Page 44 of Wolf's Forbidden Curse

“Psychic shop?”

I waved a hand in the air. “Nevermind. That’s not important. The thing that I really need to say is this—I’m pretty sure I was cursed. Not on purpose. I think that this group of people was trying to curse someone else, and I just sort of… got in the way? My friend was giving me a ride to the bus station, and he told me to stay away from the house, but I heard someone screaming, so I went to make sure everything was okay. I ended up getting hit with something. A spell.”

“A magical spell?”

“Yes,” I said, wanting to get through everything before he had a chance to tell me how nuts I was. “I didn’t think that anything had really happened to me at first because once the initial feeling of being hit wore off, everything was fine. Then, a few days ago, I experienced the first full moon since I was hit by the magic. Now I know that the spell did something to me.”

I paused for just a second, waiting to gauge Rory’s reaction to the first half of this tale. He wasn’t shaking his head or getting up off the couch in a disbelieving huff. Instead, he was sitting there with a curious but not dubious expression on his face. I decided this was a good sign and powered through.

“The psychic,” I went on. “He gave me a warning, but I thought he was full of shit at the time. Then, that night, I went upstairs on my break at the bar and looked outside the window. I saw the full moon and…”

“And what?”

I looked away from him. “God, I wish I had another bottle of whiskey.” He didn’t laugh, and I was worried I might be testing his patience too much by stalling. “I don’t know how to say this in a way that doesn’t sound absolutely insane, so I guess we’ll just rip the Band-Aid off. I looked up at the full moon, and I turned into a werewolf.”

I made a point not to look at Rory when I said the last part. I didn’t think I could handle whatever his expression would be. Even on the off chance he did believe me, the only logical response would be to scream for help. If he truly was able to accept that I turned into a bloodthirsty monster once a month, then he should be terrified of me.

This was a mistake. One that it was too late to take back, so all I could do was sit there and try not to panic.

He was quiet, and after what felt like a lifetime, I managed to sneak a peek in his direction. His brow was furrowed in thought, but he didn’t look scared. Really, if I had to guess, I would’ve said he looked almost… mad.

“You think I’m making this up,” I said. “I can tell. You’re mad at me for making you think I was going to open up, and then, instead, I said something ridiculous. But I’m telling you, this is the truth. I?—”

“I know.” He put a hand up to stop me mid-sentence. “I know you’re telling me the truth.”

“Wait—you believe me?”

He nodded, then got up off the couch and started pacing back and forth across the room. “I knew this could happen to people, although I hadn’t heard of a case of lycanthropy in a very long time. It’s very rare.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on a second.” I stood up as well. “You know about this stuff?”

“A little.”

“Tell me everything!” I begged, feeling a rush of relief wash through me. “Please! I’m completely on my own here. Well, okay, that’s not true. The psychic helped me a little, but?—”

“Did he give you stuff to control the shifting?”

“What?”

“Or chains to tie yourself up with so you don’t hurt anybody?” Rory walked over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Do you know what happened the night you first changed into the wolf? Did you leave the apartment?”

“I—I think so. But I don’t know for sure. I woke up here, naked, with… With blood on my face.”

He scowled. “This isn’t good.”

“If someone had been attacked by a wolf, we would’ve heard about it, though, right?” I said. “I’ve been paying close attention to the local news, making sure that nobody saw anything. I think it must’ve been animal blood.”

“You better hope so,” he said. His fingers pressed into me a little too hard. I shrugged out of his grip.

“Ow! What’s wrong with you? Why are you so pissed off all of a sudden?”

“I’m not pissed off. I’m just trying to think.”

“Think about what?” I demanded. “If you know more about this than you’re letting on, you have to tell me. Do you have any fucking idea how scared I’ve been? I thought—I thought I was all alone in this. But?—”

Rory looked at his phone, and I sensed he was completely ignoring me. “I have to go,” he said. “We can talk more about this later.”

I scoffed. “Are you joking? You’re really going to leave right now?”

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