she crept out
of bedsheets warm
to clothes in the
dark, mostly dry
heat rising off her
arms like chill on
bare legs--

she leaned in to caress
his burrowed head
and found a slumbering
wolf hidden
in layers of fur,
heat rising from
flesh exposed tender--

she nuzzled her mate
and suppressed a howl,
for she too longed for
warm flesh and furs
to be entangled in her,
like the warm side of the pillow
after a long day
running through the brisk chill--