Red jumped a bit when Fang came and sat next to her so closely that he was nearly sitting on her. She listened to his words silently, and said nothing in return, though what he had said plastered a large smile on her face. She leaned against him, nuzzling her snout into his fur, and then looked up at the stars. She was quiet and still like this for a time, and then a thought occurred to her. She didn’t know how Fang would take it, but there no way she could be sure of his response until she asked.
Clearing her throat and swallowing to try and give herself some time to think of how to word it, she finally spoke. So… does this make us mates?
Here, the coywolf hesitated for a moment, afraid he would shy away from that word. Mates. I mean, I know you have a hard time expressing your feelings, but that’s what we are, I think. We might as well be. That doesn’t mean we have to actually mate. I’m too young to bear pups right now, anyways. But…
At this point, she was feeling much too embarrassed to continue, and didn’t know why. Normally, she was quite instinctive, so talking about being mates and mating shouldn’t have affected her the way it was. But it did. And she didn’t know how to stop it. So she just waited. There was nothing else to do at this point, after all…