Cursed Wolf

Heather sat across the kitchen table from her grandmother while Maggie watched cartoons in the living room.

“What has you so concerned?” Pearl asked.

“I joined a shifter dating site and I was matched with a wolf shifter named Thorne Winter.”

Pearl’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped slightly. Pearl’s generation could remember when shifters first came out to the public, and the shock that humans had at the news. Much progress had been made in the ensuing decades to incorporate shifters into human society.

Pearl lived in a community that had a high percentage of shifters. But, for a moment, Heather was worried Pearl might be nervous that her granddaughter was matched with one of them.

“And what is your primary concern?” Pearl asked, choosing her words carefully as she gripped the mug of tea in front of her on the table.

“He has this weird story about being cursed by a witch and being forced into shifter form for seventy-five years.”

Pearl’s eyes grew even wider and then she took a long, thoughtful sip of tea. Heather stared into the amber darkness in her own mug and sighed.

“He is really handsome. But it’s not just the crazy story. He also grabbed my arm, and it left a mark.”

Pearl frowned deeply, the lines around her face outlining her displeasure.

“This guy does not sound like a safe choice, sweetheart. I’m glad you discussed it with me.”

“I went to go see the new owner of New Moon Books. Her name is Luna Linwood and she’s the granddaughter of Louisa Pleasant.”

“I knew Louisa for a long time before she passed away. She was a good woman.”

“Apparently she was also a witch.”

Pearl shook her head. “A lot of people pray to the moon and read tarot cards and such. That doesn’t mean that they believe it’s possible to curse people or to force shifters to remain in their animal form for seventy-five years.”

“I know. But Luna told me her grandmother is the one who started the potion that enables Thorne and his brothers to remain in human form. She believed in curses and magic and all of that. Not just the hippie kind.”

“This is concerning, Heather. What do you plan to do?”

Heather’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. I was hoping that you would tell me.”

“If it was up to me, I would tell you to stay clear. But it’s not me. It’s your decision. If he grabbed you and hurt you, then that is an automatic no. But sometimes there can be extenuating circumstances for even something like that.”

“He was an animal for seventy-five years.” Heather looked out the kitchen window, wishing she could just fly away into the blue sky and forget all of this. “There was something. A spark between us. Luna corroborated his story. I can’t completely rule him out.”

“I’m not going to tell you to stay away from him. But you need to be extremely careful. If he ever shows any kind of violence again, you need to cut him off and not speak to him. If we need to, we’ll get the law involved.”

“I don’t think it’ll come to that, Grandma,” Heather said before Pearl could go any further.

She didn’t want to think of Thorne that way. She just didn’t want to have the wrong kind of man in her life or around her daughter.

After she finished her tea, she bundled up Maggie and drove them both home. It had been an exhausting, emotional day, and she needed to relax. Luckily, she had graded all her papers already and didn’t have class again until Monday. She would be able to spend time with her daughter and relax over the weekend.

Maggie went to draw on her art table in her bedroom while Heather started dinner. She made sautéed chicken with broccoli and rice and the two sat together, chatting about their day. Maggie told her about how she and Pearl went to the beach and enjoyed the warm sunshine. When she was done chatting about the chocolate chip cookies they baked together, she looked up at her mom and frowned.

“What’s wrong, Mommy?”

Maggie was always so perceptive about other people’s emotions. Sometimes eerily so. It was one of the most endearing parts of her already endearing personality.

“I met someone today, and I’m not sure what to think.”

“Is it a new friend?” Maggie asked excitedly.

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

“A boy,” Heather said wistfully, remembering Thorne’s handsome face and the intensity in his eyes.

“Like a boyfriend?” Maggie asked with a giggle.

Heather looked down at her daughter, wondering what she knew about things like boyfriends at four years old. She supposed the idea of romantic relationships was everywhere and not something that a four-year-old would be unaware of.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you like him?” Maggie asked, shoveling rice into her mouth.

“Maybe. He’s quite handsome.”

“Do I get to meet him?” Maggie asked, her eyes brightening. “Is he going to be my new daddy?”

Heather g*****d inwardly. She hadn’t expected to tell Maggie about Thorne at all, and now her daughter wanted to meet the man she was so concerned about protecting her from.

“It’s nothing like that, Maggie. If I ever fall in love with a man, I will make sure that you like him just as much as I do before he’s even close to being your new daddy.”

“The other kids at preschool all have daddies,” Maggie said. “Even the ones who don’t live with them anymore.”

Heather sighed and shoved food around on her plate. She’d suddenly lost her appetite. Maggie’s father hadn’t wanted her, so Heather had never pursued child support or any type of visitation. As far as she was concerned, the man didn’t exist—but she knew it wasn’t fair to Maggie. The child deserved to have a male influence in her life. But could that influence possibly be someone like Thorne?

“I know, sweetheart. Your daddy is far away, and he can’t talk to you because of his job.”

Heather had been telling her her father was a secret agent that loved her very much but couldn’t communicate with her because of his job. It was a stupid lie, and eventually she would have to tell her the truth.

For now, Maggie might as well believe her father was like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. A great hero who loved her very much. She had decided it was the healthiest thing to tell her child and she hoped that Maggie would forgive her when she realized that none of it was true.

She hadn’t thought about bringing anyone else into her life until now, and she was confronted with the worst-case scenario. A man who wanted her no matter what, but who had a questionable personality and temperament. She wasn’t sure that he would want to take things slowly, but she needed to. If they went anywhere at all.

After dinner, they read together in the living room while listening to soft classical music. Heather gave Maggie a bath before bed and then dressed her in a warm fuzzy onesie with zebra print. Then she sat beside her bed and tucked her in before turning off the light. Maggie’s eyes fluttered closed.

“What was his name?” Maggie asked softly as her breathing became long and deep.

“His name is Thorne,” Heather said, turning off the lamp beside Maggie’s bed. She k!ssed her daughter in the glow of the nightlight and walked out of the bedroom.

She felt a wave of anxiety rise in her chest, and she gripped her fists as she walked to her bedroom and closed the door. There was a notification on her phone where it sat on the bedside table. She picked it up and saw that it was from Thorne.

“I’m so sorry I grabbed you. I know it’s unforgivable. I hope after speaking with Luna you are willing to give me another chance.”

Heather stared at the text, cupping the phone in her hands as she sank into her bed. She exhaled and stared at the ceiling, her eyes rolling back in her head.

How was she supposed to deal with this? She already had too much on her plate as it was. Just that morning she’d been thinking about how wonderfully full her life was. Now she had to decide if she would allow this strange man with violent tendencies to come into her life.

Could she forgive him for grabbing her? He hadn’t really hurt her. He had just wanted to stop her. Maybe she was overreacting.

It was the story about the curse that had really gotten under her skin. It sounded completely insane. But after speaking to Luna, she at least believed that he wasn’t the only one who believed in the crazy fairy story.

Considering that when her grandmother was a little girl no one knew about shifters, maybe she was taking for granted that there might be other things in this world beyond human understanding.

“I’m trying to,” she typed into the screen. She sent the message and waited, gripping the cellphone between her hands as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear that.”

“I’m glad.”

“Are you willing to go out with me again?” His reply came immediately.

“Maybe.”

“Just maybe?” he asked.

“I want to say yes, but I’m scared.”

“That’s perfectly understandable. I’m scared too. I can’t tell you how difficult it is for me to let someone else into my life who has so much impact on my emotions. I feel like I’m losing control. But I know that’s not your fault.”

Heather read his text over ten times. It occurred to her that she hadn’t even considered what it must be like from Thorne’s perspective. Since he was a shifter, she was the only woman that he could ever truly love.

She also supposedly was the answer to breaking his curse. That gave her a tremendous amount of power over him. Power she didn’t want or ask for, but it was there nonetheless. She had to be gentle with this man. Not just because she feared for herself, but because it was what any decent human being would do in this situation.

“I never thought of it that way,” she finally replied.

“I don’t want you to feel responsible for me.”

“I don’t.” But deep down she knew it would be impossible not to. She was his fated mate and the means to the end of his curse. There was no way for her to not feel responsible for him.

“Maybe we can meet up at the bookstore tomorrow,” she typed.

She stared at the message before sending it. She would have to come up with an excuse to leave Maggie with Pearl. Even if she was willing to spend more time alone with Thorne, she was not in any way ready to introduce him to her daughter.

“I will be there anytime you want.”

“How about around noon? Then we can have lunch at River’s Bakery.”

“That would be perfect,” he said.

“Good night,” she typed before setting her phone back on the bedside table.

There was one more message notification on her screen. “Good night, beautiful.”

A shiver went down her spine, thinking about his intense eyes taking in every little detail of her face and figure. He was beautiful. Like a god etched in marble. Thinking of him telling her that she was beautiful felt ridiculous.

Heather didn’t consider herself unattractive. She had always been fit and healthy. But she was no beauty queen. Her curly hair got frizzy anytime it rained, her mouth was too wide and her eyes too big for her face.

Not to mention her tiny bre*asts and curvy h!ps that didn’t get any smaller no matter how much she exercised. Imagining a man like that thinking of her as beautiful was strange.

Most men she dated had been on the same level as her intellectually, and they had bonded over ideas. Thorne wanted her for another reason. A more primal reason that made Heather’s b***d run hot and desire rise in her core.