Ribbon.

"Heat?! He's in season?!" Gus was staring, scandalized, at his wolfe and shaking his head. "How?! When?? You're not worried??"
Kuskellanar raised one bemused eyebrow at his mate.
"Why would I be worried?"
"Because! It's - " Gustin made a flustered gesture with his hand. "It's Lucky. He's too young! He's just a kid! A kid who will...want to...hump everything....that moves....and stuff." Gus trailed off and frowned. Kellan chewed on his chewing stick and watched him.
"You still do not understand the season."
Gus rolled his eyes.
"Oh, I understand perfectly well, and you can shove that superior tone back where you got it from!"
Kellan couldn't keep himself from grinning at his mate's snappishness. He padded barefoot over the warmed wood floors towards Gustin and drew the smaller human into a tight embrace. Gus wriggled in his arms.
"Stop that. Nobody asked to be hugged by you. Stop it! You let me go this instant, Kellan!"
Kellan laughed, then grunted and squeezed his arms tighter. After a few minutes, Gustin calmed down.
"Fine. You can hug me. But only because you smell good. You got lucky this time, wolfe."
Kellan made a sound that expressed his relief and inhaled deeply against his mate's neck. Gustin practically melted, and Kellan pulled back.
"I think his proximity has affected you."
Gustin blinked at his wolfe.
"What? Like how?"
Kellan frowned pensively and took a step away, padding over to the other side of the room to think. He turned suddenly, and ran directly into Gustin, who made a soft "oof" sound, then stayed where he was, close to the wolfe.
"You are following me."
Gustin shrugged.
"I just wanted to stand over here."
Kellan looked him over appraisingly.
"It has affected you."
"What?!" Gus asked defensively. "Affected me how??"
Kellan blinked at him and walked away, back towards the bedroom.
Gustin gave an involuntary yelp and darted after him.
"Wait!"
Kellan obligingly paused in the doorway and let his mate slip past him into their bedroom, closing the door afterwards. Inside, Kellan released the drying cloth he'd been wearing, revealing his nakedness. He looked over at Gustin.
"Strip. Get on the bed." Gustin hesitated, and Kellan deepened his voice. "Bed, Human."
Gustin went, shedding clothes along the way, but threw a mutinous glare at Kellan over his shoulder as he did so.
"Why do we have to - "
"Bed, Human." Kellan almost-growled, then added, more gently, "His heat is affecting me, too."
The wolfe followed Gus to their bed and coaxed the human into a supine position so that Kellan could settle between his thighs. The wolfe buried his nose in his mate's collarbone and inhaled deeply.
"Your scent has fear in it."
Gustin frowned and sniffed himself.
"I'm not afraid."
Kellan watched him, then grunted.
"An unmated male, in his first season, was here. First season is young, dangerous. It frightened you."
"He's my son!"
Kellan shrugged again.
"Body is frightened. Not mind."
Kellan turned him over.
"Hands and knees," he grumbled against the side of Gustin's neck. "Quickly."
Gus looked over his shoulder skeptically and narrowed his eyes.
"OK, the last time we did it this way - "
Kellan rolled his eyes.
"I have apologized for that!" the wolfe interrupted. "One thousand times. It was an unexpected occurrence."
"You just need to warn me if you're going to - "
"I did not intend to shift while inside you, human. I was...overwhelmed."
"You were cumming your brains out, you mean."
Kellan sighed theatrically.
"Yes. And is that not a privilege I should expect to receive at any point today?"
Gustin laughed.
"You've gotten more complacent in your old age, wolfie." he slid a teasing glance over at Kellan. "You used to just take what you wanted."
Kellan growled and gripped Gustin's hips, yanking them upwards.
"Still do, little one."

+++

Sodre exited the cave to find Kel'luknar pacing around the fire in front of it.
"Lucky! You're back early! Did you bring food?"
Kel'luknar paused and shot Sodre a withering glare.
"You know, I'm not just your dinner provider, Roo - I don't have to always bring food for you! That's your airu's job, and maybe your badi's job. And furthermore, I already fed you this morning. So if you're so hungry, maybe you should take it up with Alpha Iorir, and not me." he snapped.
The Layer sucked in a breath and furrowed his brow.
"O...kay." his tail, which had been wagging wildly earlier, slowed to a cautious near-stillness and tucked between his legs. "I'm sorry, Lucky, I just meant that I think you are a good hunter, that's all." he said, quietly. "Don't be mad at me."
Kel'luknar grunted and went back to pacing. Sodre stood where he was, unsure how to proceed.
"I just, um - why are you back so early, then?" he asked, still deferential.
The young wolfe shrugged.
"Said I was going looking for you. That was the plan, wasn't it?" his voice had an angry, mocking edge to it that made Sodre take another step backwards.
"Yeah, I guess."
Kel'luk whipped around to glare at the retreating Layer.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Sodre took another involuntary step away, his eyes widening.
"Nowhere."
Lucky growled.
"Good. Now, come sit down. I brought rabbits for lunch."

+++

"So you're really not worried about him?"
Kuskellanar sighed and rolled over in bed to look his mate in the face.
"Kel'luknar is a wolfe of 19. He is of an expected age for his first season."
"But he doesn't even know what's happening!"
Kuskellanar shook his head.
"He will, eventually. I have prepared him for this time. He understands."
Gus bit his lip and frowned.
"But should we really just leave him running around in the forest like that? Alone? He's not thinking straight! It's dangerous! What if he meets a bear?"
Kuskellanar cast a bewildered look over at his mate.
"He is a wolfe, Gustin. The forest is his home. He will be fine."
"Bears are very dangerous, Kellan."
The strain of having this faintly ridiculous conversation began to show on Kellan's face.
"He will not meet a bear."
Gus sighed and rolled onto his back.
"Well, what about Sodre? Should we just leave him alone with the little Layer? Isn't that dangerous for him?"
Kuskellanar blinked at his beta.
"They are young. Sodre will enjoy a vigorous mating. And he is too young to be bred - he has not dropped his first egg yet."
Gustin sighed.
"I guess."
Kellan frowned.
"What are you afraid of, Gustin?"
Gus shook his head.
"I don't know. It's just that Lucky and Sodre have a knack for finding trouble where none was before. I'm just worried, that's all. Call it human intuition."
Kellan smiled and nestled his nose into the crook of Gustin's neck.
"He will be fine, mate. The moon will look after our son. These things are the things of nature. Moon's law. She will see that everything goes according to her plan."

+++++

"Come'n." Sodre pushed his muzzle up against the wolfe's side. "Lessgo forarun. You feelbetter'f yourun."
Kelluk grunted, and Sodre sighed and rested his nose in the crook of his friend's arm. "Come'n, Lucky, pleeeese?"
Kel'luknar resolved to stay firm in his sulking, but made the tactical error of actually looking down at the Layer. One glimpse of pleading hazel eyes and he was lost. He swallowed to disguise his loss of breath and turned away.
"Fine. If it'll make you stop bothering me."
Sodre yelped and wagged his tail wildly.
"OKgood, lessgo!"
He took off at a slow jog towards the meadows on the other side of their cave, and Lucky watched him for a minute, shook the unwelcome thoughts out of his head, and began to strip for his change.
A bark from ahead urged him to hurry up, and naked, he shifted and took off at a breakneck speed towards the Layer.
He was going to sideswipe him, then pass him and keep going to beat him to the meadow. Sodre was fast, but it would take him a minute to recover from being knocked down, and Lucky would have the advantage.
Kel'luknar gained quickly on the Layer, pounding footfull of cold ground after cold ground until the little brown tail loomed close before his eyes.
Sodre, hearing his approach, glanced over his shoulder, realized the game, and began to speed up. Now or never. If the Layer really got going, Lucky would never catch him.
The young wolfe put on one last burst of speed and crashed full force into the Layer's side. Sodre yelped, and went down, tangling two legs between Lucky's own. With a cry, Lucky went down as well, and they found themselves wrangling each other down through the frozen dew.
"Lemmeup!" the Layer yelped, and Lucky growled.
"Trying!"
Kel'lluknar tried to get his feet back under him, but lost the plot when his nose hit the back of the Layer's neck and he was immediately transported.
There was Sodre, smelling warm and sweet, and tasting of cloves and sweet water and pine cones and summer grass and the thrill he felt diving into a cold lake and feeling like the cored-down essence of desire. The urge to be with the Layer, to mate him, to breed him was overwhelming suddenly, and Lucky wondered what would happen if he just kissed Roo, if he just dipped his head down for one quick touch of mouth to skin - would it be so bad? Not bad at all - great. Wonderful. Natural. And would the Layer agree? Why wouldn't he?
The wolfe shook himself and he was back on the cold ground, tangled above Adotre.
What was this? And why was it getting stronger?
Frustrated, he snarled, flipped Sodre onto his back, and pinned him down.
"Stop it! Stop whatever you're doing that's making this happen! Cut it out!"
Sodre laid still and blinked big, bright, terrified eyes up at the wolfe above him.
"Imsorry, airu, Imnot - "
Lucky startled backwards and Sodre snapped his mouth shut, surprised by his own slip of words. The wolfe recovered first, and shifted human again, shaking the Layer by his fur.
"STOP IT!"
Sodre shifted too, and Lucky could see that his bare skin was flushed red.
"I'm not doing anything! Honest, Lucky, please!"
The wolfe growled and released the Layer, who fell back into the cold grass. Sodre heaved a confused breath.
"Lucky, what's wrong?"
Kel'luknar was sitting with his back to the Layer now, resting his elbows on his knees.
"I don't know. Things are weird. You smell weird."
Sodre hesitated.
"I smell weird?"
The wolfe glanced back over his shoulder.
"Not bad. Good. You smell good."
Sodre preened a little and edged closer to the wolfe.
"How good?"
"Roo...."
"Sorry. Is that bad? That I smell good?"
Lucky shook his head.
"It's...too good. I think it's the egg. I think it's making me want to...mate you."
Sodre raised an eyebrow and grinned a presumptuous grin.
"Well, a hard-on's no reason to go all growly on me."
Lucky cast a scathing look over his shoulder.
"It's more than that." he looked back out at the glen. "I fear the situation is becoming untenable."
Sodre frowned.
"Unwhat?"
"Impossible to manage. The smell is getting stronger. Your smell. I can't ignore it if this keeps up."
Sodre quieted.
"Oh." After a few minutes: "Well, maybe we could just do something about it."
Lucky's back straightened and the Layer felt his stomach thud. This was the moment, they both knew suddenly, for rejection or acceptance.
Lucky swallowed.
"Not while you have the egg down. It's not safe."
Sodre swallowed his protest.
"OK, ai - "
Lucky snapped around to look over his shoulder.
"Sodre?"
"I don't know." the Layer had one hand clasped over his mouth and a look of worry on his face. "I don't know why I keep saying that."
Lucky frowned.
"Are you sure you're not making the scent on purpose? I don't remember your badi smelling like this, ever."
Sodre shrugged.
"If I am, I don't know how to turn it off."
Lucky exhaled and ran his hand through his hair.
"I don't want to stay here if things are going to keep getting...weird. Has the egg at least started to regenerate yet? Has the remainder come out?"
Sodre made a face of disgust and looked down at himself.
"No, nothing's happened."
This made Lucky turn almost completely around, revealing his still-hard cock to Sodre.
"Why not?" he asked slowly. The Layer shrugged desperately.
"I don't know."

+++++