Page 70 of The Lunatics

He faced north and breathed deeply. “I smell water.”

“There’s a river in the valley,” I told him. His senses reallywereheightened. Not even Gia could smell it from here.

“I’d like to see that,” he said.

A shiver ran down my spine, the need to shift taking hold. I pulled my long-sleeved shirt overhead and tossed it to the ground. My skin prickled in goose bumps, the night air cool without any fur to shield me.

Michael froze at the sight of me shucking off my sneakers and jeans. I faced him in my bra and underwear. His eyes widened afraction, and I felt a swell of surprise and awareness come through the bond.

Be a damn adult, Layla, I reminded myself.

“I think I should shift first,” I said. “That way we can see how you respond. Also, I’m big enough in wolf form that if you start to get snippy, I can just sit on you.”

He shook his head, a small smile playing about his lips. “I’m not sure I can stomach the embarrassment of that.”

I grinned back at him. “Then you better behave.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Not sure why hearing him say that was a turn-on, but then again nothing made sense anymore, so who the hell really cared? This close to the shift, I was having trouble suppressing my mounting attraction to him. I needed to get into wolf form, now. Everything was simplified in it. Complex emotions and human thought required focus. Hunt, kill, howl—those were the things that drove me in wolf form, my instincts coming to the forefront.

I reached behind my back and unsnapped my bra. Michael turned away, giving me privacy. There was a hesitancy to him that froze my teasing comment on my tongue. He was already on edge. From here on out, I needed to work on keeping him calm, not rile him up.

I kicked my underwear off next and set my clothes in a pile. Hopefully they were still here when we came back. I’d had animals take off with them before, and the Goddess knew the last thing we needed tonight was to have to walk back naked.

“How you doing?” I asked.

“Fine,” Michael said.

“Let me know if you need me to stop from here on out.”

“I will.”

I dropped to my knees and started to shift, much slower than I wanted to. I was so keyed up that my wolf form threatened toburst out of me, but Michael might not handle that well. Instead I let fur flow over my body to guard myself from the cold. Claws pushed through my fingers and toes. Power licked over me, warm and electric, and my muscles swelled with the influx, adding mass to my body. The threat of shivering abated.

“You still with me?” I asked.

He nodded, but I could feel a battle raging beneath the surface. He felt close to panic.

“Michael?”

“Continue, please,” he ground out. “You were right. We need to do this. It would be unfair for you not to assume wolf form just because of my discomfort.”

I slowed my shift to a trickle so I could track his responses. My shoulder blades contracted and then rolled forward, positioning my arms straight beneath me. He shrugged his own shoulders like he was shaking off an itch. I dug my claws into the ground. My hands morphed into paws, and Michael curled his hands into fists. With a loud pop, my knees dislocated from their sockets and bent backward. He jerked in response.

“I’m okay,” I told him. It sounded like it hurt, but it didn’t. All I felt was relief, like I’d eased a cramp in a stiff muscle. “I won’t be able to talk from here on out.”

He nodded.

I ran my tongue over my teeth as they pushed out of my gums, elongating and gaining razor-sharp edges. My jaw cracked and grew outward, nose sliding down my face until it landed on the tip of my muzzle. I’d won the Lon Chaney Award two years ago by stopping the shift around this point, only with half the fur, so it looked like I had mange. My face was half-melted. I’d let my ears grow long and pointy but stopped them before they moved to the top of my head, so they stuck out from the sides like Yoda fromStar Wars.

I paused my shift where I was, not to compete in a monster-off, but because I needed to check in on my own well-being. I felt… fine. Like me. In total control of myself like always. Michael’s lunacy must not be infectious. Either that, or my own mastery was so great that it didn’t impact me.

With a thought, I finished the shift. Pressure came from the base of my spine as my tail grew. My ears realigned themselves on top of my head. In a final shake, I landed on four large paws.

I glanced around. The night forest was a stark world of shadows and moonlight, but with my enhanced eyesight I could see deep into its depths. Ah, yes, this was so much better. And look! My mate!

I padded around in front of him, tongue lolling out. He had his arms wrapped around his waist and his eyes screwed shut, like he was holding himself together through sheer willpower.