Page 8 of Isabel and the Werewolf Beast

“Born or bitten?” I asked.

“Bitten,” the one trapped inside said.

“By whom?”

“My brother.” He nodded his head at the werewolf standing with his mouth ajar.

“Hmm. What to do with you?” I stepped closer.

“Dante, run!” the stunned werewolf yelled from the safety outside the gates of the castle. I didn’t think the exchange would work, but my brief experiment was a success. Now, what to do with this werewolf? What other experiments on the curse would I get him to help me with? For the first time in what felt like ages, excitement thrummed through my veins.

“Whatever for?” Dante, that was what the other one called him, frowned.

“She’s a vampire.” He inched further away from us and closer to the forest. Closer to the freedom and safety of the woods, but he was already safe on the other side of the castle walls.

“Vampire? Huh? I didn’t even stop to think there might be other creatures.” Dante rubbed his chin.

“You didn’t?” I asked, surprise tinging my voice, and here I’d thought he would help me.

“No,” he admitted.

“You’re a strange one, aren’t you?”

He sighed, a long, suffering exhale rumbling his chest on the way out. “I’ve heard that all my life.”

I cocked my head to the side as I studied the werewolf. “I didn’t mean that negatively. Strange is good, but your brother is right. You should run from me.”

“Why? You don’t seem dangerous.”

I laughed at the sudden desire to pinch his cheeks like a baby, like I had many years ago when I was human and my friend had a child. “Aren’t you adorable?”

Inching forward, I lifted a hand to touch him. I must have gone crazy here. Vampires and werewolves wereenemies from the time of their existence, and vampires had always beaten them. His brother was right to be afraid of me. Under normal circumstances, I would have ripped his throat out by now, but nothing about this curse was normal.

His brother growled, long and deep. A warning to stay away, but the noise was pointless since he was on the other side of the cursed barrier. The one thing keeping me in this place.

I dropped my hand, the urge to touch Dante vanishing as quickly as it appeared. “What are you going to do out there?”

He growled, another of those warnings, and crept closer, his large build menacing and silent as he stalked me.

It was ridiculous. I could kill them both before they even realized it. The werewolf’s posturing was bordering on amusing, but I needed to assert my dominance because he didn’t know I was the superior creature. Smirking, I said, “I’ll rip his throat out if you want to keep up that attitude.”

“Asher,” Dante said, his voice deepening to an assertive command I didn’t expect from him. “Back off. I’ll handle this.”

I shot Dante a surprised glance. He seemed more mellow out of the two, less like a beast. Perhaps I was wrong to underestimate him. Maybe he was the wolf in sheep’s clothing?

“Give me my brother back,” Asher said.

I stalked toward the gateway. My steps determined, angry, and resentful he was on the other side while I was stuck here. I stopped before the barrier flung me back like it had many times.

“I can’t. See this magical barrier? Some jerk of a wizard placed it there and I can’t get out. Neither can your brother. So, if you want to get himout, then you need to find Silas Constantine and get him to undo his curse.”

“A curse?” the brothers said at the same time.

“Yes. So many questions, and here I thought it would be good to have company again.” I examined my long fingernails. Perhaps I should rip out the werewolf’s throat and be done with him and his brother because I was sure if I hurt Dante, Asher would rush inside and be within my range to dispatch, too.

“Where do I find him?” Asher asked.

“The last place I saw him was in this castle, which was in France, but that’s not where we are now, is it?”

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