The Alpha and the Fox

Chapter Twenty-Two (Damion's P.O.V)

     "Man, you gotta help me." I whined at Alex through the phone. "I need to learn sign language! How else will I be able to talk to Ryan? I mean of course I hope he starts talking more, but until that happens I wanna be able to communicate with him!"

"I get what you're saying Damion, I do. But you're overlooking the fact that I don't know sign language either!" Alex replied exasperated.

I whined loudly into the phone again. "Why don't you ask his dad to teach you? He seems to know some, or at least enough to communicate with Ryan." Alex reasoned.

"That's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks!" I shouted before hanging up and quickly dialing Henry's number.

"Hello?" Henry answered. I quickly recounted my conversation with Alex and explained why I was calling. He agreed to help me and even offered to teach Alex too if he was interested. I thanked him and told him that I would be on my way over soon, then I called Alex back and told him the good news. He seemed excited to come with me saying that it will keep him occupied while Noah was at work anyway.

We arrived at the house a few minutes later having decided to run in our wolf forms rather than driving our cars there. Henry met us at the door and invited us into the kitchen. He told us that Maria had taken Ryan with her to the store so that we could practice without Ryan seeing what we're doing, since I had wanted to surprise him.

We practiced until Maria and Ryan got back to which Ryan walked in the door, saw me sitting in a kitchen chair, full out sprinted at me, and jumped onto my lap, nearly tipping the chair over. I chuckled and cuddled him close to my chest loving his loud purrs as he rubbed his head underneath my chin and all over my neck.

"Hi, Baby, did you miss me?" I asked as I pressed a kiss to his forehead. "I missed you too. How was shopping?" His eyes lit up as he grabbed my hand and dragged me to the living room, pushing me onto the couch. He dragged a few of the bags over to me, sat criss-crossed on the floor in front of me, and began to pull items out of the bag to show me. I oohed and aahed at the adorable outfits he had gotten, mostly pastel oversized hoodies that covered almost all of his tiny hands other than the tips of his fingers.

His eyes widened, and I couldn't help but drag him onto my lap when those eyes began to fill with fear. He started signing very quickly and I silently thanked Henry for teaching me the signs Ryan uses to alert Henry that he was going into little space. I cuddled him close to me and whispered words of encouragement and praise, trying to gently ease him into little space, hoping to show him that slipping isn't scary.

After a few minutes he finally stopped fighting it and allowed himself to fully slip into little space. I took him, and his clothes, upstairs and laid him down on the bed. I gently took off his shoes and socks, eased him out of his tight jeans and undies, and slipped the shirt over his head. I redressed him in a diaper, the long socks that he seemed to love that came up to his mid-thigh, and his new oversized pastel blue sweater that I loved. When I stood him up onto his feet he giggled adorably and waved his covered hands at me.

I gently grabbed his tiny, sweater covered hands and helped him back down the stairs. Henry noticed his attire and headspace as we made our way back downstairs and immediately switched the T.V to a kids show for him. Maria moved the coffee table to the side of the room and layed out a soft blanket for us to sit on while he watched T.V. I grabbed the blue paci, since it matched his outfit, and eased it past his lips.

Alex sat on the floor with us cooing at Ryan's adorableness until his phone dinged. He checked the text message and left me with plenty of questions when his face turned bright red. He scrambled up off the floor, stuttered an excuse, and high-tailed it out the front door. I tried to mind-link him to state my curiosity as well as make sure he was okay, but he blocked me out.

I decided it would be my mission to find out why he reacted like that, but it will have to wait till later. My adorable baby curled himself up in my lap and purred around his paci while I stroked my hand through his hair and over his ears. Ryan fell asleep not long after, so Henry worked on sign language with me a little more.

By the time dinner rolled around I managed to get Ryan awake enough to feed him dinner, then I changed his diaper, put him in a comfortable pajama onesie, and laid him in his bed. He whined softly when I put him down but I carefully tucked the blanket around him and adjusted his paci in his mouth. With one final check that the paci was also clipped to his shirt I turned on his nightlight and made my way back downstairs.

I said goodbye to Henry and Maria and remembered at the last minute to invite them to a BBQ at the pack house that my mom is throwing since she wanted to officially meet Ryan, and his family, in person.