"Harry" Naomi said "One last thing. You're a good husky. It doesn't matter if you change sex or not. I'm sorry I tried to nag you into it. If you're happy being male, great. I'll never understand why, but maybe that doesn't matter."
Harry looked at Naomi in shock. I've never met you, Charlotte, he thought, but you must be some kind of miracle worker.
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The exit was a long way from the wolf-pack area, so Charlotte got up bright and early the next morning. She'd already said her goodbyes to her fellow wolves, so she quietly sneaked out and began the long walk--it would take at least a couple of hours, and a little more if she dawdled--to the point where she would return to the outside world.
Charlotte was thinking the whole time along the way about Naomi and their possible future. She still didn't know if Naomi would be out there or not, whether she herself would leave the park as Charlotte or not, but she rather thought the husky would be waiting for her. The butterflies in her stomach were about introducing Naomi to the outside world. She had known a lot of guys like Naomi in the Army--guys who craved the structure and hierarchy of military life, and didn't do so well in the civilian world, without a schedule covering every minute of every day and a CO to tell them what to do and when to do it. And in the case of Naomi, this was reinforced by her pack-oriented canine brain--Charlotte had a little bit of the same quality herself, but wolves were different from dogs.
So in the outside world, Naomi's exposure would have to be carefully managed. Plunging her immediately into the chaos of the world outside the park would be a terrible idea. And as the person with the greater knowledge of the world and ability to function in it, she was going to have to be the alpha of their pack of two. And all that while learning to live in the world as an anthro she-wolf with a female partner.
Charlotte drew her teeth back in a wolfish grin. Charles had liked a challenge--it was why he had been in Special Forces. It turned out Charlotte did too.
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It turned out Jessica did indeed still have some juice. Naomi found her vacation had been approved first thing after she checked her email in the morning. Packing her meager possessions took only about five minutes. That left only one thing, the hardest thing, she thought, that she would ever do.
Saying farewell to the pack.