Dreams of Gray Read online

  He continued past my ass (a little reluctantly, it seemed) and oiled up my thighs. He always “accidentally” slipped a finger or two when it did that. It really got me going, even if I expected it.

  I moaned encouragement, letting my body go limp. He worked his way down one leg and began a slow, even rub of my foot. Alan was an ass man, yes, but I’d learned in our time together that he was equally a foot man. He made sure I was well-massaged on both feet before moving back up the other leg. When he got back to my ass, I swatted his hands off me and flipped over.

  “Up here, pool boy.”

  He laughed, grabbed a bottle of oil, and drizzled it all over my chest. It was cold, and I squirmed. He held me down and started rubbing it in. I warmed up plenty quick. He made circles again, this time around my nipples, tweaking them for good measure.

  By the time he massaged his way past my stomach, I was ready to pop. I grabbed him by the belt, and he leaned in and let me relieve his pants and boxers. I took him into my mouth and watched his eyes roll back in his head. I could tell he was going to go quickly if I kept this up, so I gave him a few long strokes and popped him out. I flipped so my legs hung off the bed and put a hand between my legs.

  “No time like the present, Officer.”

  Thanks to a combination of our natural arousal and the massage oils, it was smooth sailing. I threw back my head and moaned. I really needed this. He did too, judging from the strength of his thrusts.

  Our bodies slapped against each other in an increasing rhythm and I rode the line between awareness and abandon. Somewhere, I was conscious of the fact that my back was heating up. The rest of me didn’t give a flying fuck.

  He stopped thrusting and grabbed me by the ass. I was lifted and flipped onto my stomach like a rag doll in the middle of the bed. Fringe benefit of being tiny: when you want him to take charge, you’re completely at his mercy.

  I rose up on my hands and knees. He positioned himself and picked up the rhythm like we’d never left off. The slap of our bodies into each other almost covered up the first telltale POP!

  I was ready for it this time. I opened my eyes and did a quick survey while Alan pounded away. Hands? Nope, normal. No new sheets needed tonight. Feet, still dainty as ever. I couldn’t very well see whether my back was changing colors. What had popped?

  I reached back like I wanted Alan to go harder and checked my tailbone. Bingo. It wasn’t a full-on appendage yet, but I felt a definite bulge under the skin. Thankfully Alan was otherwise occupied. I did my best to think calmer thoughts. It’s exceptionally hard when being brought to screaming, sweaty orgasm.

  Mind of matter triumphed and I felt the swell go down. It was right about that time that Alan squeezed my ass. It was his signal. I let go as much as I could and felt myself rising to meet him. In an astounding act of universal alignment, we came at the same time.

  I screamed, he grunted, and we both collapsed on our sides in the exhaustion only a good hard fucking can give you. He stayed inside me until he was soft, and I did another quick survey. Hands and feet were fine. I was on the verge of sprouting four new B-cups though, so I excused myself to the bathroom under the guise of cleaning up.

  “Want me to help?” he asked.

  “No, ish okay.”

  My hand flew to my mouth and I nearly impaled myself on fangs. “I’ll jusht be a minute.”

  I went into the bathroom and locked the door. This time around, the person in the mirror was not fine. Not only had my teeth come in, my muzzle was extended almost completely; I could see my nose clearly and distinctly between my eyes. Muzzles look very odd without fur on them. I closed my eyes, splashed some water on my face, which felt awkward rubbing up and down a long canine snout, and thought about calming things.

  I felt a pressure release in my stomach and face. When I peeked my eyes open, I was down to the standard two breasts and a normal-length face. I smiled and didn’t look like a barracuda. Good.

  Alan was waiting on the bed when I returned. I crawled in with him, and we half-snoozed the rest of the evening, our warm skin touching head to toe.

  It was the most peaceful night I ever had with Alan. Tomorrow, I would learn to kill.

  19

  “Hey, Dree.”

  “Hey, PJ.” I hadn't looked at my phone when I picked up to see who it was. PJ was the last person I expected to hear. “Are you okay?”

  “I was going to ask you the same thing. We haven’t talked in forever. You been spending too much time with your man, ho.”

  “I’ve been pretty busy, yeah.” Did she not hear about her grandfather pulling a gun on me, or did she just not care?

  “Why are you sounding all apologetic?” she asked.

  “Have you talked to your uncle recently?”

  “Oh, that. Girl, if I had a dollar for every time Poppa lost his temper I wouldn’t be working at Woodspring any more, that’s for sure.”

  “So you’re not mad?”

  “Mad? Haha. I think it’s hilarious. The old coot’s finally lost his big old Scottish marbles.”

  “What did Connor tell you about it?”

  “Just that you went to talk to Poppa, and he pulled his fucking six-shooter on you. Why? Is there more to the story? Inquiring minds would like to know.”

  Apparently Connor believed in the better part of valor, and I silently thanked him.

  “Nope, that’s pretty much it. I was trying to see if he could tell me more about the tattoo. I think we can count that as a failure.”

  “I’ll say,” she said. “Hope he didn’t scare you too bad. That gun hasn’t worked in years.”

  I didn’t bother to correct her.

  “So we going howling tonight?” she asked.

  Girl, you have no idea. “No, actually I meant to call you. I’m meeting a friend from out of town tonight. Pretty low key stuff.”

  “Want a third?”

  Shit. I tried to think of an answer, but PJ pushed again, “Hellooooo? Earth to Dree? Houston, come in?”

  “Oh, sorry. Actually, no. She’s kind of antisocial. It’s nothing personal, you know?”

  “No worries, chica. More booze and boys for me. Just do me a favor this time, will you? If you two get so hammered you start stripping, call me over so I can videotape it. That shit sells like hotcakes on the internet.”

  “Will do,” I said.

  “Later, ho.”

  I tossed my phone to the other end of the bed and buried my head in the sheets. What would it be like, changing in front of someone? Running in a pack? The memories Slate had shown me made the hair on the back of my neck bristle.

  What if I liked it?

  Slate arrived not long after that in a gray track suit and flip-flops. Her hair hung free. She welcomed herself in as soon as I opened the door.

  “Full dark is in ten minutes. Are you ready?”

  “I—I don’t know. How do I prepare?”

  She looked me up and down. I was in my now-common household uniform of just my bathrobe.

  “You look mostly ready to me. Can we enter the woods from here undetected?”

  “Yeah,” I said, “Did you want to—”

  I was going to ask if she wanted to stow her clothes somewhere, but apparently, my living room floor was good enough. She disrobed and stood with her hands on her hips. It took me a second before I realized she was waiting on me. I hastily doffed the robe.

  “I usually leave the bedroom window open for after. It doesn’t face the street.”

  She nodded. We went into my bedroom and carefully climbed out the window. I had turned off my bedroom light so nosy neighbors wouldn’t get a free show.

  As soon as we were out, Slate took off at a run for the tree line. I followed as best I could, but she was taller, and her strides covered more ground. The grass didn’t feel quite as good on my tender human feet as I remembered.

  Once we were safely inside the forest, Slate stopped and knelt on her haunches. I caught up to her and followed suit. She looked around.


  “You will follow me tonight. If I move, you move. If I stop, you stop. Understood?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you change at will?” she asked.

  I shook my head.

  “Okay. I guess your changes then have been more…random? Emotional?”

  “You could say that.”

  She put a finger on my midsection. “Imagine a door here. It will open if you ask it to. Think of a strong emotion if you need to. Fear, love, whatever works. And don’t fight it. It goes faster that way.”

  I nodded, and the strangeness of the situation hit me all at once. Here I was, in the woods outside my apartment on a Friday night, having a naked hunting lesson with a woman I didn’t know the first thing about. The only thing I did know was we shared the same furry problem.

  She turned toward the deeper forest and went down on all fours.

  “Slate?” I asked.

  “Yes?”

  “What do you think about? I mean, to change?”

  Her eyes glowed amber in the waning light. “Revenge.”

  And just like that, she stretched her neck out and shifted. I heard cracks and pops and stretches, and then she was shaking her newly furred form like a dog drying off. She made it look so easy. So painless.

  I also realized her name must have been assumed. Her coat was a perfect slate gray with black and white tips.

  She turned to me and regarded me with a sideways head tilt, as if to say, “Coming?”

  I took a deep breath and dropped to all fours. My mind was a blur of thoughts, images, and sounds. I opened myself up and started to smell the night. Feel it on my bare human skin. I snatched a fleeting thought of Alan, beautiful and oblivious in my bed. The heat on my back flared sudden and strong.

  It was different than before. I just let go, and the heat engulfed me from my back to my sides, torso to thighs, arms and legs to feet. I felt the buildup of heat and pressure all over. My brain registered it as pain, but I didn’t react. I just kept my posture as straight as possible and rode the wave of searing heat.

  My head, hands, feet, and legs all popped at once, and I lost my balance. By the time I hit the leaves I was covered in a million tiny ant bites.

  I’d done it.

  I picked myself up onto my paws and shook, just as Slate had done. My tail swished in anticipation.

  Slate lowered her muzzle to the ground and sniffed. I did the same. She looked at me, human intelligence shining behind glowing amber eyes, and took off deeper into the woods. I did my best to follow.

  As it turns out, my best was pretty damn good as a wolf. My legs carried me farther and faster than I could have hoped as a human, and the wind in my fur was wonderful. Slate jumped over logs and brush, banked left and right, and I found myself able to keep up. It was instinctual. Just as instinctually, I stopped thinking of her as Slate. She was Alpha.

  After what felt like only a short run, we came to the edge of a narrow stream. I looked closer at it with my improved night-vision and realized we’d traveled almost three miles. This was one of the edges of Lake Houston. Alpha looked at me and hunkered down low. I dropped as well, taking in everything I could with my senses. Smells wafted by as strong as any perfume counter and infinitely more pleasant.

  I tried to discern what each one was. Dead leaves, water, the biting smell of gasoline from a highway not far away. Then I caught it. I couldn’t decide what exactly, but its smell was a beacon in the typhoon of aromas.

  Food.

  Alpha continued to hunker down but inched closer to the edge of the water. I did the same, trying to keep a good distance between us so I wouldn’t spook whatever it was we were stalking. Most of it was instinctual, but I still couldn’t help but feel clumsy next to her polished grace.

  Finally, I caught movement form a low bush just short of the shore. A small brown rabbit. As a human, my first reaction would have been, “Oh, how cute! A bunny!” Smelling the rabbit with wolf senses, hunkered down under the light of the stars, my first thought was quite different.

  Blood.

  Alpha crouched, and her tail rose up ever so slightly until it was level with the ground. The rabbit paused, ears pricked up. She dropped down silently again. Our prey looked around, and then continued with tentative hops to the edge of the water for a drink.

  The second his head bent to the water, Alpha struck. The rabbit was faster, and it took off at a dead run back into the brush.

  Alpha chased, and I followed. She bobbed and weaved from one side of the terrified rabbit to the other, nipping at its legs. She could easily outrun it, but she was toying with it. I caught her gaze, and she yipped at me. I understood.

  She was waiting for me to strike.

  I sped up and closed the gap between the three of us. Alpha continued to chase but hung back slightly and let me take point. I lunged and snapped my jaws at the rabbit. Being that close set my brain on fire. Frothy saliva slapped my muzzle as I snapped. I was hungry.

  Finally, the rabbit miscalculated a turn around a stump and slowed. Teeth sunk into flesh, and warm blood flowed. My vision became bright, and I pulled the whole rabbit into the air with my jaws. It flailed but had little strength left. I gave it one final shake and heard a pop. The rabbit was still after that.

  Alpha walked up, and I forgot the ecstasy of the blood in my mouth long enough to drop the rabbit and back away, muzzle to the ground. It was Alpha’s right to first blood.

  Alpha stalked up and looked at me, then the rabbit. She yipped and nudged the body toward me.

  I sprang up with joy and dug into the rabbit. I never expected raw meat to taste so wonderful. Alpha sat with her paws crossed while I gorged myself. Her eyes scanned the area around us. Finding nothing of interest, she rested her head on her paws and snuffled.

  I gnawed on a leg bone for the last bit of flesh and licked my lips with a much more flexible tongue. I panted and licked sweat off my nose. Alpha watched me carefully. I opened my mouth in a wide pant, the closest thing I could to a smile. She didn't respond, but she rose casually to her feet and paced back toward home.

  Home? What was home?

  The forest felt better to me. I wanted to roll in the grass, swim in the lake, chase more snacks. I wanted to take sweet, bloody revenge on the squirrels I’d had to swerve to avoid as a human when I—wait.

  Alpha…no, Slate looked back at me. I saw in her amber eyes a kind of understanding. She knew the feelings I had. She turned and continued back. I followed.

  We made it back to the apartment and hopped in through the window with more grace than I could have managed as a human. Inside, Alpha circled a spot on the carpet, then lay down, tail tucked under her muzzle. I did the same. I fell asleep almost instantly and dreamed of beautiful gray darkness and delicious blood.

  20

  Slate woke me up the following morning with a toe to my side. I was still curled up in a fetal ball, but I was skin rather than fur. My face felt dry and crackly.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  Slate was still nude, but she had apparently showered. Her leg smelled lightly of my lavender body wash. Since when did I notice a person’s smell first?

  I sat up as Slate sat on the edge of my bed and crossed her arms.

  “You did well last night,” she said.

  “Did I?”

  “You have good hunting instincts. It’s not always the case with new pups. They try to reconcile the hunt with their human minds. It doesn’t work.”

  I rose and had to steady myself on the dresser. At least the window was closed and the blinds were drawn. Can’t have people getting up to go to work and seeing my lily white ass in their rearview mirror.

  Slate rose and took my arm. I was grateful, if a little weirded out that we were both still naked. She seemed to sense my hesitation.

  ”You will become more accustomed to this state, eventually. You may even come to prefer it.”

  I didn’t have to ask her preference.

  Slate helped me to th
e bathroom, then left and closed the door behind her. Apparently, she still believed in privacy…sometimes.

  I snuck a look in the mirror. My hair was a rat’s nest, tangled with pine needles and the occasional leaf. Mud clods, too. Wasn't I just the regular supermodel?

  My nose and mouth were covered with something that looked like mud, but darker than the stuff we have around here. As I washed it off, it flaked and had red-tinged edges. It was dried blood. I retched, but I kept everything down.