Underdogs The First Stories - By Geonn Cannon Page 0,44

She didn't need to see the remnants of what she'd eaten; she'd seen enough of her late-night snacks to know that it was bad. It was a case of the reality being worse than her imagination, so she didn't linger on it.

She shut off the water when her skin was clean and pink, then stepped out of the tub. She spread some toothpaste on her finger and rubbed it against her teeth to clean her breath. She'd left her clothes on the counter and took the opportunity to check her cell phone to see if Dale had called. No call from Dale, but one from Bryn. The time was not long after they'd left the jewelry store, so Ari could assume what the content of the call had been. She deleted the call in case anyone happened to get their hands on her phone and wondered about it.

She put on her underwear but left the rest of her clothes on the counter. The robe Sadie had told her to borrow was blood-red and short enough to show off a fair amount of Ari's thighs. She cinched the belt at her waist and tugged on the lapels until they covered her cleavage. It seemed odd to cover herself up when they'd already been naked in the same room, but it made her feel more human. After the romp she'd just been through, anything that enhanced her humanity was to be embraced.

When Ari left the bathroom, she left the light on because the rest of the house was dark. She hadn't noticed when they first arrived home; her canidae night vision had lingered along with her sense of smell and the telepathy. The silence of the house, combined with the darkness, alerted her to the fact that the shower had helped settle her more completely in the correct form.

She went into the living room, pausing by the roll-top desk. She turned on a lamp and saw a leather-bound book sitting on top of the blotter. She flipped it open, letting it fall naturally to a page, and she saw that Sadie had been writing while she and Beck were cleaning up. The page was topped with the day's date. She had quickly gone over the details of their heist. A postscript near the bottom of the page said "Wolf worked out well. Pending approval from V."

Ari was about to close it when a fragment caught her eye. Sadie had noted the stats of the robbery, from how long it took inside the store to the amount of time they'd spent frolicking in the dog park. Already it felt more like a dream than something Ari had actually done. At the bottom, she'd written: V's Take and Actual Take. Actual Take was filled in with an estimate of approximately six thousand dollars worth of merchandise.

Assuming V was the Vicki Pen had accidentally mentioned, Ari figured she was in charge of the operation. The only reason her take would be different from the actual take would be if Sadie and the others were skimming. She made a mental note about the book and let it fall closed, turning off the lamp and casting herself back into darkness.

"Sadie? Beck?"

"Up here."

Ari glanced toward the stairs. She hesitated for only a moment before she started up. She would just tell them she'd had a great time, which was the truth, and then head home. There was only one open room on the second floor, and a lamp was burning inside. Ari knocked on the doorframe before she stepped inside. It was a bedroom, with a large queen-sized bed in the center of the space. Beck was facedown and naked on the mattress, chin resting on her crossed arms, and Sadie was straddling her waist to massage her shoulders. Sadie was also naked, her pink nipples standing proudly erect on her small breasts.

Beck opened her eyes and smiled sleepily. "Hey, wolfie."

"I, uh... was going to get going."

"Are you sure?" Sadie didn't interrupt the rubdown, nor did she look up. "We have plenty of space here."

Here in the house, or in that bed in particular? She cleared her throat. "Ah..."

"Rebecca tends to get pretty sore after she's spent a few hours as a dog. So we help each other out. How about you, Ari? How are your muscles?"

Tight, achy, sore, twitchy. She hadn't had a good post-transformation massage since Dale and Natalie started going out. The idea of getting one now made her muscles practically scream with desire.

"Come on,