Page 229 of Flirting with Darkness

One last chance to change my mind. To stay fully human. To reject the beast. To have just one lifetime with him.

Screw that. Screwallof it. I wanted forever with him, but I’d settle for as close to that as I could get.

I raised my arm to his open maw and placed my other hand firmly on his shoulder. “I’m sure.”

The tips of his canines dimpled my skin first, and I held my breath, watching, as they sank in and blood welled. The pain started a moment later, shrieking at me to pull away. It thundered in my nerves. I bit my lip and forced myself to hold still, despite the tears gathering in the corners of my eyes.

Then came the burning.

It began at the pricks of pain where his sharp teeth had pierced me, then it was fire spreading and licking up my arm, across my shoulders, down my chest and back, racing through my veins.

I cried out, hand fisting in his fur.

His hazel eyes watched me, soft and sorry, and they were the last thing I saw before the pain took over and there was only darkness.

* * *

I had no idea how much later it was when I woke up. The fire still burned in the unnatural fae pink I’d seen throughout palace; it didn’t consume wood, so gave me no indication of how long I’d been unconscious. Faolán was a solid, warm shape that I lay half draped over. His comforting scent filled my breaths, and beneath that the wood and sap of the cabin tickled my nostrils.

But I didn’t feel different. It hadn’t worked. I was still only human.

My eyes stung and I sat up, head hanging low. Could we try again? Or did this mean it would never work and I could never be a werewolf?

Still in his wolf form, he watched me, waiting on my reaction to this failure.

I swallowed down my disappointment, or tried to. It was too big, too much to force back and when I tried to speak, it blocked my throat so I couldn’t even hear myself say, “It didn’t work.”

He angled his head.Didn’t it?His breaths steamed the mirror as he nosed it, tilting it down towards us.

Two wolves looked back at us, one massive and grey with hazel eyes, the other large, with light reddish fur and golden eyes flecked with sky blue. I looked over my shoulder, but couldn’t find the creature in the cabin. That had to be some mistake or magic or…

I frowned, and the red wolf’s brows twitched.

Wait. No.

I opened my mouth to say as much, but the wolf’s mouth opened, too.

When I leapt up, sucking in a sharp breath, the wolf mirrored me.

Because itwasme.

It worked.I circled and yipped.It worked!It felt like my whole back half was waving side to side, but when I looked back, it was just the tail trailing after me, wagging.

My tail. Faolán, I have a tail!I licked and nipped at him, the voice in my head squealing as I yipped out loud.

He nudged my face away, laughing. Even in my mind, it was one of the most perfect sounds I’d ever heard.Calm down.He dodged another lick from me, face screwing up.You’re like an overeager cub.

But I’m a wolf, Faolán! We did it!I capered around the room, bouncing into the bed and walls more than once.

Good gods, what have I created?He groaned, but I caught the way his chest expanded and his eyes gleamed and even in his wolf form, I recognised it as pride coupled with happiness. Those same feelings tinged his mental voice as he instructed me on how to return to my human form.

We’d spoken about this decision at length. No matter how I changed as a werewolf, I would still always be human, too. Just like I’d changed from the little girl I once was over the years, but still carried her with me.

On my second attempt, I made muscle, bone, and fur shift back to two legs, two hands, and smooth skin. In the mirror, I stared at myself, naked, Faolán behind me, his hands on my shoulders.

“We did it.” I turned and flung my arms around him, burying my face into his chest.

“Youdid.”

We stayed there, wrapped up in each other and our shared happiness, for so long my face hurt from smiling so much.

Eventually Faolán huffed, blowing the top of my hair. “So much for a year and a day.” He grinned at me—that rare, unrestrained grin with no sign of grumpiness, and I laughed as much with pleasure at that as with amusement at his sardonic joke. He kissed the top of my head, then produced a wine bottle of cobalt blue glass. “I brought this because I knew we’d have something to celebrate.” He winked and poured.

“You never doubted?”

“You?” He raised his eyebrows, handing me a glass of rich red wine. “Never.” One arm looping around my waist, he held me close, our naked skin pressed together. He raised his glass. “To my wife. My beloved. My packmate. The sunshine to my raincloud.”

I didn’t need the fire—the love and joy in my chest was enough to warm even my bare skin. Vision blurring a little, I clinked my glass to his. “To my husband. My beautyandmy beast. My packmate. The raincloud that keeps my world growing.”

We drank and kissed, and the wine was sweet on our lips, a promise of a long, sweet life together.

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