It took her three second of fuming before she blew up. “Excuse me? Just because you can’t have kids doesn’t mean you are useless. That is the biggest load of bullshit! What a pack of Neanderthals!” Sadie was horrified and pissed off. If this was what she was joining into then she wanted no part in it. She was not going to be a barefoot and pregnant wife dutifully waiting at home with a meatloaf for her husband to come home to. Fudge that!
“Calm it, Wonder Woman. It’s ok. Really. I’ll explain it more later but we are dying out so mating someone who can have pups is a big deal. Our kind needs to survive. I don’t have to like it but I’ve accepted it.”
“I’m sorry, Lee.” How horrible it must have been for her. To have her shortcomings thrown back in her face like that from any man.
“It’s fine. Now stop looking at me like that.”
“Sorry.”
“Shut up.”
They both smiled and then laughed.
Chapter Twenty-one
It was happening today.
He had no doubt in his mind that she would change. Tyson just knew. Just like when he asked Gaia for her help, he knew she would answer. Owen was hesitant only because he’d never seen it done and as she was now, nothing had changed. Sadie looked and acted completely human. But she had changed, he could smell it. His daily runs took him by Lee’s house and even from a distance he could smell the change in her. Others wouldn’t but they weren’t accustomed to her natural scent like he was. That warm, slightly sweet smell she had was richer, more defined now.
Intoxicating as hell.
Tyson ran a hand over the three day’s worth of beard he was sporting. His dusty blonde hair hung in his face and stuck to his skin in clumps as sweat damped his forehead. He was shirtless and had been pantless only minutes before as he ran as a wolf. He’d wear the pants but never bothered with a shirt. He’d only feel confined in it. After a year of not wearing clothes he found them restricting.
Owen had shown up at Sadie’s house where Tyson had decided to stay till he knew she’d be cared for. He had placed a pile of folded clothes on the porch beside where he sat. Tyson had changed back to wolf after he and Lee had whisked her away to Lee’s house but the changing had become erratic. He’d go to bed in one form and wake up in another. Sometimes he’d feel the pull of the other form and just give in. He felt like a pup again learning to control it.
“Just in case,” Owen had said as he put pile down beside him.
Just in case of what? he had wondered. Turns out he had woken up human the next morning still curled on the porch. Tyson had grabbed the clothes and went inside. Sadie didn’t really have neighbors in the conventional sense but in the case one stopped by it wouldn’t be good for them to find him naked on the porch.
So he wore the clothes then bitched and moaned about them. Truth was though, he was starting to get used to them again. And didn’t that just bother the hell out of him. This human thing wasn’t permanent. After tonight he was leaving. Sadie could come home, he had kept it safe in her absence, and that was that. The fact that he changed back meant nothing. The plan was still the same as it always had been. Run until he could run no further.
Owen, the bastard, thought the plan had changed. If the clothes weren’t proof enough of that then his checking in every day and smug smiles were. Two days ago he showed up with beer when Tyson had been fixing dinner. All he had wanted was meat that wasn’t raw for once. Cooked meat. Nothing else. He didn’t want company. But when he twisted the cap off the bottle and held it out to Tyson, his arm had acted on its own and reached out to grab it. Too far into it to turn away, he grunted an acknowledgment of thanks and grabbed another steak to add it to the grill. They ate and drank in silence. Owen smiled out towards the forest with contentment. Tyson kept his head bent towards his plate with a crevice as deep as the Grand Canyon across his forehead. After they finished off the beer, Owen got up to leave. Once more, neither of them spoke as Owen grabbed Tyson’s shoulder and squeezed.
He was pissed just thinking about that night. “Nothing has changed,” he wanted to yell at Owen. But it even sounded weak to Tyson. The longer he stayed the more he felt himself falling back into old habits. Problem was, he wasn’t alright. Tyson wasn’t getting better; the darkness was still there trying to swallow him. It was only that his human self was becoming more aware. Waking up, so to speak. Being back near his pack was screwing with his mind. He could feel them all nearby, the bond not having been completely severed. And that was not something he cared to think on at the moment.
He pushed his hair out of his eyes. His run had been a hard one. He wanted to be exhausted for tonight so he wasn’t tempted to find the pack on their monthly run. Going to the pack tonight would be bad. Seeing Sadie would be really bad. He already dreamed at all hours of the day of what she’d look like. He could deal with that. He could deal with the dreaming. What Tyson couldn’t deal with was seeing for himself what color she was. Would she compliment his colors? Would she like to chase rabbits or deer more? Would she feel the pull of the moon like he did? Would she feel the pull to mate like he did?
He let out a slow breath and tried to think of anything but Sadie under the light of the moon. He’d shower, fix himself something to eat, and then lock himself in with a movie or something just as distracting. If all went well, he’d be out by eleven and miss the majority of the run.
Gravel crunched under tires in the driveway and he shifted so he could see out the front window. It wasn’t a car he was familiar with. Once the engine turned off, the man inside sat for awhile and Tyson’s suspicions started to rise. People got lost in this area all the time but the man had yet to get out of the car to ask for help.
He walked through the room to get a better look at the man when he pulled out a camera and snapped off a few shots. That was dumb. Tyson tossed opened the door and stood for just a moment. He wanted to give the little fuck time to see what he was up against. Then he walked, down the steps and across the yard to where the car sat. The man inside had been too busy looking at the back of the camera to notice Tyson was standing right beside the car. He tapped the roof to get his attention.
“What do you think you are doing?”
The little shit jumped. He was probably around the same age as Tyson was but built like a stick. There was no meat on the wiry man. His hair was a deep brown and slicked to the side. He wore a suit, the tie loosened and the jacket draped across the passenger seat. His best guess was a lawyer.
“Who are you?” he asked indignantly.
“I live here.”
The lawyer looked at the address on the paperwork beside him and then to the house. “No you don’t. Sadie James lives here, alone.”
“She does, does she? Well, then I guess I will just have to pack my stuff up.” Tyson crossed his arms over his bare chest.
“Who are you?” the man asked while flipping through the papers.
“No. You don’t ask the questions.” The man looked up at him and frowned. “You back your shitty little car back down the driveway and get the hell of my property before you lose your right to walk ever again.”
“You can’t—”
“I can. Now give me your camera.” He didn’t wait for compliance and reached in and grabbed it off of his lap. Tyson turned it around once before finding the memory card slot and popped the card out. He dropped the camera back into the man's lap and didn’t feel the least bit sorry that it landed on his nuts.
“Now go.” He was walking back to the porch tossing the card in the air and catching it as he went. The engine had started up and was turning around by the time he reached the front door. When he was out of sight Tyson looked at the card in his hand. M. Riley was written in blocky letters. “Riley huh?” A search on Sadie’s computer would turn up something on Mr. M. Riley but he already knew he was related to Peter.
Looks as if he had something to do tonight after all.
***
It had been too long since a man had touched h
er like she was something precious. Too long since the last time she felt the reckless sexual abandoned at which she lost herself in. Peter was the last man that had touched her and his thin non-calloused fingers hadn’t brought her pleasure, only hopeless fear.
This man’s hands were god’s gift to women. Or at least to her. They skimmed lightly down her shoulders following the elegant curve of her spine to where it flared out at her hips. The soft touch, suddenly hungry, gripped her ass and pulled her forward into his body.
The hairs on her neck strained upward as his breath caressed her skin in a seductive warmth. His lips, so close to her skin but never touching, tilted in a sexy accomplished smile. He knew he had her right where he wanted her and was damn proud of himself. Sadie threaded her fingers through the light brown hair at the back of his neck and gently pulled him closer. Her not so subtle hint was taken and his lips drew down the long column of neck down to the curve of her shoulder where he nuzzled. The spot tingled as his stubbly chin scratched over her sensitive skin.
Delirious with sensations, Sadie let her head fall hapless to the side giving him more room to play. His lips parted once more in a smile against her skin. He paused his seduction of his mouth to grip and pulled her hips towards his. With their bodies flush against each other—his hard and taunt, Sadie’s soft and nearly boneless—he bit down on her neck…
Sadie’s eyes flew open. For a second, she didn’t know who she was, where she was. Not her house, the ceiling was wrong. The bed was small and lumpy too. Her eyes blinked wildly as she began to remember her situation. Lee’s house. Living room. Couch. Crap. Tonight was the full moon.
For the past few nights she had been having strange dreams. Sometimes they were about sex, sometimes they were about running through the forest, but mostly they were about sex. Her body would just not turn off. Night and day she was in a perpetual state of need. Lee laughed knowingly at her after the first morning. Without saying as much, this was apparently a normal event a female wolf goes through.
Her hand gingerly touched the spot on her neck that was throbbing; the spot the man had kissed, sucked and bitten. If she thought hard enough, she could feel the teeth impressions in her skin.
His presence was nothing new. Always slightly fuzzy, she could never fully make out the details of him. Shape, sure she had a basic idea of what he looked like, but it was more of an outline, a crude sketch. She’d seen only flashes of truth intermingled in the cloudy dream. Brown hair. She remembered his light brown hair from the dream. Too dark to be blonde, his hair was the color of cinnamon, a toasty light brown that complimented his eyes. She closed her eyes on a sigh. His eyes. They were the only part of him that was clear. Each morning she would grasp at her dream and try to remember the fleeting man. Sadie could remember the color of his eyes and now the color of his hair, and that he had a double earlobe on his right ear but not the shape of his nose or the curve of his chin.
There was a sheen of sweat that covered her from head to toe. The blanket had been kicked off at some point in the night and was now tangled around her feet. She couldn’t decide if she was hot or cold. The shifting feelings had been growing over the last few days. Hot flashes followed chills that made her teeth chatter. It was all “normal” these things she was experiencing. Lee said all the females go through some combination of them at some point each month. It was like PMS on crack. “It won’t so bad next month and even better the following. It’s only like this since it’s your first time.”
After tonight it would be better. After she turned into a freaking wolf her cold sweats and sex dreams would settle down. Oh joy.
“Get up!” Lee yelled from her room. “Get up. Get up. Get up!”
“Are you talking to me?” Sadie asked with a yawn when a smiling, fully dressed Lee came into sight.
“Duh. You. Out of bed. Now.” She pointed to Sadie then the bathroom. “I have our day all planned out. Hop to it lady.”
She was secretly pleased that Lee had planned a day of stuff to do. Sadie had been worrying over that herself. She needed to keep busy or the day would crawl by and by the time night settled she would be a head case. She groaned and grumbled a bit as she walked to the bathroom for posterity sake.
Lee saw through her act and yelled, “You’re welcome!” as the door closed.
A little while later, they both reclined back in chairs with goo on their faces. They both had massages and were now allowing a woman to rub mud into their pores. It was heaven. The day had been designed to keep Sadie’s mind off of things to come and it had. After a short but challenging hike in the morning, they had lunch then went shopping which led them to the spa where they had spent most the afternoon getting pampered. After they got the mud off their faces they were to pick up Owen and go home for dinner and then wait. Owen and Lee weren’t sure when exactly she would begin her change but they would be with her every step of the way.
She cracked an eye open and found Lee watching her. “Stop that,” she said as she opened both eyes, catching Lee looking away. “You’ve been staring at me all day like I was going to change right in the middle of the mall. I’m not. You said so yourself. So stop staring.”
“How do you feel?” was her response.
“Lovely, thank you for asking.”
Lee rolled over on her side leaning her head on her bent elbow. “Are you scared?”
“Yes,” she admitted. There was no use hiding it. Sadie was terrified. “What was your first time like?”
“Ah, the tall, lanky, post pubescent girl that I once was had been whirlwind of excited nerves. You know the Tasmanian Devil?”
“Animal or cartoon?”
“Cartoon,” she said.
“Yeah, I know Taz.”
“Well that’s what I was like the weeks leading up to my change. See, everyone changes at a different time. I had just gotten my period for the first time so we knew it would be soon but there was no telling if it would be this moon or the next. So my family, my pack, we prepared each full moon just in case.” Lee had rolled back over to her back. “I knew it was going to be that moon. It was like my bones were vibrating with knowledge of it.”
Sadie nodded even though Lee wasn’t looking at her. She knew that feeling. Had it that very moment, in fact.
“Owen’s dad had been Alpha then. He must have felt it too because when he saw me that night he smiled and asked if I was ready.” She snorted. “Hell yeah I was ready. Changing is like a rite of passage within the pack. I would no longer be a pup but a wolf. He stayed with me the whole time. It didn’t hurt necessarily but was uncomfortable. We then ran as a pack. It was…unforgettable. I often wish I could be a pimply teen again just so I can experience it for the first time all over again.”
She was comforted by Lee’s story. They didn’t say anything else as the woman who had spread the mud on their faces came to remove it. She was relaxed and surprisingly enough, she was worry free. After tonight she would be something else, someone else. It’s what she had wanted when moving to Andora. A new life. This was a bit more than she had anticipated but wasn’t entirely unwelcome. With the tail came a community.
Owen was waiting outside of his veterinary clinic when they pulled up. With a backpack suspended from one shoulder he jogged over to the car. After he folded himself into the back seat, he asked “ready?”
Sadie looked back over her shoulder and nodded. “Ready.”
A grin, bright with excitement broke out on his face. His enthusiasm was contagious and soon all three of them were smiling. That feeling lasted up until the first pangs of the change hit her. Sadie sat on the couch in Lee’s red plaid robe. It was like menstrual cramp at first. Granted, it was the worst cramp she had ever felt in her life.
“It’s like someone is tattooing my ovaries,” she complained to Lee.
“It shouldn’t hurt that bad. Mine didn’t. Owen?”
He was frowning at Sadie as she clutched her midsection. Sweat had beaded on her forehead and dampened her hair. He pushe
d it back off her face and spoke quietly. “You are much older than the pups that change.” She glared at him but broke it to whimper as the pain began to spread out from her center. “Just keep breathing and know this is the worst it will ever be.”
He lied. It got worse. Soon her entire body felt like it was being crushed in a vice. Her breath came short and shallow. All of her muscles were rigid with tension. All the hard work the masseuse had done earlier was being viciously undone. Lee had put and ice back on her head and behind her neck. It had taken away the worse of the headache she was sporting but it did nothing for the rest of her body.
She felt the pop in her leg first. More by surprise than pain she cried out. Owen was with her in an instant. He held her hand almost as tight as she held him. “Alright Sadie, you are almost there.” Unable to unclench her teeth, she nodded. “You are changing. It will feel odd but shouldn’t hurt,” he said but didn’t look very convincing.
“Just let it happen. Don’t fight it.”
Her muscles were still tight and twitched occasionally but she did try to relax. The shallow breaths were coming faster. She felt lightheaded. The world whirled for a moment before Owen’s face appeared in front of her.
“Deep breaths, Sadie. Do it with me now.”
The air came fast and hard, choking her.
“Slower.”
She watched his chest slowly rise with the inhale and lower with the exhale. With her own breath she matched his. Together they breathed deeply, slowly. The pain was ebbing away with each calming breath. Her limbs still twitched but in the back of her mind she knew that was normal.
“Another one,” Owen told her and she sucked in a breath.
This time when she exhaled, the world went dark.
Chapter Twenty-two
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