by Marcy Jacks
And he needed more than just the initial ten grand.
It was a lot, and it would go far, but having more in his account would help so much more. Would go so much further.
Jason checked his watch. He'd been in here, what? Twenty-five minutes? He had to be almost finished.
His phone said otherwise.
"I've only been in here five minutes? Are you fucking kidding me?"
He looked up at the wolf, waiting for that voice in his head, but there was nothing this time around.
Though it did look as though the wolf was smiling at him.
Bastard.
Release me. You will come to me eventually.
"Whatever." Jason went back to his chair, planting himself on it. He looked at the wolf, and it looked back at him. “Whatever this is, it’s not working guys. Nice try.”
He stared at the wolf, waiting to see if it would do something.
Or if it would really start talking using its mouth instead of…whatever it was using.
"I'm here to see if being a wolf soul actually means anything. You know some wolves think we make you stronger by eating us? Or…” He couldn't say the rest.
Luckily that hadn't happened to his mother, but he doubted she was grateful to not be raped while being eaten alive. She probably would have preferred to having nothing terrible and horrifying happen to her in front of her daughter.
"It doesn't seem to work." He shouldn't be sad about that. Why did he feel saddened by that? "I mean, I hear some wolves swear up and down by it. They say they had no control beforehand, that they were wild and ruthless, but then they mate with someone who has blood like mine or they drink some blood or fuck or whatever and it's supposed to be enough. They get control.”
Jason eyed the wolf, who still seemed to be patiently listening.
"A wolf killed my parents in front of my sister, thinking my mother's blood would be enough I'll bet, but it's hard to tell what an insane werewolf is thinking when it's in animal shape. Can't exactly get a proper motive out of something that looks like, well, you."
The wolf whined again.
I am no killer. Not without just cause. I am sorry for your parents.
Jason tensed. He stared at the wolf, noting the intelligence in its eyes.
He fixed his glasses, making sure he was seeing right.
Yeah, that glint was definitely there, and he was sure he wasn't seeing lips moving.
"I'm…not just hearing that. Right?" He looked around again, hoping to see something, anything that would explain that.
He touched his ears and the back of his head, just in case this was part of the test and Mr. Forg had placed a bug on him at some point during one of the many times he'd held on to Jason's shoulder.
Nope. He didn’t feel a little receiver planted on him anywhere, and the voice that spoke to him, that sounded low and sultry, continued to be heard only in Jason’s head.
No. It's been a while since I have been able to speak like this. Words of man.
Jason looked at the wolf, who looked back at him, but also seemed to be curiously studying its surroundings.
My thanks for that, though I am unsure of this place. I know it was you who brought me out of the wilds.
Jason wanted to laugh. He glanced toward the door then back at the wolf. "Do you know where you are?"
The wolf regarded him. Do you?
Jason blinked. "I can't believe I'm talking to you, but yeah. We're in the basement of Humanity Now. It's a charity organization. They help people."
These are hunters.
The way the voice hissed those words, even inside of Jason's head, was a shock.
"Hunters…no, that doesn't make sense. You should see the people upstairs. Some of them barely look like they can get around without their inhalers or canes."
And yet, here I am.
Jason swallowed. "Here you are…how exactly are you speaking to me right now?"
The wolf's tail continued to wag lightly behind him.
My kind…we can speak with those that belong to use. That is the way of things. We seek out those who belong to us by smell. I have been…asleep for a long time.
"Yeah." Jason took off his glasses, cleaning the lenses on his shirt, just in case, before putting them back on. "You don't talk like someone who's been around for a while. How old are you?"
I am old enough to know you have been tricked, even if I do not understand how this magick is possible.
The wolf actually raised a paw, bringing it to the cage, but this time it did not yelp as it was shocked.
Maybe it was getting used to it. Or testing it.
And once again, those glowing eyes turned their attention to Jason, locking onto him.
Freezing him in place.
I also know that you belong to me. You are mine and mine alone. I want you to come to me. I know you want the same.
Jason swallowed. His entire body warmed, and for a minute, he couldn't think.
Then he summoned the words he wanted, but they felt stale and empty in his mouth. "All shifters think wolf souls belong to them. It's just…my smell is making you think that."
Wolf soul…is that what you call yourselves now?
Now? Jason wasn't getting this.
“Well, I’m not going over there. I don’t know how things work where you come from, but I’m not into anything on four legs.”
Would you prefer me like this?
Jason’s eyes flew wide. He turned his head, looking at the wolf, and he saw the wolf, but he also saw a man standing there.
He wore clothing that looked like it came from a costume party. Some medieval-looking thing with a long tunic and leather pants. Jason thought it was medieval. He didn’t know much about period clothes, but the fur around his shoulders looked nice.
Jason squinted his eyes. He took his glasses off, cleaned them on his shirt one more time, and put them back on, but the image was still blurred.
He shook his head. “What’s going on?”
This is an image of what I look like. Do you find me appealing?
Jason’s mouth dried. His groin tightened, but he was going to ignore that.
“I might, if you didn’t look like an image off a broken TV screen.”
The wolf chuckled. I like you. You’re amusing.
“Great.”
Come over here. I can show you how real I can feel.
Jason shuddered. He couldn’t stop the rush of pleasure from hitting him, and this guy was just talking to him.
He looked back at the shifter, noting how he hadn’t changed. The wolf was still there, but so was the image.
“I’ll go over there, but not because you told me to. I’m just curious.”
The wolf held still by the bars. Jason stopped in front of them. He could hear the soft buzzing of electricity that vibrated through the metal.
The man on the other side stepped forward, still a blurry glow. Astral projection?
How was he doing this?
The male reached his hand through the bars. Concerning, but since it wasn’t real and the giant wolf behind him wasn’t moving, Jason didn’t either.
Until those cold fingers touched his cheek, and Jason inhaled a sharp breath, his cock stirring.
"What's your name?"
The wolf and man seemed to think on it. I can't remember.
Jason blinked. "You don't…really? You don't remember your own name?"
Fuck, why did this feel so good? Why was he letting it happen?
A ghostly figure was touching his face, and it sent shockwaves of pleasure all the way down his body and to his prick.
He’d never been this hard before in his life. Thank God he wore jeans.
It’s been so long since I’ve thought of my name. Now I can only think of you.
That seemed so utterly sad. Jason didn't know what to say about that, but he wanted to say something that would make it better.
"I'm sorry."
That was lame. That was so lame he didn't
even register on the lame reader.
The heat in his body increased. Jason tensed. He sighed, a wave of pleasure hitting him, as though there was a hand on his dick. He looked down, but there was nothing there.
He looked back at the wolf. No, at the man who was touching him, and he seemed fixated.
You are the one. You are mine. I knew it the moment I smelled you.
Jason shook his head, though he gasped for breath when that pleasure increased. His dick throbbed, and he felt the strange need to submit to this man.
“I don’t…God…I don’t belong to anyone.” He shook his head, trying to regain some sense of control. “H-how are you doing this?”
It’s not the real thing.
“N-no shit.”
The wolf seemed to smile at him. I like you.
Jason blinked. “You do?"
The wolf seemed to chuckle. Don't sound so shocked. I know you favor me, too.
The image of the man glanced down, as though looking at Jason’s dick.
Jason swallowed, shifting from foot to foot, trying to ignore the pain that was becoming his erection. "Yeah, well, you are a giant wolf. You look really nice. All majestic and whatnot. You should be on the cover of a magazine. Like National Geographic or something."
If he looked anything like the picture he put in front of Jason now, then he could also be on the cover of Men’s Health.
This sounds like a compliment. Thank you.
Jason rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, you're welcome. It's a nice magazine to be on, for the most part. They always put beautiful looking animals on the cover."
The man smiled. So did the wolf. You think me beautiful?
Was it possible for a wolf to raise a brow? This one looked like it did.
And Jason knew what it was getting at. Heat rushed into his face, and he was suddenly mortified that this wolf would think he was getting at something like that.
"No way, don't even think about it. I am not complimenting you like that."
Like what?
Jason narrowed his eyes, not willing to let himself think the wolf didn't know what was up. He turned his face away, breaking contact from the hand on his cheek.
Just like that, the spell was over. His dick softened, he was no longer about to jump out of his skin with lust, and he felt stupid for ever letting this thing touch him.
The ghostly figure vanished, and then there was only the wolf. There only ever was the wolf. It was playing mind tricks on him.
"You know what I'm talking about. Don't even think about it. You're a nice-looking wolf, but that's it. I'm not into bestiality or whatever."
I didn't suggest that you would be, but you do want to come in here with me. That much is clear.
Jason crossed his arms, sat back down, and faced away from the wolf. He made a note on the paper that whoever was trapped in that hairy monster was crazy as hell. He also wrote out that it could control what people saw.
He was absolutely not going to mention anything about the touching or what happened to his dick when the wolf-man-thing had been touching his face.
"Yeah right. I'm not taking the risk that some damned werewolf is going to eat me alive."
"I promise you, you will be begging for more by the time I finish with you."
Jason froze. That didn't sound like words inside his head. That sounded real. That sounded like…
He turned his head, slowly. He couldn't believe it. Not yet. He couldn't let himself believe that there was someone there.
Except there was.
This time, it was no blurry vision.
Where the wolf stood was nothing except a very naked, very built man. As clear as day. Nothing to suggest this was an illusion.
The wolf itself was entirely gone.
Jason's mouth dried. He tried to swallow, but he couldn't seem to get his mouth and tongue to work.
The pen slipped from his hand.
The wolf…no, the man, smiled at him. "Do you think me attractive now, little man? I have no clothing, but I hardly think you mind that.”
Jason pushed himself out of his chair. He kept looking around himself and through the bars of the cage, which suddenly didn't look as though they could hold him anymore.
He searched for the wolf, but he didn't see it. Just the man.
He stepped up to the bars, and only when he was there did Jason realize he probably still couldn't get through the bars.
The bars had been much too close together for a wolf that size to slip through, but a man…he might be able to make the squeeze if he really wanted to, but his fingers barely grazed the metal before Jason saw the spark of blue that jolted the man back.
As though he'd been forced back by an invisible hand.
The male cursed. At least, that was what Jason thought he'd done because it sounded as though he'd done it in another language.
"I despise this place."
"You're a…you're a…"
Jason couldn't get the words out. He also had trouble keeping his eyes above the waist level because, holy God, not only was this guy a massive wolf shifter he was…
Yeah, the man was hung, and now that Jason's brain had made the distinction, he couldn't stop blushing to save his own life.
Not only was he huge. But he was hard. His dick stood up, curved against his belly and ready to fuck.
And from the way this guy looked at Jason, he very clearly wanted the person he fucked to be him.
The man chuckled, completely shameless to what Jason had noticed about him. "You do want to come in here with me. I only needed you to come that close, and then I finally regained enough control to shift. Not some trick this time. I can touch you in reality now, with these hands.”
Jason could hardly breathe. This was too crazy. None of this made any sense, and yet he couldn’t get away from it.
First a wolf, then an illusion, and now a man. “I…no, I need to get Mr. Forg. He should know about this."
"Wait!"
Jason stopped short. He'd barely made two steps to the door and he was already pulled back by the spell of this man's voice.
Don't look back. Don't look back. "What?"
He was having so much trouble not looking back, but if he did look back, he might be put under another spell.
"Don't go to them. Come to me."
The crazy thing was how much Jason wanted to obey those words. He wanted to rush to the other man and touch him. His mouth ached to press all over every inch of that perfectly scarred skin.
He looked as though he'd been in a lot of fights in his lifetime, but those scars didn't make him ugly.
Not even close. They only succeeded in making Jason want to lick and suck on them as though he were a…
"They…they need to know that you're a man again. They've been trying to make you wake up. The experiment worked."
"You're my mate. That's why I am here."
Jason frowned, he looked back at the man, and he shook his head. "There's no such thing as mates. That's just…that's made up to make wolves and their lovers feel better about the way they treat each other."
Which was badly. The shifters walked all over their supposed mates, as though they were lower than the low.
And the people who were mated to these creatures…they allowed it. They allowed it because they had to. Most humans could never take on a fully grown shifter, and a lot of people mated to shifters seemed to believe, or pretended, that there was something otherworldly about it, that they needed their mates more than they needed the air they breathed.
As if. Jason wasn't like those people. He didn't take orders from anyone, and he wasn't going to let a guy like this look at him and start bossing him around either.
"I'm getting Mr. Forg."
"I told you they were hunters."
Jason stopped again. He looked back at the other man, which turned out to be a mistake because then he couldn't take his eyes off him.
"That's not…even if that were true, it doesn't matter. They help
people, and they were helping you."
"My wolf bothered no one. I have been roaming this land for years, hardly a man, woman, or child noted my existence, and then your hunter friends came. They hunted me down, and they killed the animals who were in their way that I was protecting."
"I thought you couldn't remember your own name? How do you know any of that?"
The man narrowed his eyes, as though he were accepting a challenge. "I know. It's instinct. The wolf and I are separate, and the wolf has kept control for a long time, but I am still aware of the passage of time. I still know a hunter when I smell it, even if they smell strange and foreign, and I can still smell my mate, and I want you to come over here before I tear this place apart trying to get to you."
Jason's eyes flew wide. He faced the other man fully, noting how close he was getting to the bars.
Jason took one step forward, forced himself to stop, and then turned and ran out of the room, listening to the sound of the shifter's heart-wrenching scream behind him.
Chapter Four
Jason stared at Mr. Forg, not at all sure if he’d heard that right. "Wait, sorry, you want me to what? But I just said—"
"I know what you said, Jason, and we are very grateful for your help, but this is also important to our research."
Jason didn't understand. "I think I pissed this guy off by running away from him. What kind of research are you doing again? I mean I sat next to him for twenty minutes and he's changed back into a man and is talking. What more do you need to prove?"
Mr. Forg got that look on his face again, the one that suggested he didn't want to say what was about to come next.
"Well, you see, if he did want you to go into the cage…"
Jason's eyes widened. He got up out of the chair and backed away from the other man.
He'd been sitting with Mr. Forg on the first floor, going over the brief notes Jason had written and trying to figure out the best way to get the shifter to stay in human form.
From the howling he heard downstairs, he was already back as a wolf.
"You can't be serious? I thought you said I didn't have to get into the cage if I didn't want to."
"We did say that, but we also made it clear that you wouldn't receive the rest of the money if you didn't."
Was that what he’d agreed to? Jason thought he'd agreed to the first ten thousand to sit down there and the next ten thousand for writing down some notes for a couple of hours.