As the cool night air hit me in the face, I looked across the parking lot at my assailant. “Come to try again?” I taunted, staring down my gun at him.

“Don’t make me laugh,” he yelled back at me. “With your human body, you think you can taunt me?”

“Human?” April asked, sounding puzzled. Her scent didn’t match her voice.

“Well you can’t take your other form in front of the police, can you?” he shouted. “Besides, I’m blessed.” The three of us watched as this man bent over, his clothing splitting as he howled in pain. Within seconds a white wolf had taken his place. He ran off into the darkness leaving me pissed.

“Why didn’t you shoot him?” John asked, shock flooding his face. I looked at April, who was surprisingly calm about all of this. Why is that?

Chaz was the one who answered him. “We don’t have the ammo on hand to hurt a shifter.”

Before John could come back, I looked at him. “Bring any spare clips you got over to the bar in the morning.” I went to say something to Chaz, but he was already on the phone.

“Alec wants to know if Razorback’s werewolves are involved.” he said in a melodic voice. Good to see that I wasn’t the only one getting pissed.

“I’m… not sure. He’s at a family reunion, and why would he come at me like this? We can check with his pack though.”

“Wait, you are a dragon, a mob boss AND you know a werewolf pack? How many irons DO you have in the fire, anyways?” A simple chime came from his coat. He fished out his coat and checked his phone. “I’ll fill in Sandra, and see if she can help. I don’t know how many clips I can get a hold of.”

Either April didn’t hear John, or she knew more than she was letting on. Something fishy was going on here.

“Jac, sniff…” Chaz said, the glow of his eyes illuminating his face. His words drew my attention to it… blood. I ran towards the scent, anger starting to build. He wasn’t here for me, he was here for something worse.

The moon darkened everything to shades of gray, but my dragon senses gave the details the night was trying to hide. It was a body, laying in the knee high grass just outside the parking lot.

“Who is she?” John asked, his phone in hand.

“Elaine Davis. The woman who found me after I was shot.” I answered, looking at John. Chaz was scanning the area as I continued. “John. Don’t call this in.”

“Why the hell not? We need to get her to a hospital. Get all the evidence we can on this bastard!”

Chaz was the one who replied. “Her wounds were not made by anything human. Also stop to consider that it was only the heart that was removed. This was ritualistic, and the victim.. not quite human either.”

I looked up to see April standing beside me, trembling. Tears freely slid down her face as she started to sob. “Not her… no. I did what they asked… did everything he asked of us. He was to leave us alone. I can’t… Sister.. I’m sorry.” She ran back to the club, the air heavy with her pain and regret.

“Luna… I’ll use Luna to hunt him…” I told Chaz, who was posting up behind me. Ever the good bodyguard.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Wait, my love. First, let me take her…” I heard in my mind.

“Are you sure? Why my flower?” I whispered softly.

“A body made for a dragon’s heart,” Xochil said to me, which I repeated aloud.

“But.. I promised you. I am keeping my vow,” I said, again, aloud.

Xochil replied, “Let us heal her, prepare her. Then someone else could share in the same blessing as you have given me.”

“Don’t tell me the corpse is whispering to you now…” Chaz sighed, pulling me out of my conversation.

I shook my head. “Xochil is. She wants me to prepare the Nephilim for a host.” I faded between forms, as my dragon arms took her gently into the astral plane. John had made it to his car by this point, so he didn’t see anything more that he couldn't explain. Good. Less work for me.

I saw the wolf sitting there, waiting. “Luna, it’s time to hunt.” Xochil growled in my head. and all three of us were in agreement. My clothes fell to the ground as my lupine form leapt into reality.~v~

A wolf’s nose can smell a scent up to a mile away. Adding dragon to the mix makes it even sharper. I followed the scent of this shifter as if he was right in front of me. He led me south, across side streets and through subdivisions. Was he trying to get to Patton Avenue? I40? Where was he going?

Twisting and weaving through the trees had me puzzled for a moment, until it clicked for me. He had yielded to the beast… he was a shifter after all. But something was off. I’ve hunted with werewolves before, but his paths and patterns were more human than wolf. What was going on here? Why would a wolf avoid a path that he could go through that his human couldn’t?

His scent led me to the back of the Goodwill Store, where I once again got flooded with the scent of myrrh and Waffle House. Add the smell of marijuana, stale sex and auto exhaust, and the barrage of scents had become painful to Luna’s nose. My dragon could follow it further, but I couldn’t stretch my wings here.

As I laid on the cool asphalt, thinking of my next move, the air of someone familiar floated in from the woods behind the building. “I am going to regret this” I mused to myself as I darted towards the aroma of a friend.

I clawed at the back door of one of the many houses on Arthur Rd. The lights cut on as Ray, wearing a white sports bra and a pair of light blue silk boxers, answered the door.

“Cute…” I managed to say through this canine muzzle as I darted into her house the first chance I got.

“What the hell?” she yelled as she ran for me, leaving the door open.

“Narkavis…gone?” I growled, realizing that this was the first time I tried to speak as luna.

“Yes…?” she replied, as I usd this instance of confusion ro return to a more familiar form. This time was more violent, as my human form fell to the linoleum tile floor of her laundry room with a thud. I was covered in sweat, as my hair did give the illusion of modesty.

“Hello again, Ray.” I hadn’t had this level of fatigue switching forms before.

“It’s you! How in the hell did you get here.. like that? You’re a werewolf? Wait… you can’t be. Werewolves don’t shift that clean.”

“You didn’t hear what I was earlier at the club?””

“I walked up to hear you talking of the Fae,”

“I’m… complicated. I have two forms prepared for me. This one, and Luna…”

“The arctic wolf. Beautiful breed… I wish I could have one as a pet. But…” she sighed, defeated? Her voice troubled me. “I know of only two types of creatures that have that clean of a shift. One is a specific shifter, and the other is… a dragon. Which are you? And why the secrecy?”

It was my turn to sigh. “The knowledge of non-humans… I only wanted to protect Narkavis from it. The less he knew… the safer I can keep him.”

She stood there, for a moment, staring. “I’m sorry. You truly are beautiful, in this form and the wolf… So what happened?”

“I’d love to explain, but can I get off this floor and not naked first?” I asked, my view following her curves upward. From this view, there was no doubt, she was a woman… a beautiful one.