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Alpha and his mate were playing with the newborn cubs while the rest of the pack frolicked and splashed in the creek. To everyone's knowledge, I was chasing for rabbits in the northern field or scavenging for food within a lush thicket, but nobody suspected where I was heading. Wandering from the pack to explore happened to be somewhat common--if we arrive back before dusk--among many members. The lone exception were pups, yet I had ascended to eighteen cycles a mere five moons ago.

The pack's scent no longer tickled my sensitive snout, nor could their playful yips echo in the distance. Cautious strides suddenly grew into eager jogs, until each stomp of my footpaws seemed to turn weightless. Then again, my slim frame helped as much in twisting through the trees. I felt like a salmon swimming up a ferocious river. Fighting through the resisting tree branches and dodging each rock as the wind blew in my dark fur.

My black tail suddenly wagged when I caught that familiar scent. It was a heavenly scent that reminded me of fresh pine needles and maple leaves when the trees turned into the sun. With raised ears pointed towards it, I cautiously found a meadow hidden behind a gathering of tall oaks. Past these mighty woods, a grassy clearing laden with bushes could be seen.

And a whitetail deer. Short fur the color of springtime bark covered his slim form, while a snowy teardrop formed the tail facing me. His antlers, each one sharp and imposing for his age, stabbed the air. Staring at the deer, I felt a sudden swelling in my chest. I needed to see his face again, and not from this angle.

When he heard me approach, his alarm became surprise as I tackled him into the bushes.

"Orion, no!" Rowan yelped between giddy grunts. "Stop it, that tickles!"

I continued running my claws through the fine fur on his soft belly.

"Never! You're too soft to not tickle!"

Rowan's stomach, as well as his slim form and soft fur, were among the many features that attracted me to him. Feeling him felt as blissful as blades of leafy dandelions. Smelled like it too sometimes, depending on where the deer's herd ventured recently.

We tumbled around for several more seconds before his paws eventually pushed me off him, but our laughter still bubbled out together. I hadn't even noticed my tail had fallen onto some crushed berries until Rowan, giggling amusedly, pointed at something beside me.

"What?" I pondered, before feeling a wet, sweet substance on my thigh. My ears fell and I groaned while curling my tail up to my maw. "Damn it! I cleaned it this morning for you."

Lapping at the berry juice hardening in the fur, I felt more embarrassed at how much I was kind of enjoying it. It seen grew a little more until Rowan finally stopped his giggling.

"Don't be silly. It's adorable," he teased, shifting towards me until Rowan knelt right beside me, licking his nose, "and looks tasty too."

The whitetail lifted a paw and joined me in cleaning my tail.

"Hmf?" I paused mid-lick. "Rowan--"

"Mmm," he chuckled after slurping up a full tongue of the gooey treat, "raspberry. And a hint of musky timber wolf."

I laughed shortly, though I had trouble hiding my slight arousal. "Funny, Rowan."

"Let's eat then," he chuckled again before licking off another strand of raspberry from my twitching tail. "How are you anyway, Orion? It's been many moons since our..." The whitetail abashedly winked at me with a soft smirk, "...last meeting."

Smiling, I went right into the stories I gathered since the beginning of spring.

***

If any of my packmates wandered enough to find us here, they would have my tail for this. It would go beyond scandalous gossip and straight for Alpha sentencing me to death. Then again, Rowan's herd would force him to face equally harsh consequences for the 'dangers' risked. A relationship between deer and wolves--predator and prey--only existed in a circle of life each of our elders have taught us since younglings.

Before learning of this tradition, Alpha allowed me and other cubs to venture from the pack after many moons of anticipation. Like all the other pups, I couldn't wait to explore the forest, eagerly sniffing and tumbling up every rock I came across. At some point, I separated from the group for my own adventure.

This wandering nose led me to smell exquisite flowers, birds to chase, as well as...something else. Something different and enticing. Like raw food the pack hunters returned with from a long day out. I'd gone a mile or so north into this same small meadow when I found him: a young fawn my age kneeling down to reach into a bush for some wild berries. Back then, his antlers were barely two stubs poking from his forehead, and his scrawny limbs made it seem like this creature only learned to walk.

Curious at this strange animal, and me being a rambunctious wolf pup who loved to make new friends, I'd pounced on him. I expected the fawn to push or snarl back like my packmates did whenever we played together, but he didn't. Instead, he trembled under me.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"...please..."

"Did I...Did I hurt you?"

"Please," he whimpered, eyes closed in terror, "please don't eat me..."

"Why would I do that?" I cocked my ear back, and awkwardly pulled off him. "I...I am very sorry I scared you. I only wanted to play. My name is Orion. What's yours?"

The deer finally opened his eyes and nervously connected his eyes--two beautiful evergreen orbs--with mine. "My...My name is Rowan..."

"Rowan?" I remember feeling my tail wag to the point of it cooling my back fur. "So, what do you like to do, Rowan? Have you ever played 'catch the shadow' before?

Although it wouldn't be until the evening that the gravity of this encounter would be felt on my shoulders, when Alpha mentioned a deer hunt in the future to us cubs, I still cannot tell a soul how much fun we had playing that day. Over the coming moons, Rowan and I found excuses to meander from the beaten path and find each other again. We never traded any secrets regarding pack/herd locations, but the few times a slip-up escaped either of us, there came a time when it no longer mattered.

After I'd endured a harsh winter avoiding the succulent taste of deer carcasses our hunters found, Rowan and I were in the small meadow once again. We were lying on the grass and watching the clouds above drift by, until both of us fell asleep at some point. When I woke up an hour or so later, I found myself cuddled in the growing deer's arms, my chest against his rising stomach.

Suddenly, something that wasn't just embarrassment stirred in the pit of my stomach. I would've called it excitement, but no. It was a different, more feral form of excitement. A full cycle since our first meeting, the fawn had transformed with time into a toned, handsome and more confident, daring deer. Rowan's antlers developed into impressive sets above his head, especially in the following seasons we spent time together. As we grew up together, I'd also started to admire other parts of his body besides those green eyes of his; paws, legs, nose, smile, his teardrop-shaped tail and...

Love between males wasn't an uncommon sight for timber wolves. Unfortunately for me, instead of a beautiful female from my pack, I'd grown to love someone else outside my pack.

I'd grown to love him.

"Mmm, hey there, Orion..." Rowan yawned back awake, glancing momentarily up to the sky. "Heh. You and I sure liked to sleep. How long have we been...Orion? Is something on your mind?"

My folded ears heated up. "I'm fine...I just..."

"Is...something on your mind?" he asked.

"Well...there is...somebody I like...and I don't know if they feel the same."

When we first met, I was the first to surprise Rowan with how I viewed him. This time, he surprised me by leaning forward to touch his nose with mine. Wet and wonderful, our muzzles connected. I knew I never wanted to kiss another pair of lips but his again.

***

We embraced in that meadow once again. My fingers roughly trailed along his back as Rowan licked at the bridge of my forehead. My nose pressed into his nape, sniffing his musk while I grew more intoxicated by his touch. Each whiff of his scent caused my knot to further swell. Before long, I felt his warm member press against my furry stomach. Hard and throbbing, begging to be pleasured by tender paws. Or a tender tongue, like we'd done earlier.

Kissing my deer, I imagined another life somewhere beyond this forest. I imagined a life where Rowan could leave his herd to join me in finding a place of our own, where only the Creators above were able to see prey and predator together. Where I could eat other meats without gaining anger or shame from my packmates. Where we could rekindle our affections daily. Where we could express our physical love without washing in a stream afterward, then worry about our respective elders finding traces of deer and wolf seed on our fur.

Most of all though, I imagined being able to tie Rowan. The thought of finally thrusting my knot into him, calling him my beloved mate and him calling me his beloved too, sounded more beautiful than any birdsong in the treetops. Tradition decreed how the mate of a timber wolf was chosen when they tied themselves together. We talked about wanting to become respective mates, but until the time came for us to finally leave, Rowan and I knew neither of us could resist it. Or risk it.

"Oh, Rowan..." I moaned as my knot throbbed painfully in nearing release.

My paws gripped the bases of his antlers and ears, while Rowan's arms wrapped around my humping waist. Our tongues danced together in passionate unison. And when his paws gripped the back of my neck, I knew he'd never let me go. Neither would I.

"O-Orion!" the deer whimpered into my ears. "So close! Ahh..."

Soon, this tension released in a wet geyser between our midriffs. After arching our backs in euphoric cries, both of us refusing to look away from the other, I collapsed atop Rowan.

Panting together and wagging our tails tiredly, I basked in our mixing scents and combined love as we lay together in that small meadow. Birdsongs echoed from nearby branches, mixing with the howling wind of a distant hill, but all my ears could listen to were Rowan's heartbeat. And the sound of his heavenly breathing.

We felt so safe in each other's arms.

"I love you, Orion." He lifted my muzzle and pecked my nose. "I love you so much..."

Kissing him back, a whisper escaped wolfish lips. "I love you too, Rowan. My love. My mate...You're...You're the greatest thing to ever happen to me."

If I wanted to, I would get lost in those emerald eyes projecting love into me.

"You are too, Orion." Rowan teared up, despite his curving smile. "You are too..."

Resting my head down on his soft chest, we lay together on that bush. What we were committing was an unthinkable taboo. There didn't exist any other way to speak it. Yet it mattered to us as much as the color of the sky or the trees. All that could be found in this meadow was us, and nothing more. One day, we'd search for a safe haven to call our own, but in this moment, there existed only us: a deer and a wolf. Two species whose love went beyond tradition. And in the future, that deer and wolf would be together at long last.