Ulric watched Alex run across the meadow.
If he’d set off right away, he knew he could have reached her before the man threw her over his shoulder and made her disappear, but with the jungle ending so abruptly, he’d hesitated. Afraid the moon would change him, again, and she would see what he had become.
He paused, staring up at the sky. It was filled with birds, but he could still feel the white orb call to his body with a seductive hum.
I might be a prisoner to the moon’s moods and cravings, but I can make it across without turning. I’m sure of it.
The fact that he’d lost sight of Alex was driving him insane.
He lifted his nose and could still smell her sweet tang. She was nearby-somehow, somewhere. Alex was here but unseen. No matter what it took, no matter what hideous thing he’d become, he was determined to get her attention. His humanity might be dangling from a slippery slope, but all the memories worth holding onto revolved around her. Using Alex as an anchor might prove to be his saving grace. He was sure of it.
The leather choker was too small to fit around his neck, so he wrapped it around his hand. He couldn’t wait to give it back to her and was determined to find the bracelet, too. She thought the bracelet was just a piece of jewelry, but it was a lot more. When she’d left his quarters, he’d uploaded a surprise onto the tiny microchip embedded inside it. Something that would ensure she lived a long and prosperous life without having to struggle to raise credits from the pathetic courier job he despised.
He’d meant it when he told her he hated her having to spend time out in space, struggling to make a living.
Ulric would change her economic status, and she’d have no choice but to love him for it.
He took a deep breath and raced ahead. His legs might still be human at the moment, but they were more powerful than before. It only took ten strides before he felt something foreign push against him.
The birds squawked, descending from the sky at the same time, causing the moonlight to filter through.
He collapsed to his hands and knees, the fur already rushing over his skin.
After several breaths, he realized that not only had he changed into a furry animal, but he was staring at a garden. The dark clearing was instantly replaced by a garden now rolling out into a maze of concrete, grass, and flowers.
He looked over his shoulder. The lower half of his body remained on the other side of a tall, concrete wall that had sprung up out of nowhere, and if he didn’t move, there would soon be too many birds to fight.
This didn’t make any sense, but he could smell Alex.
This is where she’d disappeared to.
He crawled forward, following her scent, until the savage rumble of his stomach consumed all his other thoughts. The delicious smell of ripe flesh pushed everything else from his mind. For a second, he couldn’t even remember who Alex was.
The only thing that mattered was satisfying the hunger twisting his gut, as the sharp presence of the moonlight urged him forward.