After walking back towards the city proper, I
eventually
started to see places of pedestrian business. Including one that caught my eye.
The sign above the door read [Moonlit Pages],
another reference
to wolves and lunar cycles in this city. At this point, I was starting to think the Rimecoat Alpha
must own half the businesses
here.
Or at least, her pack has had a
deep influence
throughout the city for some time.
Light grey eyes stare back from the reflection in the store’s window as I consider entering.
Clean.
Presentable
. Somewhat.
My hands trace the
imperfect
placement of the twin tails at the top edge of my skull.
> It really is harder to do on your own than I expected. I’ll have to practice. Well, appearance is valuable for a reason. I wonder if there is some way that I could possibly make money off of that? After all, we did not have hybrid forms. Who knows what else could happen? You’ve been pretty quiet since I left the motel, can you please just... I don’t know, bite me or bark or whimper or something?! Okay. I did say ’something’. This is certainly something. What are you doing? <
I
struggle
only a little, knowing I could just
leave
at any moment. But the wolf spirit doesn’t do anything else at all.
The behavior could easily be attributed to trying to show
dominance...
but that doesn’t feel right. Neither is it really a hug or
affection
exactly... not without any attempt to groom.
More like an older, bigger member of the group trying to
calm
or just stop the smaller, excitable one from making noise or
hurting
itself. Treating me like a child now...
In the ’real’ world, my free hand rubs the
corners of my eyes
before I make my way to the quiet part of the reading area. I settled down into a
public armchair
with my selections before opening one of the pregnancy books first.
The
detailed illustrations
and matter-of-fact descriptions are so striking. Medical knowledge in this world is so different from the
veiled
version of my own.
It helps that beasts and shifters from my world tend to be
hardy
and instinctively know what to do or eat to feel better if we do get sick. We also do not have very many problems
conceiving
and giving birth - unlike here.
Werewolves... there definitely seems to be a
larger reason
why they are a
severe minority
. And it is not just because they were hunted or persecuted.
Something in their ’biology’? Even the number of wolfless Omegas - essentially human entirely - that are
successfully given birth to
are lower than one might expect.
"It’ll be fine."
My hand rests on my abdomen as I turn the pages, starting to
irrationally
worry more than a bit.