I needed to do something to busy my mind, so I grabbed a brand-new toothbrush from the counter, assuming it was bought for me, and tore it free from the packaging. Applying an ungodly amount of toothpaste, I started to brush in a fever.
I went over what I knew. I was a wolf. Well, a human-slash-wolf so… werewolf? That guy Brayden was the grey wolf—er,werewolfthat I’d helped that night, and Maddy, his sister, seemed to be one of us too.
I spat into the sink, suddenly wondering if aliens were real, or trolls, and every other supernatural creature I’d read about. Portals, other worlds, magic.
Fear gripped me.
Fallen angels? Demons?
Needing to busy my mind, I stepped into the shower, squirting some shampoo into my hair and then scrubbing my scalp so hard it hurt. I didn’t like this new world, I missed the old world where I knew everything. The old world was safe.
I wanted my mom and Leah. I wanted to rewind the past few days and never follow the trail of blood into the woods. If I could write my past self a letter, it would go something like this.
Dear, Past Averly,
Do NOT follow that trail of blood into the woods. Do not help that injured wolf, and for the love of God do not dive in between two fighting wolves! You will get bitten, you will think you have rabies, but what you actually have is so much worse.
You’re an idiot.
Sincerely,
Future Averly
P.S. Stay away from Brayden.
That’s what bothered me the most in this moment. Brayden had come to the bar, casually asked how my arm was and just let me nearly die in my bed. All the while he was a doctor! What was the Hippocratic Oath? Do no harm? Big fat fail on that one, buddy. Then he spelled my mom’s memory and kidnapped me. All of this while giving me minimal information.
What the hell, man!
I rinsed my hair and turned off the tap. Grabbing a towel, I wrapped it around my body and tore out of the bathroom hellbent on revenge.
“Incoming,” Maddy coughed into her hand, and Brayden looked up from where he was rifling through the duffle bag.
“How fucking dare you!” I yelled in a rush.
He steeled himself, standing to his full height and looking down at me. Was he always this tall? Geez, I considered myself tall for a woman but he was like,reallytall. I lost my train of thought for a moment, but then remembered and all of the anger was back.
“You came into the bar and acted like nothing happened. You could have warned me I’d been bitten by a werewolf!” I yelled. “You totally wolfed me!”
Maddy snort-laughed into her palm and then swallowed it down when we both shot her a glare.
He stepped closer to me. “Wolfed you?” He cocked his head to the side.
“Yeah.” I clutched my towel tighter, wondering why I hadn’t stopped to put clothes on.
“You changed me into a werewolf without my consentortelling me what I would become.”
“Consent?” Brayden’s voice was thick with anger. “I saved your life. And warn you? What would you have done? Call the police and get me locked up in a seventy-two-hour hold for being insane? I wasn’t even sure if you’d gotten enough saliva to force the change.”
I scoffed. “If I hadn’t, then like you said I would have died. You could have warned me of that too!”
He crossed his arms, making his biceps pop. “Would you really want to know if you were going to slowly waste away from werewolf poison?”
I squirmed. No one said anything about werewolf poison.
“You...” I fumbled. “You should have told me sooner. What kind of decent person doesn’t tell someone they are about to become a monster?”
He fell silent. The silence stretched as he just stared at me as if he were dealing with a disgruntled employee.
