Page 60 of Wilds of Wonder
Bloody frost, I’d forgotten there was another person in this crypt.
Next to him, the wolf stirred, its body twitching. Just when I’d finally been able to breathe, of course the wolf was waking up.
I tilted my head. Except something strange was happening.
Maverick must’ve noticed it, too, because he stepped forward, gaze trained on the creature.
It began to yowl, paws lifting and thumping, tail thwacking the ground, the twitching turning to full-on convulsions.
That woke Driscoll up as he scrambled back and toward Maverick with wide eyes. “What in the blood and earth is going on now?”
The beast’s torso twisted, its legs bending in awkward angles, back hunching over. I watched in horror, afraid to so much as move. The whole time its eyes stayed closed, but it cried out in pain.
Driscoll and Maverick watched, mouths agape with the same horror I felt. The wolf’s back paw transformed to a long pale foot. Then the same thing happened to the other paw. The two front paws split open, revealing two hands. Fur fell in clumps to the ground, each bald patch revealing pinkish-white skin.
Driscoll whimpered. “I really, really hate it here.”
“So you’ve said,” Maverick murmured, transfixed on whatever was happening with the wolf.
Soon all the fur had fallen away to reveal a pale back with a spine. The tail shrank into the creature’s tailbone. The wolf’s snout shrank into a straight nose, the fur on its head changing to a shade of blond hair, the long teeth fell away, smaller ones sprouting from the gums. When the transformation was complete, I realized it wasn’t a creature I was now staring at. It wasn’t a feral beast.
It was a man.
Chapter Thirty
EMORY
“What in the actual flying fuck did I just witness?” Driscoll asked. He put his hands in front of one side of his body. “There was a wolf.” He shifted his hands to the other side of his body. “Now there’s a man. My brain is not processing this.”
The man groaned and stood, his, well... everything... on full display. He blinked a few times, stretching out his muscular arms.
Driscoll cocked his head, staring at the man’s very large appendage approvingly. “Okay, well my brain is processing that.”
Maverick cleared his throat, and Driscoll quickly looked away.
The man looked around, his gaze landing on each of us. “Oh, hello,” he said.
“Hello?” I echoed back. “Hello? That’s all you’re going to say after spending days terrorizing us, almost eating us? Forcing us into the Deadlands?”
He frowned. “Oh no. Did I hurt any of you in my wolf form?” He scratched his head through his straight blond hair, which fell in a careless sort of way over his forehead. “I don’t have the best memory when it comes to my time as a wolf.”
He said it like it was the most normal thing in the world. Like “his time as a wolf” was just a mask he slipped on and off.
“Tried to hurt us is an understatement.” My hands balled into fists.
Maverick stepped forward. “I think what she’s attempting to say is that we’re a little confused.”
I glared at him. “I think what I’m trying to say is perfectly clear and doesn’t need to be explained.”
He had the decency to wince at my words.
“I do apologize if I offended you,” the man said.
“Didn’t offend me,” Driscoll piped up, gaze darting down once again to the man’s long length that hung between his legs.
“Can you put on some clothes?” I asked, waving a hand toward him.
“Or don’t,” Driscoll suggested, then shrugged. “Whatever you prefer.”
