by Susan Shay
Bella’s words warmed him inside. “Do you think she’d mind if I called her?”
All but laughing, Bella turned away from the wolf to focus on him. “Why’s that? Do you think one of your brothers might be interested?”
Surprised by her question, he frowned. “One of my brothers?”
“Well, yeah. I know you wouldn’t have time for a woman. You’re too busy with your research to actually spend time with a female. A human one, at least.”
He shook his head at her teasing. “I went to your party last night.”
“For how long? Fifteen minutes? Thirty?” Folding her arms, she chuckled. “And that’s probably the longest you’ve spent in a social setting in months.”
“Hey, my work is essential. Wiping out that gene is way more important than spending time at local watering holes, sniffing for a mate.”
“If you say so. But there are millions of singles out there who wouldn’t agree with you.” She pursed her lips. “You never did tell me exactly what you were doing in your research.”
He glanced away for a moment as he thought about how much he should tell her. “I’m trying to isolate the Syzygia Gene. It’s relatively obscure, so most geneticists haven’t heard of it. Humans coming into contact with an animal affected by it usually understand the need for its destruction.”
When Bella nodded, he forced a grin. “That and five dollars will get you a good cup of espresso.”
“I could use one right now.” Bella yawned then waved at the wolf. “So what are you going to do with her?”
“If she stays calm while she’s in there, we’ll release her somewhere off the property.” He gazed at the wolf, trying to get a handle on what it was that roiled in his gut. After a moment, he gave up with a shrug. “We don’t have the right to keep her locked up for very long. There’s something about her that’s different from our Safari Land wolves, and I’d hate to see her lose that.”
****
Cool air stirred my hair, tickling the back of my neck and down my spine as I slowly drifted toward consciousness. I was a bit light-headed, and my eyes were all but glued shut. And the really bad part, my mouth tasted as if it were full of downtown Dallas dirty cotton.
The morning was fragrant with a light scent. Wildflowers? Unable to imagine where I was, I rolled over then stretched the kinks out of my arms.
Another breeze wafted over me, swirling over my naked breasts, down my belly and along my thighs.
“Jazzy?”
Hearing Bella whisper my name, I was tempted to pretend I was still sleeping. “Um?”
“Jazzy, look at me.”
After working a moment, I was able to open my eyes. I tried to look at Bella, but her face kept going in and out of focus behind the bars.
Bars?
Abruptly I sat up, my head swimming at the sudden motion. “Bella?” I practically coughed the word, my throat hurt so.
Her gaze was filled with concern. I hated that look, as if as the moments-older twin, she was responsible for me. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay.” I paused to control the bristle prickling down my spine. Then I whispered between my clamped jaws, not bothering to use telepathy since there was no one around. “What am I doing here? Naked?”
She reached through the bars to brush back my hair, now at its longest length, so she could touch my shoulder.
I jerked away. “Answer me. Where am I? Who put me here, and where are my clothes?”
As her anger flamed to match mine, she narrowed her eyes. Not a good sign. “You’re in the isolation cage here at Safari Land. And I don’t know where your clothes are.”
“Who put me here and why haven’t you gotten me out?” I would have shouted, but my throat hurt too much. That should have been a clue, but I couldn’t begin to imagine it.
“Tony locked you up until the zoo officials could decide what to do with you.” She lost all her anger, then looked to her right and left. “And you aren’t out because this is quarantine. Doc has the only key.”
Although I’ll never admit it to Bella or any of the rest of my family, a werewolf’s adjustable hair length isn’t always a good thing, at least for me. When I let my hair out to its longest length, I’m not always the sharpest stiletto on the shelf. When I draw it in all the way, I get a little fuzzy minded, so it all evens out as Grandma used to say. Today was one of those dull stiletto days. But like Lady Godiva, I needed the hair on my head to be long at that moment for modesty’s sake. “Why did Tony lock me up?”
“You treed Norman on his car.”
I tried to comprehend her words. And I have to be honest, it took a moment. Or two. “I’m sure he deserved it.”
As she nodded, her face clouded until I thought she was going to cry. “Tony thought you were a wild Mexican Gray.”
“I must have had Jose Eber go too heavy on the highlights the last time.” I gave a quick shrug. “It could have been worse. He could have thought I was an Arctic.”
That infuriated her. “How can you make jokes at a time like this?”
I have to admit, my temper was a little short this morning. “What do you want me to do? Bite someone?”
Then we heard voices.
Bella’s mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide with horror as she looked around. “Doc’s coming back and Norman’s with him. You’d better go primal. Quick.”
As if it was that easy. I couldn’t just wiggle my nose like some TV witch—I had to allow myself to release. And after a lifetime of learning control, that wasn’t easy.
I took a moment to settle myself, to find my center. Arranging my hair so I was well covered, I got to my knees then sat on my heels. “You know, last night, when you and Doc abandoned me, Norman became a huge pest. He kept at me, wanting me to dance with him.”
Bella’s “Um,” irritated me. Annoyance tingled my exposed skin, running along my collarbone and down the insides of my arms.
“He wouldn’t leave me alone. It was so gross.” I straightened as angry lightning strikes marched down my back.
“Then he insisted I finish my drink because he wanted to buy me another. Bella, I thought I was going to have to decapitate him to get him to leave me alone. I decided to just take off and let you find another way home. But after I finished my drink—and I only had the one Doc bought me—I don’t remember anything. It’s as if I got lost in the night.”
I gathered my fury like a fiery orb in my chest. “You know I never have a memory lapse except during a blood moon phase or if I lose control. I wasn’t that angry.”
A simple full moon hadn’t done that to me since I was three years old.
“That son of a cur must have slipped me a roofie. Why else would I have been out of control?” I allowed my rage to explode as I thought about the man putting a date rape drug in my drink. My body stung as the bristles burst through my skin, but I exalted in the sensation as my face narrowed, then lengthened. I loved the feeling of my body shifting from human to wolf shape. There’s never anything better than the power surge as it filled my muscles. It’s exhilarating.
That morning, the only downside was the sharpening of my senses. I could smell Norman a long time before I saw him. He smelled of his breakfast, last night’s strong cologne and sex. The only odor I picked up on Doc was soap and fresh coffee.
At that moment, I could have killed for a cup.
Focusing on my need for caffeine, I lifted my chin to howl. When I stopped for a breath, Norman stood directly in front of me, staring. I howled again—a bloodthirsty wolf who’d scented prey.
Then I rose to my four paws and stormed the length of the enclosure. When Norman stepped closer to the cage, I hurled myself at the bars.
“Good morning again, Bella,” Doc said softly.
“Good morning,” she answered as she turned to walk away.
“Don’t leave on account of us.” Norman was such a dweeb.
As cool as January in Aspen, Bella shook her head. It was easy for her to be c
ool since I was the one who’d gotten the Lycan blessing. The worst thing she’d inherited was straight hair. “I’ve got to go. I have some things to take care of.”
Norman turned to watch Bella’s rear as she walked away then moved closer to my cage. “He’s a mean one, Doc. Maybe we should test him for rabies.”
Doc didn’t answer Norman as he gazed at me. His blue eyes were dark this morning, almost midnight blue, which made me wonder if he’d had a rough night.
He took a long breath then blew it out as he shook his head. “She.”
“Say whut?
“This is a female wolf. A bitch.” His tone of voice as he said the word made the anger inside me explode. Did he just enjoy saying the word that describes female canines and nasty women?
Unable to bear being so near Norman, I paced in front of the bars. Exhausted and thirsty, I wanted nothing more than a drink of cool water and to lie down for a nap—just not while they were watching.
“So what are we going to do with her?” Norman asked. Hunkering down like a caveman, he poked the end of a choke stick into my cage to see if I would go for it. What kind of idiots did he think wolves were? As if a wild animal didn’t know the difference between an inanimate object and a walking, talking man? Besides his poking, the tone of his voice, the way he said the words, even his breathing irritated me.
How would his blood taste as it spurted from torn flesh to pour hot across my tongue and down my throat. Salty? Tart? Nasty because of his ancient aftershave?
I was tired of Norman’s staring. Licking my lips, I lowered my head and stared at him as I had the night before. After a moment I started a low growl deep in the back of my throat then very slowly crouched as I lifted the hair on my back.
He started sweating, his face drained and, again, he turned ogre green. Scrambling to get up from his squat, he dropped the pole as he landed on his butt in the dirt. Just where he belonged.
Rolling clumsily to his knees, he got to his feet and hurried away. Now I turned my stare on Doc. For all his good looks, I’d grown tired of his company, too.
But he just continued to look at me, even when I upped my growl decibels. “You are something to look at, Beauty. You go right ahead and growl if it makes you feel better. Being caged must be hard when you’re used to the wild.”
After several incredibly long moments, Bella strolled back to stand near Doc, but from the way she was breathing, I knew she’d run all the way there. While she was gone, she’d put on a white smock that said Veterinarian Bella Cannis over the pocket.
Too bad I couldn’t ask her if that was so she wouldn’t forget who she was.
“What do you think, Doc?” Bella’s voice was huskier than usual. Worrying over me, her sister-in-the-can must have been a little much for her. “What are we going to do about this wolf?”
“Do?” He shook his head. “She doesn’t belong to Safari Land just because she came around to make our party more exciting.”
“So we turn her loose?” Bella looked at me while she spoke.
“Yeah, we turn her loose.”
But Bella pushed the subject. “Do you think she might have come from Lost Canyon?”
Doc frowned, probably trying to figure why always-busy Bella cared. “That’s as good a guess as any, and it’s not that far as the crow flies, so it makes sense. I’ll tell Tony to take the old mail route and release her near the canyon. If that’s not her normal territory, she’ll find her own way home.”
“Why don’t we take her?” Bella asked. I wondered if he could hear the desperation in her voice as well as I could.
“You want to drive all the way to the canyon with her, rather than letting Tony do it?”
“Sure. Why not?” She nodded until I was afraid her head had come loose. “It’s a gorgeous day and we might get to see some more of her pack.”
“Fine. I’ll get the key to the truck.” He strode away.
While he was gone, Bella rushed to the cage door. “When he releases you, stay close. I’ll come back for you just as fast as I can.”
While it’s hard for a wolf to pout, over the years, I’d perfected the art. I spoke in her mind. Yeah. You do that.
When Doc returned, he picked up the choke stick where Norman had dropped it. After adjusting the stick’s noose, he moved it between the bars and fitted it around my neck. He put a key in the cage’s lock, made sure Bella was out of the way, opened the door and stepped inside with me.
I had to make it look good, so I put up a token resistance before settling down.
It just took me a moment to adjust to the foreign object around my neck—like an old lady wearing a tight necklace. But I didn’t want to look like a trained pooch on a leash, so I kept myself in a near crouch, ready to spring or run.
He led me to a tiger striped truck and locked me in a cramped cage in the back. I just prayed I wouldn’t get car sick in that airless, miniscule box.
When he removed the noose, I wanted to rub the chaffed place, but thought better of it.
Riding where I was, I could tell Doc had to be the absolute worst driver in the world. In a relatively short distance, he hit every bump, bounced in and out of every rut and quite possibly found every rock in every road we were on. I wanted to spew. Bad.
Finally, the truck came to a stop. Both Doc and Bella came to let me out, but he made her stay back when he opened the door. Unable to stop myself, I had to show off just a little.
Taking a fantastic leap from the cage—if I do say so myself—I ran a few yards, then stopped and braced my front feet on a small boulder. Raising my chin, I howled at the top of my lungs, and waited as if I expected an answer.
“Go on, Beauty. Have a wonderful life.”
I gazed at him for a moment, lifted my head high, turned my tail toward him and charged into the nearby woods, where I hid in the underbrush.
He stood there for a long time. Then, as if he’d suddenly remembered Bella was with him, he turned back to the truck. “We’d better go.”
After they left, I paced through the trees for an eternity while I waited for Bella. What could she be doing? She knew I was waiting and in need of a cup of coffee.
A dull headache pounding in my skull, I moved to a nearby jumble of boulders that looked as if a baby giant had used them for building blocks. At the base was a small crevice. Not a cave, really. It wasn’t large enough for that. But it had a stone floor and one rock had fallen on another, leaving an opening just big enough. I squeezed inside and put my aching head against the cool rock to sooth the pain.
And not only would it help my headache, if I fell asleep and shifted back to human form, I’d still be naked. In my stone cubby I wouldn’t be as easily spotted as if I were in the open.
I lay there for some time, unable to sleep because of the pain in my brain. After what seemed like hours I scented her, coming through the trees. Inching out of my hole in the rock, I ran to her.
“What took you so long?” I snarled.
She frowned hard at me then whipped off the smock. “Shut up and put this on. I had to lie to Doc and tell him I had an errand in town. And you know how I hate to lie.”
Sitting down, I drew into my cool center and tried to think calming thoughts. It wasn’t easy when I’d rather tear something or someone to pieces with my teeth than go calm, but I had an appointment with one of Fort Worth’s wealthiest matrons.
After several cleansing breaths, I was no longer vertically challenged.
Bella glanced at me, a smile playing around her lips as she helped me into her smock. “All these times I’ve seen you morph from woman to wolf and back again, and I still am dumbfounded each time you do it.”
“At least I don’t chase chickens anymore,” I answered before she had a chance to torment me with her favorite memory jab. We walked back to her car. “I used to tear off their heads and eat them, feathers and all, just to watch you gag.”
“What two-year-old wouldn’t?” She chuckled at the memory as we got into her Volvo.
“And poor Dad. Grandma Maleva always said she tried to warn him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“I have a feeling she didn’t use the word werewolf in that conversation.” I chuckled, too, as I remembered my favorite grandmother. “There’s no telling how people will react.”
“I miss her,” Bella whispered softly.
“Me, too.”
Thirty minutes later, Bella dropped me at the apartment and went back to work while I turned on the shower. Thank goodness I hadn’t made the appointment any earlier. As it was, I would have trouble getting to my office on time.
After I swallowed a couple of aspirin, I rushed through my shower. I let my hair out to its full length to hit it with shampoo a couple of times before drawing it back to the most manageable and, at least for me, flattering length.
Trying to make quick work of it, I squirted shower gel directly on my body, then grabbed the hippo-shaped scrubby Bella had put in my stocking last Christmas. I enjoyed the light brushing sensation on my skin until I got to my rear end. As I touched my right buttock, a sharp pain shot through me. I glanced down to see an angry, black bruise on my ass.
I got out of the shower, dripping like a crystal pitcher on a humid, Texas day, and looked in the mirror. The bruise covered most of that cheek, and there was a small scab exactly in the middle.
The realization hurt almost as much as my butt. Someone had shot me with some kind of tranquilizer, and Bella had been too chicken to tell me. Screeching my outrage, I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around myself and marched to the telephone. When her cell went directly to voicemail, I opened the personal phone book we shared and looked for her work number. The hard part was deciphering it. Why hadn’t someone told her in the beginning that just because she was a doctor, she didn’t have to write like one?
After dialing the number, I tapped my almost dry foot to expend some of the pent up anger. When someone finally answered, it was Doc. His deep, sexy voice almost melted me into the floor. “Clinic.”
