Moon Struck: Book 1 (When, Were, and Howl)

by Raleigh, Jeanette

  “Maybe one of her friends dropped by for a visit. Jen’s a good tenant, so if this is temporary thing, I’ll forget I’ve seen it.”

  I love my land lady. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You’ll never know how much…really. I felt practically giddy. Maybe it was the wolf form.

  “I’m sure Jen will appreciate that.” Rob grinned. “Can you do a quick check of her place? I don’t think she’s diabetic, but Jen’s closed off sometimes and doesn’t really talk much about personal stuff. Something is definitely wrong. It’s not like her to miss work.”

  “What?” I think it came out more as a whine or maybe a howl. I really didn’t mean to say anything. I am not closed off. I'm not.

  “We’ll check and make sure she’s okay. Hey, little pup, wanna go back inside?” My landlady smiled at me and knelt on the ground putting her hand out. No, please, the indignity.

  I barked and ran up the stairs to my apartment, without even looking back to see if I was being followed. The door was closed and I tried to push with my paws. No such luck. So I sat down and waited. People walk slow.

  Rob waited outside while my landlord checked the place. I guess he was afraid he’d find me passed out on the floor naked or something. Baying the way dogs do for ambulances, I walked toward Rob and then walked backwards and then forwards again, trying to tell him it was okay to come in.

  Rob gave me a thinking look and tilted his head to the side. Like I said, some traits carry between forms. “Jen?”

  I did one of those rowlfs that dogs do and put my head on my paws, nodding. Rob called out to the landlady, stepping into my apartment. “Looks like we found her.”

  “Even if she is, Jen’s not in human form, I can’t let you stay. I mean, in case it’s not her.” The landlady watched me, looking for any indication of who I might be.

  “I’ll take her to the office. Can you grab a change of clothes out of the drawer.” When he saw the look of doubt, Rob said, “I’ll explain everything if you have any trouble with her.”

  “Trouble with me?” Well, that was annoying. Everything I tried to say came out in a jumble, like a howling yawn.

  Rob took charge. “Okay, Jen, get into the bedroom and change back to human or we’re going to the office with you as a wolf.”

  Change form? Nope. As much as I'd love to. I ran to the coffee table and picked up my keys in my mouth. Ewww. I tasted dirt, metal, rubber, and plastic. After running to the door and looking back for good measure, I sat on my haunches while Rob took the sweatshirt and sweatpants from her hands. Really? Sweatpants?

  Oh, Oh, God! I wanted to hide under the bed. She grabbed my flaming bright pink granny panties. He is my boss you know. And good looking, which is totally beside the point. I didn’t even try to say it. I knew my landlord wouldn’t understand a thing I said, and from the way things were going, I just might die of humiliation before ever changing back anyway.

  A random through crossed my mind. He knows I peed on the steps.

  Chapter 10

  Rob wrote a giant alphabet across several sheets of paper. Being a wolf, he seemed to have a knack for the size and spacing needed. He sat with his back to the wall in nearly the same place we had been during the post-moon-morning.

  The first questions were easy enough. Am I Jen? Yes. Am I okay? Sure. Do I need anything? No. (So I lied. I needed help, but I wasn’t going to come right out and ask him for it.)

  There is something I would like to get out in the open right now. Rob smelled good. Not pleasant good or sweet good, but desirous hungry delicious good, and being in the confined space of his office made the scent so much stronger.

  I focused on the letters.

  The collar was starting to chafe. I scrabbled at it with my paw, trying to pull my head through. Rob unbuckled it, and set the collar on the floor, next to the letters. I sniffed it, but the look and feel was so different from the amulet, I wasn't sure they were the same thing.

  “Jen, what’s going on? Why don’t you just change?”

  Using an alphabet paper-form of a Ouija board sucked. The response took a long time, so I limited myself to one word replies. “Stuck.”

  “What do you mean? You can’t change back to human?” Rob said it in a shocked quiet voice and his voice was so gentle I melted.

  Whining, I ran to the letter Y. That was all that was needed. “I’m sorry. I’ve never heard of this happening. Has it happened to you before?”

  I touched the letter N and feeling sorry for myself and longing for comfort, I slowly padded to Rob and put my head on his knee. That was a mistake.

  Rob scratched my ears absently, probably trying to think of something he could say that would make me feel better. Instead, I felt something else, something deep. Before this, he was just the handsome boss I had a crush on, but when Rob touched me like that, I felt so safe and so...

  I know I said that he smelled nice and I felt desire for him, but this was different. While he scratched my head and I leaned against his leg, my heart was full. I loved him. My love came out in a pathetic little whine.

  Rob misunderstood. “It’s okay. You’ll change back eventually.”

  I don’t know how long we sat together, but I am fairly certain he enjoyed the closeness, too, because he sat very still just scratching my ears. To his benefit, he kept his hand to the area of my head and ears. I just leaned against him and enjoyed the company.

  Strange what you could get away with as an animal. This kind of togetherness would have been awkward any other way. I think we were both afraid that if we moved too much the spell would be broken, and we’d be two separate people going in opposite directions again.

  The phone rang and Rob stood. “I better get that.”

  I sighed. My ears perked up when I heard Ali. Her concern came off high-pitched. She’s like that when she’s worried, and Rob interrupted her obvious list of concerns. “I found her. She’s here, but Ali, she’s in were-form and she can’t change back.”

  I must have gotten a heightened sense of hearing from being in wolf form, because I heard Ali swear, and it was a word I can’t use in polite company.

  Chapter 11

  Ali arrived around four o-clock. Her shift at the warehouse ended a half-hour before. Rob had given me a chew toy from a drawer to keep me busy during the morning. It worked surprisingly well, maybe because his scent was all over it.

  One look at me and Ali laughed. Offensive, but I couldn’t exactly bite her. “You can’t blame me for this one. Where’s the amulet?”

  Uh-oh. The expression on Rob’s face as he looked from Ali to me made me want to cringe. “Amulet?”

  Rob had heard a few stories. Sometimes when we went out, Ali would pick me up after work and inevitably run into Rob who was closing up the office and of course she let a few misadventures slip. Not the worst, thank God, but enough.

  Ali tossed her coat on a chair and sat down with a sigh. “Sorry, I’ve been on my feet all day.”

  Rob wasn’t to be put off. “What’s this about an amulet?” He sounded angry.

  Ali looked up at Rob, wearing the most innocent expression I think I’ve ever seen. “Her change was inspired by an amulet. I got it from this friend of a friend. Said it was shifting magic and you could be anything you wanted.”

  Rob’s face seemed to freeze in an angry scowl as he stared at me and then turned on Ali. “Do you have any idea where an amulet like this comes from?”

  Ali pretended ignorance. “Well, I would assume a magician or wizard or someone with power.”

  Rob paced the room his hands waving in the air as if he were making a speech, which I guess he was. “A close friend of my dads, someone I look up to, lost his ability to change because of some wizard stealing his power, probably in the creation of an amulet like this. And you two…I don’t even believe this. It’s traitorous. Jen, how could you?”

  I felt so small then. So very much like the mouse whose skin belonged to me.

  Ali came to the rescue. “Hey, don’t yell a
t her like that. She didn’t know.”

  “She already can shift. Why would she try to use someone else’s ability?” Please don’t tell him. Please, please, please, please, please. My heart raced as I waited for her answer.

  “First of all, we didn’t know it belonged to someone else.” (This was a lie, but Ali being a troublemaker by nature, tended to lie very well provided an actual explanation wasn't needed.) She continued, “Furthermore, Jen had nothing to do with the amulet. She was just holding it for me for a few days. We had no idea what it would do, only that it gave off a weird energy.” (Another lie. Ali’s grace under pressure is a thing to behold. She usually gives it away with too much imagination. This time, her lying was fantastic.)

  Rob’s accusing tone cut me to the middle of my heart.

  “You put on an amulet with no idea what it would do? Where is it now?”

  With my head down and with a slight growl that accidentally slipped, I walked to the letters still spread across the floor. My initial plan was to make Ali do all the talking, but this was something only I could answer. Grateful that speaking was out, I put my nose on the letters—disappeared. But now I have a collar.

  Ali stood up in a burst of frenetic pacing as she circled the room. A small fanciful part of me wanted to chase and nip at her heels. Rob was still sitting on his desk, having pushed the phone off to the side. He was so tall the tips of his feet touched the floor.

  “There has to be something we can do.”

  “We’ll go to Dirk tonight. Maybe he knows how his power was taken. What will you do if we can’t find a way for you to change back?” Rob was still angry. I could tell.

  I sighed, the kind of sigh only a large furry animal could make and sat down on the letter D. It didn’t mean anything. I just happened to be standing over that letter at the time.

  “We could tell your parents you fled to Hawaii and everybody else that I adopted a new pet.” Ali joked.

  Rob lost some of his tension and joined in. “Or that you married a vampire and moved to Greenland.”

  He'd hurt my feelings, though, and I was in no mood to laugh. Let the growling commence. I even showed teeth and snapped. And best of all, Rob flinched.

  Chapter 12

  Dirk’s mansion could have been featured in Cribs or Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. A private paved road, just large enough for two cars, passed by the front yard which featured a stand of pines and a water-fall type fountain trickling water into a rather large pond. With my head hanging out the window, I could smell the algae and pine and the wind ruffled my fur in a way that made me happy to be alive. The front face had faux-stone siding up the first half of the house and for such a large house, I thought it austere.

  Rob had managed to reach Dirk on his cell. Apparently he traveled a lot and just happened to be in town this week. When Rob told him of the amulet and my dilemma, Dirk asked us to come over right away. Not for my benefit. No, Dirk asked Rob a lot about where we got the amulet, and whether we could confirm that the amulet was driven by ‘his power’, and a whole bunch of other questions that seemed nonsense to me.

  The garage faced the side of the house and looked large enough to fit four cars wide. Rob parked on the furthest side of the pavement, before opening the side door for me. I hopped out and padded around the car, a large part of me urgently longing to run through the grass.

  The door opened before we even took three steps from the car and a gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair stepped out. I wrinkled my nose. He smelled fake with that bright cologne and I wondered if that was why Rob liked me so much. I didn’t wear a lot of perfume such was my allergic reaction to it. Some perfumes gave me a roaring headache. “Thank you so much for coming. You’re looking well. Did your father ever get that kitchen remodeled?”

  “Sure did. Unfortunately, my mom thinks lavender works in a kitchen. This is Ali and Jen.” I felt a little guilty when Rob pointed me out. After all, I might have taken this guy’s mojo. One thing for sure, when he got it back, he'd change his cologne. It was hard to tell from wolf-angle whether Rob was smiling, but he seemed to relax now that his problem (that would be me) had been transferred to Dirk.

  “So you’re the girl who’s caused all this trouble. We’ll go to the back of the house. My changing rooms are back there and Jen will find quite a bit to interest her I think.” Changing rooms? What, were we going to a closet?

  We followed him back and sure enough, they were changing rooms. Chew toys, rawhide, leather strips, and old shoes. Must have a foot fetish, that one. Human furniture, second-hand, lined the walls of the large room. I wanted to ask if he had wolf parties in here, but I think I knew the answer. I smelled at least a dozen different wolf scents.

  “Have a seat.” Dirk waved with an expansive gesture and then said pointedly at me. “You may sit on the furniture in this room.”

  How nice. My sarcasm was lost in silence, but I jumped up on the couch where Rob sat and put my chin on his leg, my thinking brain realizing what a mistake it was while my doggie brain wanted some comfort. Maybe being a wolf was just a really good excuse to get closer.

  With a happy sigh, I turned a circle and settled in, having slept very little the last night. It was time for a nap.

  Rob scratched my ears and the weight of his hand coaxed my eyes closed. Ali sat on the other side of Rob, unusually quiet. Dirk and Rob started talking about Dirk’s youngest daughter…bo-ring…until I found myself dozing. Rob’s hand felt warm against my head and the scratches behind the ears, well let’s just say, I understand a dog’s enjoyment of the ear-scratch now.

  I fell asleep.

  Someone was shaking my paw. “Jen,”

  I opened my eyes.

  “We wanted you to be awake for this. Dirk found a book that might help us change you back.”

  Suffice it to say Dirk’s fantastic magical book basically said to put all of your energy into the form you wished to take and speak aloud your intent. I did all those things. I did them again with Rob, Ali, and Dirk watching intently, with the collar back on. I didn't particularly like that collar. The more I wore it, the more I struggled to remove it.

  Did I change back? No. Dirk gave us a couple of possible contacts.

  We were in Dirk's library when Rob made the calls. His first two contacts fizzled. They didn't know anything about amulets or spells.

  One was a werewolf who, like Dirk, had lost his power. He and Rob were chatting about me. And wolf ears pick up everything, let me tell you. Like Rob, this guy was angry, a more personal pissed-off state. And so, he asked Rob if he could talk to me.

  “She's a werewolf right now.” Rob said into the phone for which I was slightly grateful. I would have been completely grateful if they hadn't been talking about me at all.

  “I just need a minute.”

  I nodded, which in retrospect I shouldn't have done.

  Rob put me on speaker. The werewolf turned unmagical blasted me. “You ruined my life. I haven't had a moon night in twelve months. Twelve!” That was the start of his rant. And since I didn't feel personally responsible, I growled back, snapping at the phone until the man formerly known as a werewolf stopped talking.

  “Jen disagrees with you.” Dirk said bluntly. Somehow I seemed to disagree better as a wolf. In human or mouse form, no one really seemed to mind a difference of opinion from me.

  Rob's tiny half-smile told me he was proud. It was a smile filled with affection and not a small bit of amusement. I wondered what amused him about me snapping at some random guy on the phone. “One more call to make.”

  The guy couldn't help at all. Just a bitter ex-wolf.

  On the last call a woman answered the phone. She sounded sultry and sexy, with a husky voice. After Rob explained the problem, I expected the same unhelpful comments that we'd gotten before. Instead, we got an invitation to her house.

  Rob said, “It's quite a drive. Are you sure we can't discuss this on the phone?”

  “I need to see the magic used, and I don't
make house calls. Bring Jen and the amulet here.”

  Did I not get a choice in the matter? Why should we go see some lady with a hot voice on the other side of the state? I certainly didn't see the point. But then again, I didn't want to spend the rest of my life as a wolf.

  Chapter 13

  We drove to Seattle that weekend to meet the hedge witch Dirk recommended. Her name was Gisele Madison. I'm not exactly sure what involves being a hedge witch, which is probably just as well. Rob carried my collar in his laptop case now, because I couldn't stand to wear it.

  The drive was long and tedious. As a human, I loved car trips. As a wolf they were intolerable. The motion of the car made my stomach queasy. And it was boring. I couldn't converse, and Rob wasn't talking either. Ali would have understood and kept me company with stories, but she had to work.

  After we got out of town and were driving through the rolling hills, Rob rolled the window down. I stuck my head out and felt free, like I could breath again. With my new wolfy nostrils, I smelled the different types of grasses and the little animals in their burrows. And the wind ruffled my fur in just the right way. From that point, the trip was much better.

  The hedge witch lived along I90 near Issaquah. Her house was rather non-descript, at least from a wolf's perspective, but the garden was lovely and wrapped all the way around the house.

  Sultry voice or not, I expected a frumpy little woman with gray frizzy hair tied back in a kerchief. What I got was an incredibly tall woman in a smart grey pant suit with a genuine grace in her movements. She wasn't just pretty. She was gorgeous, the kind of woman men dream of being with. The blonde highlights in her hair looked natural, and her smile was just a little too cheerful for me to be happy about it. She also smelled good.

  After inviting us in, she took the seat next to Rob and flirted shamelessly with him, as if I didn't exist. My heart hurt to watch. It took all of my will power not to growl at her. When she put a hand on his arm and started to make her move, I didn't snap off her wrist. Instead I put my head on Rob's lap, right under other his hand and gave my best territorial glare.