hands. “If you don’t get them off now, you’ll get tangled up in them and freak out.”
She couldn’t make sense of the words, could barely understand them, but she understood the retreat in his upheld hands, the worry and care in his tone. Jay wouldn’t hurt her. Closing her eyes, she eased out of her shoes, pants and underwear, tossing the clothing aside until she knelt shivering and naked on the hardwood floor.
He wrapped his arms around her and bit her again, this time a gentle press of teeth to the back of her neck. “Don’t be afraid, and don’t fight. Just feel her. Let her out.”
The words vibrated through the room, a command and a soothing order, neither of which she knew how to obey. An anxious pressure built inside her, one uncomfortably like arousal. “Help. Help me.”
“She’s in there, honey, I know she is. Find her.”
Her. The wild strangeness. Eden shivered. “She’s calm now.”
“Yeah.” He stroked a hand over her hair.
She shivered again, only this time it didn’t stop. Shivers turned to trembling, and trembling to shaking. The tension inside seized tight without warning, bowing her back as her nails scraped helplessly over the floor.
Pain shot down her spine. Bones cracked. Eden tried to scream and couldn’t get enough air into her burning lungs. Her body tore apart in slick, wrenching agony.
Broken.
Dying.
No, not dying. Remade. Reborn. Power rode the pain, swelled and swelled until there was no way to contain the sweetness, the glory. Her wolf swept aside the last bit of human thought in a rush to claim her, and the sound of her own triumphant howl chased her into the wild.
Chapter Two
She was still sleeping.
Jay knelt on his bedroom floor and peered under the bed. “Eden? You awake?”
A muffled, sleepy noise answered him. Eden tried to curl onto her side and froze when her shoulder bumped the box spring. Her eyes snapped open. “Uh…”
He turned his head. “I brought you a shirt.”
“All right,” she said, voice faint. “Could—could you give me a minute?”
“Do you need me to do anything?” He’d left her alone for most of the night. After her change, no amount of comfort or soothing magic seemed to get through to her. She’d hidden under the bed, and Jay had slept on the floor beside it.
She squirmed a little and bit off a curse as something thudded against the bed frame. “Maybe lift the bed a little? This is awkward as a naked human.”
“Yeah.” Better to put his eyes above the mattress anyway. He rose on his knees, lifted the frame with one hand and held out the shirt with the other.
Her body brushed his as she crawled past him, grabbing the shirt on the way. By the time he lowered the bed, she’d tugged the garment over her head. “Thank you. Do I want to know how I ended up under there?”
“I think you wanted to den up and hide. It’s pretty common after an initial change.”
“So it wasn’t a dream.”
He turned to find her kneeling a few feet away on the floor, rubbing her cheek against the sleeve of the shirt he’d lent her. “No, not a dream,” he whispered. It was too much for her to go through, for anyone to face. “I’m sorry.”
She dragged in a shaky breath before burying her nose in the sleeve. “It smells like you. I don’t even know how I know that, but it’s comforting.”
“Your sense of smell will be a lot more pronounced now.” He could handle teaching, offering her information, and he knew a woman like Eden was bound to appreciate it. “People think wolves have the best sniffers out there, but it’s not true, not compared to a lot of dog breeds. Sound, though—that’s a big one. Your brain will block out the worst of it, but loud noises might be painful until you get used to them.”
Her gaze dropped to his chest as her eyes narrowed. “I can hear your heart.”
“You’ll be able to see in the dark too.” He rose and held out his hand. “Hungry?”
“Starving.” She let him pull her to her feet but didn’t release his hand. “Jay… Thank you for taking care of me.”
His skin tingled at her touch. She’d slept two feet away from him, he’d seen her naked, and now she was wearing his shirt. Not just wearing, but luxuriating in, like his scent was the only thing she wanted on her body ever again.