Page 35 of Curses & Cold Brew
Iwas leaning against my kitchen island, staring mindlessly into space, when a loud banging sounded at my door. I rolled my eyes and pushed off and went to answer it. People banged on my door for all sorts of reasons. Hopefully, it was another wayward human looking to make a foolish deal.
I straightened my collar, grinning as I prowled closer. But when I opened it, Wyatt stood there, gasping for breath.
“What did you do?” he growled, pushing past me and stumbling into my house.
“What the hell happened to you?” I asked, taking in the state of him. “You look like you fell face-first into a dozen witches’ brooms.”
He staggered into the living room and knocked into the wall hard enough to cause my prized Rembrandt to drop to the floor, frame shattering. He had no idea what I’d gone through to get my hands on that. The piece had once hung in the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, but it had been in my possession for over fifty years. That might have been my thieving chickens coming back to roost.
“Could you please refrain from destroying every priceless artifact in my home, wolf boy?” I followed him into the room as my frown deepened. “Heists aren’t as easy to conduct as they used to be.”
“You—” Before he could get the words out, he doubled over, gnashing his teeth.
“If you wolf out all over my furniture, I will be invoicing you,” I warned. “And I don’t take payment in the form of scones—or even your sister’s famous donuts.”
Wyatt groaned in either frustration or pain—I didn’t know and didn’t care—but as he turned around, I got a full view of the situation we were dealing with. He was shirtless, the tattered remnants of his flannel hanging from his wrists. His canines were elongated, his blond hair even shaggier than usual, and his voice was even deeper than normal, rough and rasping. His true animal nature was nearly bursting from his skin, the change almost taking him in my fucking living room.
The realization hit me like a rogue wave.He shouldn’t be in this state at all.
“What the hell happened?” I asked again, but my question was answered when my eyes dropped to his collarbone.
His sigil—my sigil—was missing.
“Shit.”
“Yeah, shit,” he growled. “You said your magic wasbinding. You promised she—I would be safe.” He took a long, thick pause. All of his visible muscles bulged, readying themselves for the change. But there was a twinge of mourning in his voice when he finally said, “If anything happened to her.”
“To whom?”
He hung his head, swiping his disheveled hair out of his eyes. “Willow.”
“Fuck.” My eyes darted to the door as if I could see all the way to the café. “Is she hurt?”
“No,” he gritted out like it pained him. “Not physically, at least.”
I glared up at the ceiling. “It’s the full moon, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He sucked in sharp breaths in a seeming attempt to battle the shift.
“The fact you’ve controlled it this long is a fucking miracle. You need to get out of here,” I pushed. “Besides, I just reupholstered my furniture, and the last thing I need is a werewolf humping it.”
His luminescent eyes flared, and I was fairly certain he was about two seconds away from attacking me. What a terrible time to have a snarky sense of humor as a coping mechanism.
“Go. Shift,” I added more evenly. “You won’t survive like this. You need to change. Resisting it could kill you.”
“I won’t give in to them.” His whole body shook like he was lifting an incredible weight, every muscle straining to keep him from losing control. “I won’t give them what they want.”
“Did you catch sight of who it was who broke the sigil?” I asked, teetering on the edge of the realization.
“Woman. Not human,” he gritted out. “Supernatural. I tried to chase her, but she evaded me. Jumped me on the way to Willow’s. Tried to fucking stab me. Thought it was a rogue ghoul, but that thing didn’t know who it was trying to kill. It ran when I fought back. I didn’t realize she’d broken the sigil until it was too late.”
“Esme.”
“Who?”
“A former friend,” I replied tightly. “And current annoyance.”
He let out a bellowing growl. “This isn’t over, Ramona,” he snarled. “You need to fix this. Or I willend you, demon. Don’t take that threat lightly.”
