Page 68 of Meant for Two
“Vampires aren’t real.”
“Oh, I see. Vampires aren’t real but werewolves are. Are you on drugs or something?” This was not going where she thought it would.
“No, but have you noticed how my eyes will flash gold when I am sexually excited, or how my facial hair will suddenly sprout and then retract?”
Blair stared at him. “I thought the eye thing was a trick of the light. As for the hair on your face, I thought I’d forgotten what your cheeks looked like seconds before since I, too, was in the throes of passion.”
He nodded. “There are other symptoms. My nails—or rather my claws—suddenly grow and my teeth sharpen.”
Blair ran her tongue across her teeth. “Is Zane like you?”
“Yes.”
“I think his teeth cut my tongue a bit.” A trickle of dread was slowly pooling in her stomach. “Okay, so what does this mean?”
“It means that if you tease us too much we might shift by mistake. Our inner beast can take only so much temptation.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I get it. You’re pulling my leg, though I appreciate you trying to convince me that you need to be the dominant one in bed.”
“That part is somewhat true, but that’s not why I’m telling you. Zane and I—and many others in town—can shift into a wolf at will.”
“Is that right? Show me.” She lifted her chin. This should be good.
“I don’t want to scare you.”
“I’ve seen many parlor tricks before. Go for it. You won’t hurt me, will you?”
“Never. Zane and I want to be open and honest with you at all times.” He held up a hand. “I know you’ve noticed that sometimes Zane and I seem to stare at one another.”
“You do that often. It’s rather disconcerting.”
“Sorry, but we can communicate telepathically to those close to us.”
Holy shit.“For real?”
“For real. The times we’ve done it was because we didn’t need you to hear what we were saying. For example, you wondered how the robbers at the Hensley place were able to cross that rugged terrain.”
“Yes.”
“They were werewolves. We have them on tape. When they reached the house, they shifted into their human form, broke the window, and entered.”
Now he was scaring her. “You said my father is a werewolf. How do you know? You’ve never met him.”
“The warden at the prison is one. We can sense who is and who isn’t one.”
Blair stilled. “Oh, shit. I can tell when you and Zane are near before I hear or see you.”
“So you understand.”
“No, I don’t understand. People can’t just change into a wolf and then turn back into a human. Can they?”
Jeff stood. “I didn’t want to have to show you, but at some point, the truth would come out.”
“For real?”
“Yes. Aw, fuck it. Here goes.”
What Blair witnessed wasn’t at all what she thought she was going to see. The sounds of bones cracking and limbs contorting took her breath away. She feared he would do some major harm to himself. Before any words could form, a large beautiful brown and grey wolf stood just four feet from her.