Aster nodded. ‘There are reasons for that, but I’m going to tell you everything in chronological order because otherwise I might forget something and this will all sound way more freaky and weird than it needs to.’
I wasn’t sure how it could sound more freaky and weird than it already did. Apparently, I’d broken my leg the day before but was miraculously unhurt now.
Unless.
‘How long have I been asleep?’
Aster’s nose scrunched in the way it did whenever I ruined one of his best stories. ‘I’ll get to that.’
Very rarely, I wanted to shove my best friend. Just a bit. But more than that, I trusted him. He said he needed to tell me about how I’d ended up in bed with him and his boyfriend in a certain way, so it must be important.
‘Carry on.’
Aster widened his eyes at me, like that was what he was going to do anyway and he didn’t need my permission.
‘No one was with you at this point, so we don’t know exactly what happened.’ Any playfulness in his expression fled. ‘You managed to get yourself to one of the goat huts, but you were exposed to the storm for a while before that.’
‘Oh, fuck.’ Memories, harsh and jagged, crashed into my mind. ‘I passed out after I fell. When I woke up, I saw the hut and dragged myself over to it.’
It had been agonising. Tentatively, I flexed my left ankle, then knee. No pain at all.
Maybe Aster was reluctant to tell me how long I’d been asleep because it had been months. I must have been out for a while for my leg to completely heal.
‘Kit, Errol, and Louisa found you and brought you here.’
‘Kit was there?’ Soft fingers on my face. Comforting whispers. A grip on my hand I didn’t ever want to let go. ‘Where is he now?’
‘He’s at his bookshop.’
I looked away from Aster’s face to the jumper he was wearing that I was fairly certain Callum had been bundled up in the last time I came over for dinner. My bestie couldn’t know the strange thoughts creeping over me. They had seemed so natural while freezing and hurt and alone.
I didn’t know if I still wished I’d kissed Kit, but I certainly wished he was here.
‘There was loads wrong with you. Too much,’ Aster interrupted my musings about Kit’s lips. ‘Your leg was broken and one of the bones had pierced a vein. It looked seriously messed up, like your leg was a huge red sausage.’ Aster grimaced after painting such a vivid and wonderful mental image. ‘You had advanced hypothermia from being exposed to the wet and cold for so long, and rain must have gotten into your lungs somehow. Maybe when you were unconscious. You had pneumonia as well.’
‘Fuck,’ I hissed. Aster being glad I was alive made a whole lot more sense now. If all he’d said was true, it was a death sentence without immediate medical attention. ‘How did you get me to a hospital quickly enough? Did they put me into a coma?’
The wind was rising again. Aster gripped my hands, his thumbs smoothing over my knuckles.
‘This is when it’s going to get freaky, okay?’ he warned me.
I nodded. I needed to know how I’d gone from knocking at death’s door to waking from what felt like the best night’s sleep of my entire life.
‘The storm was still raging. There was no way we could get you off the island.’ Aster’s fingers tightened. ‘To save you, we had to make a choice. Well, I made the choice really. Best friend privilege. If you’re about to die and there’s some way to save you but it’s a choice between death and something you might not want, I get to decide. And spoiler, I’ll always choose to keep you around.’
‘Aster?’ I said over the thumping gusts of wind battering the cabin, trying to keep my voice steady as nerves zinged through me. ‘What choice did you make?’
Maybe he’d risked someone else to help me, had demanded a helicopter travel to the island during the storm. My stomach sank. I hoped no one had been hurt.
Aster shuffled closer so that his legs pressed against mine. His hands gripped my elbows. Sardined between my best friend and Callum, it was almost like they didn’t want me to escape. Or knew I’d need some kind of anchor once Aster finally flipping revealed whatever he’d done to keep me alive against monumental odds.
‘The choice was that you’d die.’ Aster paused, the saltiness in the air increasing like even mentioning my untimely death pained him so much that he flooded the whole room with his sadness. ‘Or that you be turned into a werewolf.’
The anxiety swirling inside me stuttered. ‘What?’
Aster gripped my elbows. ‘Werewolves are real.’
‘Werewolves are real,’ I repeated. Then smiled. ‘I’m dreaming. Wow. This all felt super real for a moment there.’ I relaxed back into Callum’s imaginary hold. It felt nice but apparently wasn’t actually happening, so I could snuggle with him as much as I liked. ‘I hope I’m not too unwell when I really wake up. That goat hut sucked.’
