Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Out of control.
I raced up the mountainside, my paws scrabbling over the rocks to get to higher ground, but stopped and lifted my nose to the moon, and howled over what I’d done.
I had to wonder if Lyssa would even be there when the moon set.
26
EMMA
“Johnny? Johnny, come back!” I stood at the doorway to the bunkhouse, wrapped in nothing but a sheet. The air was chilly, the night somehow alive. And–my boyfriend was a werewolf.
Shit! HOLY SHIT.
I didn’t know how to process that. To even get my head around it. One second we were having amazing sex–the next, he bit me!
Oh God. Was I infected? And if so, with what? Was I going to turn into a furry creature with big teeth?
When my sister went and did crazy things, I bet she didn’t have something like this happen to her. Oh, no. It was possible I finally won the bat-shit crazy sister award.
I’d fucked a werewolf. I just told him to come back, too.
What had I been thinking? I couldn’t stay here. Couldn’t wait for a wolf to come back and… and what? Eat me? Tear me to bits? Bite me again?
I put my fingers over the spot his teeth had nipped. There was a trickle of blood, and it only stung a little.
I couldn’t stay here. Couldn’t be by myself, so I started my way up the hill to the main house. Marina would be there. The others, too.
Before I could figure out what to even say when I got there, Marina called out. Thank God.
“Lyssa?” She was running down the gravel road toward me, followed by Audrey, Natalie, and Becky. “Are you okay? What happened?” The women surrounded me, hugging my shivering form.
“J-j-johnny.” My teeth chattered.
“What happened?”
I reached up and tapped my shoulder. It was hard to catch my breath.
“He bit her,” Audrey said in a calm, doctor’s voice. She tilted her head to examine my wound although it was really too dark for her to see anything well. “Come up to the house, so I can look at that for you.”
The four women led me up the path toward the ranch house. They didn’t seem surprised. Didn’t seem freaked out.
“H-h-e’s…” How did I say it? How did I explain what I just saw? That my boyfriend turned into a monster at the full moon.
I’d read all the Harry Potter books. I knew how this worked. Johnny had said it was a full moon, and I hadn’t thought anything of it. But in the story, Professor Lupin was a wonderful man who couldn’t help what he became at the full moon. That must be what was happening with Johnny. Why he sometimes lost control, like at the bar the night before. Why he was afraid that he would “go too far“ with me tonight.
I couldn’t fault him for that, could I?
I knew Johnny didn’t want to hurt anyone. That he cared deeply about those around him, including me.
I had great compassion for his plight. It must have been horrible to be subject to another side of yourself every time the moon was full.
I wasn’t going to reject him over this. I loved this guy. Warts and fur and all.
I definitely didn’t want them to go hunt him. Should I keep it to myself?
“Johnny…”
“Did he really bite you?” Becky asked kindly. Calmly. Too calmly.
I looked at her with wide eyes. How could she be so matter of fact? Did she know?
My hand came back to the place on my neck where his tooth had nicked me. They didn’t know my little cut was from a bite. I could have cut myself all kinds of ways.
Which meant they knew.
“He’s a wolf.” I said it as a statement, not a question.
“Yes, honey,” Becky said in the same tone of voice that a parent used when they had to admit Santa wasn’t real.
We were at the ranch house now, and they hustled me into the kitchen. Audrey grabbed a paper towel, folded it up, and pressed it to my neck to stop the bleeding. “Get me the medical kit,” she said to Marina.
So they knew about Johnny, and they accepted him anyway. I knew they were nice people. I was so glad they had his back.
But–oh God–what were the implications for me?
“Am I infected now too?” I squeaked.
Natalie pushed me into a kitchen chair and sat down in one facing me. She held my hand that wasn’t holding my sheet around me.
Her eyes pinned mine. “You’re not infected. It’s not a disease. They’re a different species from us.”
I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly very dry. “They?”
Did that mean…
Wolf Ranch! The very name of the place was a giveaway.
“All the guys are werewolves?”
“Wolf shifters.” Marina arrived with a first aid kit, which she set on the table and opened. “Not werewolves.”
Becky immediately pulled out alcohol swabs, ripped one open, and handed it to Audrey.