Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“This isn’t what they were trying to do, right? Or were they trying to make a freaky monster?” I mumble the question to his chest.
“I don’t know. They didn’t tell me, but from what I understand the idea was to make you a shifter wolf like the rest of us. They wanted to be able to pass on lycanthropy. I guess they managed to do that in one sense or another.”
“Are you sure I’m a werewolf?”
“Very,” Gray chuckles. “There’s not really any mistaking it. You’re a very impressive specimen, my love.”
I like it when he calls me his love. It almost makes me forget that I’m now an absolute monster of the kind villagers get out the pitchforks for, or send for special hunters with silver swords and such.
Gray rolls over onto his back, keeping me held close as he shuts his eyes. He looks tired.
“Am I scary?”
I crawl onto his chest and interrogate him by looking down at his face while lying on his body.
“Of course you are,” he says, his tone indulgent and his eyes still closed.
“Are you scared of me?”
“No,” he says. I see his pulse jump in his throat. I think he might be lying. Maybe he’s not afraid of me right now, but I think he was at least a little afraid of me last night when he saw who and what I was.
“I guess I’m in charge now,” I say. “Because you know of course werewolf beats wolf.”
He opens one eye at me. “Do you want me to thrash you right now? Is that what this is?”
“No,” I giggle. “I just need to know what is going on now that everything is monstrously wrong. No wonder I feel so rough. A werewolf. Did I do anything fun? Did I eat any villagers?”
“You and I ran in the woods and took down a deer or two,” he says.
“We didn’t bone?”
“No, we didn’t.” He opens both his eyes, reaches up, and cups my face in his hands. “We have to keep this secret. From everyone. This is the sort of thing that could land you in a laboratory for the rest of your life. They will want to be able to replicate this. They will want to study you. My father will want to use you. Normal humans will consider you either a miracle or a curse. Both roads will lead to an early grave. We have to be so, so careful from here on out. Do you understand?”
I nod my head as best I can. “I understand.”
“I’m not trying to scare you, but you have been behaving so badly lately. You have been drawing attention at every turn. It cannot go on. You are going to have to get your wild impulses under control. It’s going to be difficult.”
He looks so worried. He truly thinks I am an absolute psycho. He assumes I can’t control myself, and hell, maybe I can’t. But I bet I can take control of my lack of control.
“Don’t worry. I’ll buy an island and just hide out there. Enya lives in a castle with cats and a couple of people and she’s doing fine.”
“Are you saying Enya is a werewolf?”
“No, because that would be libelous. Enya is one of the most talented artists of this, or any other time, and if she was a werewolf, she’d be the best werewolf,” I say, careful not to attract legal attention.
“We don’t have time to talk about Enya.”
“There’s always time to talk about Enya,” I disagree.
Gray sighs, and I know I am pushing him to his limit, but in a fun sort of way. He’s got to relax. He’s been through so much stress lately.
I slide off him, nudge him over onto his stomach and start rubbing his shoulders and neck. My fingers feel stronger now, even as a human being. That’s going to be fun. I’m going to be able to move furniture on my own now.
In spite of everything, the ‘bad news,’ so to speak, I am in a very good mood. I feel a lot more settled now that the moon is in her waning phase, and the worst of the whole ‘turning into a wild animal, or actually a creature of legend and lore’ part is over.
He makes a low, happy groaning sound and I feel him relax a little. That’s good.
“You don’t have to worry about everything all the time,” I tell him. “Sometimes everything works out fine, even though you don’t think it’s going to. Sometimes you think you’re gonna be a stock standard wolf, and you turn out to be a werewolf. Stuff happens.”
“Yeah,” Gray agrees with a muffled voice. “Stuff happens.”
CHAPTER 14
Gray
We fall asleep together and wake up mid-afternoon. I make pancakes in a kitchen big enough to concoct a banquet, and we eat them out on the covered porch as light gray clouds skate across the sky and the world fills with the pleasant hum of insects living their myriad little lives. In one of the corners of the verandah, a spider weaves her web with great alacrity.