Page 35 of Bitten By Bloodmoon
My frown deepens at his words. “Pretty sure it just means we were meant to kill each other. Be mortal enemies and all that. Entertainment for the gods.”
He shakes his head. “Tell me what you know. Help me find the way to break the curses.”
I stare back at the punching bag covered in my sweat. “And why would I do that? I’m not cursed. I’m not a wolf shifter, or a witch, or a vampire. I’m a human. Seems like you all being cursed would actually help me.”
“You’re still a wolf shifter. Nothing has changed, snow wolf.”
“Don’t call me that. I’m not.”
“You are. A part of you was stolen from you, that’s all. It doesn’t mean you can’t get it back.”
“How?” I ask, hating that he’s giving me hope.
“Help me break the curses and I’ll help you regain control of your wolf.”
“I don’t trust you. You’re a vampire. You can control my mind—what I think, everything I do. You have no reason to make a deal with me when you can just control me or succumb to your bloodlust and drain every drop of blood I have.”
He sniffs me and wrinkles his nose. “For one, you didn’t shower and smell of that wretched alpha, so you don’t have to worry about me wanting to drink your blood. And two, I’m giving you a choice for me not to use my mind control on you. If you prefer I use it and you get nothing out of it, then fine by me.”
“I hate you,” I snap. I should have showered. I should have washed Ambrose away, but I’m not ready yet.
“I know.”
“You’re not really giving me a choice. You’re still controlling me. You’re no better than him,” I say, not able to say Ambrose’s name.
“I know.”
“I don’t care about the curses. I should go live my life with the humans and forget about helping any of you.” Maybe my father was right, or had seen some premonition, some prophecy of my fate, and he was trying to save me from this outcome. A tearwells in the corner of my eye at the thought of never getting to talk to my father again. Not being able to get his advice. Not even really knowing how he died.
“Only one species can break the curse. Vampires, witches, or wolf shifters—not all three. The first to break the curse gets their curse lifted, the rest are destined to live with their curses forever until their species dies out,” he says.
My jaw falls slack. He can’t be speaking the truth.Why would he share that with me? Why trust me?
“I know you have your own pieces of the prophecy that no one else has shared with you. And I’m not asking you to share anything—yet. Just visit a seer with me. See if you can work with me long enough for us to start putting together the pieces of the puzzle.”
His circling is starting to make me dizzy, but it doesn’t stop me from hanging on to his every word.
“You’re lying when you say you don’t care about the curses. You do care. And you’re going to want to ensure the wolf shifters break the curse first, because if they don’t, they’re doomed. Whether you can control your shifting doesn’t matter—you’re still a snow wolf. And you are the key to breaking the curse.”
I’m so silent that I can pick up the steady beat of his heart through the silence, even with my very human ears.
And then, it quickens.
“Fuck,” he says.
He turns from me and goes to a cabinet behind him, unlocking it. He digs through it before coming up with something shiny, glinting through the limited light in the room. He walks over and holds it out to me, a blade coming into my view.
I grasp the handle, unsure of what’s happening.
“We have to go, but you should carry a blade with you at all times, to act as your claws when you can’t shift. I’ll train you in the best way to use it soon enough.”
He turns toward the door, expecting me to follow.
“Where are we going? What’s happening?”
“Vampires,” he says the single word, and then vanishes.
Chapter 9
