Page 7 of Fighting Furry

I did as he asked, wondering if I was as crazy as the rest of them. It would be worth it, though. If shifting healed me and I could get back to fighting, it would be worth all the crazy in the world.

“Shift,” Axel said.

I was on all fours, naked, my good hand and knees getting colder by the second against the chilly cement floor, goosebumps rising on my body. Axel told me to shift, and I bit my lip not to laugh. This was too ridiculous for words.

“Shift,” Axel said again, his voice doing that deep, echoing thing that made me want to get closer to him.

I concentrated on going wolfy, on doing what he asked, but I just didn't know how to do it. What if this was a prank and my naked body would be plastered all over the Internet? Maybe Zane shifting to wolf was a CGI trick. Did that work if you weren't watching it on a screen?

“Shift,” Axel said, his voice even deeper. There was a tug in my middle, like something was trying to climb out of me. I focused on that tug and tried to give in to it, but nothing happened.

“I guess I'm not a werewolf,” I said.

“No,” Axel said. “You're a werewolf. I can smell it. You just…Your wolf isn't responding to the alpha voice.” He cleared his throat. “I'm going to have to walk you through this.”

I felt beyond exposed at this point, on all fours on the cement floor, my ass in the air. Axel wasn't ogling me, in fact, he was facing Clarissa, but it didn't make me feel much better. “Just tell me what to do, because I'm not feeling very wolfy.”

He grunted and I waited. I waited and I waited, my knees getting progressively colder and sorer. My nipples were hard enough to cut glass at that point. “Are you speaking telepathically?” I asked. “Because I have to say, I'm not feeling anything.”

He coughed. “Right. No. I'm thinking.”

I got to my feet and faced him, fully nude. I was way beyond caring at this point and he was still facing Clarissa. “Please tell me you've done this before.”

“I've never done this before, but I had it done for me. I didn't respond to the command to shift either, and I had to be helped along.”

“Okay, so help me along.”

He rubbed his jaw, eyes still on Clarissa. “The thing is, I was a little kid when I was walked through it. I was barely eight and my alpha, she…She made it a kind of game. I'm thinking that won't work for you.”

I sighed. “Probably not, but do you remember the goal of the game? What made it click for you?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said. “But I don't think you're going to like that part.”

“I haven't liked anything about any of this so far, why change now?”

He nodded once and turned to face me. I slapped hands over my boobs and my snatch. He didn't take his eyes off my face. “You need to get close to me, to smell me. You need to breathe me in, past my cologne and soap, and smell my wolf. You do that, tap into that one sense and your other senses will leap on board, your wolf will take over.”

I looked at Clarissa but she didn't appear to be stifling a laugh at my expense. I didn't know her, had no reason to trust her, but I took it as a good sign that she wasn't about to laugh her ass off. “Is he for real?”

She met my gaze and nodded. “I've seen it done.”

“Fine,” I said. “Get over here.”

He leaned against the bars and stuck his arm in.

“Seriously? You aren't going to let me out or come in here with me?”

“New wolves are unpredictable and vicious. It wouldn't be safe.”

“Oh,” I said, wanting to poke at him, to make me feel better about being naked and unable to get furry. “So, you're an alpha by default then?”

His expression hardened. “What the hell kind of question is that?”

I shrugged. “I thought you had to fight to the death to be alpha, but if you can't handle little old me, you can't be very tough.” So, I'd watched a few werewolf movies.

He didn't flinch. “I'm tough. I'm not an idiot. Smell my arm.”

I snorted, and considered not smelling him just to be ornery, but I was dying to find out if I could really go wolfy. I should probably have been scared of my body contorting and growing fur, but I'd been hit in the head more than a few times. I'd stopped being normal years ago.

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