Running Wild

his arms around Ri’s neck.
“Jesus, what are you doing out here like this? It’s fucking freezing.”
Ri pulled out of Seamus’s embrace, only to blow over him, as if he thought Seamus was in trouble.
“ I am fine. Now that you’re here. But I don’t understand why you’re outside in this weather. Horses freeze to death, you know.” His voice had gone rather high, and his teeth were chattering.
Ri moved to stand right in front of Seamus like he was supposed to mount him.
“Oh, no. I can’t do that. I’ll walk. We’ll walk together.” Seamus turned and Ri turned again, blocking him.
“I’m fine. I was just worried.”
Ri let out a low whicker, a request, and Seamus sighed.
He gave up, leaned on Ri, and in a move completely lacking in coordination pulled himself onto Ri’s back, trying to keep his winter boots from kicking Ri.
Seamus had worried it would feel wrong, riding Ri, but his warmth soothed him, and Ri was so in control of this situation that he just held on as they walked home together.
    As Ri woke from the shift, the familiarity of the barn and the smell of Seamus on his skin brought him to coherent thought more quickly than usual.
Seamus. What was he doing wandering around the countryside calling his name in this cold? They needed to have a little talk about winter safety.
Speaking of underdressed… Ri was naked, and while he was well heated from the energy of the shift, it wouldn’t last when it was minus thirty Celsius. He grabbed the stashed boots and long coat, and strode to the house.
He stepped inside and Seamus launched himself at Ri, rather like he’d done earlier when he’d thrown arms around his horse’s neck. Ri barely kept standing as he took all of Seamus’s weight. His lover had this playful side that was slowly coming out. Their beginning had been so serious.
Ri managed to stagger around with Seamus in his arms until he could plop himself on the couch. Seamus dug hands into his hair and took his mouth for a long, deep hello kiss. Ri gave over to it, to being loved.
Eventually Seamus tamped down the kiss and they parted. Ri suspected they wore identical grins.
“Listen, you.” Ri couldn’t help it. A lecture was necessary. He didn’t care if it wasn’t their usual form of foreplay. “You do not go wandering around in these temperatures looking for me.”
Seamus’s smiling face turned pensive. “Why weren’t you here?”
He hadn’t intended to admit this, though for the life of him he didn’t see why not. He didn’t have to hold back with Seamus, but he sometimes forgot that when Seamus wasn’t around. “I miss you more when you’re not here and I’m human. So…I waited to shift.”
“It’s dangerous—”
“It is not dangerous.” This idea needed to be gotten rid of. “I promise you, I am smart about weather.”
“I know you’re smart. I just—”
“Yes, I could freeze to death. If I didn’t have the barn for shelter. And if it gets much colder than this, I would shift.”
Seamus’s gray eyes glittered with emotion.
“You have to believe me, rather than endangering yourself.”
He leaned his forehead against Ri’s. “Okay.”
“Any news?”
Seamus glanced over at the answering machine. “Trey left a message. Pete’s adjusting to Wolf Town life.” Trey was good about assuring them Pete wasn’t about to pay them an impromptu visit anytime soon. Seamus had not wanted to see him again. “And Jonah would like to come visit us some time.”
“Not Trey?”
Seamus laughed. “I think that’s how Trey communicates that he wants to visit too. Puts it on Jonah.”
“I also think Jonah likes the idea of another non-wolf shifter.”
At that, Seamus bit his lip. “They still haven’t heard any news of a second horse shifter.”
“I figured,” Ri said quietly. Pete had admitted to Trey that he thought Zach had lived the night he disappeared, because otherwise the pack would have bragged about killing him. But that hadn’t been any real information. Zach could have died since the night they were attacked.
Seamus kissed him in comfort. “In much better news, well maybe”—he squinted—“my parents want us to come for Christmas Day.”
It puzzled Ri a bit that Seamus’s parents seemed to like him. But he was grateful.
“They like you because you’re a likeable person,” Seamus added, as if reading Ri’s mind.
“Christmas?”
Seamus laughed. “You say it like it’s an alien ritual.”
“It kinda is. Grandfather wasn’t much for