Free All Hallows' Hangover by Annie Reed Page A

didn’t imagine how wonderful it would be to do all those things after a night of hot sex. He was straight, he worked out, and his face had never cracked any mirrors that he knew of. It was just that after going out with Teddy a few times, women seemed to fall into relationships with one of the other guys in the dorm, while Teddy seemed to be stuck in the “let’s just be friends” zone.
    Terri, now—she’d been different. And he’d been a jerk.
    He hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her. He tried to tell himself it had been the costume, but he’d also spent a good part of the evening staring at her ample cleavage. When he wasn’t downing drink after drink until the bottle she’d brought was empty, he was nibbling her earlobes. Dancing with her in a way that gave dirty dancing a whole new meaning.
    He doubted she’d ever want to see him again.
    Not that he’d asked for her number.
    He had no trouble remembering that part. She’d left him on the sofa and told him she’d be right back. He planned to ask for her number when she got back, but that was the last he’d seen of her. All that alcohol hit him like a brick wall, and the next thing he knew, sunlight was streaming in his window.
    He groaned. He was going to have to make a rule for himself: Never drink at parties again. Never, ever, ever. Especially not stuff that steamed and bubbled, no matter how great it tasted.
    He sneezed. Not a normal sneeze, but one that threatened to rip his head clean off his shoulders.
    The sofa was getting to him. He needed a shower, and then he’d find out if Daniel had Terri’s number.
    Which all sounded like a marvelous plan, right up until Teddy opened his eyes and got a good look at himself.
    His arms were covered with fur, and it wasn’t a costume.
    He had actual fur growing out of his skin! Long, soft, golden fur covered his arms and his shoulders and the sides of his nose
    But his nose was a snout!
    What the hell?
    He crossed his eyes trying to get a good look at the thing that protruded from the front of his face, but that made his head hurt more.
    He tried to rub at his face—this was the weirdest hangover ever—only to discover his hands had turned into paws.
    Paws.
    He let loose with something that sounded suspiciously like a yip and scrambled backwards off the sofa.
    Or at least he tried to.
    His arms behaved more like legs, and his legs didn’t want to work right, and he got tangled up in a blanket someone must have thrown over him at some point. He ended up falling on his ass between the sofa and his coffee table.
    Only it wasn’t quite his ass he’d fallen on.
    There, sprouting from where the seat of his jeans should have been (where, exactly, were his clothes??) was a tail.
    A fur-covered tail he could feel trembling as it tried curling itself around his trembling, fur-covered legs.
    Or it could all be a hallucination brought on by unfamiliar alcohol and a headache that just wouldn’t quit.
    Teddy concentrated on moving the thing that looked like a tail. Unfamiliar muscles in his lower back bunched and strained, his glutes building up more of a burn than he got at the gym as he got his tail moving back and forth.
    Holy crap!
    He actually had a tail!

 
     
     
     
     
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    The little bell over the front door to Emporium Magique rang at exactly five minutes to six, jarring Tabby out of a light doze.
    Her arms ached and her neck was stiff, which served her right for falling asleep sitting on the stool behind the checkout counter with her head resting on her arms on the countertop.
    Outside the shop’s display windows the sleepy city just beginning to wake. Tabby shook the pins and needles out of her hands and rubbed the back of her neck, stifling a yawn. There was something just wrong about seeing the first glimmer of pink in the morning sky because you were at work instead of spending the night with someone special.
    Not that Tabby had time for anyone special in her life. Or at least that’s