Page 5 of It All Started with a Bite

He huffed and burrowed under my covers, tail sticking out.

I crawled into bed, my hand still tingling. A strange thought came to me as I drifted off to sleep. I really hoped my health insurance covered bites from mysterious strangers.

I had no idea that by this time tomorrow, insurance would be the least of my problems.

3

The Hairy Truth

I wokeup feeling like someone had stuffed my mouth with cotton wool and replaced my brain with an angry hamster on a wheel. The hamster was either rabid or high on something illegal.

A voice broke through the wheel’s maddening squeaks.

“Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!”

I groaned and pulled the pillow over my head. It seemed Ellie was having another crisis. Probably discovered she’d drunk-ordered more crystals online again.

“This is bad,” the voice whined.

That didn’t sound like Ellie.

I cracked open an eye. Sunlight stabbed my retinas like a vindictive ex with a grudge. Pain exploded inside my head.

I moaned and brought a hand up to shield my face, only to freeze.

My eyes snapped open. Bile burned the back of my throat.

“What the—?!” I bolted upright and stared at my hands, my heart racing.

They were covered in hair. So were my arms. And judging by the way my pajama top was straining, other parts of me had undergone some disturbing changes overnight as well.

A sob from the corner of my bedroom made me look up. Ellie sat curled in my reading chair, mascara still streaked down her face from last night. She was clutching a baseball bat to her chest like it was the last life preserver on a sinking ship.

Bo lay on his belly beside her, his paws over his face and his large eyes peeking at me worriedly between his toes.

“Oh man,” the voice groaned. “Wait till the neighborhood woofs hear about this.”

I was about to ask Ellie how she’d mastered ventriloquism when I realized she wasn’t the one doing the talking. A lightheaded feeling swept over me as my gaze found Bo.

“Wait. Is that you?!”

Bo blinked. He sat up abruptly, jaw dropping open and head tilting to the side. “Whoa. You can hear me?!”

I swallowed hard, my pulse loud in my ears. “I’m still drunk,” I mumbled to myself. “That’s it. This is some kind of tequila-induced hallucination.” My voice sounded hysterical even to my own ears.

“I wish.” Bo fidgeted and peeked at me from under his lashes. “I gotta say, you’re taking this better than I expected.”

I stared at him some more before deciding screaming was a good idea right about now.

Ellie cried harder as my shriek filled the room.

Bo winced and dropped to the floor again, paws on his ears.

“Abby,” Ellie hiccuped between sobs. “I think—I think you need to look in a mirror!”

I ignored her and pointed at Bo. “My dog is talking!”

Ellie’s confused gaze swung from me to Bo. “What?”

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