Page 8 of Ensnared By the Werewolf

I want Belinda desperately, and the way she’d pressed herself against me makes me wonder if the feeling is mutual.I should court her.I should try.

Because if she does break this curse…

I continue working.My heart is a little lighter at the concept that things aren’t quite so impossible.

I have hope.

6

Belinda

Focus ismy superpower and I throw everything I have into trying to break Jack’s curse.I assemble books about wolf shifter transformations and fae spells.I even throw a book on lycanthropes in the pile, though, according to the text, that subspecies of fae haven’t been sighted in the last hundred years.I’m skeptical about that tidbit because rarer species are notoriously secretive, but all information is helpful information.

Every interaction we have, I’m tempted to blurt out that we’re soul mates, but that confession will derail everything, and Jack wants this curse broken so badly.

Maybe I won’t even have to tell him.

Maybe he’ll recognize that we’re fated mates.

Every few days, I muster up the research and materials to try for a solution less extreme than my last resort, and I call my soul mate.Our conversations are awkward at first.We’re strangers meeting under less-than-ideal circumstances, but slowly that changes.

“I’m starting to think that these calls are just because you miss me,” he teases over the phone a week into our process.

“Oh, I definitely miss you, but I do have another idea.”My words sound much less like teasing than his did.

There’s a pause over the phone, and I want to fill it, but don’t trust myself to stay on the topic of curses.

My soul cries out for Jack.Does he feel the same?Is this one sided?

I don’t think it is.

That attempt and a few others fail, but I keep at it.

When Jack shows up at the shop, my heart swoops at the sight of him and the antsy nerves at his absence subside.

“I’m glad you could stop by,” I say, leading us to the sitting area in the back of the shop.The shelves are tall enough to block us from any passerby.I don’t want to go into my workroom if it can be helped.I still haven’t properly seen Jack’s true form and I can tell he doesn’t want me to.

The first attempts to break the curse were things that other magical practitioners have tried before but that I wanted to eliminate just in case.I’ve chanted over the man, had him meditate, and waved burning herbs over his body, sensing the strums of the magic threads each time, but the curse holds tight.

I’ve attempted other ways of breaking the curse since then.Methods listed in old books I’ve consulted.My hopes are high for this potion.The recipe came from a very detailed account of a wolf shifter refusing to return to their human form.Something about the herb mixture is supposed to make thewolfpart of shifters sleep.

We sit, and I hand Jack the stoppered bottle of herb mixture.It’s mainly the color of trampled leaves with an off-putting green smell.

“Okay, try drinking this,” I say.Preparing myself to cite what’s in it and why I think this could work, but as with all the things we’ve tried so far, Jack downs the mixture without hesitation.

His human face scrunches in disgust, and I feel my own sympathetic stomach retch a little.

After a moment, his face eases, but his lips are still tight.“I don’t want to insult you, but that is foul.”

I laugh in relief.“Next time, I’ll put sugar in it.”

He perks up.“Really?”

“No,” I say.

He laughs, and a sound has me leaning forward.Jack’s eyes glint wolfishly as if taking in our distance before his face softens.

“Thank you, Bel.”

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