Page 4 of Shaped to Be Yours

“We are having this conversation, Mr. Bosco, because they did not find a werewolf that night.” The man from the base slapped a file folder onto the table between us, one I hadn’t noticed him holding. He opened it to the news article that had been my hint at what attacked me, though I’d already guessed after transforming beneath a full moon.

The article was of a man-like monster with very obvious wolf features and gray fur. He was being arrested because he’d been caught without a visa and, even worse, was in a non-tester town—at least it hadn’t been one at the time. “I don’t understand. That’s the guy. That’s the werewolf who bit me. Isn’t it?”

He flipped the printed article to show another piece of paper, one showing something like a mugshot of the same man, only he was entirely human looking. Then he flipped to another page, and the man had goatlike features instead of a wolf’s. Then another, where he looked more like a bunny or something. “The man caught that night and sent back to the monster realm was a púca. There are monsters like him that might seem likewerewolves, able to transform into animals and half-animal combinations, but nothing that could turn someone else into a monster like them. Real monsters don’t work that way, not any we have cataloged, and as far as we know, we have all species cataloged that have ever crossed over from their realm to ours.”

“What are you saying?”

“If this púca bit you, Mr. Bosco, all you would have been left with is teeth marks. You may have been born here, and you may have only first transformed after being attacked by something that night, but you are not a werewolf. Werewolves don’t exist. We don’t know what you are.”

It felt like the floor had opened up to swallow me. All the hair was standing up on my arms, and I felt cold. Scared.We don’t know what you are? Who the fuck says that? “I don’t understand. I’m not lying about what happened to me.”

“We don’t think you’re lying. You were attacked by something. You transformed. You are a monster now, whether you were before or not.”

“Whether I—”

“And with the vouching of the eldritch monster, Cael, who works for this base, we have no intention of revoking your visa to stay here or preventing you from moving back to Elder Ridge.”

Cael. I wouldn’t even have a visa if not for him. He was the first monster I ever talked to. Although, hearing his voice originally had made me pass out. Being eldritch, or a Tall Man, meant he was from the Void, whatever that meant, before… well, everything. Before the human and monster realms were separate places. He was like the proto monster. Maybe proto human too. Ageless. Kind of creepy. All black with multiple eyes and razor looking teeth. Also, weirdly hot with how he used his tentacles. He was like if Slender Man was real and made a porno.

Not that Cael made a porno! Only he sort of did? He filmed a spicy ad for the Monster Match app with his boyfriend, who hemet through the app, and I witnessed some of the filming. It was this fantasy fulfilment thing on a train, and the app wanted it for a promo. I’d watched that ad way too many times, remembering what it was like seeing some of it in person.

Not that I was into Cael! Or his artist boyfriend, Miles. Cael wasn’t into me either. He let me watch them as, like, some punishment for overhearing me being a dick about monsters and the app and everything. He could turn invisible, which was totally cheating, and I was only being a dick that night—well, most nights—because I didn’t think Ricky could want a monster like me and, I don’t know, I needed to prove it to myself. I needed to know if Ricky could still like me if he knew I wasn’t human, and mocking other monsters was the stupid way I’d tried.

Turned out Rickycouldstill like me. But I never would have found out if Cael hadn’t learned I was a monster in hiding and made me come clean, both about that and about my feelings for Ricky. Cael worked for the base in Edgewind as a sort of surveillance agent, since monsters and humans living together in our realm had only been a thing for the past few years. There were still protests about it. Everywhere.

“Be aware, Mr. Bosco,” the man from the base continued, “that if Elder Ridge had not become another tester town, the situation might be different. There is a mystery about you, and we don’t like mysteries. Mysteries are how good people end up dead, even if those at fault didn’t mean any harm.”

“I have never attacked or hurt anyone,” I snarled. I could feel my claws wanting to unleash as a surge of anger rushed through me, and I clenched my fists beneath the table to stop it. Icouldcontrol myself, damn it.

“We know you haven’t hurt anyone, Mr. Bosco, but we need to be sure you never will.” He closed the file folder, even though I could tell there were several more pages to it. “You have twooptions before you can walk out that door. Submit to regular testing at the facility in Elder Ridge, and you can go about your daily life completely unhindered, like any monster with a visa.”

“You want me to be a science experiment?”

“We want to solve your mystery. But we won’t force you. Your alternative is to have an officer assigned to you, who will check in periodically, often at random, to ensure you truly aren’t a danger to anyone, including yourself.”

“So, my choices are science experiment or house arrest?”

“If you prefer to think of it that way.”

“For how long?”

“Until we are satisfied you are not a threat.”

A threat. A few weeks ago, I was just a college senior about to start my life.

A few months ago, I was human.

How did it all go wrong so fast?

And what the fuck was I? I wanted to know, to be sure, but no way would I let them poke and prod me to find out. No fucking way.

“Then I guess I’m on parole, because I am not submitting to any tests. And I’m not going to change my mind about that. I’m still human.”

“Mr. Bosco—”

“I’m still human tome. I don’t care about the rest.” Even if I did.

What was I?

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