Page 18 of Shaped to Be Yours

Something Whitmore would want me to tell him.

Like a spy.

Or a traitor.

I hadn’t agreed to anything! But while Whitmorehadtried convincing me to convince Jason to submit to testing—which I admitted I wanted as well, just in my time—he’d also done a very good job of planting seeds of doubt.

“The longer Jason waits, the more dangerous it could be for him and others.”

“If something extreme happens, the consequences will be out of my hands.”

“You might be the only person who can convince him to do the right thing.”

“Could he ever forgive himself if he hurt someone? Hurt you? Hurt his mother?”

Jason’s underwear landed beside me. That did a good job of helping me forget about Whitmore. There were neighbors, but the backyard was perfectly secluded. I hoped Sandy wasn’t looking out of any windows right now, but otherwise, it was just us and the woods.

“Okay,” Jason’s voice echoed from nearby, deep and growly like I’d never heard it before, with the kind of base you could feel in your heartbeat. “Come find me.”

I spun around. I couldn’t see anything but the woods at first. It was late afternoon. Not late enough for the sun to be low yet, but with the darkening clouds and the density of the trees, everything was in shadow.

I stood from the porch, scanning the tree line for signs of Jason. It was like hide and go seek but with a hornier outcome than grade school if I won. After all, we had agreed to some tat.

“Jason?” I entered the woods using the nearby deer trail, looking left and right, deeper into the trees where I expected him to be hiding.

It was a cool day, fifties like Sandy had told us, and it felt like it, especially without my jacket on. Once the wind was blocked by the trees, it seemed warmer, but enough of a breeze still came through to waft up the scent of lemongrass.

Maybe the added warmth was from the heat of Jason’s eyes on me. I could feel him watching, almost like being in the woods in Edgewind with Jason’s monster friend Cael watching us. Myarm hair prickled at the thought and a shiver raced through me, but knowing it was Jason this time erased any fear.

Even when he growled.

I kept walking, trying to pinpoint the sound, the sense of him. About the time the path behind me seemed like it was closing up from how deep I had walked, I knew where Jason was seconds before I heard the crack of a stick to my left.

I turned. Even shadowed, hidden between trees, I could see him, a hulking mass compared to his usual figure. Only after our eyes met did he step onto the path.

He certainly looked like a werewolf. He was covered in gray fur, with wolf-like feet, ears, claws, long canines on both upper and lower teeth, and glowing yellow eyes instead of his usual blue. His face wasn’t quite a snout, just a little snout-like, with a sort of leathery black wolf nose. He was otherwise very human in his face.

I must have looked appropriately awed more than scared—Iwasn’tscared—because Jason advanced until he stood right in front of me. He had always been taller than me, but now there was an added foot to that height, no matter how hunched he tried to make himself.

“Well?” Jason grumbled, fiddling with his claws like an adorably shy Bigfoot.

He wasn’t dangerous. He just needed practice keeping his innernot-wolf in check, and I was more than happy to help him with that.

And to convince him that testing was the best way to learn what he was.

“Wow,” I said, looking over the full scope of him. He was naked, yeah, but I couldn’t see his, um, tat. That was hidden. Inward maybe, sheathed the way a normal wolf’s would be? I could see the part of his fur where I imagined it peeking out to say hello. “Hm… I have this sudden urge to watchTwilight.”

“Dude.” Jason pawed the ground like a childish stomp.

I laughed. Yep. This was still Jason.

“Not cool, man,” he said. “Those guys don’t even look like me. They turn into regular wolves!”

I cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Not that I’ve watched the movies!”

This time, I took a step closer, now that the tension was alleviated, though there were still a few butterflies in my stomach. The good kind! The kind that made me really excited to touch him. I reached out, hand flat forward, ready to press to his sternum and feel fur.

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