“I’ll give you some privacy.” Gareth straightened and took a step back. “I’ll be on the other side of these rocks, waiting for you.”
I couldn’t read people’s thoughts, only emotions, so I didn’t know what my wolf chaperone was thinking but what I felt coming off him surprised me. Almost like he cared. But at the same time, he walked away without even checking over his shoulder to see if I was all right.
Maybe I should’ve let Jason stay behind.
I tried to stand so I could remove my clothes, but my back gave out and I fell on all fours. The pits of Hell couldn’t possibly hurt this much. If I lived through this, I was definitely going to kick a few werewolves, just out of spite.
Bile burned the back of my throat when I heard the wet sound of my joints popping and mutating. So gross. I tried to pant like they teach pregnant women in Lamaze class, but it turned into a silent scream as my jaw jutted forward. I couldn’t imagine myself with a snout lined with sharp teeth.
Consumed by the shift, the pain swelled inside of me, so intense I could no longer tell where it came from. I hurt everywhere. My body trembled until I finally toppled over. Lost in the haze of agony, I had no idea how much time had passed. Gradually, the pain stopped. Was I a wolf now? I wanted to look myself over, but my new form wasn’t cooperating. Inside, I frowned. It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to control my body.
The wolf got to her feet and shook out her fur. I felt like a prisoner.
The more I panicked, the more the wolf paced back and forth, tail swishing.
Suddenly it stopped, sniffing the night wind. Deep within the beast, I realized she recognized the scent. Gareth. The wolf turned, and through its eyes I saw a large jet-black male. The moonlight sparkled in his dark eyes.
Her hackles rose, lips pulled back and a growl vibrated through my body…her body. Her fear swamped me. She planted her front feet further apart, ready to launch into an attack.
Gareth yawned, unfazed by our aggression, but he never took his eyes off of us, always alert. He didn’t return the aggression. I reached out mentally to the wolf. I wasn’t sure what I was doing but somehow she relaxed her stance. With a tentative step forward she…we…dipped our head.
I wasn’t a prisoner. We were connecting.
The male wolf chuffed and spun on his heel to run. I took off after him, following his scent even when I couldn’t see him with my eyes. The wolf was fast and agile. I leaped over rocks and dove under the thick brush.
All the scents around me told a story and somehow I could translate it. Like a new instinct I’d never had before. I tracked Gareth with ease.
Okay, Adam was right, this was pretty amazing.
This experience was worth every bit of the pain. I chuckled inwardly. Now I sounded like a new mother who’d just given birth.
Maybe I wouldn’t kick the werewolves after all.
I skidded to a stop when we reached a clearing. Standing at the water’s edge were six more wolves. Big wolves. My beast growled, barring her fangs. Inside, I tried to communicate with the wolf, to tell her this was our Pack. These weren’t enemies.
Gradually her fear dissipated like she understood and trusted my instinct. A large, brown wolf with bright green eyes approached. A silver bullet hung from a leather cord around his neck. It had to be Adam. I stood my ground as the Alpha circled me, sniffling and studying my scent. Witnessing the ritual, I realized I was trying to hold my breath as if I had any control over my lungs. The wolf was in charge now.
Adam came all the way around until he faced me. His ears pricked forward and I lowered my head in a submissive position. He nipped gently at my ear and the wolf yipped. He nudged us with his body toward the Pack behind him. We’d been accepted.
The wolves ran into the forest, and I raced after them. As a team, the Pack hunted rabbits and a deer. My wolf tackled a bunny sending the fluffy furball into shock. I pawed at it, curious, but it remained still, its belly rising and falling rapidly.
Inside, I nudged the wolf forward, relieved when she gave up her quarry and ran. Mental note: be sure not to have an empty stomach on full moon nights.
If I even got another one.
We ran, sniffed and hunted for hours, stopped once in the trees to howl. As the evening waned, the Pack scattered. For a moment, I was confused, but the black wolf with dark eyes woofed, trotting and stopping to look for me. I followed him back to a boulder that looked vaguely familiar. Then I caught a very familiar human scent.
My own.
We were back at the spot where I’d left my clothes. Or what was left of them.
I sniffed, pacing the area for any sign of danger. Finally, my wolf heaved a sigh and collapsed onto the ground. My flesh heated up, and I panted, bracing myself for more horrific pain.
Here it comes.
I writhed as my skin swallowed the dark fur, and my bones shifted. But the hurts-worse-than-chewing-off-my-own-legs pain never surfaced. It hurt, for sure, but nothing near as intense as when I contorted into a four-legged nocturnal hunter.
The pre-dawn chill stung my sensitive skin as I shivered and opened my eyes. I couldn’t resist reaching up to touch my face. The snout was definitely gone. I started to let out a sigh of relief when I remembered I was naked.
Covering my breasts with my forearm, I cautiously got to my feet. The world spun for a moment, but I didn’t fall over. Go me.
Once my vision cleared, I made a beeline for my clothes. My poor, ripped-up clothes. I held up the circle of elastic that used to be my underwear and sighed before tossing it over my shoulder. Other than what looked like blood stains on the thighs, my jeans appeared to have only sustained minor damage.
Sadly, my bra and tank top weren’t so lucky. What were once hooks at the back of my bra were now pulled out straight, making clasping impossible. Perfect. I threw it behind me with the remnants of my underwear and slipped back into my shredded tank.
Talk about peek-a-boo. Crap.
I tried to cover myself as best I could by tying a couple of strategically placed strips down to the front belt loops of my jeans like homemade suspenders. Classy. Oh well, it would have to do until I got back to my place.
Right now I was too elated to be brought down by fashion. Tonight, I ran in the wilderness as a wolf.
And I lived through it.
So far.
And don’t miss this special look at Lisa Kessler’s new paranormal romance novel Beg Me to Slay Coming soon from Entangled Covet
Chapter One
Burning the midnight oil was nothing new for Tegan Ashton, but tonight something sinister lingered in the air. It’s all in my head. She rubbed the back of her neck, wishing she could release the unwarranted dread. Anxiety coaxed her pulse, teasing her senses with its false promise of danger.
It pissed her off. The ghosts of the past were uninvited guests in her life.
Regardless, she could almost hear her father’s voice in her head whispering in Welsh Gaelic, “Perygl ar mae’r gwynt.” Danger on the wind. She forced her attention back on her work. The only thing in any real danger at the moment was her bank account.
Tegan’s fingers flew across the keyboard, filling in the databases, entering the codes. Brainless, tedious work, but it paid the bills. Sort of. Her new dojo in Leucadia, just north of San Diego, teetered into the red every month, so she picked up as many Internet data-entry jobs as she could.
Late nights and mainlining caffeine, the glamorous life of a black-belt businesswoman.
Hoping to calm her nerves, she took a long slow sip of her iced tea and pulled up her “favorites” tab on her computer. Although she lived in a beach town, she couldn’t afford the rent on anything with an ocean view. Her compromise was an hourly treat of a five-minute break to watch the moonlight on the ocean, courtesy of the Starlight Beach Inn’s twenty-four hour webcam.