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It was fairly obvious that the kid hadn’t spent much time around other hybrids before.

For one thing, he didn’t seem to recognize his own kind, even when they were right in front of him.  A surprisingly high number of hybrids ended up in medicine - and even moreso in emergency medicine.  Robby privately thought it was something to do with the constant adrenaline rush calling out to their instincts.

There was Dana, a mostly tame honeybadger.  Abbott, their resident wolverine.  McKay, a lioness.  And even an otter - though Perlah never talked about her shifting.  Hell, one of the residents that had started the same day as Whitaker, Santos, was clearly a hyena hybrid.  And yet, he gave off no social cues and never participated in any of the semi-regular camaraderie of the Pitt’s hybrid staff.

It wasn’t until almost a month after Whitaker had come to work in the ED that Robby found out why.

The pup was clearly terrified when Robby walked into the room on the 8th floor where he’d gone after shift.  He skittered under the hospital bed and trembled violently.  Robby’s sensitive nose was able to pick up the scent of submissive urination as well as the older smell of habitation.

Whitaker had been living in this room.

Confusion and frustration were quickly pushed aside as Robby crouched and held out one hand non-threateningly to the pup.

Whitaker whined pathetically and scrabbled backward.  Robby wasn’t sure how much he was in control and how much of this was instinctual.  It was possible that his fear of his boss finding out he’d been living in the hospital had sent the kid feral, but Robby hoped not.  If he couldn’t pull Whitaker back… He didn’t want to think of the damage it could do to this scared kid psychologically if he had to involve hybrid services.

But depending on how far Whitaker was gone, maybe being faced with another hybrid would calm him more.  If he was feral right now, seeing another animal might be less of a threat than a human.  And by the looks of it, Robby had lucked out.  They weren’t the same animal, but they at least shared the same genus, even if vastly different sub-species.

He made the conscious effort to shift, ignoring the haphazard way his clothes fell away and had to be stepped out of, and then crouched in front of the bed.  He was too large to fit beneath it the way that Whitaker was, but he pushed his muzzle close and gave a low, non-threatening yip.

Whitaker stared at him with wide eyes.  In his shifted form, Robby could hear his heartbeat slow somewhat, could smell his fear start to lessen.  Maybe not quite feral, then.  He seemed more shocked than instinctively relieved.  He considered shifting back, now that the kid had seen undeniable proof that he and Robby were the same, but he couldn’t be sure that Whitaker wouldn’t go back to blind terror when confronted with his human form again.  So instead he laid there, patient, and waited.  Eventually, the instinct to be close outweighed whatever other concerns were in Whitaker’s mind, because he started to ever so slowly crawl forward.  As soon as his head was clear of the bed’s hydraulic underpinnings, Robby bit him at the scruff and gently dragged him the rest of the way out.

Whitaker bared his throat submissively and whimpered.  Robby realized just how much bigger he was than the kid, even shifted.  Physical stature as a human had fuck all to do with size when shifted.  Despite the half a foot that Robby had on him when they were both human, Whitaker might’ve been twice his size as an animal.  He could have been a fucking polar bear or an elephant.  Instead, the animal below him was some mix of domestic dog.  Slender limbs, petite paws, somewhat shaggy light brown fur and floppy ears.  At a glance, Robby would have guessed some kind of shepherd or retriever.  Robby absolutely towered over the kid.  He was already large for his breed, but compared to a domestic dog, he was enormous.

There was something in him, some deeply buried instinct, that was satisfied at the submission.  That wanted to fully embrace it, to mount-

But Robby had never been ruled by his instincts before, and he wasn’t about to start now.  He flopped down beside the pup with a huff.  Whitaker whined with uncertainty.  Robby licked his snout, just once, and then left their muzzles close together.

This kind of physical contact would have been wildly inappropriate between a human attending and med student, but the rules were different with hybrids.  So many things that were human taboos - touch, sex, urination, biting, submission - were ingrained in a hybrid’s nature.  Hybrids weren’t expected to follow human rules when shifted.  And even as humans, the rules were… more of guidelines.

Robby waited until the kid was fully relaxed and had even pressed closer to Robby’s warm body before finally shifting back.  Whitaker jolted when he was suddenly up against his naked human boss, but at least he wasn’t cowering under the bed any more.  Robby was completely unabashed of his nudity - you didn’t get to be a fifty year old hybrid by being overly modest, after all - and held out his hand to Whitaker a second time.  This time, the pup sniffed it, licked his fingers, and then nuzzled into his palm.  When Robby pet the pup’s cheek, it seemed as though something snapped in the kid, because all of a sudden he was pressing relentlessly closer, head still low as though expecting a blow, but steadily crawling his way into Robby’s lap.

He tucked his head beneath Robby’s chin and whimpered.

Jesus, the pup was clearly touch starved.  Robby pet him gently, running his large hands over Whitaker’s face, back, and shoulders.  Curious, he picked up the pup’s paw and touched the pads.  Whitaker whined and jerked, but didn’t pull out of Robby’s grasp.  Clearly unused to handling, but willing to let Robby touch him even in particularly sensitive places.

Robby had initially chalked Whitaker’s inability to recognize other hybrids up to dull senses or his rural upbringing.  Now, he began to wonder if the kid had ever been around other hybrids before.  Clearly, he had no idea what to expect from Robby.  Had no one taught him hybrid culture at all?

As much as he was enjoying the closeness, the feel of Whitaker’s soft fur against his skin, the hospital floor was murder on his ass, and Robby shifted positions with a groan.

“Okay kid, I’ve gotta get up.  Can you shift back, so we can talk?”

Whitaker whined.  He stilled, and for a moment, Robby thought that he was going to suddenly have a lap full of naked med student, but then the pup trembled and gave a low, mournful whimper.  Shit.

“Okay, that’s alright,” Robby soothed.  “No need to push.  Clearly this is a lot for you.  I assume you know that you can’t stay here.  And it’s dangerous for you to be outside when you can’t shift back at will, which I assume is why you’ve been staying here to begin with.  So here’s what we’re going to do.  You’re gonna come back with me to my place, and hopefully we’ll get you comfortable enough to shift back.  Once you do, we can talk about everything.”

Whitaker whined again but got off Robby’s lap at least, letting him redress.  “C’mon, pup,” he said when he finished and picked up his bag.  He had the sensibility to grab Whitaker’s bag too, tossing the beat up cell phone on a nearby table inside it.

As soon as they stepped out of the room, Whitaker dropped low to the ground and barely moved, body slunk as close to the floor as possible.  He was practically crawling.  Robby walked slowly with him for a moment, hoping the kid would gain more confidence as they went on, but it seemed to get worse as they neared the stairwell.  So instead, he quickened his pace and Whitaker had to scramble to keep up.

On the stairs, at least, he used his legs properly.  But when they got to the door that led outside the hospital, Whitaker pressed back against the wall, eyes wide with fear.

Robby wondered what had happened to him to make him so terrified to be seen in his shifted state.

“It’s okay, pup, nothing to worry about.  Hybrids are pretty common in the city.  And like that, no one would look twice.  They’d probably assume you’re just some dog out for a walk with his owner.”  It was definitely offensive as fuck to say, but it seemed to relax Whitaker a bit.  He tried to step forward, but kept jolting back.  Clearly, he needed help.

Robby noticed the speckles of color among the white fur at his snout, chest, and paws.  The way his nose always pointed forward, with his eyes wide and assessing.  Really hoping he wasn’t about to be disrespectful as hell for no good reason, Robby snapped his fingers and pointed to his side.

Whitaker was pressed against his legs quick as a shot, eyes trained on Robby’s hand as though waiting for further instruction.

Interesting.

He internally revised his assessment to collie, or aussie mix.  Possibly with golden retriever, considering his coat, but there was definitely working dog instincts there.  “Sorry about that, pup.  Just need to get us home.  You okay?”

But if Whitaker was offended, he didn’t look it.  He seemed calmer, focused… almost relieved to have a task.  Robby could work with that.  “Come on,” he instructed, pushing the door open.  He didn’t know enough about herding dogs to know what hand signals equalled what commands, and he wasn’t sure how much of them were instinctive and how much were trained - and whether the kid had been trained at all to begin with.  But he murmured, “stay with me,” and Whitaker kept pressed against his legs as they walked out into the cool night air.

The pup stayed so close that Robby almost tripped a few times, but he didn’t try to make Whitaker back off.  The pup needed something, someone, to focus on in order to keep moving, so Robby let that someone be him.  Every few seconds, he felt a cool, damp nose nudge his palm.

They did look exactly as Robby had said they would - just a guy out for a walk with his dog.  No one looking at Whitaker would mistake him for a hybrid like this.  No hybrid that Robby knew would submit to being treated like a pet.  Whitaker gave no signs of human intelligence at the moment.  It was concerning, to say the least.  Hybrids that couldn’t control their shifts were in danger from many things, humans among them.  A pup like Whitaker could be picked up by animal control without them realizing that they were actually taking in a human being.

That was why the kid was so terrified of being outside, certainly.  But it still didn’t explain how Whitaker had gotten to his late twenties without being able to control his shift.  Maybe some sort of trauma had caused the loss of control?

They reached Robby’s house easily enough, and Whitaker hesitated at the door, looking between it and Robby multiple times.

“C’mon,” Robby urged, gesturing inside.  Whitaker looked at him twice more before almost unwillingly crossing the threshold.  He stayed low and flinched at Robby’s every movement, as though expecting a blow.  Had the pup wandered into homes before and been chased back out?  Kicked at for trying to come inside?  “Are you hungry?” he asked, instead of fixating on the way it made his chest tighten to think about the pup being abused.

Whitaker gave no sign either way.  Robby sighed.  “You must be.  I’m starving.   I’ll order something.  I’d offer you the shower, but I assume you won’t want to wash up until you’re human again, with all that fur.”

It was like talking to, well, a dog.  Robby half wondered if he’d hallucinated the initial shift, and this wasn’t just some stray he’d confused for his med student.

He pushed the thought aside and ordered them dinner.  Most hybrids weren’t as susceptible to the food intolerances of their animal sides, but just in case, Robby made sure to avoid anything with onion, garlic, grapes, or anything that might have xylitol.

“I’m gonna go shower.  Just make yourself comfortable, okay?”

Whitaker just laid his head on his paws with a little sigh.

By the time Robby returned, clean and changed, the pup hadn’t moved.  He was still laid out beside the couch, curled up on himself trying to take up as little space as possible.

The food had been delivered by then, at least, so Robby brought it in and plated them large helpings.  Hybrids tended to have larger appetites than regular humans, and shifting took huge amounts of energy.  Whitaker was probably starving by now.

“Here.  I don’t know what you like, so I got a little of everything.”  Robby set the plate on the coffee table.  Whitaker looked up at it, whined, and licked his muzzle.  He made no move toward the plate, though.  “C’mon, pup, I know you’re hungry.  Eat something for me, yeah?”

Whitaker belly crawled closer to the coffee table, but wouldn’t stand up.  Shit.  Regretfully, Robby lowered the plate to the floor.  He really didn’t like to think of his med student eating on the floor like an actual dog, but clearly the pup wasn’t going to get to the food any other way.  “Eat up,” Robby encouraged, then pointedly busied himself with his own food.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Whitaker slowly move his muzzle toward the plate, watching Robby carefully the whole time.  He flicked his tongue out to snag a tiny bit of food, and then seemed helpless to stop from gobbling down more.  His tail tucked under his belly and he whined - Robby could smell urine and fear again - but he cleared the plate in seconds.

When Robby reached down to take the plate, intending to refill it, Whitaker cringed back with a submissive cry.  Jesus, someone had really done a number on the pup.  Robby had figured the kid hadn’t had the best family situation, but he was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t one of the worst.  “Hey,” he said softly, holding out his free hand non-threateningly.  “Just gonna get you some more to eat, okay pup?  You still need to eat more.  You did so good for me, eating the whole plate.  Let’s see if we can get a little more in you, hm?  Keep being a good boy for me, sweetheart.”

Condescending as it was, the words seemed to calm Whitaker, so Robby took the win.  He set down the plate again, and nudged it closer.  Eyeing him yet again, Whitaker began to eat.  Slower this time, thankfully.  Robby went back to his own plate, though he’d lost his appetite.

Trying to project a casual air, hoping that the pup would eventually relax enough to shift back, Robby turned on the TV and flicked through channels.  “Got any shows you’re invested in?  I keep subscribing to all the services, but I can’t ever seem to get invested in any new shows.  I don’t have the time or patience to binge things.”  The pup, of course, didn’t reply.  Robby landed on old black and white episodes of I Dream of Jeanie and let it play just to have background noise.  

“Would you sit with me and watch for a bit?  I’m not quite ready for bed yet, but after the day we had, I don’t have the energy for much else.  I probably seem boring as hell to you, huh?”   He looked down at Whitaker, who wouldn’t meet his eyes.  “You shouldn’t stay down on the floor like that, pup.  C’mon, up here.”

Slowly, obviously expecting some kind of reprimand, as though the request was a trick, Whitaker crawled up onto the couch.  Robby stretched his legs out and propped his heels on the coffee table.  He settled deeper against the couch, draping one of the many throw blankets over himself.  When he shifted, his fur kept him warm.  As a man, he was constantly cold.  It sucked.

In another moment, though, a small, furry furnace pressed against his side.  There were still intermittent tremors running through Whitaker’s too-skinny frame, but he’d made it up onto the couch, which Robby took as a win.  “Good boy,” Robby praised, letting his arm drape around Whitaker.  He might have expected to be called out for condescension again - any other hybrid, particularly a canine one, would have been snarling at the pet-treatment - but Whitaker only sighed contentedly and pressed more firmly against him.

Eventually, his trembling eased.  He pressed as close as he could.  Robby drifted off, despite his best efforts to remain awake.  It was just so nice to have this warm, soft weight against him.

When he woke, it was to a naked man draped across his lap.

Dennis Whitaker had managed to shift back, likely in his sleep.  The unconscious shift hadn’t given his overt modesty any chance to protect himself, so Robby got an eyeful of the kid.  Pale skin littered with various scars and freckles, lean, starving muscle, dark blonde body hair sprinkled lightly over him.

It was probably creepy, oggling his student like this.  Robby felt equal parts horrified by the obvious pain this body had seen and thrilled at the press of a beautiful naked man in his lap.

He shifted slightly, planning to reach for his phone to check the time, and must have startled the kid awake, because in a split second he was tumbling off the couch and onto his ass, covering his crotch with one hand and raising the other as though to fend off an attack.

It took most of the pre-dawn hours for Robby to get anything coherent from the kid.

What he did learn made him want to weep.

Whitaker’s family hadn't been good to him.  He’d gotten himself into college, but kept his genetics a secret, sure that others would treat him the way his parents and brothers had, if they knew the truth.  He’d managed on scholarships and student loans for a while, but medical school was expensive as fuck, and he fell behind.  With no family to support him and no friends he could ask for help, Whitaker had become homeless.  When he found the abandoned wing during his IM rotation, he’d claimed one of the rooms as his own and had been sleeping there ever since.

“I could sleep outside and survive just fine,” he said, pulling the blanket that Robby had given him more tightly around his still naked body.  “As a dog, I’d be able to handle the elements and the cold.  But I hadn’t changed in years before last night, and I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t get stuck again.  Last night sort of proved my concerns were right.”

“Wait - you hadn’t shifted in years?”

Hesitantly, Whitaker nodded.

“Shit kid, I’m surprised you’re still sane.  Hybrids need to spend a certain amount of time indulging our animal sides, or we lose it.  Surely you’ve read the studies about denial and withdrawals of animal identity of hybrids in long-term cases?”

Whitaker shrugged miserably.   Robby wanted to beat some sense into him - but he knew that would be entirely counter-productive.

“Okay, I’m sorry, that came across wrong.  I’m just concerned.  It’s not healthy to go so long without shifting.  I totally get why you haven’t felt safe, the last few years, but you’ve gotta start taking better care of yourself, okay?  You need to shift at least once a month.  Indulge your instincts.”

“My instincts are telling me that there’s no such thing as a free meal,” Whitaker admitted quietly.

Robby flinched.  “Okay, indulge every instinct except that one.  There are definitely no strings attached here, alright?  You’ve suffered more than enough.  You deserve to be cared for.”

Tears filled Whitaker’s eyes and he blinked hard, looking away.

“Hey, Whitaker-”  Robby waited until the kid could look back at him.  “As your boss, I’d want to help.  As a human being, I’d want to help.  But as a fellow shifter, I’m telling you that I’m going to help, and you’re just going to have to accept it, okay?  Wolves are pack animals.  It’s just in our natures.  You might as well let it happen.”

“You’re a hybrid,” he said, almost dazedly.

Robby gave an amused, confused little smile.  “My shift back at the hospital didn’t give that away?”

“No, I mean - yeah, I guess I just… it didn’t soak in, you know?  I was so afraid, and so shocked, that I never really considered that you’re a hybrid.  You’re… like me.  And you’re - you’re the Emergency Department chief!  You’re-”  He shook his head.

“Whitaker… did your family throw you out because you’re a hybrid?”

The kid paused, his canine lightly pressing into his lower lip.  He shrugged miserably.  “I mean… sort of?  But not really.  They knew from the day I was born.  I was a puppy when I came out.  I learned in med school that the trauma of birth likely triggered my first shift, but it was… pretty traumatizing for my mom, too, I guess.”

“No other hybrids in the family?”

“No.  I’ve got a latent recessive gene.  There must have been one, somewhere further up my family line, but no one had ever mentioned it.  There weren’t any other hybrids in Broken Bow.  Hell, I don’t think there are many in Nebraska at all, even in Omaha or Lincoln.”

“A lot of the more rural areas with settled communities don’t,” Robby said softly.  “Before hybrids were really understood by society, a lot of them were killed off.  Some rural communities still hold old superstitions.”

“Yeah, Broken Bow was definitely like that,” Whitaker said with a trace of bitterness.  “I was forbidden from shifting, but I couldn’t control it as a kid.  My dad beat me every time I changed, and being hurt and scared made it harder to change back.  Animals weren’t allowed in the house, so I slept outside when I was a dog.  They didn’t seem to understand that I was still myself, in my mind, even when I’m a dog on the outside.  That it might be upsetting for a six year old to be told to sleep out in a dog house-”  He cut himself off and shook his head.  “Anyway, it just got worse and worse.  But around the time I hit puberty, one of my brothers suggested to dad that they put me to use.  We had other dogs on the farm, herding and livestock guardian.  I was happy to do the work, really.  Glad to finally have a purpose, something I could help with.  It went okay, I guess.  I’m good at it.  Things were… better.”

“What happened?”

“I…”  Whitaker looked as though he was considering making up a lie, but just sighed, apparently resigned to admitting everything all in one fell swoop.  “When I was fourteen, dad caught me kissing another boy.”

“Aaaand if they’re superstitious about hybrids, let me guess, your family was hellfire and brimstone about homosexuality?”

“Yeah,” Whitaker admitted shakily.  “I shifted when he beat me, and when mom was cleaning me up after, she gave me a shot, and-”  He stopped, and tears welled in his eyes.  Robby wondered how the story could get any worse.  “Um, it knocked me out.  When I woke up, I - they had-”  His face was bright red, and his hands shook.

“Whitaker, it’s okay.  Take your time.”

The kid nodded, took a trembling breath, and then said, “th-they’d n-n-neutered me.  So that I didn’t ever p-pass on my g-g-genetic defects.”

Robby’s swift intake of breath barely registered over the way Whitaker’s own chest was heaving.  Saints alive, Robby thought he was going to be sick.  They’d mutilated their son because - what?  They were speciesist and homophobic?  They’d - fuck, at only fourteen, the kid hadn’t been done growing by a long shot.  They’d stunted his growth, interrupted his puberty, messed up his hormones…  It was a miracle the kid was functional.

“I’m so sorry,” Robby managed to rasp, unable to even think of what words could possibly be enough.

Whitaker turned away, swallowing hard.  “I, uh, I didn’t change back for two and a half years.”

What.  The.  Fuck.

“Whitaker…”

“Dennis.”  The kid pressed his lips together in a thin, hard line.  “I barely tolerate my last name.  I wish I’d had the money to get it changed.”

“Okay.  Dennis.”

“I didn’t even try to fight it, for a while.  I didn’t ever want to change back.  They wanted a dog, not a son, so that’s what I tried to be.  All the way through.  It worked, for a bit.  But there were some things - um, things that were… biological, that happened from time to time, that there was trouble with-”

“Mating?”

The crimson flush returned to Whita- Dennis’s face.  Human stigmas around sex and breeding clearly still intact, despite the fact that he was a hybrid.  Robby could understand that, considering his upbringing.

“When I finally changed back, I ran away.  I fought the change any way I could.  If I turned into a dog again, I had no way of knowing when I’d be able to turn back, and I’d be at the mercy of whoever found me.  I didn’t want to think about what could happen to me at a fucking animal shelter.”

“How did you end up in med school?”

“I got my GED, scraped together the money to take my SATs, and got in on a scholarship.  Studied Theology, for a while, trying to understand why god could - allow the things to happen that he allowed.”  Dennis ran a hand through his hair and gave a little laugh.  “Obviously, I didn’t find any answers.  I switched to pre-med, hoping that science could give me answers.”

“And did it?”

Dennis shrugged.  “Sort of.  I understand my body more, how I came to be the way I am.  But knowing all the science behind it almost made it worse, in some ways.  My parents never looked any of this up. The information was there, if they’d wanted to.  Even before the internet, there were encyclopedias at the library.  They could have made some attempt to get past their pre-conceived notions, and they chose not to.  They just… didn’t want to.”

“I’m sorry, Dennis.  The way they treated you was reprehensible.  You didn’t deserve that.  No child deserves that.”

“Yeah,” Dennis said, unconvincingly.  “I know.”

“Look, humans… they’re not great.  Especially with things they don’t understand.  Hybrids, on the whole, are different.  We look out for each other.  Maybe because most of the animal species that hybrids shift to tend to be pack oriented animals.  Fluke of evolution or survival of the fittest, whatever you wanna believe, it’s the case.  I was surprised, when you first came to the Pitt, that you didn’t seem to notice any of the other hybrids.  There’s a sort of… language? Or more of an unspoken vibe I guess.  We tend to recognize each other.  And you never seemed to.  Obviously, I understand why now.”

“You mean there are other hybrids in the hospital?”  Dennis blinked wide, disbelieving eyes at Robby.

Robby chuckled.  “Yeah, kid, there’re more than a few.  Dana, for starters.  And your friend Santos.  Abbott.  McKay.  Perlah.  A few of the environmental services staff.  Some night shift folks.”

“No way!”

“Yes way,” Robby said with a laugh, enjoying the shock and delight on the kid’s face.  “It’s pretty common.  And the thing is, as much as the Pitt is a team, working together as a single unit, the hybrids are even moreso.  We’ve got our own sort of pack.  We look out for each other.  If your friend Santos had found you on the eighth floor, I guarantee you she’d have offered you a place to stay, too.”

Dennis looked doubtful, but Robby was one hundred percent certain.  Even if she’d been human, Robby thought Trinity Santos might be the kind of person that invited a homeless co-worker to sleep on her couch.  But as a hyena, she was fiercely, viciously protective.  No way would she have been able to let the kid stay out alone.

“The point is, I don’t want you feeling like I’m doing this out of pity, or for some sadistic quid pro quo.  Stay here as long as you need.  You’re one of mine, and I’m not gonna be okay with you just going back onto the street, okay?”

“You mean… stay here?  With you?”

Robby nodded.  “If you’re not comfortable with that, I can talk to Abbott, or Santos, and they’d take you in-”

“No, that’s not it, I just…”  Dennis shook his head in wonder.  “Really?  Just like that?”

“Yeah, kid,” Robby said softly.  “Just like that.”

Dennis was silent for several long moments, considering.  “You’re - you’re a wolf?”

“Timber wolf,” Robby confirmed.

“There won’t be any… problems, with me being here, if you shift?  You being a wolf, and me being a dog?”

“Like you said, we’re still us when we’re shifted.  Heightened instincts, yeah, but still ourselves underneath.  Wolves aren’t vicious, even in the wild.  They don’t kill indiscriminately.  Maybe if I was starving, we’d have some concerns, but even then, I doubt it.”

It looked like there was something else on the kid’s mind, but he didn’t voice any other concerns.  “I - I’ll find a way to pay you back someday,” he said quietly after a long silence.

Robby scoffed.  “Become a good doctor, pup.  That’ll be thanks enough.”

Dennis didn’t seem to know what to make of that, so he said nothing.

***

The rest of the year seemed to pass in a blink to Robby.

It had been a long time since he’d lived with anyone, since he’d had anyone in his life that constituted family pack, rather than the larger, less intimate work pack he had with the other hybrids in the Pitt and even the humans by extension.

Having Dennis live with him was… ridiculously nice.

His job had been a large part of why Robby’s past relationships had tanked.  His emotional walls due to death and trauma were another.  But Dennis - Dennis understood those things.  He’d finished his ED rotation, moved onto Ortho, and had to focus on graduating.  He was just as busy as Robby was.  The nights where Robby came home exhausted and unable to maintain any sort of conversation or cook dinner were matched by the nights that Dennis was swamped with homework, or studying for exams, or sorting through the rest of the details of his transition from MS4 to PGY-1.

And Dennis understood the weight of loss that Robby felt.  He’d experienced it, too.

If all it took was his partner being a medical professional, then Robby’s short-lived fling with Collins should have worked out.  But that had been a disaster almost from the first.  Collins was a sloth-bear hybrid, fairly rare.  Sloth bears were not pack animals.  She’d submitted to the pack nature of the Pitt, and to Robby’s authority there, by enforcing her human will on her instincts.  But her nature was to be solitary, and focused on cubs, rather than a mate.

Robby had respected, admired, even been attracted to, her independence.  He’d thought that it would make things easier, that she would need less from him.  But it quickly became clear that the things he needed from a relationship, she wasn’t able to give.  They’d butted heads so strongly that they nearly destroyed their friendship before deciding that it wasn’t going to work out between them romantically.  Heather had been the one to make the decision, actually.  Robby would have clung on stubbornly until he’d wrecked them down to the bones.

As much as it should have made sense, as much as his rational mind wanted the strong, independent, self-sufficient mate that someone like Heather represented… Robby needed something else entirely on an instinctual level.

Robby needed a submissive partner that would be reliant on him.

Logically, he knew it was ridiculous.  He knew he should be able to overcome that drive.  And yet, failed relationship after failed relationship had proved that he simply couldn’t.

He’d tried humans, off and on over the years.  There had been women that were naturally submissive, willing to orient their lives around him - but the gap between human and hybrid had always been too great to overcome.  Plenty of hybrids were with humans and were perfectly happy with the relationships.  But for Robby, it just wasn’t feasible.  Which meant that his pool of partners was significantly smaller.  Over the years since he’d become ED chief, he’d mostly given up on finding anyone that would suit him.

And then - Dennis.

Dennis, who was a doctor - after graduating with honors and an impressive GPA - who was a hybrid, who was so sweetly reliant on Robby for almost everything, and yet the dependence never felt oppressive.  Robby enjoyed taking care of Dennis.  And to compound matters, he was deliciously submissive to Robby.

As the CAP of the dayshift, Robby was almost always in a position of authority.  That didn’t mean that the residents and other attendings didn’t push back against him, and that he wasn’t able to accept their opinions and alter his own when it was necessary.  Robby wasn’t so absolute in his need to be alpha that he was pig headed.  He liked to think that the people around him, from the doctors down to the environmental services workers, could comfortably approach him about anything and disagree with him freely.

Dennis, while able to stand up for himself and voice his opinions at work even if they were in opposition to Robby’s, was perfectly, beautifully submissive at home.

Robby wasn’t sure if it was something inherent to him - simply an aspect of his nature, if it was because they were both canines and Dennis’s dog instinctively submitted to Robby’s wolf, or if it had anything to do with the kid’s upbringing and orchiectomy.  Obviously he had lingering issues from the abuse he’d suffered, but they’d long passed the point of Dennis being afraid of Robby.  

The neutering, however, might have left him damaged.  His testosterone levels had certainly been disrupted, and that could lead to a whole slew of other problems even aside from his slight stature and somewhat feminine appearance.  He’d clearly lost confidence, developed worse anxiety, and reactivity.

It meant that he had zero interest in ever challenging Robby in their home, happy to go along with whatever Robby wanted, eager to please.

It made him one hell of a good roommate.

The problem, however, which had been building in intensity over the last year, was that Robby’s wolf had decided that Dennis was the perfect bitch for him to mate.

It had been simple enough to ignore the slight pangs of longing, at first.  He was a rational man, well in control of his instincts.  He’d been able to sublimate all the attraction he felt for the beautiful young hybrid.  As time went on, he reminded himself of all the reasons they weren’t compatible.  Robby was twice his age, his boss, his landlord - not that Dennis paid him any rent, of course - and fully aware that he was an emotional wreck.

But the wolf side of Robby didn’t give a shit about any of that.  He was the alpha, the strongest and fiercest of his pack.  He was meant to be older, and stronger.  His mate was meant to be submissive to him in all things.  It was what would let Robby provide for and protect the pup properly.  He’d made a home for them, showed clearly what a good mate he would be.  And as for emotions - the concept was laughable to the animal side of him.  He would mount and breed his bitch properly, and everything else would work itself out.

And after more than a year of ignoring his wolf’s increasingly insistent desires, it was becoming next to impossible to ignore.

Dennis had returned to the Pitt for his residency.  They spent nearly all their time together.  And Robby was more and more convinced that taking Dennis as his mate would only improve things.  What would change, after all?  They’d both be sexually satisfied, which could only be a good thing.  Dennis would be more settled, have further ties to Robby’s pack, as his partner.  He’d have a place he belonged, and the security that came with that.

The hospital administration likely wouldn’t care for the relationship, but they couldn’t expressly forbid it.  Hybrid relationships were governed separately from regular HR, and Robby knew that no hybrid administrator would see their mating as inappropriate.  Dennis wasn’t actually a pup, as young as he was compared to Robby, and they weren’t an incompatible species.

It could have been so easy.

The thing that had kept Robby back all this time, that had forced him to control himself when all he wanted was to mount and take and claim, was that he didn’t actually know if Dennis wanted him that way.

The kid still struggled with picking up hybrid cues and mannerisms.  He was mostly quiet, though over time Robby had gotten him to come out of his shell more and more.  He didn’t display any of the regular behaviors that Robby would associate with attraction or arousal, but Robby couldn’t be sure if that was because he didn’t feel that way toward Robby, or because he didn’t feel that way at all, ever.  The orchiectomy might have wrecked his sex drive, and early trauma might have skewed his interest in romantic partners.

He never rebuffed any of the subtle advances Robby made to him - but he never actively returned them, either.  Submission, yes, but enthusiastic participation, no.  Robby knew that if he wanted, all he’d have to do was order the kid to his bed and Dennis would go.  But the idea of fucking him that way, Dennis only presenting to him out of obligation, or compulsion, was repulsive to Robby.  He wanted Dennis to want him.  To crave him the way that Robby craved him.

There was no doubt that the kid admired him.  Multiple people in the department had compared it to hero-worship.  Dennis idolized Robby.  But that didn’t mean that he actively wanted him sexually, or that he would be comfortable in a romantic relationship with him.

The best that Robby could do was keep making advances, and hope that Dennis picked up on his interest.

He only hoped that his instincts didn’t become so wild that he did something he’d regret first.

***

Dennis didn’t spent much time as a dog.  Robby could understand why, considering his childhood.  He’d gotten Dennis much more comfortable with shifting, and had even gotten him to consider taking the courses he would need to become a registered shifter with the department.  Dennis’s sweet tempered, fluffy golden pup would be amazing at providing comfort and emotional stability to patients that might need it.  Robby had no doubt that he’d soar through the training in no time.

Robby himself was too intimidating in his animal form.  Perlah was their only current registered shifter, and while her otter delighted both children and adults a like, Dennis would be able to provide so much more.

At the moment, Dennis only shifted once or twice a month - just enough to keep his instincts soothed.  He’d gotten better at controlling his shift, something that most hybrids learned in their formative years.  But he still didn’t like going outside as a dog, and Robby didn’t blame him.  Robby himself only went out as a wolf occasionally.  Their shifting patterns rarely overlapped.  It was probably a good thing.  While they were both still human in their minds, their instincts were heightened in their animal forms.  As time went on, and Robby’s desire for the kid grew, he needed to be as much in control of himself as possible.

On Robby’s upcoming shift, he planned to go out to the country and run.  It had been far too long since he’d really stretched himself.  Years ago, he and Jack had purchased a large chunk of land specifically for them to be able to let loose on.  They’d long since accepted each other’s animal scents on the land - Jack’s musk sprays and Robby’s urine marking - and had no discomfort being in each other’s territory.

It was late autumn.  Usually, Robby took the truck out to the acreage, leaving Dennis to walk or bus to PTMC for his shifts.  Robby had tried to buy the kid a car, and it was one of the few things that Dennis had staunchly put his foot down on.  But his selective stubbornness had led them to their current situation.  There had been talk of an early winter storm.  Later in the year, the busses would run fine in the snow, but every Pittsburgh resident knew that the first storm of the season left public transport a mess.  And while it wasn’t that far of a walk from Robby’s place to the hospital, neither Robby nor Dennis were comfortable with the kid going quite that far on his own.

So they’d decided that Dennis would drive Robby out on Monday night, and come pick him up on Wednesday afternoon.  That way he’d have the truck if the storm hit, and Robby could still have plenty of time to stretch his legs and indulge his instincts out in the open land.

His nerves were vibrating as they drew close to the acreage.  He’d obviously pushed it too long since his last shifting.  There was a small shack on the southern edge of the property, just big enough for some emergency supplies and a bit of storage.  Robby hurriedly put his phone into the shack and double checked that all the supplies were in order.

“It’s beautiful,” Dennis breathed, looking up at the stars.

“Yeah,” Robby agreed.  Usually when he was out here, his focus was on the land.  The earth, the trees, the animals around him and the dirt under his paws.  But he could agree that the brilliant night sky, strewn with thousands of bright stars, was beautiful.

“Reminds me of home, a little,” he admitted.

Some of Robby’s impatience dimmed.  Dennis didn’t like to talk about his childhood.  Robby had gotten him to open up more, since that first day that he’d admitted the worst of things, but it always left the kid emotionally drained.  Robby didn’t like to push.  But he thought that this time, it might be a pleasant recollection, rather than a painful one.

“Wide open skies out in Nebraska, too, huh?”

“Yeah.  As a human, sometimes I’d lay out on a blanket and look up at the stars.  It was… peaceful.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Is it the same for you when you’re shifted?”

Robby shook his head.  “Not really.  I can completely get in touch with my instincts here, let my animal side loose in a way that no wolf can do in the city.  I like to run.  Really run.  Chase down rabbits, feel the thrill of it.  Play a little.”

A wistful smile crept across Dennis’s face.  “That sounds nice.”

He shouldn’t.  Robby knew he shouldn’t.  But he couldn’t help himself from saying, “do you wanna stick around a while?  Shift and get in a bit of running yourself?”

Dennis stilled.

“Don’t feel obligated,” Robby added, keeping his voice level.  “I get it if you’re worried about not shifting back in time and getting stuck out here till morning.  Just because I sometimes like sleeping out in the dirt doesn’t mean everyone does,” he tried to joke lightly.

There was a long pause, and then Dennis gave a little shrug.  “I’ve been doing better about shifting back whenever I want.  It… it could be nice, getting the chance to run a bit.  I used to play with the farm dogs, back- um, before.  It was really nice.”

“Yeah?” Robby said, a smile curling his own lips.  “Might be a bit different, roughhousing with a wolf instead of a collie.  Think you can handle it?”

That made Dennis laugh.  “I’m sure I’ll be fine.  You sure you can handle an energetic pup, old man?”

“Bring it on,” Robby challenged good-naturedly.  He stripped down with traditional hybrid lack of modesty, but still turned away politely while Dennis took off his clothes.  In spite of Robby’s best efforts, the kid still hadn’t gotten over his human qualms of nudity.  Then again, it was entirely possible that it was his mutilation, and not human sentiment, that caused it.

Despite his joking, Robby knew he would have to be careful running with the kid.  Dennis had never mentioned dominance issues amongst the other farm dogs, so he didn’t think that the kid would be afraid of him, but Robby was still more than twice his size in his animal form.  He could easily hurt the pup if he wasn’t careful.  Dennis’s slender canine body was made to run - he might even be able to out pace Robby - but in sheer brute strength they were about as comparable as a cougar to a kitten.

A shudder of anticipation went through Robby even as he was forcing himself to be calm.  It had been ages since he’d gotten the chance to run with another canine.  He’d considered inviting Santos out here, as she’d settled better into her R3 year and they’d gotten more comfortable with each other, but the hyena hybrid could be very cagey around men, and Robby hadn’t wanted to set her off with the offer.

By the time he’d shifted down and turned back around, there wasn’t a petite man standing behind him, but a slender dog.

Gorgeous, Robby thought to himself before he could stop it.  There was no denying the reality of the statement.  Dennis’s animal form was objectively beautiful.  The problem was that Robby’s hind-brain wasn’t looking objectively.  He shook his head and padded toward the pup.

Dennis stayed still, tail tucked and eyes wary, as Robby approached.  Robby yipped and leaned into a play bow.  Dennis’s tail rose slightly, and he relaxed.  Robby pawed the air, tail wagging, and play bowed again.  This time, Dennis responded with a bow of his own, and then they were tussling.  Robby was careful to check his strength, but apparently took things too far the other way because in a moment, Dennis had wriggled out from beneath him and was off like a shot across the clearing and toward the trees.

Robby howled with delight and then took chase.

Robby was bigger, stronger, and had better endurance.  But Dennis was fast and agile, turning on a dime and doubling back in a flash.  Robby enjoyed pushing himself to his limits, keeping the chase close.  Dennis’s tail remained high and wagging, occasional yips breaking the stillness of the night.  Robby occasionally snapped at the waving flag of Dennis’s long tail when he got close, always careful never to get any flesh.

Once, Dennis managed to cut back before Robby could even hope to change course, and for a moment, Dennis had been the one chasing Robby.  The pup had the audacity to nip at Robby’s heels, leaving the slight sting of teeth in his wake.  And oh, that sent Robby’s blood singing.

Dennis’s stamina had started to wear down by the time Robby overtook him.  Robby launched at him and they went head over tail across the soft grass.  Robby pinned Dennis, but Dennis scrabbled to the side, lurching upward.  Robby was quick to pin him again.  Dennis squirmed, thrashed, and at Robby’s low growl, went still.

Robby’s flanks heaved, his tongue lolled.  Dennis’s throat was bared, his belly exposed.  The scent of submission reached Robby’s nose, but something else did, too.  Robby snuffled downward, toward the pup’s belly.  Dennis jerked a little, but a short growl froze him in place again.  Robby’s hose continued its descent until it could press to the soft fur between Dennis’s back legs.

Arousal.

The tip of Dennis’s cock was already unsheathed, and the length only increased as Robby watched.  He couldn’t help himself.  He licked the turgid, crimson organ.  Dennis let out a high whine.

Robby had never considered himself ruled by his instincts.  Never.  And yet, it wasn’t the man that controlled his actions, it was the wolf.  He licked again, then pressed his nose deeper into the soft fur further back.  Without conscious effort, his hips were starting to hunch, his own cock seeking heat.  Robby’s mind felt clouded with need, hazy with desire.

The scent of arousal was heavy in his nose, but he couldn’t mount.  Not like this.  He shuddered and huffed out his impatience.  There was movement beneath him, and then suddenly there wasn’t his aroused pup submitting to him, but an interested bitch presenting perfectly.  Tail high, haunches low, back beautifully arched.

His bitch was so small that Robby barely had to give any effort to mount properly, his hips already starting to buck forward rhythmically.  Though his bitch wasn’t squirming to get away, Robby still caught his scruff between careful jaws and held tight as his body sought heat.

When he finally found it, he thrust forward hard.  The body beneath him shuddered.  Something in Robby’s brain wanted him to slow down, to go gently, to wait, but the wolf had found entrance and wanted nothing more than to breed.  He bucked forward over and over again, hard and fast, fucking the small, receptive pup as deep as his body allowed.

It was bliss.

It wasn’t until his knot started to form and his bitch began to whimper that Robby realized something was wrong.  The arousal had faded from the air and distress started to take its place.  Against his every instinct to tie them together, to ensure the breeding would take, Robby stilled.  He unclenched his jaws from the pup’s scruff and gave a lick to the side of his muzzle.  The pup licked back, but whined in distress again.

Robby’s hips jerked forward slightly, and the pup didn’t try to buck or dislodge him, but the scent of distress increased.  He wasn’t aroused at all any longer.

Robby’s own arousal faded with the knowledge, and then reality crashed back into him like a ton of bricks.  He’d mounted and fucked Dennis.  Oh god-

With a low howl of despair, Robby scrambled back.  He was panting hard, his eyes wildly searching for the clearest escape route.  But then Dennis turned and approached him, tail giving a tentative wag.  Robby leaped at him and pinned him down, causing Dennis to yelp in shock, but Robby paid him no mind as his nose shoved between the pup’s back legs.  He licked the tender opening repeatedly.  He couldn’t smell or taste blood.  Nothing seemed amiss.  Robby wanted to examine Dennis with human eyes and human hands, but for the first time in decades, he was too distressed to consciously shift back.

When he was satisfied that Dennis wasn’t hurt, Robby stepped backward and stood stiffly.  Dennis got to his paws and came hesitantly closer.  Robby lowered himself, the sting of submission not even registering in the wake of his guilt.  Dennis gave his muzzle a lick, and then settled himself close against Robby’s flank, curled up beside him.

For several long, tense moments, Robby stayed stock-still.  Then he huffed out a breath and curled around the pup.

***

In the morning, Robby was woken with an even deeper weight of guilt, but a sense of purpose that overrode it.  He needed to get Dennis back to Pittsburgh.  He didn’t expect the kid to drive himself back.  Robby would cut his shifting short and take him home.  He considered shifting back before Dennis woke, and offering to carry him to the truck, but Robby’s human feet wouldn’t be suited for this terrain.  And he knew, logically, that Dennis hadn’t been physically harmed.  They’d both be faster going back to the truck as canines.

He licked Dennis’s face gently.  It would serve him right if the pup jerked away from him and snarled at him, attacked him - Robby would let him, if that was what he wanted.  But Dennis blinked up at him and his tail thumped against the ground in a lazy wag.  God, Robby didn’t deserve him.

They rose and stretched, and Robby nudged Dennis back the direction of the truck.  Once they reached it, Robby shifted back and started getting dressed.  “If you can’t shift yet, I’ll-”

But he was cut off when Dennis managed to change with no apparent issues.  Robby’s eyes flicked down his naked body before he could help himself, and then he forced himself to turn away.  “Sorry,” he said gruffly, finishing dressing quickly.  “C’mon,” he said, when Dennis had dressed as well.  “I’ll drive us back.”

Dennis stopped.  “I thought you wanted to stay till Wednesday!”

Robby shook his head.  “Change of plans.  Do you need an extra blanket to sit on?”

Are you in pain?

“No, I’m fine.”

Robby wasn’t sure he believed him, but didn’t argue.  He got into the truck, waited until Dennis had buckled himself in, and then pulled onto the road.

The minutes seemed to stretch out endlessly as the tension in the truck bed rose.  Robby’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel.  The sense of guilt was crushing.  He couldn’t believe the way he’d acted - the things he’d done.  He’d never lost control like that before, as a man or an animal.  But what comfort would that knowledge be to Dennis?

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, voice gruff.  “I didn’t mean for that to happen.  I didn’t plan it.  I didn’t mean to take advantage of you like that, or hurt you-”

To Robby’s shock, Dennis’s hand touched his thigh gently.  It halted his speech effectively, and he couldn’t help glancing over at Dennis’s face, trying to gauge his mood.

“You didn’t hurt me, and I know you didn’t set this up as some kind of trap.”

Robby swallowed thickly.  “You were - distressed.”

“Not in the beginning.”

“I don’t expect that from you. I don’t want that from anyone who doesn’t want it-”

“Robby, I know that.  I know you, remember?  It’s… fine.  I wasn’t fighting you off or telling you no.”

“That doesn’t mean you were saying yes,” Robby argued.

“I was.”

That… was a relief, at least.  Robby didn’t like to think that he’d have forced anyone, especially Dennis, no matter how far gone he was into his animalistic side.  There had been arousal there.  But animals, like humans, didn’t always have perfect control over what aroused them.  And arousal wasn’t consent.  

His memories were hazier than he’d have liked, cloudy with the film of instinct and want that had wrapped around his rational mind, but he recalled that Dennis had turned over and presented for him, tail up.  It could have been a submissive reaction, but combined with the arousal, it was a strong indicator otherwise.  It didn’t make what Robby had done right, not by any means, but it did help ease the stabbing guilt in his gut.

“I hurt you, at the end?” Robby asked, voice small.  If what Dennis was saying was true, that he was an active, consenting participant, then it was the only reason he could think of that Dennis had whimpered like that.

“No.”

“Dennis-”

“Not… not like you’re thinking, I promise.”

Shit, Robby was a moron.  Dennis was a male.  He wouldn’t get any sort of satisfaction from being mounted the same way a female canine would.  It wasn’t like he had a prostate as a dog.  And Robby had been about to knot him.  As familiar as Robby was with his body’s processes when he was mating as a human, he was less familiar in his animal form.  It wasn’t something that had come up often, and never with a male.  Jesus, Robby didn’t even know if Dennis could have taken his knot without significant internal damage.  He could have killed the kid with his carelessness.

“I shouldn’t have-”

“No, listen,” Dennis interrupted, his voice small and tormented.  “There’s - I mean, I need to explain something.  I - I should have told you, when I told you about everything else, but I was, am, ashamed, and I didn’t want to tell you the truth, but now that you- you wanted me, that way, you deserve to know just how - how deviant-”

“Kid, take a breath.  Whatever it is, it’ll be okay.  There’s nothing you can tell me that’ll upset me, okay?  Especially if this is something from your childhood.”

Dennis shook his head, clearly disbelieving.  He took a slow, quivering breath.  “So, after my parents had me neu- after they did what they did to me - I couldn’t change back.  Not for a long time.  I was just barely into puberty, and I’m sure what they did messed things up, but I didn’t understand what or how at the time.  I recovered fine, physically at least.  And I was living with the farm dogs.  They mainly slept in the barn, or out with the cattle, depending on whether they were livestock guardian dogs, or herding dogs.

“Th-the thing is, most farm dogs aren’t, um, neutered.  It tends to make them less aggressive, which you don’t want if they’re protecting a herd.  The packs had their own hierarchy, and no fighting because everyone knew their place.  I was at the bottom of both packs, always.

“In the beginning, when there was some - some dominance displays, it was just that.  Just a few moments to get the point across, and then the dominant dog would move on.”

Robby could guess where this was going, and his heart squeezed in his chest.

“One time… it wasn’t just a display.  I don’t think it was on purpose.  It just - happened.  And the dog didn’t stop, because he didn’t understand why it was wrong.  I tried to shake him off, I swear to god I did, but he had his teeth in my throat and I couldn’t bring myself to make him kill me.  So I submitted.  I l-let it happen.  Afterward, it happened again.  Not often, but eventually, it stopped being an accident from dominance displays and became purposeful.

“I-” Dennis’s eyes squeezed shut, and Robby saw tears tracking down his cheeks.  “I started to like it, I guess.”  His voice was barely more than a whisper.  “I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop them anyway, and my body was so wound up all the time, so when I started getting r-release from it I just - stopped caring.  My mind was so fucked up by then, I thought I was just a dog sometimes.  My brain didn’t always function on a human level any more.  I was just taking what comfort I could, letting it happen, ignoring how depraved it was-”  He stopped, and shook his head.  “One day, my dad caught me being mounted.  He - he shot the dog in the head.  I don’t know if he was aiming for him or me.  We were tied together.  He was dead, and there was blood everywhere, and I couldn’t run because of the knot, and my dad came up and pointed the muzzle of his rifle at my forehead and cocked the gun.

“I don’t know why he didn’t shoot.  But he walked away.  I eventually got free.  I hid.  Not long after that, I managed to turn human again.  And I ran.”

He dared a glance up at Robby before quickly looking back down at his thighs.  “You didn’t hurt me.  I liked it.  I just… I had a flashback to that day.”

“Oh, Dennis… I’m so sorry.  I’m sorry that happened to you.  I’m sorry your family was so awful to you.  I’m sorry for so many things.  And I’m sorry that what I did brought you even a moment of fear or emotional pain.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, what I did, what I am.  So that you knew not to touch me.  I’m s-sorry.”

“Sweetheart, no, don’t say that.  Fuck, I’d have to be a monster to blame you for what you went through.  It wasn’t your fault.”

“I l-liked it.  Last night, before I had the flashback, I wanted it, so badly.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Bestiality is a sin.”

“Sex between two hybrids, even in their animal forms, isn’t bestiality.  And what happened to you as a child was not your fault, even if you got pleasure from it eventually.  You didn’t do anything wrong, sweetheart.  Your parents should have protected you, and they didn’t.  They put you in that situation and left you there to survive as best you could.  You know what happens to hybrids that stay in their animal forms too long, or are too traumatized to function properly as humans?”

“They go feral.”

“And feral hybrids aren’t responsible for their actions any more than a human going through a mental health crisis would be.  You were mostly feral, Dennis.  It’s a miracle that you didn’t fully lose yourself.  And after what you’d gone through, and how confused your body was, I’m not surprised that the situation turned out the way it did.”

“I’m still tainted.”

“No,” Robby insisted in a growl, “you’re not.”

Dennis said nothing.

Several miles passed in silence, as Robby tried to think of what else he could say - how he could convince Dennis that he wasn’t tainted, that he wasn’t at fault for what had happened.  Christ, the kid needed a hybrid counsellor.  A team of them.

“Do you - um, is what happened, last night, just - was it just an instinctive thing?  Because we were tussling, and we’re a compatible species?”

“No,” Robby said firmly.  “I’ve never lost control like that, with anyone.  And the loss of control might have been driven by my instincts, but the desire had been there for a long time before that.”

“R-really?  For me, as a man?”

“Yes,” Robby admitted quietly.  “I tried to ignore it for a long while.  I didn’t think my attraction to you was appropriate, considering my age and position as your boss, but those are human concerns that my wolf doesn’t care about.  It got harder and harder to ignore, but you never showed any sign that you were interested, so I didn’t act on it.  I swear, Dennis, I can control myself.  If you stay with me, I won’t touch you again without your consent.  But I understand if you’re not comfortable living with me any more, and we can-”

“I don’t want to leave,” Dennis said quickly, voice high with panic.

“Okay,” Robby assured him lowly.  “You don’t have to, and I don’t want you to.  I just don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, or pressured, or anything like that.”

“I… I do like you.  Like that.” Dennis clarified.  “But I’m so - so broken, so filthy.  I don’t even know how to show sexual interest as a human.  I’m sorry I’m so messed up-”

“Don’t.  Don’t apologize, Dennis.  This is just - it’s a lot, and I understand why you’re feeling lost.  We don’t need to rush into anything.  If you’re really sure you’re interested, I want more, but I don’t want to push and have it hurt you.”

“You won’t-”

“Even emotionally,” he added meaningfully.  “I want to do this right, Dennis.  Do you understand?”

Dennis nodded slowly.  “I don’t know what right looks like, but I understand.”

“For one thing,” Robby said, aiming for a little levity, “I think it means us sleeping together as humans before we try again while we’re shifted.”

There was a heavy pause, and then Dennis said quietly, “I, uh, haven’t done that before.”

Robby shot a glance over to him.  “Ever?”

Dennis shook his head.  “I’m - I’m messed up, down there.  How was I ever supposed to explain that to anyone?”

Slowly, Robby reached across and took Dennis’s hand.  “Like you just did.  I understand.   It’s going to be okay, sweetheart.  If you’re sure you want it, want me, then I’ll show you how we’ll fit together.”

Dennis squeezed Robby’s hand back and nodded.

***

Robby wasn’t sure this was a good idea.  He was increasingly convinced that Dennis should see a therapist before they continued a sexual relationship, but the way Dennis had looked at him when he suggested it, hurt and bereft, had made him relent.

Now, back home with Dennis naked and trembling on the bed, Robby was rethinking that capitulation.

They hadn’t even kissed yet.

Shit, Robby was wrecking this before they even really started.  He shrugged out of his clothes impatiently and got onto the bed beside Dennis, careful not to touch him except Robby’s hands on the kid’s face.  “Hey,” he said softly, running his nose along Dennis’s cheek.  “Hey sweetheart.  Just relax for me, hm?”  He pressed a feather light kiss to the corner of Dennis’s mouth.   “Let me take care of you.”  Dennis made a low whimpering sound and nodded quickly.  He looked away from Robby, but Robby brought his face back with gentle fingers and kissed him properly.

It was slow and sweet, Robby’s lips a firm, careful pressure against Dennis’s, ever so gently coaxing them to part and allow him inside.  Robby flicked his tongue against the furl of Dennis’s lower lip and when Dennis moaned, Robby’s own in reply was impossible to stop.  He pressed his body against Dennis finally, delighting in the way the kid arched to the touch.

Dennis was so responsive - so responsive.  Robby had barely gotten his hands on him, and already Dennis was a trembling mess.  A quick glance downward told Robby that the kid was hard as a rock and leaking steadily against his belly.  Robby kissed him again and let his hand wander down.  He stopped to pluck lightly at the tiny, pebbled nipples earning him a gasp of pleasure, and then continued on, stroking Dennis’s inner thighs.  He nudged against his perineum with a knuckle - and froze.

Where there should have been a sac, Robby only found a puckered scar.  He was revolted at what those barbarians had done to a terrified, helpless child.  But he knew that if he voiced that now, Dennis would take it personally.  Instead of letting his touch linger there, Robby gave it the same amount of attention as every other place he touched and then moved on without a single comment.  He wrapped his fingers around Dennis’s erection and stroked softly.

In moments, Robby’s hand was soaked with pre-come.  “So sweet for me, darling,” Robby murmured against Dennis’s lips, his own arousal simmering.  “Let me taste you?”

Dennis looked more confused than anything, but nodded hesitantly.  Robby kissed down his throat, suckled at his nipples just to see him squirm, then took the head of his cock between his lips and laved against the sensitive skin.

Dennis wailed.

Robby barely had any time to react, and then the tang of come spurted across his tongue and Dennis was trembling and jerking through an orgasm.

So.  Fucking. Sensitive.

Robby blinked up at Dennis with shock.  “That was-”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, Robby, I didn’t mean to-”

“Hey, calm down, sweetheart.  It’s alright.  No harm done.  I love how reactive you are to me.  Do you think we can keep going, or should we be done for the night?”

“K-keep going,” Deenis pleaded.

“Alright.  Just let me love on you, hm?”  He pressed a messy, wet kiss to the head of Dennis’s softening cock and then blazed a trail further south, until he was lapping at the furled ring of muscle there.  Dennis squirmed and panted.

“Robby!”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Y-your mouth - there-”

“Feel good?” Robby asked smugly.

Dennis could only nod, words deserting him.  Satisfied, Robby dove back in.  He licked and sucked and thrust his tongue inside.  Dennis had showered when they’d gotten home, and Robby wished suddenly that he wouldn’t have.  That he could smell the raw, clean sweat of his skin, could taste the salt of him.  

The lube Robby had taken from the nightstand was easy to uncap and coat his fingers in.  He slid one inside the unresisting opening and switched to sucking on Dennis’s small, half hard cock again.  It was delicious to watch him squirm and shiver, pleasure ratcheting through him.  Robby curled his finger to stroke his prostate, careful not to overstimulate him.  Dennis squealed and moaned, head thrashing against the pillow.

“Please,” he begged.

“Please what, sweetheart?” Robby barely lifted his lips enough to speak clearly.

“Please - in me, please, Robby!”

Gods, there wasn’t a sweeter invitation than that.  Robby kissed back up Dennis’s body, adding a second finger inside him and starting to carefully scissor them apart, stretching the taut muscle.

“Want my cock?” he whispered, teasing and rewarding in equal measure.  “Want me to fuck you, honey?”

Dennis nodded eagerly, eyes wet with emotion and pleasure.  “Please,” he begged.

“Should I turn you over, mount you, breed you, or should I keep you on your back just like this so that I can see your pretty face while I fill you up?”

Robby stilled his hand for a moment, being merciful by giving the kid a chance to think properly.  “L-like this.  Just like this.”

“Just like this,” Robby repeated, pulling his fingers out, slicking up his cock, and starting to sink into Dennis’s body.  “Fuck, feel so good pup.”  He did.  It was hot and slick and so so perfect.  The pressure on his cock was nearly overwhelming, vice tight.  “Dennis - fuck, you’re so good for me.”

He pulled out and thrust back in, a long, slow glide.  Dennis arched mindlessly to the impact, taking all of him in easily, like he was fucking made for it.  Robby continued to drive into him, hard and deep.  It was overwhelming.  And as though he wasn’t struggling enough containing his own rising orgasm, suddenly Dennis’s body started to tense and coil.  “Yeah, pup?  Gonna come for me?  Come while I’m fucking you?  Filling you up?  Should I knot you, make sure it takes?”

Dennis’s back arched and he screamed as the sudden orgasm overwhelmed him.  Robby wanted to hold out longer, but the way Dennis squeezed around him, the sweet sound of his pleasure, the sight of him, head thrown back in bliss - Robby was gone.

He buried himself deep and came, filling the kid up to the brim.

Slowly, as he got his breath back, Robby kissed along Dennis’s jaw and throat.  Light, coaxing kisses designed to bring him back down from his pleasure as sweetly as possible.  Dennis flushed, clearly unused to the affection.  Robby cursed every day that he hadn’t been kissing the kid, every day that Dennis had been under his roof but not in his bed.  The kid deserved the world.  He clearly needed so much love.  Love that Robby would give him.

“That was amazing,” Dennis said quietly, some minutes later.

Robby couldn’t help the pride that filled his chest.  He smirked, just a little.  “You were so perfect.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Dennis protested.

“You were perfect,” Robby insisted firmly.  “God, you’re so sweet, pup.”

Dennis blushed again, seeming to turn bashful under the praise.  But Robby’s words bolstered him, apparently, because even though he had his lower lip caught between his teeth and he looked uncertain, he managed to say, “was that, um, just dirty talk, at the end?”

“What, about making sure it takes?”

Dennis scoffed.  “Not that.  This isn’t science fiction.  I don’t have a uterus.  I meant the- the-”

Oh.

“Knotting you?”  He wanted it to be a flirty tease, but Robby couldn’t be sure that this wouldn’t trigger some very unpleasant memories for Dennis, outside of sex.  Instead, he kept his voice low and gentle.

“Y-yeah.”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“If it’s something you’d ever actually want.  It can stay just dirty talk, if you like that.  Not everything we find sexy to fantasize about has to be something actually accomplished in real life.  And that would be fine.  I’d say we don’t even have to talk about it again if you didn’t like that, but I’m guessing from your reaction at the time that you did like it.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Dennis whispered, hiding his face against Robby’s chest.

“Hey now, none of that,” Robby admonished gently.  “This isn’t anything to be ashamed of.  We’re hybrids, Dennis.  We’re human, yeah, but we’re also animals, and there’s no shame in wanting the things our animal sides crave.”

“But… even all the stuff in my past aside - I shouldn’t crave that.  I know I shouldn’t.  I’m male.  It shouldn’t be something I want.  But-”

“That’s not the way this works, sweetheart.  Our human brains don’t vanish when we shift.  You know that.  You’re only attracted to men, yeah?”

Slowly, as though expecting punishment from the admission, Dennis nodded.

“Then it makes perfect sense that you want a knot.  Your sexuality doesn’t vanish when you shift.  There’s nothing wrong with you, Dennis.  You’ve been hurt and abused and traumatized, but you’re not broken.”

Dennis looked as though he wanted to believe it, but couldn’t quite manage to.

***

Nothing much changed between them, once Dennis and Robby became a couple.  They’d already been living together, working together, and were fairly co-dependent even before adding romance into their relationship.  

Dennis was shy about the few things that did change, seeming to worry about pushing things too far.  He reached for Robby’s hand one afternoon in the grocery store, then pulled back at the last moment and blushed.  When Robby noticed, he gave Dennis a soft smile and twined their fingers together.

Robby had always held doors and pulled out chairs for Dennis, but now it was often accompanied by a quick kiss or a hand on his lower back.

The main difference was the addition of sex to their lives.

It took almost a month for Dennis to bring up the subject of knotting again.  Robby had no complaints about the sex they’d been having, so he hadn’t pushed, even though he’d been able to tell it was on the kid’s mind.  Whether they were making slow, sweet love or fucking hard and fast, there was always just a little something missing.  Dennis never complained.  He was thrilled with what they’d done so far - he’d sobbed from pleasure every time Robby went down on him, and was enthusiastic about learning how to return the favor.  He was always eager for Robby to mount him, and had even topped Robby once.  Sometimes after a long, exhausting day, Robby would wrap both their cocks in his big hand and stroke them together until they came and passed out in bed.

But none of it could quite scratch that itch that lingered under Dennis’s skin.  Robby saw it, and forced himself to wait.  He didn’t want to push the issue.  He wanted Dennis to bring it up himself.  To really be one hundred percent certain about what he was asking for.

“So, a while back… you, um, you mentioned - knotting.”

Bingo, Robby thought.  “I did,” he said calmly aloud.  He tucked a stray curl behind Dennis’s ear.

“Is that… something you’d be interested in?  Doing?  To me?”

Robby bit back his chuckle.  “I’m interested in doing everything with you, sweetheart.”

Flustered, Dennis kept his eyes fixed on Robby’s collar bones.  “H-how would that look, exactly?  Between us?”

“Any way you wanted it to, really.  There are lots of options.”

“With us both shifted?”

“If you’d like that.”

“With - just you shifted?”

It took all of Robby’s composure not to inhale sharply.  “I haven’t done that before with anyone, but we could explore that, if you wanted.”

Dennis shook his head.  “I - I don’t think so.  It’s one thing when I’m like that too, but I think… I think I’d miss your arms around me, your body against mine…”

“That’s not the only option if you’d like to experience a knot as a human.”

“It’s not?”

“You know how some hybrids, who have excellent control over their shifting, can do partial shifts?  Ears, tails, horns, stuff like that?”

Dennis’s eyes grew wide.  “You mean you could - with your-”

Robby chuckled.  “One perk of being with someone older and more experienced, I guess you could say.  Partial shifts are no problem for me.  Not even hyper specific ones.  I’ve done olfactory nerves sometimes, and even my heart during sustained, high stress activities.  So if you wanted the whole package, or just the knot, we could make that work.”

“Just the knot,” Dennis blurted out, eyes still huge and luminous.  “Everything else the same.  The exact same.  But the knot-”

“We can do that, love.  You just let me know when.”

And Robby should really have been expecting it when Dennis eagerly said, “now?”

He laughed and kissed him.  “Sure.  C’mere.”  He pulled Dennis close and kissed him, deep and slow.

Dennis’s quick trigger had died down a bit, so Robby figured he was okay to start with his hands on Dennis and work his way up.  It was no trouble to bring him to full hardness, or even to work his way up to three fingers in Dennis’s slick, pliant body.  Dennis seemed naturally inclined toward being opened up, and their regular bedroom activities had conditioned his body to respond to Robby’s gentle, questing fingers with ease.

When Dennis whined and begged for more, Robby kissed him to shush him and added more lube.  His knot would expand slowly, giving Dennis plenty of time to adjust to the stretch before it locked, but he still wanted to make sure his pup was more than ready.  Robby’s knot was bigger than the biggest plug they had - though admittedly their collection of sex toys was rather small - and Robby wasn’t taking any chances.

Finally, when Dennis was squirming and leaking against his belly and begging so prettily, Robby pulled his hands away.  “Present,” he ordered.  Dennis scrambled to obey, flipping to his front, shoulders to the mattress and knees under his hips, thighs spread.  Robby took a moment to enjoy the sight of him.

It was still a jolt, sometimes, to look at him from this position and be faced with a scar rather than testicles drawn taut with arousal.  But Dennis was still beautiful.  And splayed open like this, presenting himself for Robby’s use… fuck, it was perfect.

Robby knelt up behind him and rubbed the head of his cock against the slick trail he’d left.  Dennis whined softly, bucking backwards, a plea for more.  Robby ran his hands down Dennis’s flank in a gesture reminiscent to soothing a spooked horse.  “Shh, I’ve got you honey.  I’ll give you what you need.  Stay just like that for me, baby.”

When Dennis obeyed, Robby began to push forward slowly.  Thanks to his generous prep work, the muscle yielded easily, and Robby slipped inside in a smooth glide.  He worked himself deeper incrementally, each thrust going just a little further until he was hilted in the pliant body beneath him.  In this position, his cock was angled away from Dennis’s prostate, rather than toward it, so Robby paid plenty of attention to his pup’s other erogenous zones.  Plucking his nipples, gripping the back of his neck, petting his inner thighs, and gently stroking his cock.

As much as Robby wanted to draw this out, the anticipation of what they had planned was already pushing them both toward release.  Robby had done the partial shift while stretching Dennis open, not wanting to have to focus on the delicate mechanics of such a specific shift while already fucking the kid.  As his climax built, the looser skin at the base of his cock started to engorge.  Each thrust widened the path he was carving into Dennis’s body, stretching him just a little more.

“So close,” Robby whispered huskily as the knot continued to fill.  “Gonna get you nice and full, sweetheart.  Stretch you open on my knot and keep you there.  Such a good boy for me, pup.  Taking me so well.”

Dennis keened and his thighs trembled.  “Please, please, please,” he begged incoherently.

“Please what, baby?”

“Please - fuck me, use me, knot me, breed me, take me, please please please-”

“Fuck!”  Robby thrust fast and hard, orgasm building fast as Dennis dropped filthy pleas from his perfect lips.  “Fuck, yeah, feel that?  My knot opening you up.  Just about to lock you to me, pup.  Pump you full of my come and keep it there.  Fuck, fuck, Dennis-”

It only took two more thrusts, and the knot had filled out so much that it couldn’t withdraw.  Robby could only grind forward as his orgasm hit, spilling pulse after pulse into Dennis’s body.

Before Robby could reach around and stroke Dennis’s cock again, Dennis moaned low and came, spurting down onto the sheets.

Theoretically, if he really needed to, Robby could shift back and untie their bodies.  But he didn’t particularly want to, and he didn’t think that Dennis wanted that, either.  Instead, he carefully settled them onto their sides, Robby’s knees tucked against the backs of Dennis’s, Dennis’s back against Robby’s chest.  He stroked Dennis’s skin everywhere he could reach and pressed kisses to his neck and shoulder.

“Doing okay?” he asked after a few minutes of post-coital silence.

“Mmhm,” Dennis hummed.

Robby chuckled.  “You sure about that, sweetheart?  I didn’t fuck your brains loose, did I?”

“Well we can’t actually rule that out,” Dennis replied.  “God, that was incredible.  I feel-”  He clenched around Robby’s cock again, the knot getting milked by his muscles.  Robby groaned at the sensation.  “So full.  So good.”  He yawned loudly. “Exhausted,” he added.  

“Rest, if you like.  This’ll last another half an hour at least.  I’ll clean you up afterward.”

Perfectly content to trust Robby with the task, Dennis snuggled deeper into his arms and closed his eyes.

***

The first time it happened after Dennis’s certification, he nearly froze.

It was a woman who had been attacked during a burglary gone wrong.  She was trembling violently, clearly still terrified.  She nearly screamed when Robby came near her.  Robby had McKay take over as lead and called Dennis in.

“I think we could really use you on this one, pup.  You ready?”

And despite all his training, despite how far he’d come in the years since he’d started at PTMC, too terrified to shift lest he be stuck like that, Dennis still hesitated.

But then Robby’s hand settled on Dennis’s shoulder, warm and firm and grounding, and Dennis nodded.  He’d shifted in the on call room and then gone quickly back to South 15, where the woman was in near hysterics.

As soon as Dennis laid his head on her leg, her breath caught, and then settled into something calmer.  She focused on petting him while telling McKay and Robby what had happened.  As McKay did her exam, Dennis was curled up on the bed beside her, letting her press her face into his fur.  He stayed shifted until she was taken up to the social offices, where the police were waiting to take her statement.

Dennis shifted back with no trouble.  Robby was waiting for him outside the on call room.  As soon as Dennis stepped out, he pulled him into a tight hug.  They didn’t usually display quite so much public affection at work, but Dennis didn’t complain.  He pressed his face against Robby’s neck and hugged back.  “You were amazing with her,” Robby said when they finally broke apart.

“I didn’t really do much.”

“Yeah, Dennis, you did.”

Dennis blushed, but smiled.

The second time, Dennis didn’t even make it to the on call room.  The little boy was in shock, icy cold and glassy eyed.  His leg was just… gone.  Langdon and King were handling the medical side of things.  But Dennis knew that the little boy needed him.  He shifted as soon as he stepped into the room and pushed into the boy’s side firmly.  It took a minute, but the boy’s arms slowly rose and wrapped around Dennis, clinging to him painfully tight.  Dennis pressed closer and didn’t complain.

He stayed against the boy until they’d fully sedated him and he was headed up to surgery.

Robby’s eyes locked on his across the room as he worked a trauma, and Dennis smiled brilliantly.

The third time a shift was needed, Dennis couldn’t perform it.  He was the little girl’s primary, and he was getting started on two dozen sutures when she dropped the bombshell that made Dennis wince.

“Well, I wanted to be a astronaut when I grow up, but I can’t, cuz I’m a hybrid, and daddy says hybrids are too stupid to do stuff like that.”

It had been a long time since Dennis had heard something like that.  He knew that ignorance, and bigotry weren’t exclusive to Nebraska, but he just hadn’t seen it much in the city.  Clearly, it did exist here, too.

“Well,” he said after clearing his throat and gathering his wits, “I think you’d make a great astronaut, and I know you can be one.”

“But I’m a hybrid,” the girl said, as though that explained everything.

“So am I,” Dennis said back.

She blinked at him in shock.  “But - you’re a doctor!”

“Yep.”

“You’re-” She stopped, then shook her head.  “You’re just fibbin’ to make me feel better.  Hybrids can’t be doctors.  We’re too dumb.”

“I never fib,” Dennis swore solemnly.  “I’m a collie mix.  And there are other doctors here that are hybrids, too.  Hybrids can do anything humans can - and more.”

The girl studied him for a moment.  “Prove it,” she finally said.  There was such desperate hope in her eyes that Dennis almost abandoned her sutures to shift, but her arm really needed tending to.

“Well I can’t shift right now, because I need to sew up your arm, but my husband is a hybrid too, and he can show you a neat trick.”  Dennis turned to Jessie.  “Would you grab Robby,” he asked.  Jessie nodded and a moment later, Robby stepped in.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Robinavitch, but everyone calls me Dr. Robby.”  He gave his usual introduction to the patient and then looked to Dennis, assuming that he’d be told why he was called in.

“That’s your husband?”

It was unclear whether she was shocked because of the significant size difference between them, the age gap, or something else.

“It is,” Dennis replied with a smile.

Robby blinked, flabbergasted.  “Uh, doctor, what seems to be-”

“I’m just doing some suturing on Sara here’s arm, and she’s been telling me all about school, and what she wants to be growing up.  See, she wanted to be an astronaut, but she thinks she can’t, because her dad told her that hybrids like her are too stupid to have such a smart job.”

Robby’s eyes swung to the girl, and then back to Dennis.  “I see.  And I’m sure that you informed her that hybrids can be anything they want to be.  Astronauts or even doctors.”

“I did, but she’s having a hard time believing me.  And since I’m busy doing her sutures, I thought you could show her a special trick, just to prove that I’m not fibbing.”

Robby’s lips pressed together and he nearly rolled his eyes.  “Dr. Robinavitch-”

“Just the ears and tail,” Dennis cut in.  “Would that be enough?”

Sarah’s eyes went wide.  “He can do just bits at a time?”

Dennis nodded.  “He’s very good at partial shifts.  And someday you will be too.”

“Can I see, Dr. Robby?  Please?”

Clearly outnumbered, Robby gave in.  It was more energy than effort to make his wolf’s ears and tail appear.  The girl gasped and nearly screeched with excitement.  “You wasn’t fibbing!  He’s really a hybrid!  So you are too!  And you’re doctors!  I wanna be a doctor now too!”

“Well then you have to study very hard, get good grades, and you’ll be a great doctor someday,” Robby assured her.  “A clever little girl like you can definitely do it.”

“And since you’re a hybrid, you can even get certified to be a support shifter, like Dr. Robby and I are, which can be very useful as a doctor.”

Sarah frowned a little.  “I’m a boring old cat, though.  I don’t think that would be much help as a doctor.”

“Oh I disagree,” Robby said, sitting down beside her.  “Just think of how comforting it would be for you if you were in a big scary hospital and a kitten came and sat on your lap while you were there and purred and let you pet it.”

Sarah’s eyes lit up again.

Robby stayed with her the whole time she was being sutured.  It wasn’t until Dennis finished the last tiny stitch that Robby finally left the room, feeling pretty damn great.

“Tryin’ out a new look there, boss?” Dana asked ten minutes later, after Robby had already run two codes and walked past dozens of people in the Pitt.  He looked down at his shirt - a plain black scrub top - and his hoodie - his regular blue zip up - and gave a ‘what gives’ gesture.

Dana smirked and pointed to the top of his head.

And Robby realized that he’d been walking around with his ears and tail out.  He growled and shifted them back as Dana cackled behind him.

He was half tempted to take Dennis over his knee that night in bed as punishment for the mishap, but, well… it had been worth it.  Seeing the shock on that girl’s face, hearing her excitement, was more than worth the embarrassment of going around accidentally half shifted.

Then again, maybe he’d get Dennis over his knee anyway.  The pup might protest, but if the way he came spectacularly every time they started their night that way was any indication, Dennis more than enjoyed the punishment.

Yeah, he’d spank his husband’s supple ass before knotting it, and maybe he’d do it with his tail and ears out, just to drive the point home.