The man began shaking his head from side to side. “No. Shit. Sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Not what I was expecting. Before I could get a chance to ask what he was sorry about,he ran. Literally ran. Right past the front desk and bounced off the corner as he rounded into the hallway, nearly falling in the process. My lips quirked to the side with bewildered amusement.
I’ve had my fair share of weird looks and people who steered clear of me, but I’d never had someone run away from me like that before. A strange sense of relief passed through me, feeling like I finally wasn’t the weirdest person in the room. And damn, something about his panic and escape was strangely…cute? Go figure. The one person who piqued my curiosity couldn’t get away from me fast enough. I let out a sardonic chuckle.
Maxime watched me with assessing eyes. “Are you… all right?”
Was that a hint of concern I saw? I wasn’t concerned, but should I be? “Yes. Fine. Why?”
The man tilted his head and narrowed his eyes before straightening and shifting to a nonchalant expression. “Oh, no reason. Please check out the courtesy closet, and if you should need anything else, simply ask.”
Maybe I wasn’t the best at reading people, but it felt like a dismissal as much as anything.Weird. Weird place. Weird people. How long would I need to stay here?
Rudy
My entire body felt like it was being pulled apart, pushing beneath my skin to expand. I ran toward the access door that led to the basement. To my room. It was coming and coming fast. I gritted my teeth as my jaw ached to grow, and my teeth started lengthening. My vision was going pink, and I could feel a roar building from the very depths of my soul. The loose shirt I wore tightened around my biceps and chest.
My door! I ran inside and threw it shut, hurriedly fastening the collection of locks, chains, and deadbolts, my hands already shaking and claws pushing through the ends of my fingers. I tried to slow my breaths and calm myself, but it was too far past that now. This should feel natural; I should be used to it, but it didn’t, and I wasn’t. It felt like an intrusion or invasion, something over which I had nocontrol.
Every inch of my body itched as hair pushed through and my skin grew taut. That was the worst of it. I could handle the pain of my bones shifting, but the hair… the intense need to scratch and tear at my flesh as it broke through, giving me a coat of coarse, long black fur everywhere, was enough to drive a person mad.
The baggy jeans I wore shrank as if they were being vacuum-sealed to my body. Only it wasn’t the fabric that was changing, but me. A loud snarl released from me as I stood there on two legs, feeling my human mind get shoved down to a place where a much more primal version of myself existed, thriving on instincts. Instincts that I was never very good at.
One singular thought came to the surface. A thought that drove my beast with an intensity I’d never experienced.
“Mine!” The word came out through a roar, no longer sounding the least bit human.Mine. Mine. Mine.The thought filled every part of my being. I could feel the need in my beast, the desperation, but I was helpless to do anything about it.
He wasn’t a separate being; we were meant to be one, but sometimes it seemed like it. I could watch through his eyes and could feel what he felt, but once I shifted fully, I couldn’t do anything to steer or influence him, I merely had to bear witness, if I was even able to do that much.
The fury and frenzy building within were unleashed upon my room. Claws dented the steel door beforeturning to my mattress, flipping it over. Next came my dresser. Drawers yanked out and thrown across the room, clattering against the floor as clothes went flying everywhere. There wasn’t much else that could be destroyed in my room. I kept things minimal for that reason.
Pacing. Growling. My body was thrown against the metal bedroom door once more, in an effort to try to escape. Luckily, the beast was far too animal-minded at this point to be able to focus on undoing the locks.
“Need out!” I felt the words roll through me in a roar. The pain in my claws as they slammed into the steel over and over barely registered.
My head tilted back, and a blaring roar ripped through me. “MIIIIINNNE!”
I felt it in my chest, deep in my gut, in every cell of my being. I felt the claim, but I was too buried within myself to understand what my beast was claiming. I only understood thatneedwasn’t a big enough word.
A light tap sounded on the other side of the door, and my teeth snapped together with a snarl.
“Rudolph? Are you all right?”
The voice. I knew the voice. It was a friend, but it didn’t matter at that moment. “Open.Door.” I bit out.
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. Do you need anything?”
“Need the FUCK out!” The words were punctuated with a roar.
“I’m sorry, friend, I can’t do that. But I’ll have some food and something cold to drink waiting for you when you can calm down.”
My arm pulled back and slammed into the door with as much force as my beast could muster, adding another dent to the collection.
A light thud sounded against the door. “I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.”
My mattress was thrown once again as I paced like a caged animal. Caged. I was caged. Trapped. Both within and without. Powerful and powerless at the same time. The rage and fury of it all filled me, and was all I could see. The next hours passed by in a blind frenzy. I didn’t even know how long it had been.
Exhaustion was woven into every inch of my body. My head hurt; my skin hurt. My fingers and knuckles felt raw. My senses returned to my control, and I found myself curled up on the cold cement floor of my basement room. Ellie was tucked against my side as she often did when I found myself back in human form.
