Page 5 of Bewitching the Wolf

Not that our friendship had been heading in the direction I’d hoped, even before I shifted.

The dating direction, I mean.

These past few years, we’ve mostly bantered and squabbled. I made it my job to be rude to Tippy, and she was rude right back, particularly about my smoking habit. She’d force her ghastly potions on me to get me to quit, and I’d grumble and groan and make a great show of being coerced into drinking them.

It was fucking childish, really.

But at least back then we looked at each other, deeply and often. And maybe our eyes said everything our words couldn’t.

And sure, I should have told her sooner about my werewolf status, but I guess I knew it would scupper my chances.

And I was right, wasn’t I? Tippy barely gave me the time of day, as if I was an unpleasant smell under her cute little nose.

I leave Digger’s, my shoulders braced against the sound of Tippy’s laughter. I have to face the fact that my life is only going to get tougher from here on.

Soon I will be undertaking the most dangerous mission of my life. Risking everything to save the monsters of the Labyrinth.

And it seems that the girl I care about doesn’t give a shit whether I live or die.

CHAPTER 2

TIPPY

Of course I notice Jax leave the diner.

There is nothing about Jax Summers that ever escapes my notice.

It’s been like this since the first time I saw him. Back then, he was a programmed human working on the edge of the Labyrinth. A peripheral, they’re known as, because they work in the twilight zone between the human and monster worlds. Their sole purpose is to move products that we monsters manufacture onto portal elevators and send them up to the humans in Sparkle City. And even though they’re programmed to barely interact with us, to just do their job, we monsters distrust peripherals.

Because they’re still humans, even if they are controlled by the authorities. And who are the authorities? A bunch of cruel people who’ve kept us monsters imprisoned underground for the past four centuries.

It’s the worst kind of irony, because when the apocalypse polluted Earth, it was monsters who helped the few surviving humans build the domes they now live under. A dozen domes scatter Earth’s landscape, the most beautiful being Sparkle City, which sits right above our section of the Labyrinth.

Twenty thousand humans live in Sparkle City, insulated from the air they polluted with their weapons of destruction.

Air that they can’t breathe, but that we monsters can. A fact that really pisses off their leaders.

So they keep us underground, enslaved to a covenant we signed under duress after our rebellion failed a hundred years ago. It is impossible for monsters to move above ground without fear of reprisal and, no doubt, death.

So nope, we don’t have time for humans.

Or their peripheral minions.

Except… Jax Summers—he seemed different from the other peripherals in a way I couldn’t fathom. He was hauntingly handsome, in a lean and hungry way, with the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen. Deep-set, and vivid green like emeralds.

I watched him for months, until one day he looked up from the crates of goods he was loading into a portal elevator. Our gazes locked, and in that moment, something flared between us. A spark of connection. Then, just as quickly, it disappeared, His face became a blank mask as he turned away and started to load more cargo.

I stood there, hoping he’d turn around and look at me again with that light in his eyes. But he didn’t. He just disappeared into the portal elevator and the doors closed behind him.

After that, I hung around the portals just to catch sight of him. He was there most days, barking orders at other peripherals, so I guessed he was in charge. Often, he’d slink off and smoke a cigarette in a dark alleyway. He had a bad cough.

He smoked way too much, and that worried me. Kept me awake at night.

Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I marched up to him and said boldly, “What’s your name?”

“Peripheral 101,” he replied in a monotone.

“No, your real name,” I demanded.