But no. This woman was unique, not quite human. He'd felt it much more strongly when he was wolf, but he could sense it now too. And his burning need to possess her refused to abate. It was a powerful yearning beyond his control and different from anything he'd ever felt.
John shook off his desire and rose. "I'm going to make you something to eat. I brought a box of supplies along, which you chucked at my head. You'll feel a lot better with some food in you." She snorted. "You think I could eat anything right now?" He turned away. He was going to cook anyway, to give himself something to do while he figured out what to do next. Besides, he was starving after expending so much energy shifting in just a few minutes'
time. His metabolism had devoured every scrap of his power, and the engine needed to be stoked.
"I understand your shock, and again I apologize for frightening you. Kidnapping you wasn't my choice. I would've liked to introduce myself another way, let you get to know me first then reveal all this.
But the others … Well, time is critical right now."
She watched him warily as he picked up some apples and oranges that had rolled across the floor.
"What about that other one you were talking to when I woke up? Who is he? Where did he go? And where are we? If you really don't intend to hurt me then I have a right to know everything."
"Fair enough." He set the bag on the kitchen counter and began putting perishables into the small fridge. "His name is Brian Cox. He's one of the pack elders, our governing council. He insisted on acting on Anna's vision and bringing you here immediately. His youngest child is one of those stricken, lying in a coma."
"Where is ‘here'?" Sherrie leaned against the counter, arms folded.
John wondered how much he should tell her. She was right in thinking they couldn't let her go back to her old life. Not knowing their secrets and not unless they could trust her. But what was the alternative?
What would the pack decide, and would he stand against them if he didn't agree with their decision?
"We're in the mountains outside Boulder, so I haven't taken you far from home. The nearest town is Browning, and that's where most of the pack lives. It's the perfect location, since we have access to open land and an eco-friendly town where we can work."
"How nice. That sounds perfect for you." Her tone could've dehydrated a watermelon. "Tell me more about life as a … werewolf."
He closed the fridge door with his foot, holding several eggs in one hand and a package of bacon in the other. "Shapeshifter or just shifter. You conjure up images of Lon Chaney in bad makeup with the other. Besides, wolves are only one segment of the shifter population across the globe."
"Other people who turn into animals, all around us, all the time?" Sherrie pressed her folded arms tighter to her body, which forced the tops of her breasts to swell upward so her cleavage showed in the neckline of her dress.
John's flagging cock hardened again. He ignored it as he set a frying pan on the hot plate.
"Not as many as there used to be. Habitats are dwindling for us like they are for all animals, and it's hard to live our ‘alternative lifestyle' in an urban environment."
"I'm sure the shifter squirrels and raccoons and rats do fine," she quipped.
He turned to look at her, impressed by her breezy attitude. "Not many people could adjust so quickly.
You're a very strong person."
"No. This is me barely keeping it together. Inside, I'm running around screaming and crying, but where I grew up you learned to act tough or got your ass kicked."
"Where's that? I don't really know anything about you except your name and your current address." And your delicious smell, which I could isolate blindfolded in a crowd of people.
"I lived in Gary, Indiana a long time ago. Scrawny trees and brown grass. Not like here. I had a single mom and no dad or siblings. Followed my high school boyfriend to Hollywood where we were both going to be big stars. Five years and twice as many boyfriends later, I moved with an eco-zealot named Tom to Boulder. I thought Tom was better than the rest of the losers I'd picked, but he turned out to be just a different flavor of asshole. I can't believe I'm telling you all this! It's none of your business. I always blurt things out when I'm nervous."
"I'm glad to know something about you." And glad you're beginning to trust me enough to share your story. He laid strips of bacon in the pan, and they immediately began to sizzle.
"I'm the one who should be asking questions, like about how this whole shifting thing works. How did you get the way you are? Do you have super strength? Does it take a silver bullet to kill you?"
"Why? Do you want to kill me?" He smiled at her, but she didn't smile back. He washed his hands and turned to face her, lounging against the counter as if he were relaxed when actually his system was sizzling like the bacon. Sherrie set his nerves on edge, woke up his very cells and made them vibrate with need.
"Okay. Shifting 101. We're born this way, not made by a bite or anything. Like I told you, we're not human, but a different species, even though we can easily pass for human. There are few cross-species matings. We generally stick with our own kind. We don't have super powers or extra longevity and a rifle can kill us like it would any other animal. That's why we have to be extremely careful where we hunt."
"Why take animal form at all if it's dangerous? I can see it doesn't take the moon cycle to change you.
If you control the change by your own willpower, why not always stay human?"
"Why do you have green eyes or brown hair?" he countered. "It's what we are. To deny that aspect of ourselves is to not fully live. Like a dancer who's crippled or a gay who's afraid to leave the closet.
Understand?" As he stared into her bright, sharp eyes, he wanted her to understand.
She nodded. "Yeah, I guess I get that."
Another wave of that terrible yearning to have her washed over him. The feeling was nearly uncontrollable as if it came from outside himself. He wanted to grab her and drag her up against him, kiss her hard and then fuck her harder.
John bent to scoop his discarded shirt from the floor and put it on, shielding his burning skin from her roaming gaze. "Any more questions?"
"What do you do when you're not prowling around the woods or kidnapping women?"
"I have a sporting goods shop in town."
Sherrie laughed then clapped a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry. It's just so … surreal, so bizarre.
You're a real Clark Kent."
"Except I never get to be Superman," he reminded her. "I can run pretty fast as a wolf, but I can't stop a city bus and lift it over my head."
She smiled and her eyes crinkled at the corners. She had a dimple in each cheek that invited a kiss.
"I'd like you, if you weren't keeping me a prisoner."
"I'm not. I mean, I am, but only for a short while. When the Council decides what to do, we'll leave here. This cabin was just a place to go where I could break the news to you, ah, gently."
"Real gentle, knocking me to the ground and slobbering into my face." She rubbed her shoulder.
He noticed she didn't mention his dry-humping her. "Sorry about that." Her dimples disappeared and a frown creased her brow. "What does it feel like? The change and being a … a wolf?"
John closed his eyes and inhaled as he tried to think of a way to describe it. The rich bacon smell tickled his nose and whet his appetite, but the subtler smell of the woman standing before him filled his senses and hunger raged through him.
"Like having a bandage ripped off and feeling air on a raw wound. Fully alive and painfully real."
"Sounds awful."
He shook his head and opened his eyes to look into hers again. "It's the greatest pleasure I know."
"Better than sex?" Her eyebrows shot up.
"Well … a different category of pleasure."
"So, you and your people all live in this town and you only have sex with your own kind. Don't you get a little inbred?"
He was amused by her open curiosity and ridiculously turned on every time she said the word sex.
"There are other packs living other places. Sometimes we have to search far away to find a mate.
You're right. It's not as easy as going down to the local bar and picking up some girl for the night like humans do. Not when many of the women in town are your cousins."
"Why not just do it with a human chick? I mean, the body parts fit together the same way, don't they?"
"Yes. Some shifters do that for quick relief. I don't choose to." He was starting to sweat and he stepped away from the hot plate. Her questions were making him think of things he didn't need to be thinking about when his body was already so sensitized and ready to mate.