The Two Alphas of Rosewood Creek [MxM]

The energy in the room was tense. River continued to show his true annoyance for this session. Dr. Louis did her best to hold back her distemper with River's childish ways. A loud 'ahem' brought the attention back to her as she ignored his rudeness.

"Well, so nice of you to join us, River. I just want to say I have a fair amount of experience with human slash wolf conflict resolution. I hope you can get something out of our session today."

"Yeah, whatever you say," River scratched his ear, snubbing her thoughtful gesture. I was surprised at his behavior today. He was really acting like an asshole.

I was probably just like this when Beth and Tina brought me to my first session. I had to give my parents a lot of credit. Parenting was definitely not easy, and yet they took everything in stride.

"So where do you want to begin?" Dr. Louis opened the floor, meticulously trying to draw River out. I knew it wouldn't work, though, because I was already struggling to keep him still. He desperately tried to push past me to get up and sprint out of the room.

"I don't know," River sputtered out. "Whatever you want. You shrinks already have your questions planned out anyways. I'm not gonna play dumb."

"Ok, that's not a problem then, let's just start with the basics," Dr. Louis ushered the conversation forward. "Can you tell me when you were awakened by the moon goddess?"

"Umm, when Remy was around three, those were my first memories... I think."

"That must have been special, to meet your human for the first time."

"Yeah... It was cool, I guess," I felt a wave of ease come over River, I guess what she said had hit some kind of soft spot.

"Do you know where your name comes from," Dr. Louis inquired, though not quite in the tone of a question, but rather with a sage wisdom that hummed soft and deep from her very words, and the slow deliberate calmness of her voice.

River laughed, chuckling in his seat as he adjusted himself, finally uncrossing his arms. "Yeah, of course I do! Man, Remy was fascinated by this stupid tiny river by our trailer. Every day he went out and played there by the riverbank. The kid never got tired, he didn't speak much, but river was one of the few words he would keep repeating. One day, I was watching like I always did, and he was just laughing and calling out River over and over... It was so funny, it took me a while to realize it was my name little Remy was barking out."

"Wow, that's amazing River! Dare I say cute, even." She let out a soft, warm chuckle as she fastidiously jotted down everything she could manage. "Such a cute story to hear, I mean. Do you have any other stories of Remy you would like to share?"

River was stuck in a nostalgia high, forgetting where he was as he continued on. "Yeah, I remember one time Remy tried to make his own fishing rod out of sticks and rope. It was such a crummy little thing and he kept getting mad when the fish avoided it. He didn't realize it had to do with the loud noises he was making by splashing the stick around. The only reason why he actually caught one was by hitting it square on the head." River choked back laughing tears as he shared another memory.

Like the fluttering of leaves in a gentle breeze, memories of vivid hue swirled in my mind as I watched my younger self. My brown curly hair even more wildly unkempt, big brown eyes with a missing tooth smile. Dirty clothes clinging to my body as I played by a sandy riverbank. It gave me pause, I never really thought of my childhood before the group home.

"Was Remy always alone?" Dr. Louis prompted.

"Yeah... He had to be, not like the other pups paid us any mind but mom always wanted us to stay away."