Here’s the third and final excerpt from A Wolf In Girl’s Clothing, this time from chapter 31:
A grey Audi pulls into our driveway, and my cousin Evan Saunders opens the rear door on the driver’s side. I haven’t seen him in ages, but that’s because his parents blamed me for us becoming play cousins. I wasn’t solely responsible, though. It was a mutual agreement to be bad.
Age hasn’t changed him much, maybe adding some extra flare to his jaw. But he’s still got the same narrow chin, slim nose, and thin lips. Something about the shape of his round brown eyes is different, though I can’t say what it is. He’s let his brown hair grow out long and wavy, covering his ears, forehead, and most of his neck. He’s also growing some facial hair, but the wispy fluff on his upper lip and chin don’t qualify as a proper moustache and goatee.
Evan looks a lot taller, but he’s got the family’s thin frame. If his folks had enrolled him at Uncle John’s gym, he would have fit in. He’s got to be in some kind of sport, because his thighs stretch out the legs of his jeans. But his black T-shirt, emblazoned with a logo for Metallica, is baggy and makes it harder to assess his upper body.
I jump up and start across the yard. “Evan!”
He leaves the rear door open, and a huge German shepherd clambers out next. The dog takes one whiff of me and lunges, slamming me to the ground. I don’t have time to react before the bastard bites into my shoulder, and I lose control to my wolf. I growl and snap at the dog, but he pulls away from my attempt to get a lock on the side of his neck. Then he bites into my upper arm and starts rocking his head like he’s trying to rip it off.
Under my pained howl, I hear my aunt and uncle shouting at Evan to do something, and my cousin tries to pull the dog off by putting him in a headlock. I’m only dimly aware of his efforts, and my next attempt to bite the dog catches his forearm instead.
Evan yanks his arm back with a pained yell, so I forget about him and curl up to try and bite the dog again.
The dog gets lifted up and off of me by Robbie, and I try to sit up, already planning to maul the bastard as soon as Robbie sets him down.
Dad drops over me and pins my arms, his voice a strained hiss. “Alice, calm down.”
“I’m going to kill him,” I growl. “Fucking mutt bit me.”
“I can see that, but you’ve got to calm down.”
Somewhere over my head, my Aunt Sheila says, “Evan, you’re bleeding.”
“Alice bit me!” Evan says. “I was trying to get the dog off, and she snapped at my arm!”
“Oh hell.” Dad shakes me when I growl. “Snap out of it already!”
Little by little, the wolf lets go, and I regain control of myself and go still. Then it dawns on me what I’ve done.
Uncle Don says, “Did she have a flashback when Rex attacked her?”
“No, she didn’t have a flashback.” Dad scowls at me. “Are you in control now?”
“Yes.”
Dad lets go of my arms and peels back my shirt to look at my shoulder. He makes a grimacing face. “Hell…Don, you should have called ahead to tell us you got a dog.”
“I didn’t think he’d be a problem,” Uncle Don says, and Dad gives him a dirty look. “But yeah, this is a problem.”
“You have no idea how big of a problem.” Dad gets up and walks to Evan, taking his arm before he blows out a loud hissing breath. “But you’re going to find out.”
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I hope you’ve enjoyed these excerpts, and remember that you can also sample the first chapters free on Amazon. Thanks very much for reading my stuff.