Bewitched Werewolf

Episode Seven

He poured me a glass of something and prowled towards me.

I blushed and almost took a step back, but thought it was a good idea to stay still. Otherwise, he might think I was submissive. Wait, was that actually how it worked?

Holy s**t, was he going to treat me like a dog? It didn’t matter, I wasn’t his mate.

Hold up, hound dog. So I guess that when I left the building the ‘feeling’ went away?

You got it. The only thing I didn’t understand was how I felt her presence last night even though you weren’t there. But I just made a phone call and guess what I found out? Apparently, the house car dropped you off outside the party last night. So you were there, weren’t you?

“Yes,” I said, like I was facing the guillotine.

“Do you want me to explain the joys of doggy style to you or just give you a demonstration?” he said half-jokingly, but the look in his eyes was dead serious.

I backed up.

I’m not your mate! There is another explanation. Down, Kujo.”

“You yuck it up with those dog jokes, but you’re going to pay for each one of them.” He wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me flush up against him.

I felt him through my clothes, hard and ready, his hips against mine. It was exciting, frightening, made my legs a little weak and my panties a little damp.

“How--” I had to breathe and swallow before I could say anything else, “out of curiosity, would I pay?”

“I’ll show you once I get you out of these clothes.”

And then he kissed me. Softly, like a friendly, nice-to-meet-you-can-I-strip-your-clothes-off-and-bury-myself-inside-you-kind of kiss.

I finally pulled back, but I didn’t want to and hoped that I had been able to convey a yes-you-can-and-why-haven’t-you-done-it-already response when I’d moaned and shoved my tongue into his mouth.

What happens if I am your mate? Where do we go from there? I mumbled, unwilling to allow him to get too far away from me. I kept my arms twined around his neck and looked into his eyes.

Station wagon, two kids, the whole deal. And maybe a wolf litter or two.

That made me feel a little nauseous. Something must have shown on my face because he spoke again, and gripped my hips tight to hold me still.

We’d date. Get married and try to live happily ever after. Isn’t that what most women want?

Oh god. I could feel myself on the verge of hyperventilating. The plane was going down and I couldn’t even say may-day.

You don’t seem very happy about the idea that we might be perfect for each other. Why is that exactly? He nuzzled my neck and I could feel his warmth seeping into my frozen bones.

You’re a great guy. Really. You seem…amazing. But I’m not a soul mate kind of person.

He jerked away from me, staring at me intently like he’d known whether I lied by close study.

You don’t think it’s possible? He asked, shocked, like I was a five-year-old telling him I didn’t believe in Santa Claus.

Which told me that he did believe in soul mates. This guy believed in soul mates, and he thought I was his.

My body felt a little trembly. No. It’s…possible. Just not for me, with someone like you. You know, the whole package. You like all that and a bag of kibble, I said.

“You walked in the door, and it was like being punched in the stomach.”

“That good, huh?”

He chuckled. “Worse. But you were so…prickly and different to what I expected that I just couldn’t believe you were my soul mate.

“And now?”

Now I’m thinking there are going to be a lot of dog jokes in my future. You’re smart, funny, have a great body. Why wouldn’t you deserve a catch like me? He sounded self-deprecating and it was really adorable. “Don’t you think you deserve to be happy?”

Oh. Ouch. Did I deserve to be happy? That was a brain-teaser. Yeah, sure I did. But I didn’t expect it to be so…imminent. To be confronted with it and have to make a choice for it. I guess I had thought I’d date some guy and a lot of time would pass, we’d get married, and I’d realize I was in love. It’d take me unawares, like a mugger in the dark.

He wanted me to make a conscious decision, to have faith in him, myself and the enigmatic idea of ‘us’.

“What happens if I say yes?” I asked.

We will leave here immediately and go to your hotel or my house. I’ve got a raging, enormous…headache. And then, we had dinner.

“It’s ten am!”

It’s a very serious headache. I expect I’ll need repeated applications of whatever you did before.

“But I would get dinner? Somewhere nice I hope, I said, trying to keep it light, disbelieving that I was making plans to not only sleep with this guy but more… like more permanently.

You can hope. I’m thinking it might be room service.

I shivered and felt myself skip a breath. He must have seen my panicked look. Trust me. Just walk out the door.

So I did.

We walked side by side to his car, the strangest and most uncomfortable walk I’ve ever been on. I knew he was near me. I could almost feel him there. I couldn’t look at him directly so I watched the ground and the parking garage, catching glimpses of him out of the corner of my eye.

He walked over to my side of the car and opened the door for me. I walked past him, imagining a little crackle of energy between us, like static cling when my underwear stuck together.

He closed the door and walked around the car while my heart beat a million times a minute. He opened his own door and sat down at the driver’s side, closing the door.