Cry Wolf by Aurelia T. Evans Page B

of having something to say.” She kissed his forehead gently. “That was a bit of a lecture, wasn’t it?”
    “Just a little.”
    “I told the others to stop tiptoeing around you,” Kelly said. “So if you still smell pity on them, only you can clean that scent away by showing them a Malcolm that doesn’t need to be pitied.”
    “It might be a lecture, but you have a way of making it very inspiring. Maybe it’s the sun rising behind you,” Malcolm said. “But when I’m among them, I won’t be as inspired.”
    He glanced down, contemplating. She could practically see the gears in his brain turning as he mulled over everything—both his quicksand thoughts and the potential paths that Kelly presented to him.
    “You’ll be there?” Malcolm asked, his eyes meeting hers.
    “Yes.”
    “And if you think I’m going to do something, you’ll stop me.”
    “I’ll kill you myself if I have to,” Kelly promised. “But I doubt it will come to that.”
    Malcolm raised his eyebrows but replied, “Actually, I find that comforting. All right.”
    * * * *
    Malcolm went into the shapeshifter barn first and headed for the clothes bins. He had been wearing just the one pair of jeans ever since he’d been turned. On full moons he’d removed them, but last night Kelly had caught him by surprise, and the transformation had ruined the pair. Nudity wasn’t out of the ordinary in the sanctuary—after all, they were just bodies, and no one tried to clothe the dogs in spite of the fact that they walked around naked as well. But it was less common in the winter months, and Malcolm preferred clothes, at least a pair of pants.
    Kelly followed him in wearing her robe that she’d grabbed from her trailer on the way back. She nodded to Ki. It hurt Kelly that Ki was hurt watching her follow Malcolm in. But Kelly couldn’t help her with that—she only hoped that Ki would refocus her attention not on what Kelly might have done with Malcolm, but on what he had just accomplished. He hadn’t been in the shapeshifter barn for what seemed like ages.
    “I’d add some sausage to the mix,” Kelly said to Ki. “A lot of it.
    Ki visibly tried not to ask, but she couldn’t help it. “What did you do last night?”
    “We ran,” Kelly replied.
    “Malcolm used to like running the dogs,” Ki said, masking her relief well, which made Kelly feel worse about what she hadn’t said.
    “Malcolm can hear you,” he said, coming up behind Ki a little stiffly. “No need to talk about him as though he’s dead.”
    Ki almost started to apologise, but Kelly nudged her. Ki took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.
    “No, he’s not, but he can be a bit of an asshole,” Ki said. “Go sit down. It was going to be an eggy morning, but sausage shouldn’t put me out.”
    Malcolm’s nostrils flared and his lips thinned. Ki flinched, interpreting it as anger, but Kelly knew it was just Malcolm reacting both to Ki’s scent and to the promise of sausage.
    “Thanks,” he said.
    Kelly touched his arm and said, “Breathe normally. It’ll start getting bearable if you face it. It’s not like you can hold your breath through the entire breakfast, you know.”
    Malcolm nodded. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, then another and another, before he sat down at the table.
    “It’s going to take some time,” Kelly said to Ki, patting her shoulder. “He’s not mad at you. He’s hungry.”
    Ki took out a pot for the sausage. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “It’ll be ready in a little while. Think I can eat with him?”
    Kelly smiled. “In fact, I encourage it.”
    * * * *
    Meals had been the first step. Malcolm still wasn’t comfortable being around the dogs. His scent was different than it used to be, but there were aspects similar enough to his old scent that made the dogs act confused and wary—just as they were with Kelly—rather than frightened or aggressive.
    However, now that he hung around the shapeshifter barn