“Wish I could say the same for you right now.”
“Because I became the kind of person you can’t ever like?”
Fuck, she thought. Then almost had to clutch at her stomach, it hit that hard.
She couldn’t fault him, however. It was the truth. Hehadbecome the kind of person she couldn’t ever like, and that was how she felt, and there was no getting around it. And yet somehow, at this moment? She kind of wanted to.
And that felt so weird and so mixed up that she didn’t know how to deal with it. For a moment she was split—between theresentment she knew she should still feel toward the man he’d become, and the urge to go easy on this seemingly vulnerable creature in front of her.
And it made her cock one eyebrow. Voice as dry as the Sahara somehow. “Well, that,” she said. “And the fact that you’re apparently a fucking werewolf.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The silence spun out endlessly. And to the point where she was really starting to feel the cold. Though she had to imagine he was too—his nightie was even more flimsy than hers. She could see his very human but very hairy ankles and feet sticking out the bottom.
But he wasn’t hurrying this along.
He just stared, and stared, like he was waiting for something from her. Even though she was the one who needed some kind of response. She even knew what response it was supposed to be.
So she decided the best course of action was to prompt him.
“You’re not saying, ‘Oh my gosh, of course I’m not, Cassie.’”
And got flat nothing for it. No immediate agreement. No laughter.
In fact he just looked pained for a second.
“Believe me, I want to. But then I’d be lying to you.”
“You never had problems with trying to lie before.”
The pain on his face deepened. “Yeah, and I’m turning over a new leaf.”
“And this is what you start with?” she asked. “Being a whole-ass supernatural being?”
“Well actually, werewolves aren’t classified as supernatural beings. They’re in the creature category. You’re thinking more of vampires and fairies and even ghosts, I’m pretty sure ghosts are considered… more like… they.…” His words simply dried up. And she knew exactly why too. She could feel it happening before he even explained. “Okay, I’m gonna stop there because your eyes look like they’re about to fall out of your head.”
“Of course they are. You just made my every childhood nightmare real.”
“Your childhood nightmare wasn’t vampires or fairies or ghosts.”
“Maybe it should have been, if they fucking exist. Are you telling me they exist, Seth? Answer me now, immediately,” she couldn’t help saying. And she couldn’t help the rising panic in her voice either. Honestly it was all she could do not to grab him and shake him, because holy fuck was he seriously confirming there wasmorethan werewolves? As if werewolves alone weren’t impossible enough?
It certainly seemed like it. But she needed him to spell it out.
Even if he quite clearly did not want to.
“Maybe I can answer you later,” he said. “Much later.”
“No, there’s no later, Seth. You’re gonna tell me now.”
“But I think maybe you need to calm down first.”
“And exactly how am I going to do that when you just dropped a bomb on reality? Because you get that you’ve done that, right? Like, you can see how completely wild this all is. One second everything is ordinary, and the next your mortal enemy is confirming that the supernatural stuff you last laughed at in an old episode ofBuffyactually exists somehow.”
She spread her hands, like she was waiting for him to fill them with answers. But all she got was a sigh. And aneye roll. An actual eye roll.
“Okay, for starters it’snothinglikeBuffy,” he said, in this withering tone.
