Hewasin a slightly sticky situation, however. He couldn’t stay as a hellhound forever – he needed to somehow find Luna again and convince her to give him the time of day after he’d magically vanished from her room. He needed to go get his car from where it was parked outside Sylvie’s bakery, because it wasn’t as if he had the money to pay parking fines right now.
But it wasn’t as simple as just turning back into his human form. Since once he did, he’d be completely naked.
Since he was a mythical shifter, he had the benefit of bringing his clothes with him when he shifted. The issue was, of course, that he just hadn’t been wearing any when he’d shifted forms to chase the bear away, so if he shifted now, he’d be in the same state: naked as the day he was born.
I guess I’ll just have to head back to her room and grab my clothes,Henry thought glumly. That wasifLuna had gone out again, and wasn’t still hanging around looking for him, or waiting for him to come back from wherever he’d gone.
Not that he really thought there was much chance of that. He wouldn’t be surprised – nor would he blame her – if, on findinghis wet, empty towel in the middle of the room, she’d written him off and stormed out.
No, he’d just have to scurry back with his – literal – tail between his legs, check she wasn’t in, phase through the wall of the B&B, grab his clothes, and then…
…Well, and then.
He guessed he should focus on one step at a time, and leave future worries to the future. Right now, he just needed clothes.
It sent a pang of conscience through Henry to have to sneak around behind Luna’s back and phase into her room without her permission, but right now, Henry didn’t think he had another option – appearing before her fully naked wasreallyunlikely to help his case, and hopefully he’d be able to explain everything to her once they met up again –ifthey met up again.
Well, no time like the present I sup—
Henry never got to complete that thought – nor did he get very far on his journey back to the B&B before a bone-rattling growl suddenly erupted from his hellhound body, the thick, spiky, black hair along his spine suddenly standing to attention, all his senses on high alert.
It took Henry’s human mind a moment to catch up to what his hellhound was already sensing: a looming presence in the sky above, completely unmistakable for anything else.
Another shifter. And a big one.
Another growl rose up from the hellhound, red misting its vision even as Henry tried to keep a leash on its aggression. Hellhounds didn’t tend to think too much if they felt threatened – they just attacked. But Henry had had long years of practice keeping his hellhound under control, and he forced it to back down somewhat, sorting through the muddle of sensory information he was suddenly being flooded with.
Okay. It’s big. It’s flying. It’s coming this way. And it’s – it’s –
It’s a dragon!his hellhound snarled at him, snapping its jaws as it raised its head, staring up at the canopy of the forest, as a massive, dark shape wheeled suddenly overhead.
The hellhound bared its teeth, almost letting out a furious bark of warning before Henry managed to wrestle it back under control.
We don’t know it means any harm yet,he warned the hellhound.It probably doesn’t know any more about us than we do about it. It probably just wants to find out why we’re here!
And by the time we know if itdoesmean any harm it’ll be too late. Not even a hellhound can withstand a dragon’s flames,his hellhound snapped back.We should either fight or run!
Henry supposed, however, that the option to flee was no longer open to him as the dragon suddenly folded its wings and dropped through a gap in the canopy, coming in to land a little in front of where Henry stood. There was barely enough room for the dragon to stand, even with its wings folded, in amongst all the trees, but Henry could understand why it might be reluctant to shift into its human form in front of an unfamiliar hellhound – Henry’s hellhound form might be dwarfed by the dragon, but even the largest of humans was dwarfed by him when he was shifted.
You really want to take that chance?his hellhound asked him, even as its hackles raised higher and higher, as the dragon regarded him suspiciously from above, its blue-black scales shimmering in the sunlight that broke through the leaves of the trees.
I don’t,Henry told it,but someone has to break the stalemate, andI’mtechnically the intruder here. The dragon probably lives in this forest, and I’ve just turned up here unannounced. You know how territorial dragons get. I don’tlike the risk, but it’s up to me to explain why I’m here and that I don’t mean any harm.
The hellhound didn’t seem all that convinced, but still, when Henry reached out for control of their body again, the hellhound ceded it only a little reluctantly, allowing Henry to shift back into his human form.
Thankfully, he thought as he stood up, shifters tended not to mind so much about nudity as humans did – yes, in many cases, shifters brought their clothes with them when they shifted. But there were many kinds of shifters who didn’t have that ability. Which meant shifters mainly had become pretty cool with the idea of someone appearing naked in front of them when they shifted.
“I’m sorry if I’ve intruded on your territory,” Henry said as loudly as he could, raising his hands to show – he hoped – that he really didn’t mean any harm. “I wasn’t aware there was a dragon living in these woods. If I had known, I would have been much more careful. I’m only staying here for a little while, and then I’ll move on. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have, if you want to shift and ask them.”
The dragon narrowed its eyes slightly, as if judging whether it could trust him or not. Henry tensed, getting ready to shift back into hellhound form and hightail it out of there if he had to. The one assurance he had was, at least, that the dragonprobablywouldn’t go straight to roasting him on an open fire if it decided it’d prefer not to hear him out – since itdidlive here, it was unlikely it’d want to risk starting a forest fire and burning down its own home.
But then, after what seemed like a tense eternity but was probably really only about fifteen seconds, the dragon began to shift. A shimmering light passed over its body as it shrank down to a more reasonable size, its scales becoming skin, its wingsdisappearing, its long, elegant snout and golden eyes becoming the features of a regular human male.
Human to human, they regarded each other – even though the dragonhadbelieved him enough to shift, it was clear he was still a little suspicious about why Henry was here.
“Okay,” the dragon said after a moment or two of continued silence. “You said you’d explain, so how about explaining?”
Henry nodded, even as his hellhound growled a little within him. “Sure. My name is Henry Grant – I’m a hellhound, like you saw. I was just looking for somewhere quiet and remote where I could stay in hellhound form for a while, while I…”How to explain what’s been going on?Canit be explained?“… I sorted out some things in my personal life. Like I said, if I’d known this was a dragon’s territory, I would have steered clear. I’m sorry I intruded like this.”
