He shook Bruce’s ruff hard.
“I’m sure you need to talk about something. Like why you felt the need to eat fruit given to you by a dangerous fairy?”
A single eye slitted open. It was yellow with burned edges, like crème brûlée, which was Laddin’s favorite dessert. And it focused unerringly on him.
“We don’t have to talk about that right now,” Laddin said, pitching his voice to make it as soothing as possible. “Tell me about yourself. What do you do for a living? Josh ran out of here so fast, I didn’t get a chance to ask.”
There was a flicker of movement at Josh’s name, but Laddin had no idea if that was good or bad. Then the wolf bared his teeth while a low, rumbling growl shook his body.
“Don’t be like that. He’s your brother, you’re supposed to love each other. But tell you what. How about you switch back to being a human and I’ll listen to how he did you wrong, okay?”
Bruce lifted his head and shook it. Not in a denial, but in the way of a creature just waking up. Then he pushed up on his paws and tried to stand. Except the cage wasn’t quite big enough for him to rise to his full height, so he nosed forward, trying to get out.
“No-go, Bruce,” Laddin said. “You’ve got to change back to a human first.” Then he grabbed the wolf’s head and turned it so they were looking eye-to-eye. “Shift back to being human. Then you can do whatever you want.”
In response, the wolf raised his back leg and pissed all over the van. Some of it got Laddin, but he was quick on his feet as he jumped back.
“Ew! That was so not cool,” he said as he swiped at the splash on his jeans. But then he realized his mistake. While he was jumping backward, the wolf had leaped forward, out of his cage, to stand in the middle of the barn.
Damn, Bruce looked stunning in an intimidating way. He was a big wolf, larger even than Nero, and he stood there poised, his eyes taking in the entire place. Then he started leaning left and right on his paws as if testing out his weight and balance. He was figuring out how to manage a wolf body. Laddin smiled in recognition. After all, he’d done the same thing not so long ago.
“Fun, huh? It’s like you get to learn everything all over again, but you’re faster and stronger than ever before. Like toddler Thor or something.”
The wolf eyed him and bared his teeth.
“Bullshit,” he answered, though he didn’t know what he was responding to. “I’m your trainer, and you’re going to listen to me. Those are the rules, and frankly, this is not a safe place for you. You’ve been a wolf for long enough, Bruce. It’s time to change back to a human.”
The wolf turned his head away, and Laddin eyed the open barn door. Why hadn’t he thought to close the thing first?
“You need to stay inside, Bruce.”
Laddin knew he was in deep shit. If Bruce took off here, Laddin would have no way to control him. And without a human talking to him and reminding him who he was, Bruce was likely to remain a wolf forever. That wasn’t so bad a fate, except the human mind didn’t go quietly into oblivion. It asserted itself, it got angry, and that overwhelmed the wolf until the creature went crazy and killed everything in sight.
“Change back to who you are, Bruce. You’re a human man first, wolf second.” That wasn’t exactly the way Captain M had described it, but she wasn’t here.
Bruce ignored him. He started moving around, slowly at first, but quickly learning how to walk. The guy was coordinated, that was for sure. It had taken Laddin hours to figure out the basics of walking without his back legs tripping him up.
“Come on, Bruce,” Laddin said. “Shift back.” Even he could hear the edge of panic creeping into his voice. “You’re my responsibility, and I really don’t want to screw up on my first mission.” Against his better judgment, he reached back into the van and picked up the remote for the shock collar. He didn’t want to use it. Hell, he didn’t want to touch it, but if he didn’t get the barn door closed, that was going to be the only way to keep Bruce in sight.
Meanwhile, the wolf began to trot. Not walking forward and back like he had been doing, but a trot that headed toward the back of the barn. Great. While Bruce went to the back, Laddin headed for the door. He could shut it while—
Shit! Some instincts were normal to all lupines, and Laddin knew how much fun it was to chase things—likehimas he ran for the barn door.
Bruce pivoted and leaped forward. He moved with grace—at first—but then his front legs couldn’t keep up the pace. It was that whole arm/leg thing. The human mind forgot to use the arms while the back legs were still working, and that usually led to a nose in the dirt.
Yup. Nose plow. Laddin was ready. He jumped forward and grabbed the shock collar. Then he held Bruce’s head down in the dirt like Yordan had done to him not so long ago. It was a dominance move. Then again, even as a human, Yordan had had the muscles to take Laddin down.
Laddin, not so much.
It was like holding on to a bucking bronco, and a life in LA had no way prepared him for the spinning, twisting, biting nightmare that was wolf Bruce. Laddin’s arms were jerked nearly out of their sockets, and his wrist wasn’t going to be able to take the strain much longer. He’d grabbed on with one hand, but he managed to haul his arms together enough to latch on with his second. He kept waiting for Bruce’s body to betray him. The guy hadn’t learned how to move fully as a wolf yet. Shouldn’t he be face-planting about now?
Or now?
Or now?
Laddin gasped as he was jerked left and right. Keep hold! Keep hold! He did, even when Bruce flopped sideways, rolling over him in an effort to dislodge him. Laddin’s head banged painfully on the dirt, and he lost his breath as 180 pounds of wolf muscle crushed his ribs. But he held on.
He felt a finger snap, and he cried out in pain but didn’t let go.
