Page 71 of Wishing for a Werewolf
Skye and I cheer when our fellow Witch Bitches win the adult costume contest and strike their best kick-ass pose, Jared snapping photos for his website.
When Hannah calls for the kids to come up, I lean over to Astrid and Agnar. “Do you want to enter?”
“Can we?” they chorus, looking at their mother with pleading eyes.
Riselda asks Rune, “What do you think?”
“I say yes.”
The puppies shove their treat bags into their mother’s hands and go racing forward to join pretty much every human child in town. They form a whirling mass of kids dressed like miniature KPop Demon Hunters, Wednesday Addams, Stich, and Superman, along with old favorites like Minions and My Little Pony.
There are even a few of the perennial favorite of little ghosts draped in white sheets. Every time one of them parades past Hannah and Severin, Rune leans close and growls a wicked “BOO” in my ear, setting my entire body alight. By the time all of the kids have presented their costumes, I’m squeezing my thighs together, my skin prickly and hot and wanting to be touched. Rune’s looming presence behind me only makes it worse, the hair on the back of my neck raising as I shiver with awareness of him.
The werepuppies, being actual werewolves, blow all the human-made costumes out of the water, which kind of isn’t fair, but Astrid and Agnar are having so much fun I don’t feel too badly about it. My brilliant bestie rescues the situation, giving a “resident” prize to a miniature human Wednesday Addams and giving a second “visitors” prize to the twins.
The werepuppies come racing back over to us, carrying a plastic pumpkin filled with treats between them, chattering a mile a minute about how they won.
I glance at Hannah and mouth a “thank you” and give Skye a quick hug goodbye as she gets ready to read a kid-friendly spooky story.
The twins jostle toward the front, fascinated by my friend’s ability to do all the different voices.
“What do you want to do next?” I ask Rune and Riselda. “I think some people are heading to The Thirsty Tusk, but it’s not kid-friendly.”
“You two can go,” Riselda says. “Don’t worry about us.”
“How will you get home?” I ask.
“We’ll run.” Riselda tips her head toward the hyper pups. “They need to burn off some of this sugar, or they’ll never sleep tonight.”
“You’re sure?” Rune asks.
She shoos us away in answer.
Rune doesn’t hesitate, wrapping at arm around my shoulders and steering me across the green toward the pub. Only we don’t make it that far. As soon as we pass the first large clump of rhododendrons edging the green, he pulls me into them, hiding us from sight.
I gasp as he crushes me to him, his snout burrowing intomy neck and licking at my skin. “Fuck, Autumn, your scent. I can smell your wetness. I can’t take it anymore. I need to taste you.”
A moan slips from me, my fingers digging into the fur at the back of his head, holding him to me. A tiny voice whispers that Rune might still be under the effects of the wish swap spell, but horny Autumn yells for it to be quiet. I can’t argue, my body burning with desire. Every one of his growled BOOs, every touch of his tail, every heated glance of his golden eyes have combined to destroy every bit of restraint I’ve been clinging to.
“This short scrap of fabric barely covers you.” He sinks down my body, his clawed hands lifting the hem of my skirt, sounding offended. “It’s driven me mad the entire evening. I keep waiting for a gust of wind to lift it.”
“Yep,” I say, my voice breathless. “That’s the whole point.”
“Others could have seen,” he growls, his hands tightening on my thighs, the claws just starting to dig in.
“I didn’t wear this costume for anyone but you,” I admit.
He groans, his snout sliding up the crack between my thighs until he reaches my already damp panties. “Fuck, you smell exquisite. I nee—”
Several kids cry out in surprise, reacting to Skye’s story.
“Oh, god, we can’t do this here. Anyone could find us.” The thought’s a little exciting if another adult spotted us, but a kid? No way I want that.
Rune reluctantly lets me go, and I stagger back out into the open, my steps quickening into an almost run as I head for my car. Screw the pub. I want to get him alonenow.
“By the goddess, my fire,” Rune growls from right behindme, his voice full of frustrated longing. “You’re going to kill me. If you truly expect me to wait, you can’t run from me like this.”
I come to a halt on the sidewalk between two of the shops on Main Street. “What do you mean?”
