Moon Glamour by Aimee Easterling (books to read to be successful TXT) 📕

Because the security guard was coming back through the outside door just as we reached the cracked opening of the inner door. His eyes were trained on the bank of monitors, not noticing that we were mere feet away.

The external door was slowly sliding shut behind him. If we were fast, Tank and I could make it out before it clicked shut and required a shift to humanity to reopen.

But the guard blocked the exit. The room was too small to be sure we could rush past him. And I was wearing the collar I’d used to stash my tools in. A collar that would be easy to grab....

Tank leapt at the guard before I could decide on the best course of action. His scent was perfectly calm, yet he snapped and snarled like a wild animal. One bite that didn’t quite connect. A bone-chilling growl. Then he’d slid past the guard and into the night.

He meant to clear the way for me. I knew that. After all, any normal rent-a-cop would have been traumatized by Tank’s behavior. Would have backpedalled and provided me with an easy escape.

But this security guard was a dog person. He wasn’t traumatized and his eyes were keen. “What’s in your mouth?” he demanded, lunging for me.

I tried to sidestep, but I wasn’t quite fast enough. The guard caught my right hind leg just as I made it to the exterior door.

Chapter 10

I wasn’t about to drop the bracer, which meant I couldn’t bite the hand that held me. But I could kick backwards for all I was worth. Maybe my toenails would catch on the guard’s skin....

No dice. The foot he wasn’t holding skittered off his clothing. The guard swore and clenched down tighter on my other leg.

The door pressed against my shoulder as I was dragged inexorably back into the guard house. A wild glance in the opposite direction proved that Tank was too far away to stop the inevitable. Within seconds, I’d be locked behind a door that required a keycard to open. I’d lose the bracer and be captured in my lupine skin.

No. Wasn’t happening.

I twisted, ignoring the pain in my stuck ankle and the strain down my side that felt like the worst sort of power yoga. Lashing out with my right front paw, I scratched at the guard’s face, careful to steer clear of his eyeballs.

And this time, he reacted. His hand twisted against my ankle, pain and instinct working against his impulse to be kind to furry critters. A sharp spike of agony ran up my hind leg. Despite myself, I yelped.

The yelp, not the scratch, is what made the guard let go. He was a dog lover at heart and he knew he’d hurt me. His formerly unbendable fingers sprang away as if my leg had turned into a hot poker...

...And I accepted the reprieve. Squirmed out the gap between door and frame, glad that I had four legs so running was feasible despite the throbbing in my right rear appendage....

I was ten feet from the door when something furry brushed past me in the opposite direction. Tank. Darting between our pursuer’s legs and tangling him up. Or so I assumed from the burst of expletives and the thud behind my back.

Tank hadn’t left me. Even when my injury turned me into a liability. My lungs expanded, something fierce and joyful pushing my legs faster.

Unfortunately, the guard was equally tenacious. Tank caught up to me within seconds, but human footsteps weren’t far behind us. And unlike Tank, I couldn’t outrun our pursuer. Not when I was hobbling on three paws, biting back each jolt of pain when I skipped the fourth.

It was all I could do to follow Tank’s tail as he led me to a hole in an old wooden fence. As if he’d scouted out a human-proof escape plan before joining me. My own plan was fuzzy beneath the pain of my ankle. All I could focus on was Tank, waiting solid as a stone.

This time, I didn’t even consider distrusting him. Instead, I shimmied through the gap. Followed as Tank once again took the lead and guided me down a path I was unfamiliar with.

Behind parked cars. Down dark alleys. I could neither see nor smell the guard now. We’d left him far behind.

Only then did I realize we were traveling in the wrong direction. Away from the safety of my apartment rather than toward it. Still, I didn’t curve toward my original destination as Tank skittered down a steep slope into a pool of pure darkness. Instead, I followed, my paws splashing into slowly moving water. In front of me, Tank had finally stopped.

I did too, panting hard and trying to ignore the throb of my injured ankle that made my teeth ache. Tentatively, I dropped that paw down to join its fellows. Frigid liquid soaking through dirty fur felt unbelievably good.

As I recovered my equilibrium, I remembered the spot we were in from earlier scouting. The stream where I soaked my sore paws rose to the surface for half a block before being channeled back beneath streets and residences. It wasn’t a park. Just a forgotten corner of wild land.

No one came here in daylight. In the dark, it was bound to be empty. Safe enough to risk shifting into humanity.

Safe...other than my lupine companion. Still, ignoring the shiver of bad experiences with other male werewolves, I sucked in courage and shifted up.

COLD AIR STRUCK HUMAN skin as fur receded. I shivered. Spat the bracer into one hand, slapped it onto my opposite wrist for safekeeping...then fought for balance as my injured ankle collapsed beneath my weight.

Broad hands caught my shoulders before I fell. For an instant, they burned heady awareness into me. Then exhaustion and pain beat out attraction.

And it was as if Tank could smell my mood. His fingers stayed far from erogenous zones as he growled