No, no, no!
Let me out, a separate voice seemed to yell inside my head.
No, go away!
A knock came at the door. “Ready to go? Aaron Blackridge will be in the office at eight sharp.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but afraid of what would come out, I closed it again and begged my body to relax, and my spine and fingers to go back to normal.
“Hey, Toni The Tiger, are you in there?” Rosalina’s voice acquired an edge of worry.
Please, stop. Please, I begged, staring at the disgusting hair that had sprung over my forearms.
It’s not disgusting, that other voice said. It’s just as it should be.
Shut up.
I didn’t need the wolf making things worse. I was supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood, and instead, I’d turned into the big bad wolf like in that movie Red: Werewolf Hunter where the protagonist gets bitten and turned into a werewolf.
“Toni?” Another knock.
I hadn’t told Rosalina what I was. She was my best friend, but I still didn’t know how to confess that I was a werewolf, one who knew nothing about being a shifter and could, with one wrong move, screw up everything we’d worked so hard to attain. Crap! Just when everything was looking up, when we’d accomplished what we’d set out to do, I couldn’t be counted on.
Hell, I shouldn’t even go into the office—not when my butt could spring a tail out of nowhere, and my wolf might decide to eat one of our clients for supper. We needed to cancel all our appointments until I figured this shit out.
The door opened and Rosalina stepped into the room. “Toni?” A pause. “Where did she go?”
I heard her step further into the room. My breath froze. I squeezed my eyes shut, begging the wolf to butt out.
“What are you doing?” Rosalina asked as she came around the bed.
I opened my eyes and stared at my hands and forearms. They were normal. No nasty hair all over them. Slowly, I glanced over my shoulder. Rosalina stood behind me, frowning at my behind, which stuck up in the air, as I was on all fours. She didn’t look freaked out, just annoyed, which meant I didn’t look different from any other morning.
“Um, I dropped my pen,” I said lamely.
Yeah, right, my wolf said.
Pipe down, Red!
My wolf bristled at the name.
“Well, leave it,” Rosalina said. “We’re going to be late.”
“Right.” I jumped to my feet and smoothed my Navy blue slacks.
Rosalina narrowed her eyes, staring at my chest. I tensed. Had I grown two more pairs of boobs? Because wolves worked like that, right?
“Nice blouse,” she remarked. “New?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes. I bought it a couple of weeks ago and haven’t worn it.” It was an elegant blouse with flowing sleeves and a V neckline. It looked professional with slacks, and I could dress it down with jeans.
“You’re acting weird.” Rosalina gave me a raised eyebrow. “Ever since you got back from your mom’s yesterday, I don’t know, you haven’t been the same. Did something happen?”
My shoulders slumped forward. I couldn’t keep this from her. “Actually, something did happen, but it’s kind of a long story. Maybe we can talk about it tonight?”
“O-kay,” she said slowly. “Should I be worried?”
“Maybe. A little.” She probably needed to worry a lot, but it wouldn’t be nice to ruin her day by telling her that. And maybe between now and then, I would come up with some genius idea to help me keep the animal inside me under control.
She huffed, not pleased with my answer. “Fine then. We’ll talk tonight. Now, let’s hurry or we’ll be late. Wanna grab breakfast on the way?”
“Definitely. I’m starving. Let me feed Cupid before we go.” I was determined to be more diligent about feeding my betta fish his yummy pellets. He waved his colorful tail as he gulped his food. I would need to change his water soon. It was starting to look clouded.
On our way to the agency, we got tall cups of coffee and gooey bear claws at a small pastry shop near her condo. The food distracted me for a bit, and when I finished licking my fingers I did my best not to think of anything but our next client.
We still didn’t know much about him except that his name was Aaron Blackridge and that he was a popular Skew DJ that went by the name of Slice. He was a werewolf from a well-known pack. The Blackridges had been in St. Louis for generations. Today, we would create a file for him, go over the contract, and hopefully get some heartfelt tears out of him to start a tracking potion.
We arrived at the agency with ten minutes to spare. Rosalina parked her red Scion in front of our door and we got out. I hurried inside the office, afraid of running into Jake. Without Damien Ward’s spell on me, I was afraid he would be able to detect a change in me, and I wasn’t ready for anyone to know, much less Jake. Even the idea of talking to Rosalina tonight scared me. I didn’t know if I would ever accept myself, and I was afraid others might not accept me either. Though in Jake’s case, I worried that he would instantly receive me with open arms and for reasons that had too much to do with my damn uterus.
The badass Cupid artwork that hung on the wall greeted us as it did every morning, and I allowed my shoulders to relax. I had avoided Jake. For now.
Rosalina quickly took a seat at her desk and fired up her laptop. She handed me the folder she’d prepared for our new client, and I was about to go into my office to settle in when the door behind me opened, and the person I least wanted to see came waltzing in.
“Good morning,” Jake said, inclining
