Page 64 of Bewitched By the Werewolf
Ryder shakes his head and stifles a chuckle. “There is no magic candy, but there is a way to allow you to see past our glamours.”
“Can we do that? I would love to see the real world beyond my own. You have no idea how many times I wished I could see the things I read about and believe in. When you have so many people telling you, you’re crazy and you didn’t see what you thought you saw, being able to finally see it and know I was right, makes me feel a little less crazy.”
Ryder reaches out and gently grips both of my shoulders, turning me to face him, his expression serious and tender all at once. I feel a little exposed under his gaze. My unplanned confession exposing more of myself than I intended.
“You are not crazy Tess. You never have been.” He pauses taking in my vulnerability and stroking a finger across my cheek. “However, I can’t let you see past our glamours yet. That’s something you have to earn.” His tone becomes playful and sardonic.
“I think I’ve earned it at this point. Don’t you think? I mean I havefullyaccepted you as a shifter after all,” I sass back at him. I took his fucking knot for fucks sake, doesn’t that earn me something?
“It takes more than that Tess,” he deadpans.
“More? How much more is there?”
Larken laughs behind me, and I notice Ryder’s cheeks pinken. Aww he’s embarrassed, how cute. Should I push it further? Yeah, I think I can get away with a little more.
“It was so big it got stuck. I should get a reward for taking it all. Don’t you agree? I mean—”
Ryder’s hand covers my mouth, and his glare is almost strong enough to shoot laser beams from his eyeballs. “I think that’s enough. We’ll discuss it more later.”
Larken laughs harder behind me. “I think she deserves it just for being ballsy enough to talk so casually about taking a shifters knot.”
Ryder shifts his glare over my shoulder, I’m guessing to try and spear Larken with his laser eyes. I hear her trying to muffle her giggles before clearing her throat. My own giggle is muffled against his hand still over my mouth. When he doesn’t remove it, I lick the inside of his palm. His pupils dilate as he refocuses on me and the anger shifts to something more devious. I smile even though he can’t see my lips.
“I think that’s enough for now. Larken, thank you for your assistance. I hope I can trust in your discretion in this matter, at least until things are more…settled.”
Ryder finally drops his hand from my mouth, and I step back out of his reach but keep my lips shut for now.
Larken nods and seems to have finally worked through her laughter. “Of course. If you need anything else let me know. I like Tess,” she looks over at me and her lips twitch. “She’s fun. I think having you in town would help liven the place up a bit.”
She winks at me, and I grin back at her, but don’t make any smart-ass remarks like I normally would. I think I’ve pushed Ryder to his limit for inappropriate comments today.
Larken says her goodbyes and heads back towards the parking lot and her car. I expect Ryder to lead me in the same direction, but he steers me towards the greenhouse instead.
“Since we’re here, why don’t we go say hi to a few others?”
I perk up in excitement. More non-humans? Hell, yeah, I wanna meet more.
“Really? More fairies?”
“One fairy and two earth nymphs.”
Chapter 35: Ryder
Spending every night with Tess is better than I could have hoped. We stay at my cabin, since her trailer isn’t exactly roomy and is filled with reminders of why she ended up in Snowberry in the first place. I don’t mind her being in my space, it just makes it smell more like her every day. Coating her apple scent over every surface and soaking it into the fibers. If she were to leave, I imagine it would linger for months. The idea is to keep her here, but that’s up to her. Once she sees everything tonight at the blood moon, there’ll be nothing more to convince her to stay or to keep our secret.
Between showing Tess non-humans, keeping an eye on all the new shifters in town, and my nightly activities learning every erogenous zone on Tess’s body, I’ve been busy. I’ll be glad when the eclipse has passed and everyone goes home. Everyone except Tess, that is. Her trailer is her home so there’s still a possibility of her staying. She has no apartment to get back to or day job she’s missing. And from what she’s told me of her family and social life, not many people that would care if she disappeared into a secret Montana town.
It disgusts me that her family was so dismissive and unsupportive of her beliefs. Sure, believing in werewolves isn’t a widespread normal thing, but it wasn’t hurting anyone. Howis it any different than her believing in a different religion? They should have accepted and supported her even if they didn’t believe.
Now she has plenty of people who support her, here in Snowberry. Like Lottie, Tess has managed to befriend quite a few people in town in such a short amount of time. Her intentions may have been less than noble, but we all live in secret and lie about who we are constantly, it seems like that’s a common trait amongst us all. Even Lottie is lying about who she is to everyone. The only ones who know her real identity are Hunter, Ginger, Tess, and me. The rest of the town are just as unaware of Lottie as they are Tess. As the world is of us.
I’ve never been more anxious about an eclipse than I am about tonight’s. I’ve only ever had to be concerned about staying far away from others. Now not only will I be in the middle of a shifting pack but will have Tess at my side to worry about. I don’t fear for her safety from the others, only from myself. Sure, I managed to control myself enough the other night and not attack her, but what if I can’t tonight? With the effects of the eclipse sharpening my senses and overpowering my rational thought, I don’t know what could happen.
I’ll just have to be extra vigilant, extra focused. It’s unlikely I will be able to shift at all. Though I’m unsure how I’ll control it. I’ve never been able to suppress the shift on an eclipse, let alone a blood moon. Theoretically it can be done. Rarely have I heard of anyone successfully resisting it. Looks like tonight I’m going to find out exactly how strong my will is.
Because I’ve managed to monopolize so much of Tess’s time, she told me she would meet me at our house tonight. The day flies by in a blur and all I can think about is tonight. My head is a mass of jumbled emotions and tangled thoughts. Some good, some bad, some X-rated. Okay a lot of them are X-rated. Even if I don’t shift, the possibility of chasing Tess through the woodsand having my way with her under the full moon is still high. And I am very much looking forward to that portion of the evening.
I leave the office early, leaving Logan in charge for the evening. Since he’s a human he has no problems with working tonight. Things like lunar positions and astrological anomalies ineffective to his mood.
