Page 16 of Alice and Her Shifters (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 2)

I simply nodded my head. “Someday, you’ll cross paths with the wrong man. A man who will do you as you have done to countless others before him. I feel sorry for you, Camelia.”

She screamed in rage. “Your silver tongue will betray you. Your words will tie, and your heart will morn. I sever the connection between your wit and your tongue so that forevermore, you’ll watch everything you once held dear decay in front of you.”

“Don’t you think you are overreacting?” I asked.

Her brown eyes widened. “You will never charm another woman again. Your bed will remain cold. Your arms, empty. Of this, I curse you, Aidan. Your heart will wither away into nothing, without me.”

I didn’t believe her. Imagine my embarrassment when I spoke again. Soon, my reputation was shattered. Rumors spread of a spell gone wrong. And the whispers as I walked by those who had known me from before, people I thought knew better, would say I had done this to myself.

In a sense, they were right. But it wasn’t a spell gone wrong. It was a woman I had scorned and refused to return affections for. I couldn’t tell them any different. Camelia’s curse was effective and thorough. Years later, I became known as mad. I’ve been cast out. No one looked at me with pity anymore. Only annoyance.

I was never going to charm another woman again. As it turned out, she had taken everything from me after all.

Camelia’s curse worked. I shunned women. They were repulsed by me. I repulsed myself.

I often wondered in those first few months if she had wanted me to come crawling back to her. If so, I probably would have. She was likely still waiting for me, so she could smile in my face with how right she was the second before the axe chopped off my head.

I had lived my life becoming accustomed to my new disability. People assumed I was a happy mad man. They never looked close enough to know any different. Of course, I did. My eyes always betrayed my sadness each time I gazed into the mirror as my reflection smiled back at me.

When Milo first approached me, I had no idea how he came to learn of the truth. That made me incredibly suspicious of him. Though I remained so, I had a feeling there was more at stake for him in this whole deal we made than what he was leading on to.

Still, he tended to chalk me up to insane more often than not. It was part of the whole curse Camelia had put on me. No one would see me as I truly was. No one would love me or desire me or even befriend me. Calvin and Milo barely tolerated me as it were.

Then Allison came into my life. In mere hours I felt things falling back into place. My mouth was obeying my command. My words were starting to come out exactly as I had intended them to. Surprise riddled my senses as my words echoed in my ears.

“Thank you, Alice,” I said.

She smiled at me. Relief of understanding what I had said shone in her amazing light blue eyes. They were the color of the sky on a spring day. I could stare into them for hours. And she smelled of roses in the wake of their bloom.

All of this and more I thought about as I bounded back into the front room of what was left of my only home left in the world. The second I took my seat a sensation of warning came over me that shattered the remnants of what normalcy was granted to me in that very short-lived moment.

Trouble was near.

“Uninvited,” I muttered and then laughed.

Calvin and Milo stared at me in confusion seconds before an army of boots pounding the ground surrounded the cabin.

Calvin and Milo exchanged worried glances as I stood from the chair. They followed suit, and we all headed toward the door.

“We can’t shift,” Calvin said. “Not in here.”

“Then we will have to go outside,” Milo said.

“Dress up!” my mouth uttered. I simply thought of shifting as well. It had been so long since my bear was allowed to run free. I missed the feel of the wind in my fur, the thrill of a hunt.

We all bounded toward the door. Just before we reached the entrance to my home, the door was ripped from the hinges. Bits and pieces of wood shattered and flew in all directions.

I laughed again.

The man that took up the entire doorway was one I recognized instantly. He was Camelia’s general. He stared at me with his black eyes and pointed at the three of us. “If it isn’t the three men at the top of my lady’s most wanted list.”

Milo applauded. “You found us!”

“Where’s the girl?” he demanded.

“What girl?” Calvin and Milo asked simultaneously.

“Rose with thorns,” I said. “Waits for the sun to rise.”

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