Blood of a Werewolf (29 page)

She went into the bedroom reluctantly and closed the door.
 
She slowly undressed, folding her clothes in a neat little pile, hiding her bra and panties between her shirt and pants. She shook out the folded sheet and wrapped it around her.
 
She slowly opened the bedroom door and walked into the living room.
 

Dean was sitting in a chair leafing through a book, wearing a dark green towel. He looked up at her with his ever so slight smile, but there was another look that came across his face, one that she could only describe as awe.
 
She blushed a crimson red.

“I’ve never seen anyone who looked so great in a sheet.”

“Well you do live in the boonies. How often do you get an opportunity to see a woman in a sheet?”

He chuckled, “Good point.”

“So now what?”

“Now we wait and you need to relax.
 
Your first impulse will be to fight it, but you have to try to relax.
 
So I opened a beer for you. Here.” He handed her the bottle.

“Thanks,” she said appreciatively. She took a long draw on the beer, just about taking in half the bottle.

“Dear Lord, a woman after my own heart,” he laughed.

She laughed too, but chugged a bit more, then set the bottle down. “I’m really scared, Dean. I can’t relax.
 
I wish Darby was here.”

“What would your sister do to relax you?”

“I don’t know, um.”
 

“Think.”

“Okay, okay. I guess she’d hold me, distract me, I don’t know?”
 

He stood up, looking amazingly sexy in his towel, and walked to her and stretched out his arms to her, inviting her.

“What?”

“I can hug you,” he said.

“You what?” She choked on her beer.

“Come here, I can hug you.”

“Oh no. I don’t think that would relax me.”

“Why not?”

“Why not? Look at you all...in a towel...looking...with that smile...Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to relax me,” she said and grabbed the bottle of beer again and downed the last of it.
 

“Really. You think I’m, hmmm.” He walked towards her and put his hands on her shoulders and a little too roughly rubbed them as if to warm her up. He said, “It’s okay, I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.
 
It’s really quite natural, all of it.
 
It’s like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon, or a bird learning to fly. It’s a oneness you now share with nature in its purest and most beautiful form.”

“I feel weird, Dean.”
 
Her skin was crawling and she threw her arms around him and clung to him as if for dear life. He wrapped his arms around her and held her.
 
His strength and warmth protecting her, she felt safe. He smelled wonderful, not of soap, or deodorant, or cologne, just a completely natural, musky scent.
 
She closed her eyes for a moment.
 
She wasn’t sure but she thought she felt him smell her hair, maybe even brush his lips against her ear. It was wonderful, but the tingling was getting worse.
 

Her bones seemed to be mutating and moving.
 
It didn’t hurt but it was a sensation she wasn’t sure she liked.
 
She noticed too, that his skin was moving and hair was sprouting all over his chest under her face.
 

He very calmly whispered in her ear, “It’s okay, Rowan. I’m here. You’re safe. Take a deep breath.”

She inhaled deeply and that’s when things really changed.
 
It sounded like crumpling leaves and bones breaking. It sounded a lot worse than it felt,
Thank God
.
 
She could see that her nose was elongating and she could feel her knees buckling backwards.
 
She felt the sensation she was sinking, but it was her body changing from a biped to a quadruped.
 
She couldn’t see what she looked like, but by the appearance of Dean, she had a pretty good guess.
 
He was a wolf now.
 
A beautiful beast with warm brown fur, but the same hazel eyes, stood before her.
 
His ears were alert and his head was slightly cocked to one side as if questioning her.
How do you feel?
he asked, but not verbally.
 
She heard him in her mind.
 

She shook her body as a dog would shake off water.
 
She could feel every hair on her skin stand up straight as she did so. She answered him,
I feel...fine...no, I feel amazing...strong.

You look beautiful
, he said with a tiny bit of embarrassment, she thought.
Come on.
He nudged her with his nose and they went out the front screen.
 
She trotted behind him.
 
Once they were outside, the wind swept over her, moving her fur.
 
It tingled everywhere, like someone stroked her.
 
She could smell things she had never smelled before, but mostly, the smells she did recognize were much stronger.
 
To make things worse, Dean’s scent was overwhelming and it made her shudder with delight.
 
She tried to block this from her mind.
 
How embarrassing it would be if he saw or felt her tremble like that.

She could feel the earth under her feet. Every texture and feeling was heightened by a hundred times.
 
The moon was rising and it was huge and bright. It painted everything it touched with a silvery-blue highlight.
 
She heard him shout,
Come on
, as he started into a full out run.
 
She followed in suit.
 
It was glorious, this feeling of running through the fields in the moonlight.
 
Her fur felt alive.
 
She smelled everything and heard things moving underground as she ran passed them.
 
It was sensory overload.
 

Suddenly, a rabbit darted across her path and she changed course to pursue it.
 
It was like she had no choice, she wanted to play with it, chase it. She heard Dean say,
Later. Follow me now
. She didn’t know how far away he was, but his voice seemed to be right next to her.
 
She instinctively knew which way he had gone and pursued him.
 
He was standing near a large pond looking back at her as she ran up next to him.
 
The water was black and still and the moon reflecting in it wiggled slightly with the breeze. He said,
Look.

She looked down in the water, first at his reflection and then to her own.
 
It was a bit scary to see herself as something else and she jumped back a bit. After a second and with Dean’s insistence, she crept up to the water’s edge again and looked at her reflection.
 
What she saw looking back at her was a tan, furred wolf with blue eyes.
 
She thought it was pretty.
 
The reflection cocked its head quizzically as she thought about it and she looked back at Dean.
You’re beautiful even as a wolf. See?
he said. She looked back at herself and the moon reflecting in the water.
 

Everything was so peaceful.
 
Dean was right; it was like being a part of nature, being one with nature in a way that was impossible as a human. She took a step towards Dean and nuzzled his neck with her nose in appreciation.
 
She said,
Thank you for being with me and for showing me this, your world.

Not just my world. It’s now your world, too. You are part of nature and all that it has to offer you. It’s a simple life, but a wonderful one too.

He was right. It was wonderful.
 
She saw everything differently now. She playfully lunged at him to make him run and play with her and he happily obliged.
 
They took off running, faster and faster.
 
She had never felt so strong; every muscle responded with ease, and her breathing was even, not labored.
 
It was the best feeling ever.
 
As she chased Dean across the fields of grass in the moonlight, she slightly nipped his tail as she gained on him.
 
He turned on a dime and he lunged at her, both of them rolling in the grass, playfully mouthing each other the way two puppies might play.
 
She was laughing in her mind and making little growl noises in her throat.
 
To a human bystander, it might look as if they were fighting, but as wolves tumbling in the grass, it was pure fun.
 
The mane of fur around his neck was thick and her nipping never even reached his skin.

The rest of the moonlit night was filled with running, playing, and exploring.
 
She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so good and so free. She didn’t remember returning to the house when the moon was setting in the sky but she would always remember this time with Dean.
 
She wished she could share this with her sister, but she knew she couldn’t. Oh, she could relay the feelings, even have her watch, but Darby could never feel the sensations, smell the odors of the earth, and hear the sounds of animals all around. That was something she would only ever know with Dean.

When she woke in the morning she was naked on the bed, curled in a ball with Dean wrapped around her. It was a wonderful feeling, protective, comforting, and pure. But as she realized she was human again, she grabbed the sheet on the floor and jumped out of bed.
 
This roused Dean out of a deep sleep. He lifted his head and supported it with his hand. He stared at her for a long time.
 
A connection had been made between them, a bond. She stared at his face with those sleepy, hazel eyes, wishing she could hear his thoughts as she had the night before. She picked up her clothes at the foot of the bed where she had neatly folded them, went to the bathroom, and got dressed.
 

He felt her unease and slipped on a pair of jeans and was seated on the couch when she came out of the bathroom. Seeing him there, looking so natural and inviting, she wanted to run to him and smother him in kisses and just hold him, but she wouldn’t – she couldn’t.
 
She couldn’t explain these feelings that were welling up in her.
 
Their bond as wolves was that of kindred spirits, but being human again changed everything.
 
She felt self-conscious, timid, and unsure of herself. She didn’t know what to say, or what to do.
 
She just stood there staring at him.

To break the silence, he stood and approached her, putting his hands on her shoulders. He said, “Will you come again tonight?”
 
For as stern as his face seemed to be, there seemed to be a pleading in his eyes.

“Umm, yeah, I guess. I wouldn’t be imposing, would I?”

Sweeping one arm in a grand, waving gesture, he said, “You see I have so much going on.
 
Busy. Busy. Of course you’re not imposing. I invited you.”

“Yes, I guess you did,” she smiled shyly.
 
What was wrong with her?
 
She never acted this shy with men before. Had she changed – she didn’t recognize herself.
“I would… that is… like to come… if that’s all right?”

“Again, I invited you, remember?” he said with his ever so slight smile.

“Okay. Same time?”

“Sure.”

“By the way, would it be all right to bring Devon tomorrow night? That is, if it’s all right for me to come all three nights.”

“You want to bring your boyfriend?” he said, sounding grumpy and defensive.

“No – he’s not my boyfriend.
 
Devon is my sister’s boyfriend.
 
Blake left two days ago, and I’m pretty sure he’s not coming back.”

“Oh, sorry,” he said but there was something in his voice that made her think he wasn’t all that sorry.
 
He continued, “Can I ask why?”

“Yeah, I guess since my sister can’t be here, I’d like Devon to know what to expect when we get home.
 
I know it probably sounds stupid, but I think they want me to feel that they are totally fine with this.
 
They want to share the burden so to speak.”
 

“That’s nice, the family thing, I mean.
 
I miss that. The vampire is fine with this? Are you sure he doesn’t want to find your weak points?”

“Devon is not like that.
 
I think you two would actually get along really well if you could get over this vamp vs. wolf thing.
 
You might even find you have a lot in common.”

“Really? You think so? Yeah.
 
I mean, I trust you, so if this is what you want, I’ll do my best to be cool about it.”

“Great.” She stretched up on her tippy-toes and kissed his cheek.
 
Well that was stupid, why didn’t I just kiss him. Why am I acting so demure?
 
What a goof.

“See you around the same time then?”

“Okay, bye,” she said, walking out the door.

Chapter 22