“But I thought you didn’t think I’d show up.”
He gave me a wry smile. “Well, I wouldn’t have put money on it.”
I plopped
down at a raised cocktail table and pulled out a silver flask. Jaxson examined the potion and gave an appreciative grunt. “I’m impressed.”
“I’m easy to underestimate. It’s my compliant demeanor.”
He actually chuckled at that. A little sunlight, peeking through.
“I’m guessing your people didn’t catch those werewolves last night,” I said.
The sunlight vanished. “No. They outran Sam and Regina in their wolf form. That shouldn’t be possible.”
“I told you they could go fast. They ran down my car on the open road. It was insane. I was assuming you all could do that.”
He gave a low growl. “I might be able to catch your car, but they were even faster. They must be using some form of magic to boost their abilities. Or drugs. It might explain those red eyes—they’re not typical, either.”
I glanced at Jaxson’s hands—hands I’d seen erupt into claws the night before.
“So how does it work?” I ventured.
“How does what work?”
I awkwardly twirled my hair, not quite sure what to say. “Shifting. I hadn’t really seen it happen before last night. Sam—her body twisted and contorted, and her clothes just ripped to shreds like she had just Hulked out. It was crazy. Then she was a wolf and running. Is that what happens? I thought I could hear bones…”
Jaxson fixed me with a steady glare. “For some of us, yes. We change physically. Our bones shrink and snap, our claws and fangs erupt, and our bodies transform.”
I shuddered, and his expression darkened. “Seems painful.”
“Yes,” he growled. “But it’s also a release. Pain that’s close to pleasure.”
My breath hitched, and I flushed. “But not for all of you?”
He sighed. “No. Some shifters transform into their animal forms through magic, clothes and all. The rest of us transform physically. We’re called wolfborn. It’s what I am.”
I imagined Jaxson’s clothes ripping away, revealing a snarling, savage monster. My pulse quickened as fear trickled through me—fear and the faintest hint of…lust?
Was I insane?
In my defense, it was rather easy to imagine what lay beneath Jaxson’s shirt. The buttons were practically ripping off already. Did he have to wear rip-away stripper pants? That would be a view.
Jaxson’s nostrils flared.
Suddenly embarrassed, I bit my lip and flushed. It wasn’t like he could read my mind, but still, I pushed the conversation forward. “Sam and that other woman, they were wolfborn then?”
“Regina. Yes.”
My brain spun and memories of the Taphouse flooded into my mind, killing whatever erotic thoughts had been lurking in the corners of my clearly disturbed head. “As was the man I ran over?”
Jaxson crossed his arms. “Yes. He was wolfborn, too. We turn back into wolves when we die. That’s why it was so important you could draw his tattoos. We couldn’t see them on the body.”
I nodded slowly. Things were beginning to make a little more sense.
Jaxson placed a photo on the table and tapped it. “Lucky for us, the Oldsmobile driver from last night was a shifter. That means he stayed in human form at death. Note the two-headed wolf tattoo on his neck.”
I briefly glanced at the bloody, burnt body in the photo and looked away, stomach churning. “Just like the others. What does it mean?”