"Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free."
~The Beatles, 'Blackbird'

~~~

*Ryland's POV*

"Whooohooo!!"

I throw my arms out, feeling the air blow around me. In this moment, I guarantee this is how a bird feels. So free and light; carried by the wind and not weighted down by anything.

Landon stands behind me, arms wrapped around my waist and his chin resting on my shoulder. I lean back against him with a smile, snuggling into his body heat to protect me from the wind.

"This is amazing! Are you having fun, babe?" I shout over the wind, but Landon doesn't respond. "Babe?"

Turning my head, I notice Landon glaring at our instructor. The poor man has sweat collecting on his bald head under the combined heat of the burners and my mate's intense gaze.

"Hey," I hiss, elbowing Landon lightly in the gut. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing," he mumbles, although he can't hide the slight growl in his tone.

I glower at him. "What happened to being honest with each other?"

Landon rolls his eyes. "It's not a big deal, I swear. Don't worry about it."

I open my mouth to argue further when I catch our instructor staring at us. Whether he's looking at us out of disgust or pure curiosity, I can't tell due to his blank expression. It clicks in my mind why Landon has been glaring at the man, and I angrily turn around to face him.

"Do you have a problem?" I question the instructor, crossing my arms.

His eyes widen in surprise. "E-Excuse me?"

"You've been staring at me and my boyfriend for a while now. If you have a problem, go ahead and say it. I'll gladly educate you on tolerance."

"I-It's not like that!" The man waves his hands in distress. "I'm not homophobic, trust me!"

"Why should we trust that when you've been blatantly staring at us this entire time?" Landon chimes in, eyes narrowed in annoyance.

Our instructor gulps, playing with the hem of his shirt. "M-My partner...."

"Huh?"

He takes a deep breath before looking me in the eye. "My partner has been wanting to come out for a long time, but I've been too nervous to. I was staring because I was surprised to see another gay couple so open with their relationship like you guys are."

My anger vanishes in an instant, and my shoulders relax. "Oh. I wish you would have said something instead of just staring at us like that. I think my boyfriend was about two seconds away from beating you up."

"I wasn't going to beat him up," Landon huffs unconvincingly.

"I'm sorry," the instructor apologizes, wiping his hand over his face. "That was really unprofessional of me."

"It's okay," I wave him off. "Although... can I ask why? Why are you nervous about coming out? Isn't a relationship something you'd want everyone to know about?"

He shakes his head. "You two probably come from accepting families. My partner's family has known that he's gay since he was a teenager, but my family is extremely homophobic. If I come out to them, I'll probably be cut off from the family."

I fall silent at that, feeling bad for the human. As wolves, sexuality isn't really something we worry about. Well, some wolves do, but I'd say the majority of us don't. The Moon Goddess assigns you a mate, and you can't help what gender they are. Loving your mate is expected, so we don't really judge others for being with who they love.

Humans, on the other hand, don't have it as easy as we do. From what I know of humans, most of them don't believe in soulmates. They're pretty divided over believing you can choose who you love, or believing you can't help who you fall in love with. It's led to a lot of conflict among the humans, fueled by ignorant judgment. Why do they care about the gender of someone's lover? It's none of their business.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with that," Landon speaks up, making the instructor blink in surprise. "I guess I've never really thought about how hu— I mean, how others have to deal with unaccepting families."

The instructor nods. "Thank you for saying that. My partner says my love for him should be greater than my fear, and I know he's right, but it's still hard to move past it."

"You should never force yourself to do something before you're ready," I say, casting a grin at Landon. He smiles warmly back, taking my hand. "If your partner is the right guy for you, he'll wait for you to be ready."

The human visible relaxes as he gives me a grateful smile. "Thank you both. Anyway, we'll be making our descent soon. Sorry if this wasn't the most... relaxing experience."

"It was fine," I chuckle. "I still had a lot of fun! Didn't you, babe?" Landon nods his head, and I beam at the instructor. "See? Still a great date!"

The rest of our hot air balloon adventure is relaxed as we slowly descend to the ground. Once we're safely on the ground, we wave goodbye to our instructor before heading back to Landon's car.

"That was fun!" I grin as I climb into my seat. "How much did something like that cost? It couldn't have been cheap."

"Don't worry about it," Landon winks at me. "My cafe did well last month, which means I get to spoil my mate a little bit."

Leaning over, I press a kiss to his stubbly cheek. "What's next?"

The remainder of our day is pretty laid-back. Landon set up a picnic for us near the cabin, where we laughed about stupid jokes and old family stories. After lunch, we curled up on the couch together and watched reruns of The Office on TV before taking a nap together.

"Honeybee," Landon says softly, shaking my shoulder. "Baby, it's time to get up."

"Five more minutes," I mumble sleepily, snuggling into his warm chest.

"It's nearly sundown."

My eyes pop open as I sit up with a jolt, head whipping around to look out the window. The sky is tinted orange and pink as the sun begins to set, and my heart nearly jumps into my throat.

"We should eat some dinner real quick," Landon suggests. "I don't want your stomach to be empty when I take your collar off. You might feel overwhelmed and get lightheaded."

"Okay," I agree, my hands already shaking. After five years, I'm finally going to be collar-free.

Landon makes us a couple of sandwiches, which I scarf quickly. Stress-eating has always been a bad habit of mine. Thank goddess for my high metabolism, or else I would be the biggest wolf in the pack.

I'm jumping up and down in anticipation as Landon puts our dishes in the sink. Right before I'm about to complain for him to hurry up, he meets me at the door and takes my hand.

"Ready?" He asks, and I nod eagerly.

"Ready."

With our hands tightly interlocked, we head outside towards the clearing between our cabin and the stream. The full moon shines brilliantly down on us, making me feel eerily calm even though my heart is still pounding. Goddess, please let the spell work.

Standing in the middle of the grassy plain, Landon and I hold hands and face each other. I inhale a deep breath, nodding for Landon to start. He gulps, clearly just as nervous as I am, and reaches for my collar with shaky hands. His fingertips make contact with the collar, and neither one of us experience the usual electric shock. Landon smiles in relief, working the clasp on the collar to undo it.

And just like that, the collar slips away from my neck.

I stare at the black leather in Landon's hands in disbelief. It's... it's really gone. My hands reach up to my neck, feeling the area where the collar once lay. Tears fill my eyes once that five year long weight is finally gone.

The tears fall freely down my cheeks as I begin to sob joyfully. Landon cups my cheeks, wiping away my tears as his own eyes begin to water. We smile at each other, pressing our foreheads together in thankful relief.

I turn my tear-stained face up to the starry night sky, whispering, "Thank you," repeatedly to the Moon Goddess. Landon peppers kisses around my face as I close my eyes, basking in my newfound freedom.

So this is what it's like.
This is what it feels like to be free.

~~~

IM UGLY CRYING SHUT UP

I'm so happy for Ryland AAAAHHHHH my baby

Now that the collar is off...
...YOU GUYS KNOW WHATS NEXT

IT ONLY TOOK 40 CHAPTERS BUT IT'S TIME

Q: Favorite song by The Beatles?
[I Want To Hold Your Hand]

See you next time!!
-Gumbie