“Agreed.” I pursed my lips in thought. “So, why are you helping me?”
“When I went through this, I was alone and it sucked.”
“Went through what?” I asked.
“What you’re going through. You’re changing. You’re stronger, your senses are heightened and you heal almost instantly. Right?”
“Yes,” I whispered, wondering how he knew. “Why did I change? In the library, you told Daniel that you and he were the same. I’m like you guys?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Then what am I?”
He sighed. “I’m not a hundred percent sure. But you’re definitely not like us.”
Great. He didn’t know what I was. But he knew what he was and he knew about the black wolf. I wanted my theory ruled out once and for all. “What are you?” I held my breath.
His gaze fixed on me. “I already told you the other day.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
He’d said he was a werewolf. If he was just messing with me, I didn’t want him to think I half believed him. I narrowed my eyes. “Tell me again.”
Zack glanced at the window. “It’s dark. Let’s go for a walk.”
“Why?”
“So I can show you.” He rose from the sofa.
We left the house together and I walked with him in silence, trying not to think about the reason for our outing. Why was I even going with him into the woods when the whole idea was absurd?
He led me to my spot in the clearing and stopped in the center. How did he know where to go? The little hairs on my arm stood at attention as chills swept over my body. No, it couldn’t be. “How did you know I was changing?”
Zack bent one leg with the other bearing his weight, hands in his pocket. “For days, I kept catching a hint of something extra when I got really close to you, something not human. Since it was so faint, I kept thinking it was my imagination. I found myself following you, just to see if maybe I could catch you doing something superhuman.”
That explained why Zack always seemed to be everywhere. He’d been watching, but not because he liked me. He’d probably never like me. My throat tightened.
Oblivious, as usual, to my inner turmoil, Zack continued. “Every time I tried to go in for a better whiff, you were onto me. I couldn’t satisfy my nose without you thinking I was a perv. So when I walked you home after dinner last night, I poked around while you went upstairs. Your sweater was draped over the couch, so I sniffed that and anything else I could find. I still wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling. Like, I just knew.”
“Knew what?”
“You’re not human.”
Considering my strength and other abilities, not being human wasn’t a stretch. I took a shaky breath. “And you’re not human either?”
“No. I told you about that our first day of car shopping.” The corners of his mouth lifted. “But you didn’t believe me.”
“Of course I didn’t believe you.” Werewolf. Werewolf. Werewolf. The word echoed in my head, but the idea was too crazy for me to fully let it in.
“Oh, and I forgive you for laughing at me,” he said dryly. “But, in all fairness, you looked way hot that night and I’m still a guy.” He gave me a lopsided smile.
Right. I’d told the wolf about Zack stuttering when he’d seen me.
“You’re the black wolf,” I said, trying to make myself believe what I’d just said. I covered my face and squeezed my eyes shut, disappointed that the connection I felt with the wolf probably wasn’t felt by Zack. Wait, was I going to buy into this and believe in werewolves? I took a step back. “This is getting out of hand. I’m not sure about this whole supernatural thing. It’s too much. I think… I think I need to go.”
“You want to see me change into a wolf?”
No, because then it would be real. “Y-yes.”
“Damn.” He pointed to his pants. “When I morph, I’ll leave a pile of clothes. When I turn back, I’ll be naked. Before I become human again, I’ll bark twice so you can turn around.”
“You’re going to morph right now?”
He closed his eyes and spread his arms like wings, his body shimmering. Then he disappeared. That lasted a split second before the black wolf stood on all fours, a pile of clothes at his paws.
There he was. My wolf. With his beautiful green eyes. I had to be losing my mind. But Zack just changed into a freaking wolf, which meant werewolves existed and I was perfectly sane. How was that possible?
He barked, but I only stared. He barked two more times. Still, I couldn’t move.
The wolf locked the pants in his teeth and dragged them into a clump of bushes. A moment later, Zack emerged wearing them, still naked from the waist up. Since his boxers were still on the ground, I knew they weren’t on him. At a time like this, I really didn’t need to know he was going commando.