“Probably not, no. But it’s what happened.”
“And then what? She told you all about what you had become?” she asked, and though she tried to stop herself from leaning forward, she couldn’t. It was impossible. He had her completely hooked now. Just ravenous for what came next.
“She told me what she knew. The ways you can be turned—sometimes from a bite, sometimes from an ancient curse, sometimes a spell or a potion. Though all of them mean you basically end up the same way. In fact, the only difference is that you can get it reversed if it was magic donetoyou. But I don’t think that really applies to me,” he said, almost as if he were musing to himself. Then he seemed to refocus back on her. “Everything else is the same for all wolves, though. Heightened emotions make you transform, things don’t always go back the way they should, it gives you weird instincts and enhanced reflexes and senses even when you’re in human form.”
“So, like, you chase sticks now and can hear dog whistles.”
He shot her a withering look. “I can hear dog whistles. I donotchase sticks.”
“You sure? Not even once, almost?”
“Never.”
You little liar, she thought, automatically.
Because, yeah, maybe they weren’t connected the way they once had been. But she could still read him, just as well as he could read her. She could hear what he really meant when he went too firm on a single word. And she could see it, too, in the way his head shake seemed so sure, but that same surety didn’t quite reach his eyes. No—his eyes were all wince andoh wow, this is not convincing at all.
So she couldn’t resist giving him a little push.
“I don’t know. Maybe we should test it. Like you tested me,” she said, and stood, searching for the exact thing she needed.
And there it was, in the corner of the porch. Just waiting for her to get it.
“But I didn’t test you,” he protested. “I just wanted to prove that I was right.”
“Okay, so we’ll call it that when I grab this fallen branch here.”
“No, don’t grab the fallen branch, Cassie. Cassie, just. Wait a second,” he said, as she stooped to snag it. Then she strolled back to the porch steps, in time to watch him already struggling to resist. His hands were actually squeezing the chair’s arms, hard enough that his knuckles had gone white. And the way his eyes were trained on the stick…
It waswild. It was ridiculous. It was impossible to stop herself.
“Or instead of waiting a second, I could say, ready, boy. Ready.Fetch,” she said. Then she drew her arm back, and threw the branch as hard as she could. All the way across the garden and into the tree line.
And oh, the sound that came out of him when she did. It was like someone trying to say the word “fuck” around a mouthful of gravel. Somehow he managed to hiss thefat the start of it. But by the time he got to thekthere was almost nothing left. The letter just sort of sputtered out, between incredibly gritted teeth.
And even when he managed to get his reaction mostly under control, he still couldn’t say anything normally. He had to squeeze words out, around jaw muscles that seemed to have locked into place. “See,” he said. “I totally did not do it.”
“Yeah, but how hard are you clenching every muscle in your body right now?”
“I’m not clenching them. This is just me being my normal, non-clenched self.”
“Seth, if this was normal people would worry you’d pooped your pants.”
“Yeah, well, they wouldn’t need to. Because I’ve just squeezed my butt cheeks together so hard I think they’ve fused into one smooth globe,” he said, because of course he couldn’t maintain the lie. He had to let it out, and he did. All in one big relieved and half-laughing breath that had her laughing too.
Though she felt bad afterward.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have made a joke of it,” she said.
But he shook his head, waved her off. “No, no. I’m glad you did. It’s good to find it funny with someone,” he said, in this contentedsort of way. Though what he was contented about only raised other questions. Ones that had kind of haunted her for a while now.
Who did he spend his time with?
“So there’s no pack that you’re a part of, then,” she said, and he shook his head.
“There aren’t really packs, the way you get in movies and stuff. No alphas, no betas, no omegas. Although you know it usually ends up with, like, werewolves hanging out with other werewolves, that kind of thing.”
“But you don’t want to do that either.”
