Dani Harper - First Bite

So. She was going to be a werewolf, and there wasn’t a single damn thing she could do about it. Was there a bright side to this, any spark at all in the blackness ahead? Maybe I could bite Travis…

Travis had no idea what the woman seated next to him was thinking, only that she’d settled down and so had her wolf. It was unusual for Changelings to regard their alter egos as separate entities. He was one of the few who did. Maybe it was harder for him to reconcile the beast as part of himself because of what it had once done. For Neva, it was obviously tough to accept this new side of her because she just plain didn’t want it . And what she was about to go through wouldn’t make her any more fond of the wolf.

Telltale green fire was overwhelming the golden brown of her eyes as perspiration ran freely down her face. He had to hurry now and wished they’d left sooner. But she’d been so exhausted, so in need of rest in order to recover from the long ride, from her injuries, and to prepare for tonight. He let his foot get heavy, and the speedometer climbed—

And red and blue lights flashed in the rearview mirror. “Goddammit,” he muttered and glanced at Neva. She was hunched over now, shuddering and gasping, and there was foam at the corner of her mouth. To human eyes, she’d look like an overdosed druggie—and an ambulance would be called, pronto. Christ. There was only one thing to do in a situation like this.

He floored it.

Travis had chosen the truck for some very deliberate reasons. One, the interior reeked like an ashtray, excruciating to Changeling noses. It was giving him a helluva headache, but it would help hide their scent from anyone—or any thing —that might be tracking Neva. Two, the truck had tires designed for off-road use and four-wheel drive. And three, there was a customized, big-ass engine under the hood that (hopefully) could outrun most things on the road. Even now the pickup was leaping forward like a cheetah on steroids.

Predictably, a wailing siren now accompanied the lights. Not so predictably, his pursuer was keeping pace with him. It wasn’t gaining, thankfully—but not being shaken off either. If Travis slowed down enough to turn off onto a side road, the cop car might gain on him. If he turned at high speed, he’d roll the damn truck. If he stayed on the highway, sooner or later, another cop car—or even a chopper—would intercept him. And a long, low moan from Neva let him know that she could shift anytime now.

As Travis drove at speeds that would have done a moonshiner proud, he could swear that his inner wolf whined. Actually whined , as if in sympathy with the woman in the passenger seat. “Dammit, this is your fault,” he said to his alter ego. “You wanted to save her, then you wanted to follow her, and then you insisted we had to go get her. Now look at the mess we’re in. This is what happens when we get involved .” A quick glance showed that Neva didn’t appear to have heard him, and he told himself he didn’t care if he did. She didn’t want him around anyway, right?

Except he couldn’t oblige her. He was involved now , dammit, and he’d see her through her Change no matter what. And somehow keep her from falling into human hands.

Suddenly, like a twig sprouting from a branch, a dirt road angled off sharply from the highway. Still, it took all his skill and a good deal of his Changeling strength on the wheel to keep the truck on at least two of its four wheels as he bore into the turnoff. In the rearview, the cop car fishtailed wildly from one side of the road to the other as it also swung into the turn. Still following them, but Travis was able to open up his lead. Suddenly, a huge black-and-white something appeared in his headlights, forcing him to veer off the road. He almost lost control then, plowing over stands of willow saplings that had overgrown the wet, shallow ditch, but somehow he managed to keep the truck level and get it back on the road.

Heart pounding, a glance over his shoulder showed Travis that the black-and-white thing he’d nearly hit was a frickin’ cow—and a whole lot of its friends had joined it. The wandering herd was all over the road, standing squarely between him and the cop car, and even now, the flashing lights were diminishing in the rearview mirror.

Slowing to a mere breakneck pace, he thumped the steering wheel and laughed—until he got a look at Neva. Oh, Christ. Quickly he glanced around for another route, then turned off on an even rougher road, one that was probably little more than a goat path between miles of pastures. It took him as far as where the grazing land grew into forest, and he left the little road to plow the truck into the brush until he was satisfied that they couldn’t be seen. Neva arched and flailed as he pulled her out of the truck. Her eyes were completely green now.

“Come on, honey, you need the earth’s energy,” he murmured as he carried her through the woods at a brisk jog. The brilliant moon dappled the entire forest with silver, and his natural night vision showed him every game trail through the thick underbrush. He followed one to a tangle of fallen trees that formed an arching shelter over tall grass that was bent and trampled—a large buck had probably bedded here during the day. He set Neva down on the thick cushion of grass, drew the heavy leather coat away, and then stripped the thin pajamas from her fevered skin. “You’re going to kick my ass for this, right after you thank me.”

He pulled his knife from his pocket and set to work on the casts.

Neva found herself in the midst of a nightmare—although she’d never felt such terrible pain in a dream before. She was trapped in her own body as it fought to become something else, something other . The bones in her face moved of their own volition, stretching, reshaping. Her back arched, and she screamed as her tailbone straightened and extended, as bone and muscle lengthened and shortened in her arms and legs. Her fingers released their agonized grip on the grass as they blunted and bound themselves into paws. Thousands of hot needles seemed to pierce her skin at once, and it crackled with static electricity as thick fur erupted everywhere. She felt all of these things and yet couldn’t awaken, couldn’t escape the nightmare. Couldn’t escape the pain. She struggled against it, fought it, and the agony immediately spiraled upward beyond anything she thought possible, until she felt as if she were being torn in two from the inside out. Stark terror set in as her body stubbornly refused to pass out.

Don’t fight it, you’re making it worse.

In the midst of the hell she was in, Travis’s voice was suddenly inside her head.

Stop fighting, Neva. Relax and go with it. It’ll be over soon. Just hang on and go with it. You’re safe, I promise you that.

Some of her panic subsided as she realized she wasn’t alone, and she clung to his words like a lifeline. Still, it seemed like hours before the pain began to ebb. When it did, she wasn’t certain where she was. It was as if the nightmare had eased into a dream, in which she stood in a forest clearing transformed by the moon’s cold rays into a pool of silver light. Suddenly a large, dark wolf emerged from the foliage and pranced into the clearing with tail high. It was a beautiful creature—its legs and face were glossy black, but the rest of its thick, ebony pelt had dark-chocolate highlights in its luxurious depths. Still, Neva caught her breath as it turned and looked directly at her . For an instant she wanted to run away, but something in the wolf’s body language calmed her. It bounded over to her, playful and friendly as a Labrador despite its much larger size.