9. THE WHITE WOLF

I awakened, twitching violently as I startled myself fully conscious in a single moment. The bedsheets around me were cold and clammy, disgustingly sticking to my skin, indicating that I had sweat profusely throughout the night. My heartbeat raced dangerously, my lungs were powerfully churning air even as it burned in my throat, and my mind was wandering in a thousand terrifying directions simultaneously.

For the first time in my life, I had woken up and had a picture-perfect, crystal-clear recollection of a dream. I never dreamed. Perhaps once a year, at most, would I even remember having experienced a dream, and even then, I wouldn’t remember what had happened. I could recall exactly what I had experienced the previous night, and it terrified me. Someone, or more accurately, something, had tried to contact me in a way that wouldn’t be traceable or recordable. I had accepted their solicitation and allowed them into me. It had made sense in the mind-numbing quasi-reality I had endured.

The worst part of the morning was what I saw when I opened my eyes and looked around the bedroom. I found two sets of aghast irises looking back. One green set, concerned yet determined, adjacent to a pale blue pair filled with longing and regret, with tears forming at the edges. I tried to speak and found my mouth dry and scratchy, no words forthcoming.

Beth took the opportunity and spoke softly, “Are you back with us?”

I coughed and rubbed my eyes, trying to clear the insanity from my mind. It was in no hurry to depart.

“What do you mean? Did I leave?”

Beth shook her head, “No, you had some kind of freak out. Started mumbling a couple hours ago, enough to wake me up. I didn’t think anything about it until you started seizing and crying out in pain.”

The tears on the precipice of Sam’s eyes came forth freely, and she said, “I thought you were being attacked by someone. I thought you were dying. Please tell me you’re okay. Please.” Her final utterance had the hoarse quality of someone honestly begging and beyond their wit's end.

The anguish evident in her voice physically hurt me, and I realized that while I was still in bed, they had kept their distance cautiously. I lifted my arm and motioned them to me, and I was instantly pinned back down onto the bed as a hysterical Sam leaped into my arms. Beth took a decidedly more conservative route, walking around the bed and sliding across it into my other arm. I could recognize through our connection that she was reassured that I was alright and felt that we needed to work together to comfort Sam.

Sam clung onto my shoulders and lay directly on my chest as she attempted to control herself. Her tears slowed, and she held me tightly, her face pressed firmly into my neck. For the first time since I woke, I noticed what she was wearing: a snug, wispy crop tank top and a lacy pair of hipster panties. I assumed that was what she used as pajamas and that Beth had gotten her directly from bed. I tried to simply hold her, brushing her back with my hand to comfort her and ignore the feeling of her supple flesh against my body with only the barely perceptible clothing separating us.

As she practically burrowed into my chest, her breathing gradually calmed. Another minute passed, and I fought to not recognize the absurdity of having a scantily clad woman I had yearned after for years clinging onto me in my bed without anyone trying to get us here. I didn’t want to have that kind of reaction now. I still wasn’t confident where Sam and I stood, especially after the Zoey bombshell was dropped on her.

Surprisingly, Sam spoke first, asking a provocative question of Beth, “Why are you so calm? How are you not freaking out? I thought you said you loved him.” Her final sentence had a level of venom I hadn’t anticipated and which was wholly uncalled for.

Beth smiled patiently, allowing the barbed comment to pass right by, and brought her hand to cup Sam’s face as she responded, “I can feel his mind, remember? He isn’t freaking out. He also isn’t full of his usual doubts, so maybe you should come in here crying every morning.”

Sam tightened her gaze onto Beth, the comments failing to lighten the mood as intended. I brushed some of Sam’s hair out of her face and cupped her cheek, returning her focus to me.

“Are you alright to talk now? I have questions about what happened — what you saw and what I experienced.”

Sam nodded, not recovered to her baseline but clear enough to discuss what she and Beth had seen.

I looked at the clock and tried to steady my mind. The dream I had experienced was still clear in my memory — more evidence that it wasn’t a simple dream — but I hadn’t felt like I was truly interacting with something. I felt like I was watching a recording of myself making decisions, except that I had no recollection of making them until after I saw them displayed openly.

The clock said that it was after seven am. I had two hours and some change before meeting Zoey at the gym for a workout and, hopefully, a flying lesson. Plenty of time for an honest discussion. The time also suggested that it would be reasonable for everyone else to be up, especially if they had heard Beth and Sam reacting earlier.

I called out towards the doorway, “Cynthia! Could I bother you for a few minutes?”

Sam tensed up on top of me, her arms tightening the grip that had only begun to loosen. Beth calmly grabbed one of my shirts and draped it over herself, entirely consumed by the unsuitably large garment. I pulled the blanket of the bed up and over myself, covering three-quarters of the three of us.

Sam met my eyes, absolute panic in her eyes. She hissed out, “What are you doing? Mom’s going to think…”

Beth whispered back, “Isn’t that exactly what we want her to think?”

Sam’s terrified eyes ricocheted between the two of us, unable to make an utterance in response and frozen in place. That place was straddling me in bed, a hair's breadth away from nude, with her mother seconds away from entering the room.

Cynthia’s footsteps filled the hall, her light footfalls the only sound aside from Sam’s racing heartbeat. An excruciating moment later, Cynthia stood in the doorway, carefully and gracefully opening the door. When she recognized what she saw in the room, her eyebrow raised precisely as it had last night.

She confidently continued, bypassing any awkward moment, and sat down in the office chair for the desk, spinning it to face the three of us in the bed.

“I hope that’s not what you have questions about, is it?”

Before I had a chance to form my thoughts into words, Beth answered. “James had some kind of seizure this morning. I was concerned and got Sam, who thought it was a magical attack, a hex or curse perhaps, and we both became really upset. James eventually came to and seems okay now, and he comforted Sam. He has some questions and wants you here, so he wouldn’t be repeating them.”

Cynthia nodded, looked to me, awaiting the questions, and muttered under her breath, “About time she got some of that comforting.”

I was stunned that I had heard her. Neither of the girls reacted in any way, suggesting that the comment hadn’t been audible enough to perceive normally. Sam would’ve been mortified to know that her mother did indeed think we had done the deed this morning. With no other real choice, I pressed on.

“Are there things out there significantly more powerful than dragons? Not marginally stronger; significantly probably isn’t even enough magnitude. Exponentially. Things that would make a dragon look more like an insect.”

Cynthia’s eyes widened, and she paused a moment before returning my question with one of her own, “You’re not speaking hypothetically, are you? You met something.”

I swallowed. “Yeah. I had a dream, I think, last night. Something was trying to communicate with me. Showed me a lot of things that I didn’t understand.”

Cynthia shivered and shook her head, “No. To answer your question, no. Many things out there are stronger than you currently, but they are stronger by a factor of two or five, not a hundred. They would destroy you through their experience and knowledge, but there is nothing I am aware of that would be able to exponentially dwarf you in terms of raw magical capacity.”

“So then, is there a way to spoof your magical energy? Project yourself as having more power than you actually contain? And can you do that while connecting yourself to another being in a dream?”

Cynthia shook her head again. “Sorry, James. There are ways to hide your maximum energy and some ways to project larger, but they wouldn’t give you the kind of significance you’re speaking of. Doubling your innate presence, perhaps. It shouldn’t have been even able to contact you; The apartment walls are warded against divination and then again at the property lines outside. Without you inviting the connection, it shouldn’t have been possible. Of course, our conceived protections might not be viable against something incomprehensibly powerful.”

I had a thought. A terrifying thought that combined some of what I dreamed and some of my fading engineering lessons.

“What if it didn’t have to? What if it was inside? What if it was here already?”

Now Cynthia was looking at me with the same terrified look her daughter had, and the similarities were immense. Of course, the cause was vastly different.

“James, I swear, I didn’t invite anythi-”

“Relax, Cynthia. God, ask Beth. Accusing you, or anyone else here, of sabotaging me wasn’t even in my head.” Beth helpfully nodded, affirming what I had said. “I think that it was piggybacking on me. I think it was already inside me, so it didn’t need to bypass defenses. I think it needed me but wasn’t ready for what it had to do before last night. Frankly, I would speculate that it's been around since long before I met Beth and everything changed.”

I sighed and moved my hand on Sam’s back to hold her hips into mine, where they belonged, “I don’t really know. I guess I’ll describe it to Antonin. It was surreal, an Escher drawing come to life. I don’t understand what it was, but it didn’t seem threatening. I don’t think it meant to hurt me, but it felt like it was out of time. Agh, I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. Thanks for listening to me.”

Cynthia nodded and then asked, “Beth? Would you like to help me make breakfast?”

Beth quickly agreed and followed Cynthia out into the hallway. Somehow she had slyly slipped into underwear during our discussion because while she hadn’t been wearing any before, I caught glimpses of red underneath my long-hanging shirt. I had no idea how she could have done that without being noticed, especially when I could feel remnants of her thoughts.

Sam gasped, taking the first deep breath since her mother had entered the room. After a moment of nervousness, she said, “Well, she didn’t disown me.”

“I doubt she would even consider the idea. You know we’re adults, right?”

Sam sighed, “No, I know. She’s great. It’s just my own anxieties. With her blessing, I acted out like a rebellious teenager to try and have normal interactions at school. I can’t help but want to be perfect for her now, though. I feel like I’m letting her down.”

“You didn’t hear her when Beth explained what happened, did you?”

Sam’s face swung up to look at me, her soft blue eyes searching my face for any sign of fabrication. Finding none, she shook her head.

“She whispered that it was 'about time.' I think you have her blessing.”

Sam frowned, marring her beautiful features, “No. I don’t have it until I actually talk to her about it.”

“Do you have to? That seems… archaic? Too deferential, perhaps? You are allowed to make your own decisions.”

“You’re right. I’m not letting her decide, but I want a good relationship with her if I can salvage it. It’s not like you get a second mother.”

I laughed and merrily added, “I’m not sure about that — Beth seems to have found one.”

A determined look came over Sam, and she sat up, straddling my hips and allowing the blanket to fall further down the bed. She was bewitchingly attractive, and I struggled to contain my inevitable physical response, especially when I could perceive her arousal blending with the scent of my own.

She spoke with steely solidity in her voice that had been absent since the previous night, “Indeed. I’m happy for her. I’m fine sharing; I just don’t want to be pushed out. However, it’s time to get up. You need to eat something before you go to the gym, and for some reason, my dumb ass agreed to go with Beth. This is going to be miserable.”

“You could always not go.”

The fervent focus her gaze shifted into left no doubts about her dedication, “Not a chance. I told Beth I would go. And I agree with her idea — living here for free with you might as well be a vacation for me. You need to do this, so I will support you.” She ended her statement with a sharp nod, unintentionally jostling her entire body. Her full breasts wobbled from the sudden motion, and her feeble shirt barely contained them. I placed my hands on her hips and lifted her off me, gently placing her on the side of the bed before she noticed my arousal growing between her legs.

Perhaps she did notice anyway because an embarrassed Sam hugged me and then gaily walked back to her room, leaving me to dress for the day in solitude. She had paused as the hug ended, her desire for something growing in the moment before she withdrew. I threw on some athletic clothes and made a short detour to the bathroom, where in addition to preparing for the day, I collected the towel Zoey told me to bring. I had no idea what it was intended for, but I stuffed it and a bottle of water into a drawstring bag to bring with me.

Breakfast was light fare. Cynthia had simply had Beth warm some bagels and apply an assortment of toppings so that the rest of us could select the ones we wanted. Beth seemed happy to merely have the interactions and reassurance. They were pretty good, and she again practically glowed when she received praise.

After a few matronly comments from Cynthia, asking if I was sure I should be working out after the morning incident, our morning was concluded. Evgenia joined us partway through and commented that she had to return to the office to file some paperwork and retrieve new forms. She did mention that she had a couple appointments in the afternoon to talk with Aisling’s contacts about what I would be permitted to do and when. That was comforting. She cautiously took one of the bagels with peanut butter on it, glancing back and forth between Cynthia and me as she did so.

Beth had gotten dressed while I ate and returned wearing a tiny pair of spandex shorts that honestly could’ve been mistaken for underwear and a sports bra that was practically only a couple threads connecting a clasp. I took a double take when she entered the dining room, confounded by the provocative outfit she had selected. She came over and sat down in my lap, as she was fond of doing, and wrapped an arm around me.

“Feeling confident today?” I offered.

She leaned her head against me and said, “Actually, not really. I kinda figured that I could even show up naked, and no one would notice because Sam’s next to me.”

Conveniently, Sam came and joined us at that time. She wore a pair of blue and grey yoga pants that encapsulated her lower half and presented it enticingly. Her plain, loose t-shirt and grey zip-up hoodie didn’t detract from her appearance. Instead, she perfectly embodied the lazy Saturday morning look that other girls spent hours trying to accomplish, effortlessly beautiful to her own detriment. Beth wasn’t wrong — next to Sam, she looked like an overeager teenager compensating for her insecurities, which was surprisingly close to the truth.

The three of us made our way to the veranda of the building, where Sam and Beth hugged me. Beth kissed me before stepping back and smiling at Sam, who cautiously approached me.

“You don’t have to feel pressured to do this,” I softly told her.

Instead of the reassurance that I was hoping to feel, I could smell the scent of nervousness and the feeling of rejection. Instead of calming her by offering an out, I caused her to think I wasn’t interested in her kiss. As I began to understand the feelings, she took a halting, confused step backward, her eyes down and away from me.

I stepped into Sam and pulled her supple body into contact with mine. I slid a hand across her forehead, sliding her sanguine hair off her face before gently cupping the back of her neck. I slowly leaned near her face, my eyes locked with her cerulean ones. My nose brushed against hers, I felt the sharp reactionary intake of breath, and my mouth was a centimeter away from connecting with hers.

I paused momentarily, listening to the racing sound of her heartbeat, before closing my eyes and kissing her. It was calm and chaste compared to when I had kissed Beth, but Sam melted into my embrace and pressed her body against mine. Her arms wrapped around my head, and she let out a little whimper when my other hand pressed the small of her back, holding her tightly against me.

It was only a few moments, but its impact on Sam was immense. I relinquished my hold on her body and lifted my head from hers. She took a deep breath and instinctively licked her lips before biting the lower one, then reopened her eyes and allowed me to see the hazy, distracted azure irises. She let out a small “Wow” before blinking and looking at me.

Beth had waited as long as possible before interjecting, and she exclaimed, “God, that’s just the hottest thing ever.”

Sam stepped back, returning to a comfortable distance from me, and bashfully internalized that Beth had watched the entire thing and liked it.

Beth gleefully crushed an unprepared Sam in a hug before saying, “That was amazing! I’m so happy for you. Thank you for sharing him with me.”

Sam was lost entirely — being thanked for kissing the man Beth was soulbound to not being high on her expectations for the day — and looked at me as the dainty woman hugged her and released joyful noises. I shrugged. I understood Beth's words to explain her reasoning, but the meaning didn’t resonate with me. If there was a guy who was sweet on Beth a couple weeks ago, I was not interested in working out an arrangement with him. Of course, she was only here because no one like that existed, so it was a moot point, but the hypocritical thought remained.

Beth kissed Sam’s cheek and then turned to me and said, “Okay, loverboy, you got your goodbye kisses, and you’re the one on a timetable. Don’t be late; you have a werewolf to claim.”

I could not bring myself to understand how Beth was alright with all of this, and I stood there speechless as she took Sam’s hand and whispered conspiratorially to the voluptuous woman as they maneuvered down the sidewalk. I wondered if they had talked this morning and planned on each kissing me or if it was a spontaneous occurrence. I genuinely hoped that Sam understood what she was getting into and that she wasn’t just impulsively chasing her whale, but I wasn’t sure I understood what she was getting into.

I let the thoughts of her kiss linger as I rode public transit to the city center and walked to the gym again. I scanned the key tag Zoey had procured for me and walked up the awkwardly designed staircase to the second floor.

The same disinterested guy was here, again watching something on his laptop. I approached the counter and asked, “Hey man, do you know if Zoey’s around?”

He removed one of his headphone pads and answered without looking up at me, “Nah, not yet. She only has the one appointment today, so she should be here soon.” He replaced the headphones when he concluded, evidently disinclined to continue the conversation. I glanced at the analog clock on the wall above him — I was twenty minutes early intentionally. I had wanted to try and talk to Zoey before she got fully into her exercise mode and blocked me out.

With nothing better to do, I went and sat on one of the stationary bikes and started pedaling while I thought about how exactly I wanted to approach Zoey. She was a security advisor for one of the most influential people in the world; Perhaps I should just be direct and ask her what happened and why she reacted as she did? On the other hand, she was still a teenage woman, no matter how much development I had missed after leaving for college. I should probably try to approach it more delicately.

I was so invested in trying to construct a plan that I wasn’t aware of the twenty minutes passing until Zoey was standing directly in front of me. Even then, I wasn’t aware who it was until she placed her hand on mine. Then I was completely startled and reflexively jumped in response, hard enough to nearly knock myself off the seat.

“Hey, James. Are you in there? I called your name like five times.” Usually, that sentence would’ve been spoken with a lighthearted affectation, but Zoey was already reticent.

I rubbed my surprisingly sweaty face to try and capture some control over my thoughts. “Yeah, sorry, I’ve had a hectic week. Listen, before we get started today, could we talk?”

A flash of icy terror shivered through the statuesque woman before she clamped down on her emotions. Her voice was robotic and impersonal, uninviting of any connection, “No. Not now. Not here. I don’t mean to blow you off, but not here.”

I figured that was reasonable enough. I wouldn’t exactly want to have this conversation in my office.

“Alright, I understand. What are we doing today?”

“Legs. Squats, Calf Extensions, Stiff Leg Deadlifts. After that, some ab isolations and half an hour of HIIT cardio.”

I slowly slipped off the bike and followed her to one of the racks to start our Herculean workout. We started light and gradually worked up, alternating sets. The height difference caused our starting positions to differ to prevent adjusting every set – I used a deep low bar, and she took a very high bar approach. She observed every attempt I made carefully, giving slight adjustments and comments about my form.

She was incredible to watch. We worked up to 405 for several triples, wildly beyond what I had done in my previous life and an amount that definitely would’ve gotten a few second glances in a public, commercial gym. Add in that it was done effortlessly by a lean, lithe woman, and every head in an average gym would’ve been watching. Still, Zoey seemed distracted, moving at half speed, and not invested in her own workout. She was critical of my attempts but unfocused on her own.

Eventually, we moved on, continuing to the secondary exercises for the day. More volume, lighter weight, less rest but lower intensity. Still here, Zoey continuously advised me on slight changes she thought I should make. Whenever I asked a question, she had practical reasoning behind her suggestions. As the workout progressed, I realized I had one of the most knowledgeable instructors dedicated to helping me achieve my goals. In this domain, she was equivalent to Antonin. Aisling had indeed assigned her best.

During every exercise, after we had finished with squats, Zoey would walk off every few minutes. After the third time this happened, I was curious, so I watched her. The fourth time, I observed her as she went and talked with another girl. The other girl was remarkably forgettable. She was lean but not muscular, neither particularly tall nor noticeably short, her features plain but not ugly, and her shoulder-length brown hair fell straight in an unexceptional manner. Out of everything I saw, there was only one thing that I would remember.

Her eyes. Brown, unadorned with framing makeup, they would otherwise be unassuming. Instead, they were inhospitable and proficient. When she talked with Zoey, her sharp eyes roamed the gym floor, moving in a pattern from spot to spot with an intensity and purpose I didn’t understand. When they met mine, they focused further and lingered even as she kept speaking. I returned to my lifts, eager to remain inconspicuous for as long as possible. Those eyes scared me.

As we procedurally worked through the remaining exercises Zoey had decided on, she continued talking with the other girl. Eventually, I was left with only a HIIT segment on a bike, and as it was already set up as one of the programs, Zoey departed. It was a grueling affair in its own right, and I had just completed the most intense leg-focused workout of my entire life. Ultimately, I was heavily sweating, breathing laboriously, and very fatigued. I spent the last few minutes fantasizing about cuddling with Beth in the tub when I got home, hoping that imagining a reward would be enough incentive to complete the workout.

The timer beeped, and I coasted into a relaxing cooldown period. I closed my eyes and focused on gaining control over my breathing, my legs gliding through the reduced intensity pedaling on autopilot. After several minutes, Zoey and the forgettably intimidating girl walked over to me. I got hints of curiosity from the new girl, mixing with some trepidation and caution.

Zoey introduced her with the distastefully professional manner she had adopted for our interactions, “James, this is Corporal Mallory Serrano. I’ve asked her to assist with your instruction because she’s more familiar with the next steps than I am.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The tawny-haired woman smiled, but it didn’t reach her calculating eyes. She was still focused on evaluating me.

“Honestly, Zoey, I don’t even know what the next steps are, but I trust you to do what needs to be done.”

“We need to get you to shift into your other form completely and then to grow used to manipulating your wings. I’m sorry to admit that I still don’t know what you are — I should’ve asked that on Tuesday, but... If you’re not a were, what are you?”

I scratched my head and offered a pained smile to indicate my discomfort. “It feels weird to tell you if you haven’t been briefed already, but you’ll find out when you get me to change, anyway, so it should be fine. I’m a dragon.”

Mallory laughed, assuming that I was joking. Her eyes refocused a moment later when I didn’t join her laughter. Zoey’s colorless eyes were opened wide in dismay, her mouth slightly ajar.

“Wait, you’re serious? Aren’t there only like five in the whole world?”

I nodded, “Yeah, six now.” I gave them my uncomfortable smile and asked, “So, I’m done biking. What are the next steps that Mallory is needed for?”

Zoey recovered enough to answer, and she gestured towards the far wall, “We’re going to take the elevator to the basement. There’s an Olympic-sized swimming pool there that I’ve reserved for the next two hours. We’re going to see if you can fully shift while in the pool and get used to moving around in your other body in a place where it’s safe to do so without endangering yourself or your surroundings. If that goes well, and you can shift, Mal’s going to guide you through some swimming drills to simulate wing movement while flying, so you can get some practice without having to actually fly.”

Mallory nodded slightly and said, “I’m a werebat and a scout for the security forces. Most fliers are.”

“That sounds incredibly reasonable. Lead the way.”

On our way to the elevator, I grabbed my bag from one of the diminutive day lockers in the entranceway. We entered the elevator and rode to the basement in silence. When the doors opened, the incredibly familiar scent of chlorine filled my lungs and made me slightly nostalgic. I was glad to be doing this for the first time in a pool, an environment I was intimately comfortable with.

Zoey pointed out the men’s changing room and said, “Leave your stuff in there. Wear your towel out; don’t bring anything else. I know it’s awkward, but you’ll just ruin anything you wear.”

I nodded, familiar with that from when I destroyed my shirt growing wings, and walked into the locker room. I stripped off my sweaty clothes and left them on the wooden bench to air out and dry. If Zoey had reserved the entire pool for the next two hours, no one would come around to be bothered by my selfish behavior. I slid my bag into one of the lockers, wrapped the towel around my waist, and took the steps up to the pool deck.

I was impressed by the facilities I saw when I opened the door to the deck. It was a genuine Olympic pool, with eight lanes of fifty meters. The lane lines had been removed, and the pristine surface of the water appeared like a mirror with its peaceful serenity. I was the only one on the deck, and only the hum of the maintenance machines and pumps joined me. The lady's locker room was on the other side of the pool, near the shallow end, so I crossed the pool deck and sat down on the pool's edge with my legs in the water. The ripples reflected out across the entire surface of the pool as I waited for my instructors to join me.

Sitting on the poolside, I realized I could hear a discussion from the lady's changing room.

Mallory’s voice came through the muffling effect of the door, “Honey, you need to tell him. You need to talk to him. You’re going to destroy yourself in this purgatory. Maybe there’s something you don’t understand going on. We definitely don’t have all of the information.”

Zoey’s voice came next, but emotionally charged and full of anguish instead of the monotonous one she had been using, “I just can’t believe it. How could he have lied to me for all those years? How did he hide it from me?”

“Oh, sweetie. I know this whole situation hurts, but we don’t know everything. If he is what he says he is, we’ll know soon. He wouldn’t be here, petitioning Aisling for permanent residence and requiring flying training if his situation was anything near normal. You need to talk to him and listen to what he says. I checked the tapes after your shift; He was floored when he saw you. He isn't orchestrating this, at least not to that degree.”

I tried to close my ears, realizing they were talking about me. I didn’t want to eavesdrop on their conversation, but the echoey nature of the deserted pool environment meant I had already heard more than I needed to. I focused on the water and splashed some of it back and forth, adding ambient noise to mask their discussion from myself.

After another ten minutes, the metal door clanked, and the two women came out onto the pool deck, similarly garbed in just a towel. Zoey’s was too short to cover her lengthy torso completely, offering shadowy glimpses of her tantalizing temptation with every step she took. If her pale eyes weren’t blatantly irritated and puffy, conspicuous signs of her crying during the exchange I had inadvertently overheard, she would have been irresistibly desirable.

Mallory stepped up to the pool's edge, unwrapped her towel, tossed it towards the spool of lane lines sitting on the deck, and leaped into the water, violently disrupting the calm surface and splashing me. I instinctively reacted, turning my head away and closing my eyes. When the moment passed, and I looked back, I realized Zoey had used my aversion as an opportunity to stealthily doff her own towel and slip into the water unobserved.

I unwrapped my towel and pushed off the wall with my arms, sliding into the pool comfortably. The water was cool but not harsh. I dunked my head under the water and then surfaced, welcoming the familiar burn the treated water gave my eyes. I met Zoey’s eyes, striving to ignore the bright pink nubs proudly sticking off of her taut, perky breasts. She was here to teach me about having multiple forms, and we were naked to prevent destroying clothes in the process. I only hoped my will was enough to contain my desires.

“So, James, I don’t know how this works for dragons, but for weres, we have a second internal mind. Our animal soul connects us to the primordial and distances us from being fully human. I can coax mine forward when I need to be more wolf or clamp down and restrict her when I need to be more human. Is any of this familiar to you?”

I nodded while keeping my eyes glued to hers, “Yeah. The archivist talked directly to mine on my second day here and had him shift a bit. I grew wings in the library. I’ve done that once more on my own.”

Mallory interjected, “Woah, yours can talk? That’s amazing; a were’s soul is more instincts and animalistic urges than the complex intricacies of humanity. Figures that a dragon would do more, actually.” She gave no indication that minutes earlier, she had been consoling Zoey in the locker room over my intrusion into their lives.

We slowly maneuvered further away from the wall and towards the deeper center of the pool. Gradually the floor fell away until we reached a point where Mallory had to bounce on her toes to keep her head above water.

“This should give us enough space. Mal will go first and will talk you through her prompts. I’ll go after. If you’re still willing after that, you’ll try,” Zoey spoke with authority, the lingering effects of her emotions firmly put to the side. When I didn’t object, she turned to Mallory.

Mallory frowned and said, “I won’t be much help here. I usually just imagine myself flying, the freedom and spontaneity I could have if I was in the wind, and the bat soul does the work to get me there.” She shrugged and waited a moment to see if anyone had any comments.

When none came, the physically unimposing woman closed her eyes, and I felt the mana in the air around her ripple outwards. Her arms became long and slender, a thin webbing of skin stretching from her hips to her wrists. Her skull structure morphed, her ears moving up, and her nose becoming more prominent. Her ears shifted to the top of her head, wiggling and flicking several times each. After only a moment, where the girl had been before, a four-foot-tall brown bat was now.

I could still see some of her facial features after she had transformed. Most outstanding, her eyes had retained their pressuring, imposing, guarded keenness. She was sculling the water with her wings, now easily treading in place where she had been struggling to stand a moment ago.

“Sorry, I don’t really have any other cues that I use.” She apologized, jarring me out of my observation and creating some mental discord for me. Seeing a bat speak English was uncomfortable, even if I knew it was a woman. After a few moments of letting me observe, she returned to her familiar human shape but moved to a shallower spot in the pool and leaned against the wall.

Zoey said, “It’s pretty standard to abandon the cues once you’ve become accustomed to being in both bodies. You can remember how it feels to be in the other one and the path you took to get there. I use a similar thought exercise to Mal, but of running through the great forests chasing my prey. I focus on feeling the wind where my fur should be, the ground beneath my padded paws, the change in my hips so I can run on four legs, and how wagging my tail in joy feels. I try to touch most of my body mentally as I go through the process, willing them to go to the other side.”

With that said, she took a further step away from me and inhaled intensely. Her face began to elongate, a protrusion growing from her nose and mouth. Her ears slid up her head. Her shoulders and hips wiggled, and her limbs shifted perpendicular to her torso. All at once, brilliant white fur sprouted and covered her entire body.

Where Zoey’s well-honed human form used to be, there was now a regal and intimidating eight-foot-tall white wolf. The snowy dire wolves of fiction evidently had a basis in reality, and Zoey was one of them. She licked her nose and then yawned as she stretched to stand on her hind legs in the pool. Her massive forepaws floated lazily in the water, and the murderous potential of her claws was evident by their size alone. Astoundingly, my instincts offered not what I had expected – I was drawn to pet her head, share my meals with her after we hunted together, and provide her shelter from the elements. Perhaps the dragon soul had some relation to werebeings. A question for Antonin.

Several moments passed where her silvery eyes simply observed my own. I nodded, and she melded back into her human shape. The deeper water made it significantly easier to avoid unintentionally ogling her. Until she stretched her arms over her head and leaned back after she was done with the return transformation, elevating her breasts above the water line. I couldn’t believe that it was for my sake, presumably simply a natural reaction to adjusting her body, so I averted my gaze. When she realized what she was doing, she hastefully pulled her arms back down to her side, splashing water at me in the process.

“Alright, so I should just be able to want to shift, and he’ll help me get there?” I asked both women.

Zoey answered, “It’s a starting point. If we struggle, there are a couple other techniques to try, but chil— beginners usually find them confusing.”

I shrugged. I wouldn’t have been offended if she had called me a child — I was only a week old as a dragon, after all. Perhaps it was something to do with the mate connection she felt, causing discomfort and shame to call your companion a child. Hopefully, she would be able to talk to me at some point soon.

I closed my eyes and willed my essence into my mind, searching for my dragon soul. I found him, but there was another presence beyond where he lay. I could only assume that it had to do with my dream and hoped there wouldn’t be any consequences. Who was I kidding? Of course, there would be consequences, likely major ones. For now, I had to ignore it and entice my dragon spirit to control my body.

He needed no enticing, my thoughts conveying my desires instantly. He took over my body and couldn’t get through the shifting process fast enough. Whereas before, he had gently and slowly shifted, controlling precisely which areas partially transformed, today he could not be hindered and morphed my body entirely in a moment.

My feet shifted, sliding wider apart as my body grew, my new claws dragging along the tiles of the pool bottom. My tail rocketed from the base of my spine, the deadly spike at the end thankfully pointing away from the other two people in the pool. My wings sprouted instantly, spreading nearly the width of the pool. Another fraction of a second and any lagging portions caught up. I was now a bright red, twenty-foot-long dragon sitting in the middle of a swimming pool. The water surged away in concentric waves as my sudden change in size caused tsunami-like conditions emanating from the pool's center.

I felt contained, collared and restricted, as if I still wasn’t completely transformed. I hadn’t fully unleashed my true form. My left forelimb felt heavy as if I was shackled to a cuff of metal. I realized that I hadn’t removed the suppression ring when I had gotten changed, and somehow it had come along for the ride through my shift. It was probably for the best. I resisted the instinctive urge to roar proudly, my human side only barely convincing the dragon that announcing ourselves would be detrimental to our goals.

With my physical changes came mental ones, and I acclimated to how differently the dragon body perceived the world. I first noticed the adjustment of the interminably pervasive chlorine smell. Next, I recognized that Zoey was gripping onto my left forelimb with both hands to support herself. And she was… moaning hoarsely through clenched teeth. Another tenth of a second, and I saw that Mallory was in a similar situation, except she was holding on to the pool wall, and her left leg was trembling rapidly. What a mess.

I took a moment to mentally assess my body for wholeness, and I took the next several to pray that the effect on my two instructors was a one-time thing that would quickly wear off, or at least something I could learn to dampen. I stretched my wings towards the ceiling, now completely understanding Zoey’s stretch — I felt like I had to manipulate some part of my new form as if I had just woken up from a whole night’s rest.

The next thirty seconds passed with only the sounds of two women breathing heavily and water sloshing into the gutters lining the pool. Given that Zoey was still clinging to my arm, her firm body pressing into my scaled limb, the pool water dripping from her platinum hair as she recovered her senses, I could not ignore the circumstances. I had an epiphany that I was exceptionally uncomfortable with.

I had caused it. Somehow, the dragon’s influence or the strange dream connection caused this reaction in the two women without giving them any warning or ability to consent. What’s worse, it wasn’t the first time this had happened. I had attempted to ignore it – to deceive myself that what I had thought was happening wasn’t the truth so that I could live without any guilt. I had done this to Sam twice. In the car on the initial drive here and again when we were enchanting our names. I had forced myself on her without understanding it myself. I knew that, logically and objectively, I hadn’t intended for this outcome or desired to do something against the will of these three women. It wasn’t comforting in the slightest.

Additionally, my willful ignorance and intentional rejection of my previous observations meant that I could have prevented this if I had been more honest with myself. With the idea that I could have avoided this outcome, I felt as though I had been unfaithful to Beth and Sam. We hadn’t established ground rules for our new confusing relationship, and I had already gone to others, albeit very indirectly. The coldly analytical part of my mind argued that Beth would tolerate my transgression, having already invited Sam to join her and knowing that Zoey was likely mated to me as well.

I remained unconsoled. Her eventual acceptance of my actions was unrelated to the anxiety growing in my chest. The more significant issue was that I had done something without knowing if it was acceptable. I was in a hastily constructed fragile relationship with murky, undefined boundaries. Yet I marched on through the swamp without taking any time to understand my companions or respecting that they might have their own desires. If I wanted to be with Sam, I needed to try and be the man she thought I was, an unflinching bastion of justice. I held pieces of Beth and Zoey’s souls; I couldn’t afford to damage their trust or cause them pain. I couldn’t break off relations with Beth; dismantling our relationship in such a manner would simply be damning both of us to a lifetime of dissatisfaction and torment.

My descent down the spiral of self-incrimination was interrupted by Mallory giggling and distractedly saying, “Well, that was a nice surprise!” I looked her over with my new dragon eyes and found her lounging against the wall with a contented smirk on her face. For the first time since I had initially seen her from across the gym floor, her eyes lacked their piercing, observant, calculating sharpness.

“I’m sssorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.” My mouth was different, and speaking was awkward while I was still adjusting to the new arrangement of my teeth.

Zoey had seemingly recovered, and she took a step away from me to behold my dragon body in its entirety while leaving a hand remaining in contact with my limb. She seemed utterly captivated in observation. I wasn’t looking back at her, but somehow I could understand her movements just by feeling the mana in her body.

Mallory blinked several times, answering while slowly clearing her mind and returning to her senses. “I don’t think you need to apologize for that.”

Eventually, she found her way through the mental haze and joined Zoey in inspecting my new body. When her clouded vision cleared, and she comprehended my new form, she gasped.

“Holy shit.”

Zoey echoed her sentiments silently, mouthing the phrase without saying anything.

“Guysss, you’re ssstarting to freak me out. Zzzoey, I’m ssstill jussst Jamesss.” Saying my own name now was difficult, the trailing slithering of my lizardlike tongue slowly fading into obscurity.

That seemed to shake them from their inactive reverence. Mallory came wading over, and when she reached me, she cautiously touched one of my wings. At first contact, she flinched back sharply before recovering her confidence and softly stroking my scaled appendage.

“Hey, batgirl, you’re here to teach me how to fly. You can gawk at me later.” As soon as I said it, I regretted it. I was just beyond my satiation limit for worshipful gazes and patronizing assistance. I understood I might as well be a deity showing up out of the blue, but I preferred Mallory when she silently surveyed me.

Luckily, my words had the desired outcome of reminding her that she was here to assist me, not appraise my physical magnificence. She began instructing me on how to manipulate my wings, move the joints, and control my body while doing so. A lot of time was saved because of my familiarity with maneuvering my body in the water. Mallory informed me that most first-timers pull themselves under the water's surface the first time they lift their wings, unaccustomed to the feedback.

We spent the next 45 minutes with Mallory having me perform specific training motions in the water, manipulating myself up and down the length of the pool. Halfway through, I had a realization and returned to the halfway form that I had taken with Antonin. Being much smaller now, I could use the pool's shallow end more effectively without scraping my torso along the bottom. Zoey occasionally contributed a suggestion about utilizing my tail to be more efficient in my movements, something which Mallory was unable to help with.

After that, I spent half an hour in a dozen combinations of middle point forms, simply moving through the water. Learning how each body part would move depending on how draconic or humanoid its neighbors were. I was essentially performing physical therapy, except instead of relearning movements on injured body parts, I was learning novel activities on freshly awakened limbs.

When I had finished learning to walk on my clawed feet while still otherwise in my human body, Mallory had me sit on the edge of the diving board, holding on to the flexible slat with my hands. I practiced flying there, timing the flaps of my wings with the undulations of the board and adjusting to moving through the air.

This was followed by having me bounce on the board while standing, flapping my wings, and leaping into the pool as the board rebounded and propelled me into the air. I was reminded of times on the team in high school, incessantly diving into and climbing out of the pool. Without the camaraderie of my teammates joining me in the drudgery, I quickly became tired of the monotonous exercise. It was effective for sure, and after fewer than twenty repetitions, I had flown half the length of the pool. I could have gone farther, but I was unsure of landing and, as such, allowed myself to sink into the comforting water.

With that success, Mallory cheered and clapped her hands together. Her eyes had returned entirely to their acute nimbleness, and the cheer didn’t fully illuminate them. Zoey was caught in her thoughts, pondering something I couldn’t decipher. As I relaxed and allowed the water to cradle me, she returned to the land of the living and checked the massive clock on the wall. Ostensibly we had used our allotted time because she suggested that we should all get changed and depart.

I thanked the two women for their time today and returned to the locker room. My belongings were exactly where I had left them, lying haphazardly on the wooden benches. I utilized the shower and allowed the refreshing unchlorinated water to rinse my body off. I was curious about my draconic nature — would frequent exposure to chlorine damage my hair like in the past? Would my dragon body heal the damage to my hair, or was the hair dead tissue and would, therefore, remain unrepaired? Yet another question for Antonin.

I felt an amused snort in my mind and realized that Beth and I had begun sharing thoughts. I anxiously wondered if she had heard my concerns earlier. She must have. I had been distressed and hadn’t bothered to withhold the problems. Given that she hadn’t reacted, or at least I hadn’t received any hints of one, I could only assume that my presumptions about her eventual acceptance were correct. It wasn’t a comforting thought.

Now decidedly more forlorn and no longer relaxing in the shower, I dried myself off and dressed. Gathering my bag and drink, I made my way out of the locker room. When I returned to the gym’s basement hallway, I found three women waiting for me. Two were predictable, but the third was surprising and caused significant potential for concern.

Zoey and Mallory remained at the end of the hallway outside the pool area, respectfully keeping their distance. Aisling was standing directly outside the locker room, her calm surface belying a stormy interior. She was here for more than a social visit.

“Dragon.”

“Your Highness, it is a pleasure. To what do I owe this honor?”

The frosty queen snapped her fingers, and things more than a few yards away became blurry. Zoey and Mallory looked like I was viewing them through an aquarium, distorted and unrecognizable, stretched and manipulated in a rapidly unstable manner. I looked at the tiles on the floor and saw how they became less disfigured by the spell as they approached me.

“First, an invitation: As the technical master of the dragon house and representative of all dragonkin estates in Philadelphia, you are invited to a private dinner hosted at my retreat in Villanova. Saturday. Dinner will be served at eight. Please arrive before seven so that we can get business concluded. Some of that business being you.”

“Am I to come alone? Dress code? I don’t even know where Villanova is.” I hadn't meant to blurt out that last part, but I was entirely on the backfoot in this exchange.

She handed me what appeared to be a business card. It was completely blank, but I could feel the mana in the flimsy piece of cardboard.

“The details are there. Evgenia or Cynthia will know how to read it. Come alone this time. In the future, you may attend with your companions.”

She was being particularly curt today, much different from how she appeared on Saturday. Her visage was almost as intense as it had been when she had tested Beth’s protections. She paused for a moment and collected herself, and her imposing affectation seemed to increase in magnitude. In this instance, she was an unapproachable deity of death, and I had all her attention.

“I know you are new to this world, dragon, so I will give you some leeway. I have tried to be accommodating and understanding of your situation. I am going to ask you this only one time. Have you been involved with disruptions to my security and intelligence agents?”

“I… What?” I stuttered out, entirely blindsided by the question. After a moment, I gathered my sensibilities and gave an actual response.

“I had some kind of effect on Zoey, Sergeant Lyon, the first time we interacted. Antonin and Cynthia suggested that she was mated to me. I met Officer Mengue when I was with Antonin, and we had some kind of incident in the basement of the archives. I don’t really know the details, but it seemed like we overloaded some of the protective energy shielding storage. Antonin seemed to have handled it.”

Aisling held her glacial gaze on me for several seconds, waiting to see if I had any other transgression to admit to. When no more came, she sighed, and her features returned to humanlike approximations. Her eyes softened, and she was no longer an inquisitor on the warpath but a tired and overworked administrator defeated by a taxing problem.

She spoke, “I figured it wouldn’t be you, but it would’ve been convenient if the problems that started this week were caused by you. Several security agents have seemingly vanished, and several intelligence operatives have missed their check-in times. The evidence points to some kind of non-violent insurrection. That could be the first play in a violent uprising attempting to overthrow me, so I have to investigate.”

“You seem awfully trusting of just my word and even more so in sharing that information with me.”

She smiled, but the reaction made her only seem even more fatigued. She waved around herself, indicating the optical disturbances.

“This, all of this, caused that. You cannot lie under its control, not without some serious mental influence magic. It would be challenging and complicated for anyone outside of it to perceive our discussion without invitation. A wonderful interrogation tool, albeit it isn’t subtle and requires preparation. In addition, you are a child, and I am an ancient monarch well-versed in political gamesmanship. You are powerful but not skilled at manipulating people. It’s endearing, actually. Regardless, something has changed in the realm, and I need to get to the source of this sedition before it can come to pass. I apologize for accusing you, but I needed confirmation that you were innocent.”

I wasn’t bothered by her usage of this tool, just saddened and concerned by the situation that made it necessary. I had nothing to hide, and she had been more than fair with me. It was understandable to double-check the brand-new resident when things started going awry immediately after their arrival. It wasn’t required to get me to tell the truth, though — I had discovered at a reasonably young age that lying in any form made me uncomfortable, and even further, I was pretty bad at it. It’s not like Aisling could know that yet. I could use the situation to ask her questions, though.

I interjected before she could continue, “Actually, your majesty, might I ask you a question before you disperse the field?”

“That sounds ominous. If it would be useful for the boundary to remain, I should probably be aware of your concerns.”

“Is there anything exponentially more powerful than I am? Anything that would be so incredibly monumental such that interacting with it would be potentially dangerous?”

“The old gods, perhaps. I pray against all hope that you are asking out of curiosity.”

I shook my head, “Something interacted with me through a dream last night. It was incomprehensibly indomitable and showed me many things, images and visions, yet it could not speak or write. It seemed to say that the mere act of communicating with it was dangerous, and Beth said I had a seizure in the night.”

For the first time, Aisling seemed genuinely uncomfortable. She had been drained before, but now her unease was visible.

“The old gods disappeared eons ago, abandoning us to our own devices. I truly hope they have not returned. Yet they are the only ones who would have the magnitude of power you speak of. Discuss this with Antonin and no one else.”

I agreed, “I intended to. I have talked with Beth, Sam, and Cynthia, but I will ensure it does not leave our circle. Thank you. I understand the reasons you felt this discussion was necessary. I look forward to enjoying another of your banquets, your highness.”

She gave a haughty smirk, “You are going to hate the discussion that precedes the meal. The meal is a trap to convince you to come.” No longer channeling her deathly banshee form, the lighthearted banter made me smirk.

With that, she straightened her posture, and the visible distortion faded. After another moment, the queen shimmered and then disappeared herself. I had been in this world for nigh on a week, but these were the first displays of overt magical use I had seen in daily life. The exhibition made me wonder about the mana inequalities of my new environment. It appeared to be no different than in my old life – the wealthy had an overwhelming majority, and the masses fought to utilize the forgotten scraps left to them.

Mallory, to my surprise, approached me next. The two security officers had waited for Aisling to conclude before attempting to join. Zoey remained at the elevator, her imposing figure mirroring the defeated image of Aisling I had just seen. Seeing her lacking her typical fierceness felt fundamentally wrong. Even her cold, professional indifference was better.

The bat scout stated, “Makes sense that the queen would make time for a personal visit to a dragon.” She laughed lightly at some joke only she understood. “So, James, you and I will practice flying once a week. Next week will be here in the pool again on Thursday after you train with Zoey. I don’t anticipate you staying here long. Soon, we’ll be outside somewhere. And if you cause that wonderful side effect every time you shift, I will look forward to the sessions more than you do.” Her teasing smile actually reached her brown eyes. She had concluded her evaluation, and I had conclusively passed. Skeptically, I considered this might simply be a second mask concealing another assessment. It seemed unlikely, but I wouldn’t underestimate the intentionally unimposing woman anytime soon.

I cringed at her reminder, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that would happen.”

“Don’t apologize; I enjoyed it, and Zoey needed it. She wants to talk to you. She’s going to ask you to lunch. Both of us are terribly confused about what is going on in your life. I think you’re just a kid even more lost than she is, but maybe you’re the world’s greatest con artist, and you’ve fooled even the queen. Don’t be too hard on her, or else I’ll... I dunno how I can even threaten you, to be honest. Just pretend I gave you one.”

Despite feeling like king shitbag, I smirked and exhaled at her assertion. “I am suitably intimidated. Look, I liked Zoey when we were kids. She is my best friend's sister. I don’t want to hurt her, but she freaked out, completely shut down, and wouldn’t explain anything. If she’s ready to talk now, I will go with an open mind.”

Mallory stuck her hand out to me. I shook it. We began walking to the end of the hallway where Zoey awaited.

“Thank you, James. You’re nothing like the stories that depict dragons. You’d make a really shitty all-powerful conquering tyrant and despot.”

“To be honest, I just want to be left alone, unbothered by everyone else's drama and insignificant troubles. I absolutely would make a really shitty despot. It sounds exhausting.”

She tilted her head and looked at me. “Huh. I have heard of a couple of those dragons. The legends say they lived longer.”

“Ambition does seem to have a negative correlation with life expectancy, and I intend to stay around a while.”

We reached the elevator. Zoey wrung her hands together in apprehension. She glanced up at me before quickly looking away.

“James, I think I’m ready to talk. Can we go somewhere else, though?”

I knew from Mallory that Zoey had intended to ask about talking over lunch, but she hadn’t outright asked. I gave her another opportunity.

“That sounds perfectly reasonable. I wouldn’t want to have this discussion where I worked.”

“There’s a bistro a couple blocks over. They serve nice sandwiches. Bake their own bread and press their own coffee. I like to eat there after work sometimes.”

I smiled patiently, “That sounds lovely. Lead the way?”

Mallory pressed the button for the elevator, and the doors opened immediately. The three of us got in. I hoped I would finally find some answers about the little girl I used to know and how she became an Amazonian Werewolf running security training for a Banshee Queen in Philadelphia.