Bennett - Milly Taiden Page 0,4
if you pulled it out of a video game. I think you need to sit down for the next part of our conversation.”
Bennett blinked at Gray, concerned. That wasn’t the best way to start a chat with a fellow scientist.
What had he gotten himself into?
Chapter Four
Bennett
Bennett took a seat at the glimmering counter, facing Gray.
“You might have noticed that I don’t look the same as I did before.”
Bennett had no idea how to respond, so he chose not to. Gray smiled at him.
“I know time has passed, and I’ve obviously aged. I’m talking about my shape. It’s why I called you here. Thanks for taking the time off of work to help me.”
He didn’t correct Gray. Strictly speaking, Bennett was currently between two projects, and he was still trying to convince the dean of the biochemistry department that he had no place in the classroom. No undergrad or doctoral candidate would want to learn from his shy, nervous ass. He was better suited for research and writing papers. The dean thoroughly disagreed.
“You’ve got to promise me you’ll keep this secret.” Gray’s eyes were twice their usual size as he spoke.
Bennett knew that there was only one reason why his buddy would want to keep something secret. He had to be on the brink of a major discovery.
Or in the very least, he knew he was sitting on something that could be profitable.
“Of course,” he assured Gray.
The other nodded and took a deep breath. “Do you know about shifters?”
Bennett blinked at him in confusion. “How do you mean?”
“I mean humans who can turn into animals. Bears, lions, tigers.”
Oh, shit.
Gray had lost his mind. That could be the only explanation. Had he inhaled too many toxic fumes?
“That’s not possible.”
“But it is,” Gray assured him with conviction.
Bennett pushed his glasses up his nose. “Sorry, but as you know, I have a degree in physiology.” Not to mention common sense. “It’s impossible for a human to complete metamorphosis into an animal. The bone structure alone wo—”
Gray pushed back from his seat and ripped his shirt off. When he unbuckled his pants, Bennett looked away. He kept talking, needing the distraction from the fact that one of his oldest friends was getting nude in front of him. How would he tell the lovely Blake that her fiancé had lost his mind?
A sound like claws on a surface made him look up.
Bennett fell off of his chair, landing onto his ass with a loud scream that made his head ache. He scrambled away from the beast as he tried to understand what he was seeing.
A wolf.
There was a wolf where Gray had been standing but a few seconds ago.
Before his very eyes, the wolf’s entire body began to crack and convulse. Before long, the fur was replaced by skin, and a very nude Gray was standing there, looking triumphant.
Bennett screamed again because he didn’t know what else to do.
“So now that you’ve seen it for yourself, you know it’s possible, correct?”
Gray slipped his clothes back on, but Bennett didn’t move from his perch on the ground. His heart was beating entirely too fast, and his breath was coming out in panicked puffs.
“You’re going to have to breathe before you pass out, Ben. What you’ve just seen is a shifter go from human form to animal shape. I have a wolf, but I also have a lion. I figured the wolf would be less aggressive. Smaller animal and all, though not by much.”
“Not…” he began his thought seventy times over. “Not possible.”
“It is,” Gray assured him as he walked to an enormous temperature-stabilized cabinet. He punched in a passcode with very human fingers.
Bennett had seen claws there but a moment ago.
“See this?” He pointed to three small vials. “This is a shifter serum. I’ve been playing with it for a bit now. I had to make some significant changes to it, and as a result, it has been unstable. Hence the stabilization cabinet. I’m trying to isolate the animal genome that makes it possible to shift back and forth. I’m thinking we can get the cells to latch on to cancer cells to combat the disease. It hasn’t been going too well. Like I said, I’ve managed to make the unstable serum even more unpredictable. While I’m gone, I need you to keep an eye on these vials to make sure they aren’t morphing into something else. I need you to document all of the changes.”
Bennett still hadn’t found his voice, so he remained quiet.
“I wouldn’t have