Page 17 of Wolf's Forbidden Curse

I sucked in a lungful, and for a single moment, I felt better.

Then I stared up at the night sky and saw the moon.

It was large, and looming, and beautiful.

And full.

My eyes widened, and the nausea suddenly intensified as I stood there, dumbstruck, staring up at the floating white orb. When I tried to breathe in again, my lungs constricted, and I fell back inside the bathroom with a gasp. My hands were shaking. I went to turn the water off but screamed when I saw the hair on my knuckles growing right before my eyes. My nails, too—they were growing. Sharpening. I was about to let out another scream when, all of a sudden, my spine cracked, and I felt a sensation that could only be described as vertebrae scraping against vertebrae. It was horrific and so painful that I thought I was going to die. I grabbed hold of the sink to brace myself and watched in horror as the fog dissipated on the mirror, and my eyes flashed a golden yellow.

The face staring back at me wasn’t mine.

It wasn’t even human.

I opened my mouth slowly to reveal a row of razor-sharp teeth, and that was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out.

“Katrina, are you in there?”

I woke up shivering and naked. It was dark in the apartment, and I was curled up on the floor next to my bed. My skin was damp from sweat, but my bottom lip was trembling from the cold. Every window was open as wide as it would go, and when I smacked my lips together, they felt dry and caked in a foreign substance.

“Katrina, if you don’t open the door right now, I’m going to have to call the police. Please, just tell me you’re okay! I’m freaking out!”

It was Al. He was outside the apartment door, and he sounded terrified. I pushed myself up to my forearm and winced when a sharp pain erupted from my lower back. “Just a second,” I managed to say. It took me more than that to gather my strength and get dressed. In the bathroom, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I had blood caked all over my chin and lips.

“Hold on!” I said with a cracked voice. I bent over the sink and ran the water as hot as I could stand, then washed my face with rough and hurried movements. When all the blood was off, and the red water was washed down the drain, I took a deep breath and tried not to look as panicked as I felt. I walked across the room and opened the door.

“What is going on?”

Al’s eyes were heavy with exhaustion, and he was still in the clothes I’d last seen him in. I didn’t know if that meant not much time had passed or what, but I decided to play dumb for as long as I could.

Actually, no. I wasn’t playing dumb. I truly was dumb. I had no idea what the hell was going on, and I was utterly terrified but trying my best not to show it.

“I—I don’t—What time is it?” I asked.

Al balked at me. “It’s almost five in the morning! I’ve been looking for you all night.” He threw his hands up in the air. “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?”

“I left?”

He stared at me with open confusion. “Are you sick or something? You look pale. Did something happen to you tonight?”

Your guess is as good as mine.

“I’m taking you to the hospital. Come on.”

“No, wait, I don’t need to go to the hospital. I’m fine, really. Can you just tell me your side of the story?” I asked. “I’m having a hard time piecing everything together.”

The frustration that Al had walked in with seemed to fade, and he let his hands drop to his sides. “You went on your break last night and never returned. I wasn’t able to come and check on you until after closing, and when I got up here, the place was empty. Your cell phone, wallet, and keys were all sitting on the dresser so I got scared and went running around town looking for you. When I got back to my apartment a few minutes ago, I thought I heard a noise up here and decided to come check again.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “You really scared me for a second. I thought something awful happened. I thought you were like—dead.”

“I’m sorry, Al. I didn’t mean to scare you. And I feel terrible for leaving you all on your own to man the bar! Please don’t fire me.”

“I won’t if you tell me what’s going on!”

Shit. Didn’t see that coming…

I took a millisecond to come up with a convincing lie, and by some miracle, it worked. “Sleepwalking,” I said.

“Huh?”

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