Page 3 of Isabel and the Werewolf Beast

Chapter two

Dante

The cottage was warm. Unlike last winter, where we’d almost frozen to death inside our home, I’d made sure to have enough firewood this winter. A stockpile I’d slaved for hours, days, weeks, months to build. Sitting by the fireside, the pop and crackle of the logs became soothing music to the book in my hand. This was my preferred place to be. The hinges of the wooden door creaked open. I lifted my head at the cool breeze blowing into the cottage. My brother Asher walked inside. He tilted his head to the side in the same cocky manner that he’d always had, no matter ourcircumstances, and studied me.

“Where have you been this time, little brother?” I asked.

For as long as we’d lived here these past twenty-five years, he’d always fled the confines of the cottage.

Asher’s head tilted to the other side. “I met a woman.”

“Another?” I lifted the book back up to read. The weight of the spine comforting in my hands.

“This one was different.”

I sighed. “You say that about all the women? No matter how many you meet, you’ll never find one like her.”

“I’m not trying to replace her.”

I snorted. “You could have fooled me.”

He slammed the door closed. “Dammit, Dante. I wanted to tell you about the woman I met tonight. She changed me.”

“Sex will do that,” I mumbled.

I wasn’t opposed to sex. I simply didn’t see the need to have sex with every woman I met. That was harsh on Asher. I flicked the page and attempted to read, but my concentration had evaporated.

“We didn’t have sex.”

That made me close the book and look at him. He seemed different. His muscles appeared bigger. His eyes were brighter. Was his hair longer, too?

He inched closer to my chair. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as though I sensed a threat coming for me, but this was my little brother. We may fight sometimes, but we love each other. I’d no sooner hurt him than he’d hurt me. We’d suffered together. Formed a bond that we would never break.

“What happened then?”

“She bit me.”

My eyebrows rose high, touching the shaggy hair hanging over my face.

“She changed me.”

He inched closer to my chair. To the glowing warmth from the fire licking along the lengths of timber in the hearth. The way he moved…

“I want to change you, too.”

Change me? I stood and faced him. The glow from the fire shone in his eyes. They were as different as he was acting. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to run. Run from my little brother. Which was ridiculous.

“I like who I am,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“A book nerd that the town makes fun of?”

“I don’t care what people say.”

Asher sighed with all the pent-up anger of our upbringing. “I do. I’m stronger now. More powerful. You can be too. We always deserved more than we’ve had. We deserve to be treated better, Dante.”

He opened his mouth, his teeth appeared longer, sharper, and harder. He lunged at me as though he was about to bite me.

“Get off me.”

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