“I wanted to talk,” I say, struggling to remember exactly what I wanted to say. “I don’t understand my role here, what I’m supposed to be doing. How much do you know about the curse?”
“Not much,” he admits. “I tried talking to the others. They weren’t very helpful, but I did find out that we should introduce you to the pack.”
Anxiety makes the hairs rise on the backs of my arms as I think about meeting a bunch of werewolves.
“Isn’t that… kind of permanent?”
He meets my gaze evenly, nodding. “This might be permanent, so I think we should treat it as such.”
My anxiety kicks up a notch, and I take a sip of tea as I try to cover my nerves.
“Okay. When should I meet them, then?”
“Soon,” he replies. “I don’t know if I want to just walk you into the infirmary. It’s pretty bleak in there.”
“I can’t say I’m keen to do that,” I agree, taking another sip of tea.
“We also talked about Darian… where he ended up. There doesn’t seem to be a set conclusion for him. He was a major landowner in the area. Surely his death would have been recorded.”
“You’re right about that,” I reply. “It’s something I noticed myself. He’s presumed dead by a certain date, and there’s no mention of his funeral, just a memorial. There are a couple of different stories about when he was last seen, too.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Shane says, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. “Lynette was locked in the manor—we know that pretty much for sure. She did some mojo to punish Darian and all his wolves for the betrayal. But we have no idea why, or even what happened to them.”
“Was Lynette’s body ever found?” I ask.
Shane shakes his head. “Sadie claims Lynette died in the manor, but no body.”
“Interesting,” I mutter, sipping my tea.
The answer might be right there, in where they have their eternal rest. Maybe proper respect for their remains will break the curse.
“I think we should definitely investigate this further,” I say. “I should talk to Sadie and Trina about it. We’ll also make a plan for me to meet some of the pack. I’m a bit nervous about this. I’m still not used to being in this supernatural world.”
“I understand,” Shane says.
A few moments pass while we sip our tea, and the silence begins to grow awkward. I can feel the tension singing in the air, like the pressure before a lightning strike.
“Did they say anything else?” I ask in a pitiful attempt to break the silence.
Shane looks up at me, and his eyes look deeper than they did a few seconds ago. The memory of being almost pressed up against him crowds into my mind, and my chest tightens with excitement.
“They did… but I’m not sure I should say.”
“Come on,” I reply, trying to force myself to act normally while my body casually catches on fire with a rogue passion. “Tell me. Anything that can help us out of this situation is worth trying.”
Shane focuses his eyes on mine, and I get that strange sensation again, as if they are slowly churning like whirlpools and I’m getting drawn in.
“Sex,” he says.
I know I didn’t hear that right.
I blink, taking three full breaths before I respond. “What?”
Shane sighs and looks down, dragging his palm across his face. “Sex,” he says again.
The word hammers at my brain, and still I can’t accept it. Reality unravels around me, like a video game glitching out into a blue screen.
Is my mind inserting a word I want to hear? Is he asking for sex right now? I just don’t understand.
