Is This Man a Wolf

Tuesday howls and yowls, shapeshifter lovers.

Autumn is here, and Halloween is already weaving around me like a spider’s web. Can you feel it?

Gosh, I bit off far more than I can chew with this Flash Scene. Which happens way too often. Still, here ya go... and apologies for the lack of a good ending point. It's way past bedtime.
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Is This Man a Wolf

“Is this man a wolf?” Bregha dramatically placed the centerfold picture of a nearly naked, somewhat hairy man with cockiness written all over his face, beneath Kazni’s gaze.

Gingerly taking hold of what had been called a magazine approximately sixty years ago, Kazni demanded, “Did you take this from the museum?” She frowned at her younger sister, “Without authorization?”

The mutinous set of Bregha’s jaw, and the defiant spark in her eye, answered Kazni’s question. She sighed loudly, exasperation boiling inside her.

“One of these days you’re going to get into serious trouble, Bregha. I know you enjoy your position there. Why jeopardize it?”

“I’ll return it... undamaged. That’s all Jaeve cares about. Besides, he won’t rat me out.” With a careless shrug, Bregha pivoted beside her. “What do you think? A wolf shapeshifter?”

“I think he looks more like a bear shapeshifter. His eyes aren’t exactly wolfish in shape... not like...” Kazni shoved away the memory that was so intense, she could recall it easily, then relive the scene as though it was happening all over again.

“His face does look more round.” Bregha leaned down for a closer look. “More cuddly like a bear cub.”

“He’s on a bear rug, and I bet it’s real. That could be a clue.” After studying the antique photograph for several moments longer, Kazni looked at the magazine’s front cover. “Cosmopolitan. April 1972. Burt Reynolds,” she read out loud.

“He’s an actor. I don’t think he ever played the role of a werewolf, though. At least, I didn’t find anything in the archives. I did find him compared to a wolf as in chasing after a lot of women,” Bregha triumphantly stated.

Kazni carefully closed the magazine, which seemed to have held up well, and handed it back to her sister. “It’s back to my original plan.”

Hugging herself to stop her sudden shivers, Kazni knew she should have halted her words. But, she was used to confiding in Bregha. It had been that way between them since childhood.

Bregha deftly slipped the magazine inside a preservation wrapper, then whirled, facing Kazni. “You can’t. That’s sheer madness. You know it is. You have no idea where you’ll end up.”

There was no point in arguing. Her sister was right, and they’d already talked it death. “I have to know.”

The image of the dark gray wolf with silvery markings on his face, chest and legs overwhelmed her mind’s eye, and once again, Kazni watched him suddenly bound through the time vortex, and begin his gradual transformation.

She’d been at her station inside the protective booth, monitoring the tunnel’s frequency as usual, and waiting for a team of chrononauts to return as scheduled.

As the wolf morphed into a man, she’d been frozen with shock -- unable to move to save her soul. He stared at her the whole time, his eyes blazing feral at first, then becoming a golden-hued dark color.

The image of his naked body, which looked like it had been sculpted out of brown-gold granite, haunted Kazni. Worse, whenever she was alone, she flushed with a desire that threatened to drive her crazy. Way too often she fantasized about being with him -- wild erotic scenes.

When Kazni pondered on what occurred, it was as though he’d known her. Recognition glinted in the depths of his eyes in those few moments, before he’d swiftly turned and leaped into the swirling gray vortex.

Oh, she’d done the very sensible thing, researching meticulously until she’d unearthed every fact -- every legend and myth she could discover about shapeshifters, about wolves. In the end, it hadn’t been enough.

Now her curiosity was a ravenous beast devouring her insides, one painful bite at a time.

“I have to know,” Kazni repeated.

She and her sister regarded each other, the silence stretching between them.

“If you go, you better come back.” There was no compromise in Bregha’s voice, nor in her steady gaze.

“I have the box programmed, and ready.”

With an uttered cry, Bregha grabbed Kazni hugging her hard. “Be careful,” she whispered.

***

By rote, Kazni performed her duties at the time travel center. With her shift about to end, and no chrononauts expected, she dialed the frequency coordinates she’d memorized that night.

No one had ever questioned her about the wolf turned to man, because the event hadn’t been recorded. Why was a complete mystery to Kazni, and she sure as all-hellfire-loosed wasn’t going to do a holo report on it. That would have gotten her dismissed due to mental instability.

As soon as she could accomplish it without detection, Kazni had done a search of the wolf shapeshifter’s time period and location. She found the month and year, September 2011, but not the precise location, only knowing it was on the American continent in the northern latitudes.

After initiating the final phase of the singularity vortex, Kazni shut down the power to her booth, and walked toward the tunnel’s aurora-shimmering entrance. With her stomach roiling at the thought of the unknown, and her emotions spinning like a whirlpool, Kazni firmed her chin. She’d made her decision.

After a final check of her black box, Kazni flung herself inside. Her nerves screamed, and it felt as though her molecules expanded to twice their size. It was why she’d never qualified to become a chrononaut. Her body betrayed her every time.

Focusing despite the searing pinpricks of pain, she prepared herself to land. Her boots hit solid ground. The smell of pine swamped her even as she glanced at the box, memorizing the series of numbers and symbols.

Kazni gripped her phaser. Ready to fire, she looked around slowly, deliberately. By the slant of the light through the forest, it was late afternoon. With no civilization in sight, she scanned for a trail of some kind.

“Hello, beautiful.”

Kazni spun around, her heart racing at triple speed. There he was, her wolf shapeshifter, a cocky expression on his ruggedly handsome face.

With careless grace, he leaned against a tree trunk -- one that was thicker than his overly broad shoulders. He didn’t move, but observed her intently, his arms loosely folded.

Not seeing a weapon of any kind, Kazni eased her stance, and took him in. Russet brown in color, his long, wildly shaggy hair lifted in the breeze, and she saw the silvery highlights.

“Do I know you?” she asked in the English of the time period.

“You will, my woman from the future.” In slow motion, he straightened away from the tree, then approached her. “I am Deerchaser, leader of the White River Pack. I am called Chaser. Much easier on the tongue, don’t you think?”

Fear didn’t course through Kazni, yet she remained wary, reaching for her phaser again. “What do you want with me?”

“What every man wants from his mate.” He halted a good fifteen feet from her, his intense gaze fastened on her face.

“I don’t understand. Not any of this.”

“I am a time traveler from the antediluvian age, Kazni. We escaped here before the start of the intergalactic wars.”

Sparks of light flashed inside her head -- so it seemed -- and Kazni remembered. “I do know you. Not personally. I know about you. Your lost tribe.”

“You weren’t aware, Kazni, but I first saw you, scented you at the Conference of Temporal Ambassadors.”

“You attended? When?”

“Winter Solstice, 2061. You wore a diaphanous lavender gown at the final evening festivity. I dream about you in that gown.” His gaze hungrily roved over her face for long moments. “I dream of what I want to do to you, the pleasures I want to give you.”

Shaken to her core, Kazni couldn’t deny the truth of his words. Nor would she try. Uncertain what to do next, she took a step back. Given her head dizzily whirled with apprehension, and she suspected, also with desire, she tried to take deep breaths.

After all, she’d time-traveled here of her own volition. She’d wanted to know, to understand. “Why are you a wolf?” she forced out, her voice reed-thin.

A grin split his face, and sparkled his golden-dark eyes. “Why aren’t you a wolf?” he asked in a light, teasing tone.

The next instant, he’d crushed her tight against him -- so tight she couldn’t use her phaser, and her lungs lost most of their air. “Time to leave,” he growled in a whisper. “The enemy is here.”

“Oh god no,” burst from her lips, as Kazni heard the squealing hum of a dozen Graqueb fighter craft. “We’re dead.”

“I would never allow that, beautiful Kazni. We’ll be safe soon. The Pleasure Club is a mere half a mile away, and my underground tunnel is half that.”

Before she knew it, Kazni had been slung across his shoulders. Effortlessly, he ran back the way he’d come. The hum of the Graqueb fighter fleet sharpened as they entered the underground passageway. Sonic-boom bombs pounded against the ground on top of them, but remained harmless.

Then, there was nothing. The attack had ended. Yet, Chaser didn’t lessen his pace, and Kazni became lightheaded. With the affect of the vortex still working on her system, Kazni slipped into unconsciousness. But, not before she recalled his words and wondered if the Pleasure Club was a place that catered to sexual pleasures. She hoped so.
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Have a Magickal Shapeshifting Week!

Savanna

Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance ~
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