Page 75 of The Lone Wolf Café
”We need to get you help,” I declared once I’d had a few moments to collect myself. Even in the darkness of Rowena’s cottage, I could see how much blood had been smeared all over her body. There was even a line of it across her cheek, like a scar.“There must be an apothecary in town, a healer, maybe someone has an antidote for the bite. Maybe–”
“Nettie.”
I stopped talking. Rowena lifted her head, and the streak of blood across her face glistened ruby red in the moonlight.
“I’ll be fine. I have the materials to make a poultice that will hold me over until morning.”
“Um… okay,” I replied in an uneasy tone. “Where can I get the ingredients?”
“I’ll get them.”
Rowena went to stand, and in a panic I shoved her back down.
In the process, we locked eyes, our faces less than a foot away from each other. We were both panting – me from shock, and Rowena from pain. I couldn’t help but notice that Rowena was remarkably calm. I could tell she was struggling with the pain from her injuries, but she didn’t seem fazed by the fact she’d just been bitten by a werewolf. Any other witch would’ve been hysterical, knowing they’d just been turned into one of the creatures they feared most.
Rowena lifted her uninjured arm, which was smeared with almost as much blood as her injured one, and gently touched the red fur around the rum of my ears.
My ears.
Panic surged through my body like electricity. I hadn’t realized my ears and tail were still out.
But it didn’t matter. Rowena already knew. She’d just watched me shift into my wolf form to fight off her attacker.
It was worth it. But the gaze in Rowena’s eyes still made my stomach twist itself in knots.
“I’m sorry,” I spat out, more panic bubbling in my blood. “I know I’ve been lying to you. The truth is, as you just saw… I’m no human. I’m a werewolf.”
Rowena didn’t reply. She remained still, silent, with those big brown eyes still locked on mine.
“Gods, I don’t know what I was thinking,” I blubbered, a knot of emotion catching in my throat. “I put you and everyone else in danger by pretending to be a witch. I shouldn’t have come here. I should have–”
“Nettie...”
I snapped my mouth shut. I realized the entire time I’d been fumbling out my apology, she was still rubbing my wolf ears. Her fingers trailed down them, weaving through strands of my red hair, until they came to a stop at the curve of my cheek.
“Nettie,” Rowena continued. “I always knew you were a werewolf.”
“You… wait,what?!”
I was shocked. Dumbfounded.
It was absurd. But in a twisted way, it also made sense. It was why she didn’t question me being from a remote island, or my lack of knowledge about the human world. It was why she didn’t comment whenever my ears and tail popped out, even though their outlines were easily visible through the fabric of my cloak. I’d been terrified, swallowing down my secret like a pill, trying my best to fit in.
But she knew.
She always knew.
“But…how?” I asked.
Rowena shifted, wincing from the pain as she cradled her injured arm. “I could smell your scent. When I first approached you in the café. Right after I caught you here eating scones.”
She could… smell… my scent?
That made no sense. Unlike shifters, witches didn’t have a highly developed sense of smell. They couldn’t sniff each other out like we werewolves could.
Which meant Rowena was…
My stomach dropped.
