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“Well, your new name will be mud if Doctor Smith, the owner of this house, finds you. He’ll rip you a new asshole.”
He wasn’t a town resident, which meant he had to be one of the men who’d come in for the Jubilee. His face was shadowed. Even with my coyote-vision, I couldn’t make out his features. I tried to hone in on other appearance landmarks. He was well over six and a half feet tall. His shoulders were as wide if not wider than Billy Bob’s. His language was stiff and stilted as if every word cost him something. Finally, and most oddly, it felt as if his breath stirred the air around me. But the weirdest thing of all was the sense of calm that overrode my stirring panic.
“What do you want?”
“Ah.” The dark figure shook his head. “There is no need to fear me. I mean you no harm, little wolf.” I felt another wave of calm. “You know me. We often speak, sister.”
The voice in my head sometimes called me sister, and the awareness jolted me. At some point when my imaginary pal first started talking to me, I’d convinced myself it had been Judah, my older brother, the one who’d been killed.
“I’m a coyote,” I said.Because that’s soooo important.“A therian, not a lycan.”
“You are wolf, child. That above all else.”
The denial died on my lips. Recently I’d found out that my grandmother had been half-lycanthrope, but as a werecoyote, I’d grown up despising werewolves. My brothers and I had been taught that lycanthropes were dangerous and unpredictable. A rogue pack had killed both my grandparents before I was born, which only strengthened my family’s views about the species. So, I had no intention of claiming the heritage, let alone giving it precedence over my coyote blood.
I’d backed up to the window, my fingers on the frame. I had no doubt the huge, hulking figure between me and the door could take my head off. My claws bit into my flesh as my fingers began to shift. I needed to hold it together. Keep the element of surprise to myself.
“You don’t need to run from me, sister. I am not your enemy.”
“A friend doesn’t sneak into your bedroom,” I said.
“I do not sneak,” he said. Again, his tone reflected offense.
Noise in the hallway had him turning his head away from me. I used the opportunity to throw myself backward through the window. I cried out when the broken glass bit into my back as I landed on the grassy lawn, but I didn’t wait for the weird dude to chase me. I didn’t know what scared me more, that he claimed ownership of my imaginary friend or that I wasn’t nearly as frightened as I should’ve been.
Who cares? Run, you moron.
I shucked my nightgown and my underwear, finding freedom as my body mid-run began to change. My bones moved and reformed, fur sprouted down out of my skin with a whispering tingle that the full shift to animal form always brought on. It was pleasure, not pain, and it was why my family always warned against changing when it wasn’t necessary. During the first night of the full moon, the shift came without being called, and unfortunately, therians become true animals on those nights. Acting on pure instinct alone. It was dangerous for everyone around, humans and shifters alike. But when therians chose to change at any other time, they could think and remember as if they were still in human form. It made the impulse to stay a beast strong, the feeling of being in animal form while able to keep clear headed, intoxicating. I tried not to think of the joy. It would distract me and get me kidnapped again, or worse, killed.
A howl in the distance startled me. On four legs now, my senses heightened, I ran in a full out sprint toward the woods behind Billy Bob’s house. I caught a fading scent of a wolf on one of the trails and the faint aroma of bergamot. Billy Bob. Of course, he ran these woods in his lycan form. I had been born and raised in Kansas City, and I’d never been much of a country girl, not until these past couple of years, but even then, I hadn’t done much exploring. Would it be safer to follow where Billy Bob had roamed, or try to make my own way deep into the Ozarks?
Another howl drove my choice. I took off through thickets of briars and stick’ems, past oaks, maples, and evergreens. A fallen tree just up ahead of me had to be four feet thick in diameter and gray with age and decay. I leaped with all my might to get over the top. The wind ruffled my fur, my belly scraping against the dry bark as I dove head first into a shallow creek on the other side. I yelped then inhaled the water, the cold liquid soaking me to the skin. I stood up and shook, droplets spraying everywhere. The running stream chilled the pads of my paws.
I sloshed toward the far bank, only twenty feet away, the stream rising until my paws could no longer touch. I paddled hard, keeping my nose above the water.
“Chavvah!”
The sound of my name brought me up short. I glanced back, and my head went under as I saw a very naked Billy Bob standing on this side of the log. I turned back toward the other side of the creek bed and kept going until I was able to get on dry ground on the opposite side. We’d had plenty of rain this month and fighting the current had taken it out of me.
I panted, trying to gather my wits. Had the wolf howls come from Billy Bob and not the intruder? In my panic, had I been running from him the whole time? I felt like an idiot. A fool.A scared foolish idiot.I stared at Billy Bob, the moonlight dancing on his flawless skin, the shadows enhancing every cut of his muscles. He didn’t make a move toward me as if he knew I would rabbit if spooked. He simply waited, his brow furrowed with concern.
Finally, I shook out my fur again, allowing the shift back to my human form. When the change completed, I was crouched low on the ground still staring at the doc.
“Are you okay?” he asked when my heavy breathing died down.
“There was a man in your home,” I said. “In my room.” God, what if it had been the killer? Had he followed me from town?
His eyes widened. He pursed his lips. “Are you hurt?”
The glass in my back stung suddenly as if to remind me that I’d thrown myself out of a window. I turned so he could see my back and said, “I’ll live.” I hadn’t felt it in my coyote form. “How did he get inside, Doc? How did he find me?”
“You’re safe now,” he said. “If someone were near, I’d smell him. It’s just you and me now.” His voice was low and soothing.
I plopped back onto my ass. I appreciated that he didn’t ask me if I’d had a bad dream or try to tell me I was overwrought. Now that I was away from the intruder, the strange Zen I’d experienced had evaporated under a cold dose of fear. The sharp rocks from the shore dug into my skin. I ignored the pain. I’d had worse. I hugged my knees, burying my face in the crack between them. I’d never forget the man. His presence had been weighted. Undeniable.
“Do you want to come over here?”
“No,” I told him.
