For the space of three heartbeats he let her go. Then, he called after her. “Wait. Please.”
She never broke stride.
“Prove it to me,” he shouted, pushed to the limit. “Come on, you can’t blame me for not believing in werewolves. I’ve never seen one. This is all outside my entire realm of experience.”
This time she stopped. As she slowly turned, her choppy red hair blew in the breeze. “Prove it to you? How?”
“Change.” Using her own word, he kept his expression serious. “Become a werewolf. Show me.”
Again her hand went to her neck, to finger a necklace that wasn’t there. “Hellhounds, if I could, I would. But like I just told you, I can’t. I’ve been trying to change. That’s what I was doing when you found me unconscious that first time. When you think I’m having a seizure, it’s my body fighting to change. I can’t.”
“Was that what you were trying to do a minute ago?”
“Not on purpose. Actually, I was tryingnotto. When we saw that deer, my wolf-self…” Her words trailed off. “All right. I’ll try once more. I don’t know how else to prove it to you, except to try.”
His pulse jumped, his stomach knotted. Ridiculous, unless he seriously thought she…no. At least delusions rarely physically hurt anyone. And maybe a demonstration would make her see she’d let her imagination take too deep of a hold. “Go ahead, try now. Maybe I can help you.”
“Here?” She glanced around at the rocks and the dirt and the scrabbly, twisted trees bent sideways by the wind. “If I’m successful, stand back. Don’t try to stop me or touch me.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“Because wolves don’t like to be caged. I don’t want to hurt you, even by accident. If I manage to change, I need to run free.”
“I see.” He studied her damaged beauty and wondered how best to help her. If he’d known she had mental-health issues, he could have gotten her help much sooner. But he hadn’t known.
Watching him, she folded her arms. Waiting.
He nodded in encouragement, wondering if he was supposed to give her some sort of signal.
His nod must have been enough. Still watching him, she dropped to the ground, grimacing before she bowed her head.
Immediately, a hundred fireflies surrounded her.
He took another look. No, not fireflies, but sparkles of light, flashing and pulsating in a misty cloud of rainbow color.
The swirling, vibrant show obscured Jewel from his sight. Behind this, sounds—shuffling, snuffling, a groan.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “Is this another seizure?”
She didn’t answer. Should he go to her? Try to push through the colors to reach her? What the hell was this? Had he lost his mind?
He rubbed his eyes. Still the sparkles, the random flecks of light, all colors of the rainbow. As if he were tripping on some bizarre drug.
“Jewel?” Finally he decided to push away his superstitious fear. He moved in, toward the spot where she’d been. “Are you in there? Answer me.”
Instead of her voice, he heard a low growl.
A large dog. Maybe even a…wolf.
Awerewolf?
No. No way. Not even possible.
But the hair on the back of his neck warned him. Danger! “Jewel?” Did she need his help?
No flashing lights were going to keep him from protecting her. He pushed forward, into the cloud of colors, hell-bent on reaching her.
There, on the ground on all fours, Jewel. But something…Blinking, he moved closer. As he watched, her beautiful face elongated; her nose became a snout. Fur sprouted all over her body, creamy skin becoming something else—the pelt of an animal. Of a beast.
