Page 6 of Lost and Pound

“Cheezy, right? I didn’t think you were from a pack that’d teach you. Alphas can do sigma magic, just a bit. Takes a happy pack and a big ol’ heart. Now, wait here or don’t. You’re free. If I happen to bring back some pants or something for you, would a medium work?”

I shook my head and dipped my nose down.

“Small?”

I nodded.

“Shoes? Size eight, up or down from there?”

Interesting game…I nodded up.

“Nine?”

Another nod up.

“Ten?”

I shook my head.

“Nine and a half?” He smiled hopefully, and I nodded in the affirmative.

“Okay. I got to pick up a few things. Get some rest.” He patted my head and slipped out of the truck, keys hanging in the ignition. The warm air blasted over me, a pleasant change from the kennel.

Had I wanted, I could have shifted, taken the truck, left, nudged the door open, pawed the window down. I could have.

I didn’t. Sleep was my first and only priority. Well, that and the delicious burger-filled bag.

It wasn’t too long later that a gust of cold air and the rustle of paper bags woke me with a start. I blinked over at the alpha when I realized I didn’t even get his name, not that I could give him mine, either.

“I got a few things for you to wear. Want to hop into the sleeper cab in back and change?” He held up a bag before tossing it into the back and pulled the curtain closed. I slipped into the back while he loaded a few more bags and a creaking plastic container with a full sheet cake he slid under the curtain. “Leave the cake be. If you want, you can come join us later and have some.”

I shook out my coat and stared at the paper bag, rooting into it before pulling out a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of thick track pants. A pack of underwear sat on the bottom with a six-pack of socks and glorious baby wipes.

It’d been weeks since I shifted, weeks since I’d stretched limbs that hadn’t moved, and I dreaded the tingles I’d get in my legs. Not since I was a pup did I think I’d gone more than a day or two without shifting, and I groaned in my wolf form.

“I know, buddy. It’ll shake out.” The alpha in the front seat waited on me, keeping the truck still.

It would shake out, and I focused on my human form, fearful of the shock that would—had—come from the collar. Once I conquered the fear, it came easy, my body stretching, limbslengthening—hair receding. Seriously, that was the worst part of the transformation. The sensation of a million hairssuckingback into my body… Every time, it made me shudder.

Bones cracked, skin stretched, tail shrinking into my ass—seriously?Ow!

By the time my shift finished, I stumbled onto my feet, stuck in a stretched position, ligaments aching. My back, arched and sore, tingled madly and I choked, gasping for air in foreign lungs until I settled. Even still, I gave myself a moment longer before I made a stiff-knuckled grasp for the wipes.

As a wolf, I didn’t precisely have body odor, but the lingering odor ofdoghung about me all the same, thick in my hair, butother areasdefinitely needed a once-over. “Oh, my goddesses…you’re a lifesaver.”

As I scrubbed at my body, one wipe at a time, a delightful chuckle muffled through the curtain. “So, what’s your name? I can’t keep calling you—” Papers rustled. He paused for a moment. “Donner.”

“Nico.” I grimaced. It had been the holidays when I’d been nabbed, and all the dogs taken in got cutesy Christmas-themed names. I was one of eight reindeer…the last one on death row. “Yours?”

“Shilo.” The name fit, as soft and smooth as his voice, as his temperament had been. So far, at least.

I wrestled into the clothes after vigorously rubbing a few wipes over my head. It didn’t do much to clean my hair. It hung a little longer, a few weeks past needing a cut, but it did put enough of that artificial scent in it to ease the stink of wet dog and pound.

“If you’re comfortable enough, you can use the shower when we get home.” Shilo did something up front that made the truck jostle, and I climbed forward, parting the curtain while being careful of his other bags and the cake. “Hey!”

He turned in his seat and gave me a wide grin, his squared jaw shifting as sweet dimples creased the corners of his mouth.

His fit form shifted in the comfortable seat, legs filling out a perfectly worn pair of jeans in a way that drew my eyes right to where they shouldn’t be. “Nico?”

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