by Неизвестный
Boone wasn't quite sure what happened to him and Cort, but he wasn't going to take someone shooting at them while he tried to figure it out. A low snarl worked its way up his throat. Boone clenched his hands, his anger building.
The smell of danger in the air was almost tangible. It made the hairs on the back of Boone's neck stand up. The low rumble emanating from Cort didn't help. It made Boone feel edgy, tense. He felt the need to rip into something, tear it apart. He wanted to taste blood.
Boone was just digesting that disgusting fact when he heard another ping hit the car he stood next to. His hands clenched again. Boone crouched down, trying to make himself less of a target while he searched the darkness for the men shooting.
He spotted one moving between two cars about fifty feet in front of him. Cort seemed to have his eyes on the other one. Knowing that Cort could handle himself, Boone made his way toward the man ahead of him.
He was amazed with how well he could see in the darkness, the scents he could smell. It was almost like he was seeing everything for the first time, and in black and white. Even the soft breeze blowing across Boone's fur felt different.
Boone tried to stop wondering about the changes in his body and pay more attention to the man slowly creeping around the back of a black sedan a few feet away from him. Boone could smell him. He knew the man was just a few feet away.
At least, he thought it was a man. The smell of dead wet dog was stronger in the direction the man came from. Some gut instinct told Boone that what was coming toward him, while it looked human, it wasn't. He didn't know how he knew that. He just did.
Crouching down at the tail end of the small sedan, Boone waited. His heart pounded. His jaw ached from suppressing the growls building in his throat. He wanted to growl, to howl at the moon and let everyone hear him. He knew he couldn't make a sound. His victory howl would have to wait until he had actually defeated the opponent he faced.
Boone waited until the man reached the back edge of the fender, then leapt at him before the man could realize he was there. He felt like he stood outside his body as he watched himself tear into the man with sharp teeth and furry hands.
It all seemed surreal. There could be no way that it was him tearing into a man. It wasn't him biting, clawing, tearing bits of flesh from his opponent. It wasn't him covered in blood. And it certainly wasn't him who was enjoying every moment of what he was doing. It just couldn't be.
As the bloody, mangled body of the man he fought fell to the ground, Boone crouched over his kill. He sniffed the air, some deep part of him satisfied that the smell of the blood that he spilled overshadowed the stench of wet, dead dog.
It was only as he licked away the blood dripping from his fingers that Boone realized that he had just torn a man limb from limb…and he had enjoyed every minute of it. How sick was that? And how disgusting was it that he was savoring the coppery taste of the man's blood in his mouth? Boone gagged. He had clearly lost his mind.
"Boone?"
Boone growled as he crouched possessively over his kill. He turned his head to find Cort standing several feet away. Boone's eyebrows drew together in a frown of confusion. Cort was also covered in blood and gore, but Boone felt no threat coming from him.
Instead, Boone felt the need to share his kill with the…the thing standing before him. He scooted back a step, nodding toward the body on the ground. He gave a low grunt, then watched as Cort crept forward to sniff at the body.
"This is so sick," Cort groaned as he took a long lick of the bloody body. "I can't believe I'm doing this and enjoying it."
Boone couldn't agree more, and that thought scared the hell out of him. He didn't understand what was happening to them. They had both turned into something that he couldn't exactly describe and killed with their bare hands, and just a bit of teeth.
"Cort?" Boone asked as he watched his teammate and best friend lick the blood from his fingers. "What in the hell is going on with us? What are we?"
Cort paused, then glanced over at him. "I have no idea."
Boone watched Cort take a couple more swipes of blood with his long tongue. He chuckled sadly. "Tastes good, doesn't it?"
Cort grimaced. "I have this intense urge to roll in his remains."
Boone nodded as he glanced down at what remained of the man he had killed. "I know. I want to roll in his blood and howl at the moon. How crazy is that?" He looked up at Cort. "Have we gone insane, Cort? Are we hallucinating?"
Cort shrugged. "Got me, but it seems weird that we would both be having the same hallucination, doesn't it?"
"An hour ago I would have said yes," Boone replied, eyeing the dead body again. "Now? I'm not so sure."
Cort sat back and regarded Boone. He seemed to take a cleansing breath, but Boone knew he was scenting the air around them. He didn't know how he knew. He just did. "I think we need to get back to the compound and talk to Dane."
Boone scoffed. He looked down at his fur-covered body. "You think he's going to have an answer for this?"
Cort shrugged. "Not necessarily, but can you think of anybody else to ask?" Cort glanced down at his fur-covered body and gave a little shudder. "Besides, do you really want to get caught out here looking like this? They'd lock us away for sure."
"Or shoot us."
"Yeah, there is that," Cort replied as he stood to his feet. He nodded toward the truck. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here before we start peeing on bushes or something."
Boone nodded and followed Cort to the truck. As they reached the large vehicle, he suddenly stopped and looked down at his hands. He started laughing.
"What?" Cort asked in confusion.
Boone held up his hands. "How are we supposed to drive with these things?" he asked as he waved his clawed hands back and forth in front of Cort. "It's not like we can shift, Cort."
Cort looked thoughtful for a moment. "That might not be true."
"Huh?"
"Boone, obviously we shifted into whatever form we're in now. Who says we can't shift back?"
"Shift back?" Boone asked. He arched an eyebrow. "And how in the hell are we supposed to do that? Click our heels together and say that there's no place like home?"
Cort shrugged. "Got me, but I figured it had to be better than trying to drive with these," he said as he held up his paw and wiggled his clawed fingers.
"Okay, fine," Boone said. "How do you want to do this?"
"I don't know. How did you shift in the first place?"
"I just did," Boone explained. "I was trying to track the guy shooting at me, and this horrible smell was—"
"The wet, dead dog smell?"
Boone blinked. "Yeah."
Cort's face scrunched. "Awful, wasn't it?"
"Disgusting," Boone replied as he crinkled his nose in distaste. "I'm not sure I've ever smelled anything so nasty before."
"So, you were trying to track some guy and…?"
Boone shrugged. "I needed more speed, more strength. I needed to know where he was located because I knew he wanted to kill me. Next thing I know, you're looking at me like I had grown a second head."
Cort tilted his head a little, looking sheepish. "Dude, you grew ears, fur, a tail, and claws. I think a second head would have been an improvement."
"Funny, jackass."
Cort laughed, holding a hand up. "Sorry, but you have to admit this is beyond weird."
"Okay, you got me there." Boone had to agree. How could he not? He was a seven-foot-tall furry monster with ears and a tail. He just ripped a man to shreds, then licked the man's blood from his fingers. Weird didn't begin to describe it.
"Let's try this then," Cort said. "Think of shifting. Think of what you looked like before."
Boone rolled his eyes before closing them. He concentrated on what he looked like before he had turned into whatever it was he had turned into. He still wasn't quite sure what exactly that was.
Boone shivered as a cold brush of air seemed to pass over his body. It felt a lot like the feel
ing of someone walking over his grave, or so the saying went. It felt eerie, cold, and just a little bit uncomfortable.
"Fuck me!" Cort exclaimed.
Boone popped open one eye to see Cort staring at him with the same horrified expression he had worn before. Boone opened the other eye and glanced down at himself, surprised to find his body back to normal. Well, as normal as a naked man standing in a parking lot could be.
"Shit! It worked."
Cort nodded, his face still showing his disbelief. Boone started to feel a little self-conscious. Cort had seen him naked a hundred times. They had even shared women on occasion, but the way that the man stared at him felt creepy.
He dropped his hands down to cover his groin. "Cort!"
Cort's head snapped up. "What?"
Boone's eyes widened, and he stared harder at the man.
Cort instantly stopped staring. "Oh, sorry. Watching you change was just a little weird."
"Yeah, yeah, you said that before," Boone snapped. "Now you want to try?"
"What did you do?"
"I thought about what I looked like before I turned into whatever I turned into, just like you suggested."
Cort closed his eyes. Boone watched, fascinated as the air around Cort's body seemed to be fill with electricity. The hairs on Boone's arms stood on end as a soft mist covered Cort, obscuring Boone's view for a brief moment. When it cleared, Cort stood there just as naked as Boone.
"Dude!"
"Fuck," Cort exclaimed as he opened his eyes and stared down at himself. "This shit is weird."
Boone couldn't agree more, but he had thought that before. What he wanted to know was why it happened. Turning furry wasn't exactly normal, even for him and Cort. Something serious was going down, and Boone felt clueless as to what.
"What the fuck happened to our clothes?"
Boone shrugged. "Got me but I suggest we get the hell out of here before someone else shows up. We can figure the rest out later."
Cort nodded and hurried to the truck. Thankfully, they always carried spare clothes behind the backseat. Within moments, they were both dressed again and climbing into the vehicle. It was only as Boone slid into the passenger seat that he remembered the woman.
Her head still lay back against the seat, her eyes closed. Boone felt pretty sure that she was still unconscious, but then again, what did he know? He couldn’t even figure out how the woman he and Cort had slept with ended up being in the middle of their stakeout.
"You know Dane is going to spit purple kittens, right?" Cort asked as he started the truck and drove it toward the main road.
"I think after this he might graduate to full-blown cats, Cort."
"Any idea how we're going to explain her?" Cort asked, nodding toward the woman.
Boone shook his head. "Do we actually have to explain her? Couldn't we just say we brought her home for a little fun between the sheets? We did have a hard night doing surveillance."
Cort smirked.
"Yeah, okay." Boone chuckled. "So, how do you want to play this then?"
"I think we need to tell Dane everything. We've never hidden things from him before, and he's always been straight with us. I don't think now is the time to change that." Cort shrugged. "Besides, something tells me that Dane knows more than he's letting on."
Boone chuckled. "He always does."
He glanced down at the woman as she moved next to him, her head falling against his arm. "Do you realize we don't even know her name?"
Cort frowned. "It's not like we did a lot of talking, Boone."
"It would have been polite, Cort," Boone replied. "And I'm starting to think she's not a hooker."
"Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing."
"So, why do you think she went with us to that hotel then?"
"Looking for a good time? She wanted to get laid? Horny, maybe?" Cort looked over at him. "I could go on, you know."
"So, she just picks two strangers up in a bar, takes them to a hotel, and fucks their brains out?" Boone scoffed. "That sounds a little cold to me, Cort."
"Why? Men do it all of the time. Why can't women?"
Boone shrugged. "I don't know. It just seems so sterile."
Cort snorted. "You're a closet chauvinist."
"I am not," Boone protested. "Women can do anything men can do."
"But they can't pick strangers up for a night of anonymous sex?"
"I didn't say that. I just—"
"That's exactly what you're saying, Boone," Cort insisted. "You don't have a problem with us picking up a woman and taking her to a hotel, but you're bothered by the fact that the same woman picked us up?"
Boone turned to glance out the window. He sounded like a pig, and he knew it, but something about the woman who sat next to him made him feel like she shouldn't be out sleeping with anyone. Well, maybe him and Cort, but no one else.
Even as he looked out the window, the soft scent of the woman reached him and sank deep into his body. He wondered if the ability to smell her came from what happened back in the parking lot? His sense of smell seemed to be in overdrive, but damn, she smelled good.
"Cort?" Boone said as he turned to look across at him. "Can you smell her?"
Cort nodded, swallowing so hard that Boone could see the bob in his throat. "Yeah."
"Does she smell different than she did that night?"
Cort sniffed, then sniffed again, his nose wiggling. "Yes, she does."
He sounded confused, but not any more than Boone felt. The woman smelled fantastic. She had the night they slept with her too, but now it smelled different, almost more intoxicating, arousing.
Boone had a hard time not laying her back in his arms so he could lick her skin just to get a taste of her. He imagined she tasted even better than she smelled. Damn, he practically drooled just thinking about it.
He couldn't stop thinking about how she looked naked lying back on the bed at the hotel. His cock was so hard he ached. A quick glance at Cort's pants told him that his best friend was in much the same condition.
"Damn, Cort, I think we're in deep shit."
Chapter 4
Cort pulled into the driveway of their compound and turned the engine off. He took a deep breath, then immediately regretted it. The honey-sweet fragrance filling the cab of the truck drove him crazy.
His hands clenched around the steering wheel of the truck. There was something about this woman that got to him more than any other woman he had ever met. Boone was right. They were in deep shit.
"Are we going to do this?"
Cort glanced at the woman for a moment, then at Boone. "Do we have a choice?"
Boone groaned and rubbed his hand down his face. "There's something wrong, Cort."
"I know."
"Damn it, I'm not talking about the weird shit from the parking lot," Boone snapped. "I'm talking about now."
Cort frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You know we have to go into the house."
Cort nodded.
"You know we need to talk to Dane about what happened back at the stakeout and what's going on with the woman."
Cort nodded again.
"Inside that house are our friends. These are the men closest to us in the world, men we depend on to guard our backs, men that we trust with our lives. How do you feel about them looking at her, let alone touching her?"
Cort jumped when the top of the steering wheel snapped off in his hands. He stared at the rigid plastic piece unsure of what exactly happened. Silence reigned in the truck cab. Cort finally glanced over at Boone, only to find him smirking.
Boone waved his hand toward the steering wheel. "See what I mean?"
"Shit!"
The mere thought of anyone looking at the woman sleeping between him and Boone filled Cort with so much rage he had to clench his teeth just to keep from growling. He'd never felt anything like it in his life.
Cort wasn't normally a possessive man. He was more the love-them-and-leave-them type. His life didn't le
nd itself to building lasting relationships. Besides the fact that it could be dangerous, they left often and for long periods of time. That did not make great relationship material.
Strangely enough, the thought of Boone touching the woman as he did now, carefully unbuckling her seat belt, didn't bother him at all. That really surprised Cort and made him wonder why.
"Boone, do something for me?"
Boone glanced up. "Yeah, sure."
"Touch her."
"Huh?" Boone looked totally confused.
"Just do it, damn it."
Boone reached over and stroked his fingers through the woman's long, blonde hair. Nope, nothing, it didn't bother Cort in the least. Maybe it needed to be something more intimate.
"Try something else," Cort directed, "something a little more, uh, sexual."
Cort rolled his eyes when Boone's eyebrow shot up in surprise. "It doesn't seem to bother me when you touch her, but the thought of any of our friends touching her makes me see red. I'm just trying to test out a theory."
"And that theory would be?"
"I think we're somehow connected."
"Connected?"
"Hell, I don't know, Boone." He reached over and grabbed the woman, pulling her toward him. "Does this bother you?"
Boone seemed to think about it for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Well, beyond the fact that she's not really here to enjoy it with us, but other than that, no."
"What about the fact that in a few moments we have to take her inside and every man in the place will have their eyes on her?"
Cort stared in shock as Boone's fingers dug into the dashboard, leaving permanent grooves. "Okay, I guess that answers my question."
Boone's deep breath could be heard throughout the cab. "I told you we were in deep shit."
"Well, it's obvious we need to keep this little beauty under wraps, or we're likely to rip someone's head off," Cort said, "at least until we figure out what in the hell is going on."
"All right," Boone said slowly. "What do you have in mind?"
Cort looked toward the house. He could see lights on telling him that people were home. The occasional person walked past a window, but Cort couldn't figure out how many people were in the house.
"Go inside and tell everyone to go to the rec room. Tell Dane that we'll explain once we get her settled in our room. I'll stay here with her until we get her inside. I don't like the idea of leaving her alone."