War Dog

Chapter 58

I plunged into the water ducking my head under and letting the current swirl around me. I could hear Ghost yelling at me from on the bank, annoyed that I'd gone and gotten drenched. My hair would dry knotted and would go feral causing me problems when we got back to base. I breach the surface, bright eyed feeling refreshed.

"Wolf, We're not out here for you to go frolicking in the river. Get out."

"You've been complaining I smell awful. I thought I could use a quick bath."

"You're going to smell worse now."

"Not if I sun dry. Besides, if we stick close to the river, I can hop in again when you think I start to smell bad again."

I lope out of the river on all fours and shake myself dry, splattering Ghost in the process. 

"Eurgh. Wolf, for fucks sake. You're a fucking soldier, act like it." Ghost snapped at me, annoyance vibrating through him.

I glare at him balefully but otherwise don't answer his snappish retort. 

"We're out her for you to find control over your shifting. We've been out her for almost a week now, and you still take far too long to shift. Ten minutes?" He huffed, arms crossed against his chest, his Manchester accent a threatening growl.

"Better than an hour like it was!" I snap back.

"Not good enough."

"What crawled up your arse today?"

Ghost froze, head turning slowly to look at me. "Excuse me?" 

His low threatening tone didn't scare me. I stepped into his space, squaring off against him. "I said. What the fuck. Crawled. Up. Your. Arse?"

He loomed over me, attempting to use his height to intimidate me. He glared down at me for ten, fifteen seconds before the grumpy wall inside him cracked just the tiniest bit. "Insolent pup."

"Cantankerous Handler."

"Big words for such a little girl."

"Sorry, do you need me to break it down to mono-syllabic words for you? That means one syllable words, by the way." My comment earned me a cuff over the head and a smirk.

"You need to shift, or I'll hold you under the water until you are forced to shift."

"Eurgh. Fine." I begin finding the dark center that holds the feral beast that's always trying to be set free, and I fall into the center of it, dragging it up to the surface. I wasn't getting stuck anymore, but the entire process still took a long time. And the fast shifting came with increased pain levels as everything was forced to move much faster. Muscles grew, and bones shifted into new placements. I still hadn't quite been able to figure out how to remain standing when shifting, so I stood up from where I'd collapsed writhing and screaming in agony. My breathing was heavy but calmed quickly as I recovered. Muscles still screamed in pain, but they had begun adjusting to the frequent shifting. 

Standing on all fours, I now came up to Ghosts waist instead of his thighs.

"How do you feel?"

"It's getting easier, but I'm ravenous again."

"You just ate. How are you hungry?"

"I use a lot of energy normally Ghost, and you've been making me shift multiple times a day. For the last week. I'm exhausted and starving." 

"Fine. It's a good thing we can both just hunt for food. You'd be eating the damn Mexico government out of its hard earned tax dollars," The sarcasm in Ghosts voice was thick, making me smile.