He heard a growl and felt his lips pull back. The clapping faltered, and no wonder. The sound was rabid.
He felt his body tense and his ears flatten. He stepped free of the fabric around his feet and howled again. He was already salivating from the hunger that churned through his stomach.
Then something tightened around his neck and jerked him back. The feeling was abrupt, it choked him, and he wheeled around at the thing that held his neck.
It was a leash… held by Doctor Strange. And in front of him, smiling at the crowd, was the warrior.
“That was impressive, wasn’t it?” Nero said to the crowd. “But now we have to get the wolf back to the zoo. Can’t believe he escaped like that. Ha. Ha.” He waved and started backing away.
Doctor Strange hauled on the collar and dragged him backward as if he was a dog. A fucking dog!
Josh leaped, teeth bared. He was going to bite off the damned hand holding—
Electrical shock jolted through him. Real electricity exploding out from his neck and frying his neurons. And while he was twitching from the torture device, Nero squatted down. Josh saw the hypodermic a split second before Nero shoved it into his side.
He growled when it went in, but what he heard was more of a whine.
Fogginess came quickly after that, a numbing weakness that softened his mind and made his whole body go limp. But he was still awake enough to feel Nero lift him up and carry him off stage.
Help me! Savannah!
He listened from a distant place as Nero’s heavy tread made it through the hotel lobby. He smelled the man’s scent and felt the muscles strain under Josh’s weight. But most of all he heard the bastard’s words as he walked.
“You’re going to be okay, Josh. There’s no easy way to say this, but you’re a werewolf. It’s a grand thing, really, and now you work for Wulf, Inc. See? I told you we were here to give you a job offer. Congratulations. You’re going to love it.”
With the last of his fading strength, Josh opened his mouth and bit straight through the bastard’s throat. Then the world went dark.
NERO REAREDbackward as far as he could go without dropping the unconscious wolf, who weighed a metric ton.
“Did he try to rip out my throat?” he gasped.
Wiz chuckled. “Serves you right for cradling him like a baby. I’d bite you too.”
“And get a mouthful of lycanthropy.” Not that it would matter, but still…. “Am I bleeding?”
“Nothing to worry about. Burn your shirt when you get back.”
He was going to do that anyway. God, he’d never live down wearing a kitschy fake leather vest, but it was the cheapest costume they could find on short notice. He knew Wiz had taken pictures. Fortunately the guy tended to short out modern electronics, and so it was even odds that the digital image would survive his wizardly aura.
“I can’t believe that spell worked,” he said as he looked at Wiz. “Can you activate anyone with the werewolf gene?”
Wiz shrugged as he opened the back of their van. Gelpack was in the driver’s seat looking like he was staring straight ahead, but Nero knew the alien saw and heard everything they did, no matter where his head was facing.
“According to Mr. See-Thru”—Wiz gestured at Gelpack—“I can turn anyone with the right energy signature.” That was vague, but pretty much what Nero had expected. He waited while Wiz opened the reinforced cage inside the van. As gingerly as he could, he set Josh down, mentally apologizing to the guy the whole time. It was bad enough to be surprise-converted into a wolf in front of all your friends, but to be caged afterward was rubbing salt into the wound. Sadly, it was the only way, and he had more wolves to collect this weekend.
From the front seat, Gelpack twisted his head—just his head—around to face them. Nero didn’t like having a gelatinous being as their driver, but he had too much to do to take the wheel as well. Especially since he was going to O’Hare airport and Gelpack was taking Josh to their facility in Michigan. “How long will he be unconscious?”
“About twenty hours,” said Wiz as he locked the cage and slammed the back door shut. “He’s going to wake up spitting mad and hungry. We’ll try to be back by then, but no promises.”
“I will talk to him when he wakes,” said Gelpack.
And wouldn’t that put the cap on poor Josh’s weekend? To wake in a cage and be “talked to” by a see-through guy. The brass claimed that this would be less traumatic than the usual wolf manifestation. They said it was better to change around people who knew how to keep you safe—and caged—than to unexpectedly transform and kill your nearest and dearest. They had a point, but it still sucked.
“Why are you looking so down in the mouth?” Wiz poked him as they settled into the back seat. “This went off without a hitch.”
“I doubt Josh will see it that way.”
“Josh will adjust. We all did.”
