FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It isn't easy choosing a mate. It's a long process for us wolves. It takes us years and for some of us, decades of being with the wrong wolves before we find the right one. I know that this is the case for humans as well, and it makes sense...Lycanthropes and humans aren't so different after all. However the difference between a lyko and a human is that lykos will always end up with a partner or die trying to find one. A lyko's heart belongs only to one wolf. It is a quest Every Lycan and every lyko to find the owner to their heart. It's ingrained into our being. It's a part of who we are.

So why am I telling you this, my dear reader? To tell you the truth, it's because the day that Michael and I became fully mated. That was the day that I found out the true extent of the words 'I will love you until the end of time.' In Lycan culture we don't marry. We mate for life. Sure it's a similar concept. However it's not the same. You have a mate and then you have life-mates. It's a huge difference. The difference isn't like the difference between boyfriend and husband it's like the difference between acquaintance and best friend. It's so vastly different the level of intimacy that differentiates the two types, it's that separation that Michael and I crossed in a year and a half of dating. And it's that separation that every Lyko will eventually cross.

***

"Are you ready? It's almost time." I heard Aryana call from the door. It's funny when I think how close she and I have become. She was a hunter who was assigned to look over my pack since the time I was a small, feisty little pup with deviance sparkling in his eyes. I remember how devious I was at that age. It was that night when I was eighteen, I remember, that moved her from protecting my pack, to essentially being my bodyguard. Something that I still wonder about.

Another knock broke me out of my reverie. I looked at the door. "Yeah I'm coming. Ni Gozi! You know you're worse, I think, than my mother ever was."

"Ve're not sinking about zat today. Zat's ze past. Zis, Zis hier, zis is ze future. Go. Moon's up in a half hour." She says whist giving me that look. The look that says press this any further and end up with a silver-plated knife on my neck.

I flash my eyes golden to play her game. It just happens like that, it's how our friendship has worked for the last what is it now, three decades. She's aged a lot since that night; I not as much as she. For me the equivalent of four years has passed on my internal clock. For her, she's experienced the full wrath of these last thirty years. That saddens me. It saddens me a great deal. It's the part about being a lycan that is both my favorite and least favorite. The slowed aging means that we often outlive our human friends now that we're not being hunted down every full moon.

We plod down the path from Michael's cabin in the forests near Aspen, Colorado. Michael had gone ahead of me because he had a few things that he had to do as an alpha wolf. When we arrive at the designated lycan transformation area Aryana and I split off. She nods her head as she heads over to the shed. It was a way for the Hunters to make sure that our kind stayed within the designated safe zone during a full moon. They had designed the technology that they used originally to contain a single wolf--to lead him to a killing ceremony that the original Hunters thought cleansed our souls of the demon they thought possessed us. Of course these cages also were only meant for the alphas of every pack. For whatever reason they thought that only the alpha of a pack could be saved. It made no sense.

As I crossed the border I could smell the electric fence go up, that odor of o-zone could be smelled rather intensely as close as I was to it. I knew we were trapped there in the highly wooded area. Despite feeling trapped, I also felt safe and protected. It was always this way. In more organized packs, the Hunters would help the Lycans into the designated area and the fence would be activated. For my ex, Jeremy, he didn't have a pack that he could join to change. Therefore he didn't have any Hunters join him to the protected area. Granted, there were some Hunters following him, but they weren't there to protect him. They were there to ensure the safety of the humans camping in the forest.

The next thing that I smelled after the o-zone was the smell of lycans. Many hundreds of lycans that were inhabiting the change zone. It was kind of ridiculous how many of us were there. I took in a whiff of air just to see if I could discern my soon-to-be life-mate's smell out of the odiferous surroundings. The scents of pine, tree sap, scat, and many, many lycans assaulted my olfactory senses but I could plainly tell which one was my mate's. He smelled of the prairie, of the plains. It was the smell of dry grass, parched soil and a rather feral smell that was the smell of a jackal, not a wolf. The Serengeti was his home. He lived in the northern end of the plain, near the border of Tanzania and Kenya. He was originally born into the Maasai people, but the man who bit him was a man from Dar es Salaam. He had to follow that man back to the city. It wasn't a question, he had to. Soon he was learning English, Swahili, and Arabic. He also took up Islam around the same time. It was this man that I would essentially marry in about an hour. I could pick out his scent clearly as a human could pick out a daisy in a group of roses. I followed my nose and found him. He was sitting starkly nude under a tree with his bag above him hanging from a high branch. I placed my bag up there as well and began to undress. He watched me do it. Of course he would, we were mates. We weren't shy around each other, nor should we've been. It was as soon as I took off my underwear that it had started. The change hit me quickly and I felt winded when I was fully a wolf. I looked over to see a bear-sized Black-backed Jackal. He lunged at me, not to attack me, just to truly make me his mate. The wolf needs to be out as much as it can be in order for life-mate status to be truly achieved. Which meant of course that we needed a full moon to 'marry' each other.

This is why mateship is important. You must choose your mate carefully and be fully aware of who he is. There are five things that are required to complete the Lycan Mateship Ceremony. First is human love for the other individual. One must truly be in love with one's mate for this bond to be effective. With Michael I finally found that. He was a good man, one who had done much with his new life. Second is for the Lycans' inner wolves to feel a connection with each other. That lyconic kinship is another important step in the process. It will combine with the human love in one's heart and be shown in the way in which their wolves interact with each other. Third is the pack's recognition and approval of the relationship. The pack is important because lone-wolves are dangerous for everyone. It's the bond with the pack that separates lycans from humans. Fourth is a full tie with each other. You're mates you need to understand the full meaning of the word and what comes with it. Fifth and final is a prayer to Zeus and Aphrodite to acknowledge the mateship in the eyes of Olympus. The Gods rule our lives and it is they that have a say in whom we choose to marry. This prayer in the morning after the mating confirms the relationship as whole and holy.

***

"Zeus, our father, and Aphrodite, the lover, please acknowledge today the mateship of Gabriel del Lobo and Michael Ibraham. This morn marks our first day as life-mates. Please allow us safe passage through the journey of our lives together. It is with these requests that we announce our mateship in the eyes of Olympus, our pack, and the Hunters of yore." Michael intoned in Greek. It was his love that I had accepted last night in a way that many humans would not understand in full. So I was beaming as he said the prayer.

The hunter in front of us was blushing something fierce as we still didn't have our clothes on. I just chuckled as we finished the prayer and Michael and I finally left our spot on the ground. I went over to my clothes and started to pull them back on with haste. I looked at the hunter and decided to make him feel a little more at ease. "Wie heiﾃ歹n Sie, Herr Jﾃ､ger? Ich heiﾃ歹 Gabriel, und dies ist mein Lebenslangliebhaber, Michael."

He looked so stunned that I spoke German that he almost forgot to answer, "Ich heiﾃ歹 Jakobus der Zweite. Sie wissen meine Mutter, Jﾃ､germeisterin Aryana." I chuckle. Now I understand where I've seen his face before. He looked like his father.

"Ah, I knew you looked familiar. I didn't realize that Aryana had a son. How old are you, young one?"

"Five-and-twenty, sir. Olympus, sir...I thought American lykos were all Catholic."

"Ah see that is where you are mistaken, young Hunter. Yes we celebrate Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter, but we practice the ancient Greek religion. After all, it was Zeus's fury that made lycos appear in the first place. It is to him we pray for forgiveness and advice in our lives. It is to the Twelve that we pray for our needs and wants. They are the reason we exist and it is by their hand that we shall be destroyed."

"How can you be so sure in your beliefs?"

"Wie kﾃｶnnen Sie in Ihre?" I ask him.

"Well..." he sighs as he scratches the back of his head in insecurity, "I guess you have a point." He looks at me as I put on my last article of clothing, "So you want to explain to me what I just saw, wolf?"

"Um..." now it was my turn to look uncertain. Although for different reasons, "Well, we ended up tying last night during our bit of fun. Unfortunately the knot of a lyko doesn't go down on a full moon. We are literally stuck like that until we turn back to human."

It was then, I think, that he realized what that was. The prayer he just heard and our positions. They gave away what had happened last night. He looks at me and smiles a Cheshire cat smile. "Congratulations, you guys. I can't believe that I just witnessed a little bit of the ceremony. I wish you a happy, long life with each other."

I smiled somewhat meekly as Michael loomed over the hunter. "Thank you, much, Hunter. Now if you don't mind, Gabi and I are in need of some alone time. Verstehen Sie?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I'll leave you two alone. Just remember the busses leave in a half an hour."

"Understood." Michael said somewhat rudely. I think he was planning on cuddling the entire time until we had to get dressed. As the Hunter ran into the forest, Michael grabbed me and hugged me whilst kissing the crown of my head. "How are we this morning, my beautiful mate?"

"Well, my love." I said as I turned around in his hug so that I was facing him. Then I buried my face in his chest. He chuckled, then picked me up bridal style and he ran to the bus. We were there in about a minute, thirty seconds, despite being about two miles away from the bus.

His pack looked at the both of us and they cheered, congratulating us as we walked to the bus. It took Michael raising his hand to quiet the two hundred-odd lycans standing there waiting for instructions from their alpha. This lycan, this gorgeous hunk of a man, he was my mate. My officially mated mate. I was happy and thought about how I'd chosen the right guy as we boarded the bus as dictated by his patient hand.

***

It truly is important to find the correct mate. How will you know? Oh your wolf will tell you. Don't worry about that. It will make your dreams about that person. You will be uncomfortably hard around that person and you will most likely feel like jumping their bones at all times of day. However it's more than that. Your human side will also inform you. Your heart will ache when they're not there, your every thought will be of them, without the wolf's help. It's something that we can't help--falling in love. It's that person though that I'm warning you about. Kind, thoughtful, helpful, protective, happy, and loyal, those are all the traits a good mate will have. It is they who will make you the happiest. So please think carefully before choosing to go through with the ceremony. Please.