Page 50 of Shaped to Be Yours

“Freshdiscovery,mi bavi.”

“Oh yes.”

“I don’t give a shit!” I bellowed. “I added another species to my fucked-up DNA, and you still can’t tell me anything! What about the portal? What about all the people disappearing right—”

“Uh, Jason…”

I turned to Ricky. He and the others were surrounding me in a semicircle, with him at my left. His eyes had gone very wide. All of their eyes were widening, and when I looked at my hands, at my bare feet on the cold, sterile, white floor, I had scales again.

And fur.

And some of it was striped but not all of it.

“Am I… monstering out with all three forms?”

I did not enjoy the excitement that sprang to Zinnia and Beck’s faces. I was half changed, but while half was human, the rest was a mix of wolf, cat, and snake. I hadn’t even felt it happen!

“Remarkable!” Beck said. “We must draw blood from this form as well—”

“No.” I shook my head. I shook my whole body until I was human again. “I am done. At least for today. Please? I can’t do this anymore. I need a break.” The anger I’d been feeling had faded enough to make me sound way too desperate and pathetic. “Don’t you have, um, enough to keep running tests on your own for a while? Contacting experts, all that?”

“We do,” Beck said supportively, much as Zinnia’s ears drooped like when Kai looked disappointed. “We have plenty to do on our own. Go. Rest. While science is not always swift, it is reliable the more we are able to test. We will find you answers.”

“Yeah. Thanks for, uh, trying.” I wanted to change and just get out of there, but Whitmore blocked my path when I headed for the partition. “Guess I won’t be getting rid of you any time soon, huh?”

It helped that he looked sympathetic again. “No more unannounced house calls unless necessary. I trust you enoughfor that. But then you keep coming here, as often as they ask you to. And another thing.” Whitmore tossed me something so suddenly, I almost failed to catch it. My phone. He must have snatched it out of my pile of clothes. When? “Keep that on you. No more naked romps in the woods.”

“Figured that one out, did you?”

Whitmore crossed his arms.

“I got it!” I raised my arms in surrender. “No more naked romps in the woods.”

RICKY

“Dude, I just promised Whitmore:no more naked romps in the woods.”

“This is different! Trust me.”

I realized my suggestion probably sounded rash, but no one, aside from Jason and his faint sense of something in the woods the other day, had seen any evidence of a monster lurking who wasn’t one of the guards. Plus, I wasn’t suggesting we go near the portal. We just needed somewhere with space, somewhere Jason could monster out and not feel constrained.

He clearly felt constrained in the house, in his room, where we’d been sitting on his bed getting heated until a moment ago. Not only constrained either; he was so obviously afraid and more than he’d been before. Any time he grew fangs or claws or scales now while being intimate with me, he pulled away.

“I think we’re approaching this wrong,” I said.

“Do you not want to—”

“Ido. That’s the whole point. I don’t want to have to stop every time your claws come out, and you shouldn't feel like we have to either.”

Jason pouted. As adorable as that expression was, I’d rather see a smile. It had not been a great day, considering the tests hadn’t given us any answers, and Jason was acting even more reticent than a few days ago.

“In the woods when we heard that scream,” I continued, “we were interrupted, but we were being successful leaning into your transformation instead of trying to fight it. Practice shouldn’t mean trying to not be the real you. It’s about control, yes, but also about trusting each other. Plus, I…”

“Yeah?” Jason pressed when I trailed off.

“I… maybe kind of like it when you scratch and bite me a little.”

“Youdo? Freak.” He chuckled.

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