“Sara?”

“Zach?”

Then her water hit the floor and she bolted. He was off the couch, charging after her. She ran into the dining room and around the large oak table. Zach was a second behind her. He stood naked on one side of the table while Sara stood on the other. She took two steps to the left. He shadowed her. She took three quick steps to the right. He did the same.

“You… you’re…” She couldn’t even think straight.

“I need you to remain calm.”

“Fuck you!”

“That’s not calm.” Sara growled. “Okay. Okay.” He held his hands up, fingers spread wide. “I know you’re confused. And scared. But everything’s cool. If you just give me five minutes, I can explain everything to you.”

“You can explain to me why last night I went to bed with a big shaggy dog on my couch and four hours later I find you? You can explain that to me?”

Zach was silent for a moment, “You’re right. Why bother?” Then he lunged across the table for her. Sara stumbled back and slammed up against the wall behind her. But he missed her and Sara jumped onto the table, over him, and tore across the room. But he was so fast. She had just made it to the hallway when she felt his arm grab her around the waist. She struggled desperately, trying to get away from him. But he continued to easily control her with one arm.

She screamed in frustration and kept screaming. Zach brought his other hand up to cover her mouth, but Sara saw it coming. She grabbed his arm, wrapped her mouth around his flesh, and bit down. She heard him grunt in pain but that was all. She bit harder but still he made no sound. Now she was getting pissed. She wanted to hear him scream. That’s when she felt it—her canine teeth grew. Just like that. The other teeth in her mouth re-adjusted to accommodate their new length as they easily sank deep into his flesh.

Zach pulled her tight against him and he buried his head into her hair. “I hate to tell you this,” he muttered, his voice thick in what Sara assumed was pain. “But we consider what you’re doing foreplay. You’re making my dick hard.”

She was so startled that her canine’s retracted and she felt the rest of her teeth adjust back to their old position.

Then Zach lifted her like a load of laundry and carried her into the bathroom. He looked around; seemed satisfied she couldn’t get through the tiny, high window, and tossed her into the tub.

Sara’s ass hit the hard linoleum, “Ow!”

He didn’t even look at her. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist. Then he slammed the bathroom door closed and opened her medicine cabinet. He pulled out alcohol and bandages and ran his bleeding arm under the faucet.

“You know, this is why I didn’t tell you earlier. I knew you wouldn’t be rational.”

Sara wiped Zach’s blood off her mouth with the sleeve of hersweatshirt, “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing. You are what you are without my help.”

“What does that mean?”

Zach poured rubbing alcohol over his wounded arm. “It means I didn’t do anything to you. You just didn’t know what you were. You can actually blame your parents for what you are.”

Sara took a large, dramatic breath. “I am a werewolf then?”

Zach looked at her as if she were insane. “There’s no such thing as werewolves.”

Sara stood up, her aggression coming off her in waves. She could feel it. “Then what the hell are you?”

“A shapeshifter!” He snapped back. He seemed truly insulted. Like she had called him cracker or redneck or said his mother wore combat boots. “The whole Pack are shifters. So was my father. And his father. And on and on. I can trace both my father and mother’s families back to the druids. Werewolves,” he spat out in disgust as he turned back to his wound. “And at night the bogeymen comes and gets us.”

“Don’t give me attitude.”

“Then don’t ask me stupid questions.” He re-adjusted the bandage on his arm. “This isn’t about things that go bump in the night. It’s about a gift handed down to us through the ages. I live my life in this world and theirs. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“You’re a freak.”

“Yeah. Probably. But I’d take one of us over what you’d call normal. At least I always know where I stand with them.”

He may know where he stood, but she was completely lost. “Why are you here, Zach?”

“It involves me falling off one of those goddamn hills you’re so proud of, but that’s a very long story.”

“Why are you here?” She didn’t mean tonight. She meant at all.

She saw that Zach understood.

“Your parents were part of our Pack. But we had to wait until the old bitch died before we could come for you.” Zach tied off his bandage.

“So last night…”

He brutally cut her off, “Don’t even go there. I didn’t have to fuck you last night.” Sara winced, but stood her ground.

“That’s good to know. I’d hate to think you were just following orders.”

“Wait.” Sara hadn’t moved, but he seemed to think she was about to. “That’s not what I meant to say.” Zach touched Sara’s arm. She looked down at his big, strong hand. She’d gotten finger-fucked with that hand.

She didn’t even know she was going to do it until her fist actually made contact with his jaw. His head snapped to one side, but he swung back with a snarl and Sara took a step back farther into her tub. His canines had extended and his hazel eyes glinted in the dim bathroom light.