as if the pilot saw nothing before him, including his complete lack of clothing.

Will stabbed the needle forcefully into the pilot's butt cheek. "Damn, nurse," the pilot screamed. "Where the hell did you get your training?"

Will looked at the airman and cocked his head. "Oh, did that hurt?" He put the syringe down on the plate. "Guess I forgot which way to stick it in. You're not the only fat boy that got called up on reserve. I'm retired from Army Battalion Aid. Canine Unit."

"What the hell are you talking about, corpsman? And what the hell kind of hospital is this that lets you even get close to a patient?"

"Hospital?"

"I assume that's what this is. White walls, white beds, white curtains. It certainly looks like a hospital."

Will clenched his teeth. From outside the cave, the bellowing voice of the old wolf was heard so clearly that birds scattered in fear of his approach. "NATHANIEL!"

Nathaniel looked up, terrified. "Oh god, oh god, I am in so much trouble. He never calls me Nathaniel."

Derrick looked at him from across the picnic table. "Nathaniel, what did you do?"

"I sort of made it easier for the airplane guy to deal with his current situation."

"What did you do?" Derrick asked more forcefully.

"I let him believe he's in a hospital."

"Oh crap. I'll see if I can do a controlled extraction of your father before all shit hits the fan," Derrick said as he ran toward the main hall of the cave. At the last minute, he pivoted back. "And you... You find your Papa. NOW!" He turned back and disappeared into the main hall.

Nathaniel leapt up, his hands shaking wildly. "Oh shit... Oh shit... Oh shit..." he babbled as he ran out of the cave.

Once in the room, Derrick slowed to a walk he hoped expressed a great deal of gravitas. "Excuse me, orderly. My name is Dr. Kildare. I'm here to see the patient. You're free to go."

"Dr. Kildare? Really? You're gonna go with that, Husband?"

Derrick shrugged his shoulders. "Can I get a bit of cooperation from you here? I'm doing the best I can to keep this situation under control."

"Doctor, I want this man put on report. He's a maniac," the airman interrupted.

Derrick nodded his head. "Well, that's true, but I'm afraid that isn't enough to put him on report. This is war, Soldier. We all have to make sacrifices."

"The human isn't a soldier," Will interrupted. "He's an airman. Even I know that. He's a total crap airman, but beggars can't be choosers."

"You see what I mean?" the airman asked. "That sort of insubordination can't go unchecked."

"You'd be amazed how much of what he does goes unchecked," Derrick sighed.

"Okay, you two. Back to the psych ward, you go," the polar bear said as he entered the room.

"Really, Husband?" Will complained. "First Dr. Kildare here tries to get me out of the room and now you're shuffling us out saying we're loony tunes?"

"I should know. I've been around you two long enough to confirm the diagnosis." He held up a clipboard and turned it around toward the two werewolves. "You see? Right here: loony tunes."

"Bear..." Will growled.

"Wolf..." Eric growled in return.

Will knew the tone in the growl was serious, and he bowed to the bear. "Sorry, Husband. We'll be leaving now." The two werewolves turned and dashed out of the main cavern.

"That man is insane," the airman groused. "He calls everyone husband, and he has the bedside skills of a blacksmith."

"That would be him," the polar bear said. "On the other hand, he was there to help me sew you back together. He's a skilled technician, and he helped save your life."

"Then why this insanity? What the hell did I ever do to him to warrant his behavior today?"

"I suspect his treatment of you might be because of his distaste for military people in general, or quite possibly, you in particular. You launched six missiles at his home, after all."

"His home? I was in a firefight over open terrain. There wasn't a building within 40 kilometers of my fly zone."

The polar bear looked at the airman. "I beg to differ. You're in his home right now. If it wasn't for the intervention of another, you would have destroyed his home. Not only his, mind you, but the home of the four other individuals who live here."

The airman stared as the white walls melted away into stone. The laminated floor turned to dirt. The sunny windows disappeared into the cool shadows of the cave. "What the hell, Doc? Am I hallucinating?"

"That's a fair description of what's going on, but I'm afraid the hallucination is the hospital. That was your brain recovering from your crash. This cave is where you have been for the last week. The medications you're on seem to have some serious side effects, including your hallucinations. It all makes sense. To help you heal, your mind sees what it needs to see. Recovering in a cave can be scary."

"But where am I then?"

"Before you pulled your ejection seat cord, you might remember heading straight toward a cliff face."

"Yeah."

"You're right below that."

"And my jet?"

"Gone. Perhaps on the other side of the cliff, but definitely where no one will ever find it again."

"And the enemy bomber and its escort fighters?"

"I'd rather not discuss this, airman. Let's say you're safe. We're all safe."

"We won't be safe until we wipe them all out."

The white bear sighed. "I suspect they feel the same way about you."

Will returned with a pitcher of water, a glass, and a small paper cup filled with pills. Eric looked at him and smiled. "Can we get this man medicated without another incident?"

"Fine by me," the werewolf said.

The polar bear leaned over and kissed the wolf. "Come say goodbye to me when you're done. I'll ask the twins to hold taking off until then."

"You're not flying into Vancouver, are you?"

"No, the First Nations have offered us a landing strip on their properties outside the war zone."

"Do they know?"

"I suspect they're at least aware that the Ancient Ones have returned. Most of the tribal councils are far too young to believe any of it. They will act in deference to the tribal elders who remember the stories of their fathers."

"How will you get to Tibet?"

"I'll leave for Ngari out of Portland. Seems their airfields are still intact. Fortunately for us, there is still enough bedlam that they will never know where we're headed once we take off," the polar bear answered.

"Okay. Don't slip away without giving your boy a long hug. He's scared stiff about this trip of yours."

"Duly noted," Eric said. "I'll be waiting for my hug too, Husband. Nathaniel isn't the only one scared stiff about this trip." The bear turned and walked out of the main hall.

The airman looked at Will. "What was that all about?"

"Family business," the wolf replied as he extended the tray to the airman. "Here. Take these pills. You might try gulping the water."

The pilot looked at Will. "I'd choke."

Will shrugged. "Oh, I hadn't thought about that. But hey, if you're willing, I'm good with that." Will turned and left the main hall.

Nathaniel crept in after Will departed and smiled at the airman. He held out a covered plate. "I brought you some dinner if you're up for it."

The airman smiled. "That would be nice. I am having a very confusing day."

Nathaniel sat down beside the bed. With a flourish, he removed the top and exposed the dinner. "It's something dehydrated. Mostly when I make these things, it's best not to try and figure out what it is. It usually tastes pretty good, though."

The pilot laughed. "Thank you. I'm Max, by the way."

"Nathaniel," the bear smiled.

"I sort of figured that out," Max chuckled. "That crazy orderly seems to have it out for the two of us."

"Not really. I made a stupid mistake, and he called me on it. He's pretty good at that, but he's pretty good at a lot of nicer things as well. As long as you don't get on his bad side."

The pilot smiled. "Any chance I can get on your good side?"

"I like you already, Max," Nathaniel said with a smile.

"Well, I was hoping for a bit more than like, but I don't mind taking it slow if I have a chance."

"There's a pretty good chance," Nathaniel replied. "Eat your food. If it gets cold, it gets pretty gross."

"Gross?" the airman laughed. "I haven't heard that word in years, either. How long have you guys been living up here?"

"Quite some time, I suppose."

"Why not let me take you away from all this once the war is over?" the pilot asked, putting his hand on the young bear's paw.

The bear rolled the human's hand in his paw and smiled. "That might be fun. But for now, eat your food."

The pilot took a bite of his dinner and smiled. "You're right. It's not half bad if I don't try and figure out what it is."

The two sat quietly as the airman ate his dinner. The pilot placed his hand on the bear's paw as he neared his last bites. "You have the most beautiful eyes."

"Really? Thank you," the bear said, grinning. "What color are they?"

Max laughed out loud. "You don't know?"

"I'm thinking they might be different colors to different people."

Max looked into the bear's face. "I can see your point. If I had to guess, I'd say they were green, but I can see where in the right light they might be gray."

"Interesting," the bear said thoughtfully. "Most bears have brown eyes."

"Well, you're not exactly a bear, you know. I mean, the orderly is a bear; a gigantic monster of a bear. But you don't have a beard, you're pretty smooth-skinned from what I can tell, and you're too thin to pass as even a cub." He paused. "At least I think that's what the thin ones were called. Maybe otters. That's why people stopped using the terms. That whole animal thing got too confusing after a while."

Nathaniel nodded in agreement. "Our family's animal thing is pretty confusing all the time."

Another laugh came from the airman as he pushed the empty plate back onto the tray. "I love how you talk. Half the time I haven't got a clue what you're saying, but you sound so sincere about it all." He lifted the blanket that was covering him, stared for a moment, and then carefully replaced it. "So, how long have I been naked?"

"Pretty much since you got here."

"So, you've seen me naked the whole time I was sitting with you beside the bed?"

"I'm sorry. I should have told you."

"I don't know. Depends on how you think I look, I suppose."

"You look nice. I think you look very nice naked."

The airman smiled. "Okay, I'm good with that. At least I jumped one hurdle. You don't think I'm ugly naked." He laughed and then looked into Nathaniel's eyes. "Why am I drawn to you? I have never been one to do one-night stands or hook-ups, but with you, I'd jump your bones in a heartbeat." The pilot rolled his eyes and groaned, "Well, that was a smart move, Max. Tell the guy you're a stalker. That always goes over well."

Nathaniel grinned. "It's okay. I'm not offended. But my bones are a lot bigger than you think, so I suspect trying to jump them in your condition would be difficult, if not impossible. Don't forget what my Papa said about pushing yourself."

Max laughed. "Thank you for letting me down easy."

"I don't know that I said no," the bear responded. "I'm saying that you're healing and there is a gap between what you might want to do and what I can do for you."

"Understood. Is it okay if I'm content spending time with you? I honestly enjoy your company."

The bear nodded. "That's fine. I enjoy being with you, too."

"Do you think a kiss would overwhelm me? I don't want a major setback."

"I suppose a kiss wouldn't hurt," the short-faced bear replied.

The bear leaned over and pressed his lips to the pilot's. The kiss lingered, and then it halted.

"B-b- bear," the pilot said. "hu-hu-huge bear."

"Ohhhh, crap," Nathaniel stammered. "PAPA! DAD!" he yelled. "The pilot sees a bear."

Kris came running into the main hall immediately. "Papa is at the heliport," the Kodiak said frantically. "Exactly how did this happen?"

"I might have kissed him," the bear answered.

"Might have?"

"Oh no," replied the airman, "he kissed me. He really kissed me, right up until the point I felt a furry mop shoved in my face. When I opened my eyes, the bear was there."

Will raced into the room. "What's all the commotion about?"

"The pilot sees a bear."

"Ah fuckin'-A, I knew this was going to happen."

Kris looked at the old wolf. "What was going to happen?"

"Don't you know anything about human psychology? It's transference. Humans are like ducks. They'll imprint on anything that treats them halfway decently. Only ducks have more brains."

The airman protested, "I assure you it's more than simple gratitude."

"Yeah, I know," Will griped. "The bear is giving off pheromones like nobody's business." He looked at Kris. "You know what it does to the Weres. Well, multiply that by ten and you have a human who's making out with a Changeling. Ask Pup if you don't believe me. He was being banged by your son for years as a human."

"Really?" Kris asked. "I would have liked to have seen that."

"What the hell are you talking about?" the pilot blurted out. "Why would any father want to see his son having sex?"

Derrick walked into the confusion and asked, "What's happening here?"

"Nathaniel kissed the pilot," Will groaned. "He's seeing a bear now. Oh, and he's all pissy because your husband wanted to watch you having sex with your other husband back when he wasn't your husband and you were a human."

"Are you people insane?!?" the airman screamed.

Derrick looked at the pilot. "How many people do you see in this room?"

"There are four of us if you count the bear. What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

Derrick shook his head. "Not good. Not good at all. Airman, you're hallucinating again. Nathaniel and I are the only ones in this room. As for being a bear, Nathaniel looks as he has always looked to me. I'm not positive why you're seeing what you do."

Derrick approached the pilot. "Okay, lie down and close your eyes." The pilot complied and as soon as his eyes closed, Derrick frantically waved off the other two fathers. As soon as they were out the door, Derrick said, "Okay, I want you to count slowly backward from ten, open your eyes, and tell me what you see."

The pilot counted backward, opened his eyes, and jerked with a startled look. "I see you and the bear, Doctor."

"Hmmm..." Derrick said. "I'm going to ask you to try a few things and see what happens. Are you okay with that airman?"

"Yes, Sir," the pilot answered.

"Okay, wave to the bear."

The pilot waved, and the bear waved back.

"Ask the bear his name."

"What's your name, bear?"

"Well, this is stupid," the bear responded. "I'm Nathaniel, Max."

"He says he's Nathan..."

Derrick interrupted. "I know what he said, airman. The bear you're looking at is Nathaniel."

"Really?"

"I'm afraid so." Derrick leaned over and pulled at the airman's eyelid. "Okay, look left... look right... now you're sure you only see two of us in the room now?"

"Yeah, you and the bear."

"Well, thank heaven for small favors. At least the hallucinations seem to be abating. I'm going to order rest for you. We'll see how you're feeling in the morning." Derrick turned and began walking through the main hall doorway. He turned back. "Oh, and for the time being, no kissing the bear. Am I clear?"

Nathaniel frowned. The pilot nodded his understanding.

He walked out of the door and into the arms of his husbands, both laughing uncontrollably. "We are in a world of shit if Papa Bear finds out."

Nathaniel came plodding out on all fours. "Well, that sucks. I really like him."

The brown bear smiled. "And apparently, he really likes you. Humans are strange creatures, and sometimes their feelings aren't quite stable. But for the time being, he appears to love you, so be gentle with him."

Nathaniel frowned. "I was trying to figure out a way to..."

Derrick interrupted. "There is no way to do that gently with a human in that body of yours, Nathaniel. Kissing is about as far as you can safely go."

Nathaniel's eyes brightened. "I can still kiss him?"

Derrick and Kris looked at each other. "Give him a couple of days, but yeah, after that, I don't see why you can't kiss him."

Will shook his head. "This will not end well. But what the hell? Who am I to stand in the way of true love?"

Kris looked over at Derrick. "Did you have sex for years with my son before Will turned you?"

"Yeah."

"Curious that he never told us. We knew he was fond of you, even intimate on some level, but he never let us know he was sexually intimate with you. Did you exchange DNA?"

"I swallow," Derrick laughed.

"True, I forgot that," Kris mused. "And that whole power bottom thing... that was before your turning as well?"

"Yep."

The Kodiak rubbed his chin. "I know the Weres in human form don't transfer the Changeling DNA, but Eric has no human genetic markers to block that DNA transfer. Apparently, at least one Changeling in our midst can control when he turns someone. That is quite the skill."

Kris waved his paw toward the cave's exit. "Come on family. Let's go say our goodbyes. The sooner Papa Bear is done with his travels, the better I will feel." The bulky bear fell onto all fours and began walking to the helipad. "And the sooner I have a few very interesting questions answered."

Chapter 6

Morning came too early for the family of Bears and Wolves. Ejected from their bedroom by the recuperating airman, they spent their nights outside. In the night, Will and Derrick often reverted to their human form. Despite the bears' best efforts, they could never quite wrap themselves around the humans to keep them warm throughout the night. As with most married couples, blankets were useless, as the ones who needed them the least were often the ones to hog them all. The humans would wake to stiff joints and a desire that at least one hot spring would flow from the crag.

Will stretched. "When can we return to our bed?"

"When the airman has healed and leaves," Derrick replied. "That should only be a few more days."

"Maybe he will want to stay," Nathaniel said hopefully.

"If he does, he better be ready to watch two bears fucking wolves from that little roll away of his, because I'm not staying out of my bedroom forever."

Kris laughed. "Old Wolf, would you like to go out into the woods to play?"

Will looked up at the sky and measured the sun's location in his mind. "Yeah, I'd love it, but it's time for the pilot to get his meds. Can I take a rain check?"

"ooouuu... I enjoy doing it in the rain with you, Husband."

Will smiled, leaned over, kissed both husbands, and headed back to the cave. Halfway there, he shook his leg vigorously. "DAMN SLUGS!" he yelled.

Inside the cave, the werewolf went about preparing the pilot's medications. He poured a glass of water and entered the main hall.

"Here's your meds, Pilot," he said, shaking the airman awake.

The airman bolted up with a start, and then finally gathered his bearings. He looked at Will. The airman was quiet for a moment. "Why do you hate me?" he asked the werewolf.

"I don't hate anyone. I hate people's actions when they're done blindly and result in the damage and death of innocents."

"It's war. There will always be collateral damage. We try to keep it to a minimum."

"Yeah, I've heard it all before, Pilot. The strange thing is, you can sit around a table, negotiate to find a compromise, and not a single person gets killed. It's amazing. You humans should try it."

"We did try it."

"Maybe you didn't try hard enough. Ask the people of Vancouver if they think you should have tried harder."

"At least they have a reason to complain."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the werewolf asked.

"I suppose it's easier to sit the war out in relative safety here on this mountain. Don't get involved. Be an anti-war pacifist complaining how we didn't try hard enough to stop this war instead of stepping up to defend your country."

Will's fists clenched, and a low, guttural growl came from deep inside. "Yeah, I suppose it is easier," he said, turning and walking out of the room.

Will stormed past Nathaniel. "Fucking humans," he snapped.

"Father?" Nathaniel asked confused, as the old wolf pushed by, but by then the werewolf had left the cave.

Nathaniel walked into the room and stared at the airman.

"You're still a bear."

"No shit, Sherlock," Nathaniel fumed. "What did you say to my father?"

"Your father?" the airman looked confused. "How many fathers do you have?"

"Four, in fact," Nathaniel said. "But what the hell did you say to that one who just left the room?"

The airman fumbled for the words. "I may have called him a coward in so many words."

"OH FUCKING HELL!" the short-faced bear yelled. "Are you insane? Do you know how many wars he has been in? I'm surprised you aren't the first casualty of your own major stupidity. I thought you had a brain. Clearly, I was wrong."

"I'm sorry," Max said. "I thought he was down on the war because he was a pacifist."

"Did it ever occur to you that the man is a pacifist because he's seen too much war?"

"I guess I didn't think..."

"You're damned right, you didn't think." Nathaniel interrupted. "You bring a war he has nothing to do with and drop it on his doorstep, and then you have the arrogance to insult him? Are you willing to put your hands into the flesh and blood of a man who is anathema to everything you believe in to save his life? Are you strong enough to do that, Max? Well, my father is, and you're alive today because he's stronger than you can imagine. What the hell is wrong with you humans?"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't come close to fixing what you've done," Nathaniel chided. "Fucking humans," he said as he too stormed out of the room.

The airman sat in his bed, confused by everything that had transpired in the last few minutes. Everything from Nathaniel telling him he had four fathers to a bear calling him a fucking human. But worse yet, he felt as if everyone he had seen this day was now against him -- and perhaps with good cause. For the rest of the day and into the night, no one came by with medications or food. He was left alone with his thoughts, and they were no comfort to him.

Chapter 7

The next morning, the family sat around the breakfast table. Nathaniel kept his head bowed as he ate his oatmeal, avoiding all eye contact with his fathers. Finally, Will spoke. "So about what happened two days ago, Son. Really? A hospital?"

"I was trying to make him feel more at home. Not many humans get their wounds treated in a cave by three Changelings and a couple of werewolves."

Kris looked at Will and smiled. "He has a point there."

Will conceded. "Yeah, he does. But why didn't you tell us, Son? And how long have you been able to make people see stuff that isn't there?"

"I was afraid to tell you, Father. I thought you would react... well, I thought you would react the way you reacted."

"Sorry, Son," the old wolf apologized. "It would have been way easier if you had told me upfront, trust me."

"As for making the pilot see stuff that isn't there, I don't know how it happened," Nathaniel explained. "I wanted him to be comfortable, and he sort of did the rest. The hospital was all his creation. I don't know how any of the things that are happening are happening. I'm not sure how I stopped his bleeding, and I don't have a clue how I stopped the missiles from hitting the mountain."

"Well, that wasn't exactly you, Son," the Kodiak corrected. "You all might as well know now. The vaporizing of the bomber, the fighter, the escort jets, and the missiles was my companion's doing. He was the one who got me back to earth, but not without a cost. We spent all our energies to save our children at the cost of never being able to return home."

"I thought your companion was dead," Derrick interjected. "We watched the crystals sink into the earth. We thought he was gone forever."

"I told you he had become one with what he loved," Kris corrected. "I didn't say he died. He's been here all along, regenerating." The Kodiak waved his paw out toward the glade. "Out there, he has become what he has always wanted to be. He's the protector of this highland. That's what we saw the morning the pilot came to the highland. My companion defended his children. The flora and fauna of this place are his children, and he will fiercely protect them."

"I should say so," Will agreed. He looked at Nathaniel. "Your cute little chub pilot was lucky to come out of that altercation alive."

"It would appear that your pleading saved his life, Son," Kris added. "In my companion's mind, none of the humans that flew over this space deserved to be saved. They were attacking without thought or care about what might come of the collateral damage. My companion wasn't about to let the highland become collateral damage.

"And as you can tell by the missing planes and their crew, he's far less forgiving of human intrusion than I am," the brown bear continued. "But he let the airman down gently because of you, Nathaniel. He's even been helping him heal. It seems he is the protectorate of the five of us as well. He sees our wishes and hopes as important."

There was a cough from behind the foursome. Three turned to see the pilot standing in the doorway. Will remained engrossed in his oatmeal. "Mornin', Pilot," Will said curtly.

"Good morning, Sir," the pilot replied deferentially. "I wanted to apologize for my behavior," the airman said as he balanced his two bound legs between crutches. "You saved my life." He looked at the others. "You all saved my life. I've been way out of line."

"Ya think?" Will said, not looking up from his oatmeal.

"I was condescending..."

"Ungrateful, offensive, disrespectful, presumptuous, uncharitable, and insulting," Will added. "Pilot, I've got a whole thesaurus of words to describe you," Will fumed.

"All deserved, Sir."

Will pushed himself back from the table and stood. He felt the thick paw of his husband push down on his paw. He looked at the brown bear, who smiled at him.

"So, what brings you all the way out here, Pilot?" Will asked.

"I smelled the oatmeal. I hoped if I begged, you'd let me have some. What I've done doesn't deserve your charity."

Will stood up. "I'll get you some breakfast. Have a seat."

"Someone left these crutches and a sandwich by my bed yesterday afternoon while I was sleeping. I wanted to thank him."

"Well, at least we know now there's someone on this highland that is even more clueless than you, Pilot," Will grumbled.

"Thank you, Will. I figured it was you. My meds were there with a glass of water."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I was off doing chores yesterday afternoon." Will said, walking toward the table with a bowl of oatmeal.

"Thank you just the same."

The airman hobbled over toward the table. Nathaniel patted a seat next to him. "You can sit here next to me. I already promised my dad I won't bite you, so it's the safest seat in the house."

The airman sat down. His hand reached out and touched the paw of the young bear. "I'm sorry, Nathaniel. I was wrong yesterday. You were right to be mad."

"Yeah, so was my father." He grabbed the sugar bowl and pushed it toward the aviator. "Eat your oatmeal."

"You're still a bear, you know," the airman added.

"Well, you best get used to it. I'm not making any changes on your behalf."

The airman put some sugar in the bowl and stirred it. His hand reached out and touched the bear's paw tentatively. "I am sorry, Nathaniel." The bear's claws rubbed over the top of the airman's hand, and they said nothing more about the matter.

The airman took a bite of the oatmeal and looked around the room. "You men have some sophisticated equipment around here. That's a satellite ComLink, isn't it?" he asked, pointing to the wide screen and battery of blinking lights below.

Derrick looked up from his oatmeal. "We have ties to family in Montana and around the world. Now, more than ever, staying in touch is important to us."

No sooner had the black wolf spoken the words than the ComLink flickered into life. Nathaniel smiled at the sight of his Papa's face. But the smile faded when he saw the serious disposition of his father. "Hi, Everyone. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have some bad news, and I need to let you know how things are going before I lose this connection."

"You're never an interruption, Husband," the Kodiak said. "Let us get the pilot back to his bed."

The polar bear thought for a moment. "Let him stay. It would be good for him to hear how the war goes on the other side of the world."

"And how does it go, Husband?" Derrick asked.

"I'm alive, but that's by sheer luck." The white bear looked down at the console and pushed a few buttons. "Are you there, Jean Pierre?"

A small image within the larger image appeared on the screen, and the Gray Wolf was online. "I'm here, Old Bear. How bad is it?"

"It's a disaster. Tibet, as we knew it, is no more. Most of China is in upheaval. Korea is off the map. The fallout is spreading northward. Hopefully, Japan won't feel any of the effects. They're pretty sure the detonations were unintentional or the act of rebels. Whatever happened, no one is going near the Korean peninsula for at least 50 years without radiation gear."

"Asia is degrading into anarchy. It's impossible to tell who is fighting who. I doubt even the humans know anymore. There have been three bombing raids over the top of us today from three separate countries. They're all vying for this land, but rather than let it fall into the hands of the other side, they appear willing to carpet bomb it into oblivion." An explosion from behind the bear caused him to pivot, and the screen turned to static. The connection reset and the polar bear was back.

"The temples, Old Bear?" Will asked.

"They're destroyed, Husband."

"Survivors?" Jean Pierre asked. "How are the survivors?"

"I am sorry, Jean Pierre. The Brotherhood is no more. The temple dogs were moving them to the main temple, hoping to find shelter. It wouldn't have mattered. The bombs took out both the temple and the monastery." The white bear's head bowed. "Your brothers are all dead."

The small image of the French wolf disappeared from the screen. Will stared blankly at the missing image. "I pray this brings them the peace they never found in this life. Goodbye, brave warriors."

Kris put his arm around the old wolf and leaned into him. "The temple dogs, the dragons," Will pressed. "How are they?"

"Not well, I'm afraid," the polar bear answered. "The temple dragons are all dead. The last of them died flying the surviving temple dogs to safety here in Nepal. Even unseen, they couldn't pass safely through this hell. There are antiaircraft garrisons everywhere. They target by infrared. The humans couldn't see them, but the guns saw the heat of their massive bodies and shot them out of the sky. Chetanluta is now the last of the flying beasts."

Will fell to his knees. "Fucking humans. You've killed the most peaceful souls this planet has ever known. You dream of ministering angels, and when they fly among you, you kill them." He turned and stared at the pilot. He snarled as his jaws snapped tightly together. "Nathaniel, get him out of here before I undo all the good Kris's companion has done."

The airman stammered in confusion, "What is Doc doing over in China?"

Nathaniel pulled at the airman. "He's saving our children."

"But the Chinese are our enemies. He shouldn't be saving them. He should kill them."

Nathaniel flushed with an expression uncharacteristic of the usually happy bear. "They may be your enemies. They have never been ours. None of you were our enemies. Until today." The young bear pushed the airman away and stepped back. "Will is right. You fucking humans destroy everything you touch." The airman watched in horror as Nathaniel shifted. The bear grew even more formidable. Teeth grew more pronounced, claws lengthened; body shifted into a form even the pilot saw could not contain the rage. The bear turned toward the human, his eyes glowing a bright green.

Kris moved quickly. "Derrick, get the human out of here!" he yelled. Derrick grabbed the airman, flinging him like a rag doll over his shoulder as he dashed out of the cave.

The Kodiak grabbed his son and clenched him. "No, Son," he plead with the frenzied bear. "Not this way. Not this way." The great brown bear clung to his son with unyielding steadfastness. "Stay with me, Son. Stay here with me."

The young bear grew ever brighter. The father grabbed his son's head and pulled it to his shoulder even as the Kodiak's pelt began glowing a bright green. "Stay with me, Son," he pleaded. "Show them the grace they have not shown us."

"Why?" screamed the young bear. "So they can kill us later?"

The glow spread out from the Changeling as he shook in his father's embrace. His eyes deepened in their intense green light. The rage seemed unstoppable, even as his father begged him to pull back. Will watched from the sidelines. Sighing, he reached out and embraced the bear cub from behind.

"Stay with your dad, Son," he begged. "I know it hurts, but don't let it overtake you. Don't lash out."

"But you hate them, you hate the humans," the bear roared.

"I hate what they do. I don't hate them," Will confided. "They are my people. They are who I once was. Stay with your dad, Son," He begged again. "Never kill in anger. Don't become the thing you hate. Don't kill what you love."

"I don't love them," the short-faced bear wailed.

"You love one of them," Will said, admitting to the young bear what he had known all along. "You have from the first moment you saw him. And that's reason enough to stand down."

"I hate them all."

"No, you don't. You love one of them, and he needs you. You know he's capable of love, but he will never learn how to become loving without you guiding him. Stay with your dad, Son."

"It hurts, Father. I want it all to go away," the young bear cried out. "I want them all to go away."

Will clung more tightly to his son. "I know. I know how much it hurts because I feel it too. You're not alone."

"They don't deserve to live."

"That may be true, Son. But it won't be by our hand that they die. I can't let you live with that guilt. I can't let you live with that pain." The wolf stroked the bear's bowed head. "But I can stay with you through this pain. This pain we can live through. Let your dad bring you home."

"Stay with us, Son," the Kodiak said once more.

"Papa... Dad," the young bear whispered.

From deep within the Kodiak came the song Will remembered from centuries past. From the other side of the world, the polar bear lifted his head and sang. A world away, and the white bear's voice was as clear as the Kodiak's. Eric was talking to his son. The old wolf clung to Nathaniel even more tightly and whispered. "Your papa is here, Son. Your dad is here. Let go of the rage. Let them bring you home." The wolf paused, listening as the voices from the edge of the galaxy joined the chorus. "There is an entire world that loves you. Listen to them, Son. You are not vengeance. You are the Unity. Understand what that means. You are love personified. Nathaniel, you are their son. Stand down. Let them bring you home."

The young bear's fury softened. Surrounding him, the voices of the Changelings pushed past the barriers he had set up. He could hear his papa's voice from the other side of the world and his dad's warm voice next to him. He heard his family from light-years away and they steadied him in the moment. They helped ease him from the depths where he had fallen and began his return home.

As the song continued, the young bear heard a new song. It was the beating of the old wolf's heart. His father's song was one of immense tragedy and sorrow beyond words. It was a song of boundless forgiveness. It was the love the old wolf had spoken of; the one the young bear was only now beginning to understand. Nathaniel closed his eyes and let the voices inside him bring him back from the edge of the abyss.

The young bear sobbed as the green glow faded from his fur. There was a crackling static from behind the three. "Are you all okay?" the polar bear asked.

"We're fine," the Kodiak responded. "Thank you for being here, Son."

"Where else would I be? Is Nathaniel okay?"

"He will be in time. But I suspect our husband won't appreciate finding out that our people are telling yet another tale of how he saved the humans."

"I wasn't trying to save the humans," Will growled. "I was saving my son."

The young bear let go of his dad and turned to his father, hugging him. "Thank you, Father."

"Well, you know how much that title means to me."

The bear kissed the werewolf on the cheek. "And to me, too."

The wolf looked up at the screen and the concerned face of the polar bear. "Come home, Papa Bear. We need you here."

"I have every intention of coming home. It will be a few extra days. I think Jean Pierre could use an old friend by his side during Fourth Night."

"Understood," Kris said. "What of the temple dogs?"

"Three are still alive. As far as we know, their charges are all dead. We found none alive after the bombing. We will all be returning to the ranch. Tiff and Tuff have secured a cargo plane. It should carry us all safely to Montana. It will be good for the temple dogs to sing their songs with the Gray One. There is so much grief to share. It might help to have memories of better days to share as well."

"Papa?" Nathaniel asked.

"Yes, Son?"

Nathaniel shook his head. "Nothing, I guess. I miss you."

"We'll spend time together when I get home. I miss you, too." The polar bear looked around. "I best be going. The pathway out of here won't be an easy one, but it will be easier at night. I'll reach out to you all as soon as we're in the air. I love you all."

"Love you, Papa," Nathaniel said, shyly waving.

Nathaniel's dad put his arm around his son. "We should go somewhere where we can talk."

"That would be nice, Dad." Nathaniel looked over toward the werewolf. "Father?"

Will looked up from the trunk of clothes he was combing through. "Sure. Go spend some quality time with your Dad. I'll see you later."

"So, what are you doing?"

"Changing into something a little less comfortable."

The wolf shook himself and became a naked man. He grabbed a pair of overalls from the trunk and squeezed into them. Clothed only in the overalls, his massive chest pushed the straps to the breaking point. Nathaniel was worried about what he saw. His father rarely appeared as a human, and he never willingly put on clothes.

"It's time the airman and I have a little talk," Will said. He looked at the brown bear. "I need him to see me, Husband. Can you do that?"

"For a time."

Will frowned. "Do it, Bear. I'm not changing into my ape suit for shits and giggles today."

Nathaniel looked at him. "Father, you were right. I love him. Please don't hurt him."

"I learned something from our alpha years ago, Son. I may not be gentle. But I will be fair. There are things he needs to know if he's going to love my son."

Kris looked at Will. "I love you, Husband. Don't go doing something any of us will regret."

Will walked over and kissed the Kodiak. "Do you realize how long it's been since we've had sex?"

"About eight hours?"

"No, I mean real sex. The kind that takes eight hours."

"It's been a while. We've all been busy."

"Right. And one day we won't be busy. I'm not doing anything that will jeopardize my husband pounding my ass on that day by something I do today."

"That's my hopeless romantic," the brown bear laughed. He pulled the man in close to him and kissed him again. "Hurry home. I miss you already."

"Me too," Nathaniel added.

The man nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I'm able." He grabbed the airman's helmet from off the counter and walked outside. He looked up at the mid-afternoon sun, ablaze in the haze of smoke from the coast. "Jeez," he sighed. "How many hours were we in there?"

Will walked toward the forest. He saw the airman down by the creek rubbing his newly freed legs. Derrick looked up at his approaching husband. "I took the casts off!" the werewolf shouted from a distance. "I figured it would make it tougher for him to run away."

The airman looked up at the approaching man. Frightened by the sheer size of Will, the pilot tried to make small talk. "I don't think I've ever seen you in overalls."

"You've never seen me before today, airman. That's why you're so confused about the way I look." Will hugged his husband. "Could we have a bit of time alone together, Pup?"

"You won't do something we'll all regret, will you?"

The mountain man took a deep breath. "Why does everyone insist on asking that question?"

"Because we love you?" Derrick answered with another question.

"Okay, then. I promise I won't do anything that I have to apologize for. Good enough?"

"With the exception that you rarely apologize for anything, I'm going to say that's good enough." The black wolf stood up and kissed the man. He laughed, rubbing his muzzle. "Your beard tickles."

Will smiled. "Off you go, Husband. I know Nathaniel would like to see you."

The werewolf shook himself into a wolf and ran off toward the cave. Will pulled at his overalls, trying to make them more comfortable.

The airman fidgeted nervously. "It's beautiful out here," he said, continuing his effort to distract the angry-looking man before him.

Will looked around. "Yeah, it is," he replied. "You almost removed it from the planet." He tossed the helmet toward the pilot. "Here, a lovely parting gift."

The airman caught the helmet and stared inside. A thick coat of dried blood matted down the inside. He looked up at Will.

"You do the math, Pilot."

The airman continued to stare into the darkness of the helmet. "I should be dead," he whispered. He looked back up at Will. "I don't know how to say how sorry I am. I was wrong, so completely wrong about you."

"Yeah, I know that. You don't need to tell me, but I'm glad to see you figured it out."

"I so regret the way I judged you without knowing... without really knowing anything."

"Well, you're only human," Will said.

"But you're not, are you? None of you are." the pilot said, half asking for confirmation.

"No, we're not," Will answered, confirming the pilot's fears. He sat down beside the airman and reached into his bib pocket. "Here. Take these," Will said, opening a small plastic bottle. "I thought about giving you a bunch of laxatives, but my son would never forgive me. So, these will make you better. And the sooner you're better, the sooner you're gone."

The airman swallowed the pills dry and choked slightly. "I'm sorry. Really, I am. We're on the same side, but I was wrong to say the things I said. I'm trying to defend Canada. I'm not your enemy."

Will turned and growled. The airman recoiled at the sound. "Did you understand nothing from this morning?" Will asked. "Not my enemy?" Will reached into his bib pocket again and pulled out a well-worn photo and dangled it in front of the airman. "What do you see?"

"Two guys in werewolf costumes eating cake?"

"No, what you see are two werewolves. That's my husband Derrick and me celebrating our thirty-eighth anniversary. Do you know who took the picture? My other husband, Kris. He's an alien. Not the kind from across the border. The kind from outer space. He's the one you saw at the breakfast table with the white beard. Sorry, there was no time for introductions. You humans were busy killing our family overseas and putting my other husband in jeopardy."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know what was happening."

"Kris is actually a Changeling... a shapeshifter," Will said. He paused. "Are you keeping up with this, Pilot? Guess how we got together? It was all thanks to your RAF acting on behalf of NATO. They came here to imprison the alien. But prison is messy and expensive, so instead, they figured why not kill the alien and be done with it? It doesn't matter how friendly you are. Being an alien is always a good reason for Earthlings to kill you.

"So, instead of dropping by with a Bundt cake and a hello, you did your best to cut him in half. Derrick and I got in the middle of the firefight your precious RAF brought to this ridge. Derrick nearly lost his life and his arm. Me, I took enough machine gun fire to kill me." The husky man paused, the anger seething out in the silence. "You're not my enemy? Fuck you, airman. Fuck you and everyone like you. You have no clue what goes on outside of your tiny little world. The only reason you're not my enemy is that you haven't been told by the high command to be my enemy yet."

Will's fist slammed down onto the rock. "You got a name, Pilot?"

The airman was shaking in fear as he stammered, "M... Maxwell Templeton, Sir."

"Well, Max," Will said, leaning into him. "My guess is your initial apology yesterday was for not knowing I was a soldier myself, that I've seen war, and that maybe I had a right to sit this one out."

"Yes, Sir."

"Let me tell you a bit about my history with war, Max. I'll start with the first one I was in. I was eight years old. My dad was a Catholic in Ireland. It was 1643. The Catholics and Protestants were at war, and it wasn't going too well for the Catholics. Dad would come back home from a skirmish and lash out against the only ones who were weaker than he was. My mother took the beatings. I took the beatings. And on the day he tried to beat my little sister, I stood my ground between him and my sis."

Will pulled back his shaggy hair, exposing a long scar across his temple. "This is my first war wound, Max. I got it defending my sis against my dad. My dad didn't know how to handle a musket, but he had skills with a short sword. Two days later, when I finally dug my way out of the root cellar he locked me in, I found my entire family dead. I don't know if it was the Protestant Army or my crazed father who did the killing. But that's the glory of war, Max. It doesn't matter in the end who does the killing. You're still dead."

Will paused, reflecting on his next words. "I promised my son I'd try to go easy on you, but I think you've had it too easy all along. Do you think this war is some noble adventure? You're here defending truth and justice? Maybe it's time you learned the actual costs of war.

"Let's jump forward a century, shall we? It's 1778, and I'm knee-deep in severed body parts and dying men. Do you want to know the irony of that, Max? I'm on the winning side. Those dismembered men are my fellow soldiers, and the doctor trying to piece them back together is the guy you call Doc. He's a Changeling, just like his daddy. And like his daddy, when he's not pretending to be a human, he's a bear, Max. I'm there by his side, not because I love you humans, but because I love him. He's like me. He's a fag and a dumb animal, and he's saving the lives of humans that would as soon kill him if they knew who he was."

The airman looked away from the big man, hoping it would end, but Will hadn't finished.

"That gentle soul who sewed you up? He's been doing that long before I met him, and he lasted on the front line much longer than I ever could. I bowed out after Korea. I couldn't take the never-ending death and loss of every beautiful thing humans created. And all so a few powerful men could push toys around a map and declare themselves the winners. And the rest of you humans? Sheep. No... worse than sheep. Sheep will follow any strong-willed animal, but they won't turn into killers of their own kind at that animal's suggestion.

"Sheep don't go to war, and unless we're pressed into one, neither do we. But we've seen quite a few. It's easy, you know. In the four hundred years I've been alive, there has never been a day gone by where one faction or another of humankind wasn't at war. My brothers live in fear of humans. I have no problem with you killing each other, but you cause so much collateral damage to the ones I love.

"I've been on your front lines patching humans and my people back together for centuries. And you know why? Because Doc asked me to be there with him. Every time the bear hoped you would learn the lesson; that you would come together and save your world instead of destroying it. He thought you could learn to love someone regardless of the color of their skin, who they loved, or what they believed in. So, tell me, Max... how do you think this story is going to turn out? Think the bear will get his wish for that whole 'Kumbaya', 'Circle of Life', humanity stepping up and doing the right thing idea?"

The man in overalls made a low growl. "Not sure? Well, let's toss Vietnam into the mix. I wasn't there when you humans launched a mortar attack on a medical communications base. But the bear was there with the man he loved. The human died from an explosion that ripped through his pancreas and tore out his liver. It's a horrible death, Max. Even the bear's skills couldn't save him. There was so little left to save."

Will took a deep breath and choked back the pain. "And I wasn't there. My best friend in the world was holding his dead lover in his arms, and I wasn't there to grieve with him. He has never said a word about my absence. He's never accused me of not being there for him. But I live with that guilt every day of my life. I curse your fucking wars. I curse them for making me so sick of humanity that I wasn't there when the one I love needed me. In a war that you humans admit you fought to see who could outlast the other, a war to see who had the biggest dick, the bear and his lover sacrificed everything. For nothing! For fucking nothing!

"But the bear's pain doesn't end there. The shelling didn't come from the Viet Cong. It came from a mistake in firing coordinates of the US Army. They call it friendly fire. Trust me, Max. It isn't friendly. You humans did what no creature could do. You finally killed the bear's will to go on. He couldn't get up from that tragedy. You beat down the best thing that ever came to this world.

"You want to know why we're sitting this one out? Max, we have paid our dues. We've paid them and we never got a moment's peace from it. We have lived centuries where our life is on the line because of who we love and because of what we are. And despite everything we've done for your precious humanity, we're still expendable in the eyes of you humans. My husband is a polar bear. But it was a fucking polar bear and my short-faced bear son that saved your life. And let's be honest here, Max. In any other world you live in, you would have taken them out without a moment's hesitation."

Max sat with his head bowed. "I didn't know. I just didn't know," he repeated between sobs.

"Yeah, well, now you do. Let's see how confident you are now that you aren't the enemy. Humankind is its own worst enemy, and you're right smack dab in the middle of it. What you saw this morning was Doc trying to help evacuate a monastery full of our people too wounded to make their way out. Don't feel any sense of relief that it wasn't a Canadian bomber that destroyed their temple. There's more than enough human blame to go around.

"There are hundreds of us scrambling to stay out of harm's way, and we're not doing a great job of it. The saddest part of it all, the children of man are scrambling too, and all too often, there's no one there to lend a hand. That's what your war has brought to earth, Max. Humankind has become a refugee trying to avoid being killed by its own as it searches for sanctuary.

"You saw Doc this morning dive into the hell you humans created to save his children. But where are you when your children are dying? Do you mean to tell me a child deserves to die because she has almond-shaped eyes or he had the misfortune of being born in a country you don't like?"

Max choked out his words through the painful heaving of his chest. "God, I'm so sorry. I thought we were something special. I thought we were saving the world."

"You're not saving the world, Max. This world doesn't need your saving. It was here long before your kind climbed out of the trees, and it will go on long after you humans drive yourselves into extinction. If anything, after this war is over, the world might be kind enough to save you. You won't survive if it turns on you."

Max looked up at Will, the tears streaming down his face. "I've been so blind."

Will shook his head and sat beside the pilot. He put his arm around Max's shoulders, pulling him in close. "God only knows why my son loves you, but he does. I couldn't let you go on unaware of the price this family has paid to live beside humans. You humans have always thought you were the most intelligent species on earth. You've always been wrong.

"Even some of the simplest of animals on this planet know that this world is a tough place to live. So, they don't take more than they need. They act all blustery toward each other, but one of them always backs down before it goes too far. And if they're lucky, they have a little sex now and then." The old wolf paused. "It's pretty simple, actually. All they want is to live out their lives. They don't feel compelled to live anyone else's. A few of them even understand compassion and sharing. Humans are the ones who took a simple plan and fucked it all up.

"We all have our faults, Max. You know by now I have plenty. But ignorance shouldn't be one of yours. You're too special to my son to let that human tunnel vision go unchallenged. If you're going to love my son, you're going to have to see outside of your tiny little human box. Way... way... outside of that box."

"You're a bastard, you know," Max said, still sobbing.

"Yeah, I know."

"How am I supposed to live with what you told me?"

"By remembering your time on this mountain. Don't let it slip away, Max. Humans are capable of incredible cruelty, but they can also show amazing charity. It's that all too often we choose to be cruel over being charitable. Cruelty is easy. Charity is hard."

"We choose? That includes you?"

"I wasn't always a werewolf, Max. Part of me is still a son in the family of man. Although if you ever imply I said that, I will deny it flat out."

Max laughed weakly. "I will remember, Will, I promise."

"Be the man people remember as charitable, Max. Be something more than a part of what made me turn my back on the human race. I know you have a war to return to. But don't let your legacy be how many planes you downed during the fight. Let it be how many people you raised back up after this nightmare is over."

Max rubbed his head against the mountain man. "I don't want you to hate me."

Will held him even closer. "Decades ago, I gave up on the human race. But I've never given up on human beings. Step away from the race, Pilot. Start being. Be something more than the dumb ape that kills its own. Be a human being worthy of the love my son has for you." He stroked the airman's bandaged head. "I never hated you. You just pissed me off."

"Well, that's understandable."

"I'll say it is," the wolf said, shaking the man gently.

"Can you ever forgive me?"

The bushy-bearded man sighed. "I had a fight with the airman that we picked up off the glade a few weeks back. You're not that man anymore. You would never see my son for what he truly is if you hadn't changed. Holding a grudge will only hurt both of us. You live true to your word, and I will stand by you. There will be no need to forgive you because I will love the human being you become."

"I hope I can do that."

"My son loves you, Max. He's an excellent judge of character. Better than I am."

"I have a lot to live up to."

"Yeah, you do. But I believe you're strong enough to pull it off."

Max looked at Will. Will took a towel from his hammer loop and wiped the tears from the human's face.

"Will, do I really love a bear?"

"You really love a bear."

"I am so fucked."

"Yeah. Royally."

The airman buried his face in the chest of the burly man beside him. The dark-haired man pulled the pilot in close and stayed with him until the tears ebbed and the man was asleep. In the light of the setting sun, Will picked up the pilot and returned to the cave. As he placed the man in his bed, he sighed. "Fucking humans. Why can't I quit you?" He pulled the blanket over the man. "Damn it all," he groaned. "You've even turned me into a movie cliché." Standing upright, he walked out of the cave, released the clasps on his overalls, and shook himself back into a werewolf.

Chapter 8

The morning light filtered through the antechamber and into the main hall. Nathaniel sat by the bed of the airman, observing him. When the pilot stirred, the first thing he saw was the spectacled face of the bear staring at him. He was more surprised by what he didn't feel as opposed to what he felt looking at the bear. There was no fear, only a strange sense of comfort to have the bear by his side. "Morning, Bear," the man said.

"Morning, Human," the bear responded.

"I made a mess of things, didn't I, Bear?"

"You've had better days. So have I."

"I'm sorry I did that to you," Max said apologetically.

"Did what?"

"Made you lose your temper."

"I'm sorry I lost it."

"What are we going to do, Bear? How do I even begin asking you to forgive me?"

"This seems to be a good start," the bear said with a small laugh.

"You know I love you, right?"

"Actually, I do. It's probably more difficult for you to know for sure if I love you."

"Do you love me, Bear?"

"I love you, Human."

"There, see? Not difficult at all." The pilot sat quietly for a moment and then spoke. "All my life I have believed that my people had a moral superiority over others. It was religion or race; sometimes it was political affiliation or nationality. There was always something that made me better, made me right. It meant I didn't have to question myself. The answers were obvious, and I was obviously right."

"Has to be tough being perfect," the bear said, smiling.

"That's the problem, Bear," Max answered. "It's very easy to be perfect. To know every right answer, because whatever you believe is always right."

Nathaniel was quiet as Max continued. "But when you see where one part of what you believe is wrong, the rest starts unraveling at the seams. Before long, you're questioning everything."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Nathaniel asked.

"For most humans, it's terrifying."

"I'm not interested in most humans," Nathaniel said.

"For me, it has been very difficult." Max sighed. "One by one, the sacred cows in my life have toppled, and yesterday your father grabbed what remaining few I thought I had and pulled them down."

"I'm sorry he made it difficult for you."

"I'm not. He was right about one thing. If I'm going to love a bear, I had better open my mind up to a lot of things I've never even thought about before. Including how we humans don't have all the answers and maybe our arrogance will be our undoing."

"Hubris isn't unique to humans," Nathaniel replied. "We struggle with it, too."

"But I've noticed you're so much more adaptable."

"We've had billions of years to adapt."

"I don't know if we have that much time to sort it all out. But more to the point, I don't have that much time to sort myself out if I'm going to have a chance with the one I love." The pilot sighed. "After what happened yesterday, I realized how much I have to learn; how much I have to change. Your father was right."

"Which one?"

"Which one of them makes me feel like an asshole every time I open my mouth?"

"Oh, that would be Uncle Will."

The airman looked at the bear. "Your uncle is your father?"

The bear smiled. "Uncle is a term of endearment. He's not really my uncle."

"Is your family always going to be this confusing?"

The bear nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure if you stay long enough, it will only get worse."

Max hesitated a moment and then decided it was time he told the young bear the truth. "Nathaniel, we have to talk about that. I can't stay here. I have to go back."

Nathaniel's countenance dropped. "Why? You can stay here. You could even become one of our family. I know of a young bear that's very fond of you, and he's looking for a husband."

Max laughed. "Don't think I'm not tempted, but if that offer entails living as long as your fathers have, I'm afraid I have to decline." The human pulled himself up and close to the bear. He turned himself around and fell back into the bear's massive chest and belly. Grabbing Nathaniel's enormous arms, he pulled them around himself. "There. You need to promise to stay this way because I can't bear to see the disappointment in your eyes if what I say is something you can't understand right now."

"Okay," Nathaniel said. "I'll hold on to you as long as you wish."

"I know that all things being equal, you're never going to die. And I know that your father, Will, has been going strong for over four hundred years. Nathaniel, I can't do that. There is a part of me that sees death as the great mystery that makes this life worth living."

"All my life I've heard the clock ticking down in my head and it's driven me to make the choices I have. I know I can't put my life on hold because I don't know when that life will end." Max paused. "More importantly, I embrace that part of myself. Now more than ever, I have challenges I need to meet, and I can't be lulled into complacency, thinking that I have enough time to do it all."

The man shifted and pulled the arms of the bear even closer. "Mind you, I'm not eager to die. I'm never going to be one of those guys diving off of cliffs with rubber bands tied to my feet. I have always craved a nice, boring life. For me, the opposite of boring has never been excitement. It's been calamity. Look at me now. Thanks to this war, I've had enough excitement, enough calamities, to last me the rest of my life. But I have to go back to that unholy mess, and I have to climb back into another jet if they ask me to, because it's my family on the line. Just as you protect yours, I am bound to do my best to protect mine. This war of human making has to end by humans being willing to seek something better than forever repeating the mistakes of our past. We rise to that challenge only when our mortality is in front of us."

Max could hear the sobbing of the beast behind him, and he bowed his head.

"I'm going to lose you, aren't I, Max?" the bear asked.

"You will never lose me, Nathaniel. I will be with you forever, even as you will be with me forever, even if these moments on this mountaintop are all we ever share."

"I understand memories, Max. But you're human and one day you will die and I will have lost you. Memories fade and I will lose you over and over again as each one slips away from me."

"You have a lot to learn about memories, Nathaniel. You have read the entire library of man, but the one thing a book can't teach you is how to cling to what is best in those we love. I will die one day. Whether or not you're by my side, death will come to me. And when that day comes, I will see your face as clearly as today. And I will know that I loved a bear. A bear, Nathaniel. How extraordinary is that? I could never have dreamed it in a million lifetimes."

There was a long moment of silence, and Max spoke again. "My death will bring one other comfort to me, Nathaniel. In the end, my life is the one thing I lay down to beg forgiveness for what my kind has done to yours. My body will return to the earth and become the renewal of that which sustains and comforts you. You will feel the grass underneath your feet, and that grass will be a part of me. I will be the wind that moves across your fur. I will die a happy man because I know all that I am, and all that I ever could be, will find its way back to you."

"The conservation of energy, we call it," Max continued. "Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It simply changes. One day, I will put this body down. I don't know what will happen next. I only know nothing will be lost. This is a part of our great cycle of life. Yours seems to be to live forever. I support your right to live your life as you have for eons. I only hope you understand how I have to ask you to let this little human mayfly in your arms do the same."

"Even if it hurts?"

"Even if it hurts."

"It already does," the bear whispered.

"Yeah, I know. It already does."

The bear quietly rocked the human in his arms. There were no words to speak beyond those spoken, so the bear held on to the human in the moment, hoping they would last forever.

Chapter 9

It didn't take long to arrange for Max's departure. Nathaniel's family recognized how each day prolonged his pain, waiting for the day he would have to say goodbye. On the morning the white bear returned, Max finished his preparations to return to his people. He walked outside with his hand gripping the young bear's paw into a cloudy day. Nathaniel's family stood outside the entrance to the cave.

Max looked at the group. "I can't thank you enough for your kindness. I've been such a dick to you, and you've been... been..."

"Undickish?" Will said casually.

"And more," the airman said. "I admit I was wrong about everyone in front of me. Especially you Will."

"Yeah, well, it's water under the bridge now, Pilot. But trust me, if you ever cross me again, I will throw you into that water and hold you under until you're blue."

The pilot laughed uncomfortably. "I hope one day to be worthy of your forgiveness." The middle-aged man looked toward the short-faced bear. "And you. How do I leave you?"

The bear looked back at him sadly. "You don't."

"I do." Max sighed. "There's still a war on." He touched the young bear's paw, and then pulling it up, he kissed it.

The pilot looked toward the old wolf once more. "I realize you're right, Will. We humans may never get it right, but I have to hope that this is the war to end all wars. I hope something good may come from the end of this one. I am a human, and I have to try and save ourselves from ourselves." He looked back at the group. "And now I have a tiny little highland in the Coast Range that I have to protect as well."

"Come, give us a hug before you go," Eric said. He held out his arms to Max, and the man entered his embrace. "Be safe, Human."

There was a sudden shudder through Max's body. The polar bear sensed it immediately, but without letting go, asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"Will is a werewolf," Max answered.

"Yeah, Pilot," the old wolf responded. "I thought we sorted that out a while back."

"No, I mean you're a werewolf," he said, looking into the eyes of the old wolf. "And Derrick is a werewolf. And Kris is a huge-ass bear." Max looked at the furry arms surrounding him. "And Doc, you're a polar bear."

Eric released his hold on the airman and pushed him back. "You see us?"

"Yeah. I see you." Max pointed to them one by one. "The gray wolf, the black wolf, the Kodiak bear." He paused for a moment, perplexed. "Who has a huge cock, by the way."

"That's a long story," Derrick interjected.

"But I see you all."

"Son of a bitch," Will said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I guess some humans can change."

"I'd like to think I can, Will."

"Well, come give me a hug then," Will said.

"You won't bite me or anything, right?" the airman asked.

"You gets your hugs, and you takes your chances," Will said, putting out his arms.

Max walked into the hug and felt the warm fur wrap around him. "You done good, Pilot," Will whispered. "Welcome back from the dark side of humanity."

"Thanks, Will," the airman said. "I'll try to make you proud."

The two broke their hug, and Max hugged Derrick. "Take good care of yourself, Max," the black wolf said.

"I will," Max replied. He reached over to hug the Kodiak bear. "One day," the pilot said, "you need to explain that cock of yours to me."

Kris smiled. "It's probably exactly what you'd think if you realize I can shape myself to whatever my husbands want."

"Oh, I didn't know the answer was that easy," the airman said, letting go of the hug with a smile.

The airman looked at Nathaniel and sighed. He grabbed him in a tight hug. "I think I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow," he said. Nathaniel laughed, and Max blurted out, "Damn, did I just say the gayest thing in the world or what?"

"Well, at least you're in good company," Will said. "Hell, two of us can even play the part of Toto."

Max stood on his tiptoes and reached up to the short-faced bear. The bear lowered his head, and in the middle, the two kissed. The minutes passed, and the family did their best to let them have their moment undisturbed. Even Will stood by uncharacteristically quiet.

When at last the kiss ended, Max smiled at the bear. He reached out and touched the bear's swaying cock. "You know, you have the most outrageous hard-on."

"You kissed me," Nathaniel objected. "I always get a hard-on when you kiss me."

"I know," the airman laughed. "I didn't want you to think I never noticed. It's like the rest of you. Big, beautiful, and more than I ever imagined."

Max peered into the bear's eyes. "I don't know exactly what a bear and a human do if they're in love. One day, I hope to find out. When this war ends, I'm going back to my home in New Brunswick. I won't ask you to wait, or even to follow, but there will always be a place for you in my world." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure exactly how we make it work, but I'm willing to try."

Max reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "My address." He paused. "If you lose it, I'm the only Maxwell Templeton in Caraquet, New Brunswick."

Nathaniel grabbed the human and clasped him to his chest. "I won't lose it," he promised. The bear pulled the human into one more deep kiss.

When the kiss ended, the human looked into the face of the bear and wiped a tear away. "I'm making the biggest mistake in my life, aren't I?" he asked.

"Do what your heart tells you to do," the bear responded. "I know you have a family and a home to protect. You do what you must. I still have a lot to learn about humans before I become good company for you."

"That is about the furthest thing from the truth I think I've heard," the airman said with a laugh. He stepped back from the bear with his fingertips touching the claws of the enormous beast.

"Now," the airman said, looking back to Nathaniel's family, "how do I get down off this rock and back to work?"

The polar bear pointed behind the pilot. When Max turned around, he saw the helicopter bringing its engines online. He squinted his eyes. "Are those two werewolves in the cockpit?"

"What, you never heard of Airwolf ?" Will asked.

"Not really."

Will frowned. "I waste my best material on this younger generation." He grabbed the pilot and pushed him toward the helicopter. "Go now, before we get all mushy on you."

Max ran toward the helicopter and jumped in, fastening his seat belt as the chopper lifted off the ground. Max waved goodbye, and Nathaniel waved back. "Now I know I've got a heart," the bear whispered as he watched the helicopter turn toward the west, "because it's breaking."

Nathaniel felt the warm fur of his papa wrap around his shoulder and the shaggy fur of his dad wrap around his waist. "I say tears are in order all around," his Papa sniffled.

Nathaniel rubbed his eyes. "That's good. I brought enough for everyone." The fathers rallied around their son for a day of commiseration that would end in songs of longing and love as the night sky unfurled.

Chapter 10

Two weeks had passed since the family had watched Max fly from the highlands. The young Changeling still had his melancholy moments, but his lighter side was returning. His fathers tried their best to maintain their routine to let their son know that life goes on in the face of sadness. In mid-afternoon, on a cloudy day, Derrick walked down by the creek, where he saw Nathaniel swatting at the water.

"What's up, Nathaniel?" Derrick asked.

"I'm trying to learn how to fish," Nathaniel said, taking another futile swat at a fish swimming below.

"You could use a rod and reel. It's much easier."

"I was trying old school. It keeps my mind off things."

"Things?"

"Max things."

"Ahhh. That's going to be tough for a while."

"Yeah. So, I figure I either learn a new hobby or I start listening to country western music."

"Please, no," Derrick groaned. "Get as many new hobbies as you need. I can introduce you to some decent torch songs about lost love. They're as bad for your mood as country western music, but at least we won't have to listen to songs about trucks and divorce."

Nathaniel laughed. He stared up at the sky. "I still enjoy looking at clouds with my family."

Derrick flopped to the ground and patted the grass next to him. "Get out of the water and join me. The first one to point out a bunny wins."

Derrick and the short-faced bear lay in the grass, watching the clouds floating by for some time before the bear spoke. "I like you, Derrick."

"I like you too, Nathaniel," the dark wolf replied.

"I find it easy to talk to you."

"Oh? Is there something on your mind?"

"Kind of. I know Dad and Papa think I'm going to make my home here on the highland, or maybe back at the ranch."

"And you're thinking something else?"

"All my life, I've heard the voices of my people living across the galaxy. I've never met them, and yet I know their history and their lives. I know what we are as a community. But here on this planet I call home, I have only the knowledge of what my fathers taught me in gestation. I know this world can be dangerous and cruel, but I can't hide from it forever."

Derrick sat up. "I don't think they would want you to. They're a bit overprotective right now, but that's because they don't want to see you hurt. You need to expect the people who love you will try to protect you. When you think about those who live with you, you are the baby in the family."

Nathaniel looked down at his newly formed body. "I know it seems as if I'm young. In many ways, I am to this world. But who I am, who I really am, is eons older than all life on this planet. My fathers and I share the same life force. I know and see more than everything written in your books."

"Or stored in our computers," Derrick interrupted, laughing. "Your dad took care of that."

Nathaniel smiled. "He is the most curious of our family, and I'm grateful he is a part of me." The bear looked at Derrick and put his paw on the wolf's cheek. "I understand the concern. I do. When you go picking blackberries, I worry about you getting hurt."

Derrick laughed again. "You have a good heart, Nathaniel. I'm sure you will find your way." The wolf looked at the enormous bear. "You will always have your family to return to. But that doesn't mean you can't go out to find your own place in this world." He paused for a moment. "Or find those who will become your family beyond this place."

"Oh?" the bear stammered, fidgeting slightly. "You mean out there in the world?"

"Yeah, out there," the werewolf replied. "I'm thinking a place like New Brunswick might be a nice place to visit somewhere along the line. I hear the fall colors are something to behold. By next fall, who knows, the war might be over."

"Does it show?"

"We've all had a crush on someone in our lives, Nathaniel. Yeah, it shows."

"But he's a human."

"He seems like a good man. Don't forget, your Papa has a fondness for humans."

"That is true," Nathaniel said with a smile. "I know why he loves you."

"Perhaps one day in your travels you will return with a mate of your own."

Nathaniel's eyes looked upward in thought. "Or mates. That seems to have been a good choice for all my fathers."

Derrick laughed and hugged the big bear. "You will be fine, Nathaniel. You were all grown up before we even met you. We forget that sometimes."

Nathaniel returned the hug. "Thank you, Papa," he replied.

Derrick pushed back and looked at the bear. "I'm not sure that I'm ready to be called Papa quite yet. It makes me feel kind of old."

"But you mated with my fathers. Doesn't that make you my father as well?"

"I suppose by default. I never thought about it all that much. Then again, I am learning the way families come together is a lot different from what I thought." Derrick paused. "Look at me. I have three husbands and a pack of wolves I call family." He looked at the short-faced bear and let his hand run across the side of his face. "And a four-billion-year-old bear I love who's now calling me Papa."

"Our family is great."

Derrick smiled. "Yeah, our family is great. I guess it doesn't hurt to have a son who's older than I am. I've seen weirder in this family."

"Oh yes, much weirder. I can call you something else if you like, though. Sometimes, when I watch you sleeping, I realize I love you more than the name Derrick seems to imply. I mean, everyone in the world calls you Derrick. There's only one of me." The bear returned the gesture and stroked the side of the werewolf's face. "And only one of you in my life."

Derrick chuckled. "Well, there is certainly only one of you, and I'm grateful you're in my life. How about you call me Wolfy? Your Papa used to call me that when we first met. Nowadays, only Jason and the twins call me that. Is that special enough?"

Nathaniel put one claw to his chin in thought, and after a moment, he nodded. "I think that will work." He righted himself and kissed the werewolf. "Papa Wolfy. I think that will work just fine."

Derrick laughed. "Papa Wolfy it is. Come on, Nathaniel. Let's go get lunch."

The two began walking back toward the cave. Derrick stroked the back of the overgrown bear and smiled. "So, you watch me when I sleep?"

Nathaniel sighed. "Oh dear, is that one of those weird things I shouldn't have talked about?"

"I watch your fathers sleeping all the time. Sometimes for hours. Why do you think I get up so late?"

"So it's normal?"

"Nah, it's weird. We're just weird in the same way."

"I'm glad we're weird."

"Me too."

The plodding bear smiled. "I love you, Papa Wolfy."

Derrick looked up at the sky and watched the shifting clouds. He smiled, closed his eyes for only a moment, and said, "I love you too, Son."

Chapter 11

It was only two hours after lunch, and Nathaniel had returned to the creek in his feeble attempt to swat out a dinner for his family. Lost in concentration, he remained singularly focused, unaware of his other surroundings.

"Hey, Son," the voice said. Nathaniel turned to see Will walking toward him, carrying something in his hands.

"Hi Uncle Will," the bear said, smiling. He stepped out from the creek and shook himself.

"Are you ever going to let me live that down?"

"In a century or two. I still think it's funny."

"Fair enough," Will said. "I have something for you." The werewolf pushed out his hand. An old backpack dangled from the claws. "You've seen it before. It was your Papa's. He packed it for his trip here with Derrick forty years ago. It's seen a lot of miles, and they've all been safe ones. It even helped save a life. I figured it might keep you safe when you leave."

"How can you tell what I'm thinking?"

"I'm married to Derrick, remember? We won't tell your papa and dad. It's up to you to make the decision when you'll tell them. But we're your fathers too. Remember when I said the family is there to pull you back when you need it?"

The bear nodded.

"Well, sometimes we're there to give you a push when you need that." The wolf hung the backpack on the bear's shoulder. "We will miss you like crazy, but you were born all grown up. We're too attached to you to remember that most days. You're still our kid. We're proud of you beyond words, but we can't help but see you as someone who needs our protection. You need to get out in the world and meet people who aren't hindered by our overly protective emotions."

"So, you'll always see me as a kid?"

"Most of the time, I don't think of you as a kid now," the wolf responded. "I know you're billions of years old. You're incredibly handsome, and I figure that might make you a very interesting adult to play with. It sure works for your fathers, and I've been the lucky recipient of their affection far too many times for you not to intrigue me."

Nathaniel smiled at Will. "You're a most handsome werewolf yourself, you know."

Will smiled. "Thank you. I don't get many extinct bears telling me that." He pulled the bear into a warm embrace and whispered, "Son, if you ever feel lost or lonely, you have a place to come back to where you are loved beyond words. Never let anyone push you to do something you don't feel comfortable doing."

The great bear pushed the wolf back and stared into his eyes as if to see back into the wolf's brain. "This is Will, right? The one who said he would chew the tail off his mate if he kept him from having sex with my dad?"

"Yeah, that's the one," Will laughed. "It's all about consent, Son. Your dad wanted what we did to happen. We would have backed off if he ever changed his mind. Your dad and I did it for Derrick often enough. Love always... always... means consent. And I love your fathers."

Nathaniel smiled. His huge paw brushed back the cowlick on the werewolf's head. "So, if I wait until I come home to have sex, are you okay being the one to take my virginity?"

Will laughed again. "You are your fathers' kid. You're not coming back a virgin. It's in your genes, Son. I envy the first guy you say yes to." He grinned, "Still if you want a refresher course or something when you come home, I'm pretty sure I'll be game."

The bear grinned back. "That's good to know. I like to think you could be one of the people that I consent with." He let the werewolf go and adjusted his new backpack. He paused in thought for a moment. "Well... and Derrick too. That would be nice." He shuffled back toward the cave. "And the pack. Definitely, the pack, if they are up for it."

"They will be up for it, trust me."

"And Dad and Papa. Yeah, I think they should be there."

Will laughed out loud. "Son, you have your daddies' genes for sure."

The old wolf took his foot and brushed the grass back and forth. "About Max. I was hard on him and he took it. He sought to make it right instead of turning from the horrible things I threw his way. I rarely say it about humans, but he's one of the good ones. You could do worse."

"Did Derrick tell you about that, too?"

"Nope, Son. I saw it in your eyes from the beginning. But realize going in that nothing lasts forever with the humans. Humans struggle to make marriages last. Even if he turns out to be the one, you will bury him one day." The wolf paused. "And it will tear your heart apart in ways you can't imagine."

Nathaniel and Will stood in silence for a time. "Is it worth it, Father?" Nathaniel asked.

"Yeah, it's worth it," the wolf replied. "But there's no workaround for the pain. I figured you should know. You're my boy. So I will tell you the truth. There's nothing in the world that I can do to keep that pain from you if you head east." The wolf cleared his throat. "But there's nothing in this world that will ever make you feel more alive than loving someone your heart is so open to."

"I love him, Father."

"I know, Son. And he loves you."

"Maybe one day he'll want to turn."

"Doesn't work that way, Son. You can't go trying to change him without losing everything about him you love. Remember what I said about consent? It works both ways. He's a mortal who is at peace with that mortality. You can't force that to change. You either accept him for who he is, or you walk away. There will always be people in our life that we have to say goodbye to, no matter how much our heart wants otherwise."

"Have you ever..."

"Son," the wolf interrupted. "I've pieced my heart back together so many times it looks like a jigsaw puzzle." The wolf stroked the shoulder of the giant bear. "The only regrets I have in this life have been when I hesitated too long, wondering if it was going to work out. Don't let love slip away because of your own inertia." The bear pulled off his backpack and grabbed the werewolf in a tight embrace. "Go talk to them, Boy," Will whispered. "They'll understand. We all have to choose our paths."

Nathaniel went in search of his fathers and found them swaying back and forth on the porch swing. He stood watching them from a distance as their paws played back and forth with each other. He turned to leave them in their solitude when the Kodiak spoke. "Come sit with us, Nathaniel. It's time you got this burden off your chest."

Nathaniel walked toward the two. "How... how did you know what I was coming to talk about?"

"We're Changelings, son," the polar bear answered. "The Unity is of one thought, remember? For some time, we have been aware of your struggle. We were waiting for you to be comfortable enough to talk to us."

Nathaniel shook his head. "Is there anything you don't know about me? That doesn't seem quite fair. I don't know everything about you."

"That is unfair," Eric said. "This is as good a time to address that as any. Both of you were born into the world of the Unity. But you share a part of yourself with this planet. Because of me, your genetic code has evolved to help you survive in this world. You aren't human, no part of you is, but your survival depends on your ability to live alongside them. We are Changelings that commingle with humans. It's time you both learned to cope with your dual heritages."

The brown bear looked at the polar bear. "Me?"

"You, too, Husband," the polar bear confirmed. "Our people have lived as one for longer than this planet has had life on it. We've always heard the voices of our people, and it comforts us. But the voices we hear every moment of our lives would drive the inhabitants of this world insane. There is a part of humanity that has to renew itself through solitude. And the part of you that is of this earth will need that same seclusion from time to time."

Eric looked at Nathaniel and patted the space on the porch swing between the two bears. "Come sit."

Nathaniel shook his head no. "We'll break the thing, Papa. I don't know how you two are managing it."

The white bear smiled. "This is a gift from the pack. They made it to hold more than the three of us." His fathers slid over to either side to allow Nathaniel a space in the middle. "It's going to be a tight fit, but don't worry about it holding us."

Nathaniel sat between his fathers. Papa put his massive furred arm around the short-faced bear. "There are things you don't know about me because I choose not to tell you about them. I might share them with you, but not until I am ready to share them with you. That is something the humans have taught me. And on this planet, because a part of us will always be individual and independent of the community, you need to learn how to dissemble from time to time."

Kris looked at the polar bear. "Not me. I don't care if everyone knows what I'm thinking."

"Including how you feel about Will's Brussels sprouts?"

"Well, those are god-awful. But I would never tell him that. That would hurt his..." The words tapered off.

"My point exactly," the polar bear said. "You're already learning that on this planet everyone knowing everything about everyone is a recipe for disaster. You've already learned not to divulge some things so that you don't hurt the ones you love. I'm saying that you can do the same to protect what you feel is private to yourself."

Nathaniel looked at his father. "How?"

"It's an acquired skill. You have to practice it. If it helps, we will do our best not to pry into your life. Although it isn't always that easy, as you well know."

"I don't pry," Nathaniel objected.

"Okay," the polar bear responded. "How do you know the way to give a blow job to two werewolves at the same time without tearing their dicks apart with your teeth?"

The short-faced bear stammered, "Well... well... that was... I can't help that. You were groaning so loudly I couldn't help but.. but..."

The Kodiak laughed out loud. "No need for embarrassment, Son. Your Papa has skills I envy. And if I can learn them through osmosis because I'm a Changeling, you better believe I'll take advantage of that perk."

The polar bear shook his front paw. "All I'm saying is that we live in a world that differs greatly from our home world. We need to remember that we love each other. Until we sort out a way to make it work, there will be times we overstep our boundaries and invade each other's space. We can't help it. But we can always help each other be better."

"Fair enough," the Kodiak agreed.

"Yeah, fair enough," the short-faced bear said, smiling.

"Okay, so tell us a bit about this walkabout you're thinking of taking," the polar bear said.

"Is it okay?"

The brown bear placed his hand on the young bear's leg. "You're our son. You know that means we're concerned with your safety, but you're also more than old enough to be making those choices on your own."

"I still want your blessing."

"You have that," his papa replied.

"Of course you do," added his dad. The Kodiak paused. "You also have our blessing if your travels take you back East."

"Thank you. It means a lot to me to know my family is there with me. Although that trip won't be for some time. The war has to end before Max returns home, and I still don't see that happening anytime soon."

"Well, for everyone's sake, I hope it ends soon. And if you get a chance to be with Max, please let us know if we need to turn off our brains for a few hours."

Nathaniel nudged the Kodiak. "Daaaad," he complained. "If you sense me kissing anyone, turn your brains off."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," the polar bear added, laughing. "We promise we'll try."

Nathaniel shrugged guiltily. "I promise I'll try too." He smiled back at the two. "I love you, Fathers."

"Love you too, Son," they replied in unison.

The polar bear looked at his son. "So I guess this means we best call the pack. They're going to want to say their goodbyes along with us."

Nathaniel smiled. "I would like that."

Kris picked himself up and shook his disheveled brown fur. "I'll go make the call. Who knows, maybe I'll get the little fox on the ComLink and I can try to get him to blush."

The three laughed and headed back into the cave.

Chapter 12

Nathaniel looked around the room. He smiled at the wolves and glanced lovingly toward the bears. "I thought this would be easier. I knew I would miss you all, but I'm shaking at the thought of taking the first step."

"The first step is the tough one, Son," Will advised. "They get easier with each step after."

Nathaniel smiled. "I hope so, Father," he said. Will smiled and looked away humbly at the sound of his title.

The short-faced bear cleared his throat. "This," he said, waving his arms across his chest, "is who I am. My fathers chose human forms first and bears as their avatars. But I was born a bear, and I am proud of who and what I am."

"As are we," Kris said.

Nathaniel smiled. "I know, Dad." He stepped away from the half-circle of bears and wolves. "They say that our avatars choose us. I know that is true, as mine chose me before I even stepped foot in this world. It took me until now to realize why it waited so long to manifest itself. You all have been so kind, staying in your animal forms to make me feel at home, that my avatar never felt the need to become real until today."

"I have wondered since the moment I found myself distinct from my fathers, what and who I truly am. And I know now what that is." The oversized bear gave off a faint green glow as he grew smaller. The green light spread over him and then vanished as the fur receded and his form shifted. In moments, a young man that a bouncer would card were he to walk into a bar, stood naked in front of the group.

His brownish-red hair and beard were the same shade as his dad's fur. It spread out over his chest and belly, the same as when Kris was in his human form. The white color of his mustache that blended into the trim red beard matched his papa's. His alabaster skin was identical to Derrick's, and even though far shorter, the young man's build matched Will's stocky girth. His human form shared so many characteristics of each of his fathers that one could attribute his lineage to any of the four. He extended his hands. "I am the child of my polar bear papa and my Kodiak dad. I am the son of two werewolves that were once human. It is who I am. It is what makes me most proud."

Jason shifted back to his human form and came up to Nathaniel and smiled. "You look beautiful. It's kind of nice to have someone that looks almost as young as me in the family."

Nathaniel grabbed the young one and squeezed him into a tight hug. "You're still the youngest. I'm billions of years old."

"Buzzkill," Jason snickered. He hugged the Changeling back and kissed him on the cheek.

Will looked at the two and shifted back to his human form. "Yeah. A definite buzzkill, for sure. Who wants to know a guy that looks that good after billions of years, when I'm looking like this after only four hundred?"

Derrick laughed and shifted back to his human form. "I like the way you look after four hundred years." He reached up on his tiptoes and kissed Will squarely on the lips.

Kris shook himself back to human, and Eric followed.

"I have very handsome fathers," Nathaniel said, "no matter which incarnation they choose."

Kris laughed. "That has always been my opinion of the wolves in their hairless ape skins."

Will looked at the youth and grinned. "Not so bad for hairless apes, huh, Son?"

Nathaniel smiled broadly. "You're far from hairless, Uncle Will. I like you in that body. And you're not an ape. You're my father."

"Finally, a title I'm happy trying to live up to," Will said, hugging the young man.

One by one, the twins shifted into their human forms, ending when the alpha wolf became man. "You are indeed your fathers' son," Jean Pierre said. "That's a remarkable thing to be." The alpha hugged the young man. "Two redheads in the family. I'm not sure we will survive the onslaught of admirers knocking on our doors."

Jason and Nathaniel both giggled over the thought. When they realized their youthful nature was showing through, they tried unsuccessfully to stifle the noises they were making.

Will stared at the newly born young man. "Damn, you Changelings know how to fill out a human body."

"Ain't that the truth?" Tiff and Tuff agreed in unison.

Eric leaned over the dresser and pulled out a drawer. He rummaged around inside until he found what he was looking for. He threw something through the air at Nathaniel and said, "catch."

Nathaniel grabbed the fabric out of the air. "What's this?" he asked.

"Clothes, son. You're going into the human world. You're going to have to wear them."

"But the humans can't see me regardless of what I am, right? So why do I have to wear clothes?" Nathaniel asked, tossing the clothes back to his Papa.

"The humans will always see you as something other than what you are. They will see a clothed human being, whether you're a bear or a man. But the Weres out there will see you as a naked man walking down the streets of their town. That distraction can mess up things fast," Eric said, holding out the clothes.

"Ahhh... Papa," the young man said. "I hate clothes."

"I say stay naked," Will interjected. "It pays to advertise. And you're one handsome billboard."

Eric glared at Will. "Old Wolf, you're either part of the solution or part of the problem."

"I was hoping you might have forgotten that saying while you were a green blob," Will said, rolling his eyes. "Your Papa is right, Nathaniel. I'm sure you'll look great in that outfit," he said with a mix of deference and rebellion somehow blended together. "No need to have the Weres running out in the street trying to tackle you and take you home."

Eric's glare hadn't changed as Derrick laughed. "Seriously, Papa Bear? You're expecting something else from your husband? That's as good as it's going to get."

Eric smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"What?" Will protested. "What? I told him to put on clothes. I'll even put on a pair of socks so he's not the only guy wearing clothes if you want me to."

Kris reached out and pulled Will into a warm embrace. "I love you just the way you are." He kissed the burly man and when the lengthy kiss broke, he pointed downward. "There, Husband. Are you happy now?" he said, smiling at Eric. "We're both wearing wood."

Eric looked at the two with their erections pressing tightly against their bellies. "Husbands," he groaned with frustration.

Nathaniel laughed. "It's okay Papa. Dad and Father are two of a kind." He walked over to the two and pushed down on their cocks with his hands. He pushed right up to the point the two began to show signs of discomfort and pulled his hands back quickly. The hard-ons flipped up against the two men's rotund bellies with a resounding slap. "Men and their toys," Nathaniel said.

Will looked at Nathaniel. Without veering from his penetrating eye contact, his hand slipped down below Nathaniel's waist. The same slap rang through the room when Will pulled his hand back. "Boys and their toys," Will said, smiling. "Just saying."

Will turned to Eric. "Sorry, Papa Bear. Why don't we all get dressed? I'm sure he could use the moral support."

Eric nodded in agreement. Kris sighed. "Wolves, you are beautiful in all your manifestations. I hate to say it, but today we do the unthinkable and cover those beautiful bodies."

The pack returned to the chopper to fetch their clothes. Upon their return, Nathaniel watched as his fathers dressed. As each layer of clothing went on, the young lad put on a layer in kind. But even the excitement of leaving the highland for the first time couldn't ease his wondering if he was doing the right thing.

Soon the pack finished dressing in their return outfits. Like everyone in the family, they displayed a certain discomfort in wearing clothes. To Nathaniel, it seemed clear no matter how carefully they tried to hide it. One by one, they came up and gave the short-faced bear a hug and kiss goodbye. The short-faced bear who had become a man hugged the little fox, now a young lad, waiting for the inevitable kiss.

Jean Pierre came up to the two young lads as they kissed. "How do you separate two kissing redheads?" He asked and paused. "With a crowbar, it seems." The two youths broke their kiss with a guilty smile.

Jean Pierre pulled something from his overalls. "This is for you, Nathaniel." He extended his hand.

"What is it?" Nathaniel asked, taking the small object in his hand. He looked at the round metallic box with a wolf's head inlaid in finely carved crystal. "It's beautiful."

"It's a tad old-fashioned, but so are we," the Frenchman said. "Push the wolf's head."

Nathaniel pushed, and a small light glowed beneath.

"It's making contact now," the twins said. Tiff handed the young man a pair of reflective glasses. "Here... put these on."

Nathaniel put them on. What he saw seemed to be nothing more than the room, just slightly brighter than without the dark glasses. "Switching images now," the twins confirmed. "What are you seeing now, Nathaniel?"

"The forest. I'm seeing the forest outside." Nathaniel jumped back. "Crap, Damien. Don't jump in front of me like that."

"Sorry, Nathaniel," Damien apologized. "I was just checking the system. Darius has the camera in his hands."

"This is fantastic, guys," Nathaniel said. "It's like I'm right there."

"Yeah, now watch this," Darius said. There was a brief flicker between images, and Darius' face was smiling at Nathaniel.

"I see you, Darius."

"And if you take that box out of your hand, I will see you, Nathaniel," Darius replied. "In case you're wondering, there is a camera in the box. You can set the box anywhere in front of you. The cam is three hundred sixty degrees accessible. The computer tracks where you are and moves to keep you in frame. As long as you want us to see you, we'll see you. But if you want us to see where you are, tell the computer to rotate the image."

"And that's the way it will be whenever you want, Young Bear," Jean Pierre said. "We'll adapt the ComLink here and at the ranch. It doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what time it is. If you miss us, you press that wolf's head, and we will be there with you."

The Frenchman hugged the youth. "And if you need us there by your side, we will find a way. Don't you ever hesitate to ask." He kissed the young man on his cheek. "Now, go say goodbye to your fathers, and be gentle with them. They won't say it, but their hearts are a crack away from breaking."

Nathaniel kissed his dad and then his papa. Eric pushed him back, and the young man saw a father's pride reflected in the polar bear's face. Eric smiled and said, "The family of Weres already knows that the Changelings have returned to Earth. You will always have a home wherever you wander." He grabbed the lad once more and added, "Be safe, Son."

Nathaniel let go and walked over to Derrick. He hugged the chubby man tightly, whispering in his ear, "Don't tell anyone, please, but I'm missing you all already."

"We're your family," Derrick whispered back. "We already knew that, silly. But you go out there into the world, anyway. We waited thirty-eight years for your fathers to return to us. We have no problem waiting for the ones we love to come home."

The young man kissed Derrick on the lips. What should have been a peck on the lips lingered, and then reached a stage where the Weres could sense the pheromones swelling up in both.

"Jeez, dudes, get a room," Will groaned with mock indignation.

The two broke their embrace, and Nathaniel reached out and grabbed Will. He pressed his lips up against Will's. In short order, they too heard the others chant the same jest.

Nathaniel let Will go. "Will," he said shyly, "I think I'm ready to consent."

"With who?" the bearded man asked.

"With everybody in this room. Everyone I love."

Will smiled. "Damn, I said it before. You are your daddies' boy."

Nathaniel looked overwhelmed. "Help," he said, looking at Will.

Will smiled and stroked the young man's cheek. "You sure?"

Nathaniel nodded.

Will turned toward the pack. "Seems there's a change of plan. Nathaniel, in a carefully considered move, has decided the world isn't ready to meet a virgin Changeling. You know, all those awkward first moves and changing into a short-faced bear at the wrong time. He wants a bit of experience under his belt. And he's asked the ones closest to him to help him out with that."

Jean Pierre looked at the ginger. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah," Nathaniel replied. "I'm sure." He turned to his fathers. "And I'm sure I want you both here, too."

"Oh well," Will said as he unbuttoned his shirt. "Let's get out of the clothes we just got into before we tear them apart in the transformation." The others laughed and began stripping.

Five days later, as the sun rose high overhead, the last of the stragglers walked out of the forest. Some were in their animal avatars, and others were human. How they arrived there from what began in the cave was a mystery to them all.

Will clung to Derrick as they both stumbled out of the forest as werewolves. "You know I love them, but I'm not sure we're going to survive both of our husbands horny at the same time."

Derrick laughed. "Well, since I don't think they're ever anything else but horny, we best get used to it." He sat down on a log and took a deep breath. "Still, watching them together..."

Will nodded. "They are a thing of beauty. Our husbands amaze me."

There was a noisy crackling of leaves and branches from within the forest. "Will took him with no problems," Tiff told his mate as the two exited the forest canopy.

"All I'm saying is that bear is seriously over-endowed," Darius objected. "I won't walk straight for a week."

Nathaniel came bounding out of the forest, smashing through the underbrush. "You don't do anything straight, Darius. Why walk that way?"

Darius looked at the short-faced bear and smiled. "Come here, Bear. At least give me a going away kiss that I'll remember." Nathaniel gladly obliged the wolf. As they kissed, both became men. Once towering over the werewolf, Nathaniel now stood on tiptoe to finish his kiss. Darius looked at the young man when they had finished. "I agree with Will. It seems a shame to put clothes on you."

Nathaniel blushed, his pale skin turning bright red. "Thank you," he said. "But I guess I had better get dressed if I'm going to get out of here with a few hours of daylight left for walking."

Will and Derrick came up toward Nathaniel, carrying his clothes, and handed them to him. Nathaniel reached out and grabbed the old werewolf and pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you for being my first, Father," he whispered.

"You're welcome, Son," the old wolf whispered back. "Thanks for asking." He pushed the young man back and smiled as he shook himself back to human. "One day, we'll have to see how well we do in our ape suits."

The young man laughed shyly. "I would like that."

The commotion of the two bears walking in the underbrush announced their arrival before they stepped out into the glade. Arm in arm, the polar and brown bears pushed into the light and smiled at their husbands and son. Shifting into their human forms, they greeted the growing crowd with warm hugs and kisses.

Soon enough, the family of bears and wolves were in their human forms. Now clothed, they waved goodbye as the young man began his walk to the highland's lower cliff. He had declined the offer to join the pack in the chopper and instead choose to walk the planet, letting him learn of his new world firsthand. A red-tailed hawk soared watchfully overhead as Nathaniel descended the mountain. Nathan looked up and waved to the shapeshifter. Chet's wings extended and rocked back and forth in acknowledgment. Nathaniel pulled his coat around himself and the Changeling inside him smiled. He knew he would never be alone.

Back at the cave's entrance, the two proud father bears wiped the tears from their eyes. They all pretended not to see Will doing the same. "Fucking Changelings," he grumbled. "Always making me cry."

Derrick pulled his mate in close and commiserated with him. "Fucking Changelings."

"Four days and four nights," Jean Pierre said, fatigued. "That's a bit of a record even for the pack."

"Yeah," Kris said, his arm wrapped around Eric. "I believe we have unleashed the Kraken."

Jean Pierre laughed. "No, you have unleashed something this world has needed for far too long. Someone filled with love and wonderment." He sighed. "I only hope the world doesn't crush that out of him."

Tiff and Tuff spoke. "There is still love out there, Jean Pierre. The boy will find it."

Damien nodded his head in agreement. "It found us, and he walks from this place knowing what it feels like in so many of its forms."

"But the humans," Will said sadly. "There are so many of them."

Derrick stroked the back of Will's neck. "He'll be back, Old Wolf."

"I know," Will sniffled. His other husbands came up from behind, and the four comforted each other in a group hug.

Chapter 13

Three weeks later, the four husbands watched the chopper landing. The bear and wolf husbands were returning to the ranch. Their long exile from the place Will and Eric had called home for decades was ending and their mates were returning with them.

The Changelings had established a calm peace with their wandering son. He had dropped by the ranch on his way southeast toward New Mexico and a certain red Chow Will insisted he visit. The pack informed his fathers of Nathaniel's stay at the ranch. The four-day marathon on the highland was not an anomaly for the short-faced bear. More than a few of the ranch hands used the trucks over their horses to manage the herds after they kissed the young bear goodbye. Something with more padding that didn't require stretching their legs out seemed in order.

The son was loyal to his word and stayed in touch with his family. He carried the pack's gift on his travels with pride. Whenever he felt a moment of disconnect from his family, he would pull out the ComLink and rub the wolf's head emblazoned on the front. He knew his family was only a touch away. Most nights, that was enough. Other nights he would press the crystal and talk with them for hours, each family member handing off to the next, all with questions of their own. On rare and special nights, he would lift his head and sing into the night sky. Within moments, he would hear his fathers join the song as it spread across the galaxy.

While the pack began loading what remained of the foursome's lives on the highland, the husbands sat inside the cave. They quietly stared at the rock walls that had been their home for over forty years. The great brown bear shifted his weight toward the polar bear. He put his head on the white bear's shoulder and sighed. "I'll miss it. This was my first home."

"We can always come back," Eric consoled. "It's Were territory, and it's protected by a very imposing companion. No human will ever trespass on this land."

"I hope so, Husband," Kris sighed. "The war has created a world full of refugees trying to find a home. The deserts from the south are spreading further north every year. It's pushing the starving up with it. I'm not sure that human migration won't override even the barriers we've put up. They will never see the Weres, but they might stumble across the land by sheer numbers. The survival instinct is one of the strongest in any animal."

"That instinct did little to convince them to change before the climate did," Will grumbled.

"No, Old Wolf, it didn't," Eric agreed. "Which is why we're returning to the ranch. For now, humans don't see the thousands of acres right under their noses. At least we can work to create green spaces that will help the other creatures on this planet. Maybe one day, even the humans."

"If they survive," Will interjected.

"If they survive," Kris said, grabbing the wolf and giving him a loving shake. "Now, don't we have some preparations to take care of?"

Derrick walked out of the main hall of the cave into the antechamber. "Already done, Husband. I took care of the details this morning. You provided the perfect distraction when you took the pack down to the creek to bathe."

"You used me as a diversion?" the colossal bear asked. "I'd be heartbroken if I hadn't had so much fun."

Eric smiled and said, "I'll go gather up the pack. They're almost done with loading the helicopter. I'll tell them to meet us out front by the porch swing." He turned and looking at Will he said, "remember, none of us spills the beans."

Will took his two fingers and drew them across his lips.

Kris looked at Eric. "It's him zipping his lips," the polar bear said.

"I know what it is," the Kodiak replied. "I was wondering if it ever worked?"

"Not in my lifetime," Eric said with a laugh.

Eric grabbed four duffel bags and hoisted them on his shoulders. "We won't have to change back into our clothes until we leave. Jean Pierre has them at the chopper. Hopefully, we'll fit into them. If not, it might force us to fly home as naked humans."

"Fine by me," Will said. "I like you naked. It might be fun to join the mile-high club as the playtoy of three husbands."

Derrick laughed. "He has a point there."

"He does indeed, but that point will have our helicopter careening into the side of a mountain. So, no, Old Wolf. No mile-high club." Eric said as he repositioned the duffle bags. As they headed to the mouth of the cave, they glanced back and headed to their appointed tasks.

The bags secured, Eric went off to herd the pack toward the porch swing where the three husbands were waiting. The two giant bears took their place and stood on either side of the porch swing. Beside each was one of their husbands, clasping their paws.

"This is perfect," Jean Pierre said with a wide smile. He motioned to Jason and the young man came up to him. "Let me get a picture of you sitting on the porch swing."

"Papa, I hate having my picture taken."

"You could do it for me, or for the alpha. It's your choice," Jean Pierre said.

"Okay, Papa," the lad consented.

Jason took his seat and swung unhappily, waiting for someone to take the photo. Instead, Jean Pierre walked up to him and fell to one knee. "In the one hundred and eight years you've been by my side, you've held onto your youth in spirit as easily as you have in body. You have made my life one that I look forward to each day because you are in it." He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small gold band. He looked into Jason's eyes and said, "Marry me, Fox."

"Be your mate?" Jason asked.

"If mating is what you want, of course. What I'm hoping for is something beyond mating, Jason. I mean, marry me. Justice of the Peace, vows, the pack throwing rice, the whole human experience. Years ago, I told you one day I might decide I didn't want you to call me Papa anymore. Today is that day. I want you to call me Husband."

Tears streamed down Jason's face, and he smiled. "Of course, yes. A thousand times, yes."

Jean Pierre slipped the ring on Jason's finger. The redheaded young man reached out and hugged the older. "Thank you for saying yes," the Frenchman whispered.

Derrick looked over at Will when he noticed him wiping his eyes. Will immediately looked away. "I got something in them," he mumbled.

"I know, Old Wolf," Derrick said as he walked over to the wolf and pulled him in close. The two bears joined the two wolves in their embrace.

"I'm not changing what I have with you three just to have some lame-ass human ceremony," Will said, sniffling. "You better not be thinking that."

"I wouldn't have our lives any other way, Old Wolf," the great white bear laughed.

"The bear is right," the Kodiak agreed. "Where's the fun in conventionalism?"

"Because they have cake at weddings. I'm pretty sure that's the reason. Even I think about doing it from time to time because of the cake."

Jean Pierre smiled. "I knew this was going to be an issue the moment I proposed, Old Wolf." He walked over to the young wolf. "Pup, I believe you've rehearsed something for this contingency."

Derrick nodded his head. He fell to his knee and opened his hand, gripping a large silver band five inches across. The two bears came around from behind him and they too fell to their knee. They reached down to their bellies and tugged them upward. Below the bellies were matching silver rings already tightly secured around their genitals. Derrick took his free hand and pulled back the thick, black fur around his crotch to reveal his hidden silver band. He extended the one in his hand toward Will. "Old Wolf," Derrick said, "will you live in sin with us forever?"

"Please say yes," the Kodiak begged.

"We have cake," the polar bear added.

"Really? Cake?"

"Store-bought, three tiers high, with two bears and two wolves on top, and I'm pretty sure the bears are fucking the wolves."

Will smiled, no longer trying to hide the tears in his eyes. "Yes, I'll live in sin with you." He looked at Jean Pierre and Jason. "I'm sorry I ruined your moment, you two."

"You did nothing of the sort," Jason said. He walked over to Will, and standing on tiptoe, kissed his cheek. "Nothing could ruin this moment for me." Jason stood smiling at the old wolf as he wiped away the tears from his eyes. Jason surprised the group as fell to one knee and smiled. "Me too, Old Wolf. Will you live in sin with me for the rest of my days? I may not be your mate, but promise me you will always run the night with me."

Jean Pierre shook his head and fell to one knee. "Likewise, Old Wolf. Live in sin with me. Make my job as alpha of this pack a little easier by being there beside me."

The twin twins smiled and dropped to their knees and in unison, the four said, "Live in sin with us, Old Wolf."

"Oh god, it's happening," Will groaned. "They're syncing up." He smiled. "But yes, I will gladly live in sin with every one of you."

Damien smiled. "I heard something about cake. We're going to have cake, right?"

Derrick laughed. "Avast, me hearties." He said in his best gravelly pirate voice. "Back to the cave we be going. There be cake ahead." His pirate voice dropped. "And one of you in human form is going to have to cut it because I'm not getting frosting in my fur."

The pack gathered around the two great bears and helped them up. As they began their walk to the cave, the Kodiak lifted his hands toward the heavens. "Family!" he roared. "Isn't it the best thing ever?" The group nodded their heads in agreement.

As they neared the cave, a crisp wind blew through the canyon. Winter was not far off. But this time, the entire family would return home to the ranch before the snow fell. The grand bed in the master suite would need replacing now to hold over a ton and a half of fur and claw. The members of the pack would need to choose from the outbuildings as the couples moved in together for the winter ahead. In addition, there would need to be a place in the main house for Nathaniel near his fathers whenever the wandering bear came home.

Change was coming. The War of the Continents was ending, though that end still seemed distant. With over four and a half billion dead, humankind ached for peace. The Weres had done their best to remain neutral in the outcome. However, their nature left many still providing aid and comfort to the innocent who suffered through the years of destruction.

The ranch had become a gathering place for scores of refugee Weres who lost their homes in the war. The family of wolves and bears was returning to a new and expanded family that grew with each passing day. There were challenges to meet and solutions yet to find. But there was one unmistakable truth the little group on the highland knew. When the changes came, as they had in the past, the family would embrace them together.

As the last wolf slipped past the cave entrance, Will's voice echoed through the antechamber. "Soooo, Jean Pierre, who are we inviting to the bachelor party?"