Coyote Wolf [MXM]

10 | REALLY GOOD

NAYLAN

     I had asked if I could tell the coyotes we shared territory lines with about the hyenas, and Georgiou's had just stared at me, before telling me that I could make the value judgment there. I sat on the information for a few days, wondering if it was something I should tell Mavis so that he could caution the rest of the coyotes, but I kept it to myself, feeding into the idea that paranoia was a lot worse, and there wasn't any need to until there was a visible threat.

     Besides, the coyotes were doing fine by sharing food with us. There was no need to stress a handful of families because Hyenas may or may not be hunting in the woods under the cover of night.

     "What's wrong with you?"

     I blinked, looking up to find Mavis staring at me. He was standing right in front of me with his eyebrows arched and lips pulled into a thin, concerned line.

     I shook my head. "I'm fine."

     "You seem to be in your head a lot these days," he muttered, letting out a sigh as he backed away a bit. "You don't have to tell me what's bothering you, but I just had to point out that you're not very good at hiding it."

     A sigh left my lips as my shoulders slacked. "It's that obvious?" I asked, watching his face for a reaction.

     He closed his eyes for a bit, nodding his head. "Yeah. It bothers me," he said, giving me a small smile. "My wolf's been clawing at me."

     I blinked. "Sorry," I stuttered, creating some space between us. Naylan and I were at the river. We've more or less claimed the little area as our spot now and met up here every other evening. Today the waters were calm, and the crickets weren't as noisy. It complimented the weather. The chills of fall were starting to settle in, meaning insects were starting to go dormant.

     "It's nothing to be sorry about," I heard Mavis say with a low voice. "We're not that close yet, so I don't expect you to tell me everything."

     Yet.

     I'm not sure why that word made me happy, but it did. Mavis confused me at times. Sometimes he would be insistent on keeping boundaries and not getting too close, and sometimes he was like this—worrying about me and talking as if we were going to have a future together.