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Chapter 2: Yuri Awakens

Yuri awoke with a start. She'd been having that dream again, that horrible nightmare. The sea was gray and violent and loud, tossing her, always tossing her; her mother's pale and frightened face, the crash of the waves, the flash of lightning, and then the water slapping into the dory, filling it up, dragging them down.

Yuri sat on her bed, her breasts heaving, her face strained, and suddenly pulling her knees up, she buried her face in them and burst into tears. She was a beautiful young wolf with bluish-silver fur, sixteen years old. And, like most sixteen-year-olds, her breasts were high and firm, her waist was slender and narrow, and her round hips gave her a lovely hour-glass shape that drew the eyes of males and females alike throughout the sun village. Yuri's long, silvery mane was like flowing water and it had a way of floating behind her on the breeze so that she appeared like a creature of a dream when other wolves saw her walking down the streets, her breasts riding high, her buttocks so soft and round, her tail daintily curled at the end. She had small paws and very shapely thighs, her pale eyes were a soft, sable color, and wherever she walked, the scent of things sweet and wild followed her.

Zaldon had one hell of a time keeping the paws of the young males off Yuri, even the paws of the young females. In fact, Zaldon was so protective that young Yuri at times found him supremely annoying. What if she wanted to kiss that boy? What if she wanted to hold paws with that girl? But Zaldon never listened and insisted that Yuri was too young: "Not until your first mating season!" he would scold, and Yuri, seeing the other young wolves engaged in kissing and touching right in the very streets, would roll her eyes and grumble under her breath.

Present-day Yuri gulped down tears and tried to catch her breath. She glanced out her window. It was late in the evening. She had slept in today -- again. Julyan would more than likely be coming home from patrol, and Zaldon would be ending his rounds of healing the sick, blessing the fisher-wolves' nets. But not always. Sometimes Zaldon was so protective of Yuri that he didn't go out at all: just stayed at home lecturing her about young males and how to avoid them.

"If a young male comes to the door and wants inside when you're home alone, don't let him in -- even if he just wants to use the bathroom," Zaldon would warn, and Yuri, rolling her eyes as she sewed, would ignore him.

Still shaking and sobbing a little from the nightmare, Yuri felt a dull pain between her legs and looked down. There was blood staining her sleeping furs. She let out a little yelp and scrambled off of them. But when she stood and examined herself, she realized her thighs were streaked with the blood as well: her fur was soaked in it! Yuri put a shaking paw to her pussy lips and felt a thick wetness. Oh, god, she was bleeding there! What did this mean?

She flew into the bathroom and was horrified when she caught a flash of Zaldon and Julyan entering the hut. They paused in the front room, gaping at her, and she ran from them, hiding her face behind her mane. She pulled the curtain shut with a frightened jerk and turned to the low basin where water winked in the gloom. Sobbing a little, Yuri fell to her knees and started to wash herself. But the blood just kept coming! She didn't understand! She lifted her tail and dipped it in the water, scrubbing the blood off it with frantic sobbing. And the pain between her legs, it just kept getting worse and worse. She felt so fatigued that she could barely squat over the basin and her paws kept shaking.

"Yuri?"

It was Zaldon. Yuri could smell him and Julyan standing on the other side of the curtain. She held back a sob but didn't answer. Oh, god, don't let them come in here, don't let them see her like this! It was too humiliating. Zaldon would want to know how she'd managed to hurt herself and they would look between her legs. She would have to lie there with her legs open like a little pup while they prodded her, and then Zaldon would have to use some kind of magic on her to heal her there -- Oh, god, just let them go away!

"Yuri?" Julyan called gently. "Are you crying in there? What's the matter, angel?"

"Just go away!" Yuri squeaked miserably. Wasn't there blood involved when a female mated with a male for the first time? Oh, god, they would think she'd slept with a male before her first mating season!

The water was rapidly swirling with her blood, and it took her a moment to realize she could no longer use it to wash herself. Just then the curtain opened, and overcome with shame and humiliation, Yuri buried her face in her paws and broke down sobbing. After a pause, she felt Zaldon's big, familiar paw on her shoulder, gentle and kind, and then Zaldon and Julyan were leading her from the washroom to the front of the hut, where the great basin stood for bathing.

"Just step in the basin, poor thing," Julyan whispered. "That's my girl . . ."

Yuri sat back in the tub and couldn't bring herself to look at either of them. She couldn't understand it: they were being so calm and kind and loving. Didn't they think she had slept with a male? Weren't they angry? But they weren't. The two big males filled the basin with hot water, and the heat of the water soothed the pain between her legs, slowed the painful pulsing of her vagina walls. She sniffed quietly, the tears still pouring down her face as she watched these great, muscle-bound males preparing supper as calmly as if nothing at all were the matter. When supper was ready, Julyan gave Yuri a little brown rag and instructed her how to use it. Yuri just stared at him with large, round eyes.

"D-Do what?" she squeaked.

"Insert it," Julyan told her patiently. "Into your vagina, sweetie."

Yuri's pale face went as red as beet, but she took the rag and went into the bathroom with it. After a few minutes of trying, she emerged tear-stained and breathless.

"I -- I can't," Yuri choked miserably. "It hurts so much!"

Zaldon and Julyan exchanged miserable glances. Zaldon looked so embarrassed that Julyan said gently, "I'll help you, little angel. Here, come with me into your room . . ."

Yuri followed Julyan to her room, feeling so humiliated that she wanted to sink into the floor and disappear. Julyan instructed her to lie down on the bed and spread her legs, and she did, squeezing her eyes shut tight and wishing that she was dead.

"But why is it happening to me, Julyan?" Yuri pleaded; watching with growing unease as Julyan carefully fitted the rag over his finger. "I swear -- I didn't sleep with a male!"

Julyan smiled. "I know, Yuri. In fact, this is proof that you didn't: females get their moons around your age. It's normal. Now spread your legs and brace yourself, honey."

Yuri did as she was told and let out a horrified gasp when she felt what was unmistakably Julyan's finger inside of her. His finger was covered in the brown rag, but she could still feel it: it caressed her walls as it made its slow and careful entry, and she felt a strange tingling in her pussy lips. Without thinking, her lips clamped down around his finger, and though it was painful to have it there, Yuri felt an undeniable pleasure. And something else. A strange throbbing, a hungry little pulsing that made her squirm. Oh, god, how could she derive so much pleasure from Julyan's finger -- Julyan, who was like a father to her!

As if he sensed Yuri's arousal, Julyan quickly removed his finger, mumbling that the rag was in there good and deep now and should last her the rest of the night. Yuri blushed, thinking of just how "good and deep" Julyan's finger had felt. She wanted his finger there again -- this time without the rag -- and felt such a deep sense of shame for thinking such a thing that she started to cry a little.

"There, there, Yuri," said Julyan, sounding relieved: he seemed to think Yuri wasn't feeling any pleasure after all and was, therefore, relieved that he hadn't given her some sort of sexual experience. But Yuri knew better: she was aroused, on fire, pulsing, hungry and hot. She needed something to touch her there that deeply and carefully again. The thought of someone's lips and tongue there made her shiver.

Julyan took Yuri's paw and helped her to stand. He then went to the closet and returned with a small loin cloth, which he called "moon panties."

"Every time this happens, you'll wear these with your rag," Julyan explained, helping Yuri to step clumsily into the brown panties. "Don't worry, Yuri. This bleeding should only last a few more days." He helped her tug the panties up to her waist and averted his eyes when they sank into the crack of her vagina, bringing out the bulge of her pussy lips. He quickly left the room, telling Yuri to come to dinner. Yuri didn't follow: she climbed out the window instead.

Yuri hurried up the darkened streets, not knowing what exactly had come over her. But with Julyan's touch, something had lit her body on fire. She felt wild and hungry and greedy, and she could not stop thinking of Enya -- Enya, the little pup who had first kissed her in the fields of the summer village.

Yuri had visited Enya many times since the first time they kissed. The last time she saw Enya was three years ago: they had been thirteen with small, soft budding mounds for breasts. And, oh, how they had explored those mounds, sucking each other's nipples and squeezing their little breasts, marveling at the softness and wondering why there wasn't milk. They had been caught feeling each other up once by Enya's mother, but Enya quickly lied and told Zalia that they wanted to know why their breasts had no milk. Zalia had laughed in amusement at their innocence and had explained to them that only females with pups had milk -- and if she ever caught them with a male's paws on their breasts, she would whip them both into next year.

Yuri felt herself stirring at the memory: her breasts were large and full now, and she was more than certain Enya's were too. She would give anything to taste Enya's nipples again! To suck them and kiss them, to touch that wet softness between Enya's thighs . . . And Enya's soft, curly mane; her bright, blue sapphire eyes. She missed Enya's blue eyes more than anything.

Glancing back over her shoulder, Yuri saw her hut growing smaller in the cluster of other huts that comprised the vast sun village. She could hear newborn pups wailing, couples arguing, females singing their pups to sleep. But as Yuri hurried up the dark street, she heard a female singing in a melody far too provocative to be that of a lullaby. She followed the sound through the darkness, passing wolves who sat on their front steps smoking, passing gossiping females on street corners and pups running home in the dark. She came at last to a small hut on the corner where the front room was lit up with flickering firelight, and gathering her nerve, Yuri peered in the window.

Yuri grew very still at what she saw: the most beautiful female she had ever seen was bathing herself in a basin in the front room. God, she was gorgeous. She was beyond pretty or even beautiful: you thought of sex when you looked at her, and it was hard to think of anything else. In the first place, her pink pussy lips were huge and bulging. She was standing in the tub, one small foot resting on the edge so that her bent leg was open wide, and those soft, wet pussy lips glistened in the firelight. Her high, plump buttocks were thrust out and her tail flickered up and down as she brought a pawful of soap to her pussy and gently massaged. Yuri watched with her mouth hanging open as the female touched herself with a little moan, her head falling back and her great breasts jutting forward.

She was a sleek, shapely wolf, this female, and her fur was a dark maroon in color -- almost like a fox. She had a thick, full mane of the same shade, and it fell to the small of her waist in glossy tresses. When she had finished soaping herself between her legs, she scooped water into her paws and dumped it over herself, plastering her fur and her mane to her curves. Yuri felt herself stir just watching. She gave a low moan of longing and went rigid when the female paused and her ears pricked forward. She'd been heard!

Yuri bolted. But she had barely made it up the pavement when the curtain of the female's hut was pulled aside and a square patch of light hit her back. She turned. The maroon female was watching her with a dark smile, and to Yuri's surprise, she was still humming seductively under her breath. She was dripping so heavily with water that Yuri could see her dark pink sex and nipples jutting beyond her sleek fur. She leaned one arm in the doorway, and flicking her tail up and down playfully, she called to Yuri, "You comin' in or what?" Then pursing her lips in a silent kiss, she turned and went inside without closing the curtain.

Yuri stood uncertainly in the light of the female's doorway, but feeling that hot pulsing between her legs, she stepped over the threshold and closed the curtain behind her. The maroon wolf was toweling herself off. She ran the towel carefully up and down her thighs, her amused gaze fixed on Yuri. Then without warning, she rubbed the towel vigorously against the small of her back. Her breasts flew everywhere, and as a result, Yuri felt her nipples stand out hard. The maroon wolf laughed and her eyes sparkled with her smile. She had the prettiest blue eyes, but they were far too light to ever match the deep and dark beauty of Enya's. Her eyes were cloaked in thick black lashes, and they fluttered when she threw the towel aside and told Yuri to come to her. Feeling pulled by her desire, Yuri did as she was told.

To Yuri's surprise, the wolf only appraised her, her blue eyes looking Yuri up and down as she wrung out her tail in her paws.

"You're only a pup," she said after a pause, but she sounded amused. "A little pup peeping in my window. So you like pussy, do you? Do you like mine?" She smiled.

"Yes," Yuri admitted with a blush and twisted her fingers bashfully, her silvery mane falling around her face in a veil.

The maroon wolf moved closer, and she was so close that Yuri breathed in her scent: she smelled of things mysterious, of things potent, of a dark and edgy strength that was in her eyes as she peered into Yuri's face. Her blue eyes were so loving and yet commanding. She lifted an eyebrow as if she was impressed with the size of Yuri's breasts, and Yuri shivered to be looked at with such hunger.

"What do you like about it?" the wolf whispered, gently pushing Yuri's mane behind her ears.

Before she could stop herself, Yuri's paw reached out, and her fingers slipped between the female's tight pussy lips and into that hot sheath, that dark and wet place she had never dared to touch or even lick on Enya: she had always been afraid they would get caught. But standing here in this stranger's hut, away from the fear of discovery, Yuri felt bold. The female seemed to like her boldness. She moaned a little as Yuri's fingers caressed deeply, then she pulled Yuri close, and her tongue filled her mouth. Yuri melted into the kiss. She had never been kissed with such passion, with such hunger. The female's lips pulled at her, strong and commanding, curiously tasting, and she shivered and threw her arms around her.

"Tell me," whispered the female, pulling back. She showered Yuri's face with light kisses, then her teeth found Yuri's ear and nibbled. God, it was just like being with Enya . . .

"I like how soft it is," Yuri whispered, "and hot. And tight."

"You're pretty tight yourself," the female answered, and Yuri gasped when she felt the female's fingers slip deeply inside of her, fingering her through the rag. Her moon panties were stretched over the female's paw as her fingers searched hungrily -- for what Yuri could not fathom. And then it happened: the female's fingers found Yuri's hot, throbbing little knot of passion and they stroked and caressed it with a quick skill that made Yuri weak.

"You like that, baby?" the female whispered huskily in Yuri's ear.

Yuri trembled and blushed, and suddenly she was being backed into the wall. The female kept fingering her as her lips found Yuri's and pulled at them. Her tongue forced its way in Yuri's mouth, and they kissed wildly, their tongues caressing each other, their breasts hot and soft as the nipples brushed.

"Such a pretty young thing," the female whispered, grabbing Yuri's breast and lifting it until it spilled over her fingers. She sucked hard on Yuri's nipple and Yuri gasped, wanting to suck the female's dark nipples in turn.

"Go ahead," the female whispered. "Taste them. They're hard -- just for you."

Yuri eagerly wrapped her lips around the first dark nipple and pulled at it hungrily, loving the feel of it in her lips. She groped and caressed the female's breasts as she sucked, and the female, meanwhile, kept fingering that knot of passion between her legs, kept touching and caressing it until she lost her breath and could barely stand.

"What's . . . happening to me?" Yuri panted, falling weakly in the older female's arms. She buried her face in the female's neck and moaned as that throbbing between her thighs drew very close to its climax.

"Poor little thing," the female whispered back. "Hasn't anyone ever touched your clit before?"

"N-no," Yuri admitted and felt a thrill of happiness when the female kissed her on the head.

"You're having an orgasm," she explained lovingly. She pressed Yuri back against the wall and her hungry eyes drank in the sight of the young wolf as she gasped shrilly, as her cheeks blushed, as her lashes fluttered and her breasts heaved.

"Oh - a-ah . . . m-must you look at me while it happens?" Yuri begged, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. She wanted suddenly to make the orgasm stop. She thought if she didn't catch her breath, she would explode. But the female's fingers were quick and skillful, and her knees started to tremble.

"But you're so pretty when you're all flushed and trembling and weak," the female returned. She leaned close, and dragging the tip of her tongue over Yuri's lip, she gave her such a pleasurable caress that she screamed and it happened: that knot of passion between her legs exploded. She sank to the floor, her back against the wall, her panties around her knees, and closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath. She had never felt so much pleasure in her life, and this nameless beauty -- this sex goddess -- had given it to her. She gazed happily into the female's eyes as she knelt before her and with a loving smile, brushed the silvery tresses back from her face.

"I think I've seen you around before," the maroon female said, and Yuri realized she was slipping her moon panties off, pulling them down around her ankles. She couldn't understand why, but was too dazed with pleasure to bother asking.

"You belong to the village's prominent sorcerer, don't you? To Zaldon," went on the maroon female. "And that makes you just about the most unattainable female in the whole village. You have no idea, innocent thing that you are, how many times I've watched you from a distance, wanting to taste those lips of yours -- and I don't mean the ones on your face." Her eyes darted hungrily to the place between Yuri's thighs and back to her eyes. "And what happens? You come to me. Spy on me through my window. And I thought you didn't like females. Tonight must be my lucky night."

Yuri watched in a happy daze at the maroon wolf pulled her moon panties from her feet and tossed them away, then spread her legs. What was happening here? Her thighs trembled. She had never been so exposed.

"W-wait! I have my moons --"

"So?" said the female with twinkling blue eyes. "I can suck away at that little greedy passion of yours without tasting your moon blood. Relax." She stroked Yuri's mane back from her face again, smiling at her.

"What's your name?" Yuri asked, sounding so doting and eager that the maroon wolf laughed again.

"They call me Tikuma, little one. Little slender one. Little sexy one . . ."

Tikuma gave a mock growl that made Yuri giggle, and jerking Yuri's legs toward her, she threw them over her shoulders and leaned down. Yuri let out a startled cry: Tikuma's lips and tongue were caressing her pussy lips, sucking tenderly at that throbbing knot of passion she did not understand. The knot pulsed harder and harder until she thought that she would again explode, and when she did, Tikuma drew her close and held her, kissing her there on the floor, kissing her lovingly on the eyes, on her cheeks. Yuri had never felt so happy and loved -- except when she was with Enya. God, she missed Enya . . .

"It's a shame Zaldon won't let you have a lover before your first mating season," Tikuma said with a sigh. "Nothing would please me more than having you in my arms, pretty little thing that you are. You mustn't tell Zaldon. Understand? We will keep this little meeting to ourselves."

"I may be young," Yuri answered, "but I am no fool."

Tikuma laughed. "Is your father's wrath so terrifying?"

"Zaldon would never let me out of the hut again if he knew I was here in your arms. He locks me up enough as it is."

"Would you like to be in my arms again?" Tikuma whispered in Yuri's ear and licked her affectionately under the eye. "Next time if you're not on your moons, we can play other games."

"Like what?"

"Do you like bananas or cucumbers?"

Yuri blushed as it dawned on her.

Tikuma laughed softly and gathered Yuri close in her arms. "You'd better be getting home, though I'd rather keep you, soft fresh thing that you are. Come and see me again some time. I'll make it worth your while."

So saying, Tikuma led Yuri to the curtain. They smiled at each other and Yuri started off, but Tikuma grabbed her without warning, and pulling her back by the tail, she kissed her.

"Now get on home," she said, clapping Yuri playfully on the butt. "I'm sure Zaldon is beside himself."

But Yuri didn't go home. Not for three days. She made it halfway down the street before she returned to Tikuma's. Tikuma pulled the curtain aside and they kissed without preamble, touching and caressing each other all night in Tikuma's bed. Tikuma was a fisher, and on the third day, she insisted that Yuri go home: Zaldon would soon have the entire village looking for her, and besides: Tikuma hadn't gone fishing in three days because she couldn't pry herself from Yuri. Yuri agreed. But once again, she didn't go home. She wandered in the rain all day, longing wretchedly for Enya, wishing she could be Tikuma's lover in the open and not suffer for it because she was too young, and it wasn't until late that evening that she arrived, soaking and shaking, on Ceara's doorstep. To her dismay, Zaldon answered the door.

"Where the hell have you been?" Zaldon demanded when Yuri was sitting in the front room with the adults.

Ceara, Julyan's sister, sat at Yuri's side, peering anxiously into her face. She was a tall and very shapely female who looked a great deal like her brother: silver and soft and sexy. Her round eyes were the color of the ocean, while Julyan's were a stunning shade of lavender.

Julyan himself sat beside Zaldon with an identical expression to that of his sister's: anxious and sad and instantly forgiving. But Zaldon, on the other hand, was furious at Yuri for disappearing.

Yuri said nothing when Zaldon questioned her, only bowed her head and scowled at her lap. Zaldon seemed to read her mind. He burst out incredulously, "Were you off with some male! Is that it? You ran away because I refuse to let you become the village slut!"

Yuri winced at Zaldon's last word, but said nothing. Zaldon's nostrils flared, "Answer me, young lady! And look me in the face!"

Yuri looked up, and everyone was shocked by the rage smoldering in her bright, sable eyes. Her lip trembled and she pointed an accusatory finger at Zaldon as she wailed, "You never let me out of the hut! I don't have any friends! I can't do anything or go anywhere -- I feel like I live in a cage! I just wanted out!" and she burst into tears, burying her face in her paws.

Ceara pulled Yuri close in her arm and shushed her, eying Zaldon meaningfully. Zaldon sat looking deflated. Julyan stroked his arm and said some words of comfort, but Zaldon couldn't hear them, couldn't hear anything but Yuri's miserable sobbing.

Yuri wished vehemently that she could have stayed with Tikuma. And, god, how she missed Enya. All she thought of these days was Enya's lips touching hers, Enya's eyes, Enya's voice . . .

"Yuri, I . . . I just want to keep you safe," Zaldon miserably explained. "And I'm sorry if I went a little overboard." He reached out and took her paw in his. Without warning, Yuri fell into Zaldon's arms and sobbed into his chest. Zaldon looked wretched as he stroked her mane, whispering again that he was sorry.

Julyan mouthed to his sister, "Let's leave them alone for a while." Ceara nodded. The brother and sister rose and left the room, leaving Zaldon alone with Yuri.

Yuri rested her head on Zaldon's broad chest and sniffed, feeling soothed when his big paw smoothed down her mane.

"I'm not going to lecture you for running away to be with a male. You're young and close to your first mating season, and I guess this is the sort of stuff teenagers do. I don't know, I can't remember. I was a teenager centuries ago."

Yuri laughed through her tears, drinking in Zaldon's smell and loving the warmth of his arms. She couldn't remember her father, but she hoped he had been like Zaldon: such a big and strong and yet tender male.

"Now, I know I've been strict about it, but it's okay if you slept with a male before your first mating season. Lots of young females do it. And saving yourself for your first mating season isn't such a big deal here in the sun village, honey. In the sun village, your first mating season is about finding the male you want to spend the rest of your life with. And knowing if that male is good in bed -- well, that doesn't hurt. And if he got you p-pregnant," Zaldon went on, stammering over the word as if the thought alone sacred him out of his wits, "well, don't worry, honey. I won't kick you out on the streets. I'll help you take care of the pup. And if the male refuses to claim it, there will be other males --"

"I wasn't with a male," Yuri cut across him. "I was with a female."

There was a silence after the words left Yuri's mouth. She hadn't meant to tell Zaldon about her feelings in this way, but old wolves tended to ramble so much and she was tired of hiding: she liked pussy. After meeting Tikuma, she liked touching it and hoped one day to do more. She liked breasts, their hard nipples and their warm softness. And she liked the soft feel of a female's fur, which wasn't bristly like Zaldon's or other males. She liked a female's curves and a female's moans when she kissed her, and most of all, she liked a female's hot scent when she passed her down the street.

"Oh," said Zaldon, completely caught off guard. "I . . . well . . ."

Yuri looked up and let out a laugh: Zaldon looked so relieved that she kissed him on the cheek.

"Glad to see you don't mind," she said, happily brushing a lock of white mane from Zaldon's eyes.

"It's not that, it's -- I thought you might be pregnant. I don't think I could raise another pup. I barely made it this far raising you."

Yuri laughed again. "Oh, Zaldon! I think you did a wonderful job. Don't you?"

Zaldon laughed at this rare display of cockiness and hugged Yuri tight. "Yes, I do. My little Yuri. My little pup!" He nuzzled Yuri playfully in the neck and she giggled when his hot breath tickled her.

"Don't ever run from me again," Zaldon begged her. "Next time just talk to us, honey. Argue with us, scream at us -- anything is better than you disappearing like that. I almost went to the village council thinking you'd been taken by some foreigner."

"I'm sorry," Yuri mumbled, her silvery mane swinging forward to hide her face. "After Arorta, Nisma, and Nasma passed away . . . It's hard talking to you and Julyan about -- female problems. I wanted to die when Julyan had to help me with my rag."

"Yes, you're right. You do need a female . . ." Zaldon held Yuri close and sighed, stroking her mane again. Yuri couldn't see, but his black eyes were worried as he struggled for some solution to their problem.

"What if I stayed with Ceara for a while?" Yuri asked, her cheek against Zaldon's shoulder. "At least until my moons are over. It's too embarrassing, having them around you and Julyan."

Zaldon only sighed, and Yuri knew he wasn't happy about the suggestion: he would want Yuri at home with him, where he could keep a close eye on her. When he heard Yuri sigh miserably in return, he reluctantly agreed that maybe she should stay with Ceara for a while.

"And you could come with me to visit Kel," Zaldon added, hoping to make Yuri happy. "I know it's been a long time since you've been, and Kel summoned me three days ago --"

"Oh, thank you, Zaldon!" Yuri cried, pulling back to grin up at the big, white wolf. She kissed him on the cheek again, and grinning from pointed year to pointed ear, she sprang up and ran off to tell Julyan and Ceara.

"So Yuri's here?" Kel asked Zaldon when the latter paused in his tale.

By now, the three of them were cuddling in the bed together. Zaldon was in the middle and his arms were around both Kel and Aliona. Aliona was curling her fingers in Zaldon's chest fur and dragging them across Zaldon's hard belly, sometimes playing with his nipples as she listened to his explanation. Kel glanced happily at Aliona every now and then, but for the better part of Zaldon's story, his eyes were fixed anxiously on Zaldon's face.

"Yes, Yuri is here," Zaldon answered. "I took her to Zalia's. She and Keeno and Enya were sleeping, but you should have seen how they came awake when Yuri and I arrived knocking at their hut. They couldn't stop marveling at how much Yuri had grown, and you know Yuri: she just blushed and hid behind her mane. But I think she was really happy for a visit. It's been so long since I've brought her: the thought of her around Roan and Zane terrifies me."

"As it should," agreed Aliona with a little laugh.

"Why? Is Zane the regular brute I predicted?" Zaldon asked, grinning.

"Even more," confirmed Kel. "You winter wolves have always been too much to handle, and I believe Zane is ten times more winter wolf than he is summer wolf. You should see the way he bullies Roan and Enya, and yet if anyone else tried it, he'd crush them into powder."

Zaldon chuckled. "Ah, yes. I'll have to pay a visit to my great nephew. Teach him how to keep his strength in check around summer wolves."

"As if you ever lost control of your strength," Kel teased, remembering all those nights he'd spent with Zaldon, marveling at the great wolf's gentle touch.

"Zaldon," Aliona said somberly, as if something had just occurred to her, "you remembered to warn Yuri about the summer village's customs, right?" For in the summer village, same sex love was tolerated, but one was not allowed to display it in public in any way, shape, or form. To do so could mean banishment or death -- one reason why Zaldon's trysts with Kel and Aliona were always a strict secret: Kel and Aliona could be stoned for inviting a male into their bed when they were, in fact, married.

"Yes, I told her. I explained everything," Zaldon answered. "Heaven forbid she should make that mistake here. But Yuri is too shy to do such a thing. Such a thing seems more like . . ."

"Enya," Kel and Aliona said at once.

Zaldon chuckled. "Yes, Enya. You know Keeno and Zalia found her hugging Yuri behind a chair once? Now I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't something more."

They all fell silent as they thought of what complications could arise if Yuri and Enya were to fall in love. Enya was a summer wolf, and as such was destined to settle down and marry within the summer village. Females didn't have choices about such things. It had been different for Zaldon simply because he was a male: he had simply opted to leave the summer village and had later found Julyan. Things would not be so easy for Enya if it turned out that she, too, liked females. Only a female's father or husband could decide where she could live -- even whether or not she could leave the summer village. And while Keeno was a good and kind father, Kel, Aliona, and Zaldon all knew that letting his daughter go to another village to live was not something he was inclined to agree to.