Page 23 of Were-Geeks Save a Kitten

Didn’t matter. He saw her plunge into the freezing cold water after something. That meant it was important enough for him to go help.

He wanted to change into his human form. God knew he could cover more ground that way, but his naked human body would get hypothermia in ten seconds or less. Best keep with the dog-paddle.

Then he saw where he was headed and had to blink the water out of his eyes to make sure he was seeing clearly. It couldn’t be. McNabb wasn’t that stupid.

Except, apparently, he was.

There was the idiot turning blue in the water, already stupid from hypothermia. He was a naked human man, and he was sinking fast.

Yordan put on a burst of speed. No way was Marsha going to get to him in time. For one thing, there was too much helicopter debris in her way. For another, she wasn’t as strong a wolf as he was, and it took all his strength to get there. Thankfully, he had the help of a dissolving monster leg and a piece of helicopter to provide some momentary traction. And then he was there, diving under McNabb while the guy sank into oblivion.

If he had a human mouth, he would have said something. Probably a long string of curses. As it was, he got underneath The Scot’s body and pushed up. He prayed that the man had enough consciousness to wrap his arms around Yordan. If not, then they were both screwed because he had no way to save the man, short of chomping down on McNabb’s arm and dragging him out of the water.

They’d both have hypothermia if that happened because even timber wolves couldn’t handle the cold forever.

Damn, it was hard to swim like this. He felt McNabb’s arm slip off his shoulder, and he let out a growl. It was the only thing he could think of that might wake the guy up.

Come on!

He tried again to settle the man’s weight on his back. It was difficult and unsteady, but he managed it for a moment. Long enough for Marsha to finally get to them.

She couldn’t shift to human any more than he could, but she could brace The Scot on the other side. Keep him on Yordan’s back as much as possible.

Thank God. That might work.

And then, miracle of miracles, he felt McNabb’s arms tighten. He had some consciousness left. It might be clumsy, but it was all they needed to get him headed to the shore.

Why the fuck wasn’t the guy shifting? What the hell was wrong with him that he couldn’t? All questions that needed answering ASAP.

Fortunately, they had even more help. The puppies were on the shore, half of them in human form. Those were the ones ready with warming blankets and towels, so that when Yordan finally cleared the deep part of the lake, they were there grabbing The Scot and wrapping him up. Naked Guy Hypothermia 101. They knew what to do even though every single one of them was thinking the same thing.

Why wasn’t McNabb shifting?

Yordan dug through his memories of everything he knew about The Scot. Wasn’t he an insta-shift wolf? At least six times a day. Yordan was limited to twice back and forth unless it was a full moon.

The puppies were doing all the right things. Wrapping The Scot up, chafing his skin, and generally trying to wake him enough to get him to shift.

“Come on, dude,” one kept saying. “Just shift, and this’ll all be over. You’ll be fine. Go wolf.”

That was exactly what Yordan was thinking, though he added a ton of curses to his train of thought. He was about to go human just so he could slap some sense into The Scot, when life got infinitely worse.

They all heard it at the same time. It was the yowl of a pissed-off cat. A panther, to be exact, and it was coming from the lake behind them.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Apparently one lake monster wasn’t enough. There were two.

The helo had taken out the acid-shooting lizard asshole. Now they were faced with the scaly panther. And everybody had been so focused on The Scot, they’d forgotten to look around.

Good news. This one incarnation was easier to kill. Its skin was more like beaver fur than hard scales.

Yordan gave Marsha a sharp, high yip and jerked his chin upward. They didn’t have the benefit of long association, but some commands were universal among the packs.

Step one: Draw the predator away from the puppies. He and Marsha agreed on a direction with a simple jerk of the head, and the two of them went barking and yipping down the edge of the lake toward the empty youth camp.

Better to zip and swerve between campfire pits than smash up boats and houses on the private property that surrounded the rest of the lake.

Step two: Once they grabbed the panther’s attention, they started dashing toward the water and back, forward and back, trying to draw the thing out of the water. Once it climbed up, the plan was to do running attacks that slowly sliced up the monster. It wasn’t glorious work, but it was the standard wolf pack method of taking down a larger creature. Hamstring it and, when it topples over, take out the throat.

But that was hard to do with just two of them. Which was why Yordan was grateful when two of the puppies joined them. But even four wolves yipping into the lake and back were not enough to hold the panther’s attention.