Love at First Bite

“Kay, just ring me up when you get here. See you soon!”

With a smile, Shane tossed the phone onto his bed, where it got lost in piles of laundry and unmade covers. From that same mess, he cobbled together a shirt and some jeans before shuffling over to the bathroom.

The mirror and afternoon sun weren’t too kind to Shane’s expectations. He wet his hands and ran it through the tangled mop of brown on his head, then splashed some more water onto his crusted face, paying special attention to the few scruffs of hair that painted his chin. A full, grizzled beard would have been nice, Shane thought, as it would cover up the round baby face that his captain and fellow officers wouldn’t stop teasing him about. Failing his ability to grow one, however, he decided it was better to be upfront and present his smoothness for all the world to see. “No lies, no half-truths” was a motto he borrowed from his favourite superhero, and it was one he planned on taking to his grave.

As Shane shaved the few scrags of hair off his jaw, he couldn’t help but glance at the other razor laying on the counter, collecting dust. Lyra had always been self-conscious about her body hair, even though Shane found her furry legs (by lady standards) strangely cute. Given Lyra’s obsession, she must have had dozens of other razors at home, but still Shane tucked the one she’d forgotten into his pocket, intending to give it back to her when she arrived.

Once the deed was done and his chin became the cleanest thing in the room, Shane slipped on his usual weekend attire of a plain white shirt and faded jeans. As he did, his hand brushed against a broken belt strap and he spent a moment recalling how it ended up that way. His memory brought back feelings of turbulence and the wind howling in his ears. That’s right, the bungee cord had snapped — once he was back on solid ground, thankfully enough. Before that day, Shane had had more than a slight aversion to heights, but bungee jumping was the latest in a long list of firsts he had let Lyra talk him into. Now that she was finished her business trip in Europe, Shane could only guess at what crazy new experiences Lyra had in store for their next date.

BZZRT

A muffled vibration sounded as soon as Shane left the washroom. After hearing it, he jogged over to his bed and examined what his phone had to say:

forgot to ask, u have a syringe right? can u have it ready for when i get there?

thx <3

Shane stared at the screen. Never, in the six months he’d known her, had he been more worried about a request Lyra made of him — and that included such demands as “tie this bungee cord to your butt.” He sighed, hoping that whatever Lyra had in mind wouldn’t get him arrested by the very laws he enforced.

Several minutes and a few cupboards later, Shane held a freshly-dusted syringe in his hands. He had bought it a few years back to deal with his allergies, although he used it only sparingly. Even now, Shane shivered at the thought of having the needle penetrate his skin and introduce god-knows-what substance into his body. But then he remembered who he was doing this for, and set to work rinsing the syringe’s barrel.

DING!

The doorbell rang the moment Shane reached for a towel, causing him to stumble out of the room with a wet syringe. When he reached the front door, he wasn’t alone, as Rex had already found his way there, panting quickly and wagging his tail even quicker. Shane smiled and gave the mutt a quick pat on the head; now there was no question as to who stood behind that door.

Without even peering through the blinds, Shane threw the door open and launched himself forward with both arms outstretched.

“Welcome… back?”

The person he embraced certainly had the right build, but Shane wondered if Lyra’s hair always been so… poofy? She wasn’t wearing her usual neat ponytail either, as Shane felt her hair tickling his cheek. But a lot could change in two weeks, so a new hair style wasn’t completely out of the question in Shane’s mind.

“Missed you too, babe!”

Her voice sounded familiar enough, but it came out a little garbled and… growly? Shane sniffed, expecting to catch a whiff of the tobacco that Lyra had supposedly quit using three months ago. Instead, what he got reminded him of how Rex smelt in the bathtub — before the shampoo.

“What’s so funny?” said the embracee.

“Nothing, it’s just…” Shane spoke between fits of laughter. “Do they not have bathrooms in France? You’ve got a serious case of wet dog stank.”

“No way… Does my fur really smell that bad?”

“Well, yes—” Shane paused for a split second. “Wait, FUR?”

He let go, took a good, hard look at the thing he assumed had been Lyra the whole time — and screamed.

“Shane, I can—”

The visitor was cut short as Shane tackled them to the ground. Shane panted, pinning his prey to the ground as much as his shaky arms would allow, and took a closer at the figure beneath him.

What he’d heard earlier hadn’t been a lie; dark brown fur covered every square inch of the figure’s body, like a person who had rolled around on a barber’s floor at the end of a busy day. While most of the body appeared human-shaped, the head gave things away with its elongated jaw, large snout, and ears on top. The head also housed the only place that wasn’t buried in fur — the eyes, yellow and sharp, ensnared Shane’s own like a pair of fangs. Before he could scream again, the figure held something up to him.

The syringe.

“Least you got my text,” said the figure with a smile.

Shane’s eyes went wide. “Lyra…?”

The wolf-like head rose up and down slowly, indicating a nod. “Before you ask any more questions, can we talk inside? Wouldn’t want the neighbours to complain about my wet dog stank.”

Shane chuckled. It may have come from some weird freak of nature, but that was definitely the sort of quip Lyra would make. He still wasn’t completely convinced, but before he knew it, he got off the furry figure and helped them up to their feet.

Some minutes later, the wolf-lady claiming to be Lyra sat on one of the dining chairs, rummaging through her luggage for a hairbrush. Shane sat across from her with the back of a chair in front of him, arms crossed.

“What’s your favourite constellation and why?” said Shane.

“Andromeda ‘cause you can see it best on my birthday. Also— ah, found it!” The wolf-lady pulled a hairbrush out of her luggage case and started grooming the fur on her forearms. As she did so, she looked back up at Shane. “How long are you gonna keep this up? If this is what your perps have to go through in the interrogation room, man do I feel sorry for them. ‘Specially with that dumb baby face staring back at them for hours.”

Shane’s face twitched at the sound of ‘baby face,’ but he swallowed his pride. “I dunno, but you can never be too careful when a literal werewolf shows up on your front porch. Seriously, just run that through your head for a second.”

A sigh came from two furry jaws. “For a cop, you really should watch the news more often. Like I’ve been saying, lycanthropy is the biggest fad over in Europe right now.” She bent down and ran her fingers through Rex’s head, much to his delight. “Ain’t that right, Rexy-poo?”

Shane sighed. As ridiculous as it was, some stupid fad like that was the exact sort of thing that Lyra would fall for. He looked down at Rex, whose affectionate behaviour didn’t lie.

“So?”

Shane looked back up to see his guest staring at him, waiting for an answer. He mouthed the words “Okay, Lyra” but couldn’t bring himself to actually say them out loud. Instead, he darted his eyes down at the coffee table, where the tool that he had almost dropped lay.

“So, uh, what did you need the syringe for?”

“Oh, that.” The guest rummaged through her luggage case again, this time pulling out what seemed to be a glass vial filled with glowing green liquid. “I wanted you to inject the bit I saved for you.”

Shane’s eyes narrowed. “Lyra, I hope you know you’re talking to an officer of the—”

“Hah, gotcha!” The guest clapped their hands — or rather, paws — together. “Finally got you to say my name.”

Shane cleared his throat. “Fine. Lyra. Lyra. Lyra-honey. You happy now?”

He received a hoarse laugh as a response. Shane shook his head, forcing back a smile.

“A-anyway, what’s this stuff you’re trying to dope me on?”

Lyra handed the vial to him. “First of all, it isn’t anything illicit, so don’t go getting any big ideas.”

Shane brought the vial up to his face and peered into the glass. Within the glowing green contents, he spotted bits of what seemed to be hair — or maybe fur. Lyra continued.

“You can probably guess, but that’s the stuff that induces lycanthropy. I used half of that vial to become, well… what you’re seeing right now.”

Shane stared at the vial a while longer, then looked back at Lyra. He looked her up and down, trying to find some resemblance to the woman he’d known, but every time, his eyes were drawn to the fur, or the fangs, or the piercing yellow eyes. He tried to find something to say, but all that came out was:

“Why?”

Suddenly, the sound of a dog whining rung through the air. Shane looked down at Rex, but the poor mutt was just as confused as him. So he looked back up, and was surprised to find tears trickling down the wolf’s cheeks.

“I… I…” Lyra choked the words through her maw. “I don’t even know anymore. And… there’s no way to undo it…”

“Lyra…”

“You…” Lyra snorted loudly through her snout. “You probably don’t ever wanna see me again, so I’ll just go.”

She got up out of her seat and headed for the door, dragging her luggage along with minimal effort.

“Wait!”

She stopped at the sound of Shane’s voice. Turning around, she found him staring straight into her eyes with a look of sincerity.

“It’s not all bad.” Shane pulled something out of his pocket while stifling back a chuckle. “At least you won’t be needing this anymore.”

Lyra stared at him a while, then stomped over, yanked the shaver out of his hand, and punched him in the gut. “Fucking bastard,” she said with a smile.

Shane recoiled a bit from the impact. “C-careful, I think you got some more muscle along with that stank of yours.”

Lyra laughed, and then Shane followed suit. He put his arms around her, but instead of being repulsed by the fur, this time he hugged it tight.

After a few minutes of sharing warmth, Lyra broke the silence.

“So, will you do it with me?”

Her voice was gleeful, but she couldn’t hide how much it shook. Shane winced at the familiarity; he’d heard those words and that tone of voice whenever Lyra had asked him to join in her misadventures. Diving, rollercoasters, bungee jumping — all of them began with that same shaky question.

Keeping that in mind, Shane reached behind his back, felt the one belt strap that was broken, and chuckled to himself. This was proof that he was foolish enough to say yes — say yes and give assurance to the significant other who’d been too afraid to fall through the air by herself. This push and pull between the two of them, this willingness and comfort in pursuing new experiences together — maybe’s that what love was.

With a sigh, Shane broke off from the embrace and smiled.

“Pass me the syringe.”