by Kathy Lyons
Wiz responded with an angry snap. “I’m not a cleric.”
Before the captain could respond, Yordan growled everyone to silence. Or he tried. “I’ve got this!” He squatted down in front of Bing. Not a sound came out of the actor’s mouth, but tears fell as he gripped his knee. “You want to walk again? Go wolf. Dig down into your animal fury and let it fly. It’ll heal and you can try to kick my ass that way.” The grin in his swollen face was truly grotesque, but he didn’t let up. “Come get me, Red Wolf.”
Josh didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have a phone or any first-aid knowledge. All he could do was stand there as Bing went into a staring match with Megamouth. His gaze was dark and filled with hatred.
Then something happened to his eyes. A red glow simmered beneath the pupils. Josh had seen it on TV, and it looked even freakier in person. Then Bing whispered two words.
“Stay human.”
Oh shit. Josh knew what that meant. Bing was using his Red Wolf power to Jedi mind-trick Yordan. And sure enough, Megamouth blinked twice and echoed the words. “I’ll stay human.”
Bing lunged. It went so fast, Josh was still seeing human red eyes when suddenly there was a huge wolf on top of Megamouth. The guy screamed and toppled beneath the attack, and Josh smelled blood. He surged forward to help, but what could he do? Fortunately he didn’t need to.
Nero and Captain M were there before him, both wolves now, as they tackled Bing, dragging him off Yordan, who was bleeding arterial blood from the neck. Then Wiz shoved Josh aside as he went to press one hand hard against Yordan’s neck.
“Shift,” he said in a low, soothing voice. “Shift now.”
It worked. Yordan shimmered gold and stabilized as a huge black wolf, lying on his back with his mouth open and his bright pink tongue lolling out. Wiz jumped back as Yordan squirmed, then came up on his feet. That was good for Megamouth, but two feet away, Bing was not going quietly into the night.
Red Wolf was squaring off with Nero and Captain M. He had his wolf head lowered and his eyes blazing red, his body preternaturally still as he obviously decided who to obliterate first.
Captain M was a white arctic wolf, pristine and gorgeous. Despite being the smallest wolf here, she was the one in charge. She was face-to-face with Bing, her teeth bared and her body tight with power. Yes, she still had on her sports bra and sweatpants, which ought to detract from the image, but it really didn’t. It was all in the way she was bristling and growling “back off!” She was scary enough, but with Nero standing to her left, Josh was crap-his-pants scared. Nero was a big timber wolf, dark brown with shoulders the size of a Volvo, thanks to a scary ruff, and sharp white teeth. He wasn’t making any sound, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Bing attack.
“Holy shit,” Laddin murmured as he grabbed Stratos and started tugging her backward. A second later Laddin had hold of Josh’s arm, and all three of them took slow, steady steps back from the wolf fight to come. Wiz went with them, shedding clothes with careful movements. Everyone watched Bing. If anyone going to initiate disaster, it would be him. Or Megamouth, as the stupid black wolf leaped into the fray.
Yes, the idiot leaped over Captain M, spun around so that his exposed back was to Bing, and then growled the captain and Nero back. It was almost funny the way those two shied backward in surprise. Even more so as Yordan stretched up onto his hind legs and became human, still in those huge basketball shorts. Except that wasn’t funny so much as really cool. And damned if Josh didn’t have the urge to drop on his knees and say, “Teach me!” like Benedict Cumberbatch in the first Doctor Strange movie.
Meanwhile, Yordan was grinning like it was Christmas morning as he spun around and clapped his hands in delight. “You did it!” he chortled at the wolf Bing. “Now prove that you’re under control and come back to human.” He squatted down stupidly close to Bing’s jaws. “Then you’ll get the day off to do whatever the hell you want. I might even let you send out an email.”
Josh held his breath. He gave it even odds that Bing would lunge for Yordan’s throat, but the wolf stood there with his teeth bared. Josh could hear the animal’s breath too. In and out in a tight pant.
Then—without even a glow or shimmer or anything—suddenly Josh was looking at the human Bing on all fours on the ground. The guy looked pretty-boy perfect. He didn’t even shiver from the cold as he rose smoothly to his bare feet. And then—in a morning full of surprises—Bing looked at Yordan and bent at the waist.
Bing bowed to Yordan in a show of respect.
Holy shit. Had hell frozen over? Meanwhile Megamouth accepted the gesture with a regal dip of his chin, and then he abruptly hauled Bing into a big hug, wrapping his huge arms around the man and clapping him heavily on his back. Bing accepted it with a pained expression. Clearly the guy wasn’t used to such exuberant shows of masculine bonding. But his lips were curved in a smile. And when Yordan finally let him go, he was able to nod at everyone else as well. Then, with an increasingly smug expression, he sauntered past them into the house.
His parting words were enough to make Josh hate him a little more.
“I think I’ll eat breakfast now,” he said. “And maybe read in bed before taking a nap.”
“Go on, buddy!” Yordan bellowed. “You earned it.” Then, after Bing was inside the house, he turned to the other trainers. “And you all owe me five hundred dollars each,” he crowed. “My guy—first to shift, first to manifest a special power. Woohoo! I’m going shopping!”
He started doing a happy dance which, honestly, looked a little disturbing, given how well his hips moved. Meanwhile, Wiz gaped at him while Josh realized they’d had a five hundred-dollar bet on which trainee would learn to shift first.
Wiz snorted with disgust. “Just because we’re not bastards about it—”
“Doesn’t matter,” Megamouth answered. “Results are what count.”
Captain M—still in her wolf form—blew out a snort, then turned around with her tail stuck up high as she headed into the house. Wiz leaped to open the door for her as she retreated. It was a very classy retreat, but Josh suspected she’d still pay up.
Then, when Nero started to turn, Yordan stuck a meaty finger at him. “Don’t you dare!” he growled. “You’re assigned here.” He glanced at Wiz. “You too.”
Which, apparently, was true, because Nero remained, though he refused to shift back to human. He retreated to a corner where he watched everything with steady wolf eyes. It was sort of like being watched by a police dog. The thing was polite, but it didn’t lessen the scare factor. Which left Wiz shirtless, barefoot, and in low-slung jeans. He shrugged and said, “Bring it on.”
Megamouth did. Calisthenics to warm everyone up, sparring outside to “show our stuff,” and when no one wanted to fight him, he sent everyone off on a horrendously freezing jog around the estate. And to deter anyone thinking of jumping the fence, Nero was there in his wolf form to make sure everyone stayed in formation.
And the most humiliating part of it all? Josh was the slowest. He didn’t mind being less capable than the trainers. They were probably subjected to this idiocy often. Laddin was Mr. Nervous Energy, so running was just another way to burn off calories. But being less in shape than Stratos—a woman who was the picture of a pale gamer geek—stung his male pride. Apparently even techies who spent their days and nights attached to their gear got more physical exertion than PhD students. It wasn’t his fault. He’d been in a cramped lab nearly 24/7 for five years now. Of course he was out of shape. He just hadn’t expected to be this pathetic, especially since Nero took great delight in nipping at his heels whenever he got too slow.
By the time they made it back to the mansion, Josh’s feet were numb, which was a very good thing, because he knew they were cut all to hell. He stumbled back into the main backyard only to hear everyone groan about something. Oh hell, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what. But as he collapsed on the frozen ground, he stared balefully at Laddin. “What now?” he groaned.
“No food,” the guy answered, his misery palpable.
Josh jerked upward. Dreams of a six-egg omelet were the only things that had kept him going for the last mile. “What?”
Megamouth came to stand right over him. “You able to shift yet?”
“I’m exhausted and starving. Plus, I was up all night trying to figure out your magical fire problem. Of course I can’t shift. No one has told me how.”
“It’s not a tell thing. It’s a do thing.”
That was it—that was all he said as he stared at Josh, expecting him to somehow poof into a wolf. Just like his father, who couldn’t understand why his son couldn’t catch a ball or punch a bully or handle tools in his machine shop. Just because they could do it without thinking, suddenly Josh was deficient because he wasn’t good with his hands. Or his body. Or anything physical at all.
“Spoken like every natural athlete on the planet. Congratulations. You’re good at something.” He straightened up onto his numb feet and matched the asshole glare for glare. And he said exactly what he’d been dying to tell his father since he was three years old. “Too bad you’re lousy at teaching, which is what you’re supposed to be doing right now. So if you want us to go wolf, then tell us how to do it!”
And just like with his father, his words meant jack shit. Megamouth poked him in the chest. “You’re pretty pissed off right now, aren’t you?”
Josh slapped the guy’s meaty arm away. “Yeah, I am.”
“What you going to do about it?” Another poke.
Josh slapped it away harder this time. Or at least he tried to. His swats didn’t seem to have a noticeable effect.
“Want to attack me? Want to rip my throat out like Bing tried? Huh? Huh?” Poke, poke, poke.
Yeah, he did, but he wasn’t stupid. No way could he take on Megamouth physically, and he didn’t have the ability to do a surprise shift. So he went where he always did when threatened: chemistry.
“I’m going to put methylene blue in your Gatorade and stain your teeth. I’m going to put sodium iodide and hydrogen peroxide in your toilet and wait for the next time you flush. And if you don’t take the hint, then maybe I’ll make sure that whatever the fuck solution I have to your plasma fire problem doesn’t work for you. And maybe then we’ll get a teacher who knows how to teach.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in, but when they did, Megamouth lost his snide grin. It faded slowly until it was replaced with a cold, dark stare. “You’re threatening the life of a packmate?”
“I don’t see a pack here. And believe me, if I did, I wouldn’t be part of yours.”
“That’s right,” he replied. “Because I wouldn’t have you in mine. And for damn sure I’m not going to trust any tech you give me.”
“Exactly—”
“Which means you can’t trust any order I give you, any mission I send you on, or even any training scenario you land in.” He gripped Josh’s chin and tilted it up, forcing Josh to stare him in the eye. “A pack survives on trust, and you’ve just proven yourself too much of a whiny child to be worthy of it.”
Josh tried to rip his face out of the guy’s meaty fist, but the bastard’s grip was too strong. He had a dozen smartass things to say back, but he couldn’t move his jaw enough to say them. And right when he thought he might manage a garbled “Fuck you, asswipe,” Megamouth shoved him away.
“Maybe you’ll grow up after another run. Go!”
Josh wasn’t going anywhere. He was done with—
A sharp nip at his heels had him jumping sideways in surprise. It was Nero, standing between him and the mansion. And when Josh made to go into the house with everyone else, Nero snapped at him again. The bastard made it clear that Josh wasn’t going anywhere but on his run. Josh tried to feint left or right, but it didn’t work. Even a small dog was faster than him, and Nero was a huge wolf.
So Josh stood still. He’d be damned if—
“Ow!”
Nero bit his kneecap. And it wasn’t a light bite either. He’d drawn blood!
“What the—ow!”
Another nip, this time on the other knee. And when Nero came at him again, Josh had no choice but to shy backward. Which meant Nero could advance. Another nip, which Josh tried to block. He got a bloody forearm for his trouble. And before he could recover, Nero bloodied his thigh, a half inch above the other cut.
It was the triumph of brawn over brains, the whole fucking story of his childhood. Josh had no choice but to stumble backward or lose more blood. And the longer Josh refused to run forward, the more he was jumping backward to avoid getting bitten. So he could do the whole run in backward hops or turn around and run straight.
He ran. And with every step on his numb feet, he cursed Megamouth, Nero, and even Captain M, who had abdicated her responsibility by leaving a psychopath in charge. He let the hatred boil through him—for at least fifteen minutes. But that could only last him so long, and it took too much energy to maintain his fury.
So he switched to plotting revenge. For him, that took no effort at all.
Chapter 16
NERO FELT like an ass even though he knew they were doing the right thing.
Training new werewolves was a very straightforward process. Piss off the new recruit enough until they attacked. Most times they unconsciously shifted to the wolf and tried to bite out your throat, like Bing had (though the hypnotism was new). Calm the biter down, and then suddenly new guy realizes he knows how to shift. It took time and practice to learn how to go wolf without being in a blind fury, but eventually everyone mastered it. And since Yordan knew better than anyone how to piss people off, he was an ideal drill sergeant. Especially since he was big and bad enough to defend himself no matter what attacked.
The problem was that Josh was nothing like the typical werewolf. When he got furious, he fought back with his mind, not his body. Physical attacks were no big deal. Mental weapons like whatever the hell Josh had said were beyond what Yordan knew how to deal with. So he threw Josh back into the body in the form of endless freezing runs and then left Nero to enforce the order.
Nero nipped at Josh constantly, forcing him to run, run, run while fury poured out of the guy like sweat. Nero thought for a bit there that it would work and Josh would freak out and explode into his wolf form. That was what had happened with Wiz, way back when. But something changed on the second mile. Josh went quiet. His shoulders locked in place, and his breath came in steady sawing gasps. He’d found a rhythm for the steady pound of his feet, and that set the guy’s massive brain to thinking, which was the last thing Nero wanted him to do.
Nero did everything he could think of to break Josh’s concentration. Biting, tripping, tackling—everything. Josh simply got up, started moving, and never really focused on anything his body was doing. He was all in his head, probably plotting revenge. And damn it, that was dangerous for everyone.
In short, if Yordan’s method was going to work, it would have already, back in the gym when Josh went ballistic on Nero’s face. Which meant that Nero had until they made it back to the mansion to think of a new plan.
Just like with the fire blast, he completely failed. No brilliant ideas sparked, no clever ruses. Fortunately Yordan stepped into the breech. While Stratos helped Josh clean dirt out of his many cuts, Yordan filled him and everyone else in on the plan.
“Right after your boo-boos are taken care of, you’ve got forms to fill out and questions we want answered.” He dropped a six-inch-high stack of paper on the counter. Nero knew that the paperwork was another way to piss off the new recruits, but Josh might be the only werewolf who preferred filling out forms over beating the shit out of someone. “You know, if you shifted, your feet would be lily white again and pedicure perfect,” Yordan taunted.
Come on, Nero thought as loudly as he could in his wolf form. Give him a smartass response.
Nope. Josh smiled benignly and said, “Good to know.” Which told him Yordan was in serious trouble, because Josh was t
hinking up something truly devious.
Meanwhile Josh looked at Stratos. “Thanks,” he said softly. “He letting us have any food yet?”
She mutely shook her head, her eyes glittering with her own anger. And here was yet another person plotting revenge. Nero sure hoped Wiz was ready for it.
“Okay,” Josh answered. “I’m going to take a shower.”
Stratos held his gaze for a moment, the look significant in a shared-prisoners kind of way. It said loud and clear: Whatever you’re plotting, I’ll help.
Great, the recruits were plotting against their trainers. And worse, Josh got the message. He nodded with a short dip of his chin and then winced as he got back to his abused feet. And Yordan was completely clueless as to what shit was about to hit the fan.
Damn it, he had to think of a solution fast.
Nero padded along after Josh, keeping within biting distance in case he had to disrupt a sudden chemical attack. Nothing happened, of course. There hadn’t been time. But Nero was on alert as he followed Josh to his bedroom and muscled his way in enough to stand fully in the doorway. There was a long wait as Josh stared at him and Nero looked back. Then Josh finally curled his lip and drawled, “By all means, join me.”
Which roughly translated to: You can’t do jack shit to stop me from destroying you. But go ahead, you can watch while I plot.
Which is exactly what Nero did. He sat down in the middle of the bedroom like a freaking pet dog. He watched Josh’s every move as the guy walked awkwardly into the bathroom and turned on a hot shower. Nero even watched as Josh stripped and stepped into the hot spray. Nero wouldn’t put it past Josh to MacGyver together soap bubbles, toilet paper, and herbal shampoo into an IED, but if he did it right then, Nero didn’t see it.
And then he got an inspiration.
While Josh was standing with his head bowed beneath the steaming showerhead, Nero finally found a plan. It was a radical thought, something they’d never done with the new recruits before, but what the hell. So far nothing had worked the way they’d intended. It was time to step outside of the box.
