Wild Love

Chapter 13

Kira prepared brownies for the oven after dinner while Jael watched from his corner. He had refused to leave her even though she offered to put the television on for him to watch shows.

“All done!” She sighed as she closed the oven door. She wiped her hands on a kitchen towel as she took off the apron she had on and hung it up on a hook. “Come on, Jael! Let’s go watch some movies while we wait for the brownies to cook.”

Jael followed her, getting on the couch at Kira’s direction. It felt like his inner child was getting all of the hugs he never got when she ruffled his fur and put his favorite station on again.

“I made a little surprise for you.” Kira spoke up after a moment of comfortable silence.

Jael looked away from the television to her when he heard her voice, curiosity in his dark eyes.

“Ta da!” Kira exclaimed, bringing out knitted leg warmers. “These were easier to knit than the scarf so I made them first.” She smiled.

Jael had never seen someone who laughed so much, he personally had never really had any reason to be happy but Kira never ran out of smiles no matter what happened.

He gently pawed at the things she held up, curious about them. Did they go around his neck too? He doubted it would fit.

“Here, let me wear them for you.” Kira offered, moving closer.

Jael gingerly held out a paw for her, holding his breath as she put the first knitted sock on.

“What do you think?” Kira beamed, showing off his new outfit.

Jael puffed his chest in pride, lifting the paw up and down as if he was checking the angles of the leg warmers.

“They’re warm, aren’t they?”

Jael's response was a happy howl, he put out another paw for Kira to put the leg warmers on.

And she did, filling up the space between them with laughter and conversation. Her hair was so close to Jael when she bent over and he gave into the urge to bite the fluffy bun she gathered her long hair into.

Kira jumped slightly at this, laughing when she realized what had happened. She laughed so hard at the random and unexpected action that she nearly fell off the couch.

Jael had already been cringing when Kira jumped and he was about to retreat to safety like he usually would have but Kira’s bright laughter stopped him, her laughter was an acceptance that he hung onto like a lifeline.

He snorted when she wouldn’t stop laughing, stomping a socked paw on the edge of the couch that only sent her into more hysterics. Jael tried to bite her bun again as payback for her laughing non-stop at him, causing Kira to roll off the couch to the carpeted ground in a bid to protect her poor hair.

That and laughing so hard made her breathless and it made her stomach hurt that she could only lie on the ground and breathe for a few seconds.

Jael saw this opportunity and pounced, nibbling on her hair when she couldn’t escape. After he was satisfied, he returned to the couch and resumed his calm sitting position.

Kira shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re acting so innocent after you ambushed me…”

Kira went back to knitting after putting on all of the leg warmers for Jael. It would start to get warmer soon, she couldn’t wait for spring, she loved it when it rained.

She planned to go to bed early, adequate rest would help her recover faster from the events that occurred earlier today. It felt like a bad dream, like it didn’t really happen.

Being in her cottage with Jael, watching rom-coms, and knitting was so comforting, she didn’t want to lose this moment.

Kira got up to check up on the brownies after knitting for a while, Jael remained seated which made her pleased. As much as she liked him following her around, she also wanted him to do his own things.

The brownies were all ready and Kira put on mittens before taking them out, putting them in the freezer for them to cool.

She returned to the living room to put her knitting things back in a wicker basket and tell Jael goodnight.

“I put the brownies in the freezer, they just need to cool down a bit, and then they’ll be ready for eating.” She explained to him.

Kira did this because she wanted to get Jael accustomed to being human so she treated him as such. “You should shift back to your human form and give it a taste.” She added gently, something she would be saying often from now on to communicate it properly to Jael.

He didn’t seem triggered by her requests of him shifting back to his human form, so she would keep at it until she could proceed to the next step. It was her end goal with him after all, getting him to shift.

She ruffled his fur and hugged him goodnight. “You should keep watching your show, I’ll leave it on for you.”

Jael c****d his head to the side like he was confused, then he snorted and got down from the couch.

Kira laughed softly, maybe she had been too quick to say that Jael was starting to get independent. She left the television anyway, it didn’t hurt because she knew that Jael didn’t sleep for very long, she was hoping to entice him to come out and watch more shows all by himself.

They both did their night routines and instead of sleeping how they usually did with Jael on the fluffy rug with his blanket and pillow, he perched at the edge of her bed, the same position that she had woken up to see him in.

“Are you even comfortable like that?” She couldn’t help but ask but she didn’t stop him. She just put his blanket over him, gave him his pillow, and ruffled his fur one last time before getting comfortable on her bed.

“Goodnight, Jael…”