Page 105 of Hoofin’ It

“The CDC?” Dad snarled the question and dug his claws into the sidewalk. The cops flinched at the sound of stone breaking due to the abuse of an angry werewolf. “Why the CDC?”

“They’ll treat him better.” Pierina leveled a glare at the nearby cops. “These fools wouldn’t care if he lost his other eye due to their negligence. Nor would they care about you, despite your record as cops of good standing within your department. Racist, elitist wastes of good blood and air.”

I lifted my head and gaped at the vampire, stunned she’d said what I’d thought on more than one occasion.

Dad snarled and stood over me and Mom, growling with every breath. “We have a word for cops like those where we’re from.”

If Dad lost his temper and went for the cops, the cops might survive—maybe. I wiggled free of Mom’s hold on me, climbed onto her back, and jumped on my father’s chest, digging my paws into his fur and clinging to him, squeaking rebukes at him for a crime he hadn’t committed—yet. He straightened, plucking me off him and holding me at eye level. “Don’t you lecture me, you scrawny pipsqueak!”

I yipped at him to make it clear he wasn’t my boss and paddled my paws trying to swat his nose. When that didn’t do the trick, I sucked in a deep breath and made the loudest, shrillest noise I could.

Flattening his ears, Dad glared at me. “What’s your problem, pup?”

“He probably doesn’t want you ripping his former co-workers to shreds, no matter how much they might deserve it for their lack of loyalty,” Ernesto’s daughter contributed.

I really needed to have a long talk with her about fanning the flames because she thought it was fun watching people lose their tempers. Since she was turning two sets of cops against each other, she was probably having the time of her life. Sighing, I hung my head and groaned.

“He’s probably eager to check on his lady friend. He’s very fond of her—fond enough to wear a suit for her.” Pierina pouted. “He never wears suits for me.”

“We need to ask him questions,” one of the cops blurted.

Dad turned me around and held me out, keeping a firm grip on me from behind, the tips of his claws pressing against my belly. “Ask.”

“As a human.”

“Well, start talking, then. Do you know how to get him to shift back? I do not. I am a lycanthrope. He is not.”

When Dad started talking at his most formal in his hybrid shape, it meant one of two things: he really liked the person he was talking to, or he was holding onto his temper by the barest of threads. Were the cops trying to provoke him into leaving a trail of cop bodies? If so, they were close to succeeding.

“I thought—”

“You thought what? That he should somehow magically know how to shift back? Your ignorance is showing. Did you come out of the womb knowing how to fire a gun? No. Were you born capable of walking? No. The only shifter I know of around here you ordered off to the hospital, which is where I will be taking my son. I do not recommend getting in my way. You will not enjoy the consequences.” Dad tucked me close to his chest and growled. “Read up on your species exemption laws. They’re in the Federal code, in case you haven’t done your reading. You touch my puppy while he is hurt, and I will rip you into tiny little shreds—legally. And when I am done, I will gather your blood and offer it to the vampire you have been menacing with your pitiable excuse of an investigation. You do not care who tried to kill my pup and his mate. You are only here because you have to be.”

“You’re most considerate, Mr. Gibson,” Pierina murmured.

“Where’s my pup’s woman? If you want to ask questions, send someone there—after I make sure they’re both all right.”

In what I deemed a miracle, the cops cooperated and informed my father where they’d sent Marian.

While Dad didn’t manage to coax Mom into assuming a human form, he did convince her to take the hybrid form by using the simple and effective argument she would be better equipped to slaughter anyone who touched me if she had nice, big, lethal claws and several hundred extra pounds to work with.

Like her wolf form, my mother’s hybrid coat was red, tipped black with a splash of white across her nose. Pierina insisted on she retrieving her SUV from the nearby parking garage and driving us to the hospital—the same one I’d gone to when I’d lost my eye. The vampire had the presence of mind to warn me, and I appreciated the courtesy.

Had the news been sprung on me, I doubted I would keep my cool. I found it odd the worst of my anxiety over losing my eye manifested at the hospital. The post-operation appointments me me clammy and shaky before and after.

With two tense werewolves to worry about, I found it a lot easier to control my nerves. I was too busy convincing my parents I was alive and mostly well to think about how my career had come to an abrupt end. Mom cradled me in one arm and waggled her claws in front of my nose, an invitation to play I failed to resist.

“He’s otterly adorable, isn’t he?” Mom cooed.

Of all the tricks for my mother to grasp without lessons, why did it have to be mastery of English in her hybrid form? While I was still dealing with the realization I wouldn’t be spared from her tongue, everyone else in the vehicle groaned.

Why did my mother’s first words as a full lycanthrope have to be a pun? It also explained a few things; I’d become something disgustingly cute, an otter, instead of a vicious and feared lion, tiger, or bear. I tried my best to glare at her, but she was unimpressed. She grinned a toothy, werewolf grin and waggled her claws at me.

A more dignified man would have protested his mother’s affections, but I was too tired to fight her, and I enjoyed the attention—and the certainty if I did land a bite, her virus would take care of the injury in short order. I wondered if Ernesto had meant to bolster my mother’s virus enough to trigger her first shift.

Knowing him, it could go either way.

Hospitals were a terrible place for lycanthropes, especially one still riding the high of her first shift. Since holding me would keep Mom out of trouble, Dad put her in charge of making sure no one thought about touching me.