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“So... is she the friend you've been talking our ears off for weeks?”
Valko's cousin asked, staring down at her with a raised eyebrow.
The werewolf woman was way taller than she had expected, and her strong figure was complimented by nice clothes that made her look unfairly gorgeous. She could see a big, fluffy tail swaying in lazy, curious movements behind the werewolf woman, its fur a chocolate brown like the twitching ears at the top of her head, and she was reminded that… she literally stepped into the wolf's den.
She grew nervous because she knew that everybody would track her emotions with their keen sense, but she stood perfectly composed, even if her cheeks had turned into a soft shade of pink.
Beside her, Valko whined in embarrassment as his cousin sold him out at the first chance.
“I guess I am, ma'am.”
Valko's cousin smiled big and amused at the confident reply and she couldn't resist reaching out to wrap her arm around her shoulders and pull her in for a hug.
“Aw, she's truly adorable!” The werewolf woman chuckled softly while she found herself squished against her soft chest.
But she didn’t have the time to feel embarrassed from the sudden closeness that Valko’s cousin leaned down and whispered into her ear -her tone turning conspiratorial.
“If my lil cousin ever tries to chew your moquette, tell me and I'll take care of him.”
“Hey! I wouldn't ever-”
“Thank you, ma'am. I'll keep it in mind.” She nodded slightly while she slowly pulled herself away from the hug and restored a proper distance, even though she couldn’t escape from the weight of the werewolf woman’s arm comfortably draped around her shoulders.
“Perfect... Now let me present you to the rest of our family. Grandma has the photo albums ready to show you how funny he was as a pup!”
“Please, don't-” Valko lamented following them inside and sighed heavily as he realised that her girlfriend had just been stolen from his pack’s members.
When he had proposed to her to meet his family, he had planned to present her as his girlfriend like a prideful and lovely partner.
But he had miscalculated how nosy and loud his family could be.
In less than a couple of minutes, Valko’s cousin paraded her in front of his grandparents, his aunts and uncles and the rest of their cousins.
She could recognise most of them easily, because Valko had previously talked about them… Still, she noticed that he had diminished their expansiveness, maybe to not scare her off. Glancing back towards him, she stretched out her hand and intertwined their fingers together.
The werewolf woman immediately caught the subtle gesture of affection and comfort, and understood that it was her moment to step aside. After all, she had already had her fun…
His grandparents looked at Valko expectantly and he smiled at them warmly, his tail twitching behind him. When she felt the soft fur brush against her leg lightly, her hand instinctively squeezed his hand in a reassuring gesture.
The werewolf gazes tracked the indirect exchange between the two of them, and they saw Valko relaxing at her touch. His tail wrapped around her waist in return, quietly mirroring the affection she had offered.
“Grandpa, Grandma… I’d like you to meet my girlfriend.” He said, his voice firm but slightly nervous under their intense staring.
On the backside porch’s threshold, his cousins snickered and whispered among themselves, making fun of him for being so tense. While his uncles and aunts bit down their smirks at the sight, very likely thinking how much he had grown up now that such a moment had come in their lives.
The presentation of a new member of their pack was important. There were years of traditions and customs among the werewolf that she ignored while Valko had always found them too strict for his liking.
But his grandparents’ approval mattered to him, nevertheless.
A quiet moment passed as everyone stared at them.
Then his grandmother’s eyes closed into two crescent moons as she smiled at them and gestured to his grandson to bring her closer to her.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, darling.”
She let out a sigh of relief and smiled back at the older werewolf woman -the years signed her features but didn’t hide her natural beauty, while her fluffy ears and tail shaded into a pure white fur from the darkest base.
“The pleasure is mine,” she replied, bowing her head slightly.
Her polite gesture unexpectedly melted the stoic expression of his grandfather.
“A proper, well-mannered lady… you should make my grandson toe the line,” the older werewolf man said, making everybody break into a genuine laughter, and then offered her his hand.
“Grandpa-”
“Of course, sir. I’ll make sure he remembers the proper manners,” she shook his hand and nodded in playful agreement.
From then everything went smoother than what she had thought. Every member of the pack didn’t lose the chance to roast Valko by sharing an embarrassing memory of him with her, but she could see in their eyes the infinite affection they reserved to him.
Just like his cousin had anticipated, his grandmother made her sit beside her and grabbed a thick photo album to show her how little and silly Valko had been as a pup.
Her hand remained linked together with his, while she listened to the older werewolf woman’s memories about her grandson. And despite the grumbles and the whines, she felt Valko leaning against her side, his chin resting on her shoulder and his eyes staring at her.
He was happy that his pack liked her and seemed eager to make her part of their family. And she was happy too, way more relaxed and at ease as the conversations flew naturally among the members of his family.
“You should’ve seen this kitchen years ago, they were a pack of rascals… running from one side to the other, scrambling under the table and jumping onto the counters to steal some food behind my poor, old back…” His grandmother smiled fondly, remembering those days.
“It was surely impossible to get bored.” She stood beside her as she followed the older werewolf woman’s instructions and gave a hand to make lunch together with the others. Valko wasn’t far from her, washing some vegetables to bring them over.
“Pups are so curious that everything stirs their imagination. Like little Koko was always sitting in front of the oven mesmerised by the sight of cooking biscuits,” his grandmother affectionately patted his back when he stepped closer between them and draped his arms around their shoulders to hug them both.
“Yeah?” She smiled in amusement, her hands stopping a moment from chopping the vegetables, and tilted her head slightly to catch his gaze.
“I was monitoring the baking process.” Valko explained confidently but his grandmother had another interpretation of his childish behaviour.
“This glutton had always been so impatient when it came to the cookies to be done to burn his tongue in an attempt to eat them as soon as they were out of the oven.”
“Oh, he didn’t change through the years…” she broke into a genuine chuckle and Valko huffed embarrassed, his wolf ears flat against his skull.
“Chocolate. He wanted chocolate everywhere,” his grandmother laughed together with her. “The first time he received the pocket money, he closed himself in his room with two bags full of chocolate and it got sick for-”
“Grandma, please… can’t you spare us the details?” He whined, interrupting the story before he lost the last of dignity he had.
The older werewolf woman opened her mouth to retort and very likely say something even more embarrassing about him but then she caught her grandson’ girlfriend leaning more against his side.
“I was no different. Chocolate is my favourite sweet too,” she admitted and Valko’s gaze softened at that, his tail swishing gently behind him.
It was a lighthearted comment, but his grandmother gave her a knowing glance.
“This means that I have a new granddaughter’s tummy to worry about.”
His grandmother had all the right to because late in the afternoon, they were in the kitchen once again. In her place this time, though, and they were surely a pair with matching aprons on, trying to follow their favourite childhood sweets’ recipes.
She was on the side of the counter and already finished the dough of her cake. Her mother used to divide it and make it a portion vanilla-flavored while the other cocoa-flavored to indulge both her younger brother and her taste. So she just did the same, preparing the dough by memory and hoping it’d turn out good.
While on the other side of the counter, Valko was busy recreating his grandmother’s chocolate biscuits.
“Val… you measured the flavour three times already.” She sighed quietly as she dusted her hands and walked around the counter to come beside him.
“It needs to be accurate,” he replied without missing a beat while he kept checking whether the electronic scale didn’t falter between his measurement tests.
His glasses were slipping down the bridge of his nose and the corner of his mouth was dirty with the chocolate bite he had stolen not long before. Her hand reached out instinctively and carefully fixed the glasses up in place for him.
“It’s just a cookie recipe, not a molecular experiment.”
His golden eyes finally lifted and met hers as he straightened himself up from his crouching position on the counter.
“It’s my grandmother’s cookie recipe,” he retorted while he let her thumb brush over the corner of his mouth.
She caught the expectation lingering in his tone and she understood that for him it was way too important doing this right, so she just nodded in agreement.
Valko smiled softly at her and before she could withdraw her hand, he caught her wrist and licked her thumb clean.
“Val!”
“You were dirty with chocolate,” he excused himself poorly, as if he hadn’t been the dirty one initially.
Bantering and helping each other out to recreate the delicacies from their childhood took them less time than cleaning the kitchen after, but they had fun anyway. As they stood in front of the oven, they watched together the variegated cake and the chocolate biscuits baking under the orange light.
Valko took advantage of the quiet moment to hug her from behind, his nose nuzzling against her nape and neck now that her skin was left bare by the high bun she had tied her hair in.
While she lost herself in her thoughts for a beat, leaning against his chest and letting him snuggle against her as much as he pleased.
She hadn’t said a word back in his grandparent’s house to not ruin the lighthearted mood… but she had noticed that in the family photo album there weren’t any pictures of Valko as an infant, differently from his cousins. Even his burgundy fur stood out among the others that shaded from dark brown to a more ash-silver kind.
“When I was little and wandering in the wild, I didn’t have a blanket, so I used my tail to cover myself…” he had once confessed to her during a late-night conversation of theirs when their tired minds had recovered old, vulnerable memories.
Today, she learned what ‘family’ meant to Valko -a warm place where to find shelter, love and finally belong. And she was glad that the Ao’s pack had adopted his little, lonely self and had taken care of him since. Because despite the rough beginning, he still managed to have a fun and joyful childhood worth remembering.
“Thank you,” she murmured, tilting her head back to press her lips against his forehead.
“For what…?” He blinked in confusion and pulled himself back enough to look at her properly, his arms remaining securely wrapped around her waist.
“For having shared another piece of yourself to me. I’ll treasure it dearly,” she said softly.
His heart swelled with emotion as he understood what she meant.
“I know you will.” He whispered back as he leaned in to press their lips together in a sweet kiss.
The oven chimed in with a sharp ding that signalled that their baked goods were ready.
But even if they were both eager to see how they came out, they lingered into their embrace just a little longer.