Page 166 of His Hungry Wolf

“Oh? You sure you don’t want to say anything else?” Cage asked amused.

“Thank you?” I said at a true loss for words.

Cage stared at me stunned. “Okay, then. How about I just show you what you came to see?”

“Sure,” I said proving once again why I was going to die alone.

Here he was telling me he loved me, the thing I had been hoping to hear since the moment I met him, and all I could say is “Thank you.” What was wrong with me?

Cage, looking as confused as I felt, chuckled ironically and then opened the door revealing something beyond my imagination. Everything Cage had said was true. There was a dragon laying belly up between his kitchen and living room. It looked like it was sleeping if not dead. What the hell was going on?

“Can you take these?” I said handing the grocery bags to Cage without taking my eyes off of the beast in front of me.

“I’ll put it in the freezer,” he said before pushing past the creature as if it was a novelty bean bag.

Seeing him interact with it so casually, I relaxed and moved in for a closer look. Approaching it I smelled something familiar. It was the same scent that I smelled the night I came over and when his father pushed his body against mine in the hospital. It was possible that the smell was just lingering in the room. But I didn’t think so.

“What do you think?”

Cage asked me nervously.

“I can’t be sure. There’s something I can do that will give me more information, but it might freak you out.”

“More than having a dragon in my living room that might be my father?”

“Good point,” I said realizing that he was way beyond being startled by anything I could do. “I could shift into my wolf and let it take a look.”

“Shift into your wolf?”

“Yeah. You had said you wanted to see it, right?”

“I did.” Cage paused looking down at the beast. “Does it hurt?”

“Shifting?”

“Yeah. But you get used to it. And afterwards there’s a bit of a rush that makes you forget about it. I imagine it’s like giving birth.”

“So, it’s like something else I can’t relate to?”

“It’s exactly like it,” I said trying to lighten the mood.

Cage laughed. I had forgotten how much I liked the sound.

“Okay. So, do you need me to leave the room or something?”

“You can if you want. You don’t have to, though. I think my wolf likes you. Let me rephrase that. I don’t think, I know he does. On that, we agree,” I said with a smile.

“Okay. Cool. Then, do I just stand here?”

“Wherever’s fine. I’ve never really practiced shifting. Most of what my father taught me was how not to shift. But there’s something about being around you that brings my wolf to the surface. I think if I just let it, it will come out.”

Cage lifted his hands telling me to take the floor. I did. And closing my eyes to center myself, I shifted immediately. I wasn’t ready for it. I was planning on undressing first. Instead, I lay on the ground floating behind my wolf’s eyes tangled in cloth.

Scrambling to his feet, my wolf looked at Cage. I had understated how much he liked Cage. I was sure Cage would freak out from how much he was staring at him. He didn’t. He stepped closer and offering my wolf his hand.

Doing what I wished I could, he sniffed his fingers and pushed his head into them. He wanted Cage to touch him. He wanted to be covered in his scent. Cage pet him like a long lost pet and it filled him with warmth.

The sensation overwhelmed the both of us until something else snatched his attention. I had been right, the smells were the same. This was unquestionably Cage’s father. Now the question was whether he was still alive.