by S Bolanos
He let out a strangled cry as I bit down on the button and caught his eye. I cupped his erection straining against his jeans, teasing him through the fabric. He jerked beneath me and let out a curse followed by another tortured moan. I took mercy on him and made short work of the intervening garment. Much as I enjoyed driving him wild, he wasn’t the only one aching for a release.
I shimmied between his legs to a more comfortable position and took a moment to admire my prize. I curled my fingers around the base of his shaft in a firm hold and darted my tongue across his slit, then wrapped my lips around him. Any thoughts I’d had of taking my time went right out the window as his deep musk wove around me and addled what was left of my senses.
He ran his fingers through my hair and groaned as I continued. His thighs quivered beneath my hands as he fought to maintain control. I swallowed around him and was rewarded with the most divine whimper while his fingers tightened briefly in my hair.
He reached out and grabbed my arm then tugged me toward his body. I straddled his waist, curling my fingers in his hair as I pulled at his lips. I reveled in the feel of his bare body against mine and wriggled, earning myself a throaty growl that made me ache in all the best ways.
My gasp turned into a moan as he guided my hips and I sank onto him. He shifted beneath me, arching off the floor and pressing deep. I echoed the sound he’d made moments before, whimpering as he stroked the sweetest spot with each thrust.
I looked down into his deep brown eyes and the kitchen around us melted away. We could have been anywhere—in the bedroom, in the woods—all that mattered was him and me.
28
Wrong Turn
“I’ve made a list,” Charline declared as she leaned against my desk.
“A list of what?” I asked.
She gave an aggrieved sigh. “Everything we know about,” she paused and leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially, “you know who.”
“Must be a short list.” Weeks of searching and the most we’d turned up was a handful of old scraps.
“It would be longer if you’d give me more details.”
“I’ve told you everything. He wasn’t entirely human when I saw him. I don’t know what you're looking for.”
“Well, David said that a lot of things transfer over from one form to the next. Like hair and eye color.”
“David says, huh?” I poked her leg with my toe.
“Would you focus?” She giggled as she pushed my shoulder.
“All I’m saying is that no one spends that much time with someone they only want to be friends with.” She ducked her head to hide the spreading blush behind a waterfall of hair. “You really like him, don’t you?”
“Is that wrong? I mean Ted and I just broke up.”
I shrugged; relationship advice wasn’t really my forte.
“How’s the training thing going?” she asked.
“Awful and I’m not getting any better. Maybe Michael was right, it’s going to take time.”
“And trusting your instincts,” Charline and I said together. We both laughed. As the sound died, the cubicle took on an oppressive air.
“We have to find a clue or something. I can’t live my life like this.”
“We will.” Charline squeezed my shoulder. “The searches will turn up something. You’ll see.”
“Because we’ve found so much already. Face it, the most we’ve uncovered are a couple of stale haunts, none of which offer any kind of pattern.”
Her face fell.
“You better go,” I said solemnly. “I’m sure Brianne has something to say about your report.”
Charline nodded and spared me a sad look before exiting.
I closed my eyes and flopped my head back. The last couple weeks had been exhausting. I'd already endured far more heart-stopping terrors than any person ever should and it was definitely taking a toll on my mental health.
I swear, if I get one more prank call about someone dying, I’m going to…
“Good, you’re here.”
I swiveled my chair around to face Bob with his too-tight button down in a terrible shade of puce.
“Well, don’t just sit there. We have a proposal to prepare for.” He didn’t wait to see if I would respond, merely returned to his office.
I grabbed the phone and dialed Michael’s direct line in the office.
He answered on the second ring. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Bob commandeered me for a secretarial project. No telling how long that will take.”
“Thanks for the heads up. I’ll find some way to stick around.”
Three hours later, Bob finally released me. I immediately phoned Michael’s cell. My foot tapped impatiently while I listened to the line ring. I gave up on the eighth. Angry at pretty much everyone, I stormed off to the elevators. When they opened again, my anger dissipated.
I swallowed and stepped out onto the second deck of the parking garage. My steps echoed against the concrete, each clack making me wince, while I scanned the handful of cars.
It’s not far. You walk this garage every day. Michael is here… somewhere.
A can rolled in the distance. The faint metal ping as it collided with a pillar almost sent me into a full-on panic. I took a deep breath that didn’t feel fortifying in the least. A shadow shifted. My eyes darted to follow it, but it could’ve easily been my imagination. I forced myself to keep moving.
Where is he?
Panic slithered through my chest and my pace quickened. I frantically scanned the area, but there was no sign of the bright yellow Jeep. My ear twitched and I zeroed in on the noise that had caught my attention, a faint rasping with an odd wetness to it.
Terror strangled my heart and stole the air from my lungs. Every fiber of my being told me to turn tail and run.
What if it’s Michael?
The dire thought stopped me in my tracks. Another wet breath. I shoved my fear down as far as it would go and followed it.
A large white pickup loomed before me. In my distraction, I hadn’t recognized David’s truck. The rasp came again and I stumbled forward. A sharp metallic tang filled the air and I looked down at smears of red coating the ground. My heart lurched into my throat as I followed the trail around the vehicle to a body—Michael’s body.
I let out a stifled scream and barely remembered to glance around before rushing to his side. His labored breathing didn’t sound like a lie and the blood everywhere was definitely his. “Michael, can you hear me?” My harsh whisper sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet. “Are you hurt? What do I do?” My panic escalated with each question.
“David?” Froth bubbled at Michael's lips and his eyes refused to focus. As if on cue, something rattled against the ground not far off. I stiffened. There was a grunt of pain, then more silence.
“I’m going to find him,” I whispered.
Michael’s hand shot out lightning fast to grab my wrist. I freed my hand and quietly began moving in the direction of the last sound.
Out of nowhere, a weight slammed into me. My side screamed where nails bit into flesh. Nausea threatened to overwhelm me as my shoulder crunched into the ground. I bit back a cry and searched for the assailant. The urge to change rose like a wave. I willed my nerves to settle and focused my heightened sense of smell.
Instantly, exhaust leapt to the forefront, as well as David’s and Michael’s scents. Mixed among them was the faintest hint of Him. I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the throbbing ache in my shoulder, and strained to hear anything in the void of silence. Every muscle tensed to the point of pain. Then, the tiniest whisper of nail, of fur brushing against something.
I waited, the agony of it spreading across my body like fire. My only advantage was that he would assume I was frozen with fear.
It worked.
He launched over the bed of the truck, nothing more than a blur of color. I waited until the last possible moment and stepped aside.
Nails scratched along the concrete where I'd been standing not a second
before. I turned and slammed all of my weight down. The air whooshed out of him and he went limp, but my victory was short-lived as the clean smell of outdoors with a hint of lumber and dust tickled my nose.
“David!” The wolf beneath me tried to stand and I pushed him back to the ground. “This is way past the line. Using a real injury to make Michael bleed! What if he’d come along? Where would you two be then?”
“Actually,” Michael said behind me, “we made a small cut in a place that happens to bleed a lot.” I turned in shock to see that he’d already changed his shirt. He gestured for me to release my captive.
David stood and shook himself off before making his way to the truck. The back door already hung open and he jumped inside, never once sparing me a glance. I swiveled my attention back to Michael.
“And how did I do in your asinine test?” The question bounced back, a reminder of the empty space.
“Honestly? Well.”
I looked forward to being partnered with David with equal parts trepidation and excitement. On the one hand, I barely knew him, on the other I’d finally get to talk to him without Michael around. We’d been chatting amicably off and on for the last thirty minutes while I built up my nerve. I glanced over at him as we turned down a fresh alley.
“So, um, you and Michael have known each other a long time, huh?”
David gave me a sidelong look. “We have.”
“He said you basically grew up together.”
“We did.” The ghost of a smile played on his lips.
Mustering up all my courage, I went for it. “If you two are such good friends, how come you never visit? He said he hadn’t seen you in twelve years. Did something happen?”
David’s shoulders tightened and his gaze skittered away from me. “It’s complicated.”
“Did you two have a falling out?” I pressed.
“Not quite.”
“Then what’s the deal?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and kept his gaze focused on the ground. “It’s not really my place to say. Have you talked to Michael about this?”
“What do you think?” I growled. “If he was any more evasive, he’d be talking another language.”
His shoulders sagged and he darted a glance at me. “I get that, I do, but it’s not my story to tell.”
“Then who the hell is going to tell it to me?”
“I understand that you’re frustrated—I’ve told him repeatedly he can’t keep you in the dark forever—but there’s no reason to growl at me about it.”
Silence came down like a hammer crushing me beneath its weight and I was immensely grateful I wasn’t with Charline.
“That’s not me.”
“Don’t. Move.” The increasingly loud threat swallowed David's grim command and a figure barely distinguishable from the trash emerged to block our path.
I knew instantly why we hadn’t and would never have been able to find my tormentor. I'd been looking for a beast. This was a man. My attacker had always been some faceless monster made of yellow eyes and flashing teeth. But this was a person like anyone else.
He stood shorter than I remembered and he wasn’t as lean as I would have expected of someone living on the streets. Hazel eyes peered from behind matted hair that obscured most of his face. Everything about the oddly familiar stranger seemed purposely unkempt from his scraggly beard to his bedraggled clothes.
Recognition scratched at my mind then blasted apart when the pop of sinew and bone filled the narrow alley. A responding echo of the change resonated in me. I struggled to hold the instinct at bay. When his shift stopped, he stood half a foot taller, a grisly mix of man and beast.
“What do we do?” I asked quietly. The creature’s eyes, grotesquely human as they were, enlarged at the sound. His growl became more of a snarl and he took a step forward.
“Whatever you do, don’t run.”
This was it. No fleeing, no hiding, no waking up. My own threat vibrated through me. Almost in chorus, David joined. My body ached from restraining the change; even the slightest give in letting my nails grow to claws might be too much to hold back a full-blown shift.
Our quarry’s growl hitched. He took a slow step back. I matched him. He took another. My timbre deepened. His eyes narrowed as his gaze darted between us. Without warning, he turned and ran.
I launched after him. Brick and concrete passed by in a blur of monotone colors. Garbage cans clanged loudly on the pavement. I swerved to avoid them and poured on more speed. Determination fueled my limbs as I gained ground.
Then he vanished.
I skidded past a narrow opening on my right. Shit. I doubled back and raced to catch up before he could clear the fence at the far end. In seconds, I crashed into the metal links prepared to vault up after him. My foot wedged into a link and I surged up only to be brought back down. I fought against my captor’s hold.
“Sara, stop.”
“Let me go! I can catch him,” I cried as the mutt’s shadow turned a corner and disappeared.
“He’s gone,” David said softly.
I sagged against the fence, suddenly exhausted.
“We’re pretty far out,” he said as he released me. “We’ll have to hurry if we want to make it back to the office in time.”
“Fuck the office.”
“Where have you been?” Bob shouted the second I stepped in his periphery. “I’ve been looking for you for hours.”
“I wasn’t aware,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t give me attitude.”
I nearly choked on my attempt at a calming breath. Oblivious to my struggle, he barreled on.
“Where are the Bigsley reports? They were due days ago. I’ve been lenient with you in light of your situation but there can be no more excuses for this sort of behavior. You are paid to do a job and I expect you to do it.”
I stopped shuffling my papers and spun to face him. “My situation? If by situation, you mean being mauled to the brink of death and having to somehow wake up every day and live with that terror, then you're even more of an asshole than I thought you were. For your information, Bob, this is the first year that I’ve taken sick leave, or hell, a personal day. And what behavior? I’ve been late a couple of times since the attack and this is literally the longest lunch I’ve taken in the entire time I’ve worked here. Need we revisit the mauling?
"And no, you don’t pay me for any of this. I’m a Junior Project Manager and am treated and used—not to mention paid—like your personal secretary. So, grow a pair, give me a raise, and get the hell off my back.”
He stood there looking pole-axed.
“Oh, and another thing,” he flinched as I whirled back on him, “the Bigsley report has been on your desk for two days.”
I spun the chair out, slammed into it, and almost toppled over when I violently swung back to the desk. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, reminiscent of what had spurred me on in the alley. I stared straight ahead and played at pulling up my system. When the air behind me finally stirred, I released the breath I'd been holding.
“How could you be so reckless?” Michael’s shout greeted Charline and me as we stepped into the house.
“I wasn’t alone, Michael.” My purse and keys landed unceremoniously on the entry table with a clamor to match. “What would you have had me do? He was right there. And he ran.” I looked at David for support. He offered none.
“And what would you have done if you’d caught him?”
I bristled. “I would have fought. Fought like I should have that night.”
“You don’t need to prove anything,” he said.
“That’s not what it was about! He ran, I chased. David was right behind me the whole time.” I gestured angrily at David, hoping he would finally seize the chance to speak up. Instead, he looked a bit abashed.
“You’re fast, Sara, like really fast. If it hadn’t been for the fence, I doubt I would’ve caught up to you.”
I stared at him in disb
elief. “What?”
“I’m sorry.”
The couch groaned beneath my sudden weight and Charline made an indignant sound. She extricated herself and grabbed a slice of pizza from the counter. She eyed it skeptically before taking a bite and offered me one with noticeably more meat. I blindly accepted it, my mind reeling.
“But surely you could have…”
David shook his head. I took a bite, but wasn’t sure if I chewed it before swallowing.
“At least we know what he looks like now. Sara, can you describe him for everyone?” Michael asked, appearing to have calmed down a little.
“What are you asking me for?”
“Apparently, David isn’t very good at details,” Michael said. David shrugged, unconcerned by the rebuke.
“I doubt I’ll be much better. He was taller than me. Shorter than you. Brown hair, I think. Might have had a scar, could’ve been tan, but that could’ve been dirt. Hazel eyes and covered with hair.”
“That’s it?” Charline exclaimed “That describes almost everyone I’ve seen on these outings. Hell, that practically describes everyone I’ve seen ever. It even sounds a bit like Ted. Well except for looking like he was dragged through a knot hole backwards and of course the hair.”
“Have I really blown our best chance to sniff him out?” I groaned.
Charline’s arm tightened around me and one of the guys passed me a drink. It smelled like brandy. The vapors burned my nose, but I knocked it back without tasting it.
“I’m so fed up with all of this.”
29
Running in a Pack
I turned to pace the room again while awareness of the pending full moon itched beneath my skin. “Three whole months and we have nothing to show for it.”
“That’s not true,” Michael said. “Your control is getting better.” He gave me a suggestive grin before taking a sip of his fifth cup of coffee. I eyed the mug, shook my head, and turned to walk back the way I'd come.
