Naked flesh under my fingers, lips on mine, limbs intertwined with me, soft, simple, gentle touches with gentle words. Gentle encouragement, mouth on her, nervous, whimpers like a wounded animal, heart racing, the wolf wants to come out. She kisses along me, hands on me, the wolf growls, teases me, she bites, claws extend, shrieks fill the air, blood on my tongue. I cry, the world doesn’t feel weird, covered in blood, I feel cold, the world goes dark.

  I sprung awake, nearly falling as I tangled myself in sheets and blankets sitting up in the unfamiliar bed. The taste of blood on my lips for only a moment before it disappeared, my claws partly extended, eyes seeing as the wolf.

  There was no blood, I was in Barbie’s room, naked and tangled in her blankets and sheets with my hair loose around my face. Realizing she wasn’t there, I forced my transformation back before she could see me, and let out a small sigh as I flopped back on the bed.

  “Well been a bit since I had one like that,” I muttered in a vague attempt to find some bright side, rubbing my eyes in annoyance at the old issue.

  I’d had nightmares before, rather often actually, but rarely were they so vivid or where I forgot where I was like that. Hell, the few times it’d blended in with reality I’d still been rather happy with the fact the events had been far enough back I wasn’t confused in the morning. Fuck, for all I knew my brain was just unable to process the fact I’d slept with a Half-one.

  Trying to push that point aside, I tried to adjust the blankets on me, cursing as I saw a single gouge in one of the quilts. Luckily not a full claw mark, it was still nonetheless enough I knew it’d be a bit questionable how it’d gotten there. I was still trying to figure out what to do about it when the door opened, and Barbie walked in carrying two plates and wearing a frumpy blue nightgown.

  “Hey, was just about to wake you,” she said with a soft giggle as she walked over and sat on the bed beside me, what worries left for the nightmare disappearing as her weight joined me. Her golden curls hanging around her body, the smell of paints and apples on her flesh, I was almost distracted to do anything as she passed along one plate into my lap. “I hope I didn’t mess up, I’m more a pastries and pies girl in terms of what I can cook. I do most of the dinners around here, but they’re, you know, mostly pre-made.”

  The plate had scrambled eggs that looked burnt and runny at the same time on them, as well as black sheets I thought might have been bacon once. I also noticed that, despite that, she’d handed me the plate that actually looked more appetizing in comparison. Better than I could have asked for, I smiled and took up my fork as I told her, “looks delicious,” as I started eating the burnt foods.

  Barbie smiled, almost proud, and she went about eating as she told me, “you know, you’re clingy when you sleep. You go from looking like you’re barely breathing you’re so still to tossing and thrashing around the moment I let go of you. I was gonna wake you before I got up, but I wanted to surprise you with breakfast.”

  I nodded, unable to stop smiling as I ate quickly, before realizing I needed to be less obvious about it. This wasn’t the Purists, this wasn’t a place where people knew I was in the Purists, I needed to take my time eating. Small chunks, chew slowly, swallow and wait a minute before I repeat the cycle. Barbie doing the same, and somehow finishing before me, she walked her plate over to her sewing table and sat it down.

  “I talked to my dad, they had a surprise cancellation at his conference so he’s filling in. He won’t be back until tomorrow morning probably,” the woman explained rather proudly, smiling as she stripped off her nightgown. Tossing it aside she giggled as I nearly choked on my eggs while she said, “I can’t let you be the only one lounging around nude, I’d start to feel like I was getting all the fun.”

  I made a noise that loosely translated to agreement, thinking the golden cross between her breasts suddenly seemed a lot less pure, and a moment later it sunk in just what that meant, how bare I was to her. My tattoos were on display, and I nearly dropped my plate loosely pulling the quilt around me. Barbie giggled, and my face felt like it was on fire as I told her, “I…sorry I’m not used to showing off my tattoos this long.”

  Barbie nodded, and walking over to me she hesitantly picked up a sketchbook off the ground and sat next to me. I watched her confused, and she started, “I…I hope you don’t mind, I loved how they looked and I took longer to fall asleep.”

  I watched her with a furrowed brow, as she flipped the sketchpad open towards the back, flipping until she showed me a page of her copying aspects of my tattoos. Vines, roses, daggers and swords, thorns, all that gathered about in small groupings and on copings of my legs, arms, chest, stomach. A small smile crossed my lips despite myself, and I was greeted by another page where she’d obviously started copying my back’s tattoo, and then the next of me sleeping.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Idealized, beautiful almost, laid back with hair around my face and one arm above my head, my tattoos lovingly rendered. My other arm held out, stopping about the forearm, and Barbie explained it coyly, “I had to do this one-handed. You wouldn’t settle down unless I was holding your hand. You’re not used to sleeping alone, are you?”

  I had to chuckle at that, the answer of “it’s a cat” seeming absurd until I realized it was rather normal. Shaking my head, I told her, “I usually have at least a cat with me I guess. It’s…yeah, you know. Not used to not having some sort of weight on me.”

  “I’m not complaining, it stopped you worrying about your ex,” she teased me, poking my nose as she took my empty plate and carried it to sit beside her own, as I watched in horror.

  With a small gulp, worrying just how much I said in my sleep, I laughed and asked, “Hunter? That’s…that’s a long time ago, you don’t need to worry about that, we’re done for.”

  “You mentioned him, though few other names came up while you were kicking about. Hunter I think came up once or twice, mostly you kept saying something like Alf and Martin.” Barbie corrected, furrowing her brow as she walked back to me, lifting the blankets up and sliding under beside me on the twin bed. A tight fit, we had to press into one another in a way that made the wolf want to wrap around her as she asked, “anything I need to know? Fine if that’s personal.”

  Alpha’s name sent a small shiver down my spine, and Martin’s brought about a dark sense of dread with it. Fuck, I hadn’t gotten around to bringing Martin up last night, not before we’d gotten back to her house and started talking about other things. Even Knives had seemed to think that was important, it was important for her to fucking know about that. You didn’t just drop the fact you had a kid on a girl at some random point in the fucking future.

  Wait fuck I was sort of doing that to her.

  Giving a small gulp I looked away from her, my voice almost shaking as I explained, “I…I told you I made some mistakes in my past, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about all of them. Martin was one of them. He’s…Martin’s my son. He’s three years old, his aunt adopted him for me when he was a few months old.”

  “Oh,” Barbie said, sounding genuinely caught off guard as I reached to the floor for my purse, fumbling around within it until I pulled out my wallet. There, flipping it open, I pulled out a small wallet photo from Gevaudan’s recent pictures, of Martin and his aunt, and passed it over. The girl took it, and she looked down at the photo with some surprise and I explained, “they…they live up in Canada. Martin’s my dad’s name, he’s Martin Hunter Jameson though and my dad’s Martin Emerson Jameson, and his aunt just calls him Marty. I haven’t seen him in a long time, but I really want to, you know?”

  She nodded, and obviously trying to not look too worried she asked, “would you want me to, you know…”

  “I don’t think so,” I sighed, closing my eyes as I finally admitted the fact. “I…his aunt’s more his mom than I’ll ever be. I think I'd like to visit him, maybe have him over a little when I’m living in a better place, but…I don’t think he’ll ever actually see me as a mom.”

  Barbie nodded, giving me a small smile as she pulled me into a one armed hug and answered, “well, I’ve never dated a mom before, but I’m willing to give that a shot.”

  “Just don’t call me a milf, I get enough of that at home.”

  “Mommy?”

  “You can call me a milf,” I groaned, getting a cackling giggle from Barbie as I threw my head back on the bed.

  She kept cackling at me, her face buried in my shoulder, and eventually I had to admit it was funny myself as I joined her and she told me, “I have an evening class tonight, but you’re welcome to stay until then. I’m just not sure it’s a good idea to risk another night, not that I’m insinuating anything.”

  “I have a thing tonight anyway,” I admitted slowly, feeling almost nervous to say it before I looked at her once more, “I’m…family thing, not sure how it’s going to go but I’m hoping pretty well. I might need to skip out on tomorrow’s painting session depending on how it everything goes down. I’m sorry, I should have told you earlier, it’s just-”

  “Wanna just do it today?” Barbie interrupted, almost sounding excited by the idea as she rolled on my chest. I was starting to get an idea for doing something else again, as bad an idea it felt in my gut, as she specified, “we don’t need to if you don’t want to, we can just cuddle for a bit or, um, other things if you want. I just have a lot of fun doing art, and didn’t want to seem too weird.”

  I let out a small groan and, half-sitting up in the bed, told her, “this is…you know, I…I kinda just want to cuddle, but maybe we could yeah. Maybe go do something else too once I wake up a little more? I mean if you don’t-”

  She kissed my cheek, giggling softly as she admitted, “going out sounds nice, now that I think about it. I need to pick up some lace for the sleeves on a dress I’m making, if you don’t mind walking around a store with me for a bit.”

  I thought about it for a moment, knowing the answer was yes even as every fiber of me begged to ask, “can you keep holding onto my arm and stuff? I really like getting to touch and hold you.”

  “Oh Mary, I’m going to be disappointed if you don’t let me hold onto you,” the woman countered, kissing me for a moment and giving a devious giggle before grabbing my hair as she pulled me into another kiss. The wolf rather getting used to this. I let myself melt into her grip, smiling into her, and held tight onto her as I wondered if she’d let go of me long enough to ever get dressed.