Page 72 of The Lunatics

Yes. Come on. You can do it. Come run with me beneath the stars.

He turned his head and looked at me with amber eyes. I barked in joy to see them. As I watched, the shift took hold of him, progressing much quicker than my own had. Fur flowed over him. His muscles contracted and bulged. The sharp smell of wolf musk filled my nose. His spine bowed and then lengthened, his tail breaking free. It was a beautiful sight. Not something to hide. I redoubled my efforts to tell him this through the bond, and his lingering pain vanished.

When it was over, he lay panting on the ground. I took a step back, wary. He was… not what I’d expected. Most wolves were half my size. Michael was closer to three-quarters of it. Had his forefathers somehow bred with a MacKenzie wolf? If anyone was capable of pulling that off, it was probably the Kolbecks, though if they had, they shouldn’t have reacted like they did when his mother outed me at dinner the other night, and he wouldn’t have been so caught off guard when he saw me in wolf form for the first time.

Michael lifted his head. Where my fur was uniformly black, his coat was tricolored. Brown and sable and white. His belly, legs, and nose were the lightest parts of him, while his back wasa low-contrast mixture of the darker colors. Black tipped his ears and skirted his eyes, like a half mask.

He rose to his paws on shaky legs and stared down at himself in shock.

Oh, Goddess. What if the bond had made him bigger? Like his increased speed? If that was the case, he was probably stronger, too, and I was starting to regret my earlier demand that we shift.

Michael’s shock dissipated, and he lifted his muzzle. The amber eyes that bored into mine held no warmth. No recognition. His lips quivered. A snarl split his muzzle.

Shit.

He lunged at me.

CHAPTER 16

Islapped Michael’s snout down and sidestepped, sending him to the ground. He might be the superior fighter as a human, but thankfully, those skills didn’t transfer to a creature with four legs and a tail. It was hard to judo chop someone with your paw. Plus, I doubted he’d ever learned to fight in this form, what with the fact that he spent his limited time as a wolf locked in a cage.

His recent size increase worked against him, too. He lumbered back to his paws with ungainly jerks, like a colt still learning to walk. Very little came through the bond, and what did was… foreign. It didn’tfeellike Michael. I tried not to panic. I was still bigger than him and hopefully still stronger and faster. I could subdue him if I had to.

He shook himself, flinging dirt from his fur. I took it as a good sign, Michael’s prissiness about his appearance creeping back in. Maybe that was the key to getting him to snap out of it: Cover him in mud and force a panic attack.

His amber gaze swiveled to me. He growled. I stood tall on my legs and twitched, sending my fur standing on end, making myselflook even larger than I was. The growl that slipped from my lips was lower than his and edged with dominance. I was big and mean, and it would be a very bad idea to attack me.

It seemed to give him pause. He kept growling, but instead of lunging again, he backed up a few steps.

That’s right, buddy. No reason to get your ass kicked in the middle of the woods on a beautiful night by the wolf you’re bonded to.I had a feeling that if it came to that, Michael would be beyond embarrassed when he shifted back to human.

He retreated a few more steps. I remained where I was, giving him space to get his bearings and hopefully remember who I was. His eyes cut right, toward the trail we’d taken in.

Oh, no. Don’t even think about it.

I took a step toward him.

He turned tail and sprinted away from me, back toward civilization.

Damn it!

I ran after him, catching him quickly because he was having trouble controlling his long legs. Thank the Goddess for small miracles. We rounded a bend, and I pulled even. He tried to snap at me, but I dropped back half a step and his jaws clacked shut on empty air. I turned into him and rammed my shoulder against his rib cage, sending him rolling through the underbrush. He got back to his feet faster than before and leapt out of it, tail straight up in the air.

I couldn’t help it. I wheezed out a laugh. He was covered in dirt and leaves, and with his fur fluffed out like that, he looked like a pissed-off hedgehog suffering from a bad case of bedhead. The glare he shot me would have incinerated a lesser wolf. I laughed harder, the sound a hoarse choking in this form.

Something clicked over the bond, and I felt the faint hint of a familiar presence slide against my own, tinged with amusement.

Michael! There you are!

I padded over and butted my head against his shoulder, hoping the scent of his mate would further remind him of who he really was. He held himself very still but didn’t lash out again. I took it as another good sign.

It’s me, Michael, I whined at him as I rubbed my way down his side.

A fine tremor ran through him. Without warning, that familiar presence fled, and before I could get clear of him, he leaned down and bit my hind leg, just above the joint, his teeth grinding against my femur.

Ow, fuck! That’s it, you little shit.

I was no longer concerned about preserving his ego. Now I was angry. I whirled around and clamped my jaws onto the back of his neck like he was a misbehaving pup. I didn’t bite down hard enough to really hurt him, but just enough that I could use my grip to force him toward the ground.