She let her own lips curl up, smiling in return, and then spun and headed for the stairs, bounding down them, with him right behind her.
Once outside, they headed off across the snowy fields, shoulder to shoulder, racing toward the woods that bordered the subdivision. Faelan was filled with the sheer joy of being alive, and she could see the same joy in his eyes.
She threw back her head and howled, and heard him echo her.
Running as a wolf felt surprisingly natural, surprisingly right. Not that she'd want to be a wolf most of the time, of course. They would remain in their own forms most of the time. They were people, after all, meant to walk among people, with all the responsibilities and difficulties and pleasures that came with being people.
And most of the time, she thought,
living
among people would be enough.
But this-- this was a different sort of living, and in some ways a better one. This was
life
, life stripped down to primitive instinct and moonlight and the simple joy of running together through the woods, side by side.
She knew that whether they were in wolf or human form, no matter what skin they wore, she and Conner would run side by side forever. They were soulmates, tied to each other for all time.
That knowledge sent a sharp stab of happiness through her, and she threw back her head again and gave voice to her joy. Conner howled, too, his song blending with hers until she couldn't tell where her voice ended and his began.
Together, they bounded into the woods and lost themselves in the night.
-The End-