by Riley Storm
His eyes followed the trail of wooden splinters from the door and back into the office area just as the door clunked, unable to close completely. She was taking off.
“Aww shit.”
Kincaid ran after her. He’d hoped she hadn’t really seen what happened. All the lights had been off inside, only the few small windows letting light in, but apparently, it had been enough. She’d seen the wolf—whether or not she’d seen the man change was up in the air, but he remembered the noise she’d made. That told him all he needed to know.
She’d seen it happen. What the hell was he supposed to do now? Kincaid hadn’t expected to run into a fully-fledged member of High House Canis. Not out here, in some nothing business. What the hell had he been doing here?
That’s not your concern right now. Go get Haley. You need to talk to her. To calm her down before she does something stupid. Like, call the police.
He darted out the door, moving faster than any human. Immediately, he looked at the SUV parked across the street, but she wasn’t there either. Footsteps sounded to his right, and he took off.
He had to find her. Before she did something even he couldn’t protect her from.
10
She ran as fast as her legs would carry her.
It was still too slow, and she wished that in a prior life she could have been a track start or something, anything that would get her away from that horrible warehouse and the nightmare she’d just witnessed. The tears streaming down her face were equally generated by the now picked-up wind as it whipped at her face, and her own tears sprung from the fear of what had happened inside that building.
It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible. She had to be imagining it. But how? Why would someone have kept a wolf back there? And since when did wolves get that big? She’d seen some before, in captivity of course, but none that got that big. The thing had been monstrously huge. The stuff of legend.
Her feet carried her down the road, and then she hung a left, hoping to lose him in the maze of buildings that surrounded the docks themselves. She’d never really explored much of the area and could only recall having come down to the place a few times back in school when she’d worked for a woman whose family had owned a fishing—or was it crabbing?—business. It had been a decade or more now, and she couldn’t remember.
Focus. Stop letting your mind wander.
Haley wasn’t sure she was letting her mind do anything. It was working on its own now, making her think she’d seen a giant wolf in the middle of the town. What sort of nonsense was that? If she couldn’t stop it from hallucinating, how was she supposed to stop it from sliding back into random details from her past?
Heavy boots slammed into the pavement behind her. She ran slightly faster thanks to the spurt of fear, but it wasn’t enough. She could hear him catching up to her, and in another dozen paces, huge hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her from the ground.
She started to cry out but her attacker—she had no idea if it was Kincaid or the stranger, but she didn’t want either one touching her—clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Be quiet.”
It was Kincaid.
Angrily, she bit his finger.
He yelped in surprise and put her down, but didn’t back away. “Stop it. Don’t bite me.”
“Leave me alone.” For some reason, she didn’t shout. The wolf could still be out there. She didn’t want it finding her.
“You’re scared. Panicking. You need to come with me.” He looked away, unhappy, then continued. “I’ll answer your questions.”
“What the hell was all that?” she snapped, slamming a fist into his chest.
Kincaid didn’t notice, the strike rebounding off his pectoral muscle hard enough that it hurt her.
“Ow.”
“Shouldn’t have hit me,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Shut up. Tell me what the hell is going on?”
Kincaid frowned. “Which is it?”
Her eyebrows came together. “What?”
“I should shut up, or tell you what’s going on? Pick one.”
Angrily, she threw her hands in the air and stomped away. Well, she tried to. Kincaid was everywhere, blocking her from taking more than a step or two in any direction, always moving faster than she could. Even when she tried to fake him out, he ended up in front of her.
“This isn’t fair. Let me go.”
“I can’t do that. Not yet. You need to calm down and come with me.”
Haley shook her head. “Hellll no. The only place I am going is back to my office. Without you.” She paused. “That means alone. I don’t know how you two planned all this shit out, but that was not cool. You and I are done. If your precious Queen doesn’t like that, too bad. I’m not some sort of…of…Fuck you!”
She started walking again, simply moving left or right when Kincaid got in front of her. He reluctantly gave ground, not wanting to physically restrain her. Yet.
“If you go back, you’re going to have to walk. Or take a cab or something,” he reminded her. “Since I was the one who drove.”
Her frustration at the situation ratcheted up another level at that reminder.
“How did you two set this up? Why? It wasn’t funny!” she said, slamming her fist into his chest again as the adrenaline began to fade.
“We didn’t set anything up, Haley. I swear to you.”
“Right. Why the hell else would you laugh and tell me everything is under control after you slam into a table, and then say not to freak out when a giant wolf, or whatever that was, is set free to run out of the warehouse.” She looked around. “And where is your friend anyway?”
“He’s not my friend,” Kincaid ground out. “Not in the slightest. Now, if you would just come back to the warehouse, everything will be okay.”
“You mean the warehouse you forced me to break into?”
Kincaid bounced from side to side, raising his shoulders slightly. “Actually, I didn’t force you to do anything. You were the one who ran inside.”
She opened her mouth to tell him that was not what she meant, but then just slumped in defeat. Then an idea came to her. “I’m going back to the office now, Kincaid. You’re going to drive me, then you’re going to leave me alone. Otherwise, I’m going to tell Kaelyn about all the shit you put me through just for a practical joke.” Crossing her arms, she stared at him victoriously.
Kincaid’s face didn’t change. “The Queen will know full well it wasn’t some sort of practical joke. She’s well aware of these things. And she’ll probably just tell you to stop freaking out and over-reacting.”
Haley knew the last two were thrown out there just to goad her, to entice her into flipping out some more. Despite all that, she almost caved, almost gave the arrogant ass exactly what he wanted.
“I’m leaving now,” she said calmly as they reached the road and she started heading up it, eager to get back to the busier areas where she could more easily hail a cab or make the Uber drive cheaper. Either or.
“This is ridiculous. Come on.”
“No. I told you. I’m leaving. I never want to see you again, Kincaid. You’re an arrogant piece of shit, and how you convinced Kaelyn you’re not some traitorous asshole is beyond me. I can see through you clearly, and you don’t give a shit about anyone other than yourself. Now leave me alone!”
She shouted the last word loud enough that it bounced off several of the buildings, echoing for a moment. Kincaid was clearly pissed, but he didn’t say anything right away. For several long moments, she thought she was going to get away with it. Until they started to pass the Granted Holding warehouse.
That was when he abruptly snatched her up, tossed her over his shoulder and ran across the street.
11
He stole her breath away with the suddenness of the movement. It wasn’t until they were back inside the fateful darkened room, with its metal siding walls and concrete floor, that she even thought to suck in another breath to scream for help.<
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“Stop it,” he said, setting her down gently. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Haley watched him as he backed away, giving her some room, though he was still between her and the rear door. She glanced at the front, but it was far. He would catch her before she even got to the offices.
“I didn’t want you to have to see what you saw.”
“You mean a man transform into a wolf somehow? Even for an illusionist, that was…intense.” She shivered, looking over to the pile of tools and racking on the floor where she’d seen it happen.
The room was dark, but not so much that she’d missed what had transpired.
“So, you did see it all,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t sure how much you’d noticed.”
She frowned. “You’re acting like that actually happened, Kincaid.”
He didn’t respond, and her fear only increased. What was she involved in?
“I didn’t want to expose you to this side of things, Haley. I really, truly didn’t. That wasn’t my plan, but I don’t really have a choice now, do I?”
Watching him, studying his face intently, she came to the slow realization that she was in deep shit. Kincaid was about to tell her something bad. Was he going to tell her she was in the middle of some sort of criminal undertaking? Her mind ran wild with various scenarios of what she’d stumbled upon, and just how screwed she was because of it.
“I want to show you something,” he said, pulling at the sleeves of his shirt, retracting his arms inside.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, watching with irritated interest as he removed his shirt, revealing the rock-hard body underneath. Holy shit he’s in good shape. Just look at all that muscle…
The show served to distract her for a few brief moments as she followed the “v” of his abs down to his belt. But reality has a funny way of not going away, and it returned with crashing clarity a second later.
“Stop stripping. A lap dance is not going to make this any better. It’s just going to earn you a sexual assault charge.”
Truthfully, watching as his pants came undone, she doubted her ability to file that charge, if all he did was strip down.
“This is going to freak you out a lot,” he said. “But if you stay there and watch, instead of running away again, it will explain a lot. I promise you are not in any danger, okay? What’s about to happen…you’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Watch?” she asked incredulously as his belt came off and the jeans started to slide down his thick legs. “That’s all you think? You’re surely not gonna come over here and start rubbing up and down me like I’m a greased-up pole?”
Kincaid doubled over in laughter. “What? No, absolutely not. It’s just…well, I like these pants and that shirt. I don’t want to destroy them, you know? I want to save them. Plus driving while naked is just…weird.”
Haley was totally and completely confused now. Well, maybe not completely confused. She’d seen naked men before, but none quite as stunningly gorgeous as Kincaid. That sort of luck had evaded her. Until now, it seemed, as he reached for the waistband.
“Kincaid, I don’t need to see your dick. Trust me, I’ve seen a few before. They don’t freak me out anymore, I’m not some nervous teenager.”
He paused, thumbs hooked under the waistband. “That’s not why I’m doing this.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Have you ever put cold jeans against your bare dick and balls?”
She frowned at his blunt language. “Obviously not.”
“Well, let me just tell you, it’s not a pleasant sensation. And that’s why I’m saving these, get it?”
Haley started to nod. Then she shook her head. “What? No, I don’t get it. At all. Did you ever consider, oh I don’t know, not taking them off?”
She said the words forcefully, trying to stay grounded in reality, but truthfully, she was a little curious. The white boxer-briefs weren’t exactly loose and flowing. They had a fairly considerable, ah, bulge, to them, and her eyes kept straying in that direction.
You’re an adult. Not some hormone-infested teen or college girl. You can go without seeing his dick. This guy is not your friend! You barely know him, and now you’re about to see him naked. And you have no idea why.
“You might want to sit down,” Kincaid said, gesturing at the nearest table, where a stool had been slid underneath it.
“Seriously?” But she walked over and grabbed the stool, the entire time acting completely unimpressed. “I’m not going to faint just because you take your boxers off. I swear, if this is how you normally get women, you need to work on your technique because one day it’s going to get you in a lot of trouble.”
“Contrary to whatever is going on in your mind, I do think about more than just sex,” Kincaid fired back. “Now hold on.”
She didn’t have time to fire back a reply before the man in front of her stripped completely naked—with a level of ease to it that was noticeable, even with her distracted vision. Haley was swiftly brought back to reality by what happened next.
It started as a shiver that ran from his head to his toes. Then his skin started to lose its color, growing paler by the nanosecond, until it was nearly tundra-white. After that, the real changes started, as thick white fur sprouted, starting at his neck, elbows, knees, and abdomen before spreading across his body.
His rapidly growing body.
“What the fuck,” she gasped.
Sickening snaps followed as Kincaid jerked slightly a few times as his joints rearranged themselves, allowing him to rest naturally on all fours. Finally, she watched as his face shifted and jutted forward, huge teeth filling in the gaps.
“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” she repeated, slowly slipping from the stool as Kincaid kept growing, rendering him bigger than any bear she’d ever seen, his presence filling the entire room until it felt like the walls should be bulging to accommodate him.
Then the bear sat down, its mass enough to send a tiny tremor through the warehouse floor. It chuffed quietly, then rolled onto its back, casually pushing the nearest workstation away to create the space necessary. She kept backing away, even as it seemed to lounge happily in a completely non-threatening manner.
Except for its sheer size, muscular nature, and fearsome visage. Oh, and the fact it used to be Kincaid!
At some point, the bear became aware of her slow retreat deeper into the warehouse. She’d miscalculated in her disbelief, choosing simply to back away instead of heading for one of the exits, and now she was trapped as it got to its feet and meandered toward her.
“Stay back!” she shouted, her voice cracking.
The bear stopped.
“Did you just…can…did you just roll your eyes at me?”
The bear nodded, its massive jowls bouncing up and down. Then it shook its head and the creature shrank. A handful of seconds later, she was confronted with the once-again naked Kincaid. The impressively naked Kincaid.
Grow up. The dude just changed into a bear, and all you can do is stare at his huge cock? There are, pardon the phrasing, bigger things to worry about right now.
“Now you know our secret,” Kincaid said quietly, his words filtering out into the warehouse. “Do you understand now?”
She gaped at him. “What? Of course, I don’t understand! How stupid are you that you think this answers my questions? It just brings up a million more!” She tossed her hands into the air, resting them on her skull as she shuffled around, eventually turning in a circle. “And why are you still naked? Put that thing away!”
Kincaid bit his lip, nodding a few times as he walked over and got dressed. Haley definitely did not stare as he did that. A peek here, that was it. Okay, and there. He had a nice rear as well…
“Well, that went differently than I expected,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head, the material stretching over muscles every bit as impressive as they’d looked when covered up.
“Just how did you expect that to go?�
�� she asked, starting to pace. “Is this something you do to a lot of girls? Do they all get so distracted by your massive dick that they just ignore the part where you changed into a bear?”
Kincaid grinned. “So, you did notice.”
“Lord save me from his arrogance,” she groaned. “Your sexual reproductive organ is not what we’re going to spend our time talking about.”
The big man just shrugged. “You’re the one who keeps bringing it up.”
Sputtering at his complete twisting of her words she turned and stormed off. This time, she did head right for one of the doors.
Kincaid, of course, beat her there, blocking the way. “We need to talk about all this.”
She paused. His voice was different now. More serious. Concerned. Like he was done joking around at last.
“Okay, fine. Let’s talk.”
“You first. You’re the one with the questions.”
She didn’t need any time to think of her first one. “Was that real?”
“Yes. Completely. I can do it again if you want to come touch it—the bear, I mean—and get tangible proof.” He didn’t look overly enthused about that prospect.
“You don’t seem happy about that option.”
Kincaid worked his jaw. “It’s…not the most pain-free process in the world. I would be just as happy not to have to do it again in such a short timeframe. Plus, then I’d have to strip, and we’d have to listen to you bitch and moan about seeing me naked again.”
“Got that right. Nobody wants to see that.” She smothered the smile threatening to break free. “Why show me that though? I’m sure you could have come up with any of a dozen other explanations for what I saw.”
“Possibly,” he agreed, relaxing a little now that it was clear she wasn’t going to freak out and run away. “But then I’d be lying to you. I’m out here trying to clear my name, to show you I’m not lying. If I started now and you found out later, well, that wouldn’t go so well for getting you on my side of this.”
“I’m still not on your side.” She crossed her arms as if that made it clear.
“Yeah.” He looked away. “But you know the truth about me. You know I didn’t attempt to hide anything. Now when I tell you that this is a frame job, you’re going to start wondering if maybe I am telling the truth. And that’s all I want. What I need.”