“Your bones will feel different, softer. It facilitates the shifting.”
Jim looked at Dak with no small amount of fear. “Are they turning to liquid?”
“No. It just feels that way.” Dak kissed his lips again. The low burn at the base of Jim’s dick and in his balls intensified and then spread throughout his body. He felt feverish inside and out. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to fuck or scream.
He felt furrier than before. As he looked down at his skin, hair grew out until it was blond-gray fur. “Damn. Still gray.”
Dak chuckled. “I love you, my silvery hairball.”
Oddly comforted, Jim closed his eyes and let the transformation happen. His skin was crawling, like thousands of little firebugs danced all over it. The burning within grew until he was sweating and panting roughly.
He doubled over when the convulsions began.
“Won’t be long now, love,” Dak whispered in Jim’s ear, soothing away the instinctive dread.
Jim shook all over, unable to stop the tremors. His skin tickled, and when he brushed a hand through his hair, he felt wolf ears popping up. Even more strangely, when he rubbed on them a bit, a warm glow of delight filled him. Oh, that feels heavenly, mmm….
Then he realized he couldn’t speak anymore. Where he’d had teeth, he now had fangs. He touched and felt their razor-sharp edges. He wished he could see how cool they were.
But then he had to pull his hands back because they too were changing—growing bigger and hairier—and his fingernails exploded into claws. Would you look at that? Jim stared at them in amazement even though his body continued to reorient itself. Bones solidified into new positions, joints popped into place, and muscles quivered with newfound strength and energy.
Jim had never felt more alive—and horny as hell. In fact, there was new power within him. Not youthful per se, but a vibration like a tuning fork, connecting him to nature. Age didn’t matter. Young or old, his spirit soared, ageless, timeless, transcending his body.
It was a heady realization, to feel the bonds that connected him to the world at large, to nature, to the universe, to the very essence of life. It was too much for him to comprehend.
When Jim focused on Dak in front of him, there was a huge gray wolf where a man had been. Still, it was not as big as it had been back in the airport hangar. That meant Dak could vary his size at will. Jim growled. Dak had left that bit out, and Jim swore he’d learn everything about lycans and make Dak teach him that neat little trick.
The good news was he had eternity ahead of him to do just that.
Dak smelled good. Mmm, musky and pungent. Jim moved without realizing it until he was nuzzling his mate. Dak purred and suddenly nipped at his neck. It was playful, and Jim wished he could laugh. But he could only emit a throaty hum.
Dak seemed to nod in his direction, as if wanting Jim to follow him.
That was when Jim really looked around. The woods looked, sounded, and smelled different. Everything was more acute, stronger, rushing at him. The falling night wasn’t as dark as it was to human eyes. Shimmering drops of new colors he had never seen grazed over the curious silvery light of the background. In fact, it seemed like there was light and color everywhere. This night vision was not drab or blurry, but crystal clear.
And the smells. How did he suddenly know that a rabbit had hopped in the bush off to his right? Or that a skunk was skittering away a hundred yards distant? There was honey dripping in a tree not far from him, and he licked his teeth at the flavor he could almost taste.
But his mate’s scent was the strongest. Jim was so hungry, but he couldn’t tell if it was actual hunger for food or a savage hunger to wrestle with his mate in the grass and feel that furry weight on his back.
Dak barked. Follow me. That was all it could be as the big dark wolf began to slink into the shadows. Jim went after him, his paws making no sounds on the rocky ground. Only when he hit a passing dry pine needle was there a small scrunch. As a human he never would have heard that so distinctly.
Dak looked over his shoulder, purring. Jim would have smiled if he could. He was on all fours, but not as a man in bed waiting for his lover. He was a wolf, and he was trailing behind his mate, who would show him the wonders of the night, of the woods, of the hunt—of the wild.
I’m home.
About the Author
SUSAN LAINE, a Finn through and through, was raised by the best mother in the world. She told her daughter time and again that she could be whatever she wanted to be. It still took Susan until her thirties to find the spark for serious writing when she discovered the gay erotic romance genre.
Her formal education revolves around anthropology, but she wishes to be a full-time writer sooner rather than later. Susan enjoys hanging out with her sister and friends in movie theaters and bookstores. Her other pastimes include walking, swimming, and fantasizing about sizzling hot manlove. Some of her likes are pop music, chocolate, and doing the dishes, and a few dislikes are sweating hot summer days, tobacco smoke, and purposeful prejudice.
Visit Susan’s website at http://www.susan-laine-author.fi/ or write her an e-mail at susan.laine@hotmail.com.
By SUSAN LAINE
NOVELS
Falling for Rain
SENSES AND SENSATIONS
A Luminous Touch
Love in Plain Sight
Sensible Commitments
Sounds of Love
The Sweetest Scent
LIFTING THE VEIL
Book One: The Wolfing Way
Book Two: Genie’s Wish
Book Three: Hunter’s Moon
Book Four: Monsters Under the Bed
Book Five: Love of the Wild
SECOND CHANCES
Accidental Chemistry
Twice by Chance
Book One: Sparks & Drops
NOVELLAS
Lofty Dreams of Earthbound Men
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
http://www.superiorz.org
Also by SUSAN LAINE
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Senses and Sensations by SUSAN LAINE
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Senses and Sensations by SUSAN LAINE
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Lifting the Veil by SUSAN LAINE
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Also by SUSAN LAINE
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Also from DREAMSPINNER PRESS
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Copyright
Published by
Dreamspinner Press
5032 Capital Circle SW
Suite 2, PMB# 279
Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886
USA
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Love of the Wild
© 2014 Susan Laine.
Cover Art
© 2014 Anne Cain.
annecain.art@gmail.com.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model. www.superiorz.org
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Drea
mspinner Press at: 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64838-508-6
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
February 2014