Tasia carefully did not share that she had been speculating on the specifics of his condition since she first discovered his secret.
His sigh loosened his shoulders. “I will share that information”—he turned to look at her—“ifyoutell me your story in return.”
“I can do that.” Her gut twinged as an inner voice warned her that Mitch would think poorly of her when he heard what she had to say.
The part-time wolf went back to slogging through the mire. “I was a regular little boy. My father died when I was three.”
Chara’s age. What a terrible time to lose a father. Tasia didn’t remember her birth father, but the death of her stepfather still stole the breath from her lungs at unexpected times.
“My mother always took the blame, but she never told mewhyI was cursed. Looking back, I suspect her loyalty to my late father offended the one who did it.” He slowed to scrape the accumulated mud off his boots. “Not sure if he cursed me instead of her because his conscience wouldn’t let him leave a kid with a wolf for a mother, or because he thought it would hurt her more.”
“Either way is despicable,” Tasia muttered.
A shrug lifted and lowered his shoulders, temporarily distracting her as she admired their breadth.
“I remember very little about him, except that he was the darkest-skinned man I have ever seen. That, and he had a huge pack on his back. I remember wanting to explore all of the pockets.”
Tasia liked the mental image she formed of a tiny Mitch nosing through a giant bag.
“Nobody keeps a wolf as a pet, even a puppy-sized one, so my mother had to hide us in the woods.”
“Wait, you were a wolf all the time?”
He nodded. “At first. When I was eight, a different stranger offered to fix the curse. He looked nothing like the first man, but something about him felt the same.” Mitch gave a laugh edged with scorn. “Unfortunately, he wasn’t as good at magic and had to tie my curse to the cycle of the moon. I transformed back into a human, but now I turn whenever the full moon is in the sky, whether I like it or not.”
As they rounded a bend, the scar on his jaw came into sight. Tasia rarely thought about it anymore, but something about his tone when he mentioned shifting into his human form made a connection in her mind.
“Is that how you got your scar? You—oof!” She slammed into his back when he stopped walking.
Mitch spun to face her with wide eyes. “How on earth could you have known that?”
Tasia tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “That one time I saw you change, I noticed that it starts with your head and moves down. If you were transformed without knowing it was going to happen, I thought maybe you had been scratching your jaw with your back paw or something.”
A disbelieving laugh softened his shock. “That isexactlywhat happened. I dealt with a lot of fleas as a kid. I can avoid them now, but I was really itchy when the stranger was trying to savethe day.” He ran a hand over the scar. “My face reverted to human skin before my claws disappeared.”
When he shook his head again, Tasia promised not to share that particular detail. “I mean, I haven’t told anyoneanythingabout you, and I can’t tell anyone without revealing that you can turn into a wolf, but I get the feeling that your reputation would take a hit if this got out, and—”
Mitch held up a hand and laughed. “Whoa there. I know. I trust you not to say anything.”
“Oh, right.” Heat crept up her neck. “Well, good.”
He smirked at her for a moment, then slowly turned around to keep walking.
Another aspect of his story snagged her interest. “I’ve never heard of a human being able to do magic like that . . .” she mused aloud.
His grunt suggested he didn’t have an answer for that. Several steps later, he spoke over his shoulder. “Your turn. How did you find yourself in Boschivo?”
After hearing him share such intimate (and potentially embarrassing) details about his life, there was no way she couldn’t reciprocate. Her stomach clenched at the idea that he might hate her when he knew why she was here.
Taking a deep breath, she dove right in. “My sister, Cindy—or stepsister, rather—wanted to marry Prince Frank. His brother, Charming, is the crown prince of Diomland.” Tasia noticed she was waving her hands a bit wildly as she talked and folded her arms to control them. “I—”
Her throat closed, and she tried to swallow, then coughed when she choked on her own saliva. Mitch walked on, giving her time to compose herself.
“I betrayed my family by telling Prince Frank something that caused him to change his mind about her.” Tasia took a shakybreath; she could still hear the angry accusations of her mother and sisters telling her that she had ruined everything.
“I take it she didn’t marry him?” Mitch prompted.
“No. She had to settle for Prince Charming.” She thought she heard him react, but her mind was already on what had happened afterward. “As soon as they found some relatives far enough away, they shipped me out here.”
