“Then why?” her friend demanded angrily.
“Because if the cops got involved, they’d see that the bite marks I put on Jayden are ten times worse than the ones he put on me. The claws marks alone would probably land me in prison for assault.”
Becca stared at her in confusion. “What are you talking about? You’re too tame to even give a guy a hickey. There’s no way you could ever scratch a man up that bad.”
Selena sighed. Dropping Becca’s phone in her purse, she moved over to the couch and sat down. “Before this week, I would have agreed with you. But since last night, everything is different. I don’t really know what I’m capable of anymore. All I know is that I’m dangerous now.”
“I don’t understand.” Becca sat beside her. “What happened last night to make you think you’re dangerous?”
“I don’t really know. It’s kind of hard to explain,” she admitted. “But it’s why I called and asked you to come home. If I don’t talk about this with someone, I think I might go insane.”
Becca regarded her silently. “Okay, you needed me to come home to talk, so talk. But start from the beginning, because right now I’m confused as hell.”
Selena opened her mouth to start, then closed it again, not exactly sure where the beginning of this story really was. She was as confused as Becca. Finally, she took a deep breath and began at the place that seemed to make the most sense.
“Jayden and I got a little carried away the night he came over to my apartment for dinner,” she said softly. “While we were making out, I…well…I bit him. Hard enough to make him bleed.”
Becca looked at her like she was waiting for a punch line. “Look, I have to ask this now so we can get it out of the way. But this whole thing isn’t going to turn out to be some weird, kinky sex game, is it? If so, I don’t think I’m the person you should be talking to about it. I’m as vanilla as a Starbucks Frappuccino. I don’t do kinky.”
Selena laughed despite herself. Part of the reason she’d come to Becca was because her friend always knew how to get her to calm down. “No. As much as I wished this was some kind of sex game gone wrong, it isn’t.”
Becca nodded. “Okay. Well, if it wasn’t some kind of sex kink, why’d you bite your hunky boy toy hard enough to make him bleed?”
“It’s not like I planned it,” Selena said. “I was on his lap, kissing his neck, and the next thing I knew, I had blood in my mouth and four fangs in his neck. He didn’t seem concerned by it, but I freaked.”
Becca held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Did you say fangs?”
“Yeah. Four long, really sharp fangs. Though I didn’t realize what they were at the time.”
“You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking.”
Selena’s stomach twisted at the horrified look in her friend’s eyes. “I know it sounds bizarre. But there’s more.”
“Go on,” Becca said hesitantly.
“Yesterday, I found Ruben hanging out with a bunch of Locos on that empty lot on Ferguson.” Selena had replayed the entire scene through her head over and over again in light of what had happened that morning with Jayden. What she’d been able to do to those gangbangers made a lot more sense now. “When I told Ruben I wanted him to leave with me, three of the Locos attacked me.”
Becca gasped, her hands coming up to cover her mouth. “Were you hurt?”
Selena shook her head. “It was the reverse. I beat the crap out of them.”
Becca looked even more stunned at that, but Selena couldn’t stop now. She could already feel the tips of her fingers tingling and knew that she needed to get the rest of this story out before it got worse.
“Last night, Jayden and I made love,” she said. “It was amazing, powerful, and overwhelming. I came so many times that some parts of the evening are little more than a blur. But I vaguely remember biting and scratching Jayden. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me, but when I woke up this morning, I knew it wasn’t.”
“What did Jayden say?” Becca asked, leaning forward on the edge of the seat like she was watching an episode ofGame of Thrones.
Selena took a deep breath. “He told me that I’m turning into a werewolf. That I have been since that day in the classroom when Pablo tried to kill me.”
Becca stared at her for a moment, then bolted to her feet, her face suddenly red with anger. “That’s not funny, Selena. I came home because I was worried about you. I almost called the cops because I thought your new boyfriend abused you. I sat here and listened to what you had to say because I thought you were honestly in trouble. But if you’re going to make a joke out of all this, I’m going back to work. You can deal with your own problems.” Becca grabbed her purse and started for the door.
Selena swallowed hard, tears stinging her eyes. Why would anyone—even her best friend—believe a tale this unbelievable when Selena barely believed it herself?
Selena stood. “Becca, wait!”
Her friend turned, her hand on the doorknob.
“I can prove it to you,” she said. “Just…don’t freak out, okay?”
