Episode Forty-One Always Wear a Smile

L uka

I'm lying here in our cave, days after our return from the monk village. Still half asleep, I'm stroking Alliana's leg with my tail and inventorying her lovely face. Her white lashes fan her cheeks as she breathes softly in her sleep. Though her lids are closed, I know the exact color of the eyes beneath them. There are pale blue irises, almost colorless, that express the boundless depths of her soul.

Her bow-shaped lips are slightly parted. It's hard to look at them without imagining them stretched wide around my cock, or one of my packmates'.

I used to think her lips were the prettiest part of her face. I still do, but for different reasons. I love looking at her lips now because no matter whether she's asleep or awake, there's always a smile on her face.

Sometimes it's a full-blown smile, like when I playfully swat her ass when we're cooking together. At other times, her lips twitch. Like when Mirron calls her Little Bird and she doesn't know whether to toss him a smile or pretend it makes her mad. Or when Deklan sits down with her and helps her make a new piece of clothing and he slides his arms around her and whispers dirty ideas into her ear.

I nuzzle the column of her neck, not caring if I wake her because the sun's been up for a while now. I can't get enough of her. Her smell, her pale skin, her white hair that looks like she comes from another world. I guess she did.

She's the perfect mate for our pack. Always happy, eager to be with us, whether it's in the furs or on a hunting party. We were the luckiest males on the planet the day she dropped into our lives.

It's not full-on winter yet. I don't think she's going to like it, but I'll teach her about our world. How to hunt, how to hide her footprints in the snow, and how to make bird noises to communicate with her mates in code.

She'll be happy here, with the three of us. Even during winter. I vow it.

Deklan

Luka's tail is caressing our female. She loves him, which makes my chest expand in happiness.

As happy as I'd been with Mirron, I always harbored guilt that my brother didn't have the same love I'd found in the minotaur's arms. Alliana dropping in from above was the answer to so many of my prayers, not the least of which was that Luka would find a love of his own. Little did I know, she'd also be my love.

She's brought us all together in many ways, even though our pack functioned well the day we met her. What we thought was happiness, though, was pale compared to what we have now.

It never bothered me that Mirron resisted her joining us at first. How could it when I knew his history? I knew his pain, his unspoken but desperate need for a pack who loved and accepted him without question. I understood he felt threatened by Alliana. I also knew, all along, that she would bring him, bring all of us, the feeling of family we were searching for. As we have provided that for her.

Was that a little snore that just escaped her lips? I'm going to have to tease her mercilessly when she wakes up.

I'm tucked behind her as she faces Luka. Mirron is behind me. As I feel him hardening against my ass, Alliana's lids fly open and she says, "Is that your cock twitching against my backside, Dek? All you have to do is ask nicely, you know. I'm always happy to welcome you inside."

She says that with a smile. Our prize always wears a smile.