Animal Nature

Chapter 35

Heath crouched, a deep rumble coming from his throat. It was no match for the wolf at the other end of the hallway. The new wolf's throaty growl escalated into a vicious snarl.

Shy lifted the gun and backed up further. She didn't know if she should just shoot both wolves, or let them fight each other. She'd thought the other wolf might be the man that had been bitten earlier this week.

Could this new wolf be David?

She couldn't afford to be wrong.

If she shot and missed, both wolves might team up on her. The gunshot might remind them that she was here. She wanted to run to the end of the hallway and head down the other set of stairs, but she couldn't lead two angry werewolves through the school. She knew she couldn't run that fast, and there'd be too many potential victims along the way.

Her original plan had been to talk to David first, and try to convince him to take the wolfsbane cure she had concocted. The weapons were the backup plan. But Heath didn't seem to want to talk, and if David was in wolf form, he probably wouldn't want to talk either, not if transforming back into a human was as painful as it looked.

The gun in her hand shook.

As Heath faced off against the wolf, Shy realized that Heath didn't stand a chance if he didn't turn into a wolf, too. He was naked, and had no weapon. He couldn't fight off a wolf. Or could he? Werewolves had enhanced strength, but Shy didn't know if that power stayed when the werewolf was human. She huffed in frustration. If only she'd had time to do some experiments with David first! She didn't even know if the man who was bitten on Tuesday could have turned full wolf in three days. David had disappeared for almost a week after he'd been bitten, and it had been almost two weeks since Heath had been scratched.

She had another horrifying thought: what if the other wolf was the one who had bitten David to begin with? An alpha male, who had possibly killed David and was now tracking down all the wolves he had accidentally made.

Between Heath and the wolf, however, the wolf was more dangerous to Shyanne, too. She could shoot the wolf, then shoot Heath.

Her palms were sweating on the gun handle. If the wolf was David, he would be her only chance to fight Heath off. Heath had very nearly gotten her, despite her weapons.

Stupid costume...

The wolf lunged at Heath, who threw up his hands to fend off the attack. The creature's fangs gouged Heath's forearm, and tang of blood filled the hallway. The wolf lunged again and again, pushing Heath back, driving Shyanne back, too. Heath was snarling, his eyes nearly black, like he wanted to transform but couldn't leave himself vulnerable.

The wolf was going to kill him regardless, and Heath's back was a wide target.

It was inhumane to let an animal suffer...

She licked her lips, and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot nearly took out her hearing – Billy had insisted she wear earplugs during their shooting practice. Thanks to those lessons, however, Shy managed to hit the center of Heath's back. He was only a few feet away, after all. The wound didn't look all that big, though. Just a small little bullet hole.

To her horror, Heath slowly turned to look at her.

His chest was a mess of exploded tissue and bone. Shy's mouth dropped open in horror. He looked down at himself, swaying.

Then he fell to the ground, and Shy had to face the horror behind him.

The wolf had blood on its muzzle, and had lowered its head. Shy steadied the gun with her other hand and squared off her stance again. Then she realized the blood was only from the blowback: the wolf had been directly in front of Heath when she'd shot him.

The wolf advanced on her.

Yet she couldn't pull the trigger.

"David?" she asked, one last time.

The wolf stopped and shuddered.

But she didn't need to wait for him to transform to know. With Heath's scent drifting away, she could smell the wolf more clearly, and he smelled of pine and musk – unmistakably her David.

She dropped the gun and ran to him.