by Mac Flynn
She turned her head toward him and found him staring at her with a soft expression on his furry face. He reached up and brushed her cheek with his thumb. She smiled and nuzzled her face into his soft palm. Her lover groaned and pulled himself free from her womb. He then wrapped his arm around her and brought her close against his chest. His warmth soothed her tired muscles and she closed her eyes for a much-earned nap.
The next morning Lenore creaked her eyes open. She'd had one hell of a dream. It felt so real. The wet grass, the sidewalk beneath her claws, the breeze blowing over their naked bodies. A breeze from the open window blew over her body and chilled her. She glanced down and her eyes widened when she realized she was naked.
Lenore yelped and grabbed the top sheet to cover herself. She wrapped it around herself and tried to sit up, but ended up catching herself in the tucked covers and tumbling over the foot of the bed. She groaned and sat up rubbing her bruised head. The room was much as she remembered it, but she didn't recall stripping to her birthday suit. There was that dream, but the suggestion that that actually happened was absurb. She hadn't turned into some sort of monster and gone off to the park to have furry sex.
Lenore winced at the bright light from the open window and curtains. She stumbled to her feet, shut both, and, with the cover still around her, set off for the bathroom. She flicked on the light, winced again at the brightness, and peered into the mirror. There were dark patches under her eyes and her face was pale.
Then the doorbell rang. She groaned.
"Now is not the time," she muttered. The doorbell didn't care because it rang again. Lenore raised her head and sighed. She shuffled her feet down the stairs and to the front door. The doorbell rang for the fifth time when she opened it.
Nick stood on her doorstep. He had a bright smile on his face until he noticed the dark lines on hers. Then his eyes went lower and widened. He pointed at her body. "Is this a bad time?" he wondered.
Lenore glanced down at herself and yelped when she realized she still wore the bed cover. She slammed the door and hurried to her bedroom closet. She grabbed the closest set, but paused when she noticed an empty hanger. Her work clothes from last night were missing. She looked over her shoulder at the room, but didn't see them. The doorbell rang again.
She hurriedly dressed and rushed downstairs to reopen the door. Nick was still smiling on her doorstep. "This may be a foolish question, but is something wrong?" he asked her.
"I always answer the door in cloths," she replied. She glanced at him and furrowed her brow. "How'd you find out where I lived?" she asked him. She'd only given him her phone number.
"It's a small town, but are you okay?" he persisted.
"I'm fine, just had some trouble waking up this morning," she replied.
Nick raised an eyebrow. "You're a terrible liar, but it looks like you don't want me around right now so I'll get to my business here. I wanted to apologize for my behavior yesterday."
Lenore blinked. "What behavior?"
He sighed and looked her in the eye. "For ordering you around. I acted like a dictator and ignored what you wanted, and for that I apologize."
She smiled and shook her head. "It's really nothing to worry about. My brother pushes me around all the time," she assured him.
Nick stepped forward and grasped her hands. His voice lowered and he stared directly into her eyes. "But I'm not your brother, and I don't want you to treat me like your brother," he told her.
Her cheeks were aglow with a heavy blush. "I-I-"
"Is this man bothering you?" a voice spoke up. The pair turned to see Godding marching toward them. He looked like a ruffled, moulting rooster and glared at Nick with all the venom of a rival lover.
"N-no. Herbert Godding, this is Nick-um-"
"Connor," Nick finished for her. He released her hands and offered one to Godding.
Godding grudgingly shook it. "And what can we do for you, Mr. Connor?"
Nick raised an eyebrow and studied the strange specimen in front of him. "Um, I'm not sure. What can you do for me?" Nick countered.
"Mr. Godding is the head of my home owner's association," she explained to Nick.
"It's Herb, Lenore," Godding insisted.
"I'm sure I'll remember that one of these days, but Nick and I have some-um, some very important business matters to discuss," Lenore told him.
Nick blinked. "We do?"
She grabbed his arm and smiled at him. "Of course, honey. It's about-well-um-"
"Our date last night," he suggested.
"Yes, our date last night," she readily agreed. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open when she recalled that they had scheduled a date for the previous evening.
Nick smiled, took her hand, and pulled her inside. "Come on, darling. Let's plan our next date."
"Bye!" Lenore called to Godding before she slammed the door in his face.
Nick released her hand and inspected the house. "Nice place," he complimented.
Lenore rested her back against the door and hung her head. "I am so sorry," she apologized. "I got sick at work and I came back here and collapsed on my bed and-"
"Woke up with the covers wrapped around yourself?" he teasingly guessed.
"No, that happened after I woke up," she admitted.
Both his eyebrows shot up. "Do you usually sleep in the nude?" he wondered.
She snorted and glanced up at him. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased.
"Actually, I would be very interested to know your intimate details," he returned. She didn't fail to notice the way his eyes traveled over her body.
"And I would rather exchange apologies. You were saying something about being a jerk?" she reminded him.
"There was that, but I also wanted to see how you were doing after yesterday. Judging by your attire when you first answered the door I would venture to guess you haven't fully recovered from your fall," he commented.
Lenore sighed and wandered over to the living room. She plopped down on the couch just as her phone upstairs rang.
"I can get that for you," Nick offered. He strode up the stairs with the confidence of a king in his castle and came back down with the phone still ringing in his hand. He handed it to her and she furrowed her brow when she saw it was the store.
"Hello?" she greeted the other line.
"Lenore, this is Madge. Something's happened and I was wondering if you could come in early today so we could talk about it," Madge requested.
Lenore cringed. "If it's about last night I'm really sorry. I don't know what came over me, but I just didn't feel I could perform my duties in that condition."
"It's something more serious, but we can discuss your sudden departure while you're here," Madge suggested.
Lenore sighed. "All right. When do you need me?"
"As soon as possible."
"I'll be there." Lenore hung up the phone and looked to Nick. "I'm afraid we're going to have to postpone our apologizing until some other time."
"Someone rob the store?" he guessed.
"Worse, I have to go in early," she told him.
Nick stooped, took her hand in his, and planted a soft kiss on her palm. "Then this is goodbye for now. I'll call you later to see how you're feeling. That way it won't matter what you're wearing, if anything," he teased.
"I'll be sure to wear my best sheer nightgown," she returned. A strange flicker rushed across his eyes, and she swore they changed color.
Or maybe it was her imagination. In a moment he was his smiling self. "I'll just have to imagine it. For now. Goodbye."
Nick left her with flushed cheeks and a strange feeling that he knew more than he was letting on.
Chapter 11
Lenore found herself contemplating her dream as she drove to work twenty minutes later. She wore her spare work clothes and wondered at the disappearance of her usual set. In her dream the pieces had been torn apart, but they hadn't completely disappeared. She also didn't remember the part of the dream where she returned
to her home. Then again, what did the dream matter? It was only a dream. A strange, deliciously sensual dream with a hairy hunk.
Lenore bit her lip as heat pooled between her thighs. She had Nick to thank for all these thoughts and dreams of georgeous men, even wolf men. If he wasn't so handsome she wouldn't be thinking of making out with anything that had two legs or, in the case of the dream, four paws.
Lenore arrived at the store and parked at her usual place at the bottom of the parking lot. She meandered her way through the unsteady stream of shoppers and into the building. Madge greeted her near the doors with pressed lips.
"Come with me," she instructed Lenore. Lenore followed Madge to the back room where the managers of the departments waited near the office door. Madge left Lenore at the back and wound her way to the doorway where she turned to the small crowd. "I was just informed this morning that the security company who handles our cameras was compromised." Whisperings sprang up in the crowd.
"Compromised how?" one of the managers spoke up.
"As some of you know their cameras have been offline for a few days. That is because an outside individual hacked into their system and routed control of the cameras to an unknown destination," Madge replied.
"So someone saw what the cameras saw?" another manager guessed.
Madge nodded her head. "Exactly. We also weren't the only ones using the security company. Many of the banks and other stores also use them, and they, too, have been compromised," she told them.
"What's this mean for us?" someone wondered.
"Has it been fixed?" another asked her.
Madge held up her hands and the uneasy crowd quieted. "We're not sure yet, but there is some good news. The security company has regained control over their network and the camera information is no longer being transmitted to an unauthorized destination."
"Yeah, but what about while they had control? Maybe they got all the credit card info they wanted," somebody suggested.
"I'm afraid only time will tell if that's true, but the company is announcing the compromise today. I want you to reassure our customers that nothing is wrong and everything is back under our control. Now let's all stay calm and return to work," Madge ordered them.
The managers broke up into groups of twos and threes to discuss, speculate, and mildly panic about the hacking. Madge strode up to Lenore and sighed. "I wish that had gone better," Madge commented.
"At least there wasn't a panic," Lenore pointed out.
"No, but our customers may not be as forgiving, and we can hardly blame them," Madge argued. She glanced at Lenore. "But enough of things we can't control. I received complaints about the store closing early last night. What was wrong?"
"Mrs. Brown came in for some mayo, didn't she?" Lenore guessed.
Madge smiled. "She is a very habitual person, but yes, Mrs. Brown came to the store at nine-thirty last night and found it closed. She promptly called my personal number and complained. I tried to call your number, but no one answered, so I called Becky. She informed me you had taken ill and ordered her to shut the store early. What happened?"
Lenore sighed and shook her head. "I don't really know. I felt feverish and went into the office to rest a bit. That didn't help, so I told Becky to close up and I went home. I didn't answer your call because I fell asleep on my bed. I didn't wake up until a few minutes before you called."
Madge looked at Lenore's puffy eyes. "How are you feeling today?"
Lenore shrugged. "Fine, I guess. Still a little warm, but I think my fever broke last night."
Madge pursed her lips. "I want you to take a few nights off."
Lenore shook her head. "I'm not really-"
"This isn't a suggestion," Madge interrupted. "I'm writing you off the schedule for the next two nights and I expect you to stay away until those two nights are over. Do you understand?"
Lenore drooped, but gave a nod. "Yeah, I understand."
"Good." Madge patted Lenore on the shoulder. "Now get some rest, and I'll see you in two days."
"Sure thing." Lenore left the backroom and went to the front doors. She didn't step out, but instead grabbed a cart. If she was banished from the store for a few days she'd need to stock up on supplies.
Lenore wheeled her cart through the aisles and picked up the essentials for survival, namely chocolate and ice cream. She wandered to the rear of the store and slowly stopped in front of the long, open cooler that held the meat. Her mouth salivated at all that juicy raw food begging at her to consume it. She picked up a package of hamburger in her shaking hand and bit into it. Her teeth dug into the package and failed to rip through the plastic covering to the delicious treat inside.
Lenore's eyes widened and she spat out the meat. It dropped to the ground, and the other shoppers and her coworkers turned and stared at her. She shakily smiled back, picked up the package, tossed it into her cart and wheeled away. Her mind reeled at what she'd done and her focus was now to escape all the staring eyes. She hurried through the check stand, tossed the food into her car and drove home.
Lenore wasn't thrilled to see Stan's truck parked outside her house. She lugged the food inside and found her brother seated at her dining table, which was unusual. When he let himself in with his spare key she usually found him on the couch with a bag of chips eating away her food supply in front of the television.
His eyes were on her the moment she stepped through the door. "We have to talk," he told her.
"Nice to see you, too," she quipped. She walked into the open kitchen that abutted the dining room and plopped the bags on the counter.
He stood and walked over to stand by her side. "This isn't funny. I got the results back from the lab," he explained.
Lenore paused and turned her head toward him. Her heart thumped in her chest. "And?"
"It's blood."
Lenore wrinkled her nose. "Blood? Like vampire-drinking blood?" she guessed.
"Yeah, but it's not human. It's wolf blood," he added.
Her heart stopped. Memories of the dream rushed back to her, and she leaned against the counter for support. Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. "Wolf blood?" she repeated.
Stan noticed the color drain from her face. "Is something bothering you?"
Lenore shook her head. "I-it's nothing, just didn't sleep well last night, but wolf's blood? Not dog or alpaca blood?" she asked him.
"Definitely wolf," he confirmed.
"So do you still think he's out to get me? Maybe he's just trying to add a little hair on my chest," she teased.
"Or giving you a chance to be in the circus as the bearded lady," he quipped. He glanced at his watch while Lenore stuck her tongue out at him. "But whatever he's doing, I have to go back to his house," he commented.
Lenore raised her head and glared at him. "I told you yesterday not to go snooping around in there," she reminded him.
He snorted. "Did you already forget who volunteered me to fix up his house?" he countered.
"Oh, right. The repairs." Her scattered thoughts had forgotten about that detail, but it didn't miss the unlikely coincidence between her dream and the vial being full of wolf blood.
"Are you sure you're all right? You look like the time I tricked you into eating that worm thinking it was candy," Stan commented.
"I'm fine, just got sick last night and had a bad dream, that's all," she replied.
"Maybe you should go see a doctor. There might be some damage from the fall," he persisted.
Lenore growled. The noise surprised both Stan and her. She tilted her head down and massaged her temple. "I'm fine, really. I have the next few days off and the only plan I have is to vegetate on the couch or in my bed."
Stan sighed, but nodded. "All right, but if you need anything feel free to give me a call." He glanced at her groceries and frowned when his eyes fell on the meat package. He took it out and examined the faint bite marks in the hamburger. "Did you know somebody took a bite out of your hamburger?" he asked her.
She
snorted. "Yeah, but I don't mind some bite in my food."
He turned the container over and set it down. "Well, the plastic isn't torn, so it should be all right. It looks better than you, at least."
Lenore scowled at him. "Thanks. You make a sister feel loved."
"Just doing my solemn duty as an older brother," he replied.
"I'll remember to call you any time I need to talk to a pain in the ass," she commented.
Stan grinned. "Always here to help, but I guess I should be going to help Nick. He tried helping me tear down some boards yesterday and ended up cutting himself pretty bad on some old nails. For a guy who works with blood he doesn't like it much. He hauled me away from the area so he could clean up the mess. Wouldn't even let me help wipe it up," Stan told her.
Lenore shrugged. "Maybe he thinks you'll put a curse on him if you get some of his blood. You know, some sort of a concerned-brother curse," she guessed.
Stan furrowed his brow and shrugged. "Maybe, but I'll stop by after work and see how you're doing."
"I'll be here," she promised.
Chapter 12
Stan left and Lenore stumbled over to the dining chair he'd left out. She collapsed on the seat and leaned over the table with her head clasped in her hands. From her lips spilled forth a mantra of denial.
"There's nothing suspicious about Nick's wolf blood. He's a scientist, he's supposed to have strange things in his lab. He probably has vampire bat and donkey blood in there. It has nothing to do with your dream last night. It's all just a strange coincidence-" Her head snapped up when she heard her doorbell ring.
Lenore walked over to the door and opened it to find Nick on her doorstep. His delicious lips were pressed together in a concerned frown and his eyes wore that strange glint in them that she'd seen earlier. "If you're looking for Stan, he just left," she told him.
"I know. I watched him leave. Mind if I come in?" Nick requested.
Lenore frowned and remembered her ill-kept promise to Stan about staying away from him. "Actually, I think it'd be better if I laid down for-"
"It's important," he emphasized.
