all the sincerity he could muster.
She gave him a skeptical look.“If you say so. I wouldn’t know would I?” She sat back, increasing the distance between them and crossed her arms. “So now what?”
Tao shrugged as he stood, not wanting to crowd her. “You change.” And , he added to himself, I make sure my brother never touches you.
Chapter Four
“Excuse me,” Audrey said to Tao, her mind reeling faster than a tilt-a-whirl ride from everything the big man had just told her. “I want to check something.” She ran into the kitchen to get her phone. She had to look at a calendar. Had to know how much time she had before the next full moon.
Her mind raced as she went. Werewolves? No way. It was crazy, but Tao knew things about her that she couldn’t deny. She grabbed her phone out of its charging station on the kitchen counter and paged through the calendar app she used, looking for the moon phases.
Thumbing through her calendar, she returned to the living room where Tao stood, tall and as wide as a wall, a patient expression on his face. Even with her eyes on the phone, Audrey couldn’t help but be aware of his presence.
One, he was enormous, his sheer size made him impossible to ignore. His head came just a few inches from brushing her ceiling and his broad chest featured sculpted muscles. The man was larger than life, so big he made Audrey feel small despite her own substantial size. Two, he was just as gorgeous as his wolf. Audrey found the combination of jet black hair and blue eyes to be especially alluring, even if everything he said was crazy talk.
Werewolves did not exist.
Did they?
She cleared her throat and focused on the screen of her phone. “The next full moon is less than a week away,” Audrey looked up at him with a frown, “you were a wolf last night, what gives?”
He shrugged his massive shoulders.“The first change is with a full moon. After that it’s at will, although there are weaker wolves who have a hard time unless the moon’s full.”
“Oh. Okay.” She processed that for a moment and then changed the subject. “I’m going to make coffee, you want some?” Maybe with enough caffeine, she would wake up from this dream.
Tao nodded. “Coffee sounds great, thanks.” Looking to her phone, he asked, “You mind if I make a call?”
“Sure.” She handed him the slim smartphone. “I guess werewolves don’t have pockets to carry stuff, huh?”
“No, we don’t.” He nodded to the glass sliding doors in her dining room that led to a small patio in her backyard. “I’m going to step outside, get some fresh air.”
***
Outside, Tao took a minute to collect his thoughts. The sun was brighter now and he could smell the dew in the grass. He scanned the perimeter of the backyard, automatically checking for prey or danger.
Audrey had taken the news as well as could be expected. Although he suspected she didn’t quite believe him, but rather was playing along with him. Either way, he was happy to have her cooperation.
He took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh scent of grass slowly being warmed by the rising sun. What he didn’t smell was Nick, which was a relief. He needed a reprieve after their last run-in.
Tao closed his eyes and flashed back to that night. In wolf form, he’d tracked Nick to a small den in the woods. They’d shifted into their human skins and argued. Loudly. Violently. Tao winced, remembering the feel of pine bark scraping his back as his brother threw him into a tree.
“Stop. This is madness,” he’d growled at Nick.
“It’s not madness, brother. It’s my destiny.” Nick’s eyes gleamed in the moonlight, glittering like hard, soulless diamonds. “I have the bite of the wolf and I will not deny my gifts.”
“The pack doesn’t want you to do this.” Tao grabbed Nick by the shoulders and shook him. “We don’t want made wolves, to rip humans away from their lives or their families.”
“They didn’t want wolf born pups either,