I can’t imagine what clothes I would have that would fit a creature this size.
“It’s really you,” I mutter. I can’t stop staring at him. “Man, is this why you guys are all so weird?” The howling, the smelling, it all snaps into place. “All four of you are werewolves, aren’t you?”
Quinn shrugs bashfully. “I’m sure Leon was going to tell you at some point.” He swallows. “He’s the alpha.”
“The leader,” I say, echoing Jace from before. “Right.”
I definitely feel like this is the kind of information I should have learned before Leon and Jace fucked me. But looking at Quinn, his shoulders curled tight like he’s waiting for me to lay my judgment on him... I’m not as mad as I ought to be.
Werewolves aren’t real. I knew, until a moment ago, that they didn’t exist. And I wouldn’t believe it unless I was looking at one.
“I guess I understand why you wouldn’t tell someone this,” I say, surveying his massive body. “It’s, uh...”
“Terrifying?” Quinn’s thick, bushy tail lashes nervously behind him.
“Something like that.” But I don’t feel frightened of it. The longer I look at this monster, the more obvious it is that it’s Quinn, with the shape of his eyes and the same mannerisms. That massive cock of his hasn’t softened at all, either.
“I’m sorry,” he says, shoving it down with his hand. “I just have to wait to, uh, stop being horny, and then I’ll change back.”
“That’s what caused it?” He transformed because we were cuddled up next to each other as we slept?
“I don’t have good control.” Quinn sits down on the bed, far away from me. It’s so human, the way he sits, so familiar, even despite the big haunches, that I sit down on the other side of the bed, too, hoping to make him feel a little more comfortable. “Not like my brothers—they can all change at will. But I never got the hang of it. I couldn’t even have a girlfriend after the first time this happened. I had to make up a really wild story to get out of that one.”
I give him a sympathetic smile. “I imagine waking up next to someone like this makes things complicated.”
Quinn nods, then raises one eyebrow in a way that’s distinctly human. Even his lopsided grin, with his long wolf lips drawing back, looks like him.
“But you’re not running for the hills,” he points out.
“I mean, like you said, it’s not as if you have any control over this.” I wave in the general direction of his huge body. “And it doesn’t seem like you’re going to attack me or anything. It’s fascinating, too. I have all kinds of questions for you.”
Quinn’s smile spreads even wider. He lies down on the bed and leans back on his elbows in a way that is, again, distinctly human, though he has long black claws at the ends of his fingers as he taps them on the bed.
“Like what?” he asks. He gestures at his cock under the bedsheet. “This is gonna take a while.” He turns and reaches for his phone on the bedside table. “And I should probably tell Leon that I spilled the beans.”
“Wait.” I have Quinn here, the perfect specimen of his kind. I’m certain his brothers will be unhappy with him for accidentally changing, and it might start all sorts of drama. I want to understand what I’m dealing with while I have this moment. “Don’t tell them yet.”
He blinks up at me. “Why?”
“Just give me a few minutes. I want to understand better.”
Setting the phone back down, Quinn watches me as I slide across the bed toward him. His tail stiffens.
“Can I touch you?” I ask.
He blinks. “Touch me? I mean, sure.” He waggles his claws. “Aren’t you grossed out, though?”
“No,” I answer automatically. I’m fascinated more than anything. I wonder what Quinn looks like when he transforms. His skeleton is completely different like this. Does it hurt?
“Wild,” I say, creeping closer. Quinn watches me carefully but doesn’t move. I pick up his hand and examine the claws, running my fingers from the base to the tip. They aren’t deadly sharp, but dulled at the edges, like a dog’s.
“Wh-what do you think?” Quinn asks as I explore his hands, which are still humanlike, though gigantic, with bare skin on the palms and fingertips. The fur spreading across his body is much softer than I expected.
“It’s cool.” I run my fingers down his arm to his thick chest. How often does someone get to see a real werewolf, in real life? “Shocking, you know, to find out lycanthropy is real.”
A rumbling laugh comes out of him. “It’s not like all that, I promise.”
“Nobody bit you?”