him to turn his back, then rip him a new asshole.
Before I could get to a third option, he frowned. “I can’t read your mind.”
I smiled, showed him my fangs, let my wolf nose extend. In a husky hoarse dog laugh, I said, “Surprise.”
What I was really thinking at that moment was...I was gonna kiss Amber to death. She’d given me protection from Hood’s invasive brain works. Forget Frank.
Although, I still had to deal with him.
He said, “Whatever you’re doing, keep it up. If he gets a whiff of your stupidity, you’re shit in a hole.”
“Frank, this is a new side of you.” Clever beyond numbers?
He shook his head--still so close to me. “No. You’re just opening your eyes.” He took a step away then and shrank down to his usual self, turning to the mirror to adjust his clothing.
I asked, “Where were you when Bark needed back up? That night he disappeared?”
That was something I should have asked him first thing when I arrived back at Wolf E.. I mean, I knew him and Bark were tight. But I didn’t know why he hadn’t been doing the firm’s books before. It seemed like a good time to ask--since he wasn’t answering the first question.
“How come you weren’t doing the books?”
“I had other things to do.”
I made a mental note to check into that. What was more important to Frank than the company that fed his family? As far as I knew, he had schooling in two areas: accounting and psychology. What else could he do?
“ What other things?” I thought I’d spare myself the effort of looking into it.
Frank watched me in the mirror. “Your wolf is showing. Suck it up.”
The reflection of my face in lupine jumped out at me. My eyes were blank, glassy. I reached up and touched the side of my muzzle. It wasn’t slipping back to place--to face.
“That bitch.” I closed my eyes and said quietly, “Go find Amber before I kill everything looking for her.”
Frank didn’t move, though. Mesmerized by the image--me growing out of my clothing, shredding everything, crinosing. He said, “Get a grip!”
I panicked, though. I had no grip. No control of my brain. “Fuck, Frank--help me!”
His body rolled along the lavatory, as he scooted away from me, and his head swung around after his torso faced me--and I saw horror in his expression. “Holy shit!”
What clothes hadn’t fallen from me, I pulled loose. The confinement was too much. Again, I said, “I’m not in control of my--help me.”
Frank was frozen in place, his eyes as wide as they could be.
One more glance into the mirror, and I could see why. I had horribly contorted--a terrible monster of the man, crinos and true wolf. Crinos body, totally wolf facial features, human ears, hands, and feet. I touched myself all over, watching in the mirror.
Finally, Frank managed, “What the hell did she give you?”
Chapter Five
“A mind talk blocker--I thought.”
Frank’s handkerchief came out and he wiped the sweat that poured from every pore of his body. He said, “Okay. Okay. Just stay calm.”
I was doing anything but that. I was getting more and more furious by the moment. The stiff crinos hair on the back of my neck and on my thighs began to stand up.
“Relax, Mark. Just try and focus on relaxing.”
“You fucking relax!” I headed for the door. “I’m gonna kill something.”
He leaped me from behind, slipping crinos in the air. Not that he could bring me down. But he knocked me off balance, and I slammed him into the wall. He hit with a horrible thud and a groan.
I reached down to get a hold of him before he could spring back up. Lifting him off the ground, I asked, “Are you fucking nuts?” I looked down at his body.