Oregon in the Fall - 8. Chapter Eight: Wepwawet

I heard a call from the distance. ‘Solar! Solar!’ it said. And it kept repeating, over and over again.

What was that? Where was it coming from?

Desert. Dust.

I’m wolf.

Oh.

When did we become wolf?

sound. go sound.

The sound was like a beacon in this expansive desert, endless and barren. It pulled me forward with an irresistible force. The sand beneath my paws was hot, shifting, a sea of golden grains that stretched to the horizon.

This wasn’t Oregon. Where am I?

I ran, the rhythm of my paws against the sand becoming one with my heartbeat. The sun overhead was a blazing orb, relentless. It did not deter me. I had to locate the source of the voice that summoned me. I was driven by it.

In the distance, a figure materialized, a silhouette against the sun. It was another wolf, its coat gleaming like burnished gold under the solar blaze. As I neared, the figure became clearer. A sense of familiarity washed over me. This wolf, it was more than just a creature of the desert. It was a part of me. A reflection of something deep and primal within.

It… he faced me. His eyes were blue, unlike mine. They held the vastness of the sky in them, like a reflection. In those eyes, I saw worlds, galaxies, the entire cosmos. It was overwhelming. We were two halves of the same whole, united under the sun’s gaze. Where was the moon?

‘Solar! Solar!’ The call was now a chorus, echoing around us, a hymn of ancient power and timeless connection. I realized then that the call was not just a summons; it was a recognition, an acknowledgment of our shared essence.

As we stood there, facing each other in the heart of the desert, the world around us began to shift once more. The sands swirled, the sky darkened, and a new landscape began to take form. The dream—it was a dream—was changing, evolving into something new, a prelude to a journey that beckoned just beyond the veil of waking reality.

There was the moon. I had to run towards the moon.

But where did the wolf go?

Then I knew. “Lunar!” I yelped. And there he was, my sun wolf. He was so bright. Radiant.

We lifted our necks towards the heavens and howled. This was our song.

The echoes had an answer for us. ‘Now fall!’ they said. ‘Fall! Fall!’

That is when I woke up.

Startled awake by my obviously still ongoing howling, Dave bolted upright, his eyes wide with alarm. For a moment, he just stared at me.

“Grey?” he asked, his voice a mix of confusion and concern.

This ripped me out of it right away, and my howl silenced into an awkward yip instead.

I was a wolf. Of course, I was. A naked one.

As I lay there on my side, I wanted to tell him to not be scared. I wanted to tell him that everything was ok. Oh no, I didn’t mean to scare Dave.

So I told him.

“…” I said.

Oh.

Realizing that wasn’t going to work, I quickly shifted back, the familiar sensation of my body rearranging itself into human form. It took only a second. The transition left me feeling exposed, especially as I acutely noticed the shredded remains of what used to be my clothes strewn around me.

Dave, still trying to process the sudden wake-up call, let out a nervous chuckle. “That’s one way to start the morning,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.

I couldn’t help but join in his laughter, despite the awkwardness of the situation. “Sorry about that,” I managed to say, covering myself with the bedsheet.

Of course, this was the moment when Clara entered the room. She didn’t knock.

I turned around, feeling caught in the act, and said, “This time you didn’t knock!”

She stared at me, then up at Dave, who was standing there on the bed in just a pair of boxers.

“I heard howling. Having fun, guys?” she said, smirking.

“Um… this is not what… He was a wolf,” Dave said.

That didn’t make too much sense.

“Listen, you can do all the kinky shit you want, but breakfast’s ready.”

“I wasn’t…” Dave tried to respond, but Clara shut the door. I heard her laughing hysterically as she went down the hallway.

I grinned up at him and said, “You have nice legs.”

That did the trick. The shocked expression left his face, and he crouched down to get to my level. “I like… your wolf,” Dave said.

mate likes me.

Us!

likes us.

“Thanks, we like you, too,” I said to him.

“Wait… we?”

“Oh. He’s… like another part of me. He helps me understand things. We talk, too.”

“So. You are two people?”

“No. We complement each other. He’s me, and I am him.”

bond.

“Wow. Ok,” Dave said, his gaze shifted towards the shredded clothes. “You really need to stop doing this.” He laughed.

“I’m sorry.”

“We’re going on a road trip. And at your current pace, you’ll burn through your clothes in less than a week.”

“The last day has been wild, I should manage to control myself a little better if things settle down.”

“If…” he said.

“Yeah… If,” I said.

I was lost in thought, but only for a moment. I sat up and reached out to touch Dave’s face, tracing my fingers over his cheekbones. He tilted his head to the side and leaned into me. What an attractive man. He almost rivaled me in strength. How, I did not know. I reached behind him, and pulled him towards me, intently looking into his eyes. So blue.

“You have the best eyes,” I said.

“Um, thank you, I guess,” he said, his voice uncertain. His heart was racing, almost stumbling over itself. It’s unfair of me to know these things, but it made me all the more certain about the silent nod his body was sending me. I got closer. Slowly, but steadily. He was intoxicating.

He let out a short breath, his mouth open, eyes closed. I got even closer. His body was radiating anticipation, and I’m sure so was mine. Our noses brushed against each other, and when my lower lip touched his, I felt an electrifying jolt through my body. But that was ok. It was ok.

Dave.

I kissed Dave.

It was this moment when he seemed to lose any sort of apprehension. He grabbed my hair and pulled me closer, too, as we explored each other. It wasn’t rushed, though. It was deliberate, caring. As I pulled away from his mouth, I rested my forehead against his.

It was Dave who broke the silence, and said, “We need to stop, or Clara will come in and find me fucking a wolf man.”

I just burst into a laugh. I beamed at him. “Wolf man is growing on me. So… you think we should… fuck?”

His face shifted into one of fear. No, not fear. The kind of thing that combines utter embarrassment, speechlessness, and a tinge of redness to the skin. This was driving me insane. Embarrassment read to my wolf like prey trying to get away. It was his fight-or-flight response to get away from danger. I was the danger. Combined with the state of my arousal, and frankly his, this was almost impossible to resist.

He didn’t say a word. I did. “Your body already told me the answer. But I think we need to slow down.”

I kissed him one more time. Then I got up from the bed and casually walked towards the bathroom. The fact that my sizable erection was swinging from side to side was not lost on me.

draw him in.

I don’t think we even need to try at this point.

ours.

I think so. And I’d like to play.

I stopped and glanced back at him. His gaze was fixed on my cock. “Join me in the shower?” I said to him.

“I know what’s going on here,” he said. That surprised me. I furrowed my brows.

“What?”

“You’re shifting into the alluring macho wolf man, who knows he can have me.”

Observant.

“Is it working?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Honest.

“I can’t say I’m sorry, but I would never lie to you. So you can trust me when I saw I just want us to take a shower together, ok?”

“Alright,” he said, and got up from the bed. His cock was straining the fabric of his boxers so hard, I swore I could almost hear them creak.

This was going to be an interesting shower. And, yeah, it was. We didn’t have sex. We explored each other’s bodies, teasing each other to the point of almost exploding. Dave threw me a few curious looks because I was not just touching and looking, I was breathing him in. Licking him. Kissing him. Yeah, I kissed him some more.

I was drying myself up with a towel, when I saw a radiant glow on Dave.

“You’re glowing. It’s difficult to see, but it’s there,” I said.

“Hm. You are too, though.”

“Really?”

“It looks fantastic on you.”

I looked at my arm, the bronze skin shimmering with a golden metallic hue, but not at all angles. And not always. There was a rhythm to it. It was like looking at a reflection that didn’t always show, a layer beneath a layer. Inside my skin, but sometimes not.

I asked Dave, “Are you thinking of me right now?”

That seemed to startle him. He wrinkled his eyebrows, and said, “Um… Yeah?”

“Stop that. Think of… Edna.”

“Why would I…?”

And the glow receded. On both of us.

“Huh,” I said.

“Were you thinking of me, too?”

“Yeah, I was. I hope we’ll find answers on how to control this. It’s pretty right now, but what good is a power if we have no idea what it actually is, or how to control it? For all I know, this is dangerous. To me, to you, to the people you love. It scares me.”

Dave looked to the ceiling, as if searching for something.

“I think our journey ahead is set in stone, and we will find answers, Grey,” he said.

“Yeah. Let’s get some breakfast.”

Dave got some more clothes from his room. I put them on. He had gotten us the exact same shirts, from his apparently endless stock of ‘The Lunar Haven’ merchandise. This time they were black with golden lettering. “We’re so obvious,” I said. I didn’t help that we also wore matching pairs of black jeans.

Clara and Mark were at the table. Both were smirking, and Mark raised an eyebrow at us coming down the stairs. Dave stopped behind me. I looked back at him. He had the face of a dog who got caught doing something bad, trying to apologize with his eyes. For what, though? I took his hand and dragged him down the stairs.

Me? I was not apologizing. I paraded him behind me, letting my wolf get the better of me. It’s a weird feeling, my human side was focusing on the joy and happiness I felt right now for having found him. My wolf side was horny, boastfully so. He just wanted to show off his mate, and rip to shreds anyone who would dare to interfere. I let him. I felt it made me more attractive.

We haven’t mated yet.

we will.

That won’t work.

but…

Mark just shook his head at us. The look of defeat he carried yesterday was not as strong anymore, but it was still there. He knew what this meant.

“Had a good night, guys?” Mark asked.

“You’re so obvious,” Clara said. I just shrugged. Dave’s expression hadn’t changed. He was cute.

Mark raised his nose and sniffed. He pinched his eyebrows. “They didn’t…” he said, but left it at that.

Clara’s bright demeanor was our guiding light. She was all bubbly, taking in all the social cues that were going on between us. “This adventure will be fun,” she said, “but we really need to get going soon, so I took the liberty to buy some clothes for you guys.”

Oh.

“Um, thanks,” I said.

“Yeah, thanks, Clara,” Mark said.

I scanned Mark. What was he thinking? We would have to talk about what happened back home soon. If he was able to keep so many things from me for all these years, what good are my senses?

There was fresh bread on the table, scrambled eggs and some home-made spreads, too. The guacamole was excitingly fresh, and I took a deep breath in to remind me of the time in my childhood when things still seemed to be ok. The time when we visited my grandparents in Mexico. I can’t remember us visiting them again afterward.

Clara looked at me. She must’ve seen the look of remembrance on my face. She nodded at me with a kind smile.

“Did you prepare all this?” I asked her.

“Sure! As you may know, I’m good at everything. I’m also resourceful,” she said, and clapped her hands. There were a few empty plates in the center of the table, and an assortment of vegetables and fruits appeared on them out of thin air. They grew on their own, starting small, like baby toys. Within mere seconds, they had grown to their full size, ripe and delicious.

It didn’t stop there, though. They grew past that, and started to wrinkle, to rot.

“Oh, right. I forgot,” Clara said. She clapped her hands again. The fruits and vegetables disappeared. “I forgot everything was wrong.” She sighed, got up and went to the kitchen.

“Did we break things?” I said.

“I don’t think we’re the cause. I just hope we can be the fix,” Mark replied.

Clara came back with some vegetables and fruits. As she placed them down on the table, the front door to the bar opened.

“Edna!” Clara exclaimed. “Come sit with us!”

Heart attack Edna.

“Ooooh, Clara. I’m so glad you called. I was bored,” Edna said. She was a nice lady—a scent of daffodils and summer. Right now, I couldn’t smell the mischievous vanilla on her. She wore a kind blouse with a yellow and green swirly pattern. Her curly grey hair matched perfectly.

“These are the wolves I told you about,” Clara said.

Edna walked to the table. But there was no sense of alarm on her, just excitement. Huh? I looked at Mark, confused, scrunching my eyebrows. He did the same. Edna proceeded to the free chair to my left, and instead of sitting down, she got really close to my face. She was bright and animated when she said, “A wolf? Really now?”

Startled, I replied, “Um, yeah? Hi… My name is Grey. Does everyone here know about… supernatural things?”

“Oh, honey. You’re so cute. Don’t worry your pretty little head. Clara, is he slow?”

“Nah, just overwhelmed. I actually think he’s very interesting. He smelled me,” Clara said.

“Did he now? Huh.” Turning to me again, Edna said, “Can you smell me, too?”

Mischievous vanilla heart attack Edna. But… no. Not really, to be honest. Or maybe? I closed my eyes, and breathed her in.

“Actually, I think I can. What are you?”

She took the spoon from the table and bonked me on the head.

“Ow!” I said.

“Don’t be slow. We can’t have you be slow. This is critical now. I need Clara and Dave to be safe. Please up your game, sir.”

I nodded. Furiously. I looked over at Dave, who just smiled at me, a wide smile.

“Have you tried conjuring some food recently, Edna? It’s broken. Things just go… off. I can’t seem to stop the process.” Clara said.

“That is mildly concerning,” she said. “Anyway. I think you really need to go visit our folks, Clara. Take these pretty men with you, it seems like the right group. The stars are aligned for you. I will take care of this place.”

She finally sat down. And there we were, eating breakfast together in the most unlikely place in the world. Little did I know how many more unlikely places I was going to see. Ominous, right? Yeah. I thought so, too.