The Ripple Effect

Orion gently pulled Jonathan onto his feet, and he plopped him easily onto the grass after having hunted down his lost clothes. The boy happily complied, pushing his hands into the air in waiting of the shirt that hovered over his head. When he had to step into his shorts, he leaned against his father and stuck his tongue out in concentration as he tried to shove his foot into the right hole.

I just sat with Rein held snuggly in my arms. My eyes scanned the immediate area.

“Orion, where is Brian?”

He glanced from his task at hand, shrugging. “He didn’t want to come out, said he would just stay inside.” Then he turned back to Jonathan with a sour look on his face. “Boy, you had better put your pants back on!” he huffed, grabbing the squirming boy who giggled and cried out in delight.

“Mama, Brian didn’t want to come out with us.”

“He was probably scared, my love,” I cooed softly into his hair, kissing the crown of his head. “He can’t do what Jonathan did.”

“I’m sure I can do it, too!” he shouted, wriggling until he was facing me. “I just didn’t get the chance to try.”

“Of course you can. But Brian can’t. I can’t, and neither can he.”

“My mama’s human,” Rein drawled, grinning up at me as his tiny arms wrapped around my neck.

“Flattering, really,” I muttered. “Okay, Mama needs to get up. Go on, then.”

My eyes drifted back toward the house, and I bit my lip. Poor Brian. I started to go to him, but a gasp escaped my lips when I was pulled backward.

“I already talked with him, Sophie,” Orion assured me, resting his chin on my head. “You bringing it up to him will only make it worse. We can go back, but only if you won’t make a big deal out of this.”

“A big deal?” I sputtered, pushing him away. “For crying out loud, I just found out my son is an over-sized puppy! Pardon me, but I think that constitutes a big deal!”

“Over-sized puppy?” He moaned in distaste. “Sophie, Rex is none too pleased with that description! And I’m not fond of it either!”

“Oh, look at you in your big girl blouse! Look, I will either call you a big, drooling dog, or I will flail my hands around in the air and start running for the hills. Your choice.” I raised an eyebrow at his silence. “That’s what I thought. Just a question, though: when did you plan on telling me about this?”

“It… It’s not that simple. It leads to a lot of other things that we’re not quite ready to discuss.”

“And by ‘we’ you mean—”

“You.”

I groaned loudly. “I thought you had one secret, Orion; I could live with one. But just how many do you have?”

He smiled. “I’m mysterious? Alluring, perhaps?”

“I’m a normal person; danger makes me pee my pants.”

The grimace on his face and the way he suddenly released me from his embrace made me burst into laughter. Was that it? If I had discussed a failing bladder with him on day one, would he have left me alone?

“That…was really gross,” he muttered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his slacks.

“Then I’d suggest you stop trying to be mysterious, hmm?”

He nodded quickly, sobering. “But I still can’t tell you everything, Sophie. I wasn’t even ready to tell you this much.”

“I think Rex is just dying to tell me, if his behaviour is any indication.”

“That’s why you’re not supposed to stick around when he shows up,” he sighed, reaching up with one hand to comb through his thick hair. “He’s a walking time-bomb, ticking away as he so pleases. Usually I keep better reins over him, but lately he’s just been slipping past me every two minutes, it seems.”

“It’s…because of me, isn’t it?”

“He adores you.”

"No, he adores Regina," I corrected under my breath, annoyed. "Orion, you're a werewolf."

He frowned. "I'm aware."

"And... I've been unknowingly raising a baby werewolf."

"But you don't have to do that anymore," he insisted, reaching out and catching my hand gingerly. "I'm going to help you, Sophie. Every step of the way, like Rein's father should have done."

I smiled uneasily. Surely he wouldn't be saying this if he knew who Rein's father was...

"What I'm trying to say, Orion," I mumbled, staring at our tangled fingers, "is that I'm just human, and you're definitely not. Yes, you're great for Rein. But I'm not like you and Jonathan."

His grip on my hand tightened, and my eyes snapped up to him.

"Sophie, don't say something stupid."

I frowned. "But I'm just a human, and you're overly not human!"

"We were working just fine before you knew about this. How does that change anything?"

"It changes everything!"

"No, it doesn't," he growled, pulling me to him. "How does it change everything?"

I scowled at him, our faces merely centimeters apart.

"No answer? That's what I thought. Jonathan still needs you, Rein still needs you," he whispered into my face, suddenly grabbing my chin with his thumb and index finger. "I still need you, Sophie. Don't make me beg."

"Orion... I just don't see how this is going to work," I whimpered, trying to keep the conversation between us.

"Give me a chance, and I'll show you."

I suppressed a groan when his lips brushed softly across mine. He stepped back, but his eyes remained firmly set on me.

"I'll show you."