professors or classmates even suspected… her days at the University would be over. The human world knew about shifters, even tolerated them in some capacities, but discrimination was rampant. And shifters in wolf form had no rights whatsoever. She could be killed, and no one would even be charged with a crime.
The car, then.
He hurried across the plaza, chest heaving, with his precious cargo in his arms.
Carrying Arianna in her wolf form, as well as the bulky bag with all their stuff, was no small trick. But they had to get away from the scene of the attack as quickly as possible.
The icy weather worked its way past the heated panic of the moment and chilled his naked body. The parking garage was slightly warmer, or at least sheltered from the wind. Fortunately, it was still relatively empty, so there were no witnesses to the naked man carrying a brown wolf off to a black sedan in the middle of the concrete underground structure. Arianna started to move in his arms, whimpering and struggling against his bare skin. He didn’t know if she was in shock or if the dart had injected some kind of tranquilizer in her that was wearing off. He prayed it was only that and not something worse. There should be no reason to poison a wolf with a dart, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen. If she didn’t recover quickly, he would have to get help.
“Just hold on,” he said as she stirred, making it harder for him to carry her. “Let me get you to the car.” She stopped fighting him. When he reached their car, he gently laid her in the back seat, and she immediately struggled up on two legs and dragged her limp hind legs behind her to the far side of the seat, giving him room to climb in, dragging along the bag of all their stuff. That she was moving again was a really good sign. When they both were safely locked in the car, he scooted closer, stroking her fur and trying to reassure her. He could feel her shaking.
“Arianna, honey,” he said in his most soothing voice, even though it was still ravaged from the fight. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. Can you shift for me?” He couldn’t tell what was wrong with all the fur and without the ability to speak. If she couldn’t shift, he might have to shift back to wolf, just so they could communicate.
She closed her eyes, and it took a moment, but then she shifted human. Which meant she was suddenly naked in his arms, even more beautiful in all her bared glory than she had been in his fantasies. His cock twitched in response, but he already had a full-blown erection left over from the fight. It was always that way: the adrenaline, the testosterone, and especially with a female to protect and a shift to wolf and back. His raging hard-on wasn’t quitting anytime soon, and now with them both naked… Arianna’s shaking was even more visible once there was no fur to hide it. Jak cursed himself for his rampantly sexual thoughts and quickly dug his jacket out of the bag. The car was relatively warm, but he was sure she was in shock. He wrapped the jacket around her and rubbed her arms and back to heat them up.
“Are you all right?” he asked softly. “Tell me what happened.”
“J… Jak,” she said, her teeth chattering.
He stepped up his rubbing of her arms and pulled her into his lap. He tried to ignore what that did to his aching cock, while he focused on holding her, warming her, reassuring her.
“It’s okay, just take it slow. Tell me what happened, so I can see if we need to get a healer.”
“No.” She shook her head vigorously. “No healer.”
He frowned, but he took that as a good sign. If she were really hurt, she’d be crying or wincing in pain. The fact that she was able to shift at all was a good thing. She took several deep breaths, obviously trying to calm down, so he waited until she was ready to speak again.
“I think…” She stopped to swallow. “I think one of them shot me with something.”
“He had a dart gun. I brought it with
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley