A Hair of the Dog

"Tough night, huh?"

Aiden turned to see the same waitress that had served them at the restaurant. She was still dressed in her white button-down and black slacks, but the forced, professional courtesy was gone from her voice. A ball of embarrassment formed in Aiden's throat.

"Oh, God. I was trying to forget."

"Yeah, I get it. Something similar happened to me in the showers at my University."

"No kidding. How'd that turn out?"

"Well, I'm not on the swim team anymore." she said with a bitter smile.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Aiden said. "Are you here with friends?"

She shook her head. "I come here to grab a drink after particularly stressful workdays. Mind if I join you? Drinking together is better than drinking alone."

"Sure, here, pull up a seat." He caught himself grinning like an idiot and toned it down. A little company was just what the doctor ordered.

"My name's Claire, by the way" She held out her hand, and he shook it.

"Aiden."

Claire was one of those people who had a talent for making any social situation relaxed and enjoyable. It seemed effortless, but Aiden knew it was a carefully honed skill, what to talk about, when to laugh, where to look. She kept things light with conversation about cities and movies, and soon Aiden's nerves started to dissipate.

Throughout the conversation he would occasionally catch a whiff of that familiar musky smell. Claire's jeans hid her K9 mark from most people, but Aiden's nose told him that the organ under her panties was anything but human. His penis throbbed inside his sheathe.

Claire's phone buzzed with a text. She read it and looked up at him like she was trying to read some small message on his face.

"A couple friends of mine just invited me over to their flat. It's nearby, but I hate going up there alone. I feel like a total third wheel."

"You don't have a boyfriend or husband to bring along?"

"Hah!" She laughed, probably more at his awkward probing than the thought of having a significant other. "No, I'm flying solo these days. Do you want to tag along?"

"Are you asking me on a double date?"

She blushed. "Something like that."

"Alright then," Aiden said, lifting his glass. "Cheers to our first date. Let's hope it's a good one."

They clinked glasses and headed out onto the street. Aiden couldn't believe his luck. Not only had he scored a date, all that nastiness about his changes and drug use were right out in the open from the get-go. However, in the back of his mind, alarm bells were ringing. Until he could get plastic surgery, the fact that he was a user would be difficult to hide, and she was bringing him to meet her friends right away. That meant she didn't care if they knew he was a user, and where there are four users in a private place. . .

If they bring out any K9, just politely decline, he told himself.

Claire led him a couple blocks down the street and up the stairs of a grey brickwork building. It was hundreds of years old, but, like all buildings in this ancient city, the interior was excessively modern to compensate.

A rather chubby fellow answered the door and greeted Claire with a hug, beaming and smiling. The man, who introduced himself as Bruce, was a jovial man with a disarming demeanor. When they shook hands, Aiden felt the rough texture of canine pads pressing from his stubby fingers.

Bruce grabbed Aiden a beer, and they all sat down at a small table near a window that had a wonderful view of the skyline. His girlfriend, Alexandra, was already seated with a drink. She was tall, thin, pale, and content to let Bruce do most of the talking. Her sign was more obvious: eyes that were mismatched colors, one icy blue, the other hazel brown.

The conversation inevitably started on the topic of Aiden, and where Claire had picked him up. He tentatively recounted the night's events for the group.

"And you're saying this was earlier tonight?" Bruce asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah. A few hours ago. My life insurance rates are going to go through the roof."

The group chuckled at his bitter humor. Claire shook her head. "Well, what's done is done, eh? I know we each have a similar story."

The group nodded collectively.

Claire raised her glass. "This deserves a toast. But first," she said with a coy smile, "I wanna see that tongue again."

Aiden rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her in a mocking manner. It almost touched her face. She flinched backwards and laughed. Bruce gasped.

"That's awesome! I wish I had a mark like that. All I've got are these damn paw-hands." He laid his hands on the table. The pads on his palms and stubby fingers matched the color of his skin, but their shape and texture was fully canine. "Makes having a wank harder. I think I got a dog's arse-hole too because sometimes--"

"That's enough, babe," Alexandra interrupted. "I got stuck with the eyes, obviously. Guess what breed I am."

"Uh, husky?"

She beamed. "Nope. Austrialian Shepard. Everyone gets it wrong. Pay up, babe."

Bruce sighed and handed her a bill. "I'm a collie, myself. Claire's a poodle."

Claire gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Bruce! I was going to make him guess."

"How would he guess? You don't even have a mark yet."

"It's true, I've been lucky so far."

Claire briefly made eye contact with Aiden, then shrugged and took a drink. She was lying. Couldn't they smell her musk? Either way, this was going well. Now all he had to do was switch the subject, maybe suggest an activity like a board game, and ride the rest of the night one in a wholesome drunken haze.

"You know," Bruce said with a sly smile, "I just so happen to have picked up some K9 earlier today."

Aiden tensed, but Claire and Katherine looked as if they'd be waiting years to hear those words. They chatted excitedly to each other as Bruce made for the bedroom.

"I bought a bunch of new toys today," Alexandra gushed, grabbing an extra large PetSmart bag that was bulging with squeaky toys. "They're so cheap!"

"Oh my God, that is going to be amazing!" squealed Claire. "Are you ready for this, Aiden?"

It was the moment of truth. Aiden raised his hands in a way that he hoped made him look dismissive but ashamed. "Sorry. . . I think I'm going to sit this one out."

"Awww," moaned Alexandra.

Claire placed her hand on his shoulder. "That's fine. I'm only going to do a little bit myself. I don't want to turn our first date into a dog-sitting job.

Bruce returned and proudly placed a bag of speckled powder on the table. It was enormous, almost an ounce of K9, Aiden reckoned. He immediately poured a small pile onto the table, licked his fingers clean, and began chopping up lines.

"Aren't you worried about waking up with a tail tomorrow?" Aiden asked.

Alexandra shook her head. "We've done it four times without any new marks. It's just a matter of knowing your dose."

"Exactly," agreed Bruce. He lowered his face to the table and snorted a line. "Okay, Aiden, the one house rule is this: no peeing on the furniture."

"I'll keep that in mind," Aiden chuckled.

"Good," Bruce said, nose already starting to turn black, "Because those are MY spots."

"Jeeze, honey, relax." Alexandra scoffed as she did her own line. "You don't want to be one of those dogs that's constantly barking, do you? Be a good boy."

"Sorry." Bruce's ears came in drooping.

Claire and Aiden sat together and watched as the couples' transformations began in earnest. Bruce pulled his phone out of his pocket, but his thumbs receded rapidly and it clattered onto the table. Alexandra hooted and hollered with laughter.

"Ha ha HaouUR!" It was a doggish sound. She clasped her hands over her mouth and blushed furiously. "I mea-- uh, ah, ah. . Arf! Arf!" she yipped. Her hands tented as her growing muzzle pushed against them..

Now it was Bruce's turn to laugh, but Alexandra looked extremely embarrassed. He leaned forward and gave her a comforting lick on the forehead. "There there, dear. I probably look a lot stranger than you right now."

Claire giggled, and Aiden joined her. It was true. Alexandra lowered her hands, revealing a cute muzzle that went perfectly with her puppy-dog eyes. Bruce, on the other hand, dog-nose and ears gracing his mostly-human face, looked like a lazy attempt at a halloween costume. Or he would have, if it weren't for the rather extreme changes occurring beneath his sweater and slacks.

"Aren't you going to-- you know-- take off your clothes?" Aiden asked.

"Are we on a date now?" Bruce grinned, showing shifting, pointing teeth. "Save that kind of talk for Claire."

Claire and Aiden shared a glance and laughed politely.

Alexandra plunged her head into the PetSmart bag and resurfaced holding a fluffy orange fox toy between her teeth. Other than her long, black hair, her head was now that of an australian shepard, complete with floppy ears and a generous mane of fur that floofed from the front of her blouse. She squeaked the toy.

Bruce's ears perked to attention. He lunged at her, grabbing hold of the toy with his mouth. Alexandra held tight, and soon they were out of their chairs on all fours playing tug-of-war. They growled playfully as their changes progressed. The yank yank yank of the toy pulled Bruce's skull into a canine shape. Alexandra, whose legs were not nearly changed enough for a comfortable quadrupedal stance, raised her ass high in the air. The bulge of her tail pressed against the fabric of her jeans, straining as it grew. It looks like her ass is getting a hard-on, Aiden thought.

"God, I love watching people change." Claire said, gazing at the half-dogs her friends were becoming. "There's something so delightfully bad about it, about watching people give up their humanity and surrender to their base instincts. . . It's ugly, but in a beautiful sort of way. It's uncomfortable, but only because it's so damn tempting."

The tug war paused so Bruce could scratch his neck with his foot. Alexandra looked at Aiden with what might have been self-consciousness, but when Bruce grabbed hold of the toy, the emotion disappeared and the tugging resumed.

Claire turned to face him. "You know what I mean?"

"Yeah. It really is something." He took another sip of his beer. The smell of Claire's heat was strong now and growing stronger. She was close to him, and with her friends as distracted and dog-brained as they were, the two of them might as well have been alone in the apartment.

"I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed you don't want to join in." she said, licking a fingertip and pressing it to a patch of K9 on the table. "I was looking forward to watching you shep' out."

That was when Aiden saw the desire in her eyes. It was crazy; not only was this was their first date, he was a total stranger, and they were in her friends' house! But none of those oddities would matter to an animal, and her words echoed back through his head: it's so damn tempting.

He looked at the pile of K9 on the table. It was tempting.

"Maybe I can give you a bit of a show without the drug," he said, trying to act suave. He pulled off his beanie and let his pointed ears breathe. Claire watched intently, breathing deeply through her mouth. Next he stood, unbuttoned his pants, and pulled them down just enough to let his naked length of tail free. He wagged it back and forth, letting the motion pull the sore muscles loose.

"It's so cute!" Claire squealed. She leaned in for a closer look, and all the hairs on Aiden's back stood on end. She looked up at him with a mischievous grin. "If you're going to let your dog out, I should probably dress to match. We are on a date after all."

With that, she popped her finger into her mouth, sucked it a moment longer than necessary, and pulled it free with a pop, clean.

"Here we go."

They looked at each other and smiled in nervous anticipation. Then Claire took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. She lifted her chin and straightened her back.

"Oh that feels. . ."

Aiden knew exactly what she was feeling, the warmth tingling down her tongue muscle into her chest, spreading out through her muscles.

"Relaxing," he offered.

Claire's opened her eyes. Her smile was back, but the nervousness was gone. "Yeah. That's exactly it."

It started with her mouth, a thinning of her lips, a darkening of her nose. It was so subtle that at first Aiden thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but then she inhaled deeply, and her nostrils flared and scalloped into the familiar canine curl.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "Oh! I can feel it now. It's my nose. It's--" Claire sneered as if she was about to sneeze, paused, and started taking a series of quick, short breaths as her nose and mouth pushed into the start of a muzzle. To the uninitiated, it might have looked like she was in pain, but Aiden knew better. She was in the throes of bliss, and the tender little moans that escaped her throat each time her bones clicked into a new position were moans of pleasure, not discomfort. He envied her.

She clenched her eyes as rigid whiskers sprouted from her upper lip and chin. She stroked them with her fingers, and the touch made her eyelids twitch. Soon there was quite a forest of the clear plastic-looking hairs spreading from her face.

She looked at the ground and frowned. "Oh, facial hair. That's not very ladylike."

"I think you look adorable," Aiden replied. He was telling the truth, too. Her narrow muzzle suited her face well.

"You do?"

Claire darted forward and licked him right on the lips. In his surprise, he failed to close his mouth in time, and her tongue dipped inside. Her whiskers tickled his nose. She withdrew as suddenly as she had attacked, a horrified look plastered on her face.

"I'm sorry! I meant to thank you and it just happened automatically--"

Aiden interrupted her with a lick of his own. She startled, and they both had a good laugh.

"I think I like you, Aiden." Claire said.

"I think I like you too, Claire."

Aiden could not give the tender moment his full attention. He was too fascinated watching Claire's ears. They grew upward until they couldn't support their own weight, then flopped forward and stretched toward the ground. It was as if her piercings had suddenly become impossibly heavy. If she noticed, she made no sign of it. She was too busy raising her nose to the air.

"What is that smell?" She moved her head about trying to triangulate the scent, but Aiden already knew what she'd whiffed. Sure enough, her nose led her to the ground at Aiden's feet, then around his shoes, up his pant leg, and between his legs. Her sniffing warmed his sheathe through his jeans, either from the hot air or the rush of blood; he couldn't tell which. She looked up at him.

"Oh," was all she said.

"Yeah. . ."

Aiden raised his bottle of beer and emptied it to fill the silence. When he set it down, she was still kneeling between his legs.

"I wanna see it," she whispered, ears perking.

He was lucky he'd swallowed his beer, or he would have spit it out in surprise.

"You what? Your friends are right there!"

She set her hands on his knees, the start of blunt claws pressing into his flesh. "Come on. They won't care. Look at them."

Their hosts were in the kitchen. Bruce had his face buried in the trash can, and Alexandra was clawing at the door to the fridge, sending magnets clattering to the floor.

Claire was right. They wouldn't care, but he would. And the number of beers it would take to make him not care would leave him huddled over the toilet for the rest of the night. His horniness and drunkenness conspired to turn reasons not to fuck Claire into obstacles to be overcome. She was ready to go there, and all he needed to be ready himself was something to take the edge off. He looked at the lines of K9 on the table.

He'd only need a little, and this would be his last trip for who knew how long.

He snorted half a line. Then half of what was left for good measure. Claire's face lit up with excitement.

"We're going to have so much fun!"

"Let's go somewhere private." Aiden said it at that moment because he knew he soon wouldn't care. He headed for the bedroom, and Claire followed with the bag of K9.

Even though the owners of the room were probably too dog-brained to know how to turn the handle, he locked the door behind them. He turned to find himself face to poodle-face with Claire. Between her long, floppy ears, curly fur, and start of a muzzle, there was no mistaking her breed, though she still retained enough humanity to be recognizable. She had a sultry look in her eyes.

"You're going to make a really hot dog," she said, leaning in so Aiden's back pressed against the door. It was odd watching her talk, like something out of an animated movie. He opened his mouth to respond, and she went for the kiss.

Aiden had never made out with a dog before, but he imagined what followed was a similar experience. Her lips were too thin and inflexible to do the work demanded of them, so they opened their mouths, tilted their heads, and let their tongues intertwine. He could taste the drip now, and perhaps Claire could too, considering how eager she was to flick her tongue against the back of his throat.

Heat wormed its way from his sinuses down his neck, and he felt the first wave of relaxation wash over him. The first sign of his change was the kissing position becoming more comfortable. His face felt like putty being pressed into a new mold that fit Claire's face perfectly. With his longer jaw, their mouths made a perfect seal. With their forward-facing noses, they could breathe freely as their tongues explored each other's maws.

Claire braced one hand against the door next to Aiden's head, and curled the other one to grab his ass. He gasped, drawing a breath from her lungs. The hand slid upward, found his naked stub of a tail, and wrapped around it. The touch caused new hairs to sprout along Aiden's spine. She began to stroke the length tenderly, as if it were a cock, and, as the tingling warmth flowed through it, it started to feel like one. Each new vertabrae she coaxed from the thickening length brought a twinge of pleasure.

She broke the kiss and left him panting. "You are turning into such a good boy." The approval had Aiden's tail whapping against the door.

"Thanks."

Claire sat on the side of the bed, sprinkled some K9 onto the end table, and went to work chopping up another pair of lines.

"You should get naked. I want to watch you change."

Claire's tone had changed since he'd closed the door behind them. Before, she had been hesitant, but now she was confident. She looked at him like he was a juicy steak dinner.

"Don't you think this is all happening little fast? It's only our first date."

"Fast for humans," she said with a glint in her eye. "But we're not human tonight are we? Tonight we're nothing but a pair of horny dogs. Dogs don't care about social standards. Dogs take what they want. What do you want, Aiden?"

He swallowed. "You."

She smiled, showing her fangs. "Then be a good boy and strip."

Aiden pulled his shirt over his head. His pecs and shoulder muscles soaked up the heat burning in his chest like a sponge. His bones and tendons settled into an increasingly canine configuration.

He managed to free himself of his shirt before his arms lost too much of their range, but he was not so lucky with his pants. The motion was one he'd performed a thousand times before: pinch his waistband on either side of the clasp, push his hands together, and pop the button. His grip failed him at pinching the waistband. He looked down to find only four dwindling fingers and a rapidly retreating dew claw on each hand. A low, canine whine escaped his mouth.