31- Lachlan’s spirit animal

It was only the beginning of September, yet a few hours after Sirius and Saoirse had gone out, snow began to fall, quickly blanketing the night in a glistening blur.

They were eating their lunch when the nocturnal members of the pack began excitedly chatting about the unexpected occurrence.

Soon the bustle of excitement spread and people began taking their children out to the boardwalk to sled on the blanketed park lawns.

Snowmen with ears made of sticks began to make their appearance. Wolves pranced around the streets and trudged through the powder, panting hard and throwing snow everywhere.

Saoirse smiled at Sirius, "Hey, we could join in the fun, I bet Lachlan would enjoy that!"

She transformed her face, her wolf ears twitching, and nuzzled her new little boy, her wolf nose touching his, making him laugh.

"Is he old enough for that?" Sirius responded concerned, "He's probably only like what, four months old?"

Saoirse pondered that. She couldn't remember, but she was pretty sure that werewolves began getting their wolf around Lachlan's age and once they could transform, they began to go outside. That was how her father's pack had done it anyway.

"Well, we should see if he can grow fur yet." She said after a bit of thought.

She rolled out Lachlan's blanket on the carpeted lounging area they were eating in and placed the baby on the floor. She rested him on his tummy and then lay on the ground next to him.

He made gurgling chatter as she joined him and drool dripped onto the blanket. She gave him a smile. "Ok Lachlan, now let's see your beastie."

She let out her wolf ears and leaned in close for him to sniff at them. Then she tickled him a bit in the face and he tried grabbing at them, seeing if he could pull them towards his mouth.

She offered him a paw next and batted at his tiny fist attempting to initiate play. He batted back at her but didn't transform.

Sirius leaned towards them, "maybe he would like to see your tail." He suggested.

Now partially transformed, and assuming the stance of a wolf in all fours, she gave a playful shake, as if she had wet fur, and with a puff of fur, her tail emerged. Lachlan's eyes widened in awe.

Excitedly, he got the message. Mom was trying to teach him something. He gave a determined little shake of his body, mimicking her.

A tiny "yap" escaped him as a fluffy tail popped out, announcing his achievement. Saoirse screamed in delight, scooping him up. "You did it! Look at him, he did it!"

Startled, Lachlan exclaimed, "Yip yip!" and wagged his tail in excitement. His tiny gums had sprouted teeth, sharp and glinting. He turned to Sirius and let out a playful growl.

Saoirse laughed. "I think he's copying you from earlier!"

Sirius blushed sheepishly. "You're not supposed to pick up the bad stuff!" He scruffed Lachlan's hair playfully. "You're making me feel like a bad example!"

Lachlan giggled and rolled onto his back, trapping Sirius's hand with his tiny wolf teeth and kicking at it with his feet. Then, shaking his head from side to side, as if he was subduing prey, he let out a triumphant growl. Sirius chuckled, shaking his head.

(I was watching this, feeling a bit left out. Why couldn't I play too? It didn't seem fair. I could be an animal too, just not a wolf since mom's spirit was a rabbit and dad's spirit was a bird. I came over by Lachlan and once again tried to sense what spirit animal he would be.

(He began watching me carefully as I laid down to face him. Mom was now sitting up and chatting with dad so neither of them noticed him staring off intently into space. They probably wouldn't think anything of it anyways.

(But I just remained human. Is his spirit animal a human? I had never heard of that. It was so wierd. "Come on! I said to him encouragingly, you can change for me. I want to see what spirit animal you are."

(Lachlan babbled a bit and his teeth faded away to show gums again. Just human baby gums. This kid wouldn't crack. He had to be the most stubborn person, toying with me, -and when I was just trying to help him!

I turned back into a rabbit and just lay there on the ground for a bit. My arms splayed out in a form of surrender.)

Lachlan rolled over back to his belly. Only this time, he lay as if he were a starfish. He hugged the earth there for a while as if enjoying the earth embracing him. Then he gave a little yawn and dozed off to sleep.

As he dozed, he soon entered a deeper slumber and a sudden wave of fear came over everyone, as if something dark had flown through them.

"Did you feel that?" Saoirse asked, her voice hushed.

Sirius frowned, glancing around. "What was that?"

"I don't know… it felt like something…touched my soul," she murmured. She glanced at her sleeping son, hoping he hadn't felt anything.

(On the ground, I shifted back to my human form, sitting up slowly. I'd felt it too—that strange ripple of energy. For a moment, I thought I saw Lachlan's shadow stretch oddly against the carpet, like it wasn't quite his. But when I blinked, it was gone.)

Saoirse picked Lachlan up carefully and Sirius was once again reminded how, for the first time, Saoirse seemed to not struggle as much around him compared to in the past.

She managed to return to the apartment and laid him down in the crib without waking him. Then she closed the door carefully and went to spend some time with her husband.

They went and snuggled up on the couch. Saoirse flipped through the channels and ended up landing on a romantic comedy. She looked at Sirius expectantly and he waved his hand, "ah! who am I kidding, you're just going to turn it on anyways!"

She smiled and selected the movie. Sirius got up and got each of them a steaming glass of blood and they sipped it as if it were tea.

They got to the end and the characters fell in love and ran to each other in a warm embrace, kissing.

"Ah! So cute! How romantic!" Saoirse exclaimed, leaning into Sirius' chest. This made Sirius get warmer. He normally pulled away, but the movie had him in a playful mood.

He breathed a warm breath at her playfully. His smell of ash surrounding her in a literal puff of smoke. "I can compete with that kiss." He said wiggling his eyebrows. Then he wrapped his arms around her and nibbled at her neck.

He climbed onto the couch, suddenly tipping her over because she was leaning on him. As she fell onto her back on the couch he now hovered over her and placed a kiss on her lips. She melted. Smiling she let him kiss her, feeling like she could just stop him if they did too much.

As he got too hot, Sirius pulled his mouth away from hers, resisting the urge to taste her neck and touch her breasts, he just hugged her, resting his head onto the top of her head as he now lay beside her, calming himself.

Saoirse, longing for more sat quietly waiting, this was the hardest part of being so close to him. She wanted to back her body even closer into his. But she just lay still.

(Sometimes I felt bad for my parents in these moments. I watched them both eventually fall asleep, not taking it further, even though they had wanted to. And I wondered how I could help them. If I could protect mom from danger with smells, I thought perhaps I could protect her from this kind of pain if they just didn't like how each other smelled for a while, right?

(I wanted to get a body right now, but it seemed like mom and dad were still saying no. So I sighed. I guess for now, I could focus on getting rid of Lachlan. Something was up with that baby. I knew he was evil somehow. I had seen something creepy happen with his shadow and I wasn't going to stand for it.)