Page 93 of Bewitching Her Monsters

“You need to tell her everything,” Maxum says with a firm voice. It’s not quite a command, but it doesn’t leave room for argument. “You have no excuse now.”

I glance back and forth between them. “Tell me what?”

“You’re tired.” Arran tries to stand up, but Maxum takes his shoulder and presses him back down to sit on the edge of the bed again.

“I’m a shifter.” Arran doesn’t even look me in the eye.

“That was my guess.” I gain a bit more energy with my confirmed projection.

Then it hits me.

“Hold up… are you awolfshifter?” My voice has hit a high pitch. My heart drops to my gut and swirls in confusion.

I loved Beast. But I thought he was just a dog.

“Are you the fuckingdog?” I cover my mouth and try to remember all the interactions with Beast.

Arran has been eerily still during my enlightenment, which confirms it without his words. “I am.”

“You slept in my bed. You ate off my floor. You shit in my yard.” I shake my head in disbelief. “I trusted you as both a dog and a human. And you weren’t either.”

“I’m sorry. Initially, I didn’t intend to spy on you inside your home, but you invited me in. I thought at first you knew what I was. Then, I realized you didn’t. But I was entrenched at that point and had to know if you were involved in Osen’s death.”

“You went through my things, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but—”

“You pretended to want to date me and protect me from Rob, but that was all a ploy to know all the details about my life.”

“It wasn’t a ploy.” Arran tries to catch my hand, but I pull away. “I didn’t want to see you hurt. I fell for you.”

“You accuse me of spying, but wow. You guys take it to another level.” My eyes burn. “So licking my pussy was just a day at work? A spy’s job is never done, huh?”

“Goddess, it’s not like that.” Arran falls to his knees at the side of the bed and clasps his hands as if praying. “Please believe me. I wanted you the first moment I saw you, but thought you were the enemy. When I sensed you weren’t, I was relieved and set out to prove your innocence. I want to protect you.”

“I’m supposed to believe all that?” I huff, “What about Osen? Did you use my body to fuck him?”

“What? No!” Arran draws back in horror.

“I remember kissing you. Maybe you did more?”

“You kissed me,” he defends himself. “But all I did was talk to Osen.”

“So you’ve known all along that Osen was possessing me?” I hold my forehead. I was barely holding on to my sanity before this conversation. Now I want to crawl away and sleep for a million years.

“I wouldn’t have had sex with your body,” Arran says.

My first instinct is to be offended, but there’s more to his loaded statement.

“What do you mean?” I ask, staring into his golden-amber eyes that radiate pain.

“I wouldn’t do it, because I can’t.” Arran frowns as if this is the hardest thing he’s had to say in his life. “I’ve been cursed by a witch. When my emotions are riding high, I turn into a true beast—not just a wolf. I would hurt you. And I don’t want to hurt you.”

He’s telling the truth because I can see it on his face, and I recall Osen’s memory.

“You led me on.” I glower at him. “We can’t have something between us, anyway,”

“I could only be with Osen after it happened because he can immobilize my entire body. But with you, I was hoping…”

---