Chapter 9
Simon woke early, and he woke human.
Part of him was disappointed by that. Grizzly emotions were easy. He wouldn’t care that his best friend had turned into a monster or that he’d gone to sleep with the taste of Alyssa’s lust on his tongue. He’d be completely consumed with eating and rutting and have little understanding of the consequences of those actions.
Grizzly life was easy, but it couldn’t happen in Detroit. So he rolled off the couch and sniffed the air. He smelled cannabis and popcorn, and he heard the rumble of cars outside, which did not quiet the rumble of Alyssa’s snores.
She was deep asleep and he was pleased. She needed the rest and he needed the quiet time to talk to Vic. Still, it was strangely hard for him to leave her apartment. His grizzly preferred to rest near the female, watching over her sleep and protecting her home.
But the man was in charge and though watching Alyssa sleep held appeal, she’d thank him more if he figured out what was wrong with Vic. So he dressed quickly and headed down into the foul-smelling basement.
Vic had barely moved during the night. They’d left him unconscious as he sprawled against the now warped side of the cage. Sometime during the night, he’d rolled onto his side, but nothing more. And the echoing rumble of snores was pure Vic. Simon had fallen asleep to that rumble hundreds of times on deployment. Hell, it was almost soothing.
He walked over to Vic, taking his time to study his friend in detail. The monster was mostly naked, so beneath the blood, he saw patches of fur and the sharp claws on his pawlike hands. Thanks to the beating Simon had given Vic, the man’s face was swollen and disfigured, but the elongated nose was still obvious as were the sharp-cutting teeth that seemed grizzly-sized.
And that smell. God, it wasn’t as thick as it had been last night, but it was BO at its worst. Simon wondered if it might be a defense mechanism. Hard to kill the monster while puking up your guts from nausea. That’s why he hadn’t bothered to eat breakfast before coming down here. He didn’t want it coming back up from the awfulwrongsmell that surrounded Vic.
When he had inspected his friend’s body enough, he squatted down as close as he could to Vic’s ear. He wasn’t going inside the cage right now. That was much too dangerous, but hopefully he wouldn’t need to. Instead, he pitched his voice low and soothing.
“Vic. Vic, buddy. Time to wake up.”
He had to call a few more times, but eventually the snoring stopped as Vic snuffled and drifted up from sleep. Then came the low moan as pain must have hit. Honestly, there wasn’t much of Vic’s entire body that had escaped damage. But hopefully, they could fix that soon.
“Don’t open your eyes,” he said. In truth, only one eye could be opened. The other looked swollen shut. “I know you hurt, but we’re in a situation and I need you to keep your head.”
Vic was military, so he knew to hold it together. At least for the moment. Sure enough, the man stilled but his nostrils flared. He was awake and starting to use his senses. Which meant Simon had to get him distracted before memory kicked in.
“I need you to remember something, okay? It sounds stupid but it’s really important. Remember that bar we went to in Anchorage? You couldn’t decide between the redhead with the big boobs or the blonde with the big butt. Remember that?”
Was there a shift to Vic’s mouth? Was he smiling a little?
“Do you remember which one you picked? And what was her name? Amber? Betty?”
Vic’s mouth started to move, but it wasn’t formed right for human speech. He’d be able to do it, but it would be a struggle at first. Simon didn’t want him that aware just yet, so he rushed to stop him.
“Don’t talk. Not yet. I need you remembering. What was her name? I’ll just call her Red.” He thought his friend had gone with the boobs, but he honestly wasn’t sure. “I need you to think back on that night. Do you remember what you did with her? She took you into the ladies’ room, I know that.” That bar had two ladies’ rooms. One for the regular female customers—of which there were few—and another on the second floor for the prostitutes to use. The stalls were larger, the perfume heavier, and there was a bouncer posted right outside just in case the johns got a little too aggressive. In return, management got a cut of the girl’s price.
Suddenly he snapped his fingers.
“No wait! I remember. You picked both. Boobs first then butt. Said it was the hottest time you’d ever had. Then you came back to the table, we finished another pitcher of beer, and you went back in for seconds. Do you remember that?”
There was definitely a smile on Vic’s face now. And though he really didn’t want to look, he glanced down long enough to see that Vic’s boner was growing.
“Yeah, you remember. But it was the brunette who was most important. You tagged her last. Said she did something special to you. It was in the way she touched you. Do you remember that? What did she touch first, Vic? I need you to picture that moment. What exactly did she do to you? And then what did you do to her? The details are important, Vic. Every single detail. As if you were putting it on film. I want you to run through every single—”
His voice cut off because he could see it was working. The air near Vic got cold and there was a pale glow around his body. It started at his groin—no shock there—but rapidly expanded to Vic’s entire body. The fur receded. The bones shifted and resettled. Swelling faded along with the claws, and though the skin remained bloody in patches, Vic’s face eventually returned to normal.
Vic was a man again.
“Yeah, Vic. You got it now,” he said, his voice muted. His best friend was a shifter. No doubt about it now that he’d seen it up close. But what the hell had he shifted into? “You can open your eyes now, Vic. Whenever you’re ready.”
The man’s brown eyes blinked open. He took in his surroundings first, then locked in on Simon. It took two tries for him to speak, but eventually he did, his voice coming out rusty and thick.
“What happened?”
“What do you remember?”
Vic’s eyes narrowed on the cage walls and the bent door. “I was locked in here. You and Alyssa came down and she wouldn’t let me out of the damned cage.” His voice tightened and he pushed up on his elbows.
