Being wolf does that, although running is part of the package.I had no objection to being admired, though. “You look good yourself.”
“I have a treadmill in the basement, but too few hours in a day to work out like I should.” He sighed. “I’m not as hot as I was that Halloween night ten years back.”
“Hah.” I gave him the same appreciative look he’d given me. “I have absolutely no complaints about a Clark Kent in his prime. And I might’ve learned a trick or two since then, to make being older a bonus. Not that we didn’t do damned well that night.”
I met his eyes and heat arced between us. I had a vivid sense-memory of his mouth on me, the feel of his silky black hair under my hands, and the hot, harsh rasp of my breathing behind the mask I’d worn. From the widening of Kendrick’s eyes, I figured he was remembering the same thing. For a moment, lust rose like a tide inside me and I reached toward him, but then a thump overhead reminded me of where we were. I dropped my hand. “Not the time, I guess.”
“No. Sadly.”
“I should shift and head home.”
Kendrick caught his lower lip between his teeth but nodded a few times. “I guess. Well, you know where to find me. Don’t be a stranger.”
“Thanks. Um, you too.”What a ridiculous thing to say.But amid the mix of disappointment and desire, I couldn’t come up with a better goodbye line. I gave him a little wave that was equally ridiculous and headed down the hall in my plastic poncho.
Once the bathroom door was shut, I stripped and folded the poncho as neatly as I could, setting it on the back of the toilet tank. I sat on the floor, keeping my head toward the door this time. Shifting was definitely harder than the first time, despite having eaten. The golden shift energy suffusing the universe outside slipped through my mental grasp, eluding my efforts to pull its power into my core. My body resisted, wanting to snooze. I felt like a guy shoving a boulder uphill.We’ll go for a run, I told my wolf.Four paws, nose, good smells, night air.
I like the man smells here, my wolf grumped.Sleep.But eventually, I tugged and pulled the shift to me, embraced the force of transformation, and fell into my change. Bones warped, muscles realigned. Shifting hurt much the way my whole body throbbed after a vicious workout— aches and strains, clicks and pangs in my joints. The world blurred, sound came and went. I lost myself inside my head as my wolf-self rushed through me at last.
When I staggered up on four paws, I was thirsty. The toilet was right there, but I was still human enough not to stick my head in the bowl. I panted and stretched, then eyed the tangle of saddle and straps in the corner.
Fuck it, Halloween’s almost over.I left the heap of leather lying there and gripped the door handle in my teeth, letting myself out.
Kendrick’s eyes widened as I came into the kitchen. “Wow, I’d forgotten how big you are. Um. Do you understand me?”
I nodded my head.
“So you’re still, like, human in there?”
Another nod. I stood on my hind legs, taking the risk of freaking him out, to grab the dry-erase marker off the board on the fridge between my teeth and laboriously write, “Bye.”
When I dropped back onto all fours and turned, he grinned, although his heart rate still sounded fast. “Okay. I guess I’ll hear from you when I hear from you.”
I yipped back in answer.
Overhead, Larissa yelled, “Doggie!” and a moment later she came charging down the stairs. “It’s the dog-wolf!”
Kendrick intercepted her as she would’ve dashed up to me, snagging her with an arm around her waist. “Let’s not startle him, right?”
His caution was fair enough, though wasted on me. I lay on my belly, crept forward, and licked Larissa’s ankle. She giggled and patted my head. “Good dog-wolf.”
The worried look on Kendrick’s face almost made me laugh, as he asked, “Uh, Trent, are you okay with being petted?”
I wagged my tail hard and nodded, but then backed up, rose to my four paws, and went to the door, scratching at it once. I needed some space from this family home and this hot man and his cute kid and affection I shouldn’t keep and didn’t deserve.
“Oh, yeah, let me get that.” Kendrick set Larissa aside and came to flip the lock and turn the door handle for me.
“I don’t want the dog-wolf to go yet,” Larissa whined.
“That’s Mr. Trent in there,” Kendrick said. “He needs to go home, and it’s just about your bedtime.”
“Oh.” Her face fell. “Goodbye, Mr. Trent the dog-wolf.”
I sat up on my haunches to wave a paw at her, then nudged the door wide and slipped outside. As I leaped down the steps, I heard Kendrick call, “Bye, Trent. Text me.”
A cool October breeze ruffled my fur. Full dark had fallen and streetlights shone patches of bright amid deep shadows, but my wolf eyes had no trouble picking out the bushes and fences, driveways and landscaping as I ran. I stuck to the side yards and the dark places, staying low, moving smoothly but fast, so no one would be tempted to check out the loose “dog.” Home was at least forty minutes’ run away, and I’d need every bit of that time to settle back into Trent, pack Fifth and loner, from the strange version of myself that had lounged at a gay man’s table in a plastic poncho and revealed more truth in one hour than I had in all the years before.
Chapter 3
