Hour of the Wolf

By CJ Elliott

copyright Cindy Jacks 2010

Excerpt:

Her eyelids parted; she saw blurry white light.

Flicker of darkness.

Blurry white light.

Wakefulness chased away the sensual imagery. Sunlight cut a swath across the room. She blinked, trying to process the scene change though the fog of sleep slowed the transition. This was her bed, her curtains hung around the window. Startling upright, she realized she wasn't alone. Matéo lay next to her, beautiful as any dream...and naked as a jaybird.

She looked down at herself. Still clad in her T-shirt and sweats, she tried to understand how she'd gone to sleep downstairs, next to a wounded wolf and somehow woken in her own bed with a nude stranger. Reese jumped off the mattress and tumbled to the floor with a loud thump. A second later, Matéo peered down at her.

“Did you hurt yourself?” he mumbled, his voice hoarse from sleep.

Reese struggle to catch her breath. “What?...How?”

Unapologetic about his current lack of clothing, he sat up and stretched. Every movement tensed muscle groups along his torso, all of which rippled under his skin in sharp definition. He extended a hand to help her up. “I thought we might be more comfortable here.”

“But...“ She trembled, pointing at him.

“Oh. You mean you didn't know? I thought because you can share thoughts that you understood.”

“You were a wolf last night.” Reese scrambled to her feet without his help.

“Yes.” He climbed out of bed and morphed into the raven-colored wolf and then into human form again. “And now I look like a man.”

Reese stumbled backward, bracing herself against the dresser. Her heart threatened to pound out of her ribcage and her legs turned to Jello. A thin sheen of perspiration dampened her skin, though she felt chilly. Putting a shaky hand to her lips, she struggled to calm herself, but a screeching hum in her ears spurred on her anxiety.

He grinned much like she imagined he would grin at an unintelligent child. “I wouldn't usually spring this on an outsider, but like I said, I thought you knew.”

She shook her head and ran a hand through her tousled hair. “No. I didn't know. I could hear you and...and the other one sometimes. But not all the time.”

Questions overwhelmed her as she tried to process what this man said. Or whatever he was. Could she call him a man? And the other one, the silver wolf, was he the same?

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