20 Take You Home (1/2)

”Tell me and I'll kiss you,” Ash said.

Hunter tugged at her hands and inched his face closer to hers, smiling playfully.

”I'll tell you everything and then I'll kiss you,” he said, challenging her.

Ash pushed her cheek against his, avoiding his lips. And then she whispered in his ear,

”Tell me everything and I might let you.”

Hunter liked the game she was playing. He didn't know the rules yet, but he was willing to find out.

”Okay, deal,” he said, smiling, into her ear.

Ash didn't pull back. She stayed where she was and rubbed her cheek against his.

”Go on. Tell me,” she said.

Hunter swallowed. The contact was making him feel unbearably warm inside. He wanted so badly to just kiss her and drown in the warmth.

”You ran away from me, in your werewolf form, and then you fell. I didn't see you, but I knew you weren't far away. So I looked around a bit and tried to see what you were running away from. But it was just me.

”I went to a tree and saw your clothes there. You must have shifted at the tree and then gone to hunt the deer. I didn't see anything else, so I went back to the deer and I ate it. And then I went up to you and you were on the ground. You were a human again.”

Ash pulled her cheek away from his face and looked into his eyes.

”My clothes were at the tree? So when you saw me again, I was naked?”

” . . . Yes. You weren't wearing anything.”

”You saw me NAKED.”

”Yes.”

Ash fell back and sat on her heels. She let go of Hunter's hands. She put her hands up, palms facing forward, signaling Hunter not to touch her.

Just like that, the game was over.

Hunter paused and tried again.

”It's normal, ba---Boots,” he said, catching himself just before he called her ”babe” again.

[Damn it. I almost called her ”babe” again. Can't have her punching me in the face twice in one night. I'll be breathing through a tube at this rate.]

”You must have wrecked your uniform when you shifted, that's why it was at the tree. And when you went back into human form you weren't wearing leathers, so you came out . . . you know . . . without clothes on.”

”So that's what the leather is for? For the shifting?”

Ash eyed Hunter's crumpled leather vest on the floor. Hunter followed her gaze to his vest and he reached over to pick it up. He held the vest up in front of her.

”Yeah, it's organic leather. It's all one piece and sown together with organic leather thread. It's custom-made for me.

”Organic leather is the only thing we can shift in and out of. The leather works with the werewolf skin and just sort of melts in to it and sort of turns into part of the skin. Everything else we've tried just rips apart. Organic cotton kinda works too, but only a little bit. It's tricky, so we just stick to the leather, even if if the material doesn't really breathe.

”I know it looks like a fetish outfit, but that's the best we've come up with so far. The alternative is just stripping down and going naked. Which is actually kind of fun, but it isn't great for when you're out in the world. The exposure alone could kill you.”

”We? Who's 'we'? Are there others like us?” Ash asked eagerly.

He was still holding the vest up, so she couldn't see his eyes as he talked. Ash put her hands over his hands, pushing them down to lower the garment he held up between them.