“Thank you, Dr. Phil. What’s next?”
“What’s next” turned into his lips hard on hers and his tongue probing boldly in her mouth. Startled, she forgot her fears in a wash of hot effrontery. She pushed him back. “Is this part of it?”
“Truth? No. But you look so tasty, standing there in your frilly stuff, I just had to try a sample. Okay, now we’re ready. First you—”
She snapped at his neck. He lapped his tongue along her cheek, heedless of her curses. And switched.
And there she stood in her underwear, with her arms full of coyote. She swore like a cat in a kennel and launched a punch at his muzzle. Too late; he wriggled to the ground and ran, tossing taunts over his shoulder.
Furious, Willy tore after him. When she got her hands on him, no, make that her teeth…
She thought she might have stumbled, but she recovered her footing almost immediately. Cody had stopped somewhere ahead. She couldn’t see him, but her nose pinpointed him with no trouble. She couldn’t wait to grab him and shake some respect into him. Dis the wolf? As if!
The coyote waited for her in a little clearing ringed by pines. She never slowed. She plowed right into him. The two of them rolled. They came to a stop with Cody right where she wanted him, pinned on the ground between her legs.
All four of them.
That fact crept up on her gradually. After she realized she’d lost her bra and her panties had been reduced to tatters. After she realized she was peering balefully at Cody down the length of a snout. She jumped back with a decidedly canine yelp. There couldn’t be—She looked wildly behind her. There was. A great big bushy tail.
She’d become a wolf. An auburn-furred, honest-to-God-and-Animal-Planet wolf.
She didn’t scream. Afterwards, she figured, she’d feel proud of herself for that. The whimpering and the shivering, though, that was a whole other matter.
Cody scrambled up at once. He licked her muzzle and rubbed his wiry body against hers and crooned soothingly in her ear. You’re not alone in this, his actions said. I’m here. It’s not so bad, now is it?
Are you kidding? her hunched posture and flattened ears replied. Look at me! I’m a wolf!
He looked, all right, and clearly liked what he saw. His licking got rougher. Willy fell back on familiar, ingrained behaviors, and shouldered him away.
And made a new discovery: in wolf form, she was bigger than he was.
Well now, that changed everything. She slammed him again and bowled him over. They wrestled like puppies, with lots of fierce-sounding but empty growls and bites that drew no blood. Cody broke away, ran a short piece, then let her catch him so they could go at it again.
Willy’s terror melted away in this brand new world of sensation. Her body practically exploded with strength and energy, just as the forest exploded with scents and sounds she’d never noticed before, so many she grew dizzy trying to drink them all in. The weird cravings and urges that had cursed her for nearly half her life suddenly made sense. Whole at last, she pranced and leaped and rolled on the ground and came up with leaves in her coat and barked lupine laughter at the sight.
For the first time in years, she let herself loose, and totally enjoyed it.
Cody sat and let his tongue hang out and watched her, happy for her happiness. She charged him unexpectedly and knocked him over. He didn’t get up fast enough. She straddled him. Another urge took over her body, the only one left unfulfilled.
She froze, trembling. Cody immediately snapped back to human. “It’s okay, darlin’. Look at me. Breathe deep. Get a nice hefty whiff of what I smell like. Fix on that…and there y’go.”
“Ahhhh.” She had a human voice again. Her limbs ended in fingers and toes. Without her fur, she quickly discovered how damp and chilly the woods could be at night. She snuggled into the warmth of Cody’s arms. “How—?”
“The first time’s usually triggered by scent. That’s why pups change with family around. Only you never had that, did you? You were raised by apes. Sorry. That’s what we call humans. You should be okay after this, but you’ve got one dilly of a bad upbringing to get over. Bet you feel a whole lot better now, don’t you?”
That was the worst of it. She felt wonderful. Even her cramps had abated. It frightened her how easily she’d gone from human to beast and back again, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “How did I get like this? I’ve never even been bitten by a poodle, much less a wolf.”
“That’s another thing the movies got wrong. We’re not an infection. We’re a breed. Either your mama or your daddy must’ve been a were. Probably a member of that pack in the hills, the one that was after us. Your sister’s an ape, so I’m betting on your daddy. What do you know about him?”
“Not much. Mom always referred to him as ‘that mistake I made before I married Frank Alvarez.’ She wouldn’t tell me squat. Not his name or where he came from or how they got together. The reason they broke up is pretty obvious now.”
“Yeah. Not many primates can handle life with a wolf. They think it’s like having a dog. That a wolf can be domesticated. Never happens. A wolf’s too powerful for anybody but another wolf. Or”—here came the grin again—“a really special coyote.”
“Modest, aren’t you?” Willy snorted. “Where were you when I was in high school?”
“Texas. Sorry I couldn’t get here any sooner.” His arms tightened slightly around her. Not a cage or a trap. More like a seat belt on an especially bumpy road. A road that swerved abruptly down a decidedly dangerous exit.
His scent surrounded her, entered her. She had to take a taste. She moved her tongue to his throat for a tentative lick. She tasted salt and man, felt the thud of his pulse against her lips. She shifted position, and her hand brushed the thick rod below his hips. The sound he made came out somewhere between a moan and a whine.
That was all the she-wolf needed. She swept in for another taste, this time with her teeth. She was hungry, so hungry. This male would do nicely.
“Willy. Willy-gal, hold up.”
What for? His odor said he wanted this. Wanted it with a vengeance. You don’t say no to an alpha. She shoved him to the ground and pinned him there. She’d start at his throat and work her way down, and she wouldn’t take it easy on him.
He bit her. On the shoulder. Hard.
Willy yelped and snapped upright, and, briefly, back into a human mindset. “What did you do that for?”
“You know why. The first time at shifting can really blow out the hormones. Another reason you should’ve had family around you. I don’t want you doing something you’ll hate yourself for in the morning.”
“I don’t know what you…” Their position dawned on her. “Oh. Oh.”
“That’s what I thought. Believe it or not, I know how it is. Mama was pure coyote, but Daddy has wolf in him. It gave us boys a whole different perspective. But that’s not the worst of it. Some of us picked up this pesky sense of honor along with the wolf blood. I know what your body’s doing to you right now. The coyote in me wants to take advantage and do what we do when the full moon’s out and then slink off before sunrise. The wolf insists I do what’s right. Right now, that’s take you home and let all this sink in. Not that I wouldn’t mind a tumble, but we got the rest of our lives. You’re going to marry me, remember?”
“I never said yes.”
“Beside the point. Now let’s head back. It’ll be faster on four legs. Show me how well you can switch.”
“Shouldn’t you put that away first?”
He looked where she was looking. His glistening red rocket had burst free of its furry sheathe and quivered in search of prey. “Dang it all,” he rumbled.
Willy couldn’t help snickering. And licking her lips. She was losing it, she realized. Losing herself to the wolf. But dammit, she just didn’t care. He just smelled so right.
He watched the process work itself out in her eyes, smelled it in how her scent hiked itself until it burned. Her effect on him was alre
ady obvious. His voice came out a raspy snarl. “Up to you, darlin’. But decide quick. I can’t—”
She lunged, quick as a snake. Her mouth fastened on his and her tongue dang near went the whole way down his throat, like she wanted to lap up his soul by the roots. Her fingers dug into his skin and left gouges. A growl boiled up out of her and entered him through their connection. She hitched herself onto his hips. No way either of them would escape this unscathed now.
He dug his fingers into her hair, like he’d wanted to from the start. He scraped his hands down the length of her back, then cupped her butt. Be better with a tail down there, but maybe that’d come later.
They broke apart, both panting heavily. Then Willy bit his arm.
A flash of guilt and panic lit her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
He bit her back.
For a moment she just sat there, startled more by the act than the sting of it. “How we are,” Cody said. “Normal for us. Nothing to feel guilty over.” He slanted a look at her. “You sure you done this before?”
“Yes. No. Sort of. The boys couldn’t… I always…oh crap.”
Cody only grinned. “Well, this dog’s always open to learning new tricks. How about you show me how the apes do it?”
Hesitantly, she did. Hands at first. She indulged herself and stroked that patch of hair on his chest that so fascinated her. He responded by nuzzling, then licking her breasts with his slow and raspy tongue. That encouraged her to use her own tongue on his chest, then his neck. Tongue led to teeth. She nibbled and nipped. He responded in kind. Her desire rekindled, and swept out from her loins to the roots of her hair. Gentle caresses turned into rough pawing, and gasps coarsened out into growls. Slow and easy faded before the tide of heat.
She surfaced briefly. “Not—”
“Not what?”
She gasped as his hand slid down her inner thigh. “Not doggy style.”
“Not my favorite, either. I like to look a gal in the eye when I make her howl.” Still she hesitated. “Now what?”
“I don’t know. Something isn’t…”
“Wait, I got it.” He rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him. “How’s that?”
Her butt clenched and wriggled, as if wagging a tail. “Yes. That’s it. That’s better.”
“Figured as much. Typical alpha, gotta be on top.”
She lowered herself, and his words got lost in a yelp. He fit her, and suited her, perfectly. Their howls cut the night to shreds as she let the wolf run free.
* * * *
Willy awoke with the sun on her fur. She yawned and stretched her forelegs. She felt relaxed, at peace, the clamoring urges sated and stilled at last. For the first time in over a decade, she felt complete.
She glanced at Cody, curled up beside her and snoring gently out the side of his muzzle. He twitched a leg in his sleep. She wagged her tail contentedly.
Whoa. Hold up. Four legs? A tail?
The night before roared back in on her. Beth and Andy. Fury. Panic. Cody. What she’d done afterwards. What they had done together.
No getting around it. She was a werewolf. If the attack on Andy hadn’t driven that home, the romp with Cody had. And what a romp. They’d—
Okay. Let’s just put those thoughts on the back burner, shall we?
Willy sighed and got up on her hind legs. Her body blurred and shifted back to normal. But then normal had just become a relative term, hadn’t it? All the wholeness in the world couldn’t change the fact she wasn’t human.
So she was a werewolf. Now what?
She turned her face to the sky. No more full moon with its coy romantic light. Harsh sunlight burned away all romantic notions. No matter what she’d done last night, it was morning now. She was Willy, with a job and responsibilities and a sister to look after. Running around naked in the woods with a coyote—even a cute one who smelled so right—wasn’t part of the plan.
She sent another, longer look at Cody. Regrets? Of course not. Never. But…well, geez. How do you handle a man who turns into a coyote at the drop of a hat? Because if he shifted, she’d want to as well, and that just couldn’t happen again.
She’d returned to human, and by God she intended to stay that way. Full moon or no full moon. Cody or no Cody. There was simply no way they could have a life together. No sir.
Right, hon. Go on saying that until you believe it.
No. Put those thoughts away for awhile. Focus on what mattered. Beth. She would go home, set things right with Beth. Then have a long, hard talk with Mom. Then figure out what to do next.
It wrenched her heart to walk away from Cody, but she did it. She had to. She turned her back on the woods and the night and the male who had brought her completeness and padded down the hill toward Coopersburg, and the dreary but familiar life that waited for her.
* * * *
Someone—maybe Cody’s god, Chaos—favored her. She found her clothing on the ground where she’d abandoned it. Her favorite blouse had made it through the night relatively unscathed. She dressed slowly, even now reluctant to leave last night behind. Don’t think about it. Think of something else. Like what kind of story to tell the neighbors. Stray dogs? Beth brought a puppy home? I’ll figure something out.
A little more confident now, she stepped out of the woods and hit the street, and almost at once cut wolf spoor.
No mistaking it. Definite wolf. The werewolves from the hills. Her kin, according to Cody. She picked up the hint of his scent beneath theirs. They’d chased him out of Coopersburg, then lost him. Their frustrated howls had raised her neck hairs last night. Searching for Cody. Searching for her.
And when they hadn’t found either, they’d backtrailed him to where he’d left her. At her house.
Beth.
She’d have kept the door locked, wouldn’t she? She wouldn’t have opened it with all that howling out there, would she?
Of course she would. Beth was Beth. She’d open the door for Godzilla.
Unaware of the snarl on her lips, Willy ran for home.
* * * *
The absence of a furry body snuggled against his finally rousted Cody out of sleep. He yawned and rose, starting coyote and ending human. “Chaos, what a night. If that was a first date, I can’t wait for the honeymoon.”
He found himself talking to the pines. Willy was gone.
Not for too long. She’d left hot scent and an obvious trail. Hightailed it down the hillside, headed for home.
Dang it, what was with that gal? He’d given her every chance and choice. He’d even shown her patience, and you didn’t drag that out of a coyote too often. And what does she do? Up and leaves him. Just who was the coyote here, him or her?
Must be the ape blood, of course. Always over-thinking everything. Couldn’t even enjoy a good tumble without making up recriminations afterward. By now she probably had herself convinced she’d run off to spare him grief or somesuch other fool thing. Wasn’t that just like an ape?
Well then, he’d just have to go after her and unconvince her. A she-wolf lived in that sweet body, too, and the wolf deserved the best mate Chaos could deliver. Which meant him, whether the ape in her liked it or not. If one thing could ramp up a Texan’s juices, it was rescuing a lady in distress.
He sucked in a breath, got her scent in his nose, and trotted off down the trail.
He found the spot where she’d stopped and dressed, the air still charged with her presence. He also found his own hastily-discarded outfit farther down the hill. The jeans and boots were wearable, but his shirt had been savaged and urinated on. Danged wolves always had to make a statement.
Out on the street he found where she’d stopped, and why. The wolf-odor burned in his nose like acid. The length of his backbone prickled, like hackles rising. They’d go for the house, and she’d go for them. Protect pack and territory, no matter the odds. It’s what alphas did.
“Chaos bite it,” Cody snarled, and pelted in pursuit.
* * * *
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Willy bypassed the front door and headed around back. The wolf scent blasted at her. She edged up to the kitchen. The back door hung open, the screen door unlatched. The scraping lupine stink made her growl.
“About time you got back. You have any idea how long I’ve been sitting here?”
So much for surprise. She slammed inside. A thickset blond man sat at her kitchen table, slurping coffee. He grinned up at her with a wolf’s yellow eyes. “On the other hand, some things are worth the wait.”
“Where’s my sister?”
“That the simian?” His nose creased in supreme distaste. “That explains how we overlooked you for so long. We don’t mix with apes if we can help it. Though obviously somebody did.” He snickered nastily. “She’s okay. We don’t care for primates, but they can be useful. As hostages, for instance.” He lapped some coffee, and licked his lips. “Damn, this is good. Fresh ground?”
Willy’s blood ran cold as the moon. “I’ll only ask you one more time. Where’s Beth?”
“I said get your hackles down. She’s safe, and she’ll stay safe as long as you cooperate. That goes for your buddy the prairie dog, too.” He tried to peer around her shoulder. “He better not be out there if he knows what’s good for him. You know what he did to my brother?”
Willy shook. Not with fear. Nowhere at all near fear. “You’re not paying attention, are you? I want my sister back.”
“You seem to be missing the point here. We’re the ones in charge.” He set his cup aside and got up slowly. He looked down on Willy with a smirk. “Here’s how it goes. You come with us. The Chief will decide—”
Willy lunged. She bent his arm behind his back, grabbed the nape of his neck, and slammed his face down on the table. He yelped and struggled, for all the good either did. Willy spent her days hefting tires and tightening lug nuts and pumping jacks and lifting hoods and trunks and auto parts. This bozo probably never lifted anything heavier than his leg. She had him in strength and leverage, and she was mad as hell.
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