Page 63 of Wanderer

“I let him cut the fruit!” Corbin giggled.

“Here.” I handed Corbin his little plate, which held a pancake with a smiley face made of strawberries and a banana. I sliced the banana first, naturally. I’d learned plenty of parenting lessons in the last few weeks.

Gareth took a sip of his coffee and nibbled on a strawberry. “Ready?” he asked me.

I nodded. Corbin was too busy eating to pay attention. “Corbin? Gareth and I wanted to ask you something.”

He paused, sitting stiffly. He said nothing.

“Daddy and I wanted to know if you’d like to go visit Nana for spring break. There’s a healer there who might be able to help you.”

“I’ll get to see Nana?” Corbin lit up with delight.

“Austin too. He’ll be your grandpa one day,” I reminded him.

He considered it for all of a minute. “I like Austin. He’s a bear. Can we go now?”

My laugh burst out of me. “No, you’ve got school, and we want to take my camper. Let’s wait for the weather to get warmer, okay?”

“Okay.” Corbin scooped up a piece of banana, happy with our plan. He really was the sweetest kid.

“There’s something else I wanted to show you. Something special that people like us keep for only family.”

“What?” I had Corbin’s full attention.

“You know how you can be a hedgehog, a mouse, or even a puppy?”

Corbin had only displayed less than a dozen animal forms, all of them on the smaller side, except for the pony. We didn’t think he’d get any more since he was only half metamorph. He nodded.

“Well, I have a special form that you might have one day if you meet your fated mate. Daddy Gareth gave me mine,” I explained. “He’s seen it, and sometimes at home I will want to let it out. I don’t want it to be scary for you, so I thought I’d show you it now and let you see it with both of us here.”

Corbin met my eyes, curiosity burning there. “I’m not scared.”

Gareth wrapped an arm around him and pulled him off my lap to sit with him instead. “It looks so cool when he shifts. You’re going to love it.”

Getting off the bed, I faced the pair and let the shift come over me without a form in mind. It had taken me a long time to practice this. Gareth had pulled all the information Greyhaven had on metamorphs so that we could teach Corbin about his abilities better. I often wished for Fen’s notes on my species, but he’d taken them with him.

The form, when it came, was as black as a void. I knew my eyes glowed an eerie amber color, the only light on my body. I had fur, scales, and feathers running all over me. My wings were both batlike and had longer flight feathers, like the one I’d gifted to Gareth. I had paws with wicked claws for hands and clawed feet like a bird. My legs were long and slender. Instead of a nose, I had a beak, but also fangs. My neck could turn all the way around like an owl, and I had a mane like a horse. My ears moved independently of each other. I was all and not just one thing.

Our son let out a breath of wonder, his eyes wide. “Can I touch?”

I made a chirruping sound, then nodded for good measure. I stood patiently while Corbin poked and asked Gareth questions. I caught a look at the time and shifted back. “We need to get ready for school! Oscar will be here any minute.”

“Fu—dge!” Gareth recovered from his mistake. “Have my pancake, Cor. I better hurry.” He rushed into the bathroom, and I heard the water turn on.

I sat eating with Corbin while he peppered me with questions. “Daddy, I don’t like using Daddy Gareth’s name, it’s a lot of words.”

“We can be Dad one and Dad two?” I suggested. Corbin laughed and shook his head. “No, you’re right, that sounds silly and it would hurt Gareth’s feelings to be Dad two all the time. Obviously I’m Dad one, because I’m the best.”

“You can be Dad and Daddy Gareth Baba.”

“Baba?”

Corbin blushed. “A girl at school calls her daddy Baba.”

“I like it. Now come get ready for school.” Gareth was going to lose his shit when Corbin used his new title.

Our morning routine was already out the window, so I just let Cor pick whatever he wanted to wear to school as long as he actually got dressed. I got him washed in his bathroom while Gareth finished up in the shower. Once Corbin was at school, I’d clean up the house and shower. Maybe I’d work on his room some more. Over the last week, I’d been painting him a mural in his room. I was rocking the stay-at-home parent gig. We had plenty of time for me to decide what to do with myself.