The Porch Wolf Ch. 01-10

There were two screams as the change completed, and the robe fell off.

Vicki screamed, "PUPPY!"

Liv screamed, "OH, FUCK!"

Then Liv grabbed Vicki and disappeared out of the room in a flash. I heard a door slam as the bathroom door locked.

Well, that could have gone better. I shifted back, pulling on my robe and tying it as I listened to Vicki asking to see the puppy again, while Liv was cursing that her phone was in her purse, hanging from the chair at the kitchen table. I walked over to the door, glad that she wasn't calling 911 right now. I knocked, and it got quiet in there. "Liv?"

"What the hell, Leo?"

"I'm a werewolf, Liv."

"That's impossible. Werewolves are fantasy, fictional creatures that cannot exist."

I chuckled; she couldn't accept what she couldn't understand. "Vicky, what did I change into?"

"BIG PUPPY! Momma, I wanna play wit da PUPPY!"

"I told you I wouldn't hurt you or Vicky, Olivia. I don't want you to be afraid of me, but you wouldn't believe me if I didn't show you," I explained.

"You showed me, and I still don't believe you," I said.

"Take a little time to think about what you saw, Liv. It's important you know the truth, because you two are in danger, and you won't see it coming. I'll be waiting in the living room for you to decide. If you want to go home, I'll take you. If you never want to see me again, I'll leave you alone. If you want to talk, we'll talk. If you want to sit and play with the wolf in the room, we'll play. Don't be afraid of me; my wolf and I don't like it when you are afraid." I walked away, going back into the living room. Tossing the robe aside, I shifted and curled up on the rug in front of the couch, my head placed so I could see around the end of the sofa and down the hall.

It took ten minutes before I heard the bathroom door unlock, then it slowly opened. Liv poked her head out, looking at me. I rolled over onto my back, my tail whapping against the rug as they came into view. "Nice doggie," she said. Vicki was being held in her hand, an open bottle of rubbing alcohol in the other. "Don't make me use this," she said.

I guess the medicine cabinet didn't have many weapon options; I was glad she didn't think of breaking the mirror. I tried to make myself as non-threatening as possible; rolling onto my stomach as they came closer, I put my head on my paws while my tail kept wagging. "Tell Mom that you are like me," I sent to Vicki's wolf.

Vicki brought her other hand to her ear, trying to figure out where my voice came from. "Mommy, I heard Unky Leo talking in my head," she said.

"What?" She had moved them until one of the love seats was between me on the rug and the two of them near the kitchen.

"He said to tell you that I am like him."

"No."

"Tell Mom that I really am your uncle. It was my younger brother," I sent to her. Well, either they would grab my keys and steal my truck to get away, or I'd get them to sit down and talk to me.

"Momma, Unky Leo said he is my real unky. It was his wittle brother."

Her eyes got wide. "No. It can't be."

"Show Mommy the pictures in the hallway." Please, Luna, let her have the courage to know the truth, I prayed.

"Mommy, Unky Leo wants you to look at da pictures." She pulled Liv towards the hallway, and she turned on the light. The walls were filled with photos of my life. Everything from my family as I grew, to my mating, my time with Catherine, and my brother Ivan's mating ceremony. The ceremony at Marengo Lakes, where he mated the only daughter of the Alpha shortly before he died.

"Oh, God... Oh, God... It's him," she said as her fingers reached towards the photo. She let go of Vicki, allowing my niece to run back down the hall and plop down next to me. I kept my eyes on her mother as she tried to catch her breath and wrap her head around what she was seeing.

I loved the feeling of her little hands running through my fur as she explored my wolf form. Liv came down the hall, dropping onto the love seat as she watched her daughter play with the massive wolf on the floor. "You're real," she said. "You're a werewolf. He was like you?"

I nodded my head yes before I licked up Vicki's face, making her squeal. "Dog swobber," she giggled.

"We need to talk," she said.

I slowly moved to my feet, towering over Vicki. I stood over three feet tall at the shoulders, and my two hundred pounds was the same in both forms. I sniffed Vicki's neck, the cold nose making her squeal, then trotted down the hallway to my room. I reached up a paw and opened the lever door handle, pushing my way in. Shifting, I pulled on my clothes and walked back out. "You did a good job telling your Mom," I said to Vicki, who was now sitting in her Mom's lap.

"You said you would explain it all," she said. "Start talking."

Ch. 8

Ivan Volkov's POV

Valentine's Day, 2014

"Quit whining and get in there," my older brother and Alpha said as we approached the large Pack House. The 2014 National Alpha Summit was being hosted by the Gray's Peak Pack, a prosperous pack west of Denver. The place was packed, over two hundred Alphas in attendance, most with their Lunas. I had taken notes and networked during the daytime meetings, but now was the thing I dreaded most.

The meat market.

A cocktail party where unmated men and women of breeding were shoved together in the hopes of finding their mates. I didn't like what they represented, and I already knew I wasn't going to find a mate there. "I'd rather take a run after being cooped up all day," I said.

"It's the rules. All unmated Betas and Alphas and their children of age are required to attend, and no one can leave for at least an hour unless their mate is with them," Leo said. "Catherine and I are meeting with some friends from the Iron Range. Don't wait up for us."

"Don't wait up for me, I'll be back when the moon sets and my run is done." Leaving them behind, I joined the line of men heading for the east entrance to the ballroom. At precisely seven PM, the doors opened, and the men started to file in. I was about halfway back in the line, and this wasn't my first time at one of these. It was a bit more organized than others, a long reception line of ladies in dresses wound back and forth inside the room. Each male would greet a female, lift her hand to his nose and sniff. If there was no match, he would smile and move on. When a destined pair found each other, the hosts and their security members would quickly remove them from the room before they started screwing on the floor.

The show must go on, after all.

This was my third one of these, eighteen being the minimum age. I had found my mate in the second; when I scented her, my eyes got wide, and I froze. She smelled my neck, shaking her head in disappointment. "No Alpha mantle on you," she said to me.

"Second son of the Welch Pack Alphas in Minnesota. My brother is the heir."

"Not interested second child of the Provo Pack here," she replied. "I have better offers than you already. I reject you," she looked down at my nametag, "Ivan Volkov. Have a nice life."

"I reject you as well, Tonya Skyles, you heartless bitch," I said back. I continued with the meetup as if nothing had happened.

Tonya's mating to an Alpha in Idaho was announced that night with dozens of other pairings, as I sat at the bar and drank myself into oblivion.

Tonight would end up the same way. I started the motions of introducing myself to the ladies. I did have a plan. I'd get through the line, hang out at the bar with the other disillusioned, and find a willing female to share a night of meaningless but athletic sex. I was looking for those who were just as tired of this charade as I was, and I had invited a half-dozen ladies to join me at the bar by the time I exited the line. Making my way to the bar, I bought two bottles of tequila and asked for a bunch of glasses. Pouring seven, I downed the first and refilled it before my first lady arrived. "Ivan, did you save one for me," the blonde she-wolf said.

"If you'd like to join me on a trip to oblivion, I'm your man," I said. "Here you go, Lynn."

"To another year of freedom," she said as she raised her glass.

"Freedom." We tossed the shots back, and I poured more as other ladies arrived. Brenda, Lori, Dawn, Charlotte, and Gina stopped by to say hello and have a shot. Over the next twenty minutes, all but Lynn and Brenda moved on to other males. The bar was crowded and loud; I grabbed what remained in the second bottle and stood up. "I need to get out of here. I don't want to hear another word about mates and how wonderful they are tonight," I said. Lynn wanted to stay, but Brenda asked me to walk her to her room.

I was a little confused, as Brenda wasn't giving off signals she was interested. Still, I offered her my arm and escorted her out of the room. "Why are you so jaded about the whole mate thing, Ivan," she asked as we got outside.

"I found mine last year; she was upset that I didn't have what you have, an Alpha mantle. She rejected me before she knew anything else. Hell, she had to read my nametag so she could finish her rejection," I said with a sneer. "I don't know or care what Luna thought she was doing. Half of all human marriages end in divorce; I don't think Luna is any better at the game. For every disgustingly in love and devoted pair, there's probably another who don't belong together."

"And yet our culture and traditions insist on it," she said. "You're lucky; you get a choice in the matter. My father is not allowing me the same."

"He cannot force you to mate someone. That is against our laws!"

"True. My father cannot force me to mate a particular male, but applying pressure to take a mate is a different thing." We reached her room; she opened it and invited me in. The portable housing was cozy, to say the least. The room contained a full-sized bed, a dresser, television, and a tiny bathroom with a shower. She sat on the bed and patted the space next to her. I pulled an empty drawer out of the dresser, setting it on edge as a table, and set the bottle and the shot glasses on top of it before sitting down. "Can I speak frankly, Ivan? Can you hold what I tell you in strict confidence?"

"I would be disappointed if you did not, Brenda." I poured us each a shot.

"My father is not well," she said. "My mother passed away last year, and he won't be far behind. I am the heir to the Pack, and I need a mate to run it properly."

"There are plenty of males here who would love to take you on just for the Alpha position, not just because you are a desirable young woman," I said. "If the word gets out, they will be hounding you." Of course, she hadn't found her mate tonight. "Are you disappointed you didn't find your mate here?" I raised my drink to my lips.

"I knew I would not," she said. "I'm gay."

That was enough to cause me to choke on my tequila. "What?"

"I'm a lesbian. I have no mate because I have no interest in men, I never have."

"I bet that went over well with Daddy." Werewolves, especially Alpha males, were tradition-bound and patriarchal. Homosexuality might be tolerated in the lower ranks, but there were no openly gay Alphas of either sex. A male might never take a mate and hide his true affections, but a female Alpha could not. I could see the truth in her face. "He doesn't know."

"No one does," she said. "My lovers have been few, human, and distant. I know what will happen if the Alpha position transfers to me while I'm unmated, or if I was to come out. My Pack and I will be looked at as weak, a tempting target for anyone who fancied a challenge. I wouldn't last a year before it was taken from me." She tossed a shot back and poured another. "What I'm looking for is a partner, not a mate."

I could see where the conversation was going. "You think I could be that partner?"

"You do not believe in or expect a mating to result in anything mystical like true love. You are smart, strong, and ready to lead a Pack by my side. A partnership would get you out of your brother's shadow, and my Pack would gain a strong defender. I would not prevent you from seeking your pleasure in others, just as you would not prevent me from my own liaisons. Both of us would use discretion, of course. We must maintain appearances."

"Of course," I said. It wasn't that mated pairs couldn't cheat, they just couldn't do it without the other feeling it. It didn't cause pain, but there was no mistaking when your mate was having sex with another. "You can't fake the mating claim, Brenda. I would have to bite you and mate you, and you would have to bite me back."

"You wouldn't be my first man; in my youth, I slept with a man before accepting my true orientation. I would be expected to bear an heir, so sex between us will be required to achieve that. In the Pack's eyes, we need to be a stable and loving Alpha pair. You should not expect it to occur more often than required, though. I'm sure you can find your release elsewhere."

I leaned back against the headboard, considering what she was offering. The chance to become an Alpha did not come along often. My only other path to the job would be if my brother and his mate passed without an heir, the Alpha mantle dying with him. Having the Alpha Mantle was important; with it, your wolf was stronger, and your command over a Pack was more complete. If I mated with Brenda, the mantle she received from her father at birth would be shared with me. My son or daughter would carry it after I was gone. "So to summarize your offer. We agree to begin a courtship leading to us mating and leading your Pack together, presenting the image of a loving Alpha pair. Both of us may seek our sexual satisfaction, discreetly and freely, preferably far from our home."

"It's not the mating either of us thought we would get as pups, but both of us would benefit, as would our Pack," Brenda said. "I don't need a commitment to our deal tonight, but I would like to set the groundwork if you are agreeable."

"What kind of groundwork?"

"We clearly aren't fated mates, but we do need to show interest in each other among the others. You stay here tonight, sleeping in my bed, so our scents mingle. We eat our meals together, we take walks while holding hands, and are seen kissing. I introduce you to my father, and you introduce me to your brother and his mate."

"And after this summit?"

"We date for a few months, each of us traveling to the other's Pack. Along the way, if we both agree to proceed, we set a date for the mating ceremony."

"And then we join together," I said.

"Exactly." She poured us each another shot. "That is tomorrow. For tonight, I want to get gloriously drunk and forget about the shit-storm that my life has become. I'd like you to join me."

I raised my glass in a toast to her. "It would be my honor, Alpha-Heir Brenda Petersen." We clicked our glasses together and drank.

The hangover promised to be epic.

Ch. 9

Leo Volkov's POV

Present Day

After the excitement of the day and evening, Shark Bait was fading fast. Vicki begged me to shift back into Wolfy, but I had too much to explain to Liv. If I couldn't convince her that I needed to be in their lives, that they all were in danger, I could lose her.

The evening had gone reasonably well; I had explained to them what werewolves were, how we lived, and what Vicki would become. "Werewolf children normally shift before they can crawl; they will follow whatever form their mother is in. By the time they reach ten years of age, their wolf becomes more independent; they will shift on their own unless their Alpha commands them not to. There is always a risk of having juveniles out amongst humans. Young werewolves might shift if frightened, or respond with more aggression than another child would because of their wolf."

"Like Vicki at daycare," she said. "She was getting in trouble for biting other children."

"Yes. Since you are fully human, Vicki's wolf has grown without guidance from her mother or Pack. It will push forward, perhaps at an inopportune time. You can't think of her wolf as being separate from her; they are together and have been that way since birth. Her wolf will want to express herself, and she needs a safe place to do that. This is why we normally homeschool our children or form private schools that are under Pack control. It is safer for them to remain among us until they learn to control their wolves, usually around high school age."

"You would teach her?"

I nodded. "The first shift is painful, but after you've done it once, it is as simple and painless as telling your body to change shapes. Vicki is way behind on the training any other pup would have by this point."

"PUP!" Vicki raised tired eyes towards her mother. "I gonna be PUPPY."

"That's our secret," I told her. "Only your mother and I can know about that," I said. "If the wrong people find out, they might hurt you, or take you away from Mommy. I will teach you how, and keep you safe while you learn," I promised.

"Okay." She snuggled back into Liv's arms, her eyes going closed again. As long as she got to be a puppy, she wasn't going to care about the other stuff. She fell asleep shortly after.

Liv sat on the couch with Vicki's head in her lap while I told her 'the rest of the story.' My younger brother was Vicki's father, and by now, he knew that she hadn't aborted the child as he asked. I explained the Alpha Mantle and what it meant for her to have it. "So she can grow up to run her own Pack, but it's more likely someone would try to kill her so it can go back to your brother's children with his mate," she said.

"Yes. That's the greatest danger. The other is that Vicki isn't part of a Pack. Her wolf scent clings to her now; you wouldn't notice it walking by, but if a werewolf got close enough, they would pick up on it. As her wolf emerges, and after her first shift, you can't hide that puppy anymore. Werewolves will know as soon as she walks into the room. Wolves are territorial, and as a 'lone' wolf in their territory, she would be taken from you. For her own good, of course. An untrained Alpha heir female is a valuable commodity in a world where many Packs do not have Alphas with that mantle."

"What would they do to me?"

"At best, disable you while they take her. At worst, they would kill you because you might know about us, and you're human."

She shook her head as she ran her fingers through Vicki's hair. "I didn't ask for any of this, you know. I was just a college kid who wanted to get laid."

"And my brother should have known better than to have unprotected sex. He will be desperate to find and kill her, because only then can he bring the mantle back to his new Pack." I shook my head at how screwed up this all was. "Vicki is my niece, and my wolf already claimed her as his. He and I will gladly train her, and we would die to protect her. For the first time in years, I'm waking up with a reason to get through the day. I have to live and be strong to protect her."

"Making it to Prime Rib Tuesday wasn't doing it?" She sometimes teased me about my eating habits. "You were always nice to me, but I could see your fading. I'm glad you're better now." She got a text; looking at her phone, she noted the time. "Grandma is wondering where we are, and I have to work the next four nights. Can you take us home?"

"Of course," I said. "May I pick Vicki up?"

"Please, she's getting so big now," Liv said. I put her on my shoulder, and on the way out, Liv grabbed her shoes and jacket. I was pleased they both left their snowmobile gear with mine in the garage, but I didn't say anything.

Vicki didn't stir as I put her in the booster seat, and we were on our way. "I know I've given you a lot to think about tonight," I started.