by Jae
Shelby gave her a friendly smile. Okay, time to get out my secret weapon before the neighbors start thinking I’m torturing animals. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out one of the dog biscuits she had bought in the pet store. The salesclerk had promised that no dog would be able to resist the treat, and indeed, on the way over, Shelby’s coyote half had been tempted to try one of the biscuits. Only to make sure that they were as tasty as promised, of course.
She bent and invitingly held out the biscuit.
Goliath bared his tiny, but needle-sharp teeth. He leaped forward and snapped at Shelby.
Shelby wrenched back her hand. “Hey, what are you doing? Look how tasty this is. Yum-yum.” She pretended to take a bite of the biscuit and chew contentedly. Licking her lips, she held out the biscuit again.
The dumb dog didn’t even sniff. He continued to growl and bare his teeth.
Shelby regarded him with a shake of her head. What was she supposed to do now? Use the good, old coyote method? Somehow she doubted that Nyla and her grandmother would like it if she growled at the Chihuahua, threw him on his back, and stared him down until he submitted.
If he would do that. Goliath seemed everything but submissive.
A deep growl came from beyond the hedge that separated Nyla’s house from the neighbor’s property.
Great. Now I’m being growled at by two dogs. Shelby’s nostrils flared as she tried to identify the smells in the neighborhood. The neighbor’s house and the trash can she had wheeled to the curb were covered by the scent marks of another dog. Judging by the smell and his growl, it was a large dog.
But Goliath appeared unimpressed. He answered the threatening growl with his irritating yapping.
“Goliath, sssh. Are you out of your mind? That one is out of your league.”
The growling on the other side of the hedge stopped.
Uh-oh. Shelby knew that the sudden silence didn’t bode well.
A large black dog of an unidentified breed bounded toward them. Or more specifically, toward Goliath. In five seconds, Goliath would be mincemeat.
Finally, Goliath stopped yapping. He whined and hid under the porch.
Shelby stepped between Goliath and the large dog.
The attacker slowed for a moment, then rushed on.
Shelby took a deep breath, lifted her upper lip, and let out the scariest growl she was capable of. Even though she had a hard time turning into a coyote, she smelled like a Wrasa and now she allowed the wild fierceness of her ancestors to surface instead of hiding it beneath her human exterior.
The dog stopped as if he had crashed into an invisible barrier. His fur stood on end and made him look even larger and more threatening.
Shelby countered by straightening to her full five feet six inches. She stared the dog down until he slowly lowered his confidently raised tail. She pulled back her upper lip and deepened her growl.
Finally, the dog tucked his tail between his legs and crawled away with his belly almost touching the ground.
Ha! Shelby scratched at the gravel in the driveway with her feet until she realized what she was doing and hastily stopped.
“Hello?” the neighbor called through the hedge. “Did you by any chance see my do—? Oh, Ringo, there you are!”
“You better put him on a leash,” Shelby called, “before he attacks my Goliath again.” My Goliath? She rubbed her ear and stared at the porch, where the Chihuahua was hiding. Since when is that overgrown rat my Goliath?
“Oh, no,” the neighbor replied. “Ringo wouldn’t harm a fly. He’s just playing.”
Shelby snorted. She knew the body language of a playful dog. Ringo had definitely planned on having Goliath for lunch. As the door closed behind the neighbor and her dog, Shelby knelt next to the porch. She ignored the gravel digging into her knees. Gently, she tugged on the leash. “Hey, little one. You can come out. The scary beast is gone.”
A small black nose appeared from beneath the porch and moved up and down as Goliath sniffed. Then a narrow muzzle and two gleaming eyes followed.
“The coast is clear,” Shelby said and patted her thigh to lure Goliath out from his hiding place. “Ringo beat a humiliating retreat.”
The stink of fear surrounding Goliath slowly dissipated. Inch by inch, he slid his little body out from under the porch. Then he heartily shook himself.
“You okay, little one?” Carefully, Shelby reached out, prepared to pull back her hand if Goliath tried to bite.
Goliath lifted his upper lip as if he was about to growl, but no sound rose up his chest. After a few seconds, the furrows in his muzzle disappeared. Hesitantly, he craned his neck and sniffed Shelby’s hand. His smooth tongue shot forward and licked Shelby’s palm, at first tentatively, then more enthusiastically, until Shelby had been covered in slobber from wrist to fingertips.
“Would you look at that?” Maybe she should hire Ringo in the future whenever she wanted to gain a dog’s favor. She scratched behind Goliath’s triangular ears. “Okay, let’s get going before Mrs. Rozakis thinks we got lost.” She took a step toward the street, and this time, Goliath followed her without her having to drag him behind her on his leash.
* * *
“Are you sure we shouldn’t wait for Nyla?” Shelby asked, peeking at the lamb skewers on her plate.
Mrs. Rozakis patted Shelby’s arm. “There’s still enough left over for Nyla. You go ahead and eat.”
Shelby didn’t have to be told twice. Even though she rarely shifted shape and therefore didn’t use up as much energy as other Wrasa, she still had the appetite of all Wrasa. She cut off a large piece of meat and put it into her mouth.
A symphony of tastes exploded on her tongue: olive oil, lemon, dill, and garlic. She hummed as she chewed the tender meat. “Mmm. Delicious.”
Mrs. Rozakis beamed. “I’m glad you like it.” She heaped more rice onto Shelby’s plate. Instead of eating, Mrs. Rozakis leaned back and watched as Shelby wolfed down her meat. “Why did you become a doctor?” she finally asked.
Shelby paused with the fork halfway to her mouth. There it was, the first of the interrogation questions. And Shelby couldn’t answer totally truthful. “My father, two of my aunts, and my grandmother are doctors,” she answered. That much was true.
“Ah, so it’s a family tradition.”
That was only half true. Even though many members of her pack had dedicated themselves to practicing medicine, all but Shelby had decided on Wrasa medicine. She put another bite of lamb into her mouth and mumbled an answer that was just as likely to be a confirmation as a denial.
“Are all the other doctors in your family psychiatrists too?” Mrs. Rozakis asked.
Shelby couldn’t tell her that psychiatry was a not very well-known, if not nonexistent, branch of Wrasa medicine. Wrasa didn’t suffer from mental disorders. At least that was the official story. Maybe it had really been true in the past. Shelby wasn’t sure, but she knew today it was a lie. She laughed even though she felt like crying. “Oh God, no. Can you imagine family get-togethers if almost every member of the family is a psychiatrist?”
Of course, Mrs. Rozakis couldn’t imagine Shelby’s family get-togethers at all. Instead of looking at photo albums over coffee and cake and talking about family members who hadn’t been able to make it to the meeting, Shelby’s pack came together to shift shape in a hidden clearing and to run through the forest in their coyote forms until morning dawned.
Mrs. Rozakis laughed. “Then why did you go into psychiatry?”
Shelby decided to tell the truth. She liked Nyla’s grandmother—and not just for her food. “When I was growing up, my grandfather was my hero.”
“Was he a doctor too?”
“No. He ... As long as I can remember, he never worked. He suffered from bipolar disorder. Severe depression alternating with manic episodes.” Not that he had ever been diagnosed with any mental disorder. Officially, her grandfather was just an oddball who kept apart from the rest of the pack and rarely shape-sh
ifted. He was an outsider within the pack, just like Shelby. “I became a psychiatrist to help people like him.”
As far as she knew, she was the only Wrasa psychiatrist in North America.
“What became of your grandfather?” Mrs. Rozakis asked.
Shelby swallowed.
The sound of a key in the lock prevented her from having to answer.
Slow steps approached; then Nyla appeared in the doorway. The smell of stress and exhaustion covered her like an old, heavy coat.
For a moment, Shelby thought she smelled blood. Just the lamb skewers. She jumped up to help Nyla out of her jacket. She would have loved to massage Nyla’s tired shoulders, but with Mrs. Rozakis watching her every move, she didn’t dare. “How was it?”
“Don’t ask.” Nyla groaned. “If Tanya hadn’t come in on her day off, I would still be in the ER.”
Shelby resolved to buy Tanya chocolate or some other treat that human women liked. She hung Nyla’s jacket over the back of a chair and pulled out the chair so that Nyla could get off her feet.
Nyla smiled and sat.
Again, Shelby caught a whiff of blood. This time, she knew it wasn’t the lamb meat. Her gazed roamed over every inch of Nyla’s body. She flinched when she caught sight of Nyla’s elbow. “Nyla! What happened?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Shelby’s finger trembled as she pointed at Nyla’s elbow, which was covered in dried blood.
Mrs. Rozakis stood too and hurried over to Nyla to take a look at her elbow.
“Oh.” Nyla stared at her arm. “That must have happened when that patient panicked. He lashed out and knocked out Barbara before we could get a handle on him. Somehow, I must have hit my arm on a wall in all that chaos.”
Blood roared through Shelby’s ears. The mental image of an out-of-control man shoving Nyla against a wall without caring that she might get hurt made her body temperature shoot through the roof. Her forearms itched, and a tingling sensation crept up her spine. She clenched her fists and could almost feel coyote claws digging into her palms.
Take a deep breath. She shook her head to clear it. Great Hunter, what was that? But of course she knew that her body had gone through the first symptoms of an adrenaline-induced transformation. She could count on two fingers of one paw how often she had felt those warning signals.
Mrs. Rozakis hurried away and returned a few seconds later with a first-aid kit, which she handed Shelby.
Nyla waved her away. “Yiayia, it’s just a scratch. I’ll clean it when I go take a shower.”
“Let me do it,” Shelby said. “You can’t be too careful.” At least not when Nyla’s health was at stake. She washed her hands and guided Nyla over to the sink in the kitchen. Gently, she stroked Nyla’s forearm while she let water run over her elbow. She put on the latex gloves from the first-aid kit and studied the wound. Now that the blood had been washed off, she was relieved to discover that it was, in fact, just a small abrasion.
Mrs. Rozakis peeked over Shelby’s shoulder, a worried expression on her face.
Shelby gave her a reassuring smile.
“So, Doctor?” Nyla tilted her head and chuckled. “What’s your professional diagnosis? Will I live?”
“Chances of survival are good. It’s really just a scratch. A Band-Aid will be enough.” Shelby took the antibiotic ointment from the first-aid kit and gently spread it over the wound. Then she placed a Band-Aid over it and carefully smoothed down the sticky ends.
Her gaze met Nyla’s.
Shelby realized that she was still stroking Nyla’s arm.
“Thanks.” Nyla cleared her throat. She sat down at the table again and peeked into the pots and bowls. “I see you already ate.”
Mrs. Rozakis and Shelby returned to the table too. “We didn’t know when you’d be home,” Nyla’s grandmother said, “and poor Shelby was starving.”
Shelby’s cheeks warmed. Next time, she would eat more slowly. And less.
“It’s okay.” Nyla looked around the dining room. “Where’s Goliath? Don’t tell me he’s hiding beneath the couch because he still can’t stand Shelby?”
“Oh, no,” Shelby said with a proud grin. “He loves me.” When Nyla raised a skeptical brow, she pointed beneath the table.
Nyla lifted the tablecloth and peeked under the corner seat.
Goliath was rolled up into a little ball, next to Shelby’s feet.
“Oh, isn’t he cute?” Nyla leaned over and kissed Shelby’s cheek.
If chocolate hadn’t been poisonous for dogs, Shelby would have resolved to buy not only Tanya, but also Ringo a big chocolate bar.
* * *
Despite the cold night air, Shelby and Nyla sat in the hammock swing behind the house. Here, hidden from the curious stares of neighbors and Nyla’s grandmother, Shelby could finally relax.
Nyla leaned against Shelby’s shoulder. “Wow, you’re really hot.”
Shelby chuckled. Of course, she knew that Nyla was referring to the higher than normal body temperature of all Wrasa, but she couldn’t help teasing her a little. “Thank you.”
“That’s not what I meant, but ... well ... you’re not exactly unattractive.”
Shelby poked her in the ribs and wrapped one arm around Nyla.
For a while, they sat in the dark without talking.
The low sound of dog paws crossing a lawn came from the other side of the hedge that surrounded the house; then they faded away. Ringo whined as he caught a whiff of Shelby’s scent. He scurried away.
“I’m sorry I stood you up,” Nyla said. “But I couldn’t abandon the other staff before things had calmed down a little. I hope my grandmother didn’t torture you too much.”
“Hey.” Shelby squeezed Nyla’s shoulder. “There’s no reason for you to apologize.” The better she got to know Nyla, the more she liked her—her sense of duty, her warmth, her love of animals, and her loyalty to her grandmother.
Nyla turned and studied her in the light falling through the living room window. “I don’t know what it is, but you’re somehow different from the women I’ve dated before.”
Shelby stopped breathing, caught between panic and hope. “Are we dating?”
For a moment, only the rustling of the wind through the hedge interrupted the silence.
Then Nyla took an audible breath and blew it back out before she looked at Shelby. “Do you want to date me?”
Thoughts bounced through Shelby’s head. A human and a Wrasa. There’s no future for that. If the Saru catch us ... But then she focused on Nyla’s question, and there was no doubt in her mind. Of course she wanted to date Nyla. She couldn’t remember ever wanting anything more. She nodded without saying a word.
Nyla cuddled against Shelby’s shoulder. “Then it’s official.”
Official ... The word echoed through Shelby’s mind. No, she couldn’t make it official. She would have to be careful not to give their relationship away, and she would never be able to introduce Nyla to her pack. Suppressing a whine, she shook off those thoughts. For now, being with Nyla was enough. Worrying about tomorrow’s problems could wait until tomorrow.
Chapter 4
Nyla looked back over her shoulder. Her breath formed little white clouds in front of her mouth. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine.” Shelby wasn’t even close to being tired. After spending the last several weekends with Nyla and her grandmother, she was glad to get out and get some exercise.
Nyla sped up.
Shelby followed without effort.
Cyclists shot past them, so they couldn’t run next to each other in this part of the park, but Shelby was content jogging behind Nyla. She grinned. In her tight black spandex pants, Nyla was a sight that made getting up early worthwhile.
The path before them broadened.
Nyla glanced back. “Last one to the statue pays for breakfast.” Without giving Shelby time to reply, she broke into an all-out run.
“Hey! Unfair head start!” Despite her p
rotests, Shelby laughed as she chased after Nyla. Blood rushed through her veins. Her body felt nearly weightless. For a moment, she almost thought she was running up the hill in her coyote form. She almost let out a playful bark as she caught up with Nyla. But her feet were still encased in running shoes instead of touching the ground as paws.
The path bent to the left.
Without slowing down, Nyla followed the path. Her arms and legs were pumping. Her ponytail beat a rhythmic staccato against her back.
A part of Shelby wanted to keep running behind her so she could watch her, but the coyote in her wanted to match her strength against Nyla’s in a race. She jumped across a frozen puddle and prepared to overtake Nyla.
Nyla sped up too.
For a few seconds, they ran side by side, each step in perfect harmony.
The statue of George Washington appeared in front of them.
Shelby grinned and put on a burst of speed.
With a strained expression, Nyla tried to keep up. When she realized she was falling behind, she laughingly reached out her arm. She tried to grab Shelby’s waistband to stop her from reaching the statue first.
Nimbly, Shelby dodged out of the way. She wanted to run like this forever, but she stopped when she reached the statue and whirled around to watch Nyla.
A few steps behind Shelby, Nyla sprinted toward the equestrian statue. When she reached it, she bent at the waist and put her hands on her thighs. After she had caught her breath, she straightened and shook her head at Shelby. “My God, are you on any drugs?”
Wrasa endorphins, baby. Shelby laughed and wrapped one arm around Nyla. “If I’m drugged, it’s only with your presence.” Greedily, she inhaled the scent of Nyla’s fresh sweat.
Nyla’s long-sleeved shirt clung to her chest, emphasizing her full breasts. A few strands of her hair had escaped her ponytail and were now sticking to her forehead in damp curls.
Tenderly, Shelby brushed one of the strands behind Nyla’s ear.
“Charmer,” Nyla said. She shivered. “Let’s head back.” She held out her hand for Shelby to take.
