Wolf's Bane

Contract

Desiree always made fun of people in movies who fainted when they learned something crazy. Therefore, you can imagine how embarrassing it was for her knees to go weak as she stood in front of Andrew. He caught her before she collapsed and kept an arm around her shoulders so she could stay upright. Desiree lacked the strength to fight it.

"What are you?" she asked once her voice returned.

"I'm what you would call a werewolf," he explained.

"There's not a full moon," Desiree said as if that was the most confusing thing about the situation.

"I'm not that kind of werewolf."

"Are there different kinds of werewolves?" At some point her brain had just decided accepting this as reality was easier than trying to prove it wasn't, so Desiree was just pushing through.

"A few," he replied. "I'm sure you have plenty of questions and I'll be happy to answer them, but you seem like you need a moment to process this."

"I'm fine." She managed to pull away from him and stand on her own. Her head still swam, but she wasn't going to tell him that. "So what kind of werewolf are you; an alpha?"

He scoffed. "Alphas don't exist. It's a ridiculous concept born of poor research combined with some sort of power fantasy."

Desiree nearly laughed at how irritated he sounded. "Alright. I'm sorry. I guess I don't know much about werewolves."

"That's understandable," he assured her. "We're a secretive lot. I'm sure you understand that we have to be. There are many who would hunt us or just exploit us. It's better if we keep this hidden."

"Right..." Desiree stared at him. "So you decided to tell me, a complete stranger, about you big secret?"

"You're not a stranger."

"We've known each other less than a week and have mostly communicated through text," she argued. "We're basically strangers. I'm certainly not telling you my deep dark secrets."

"You have deep dark secrets?" His tone was somewhat amused.

"I'm not telling," she replied. "You don't tell people you barely know stuff that you want to keep secret. That's insane at best and probably just stupid. What if I decided to go around telling people about this?"

"You won't do that."

"I could."

"But you won't."

He was right, but she wasn't ready to admit that. "What makes you so sure?"

"Well, on the level you understand, nobody would believe you and most people would think you were crazy," he pointed out. "Even if I wind up getting hunted by someone who happens to believe you, it wouldn't end well for either of us, I'm sure."

That was true enough. Desiree wasn't certain she hadn't lost her mind so it would be difficult to convince anyone else she was sane. "And on the level I don't understand?"

"I don't believe you would do anything to hurt me," he told her. "We're connected and you feel that deep down. You may not fully understand it, but you're someone I can trust. You can trust me, as well."

Desiree considered his words for a moment and groaned. "This is why you kept talking about fate, isn't it? You think we're fated lovers or some nonsense. Well, I don't go for that kind of thing. You can find another girl to be your one true love or whatever."

"It's not that simple," he replied. "I don't want to overwhelm you today, though. However, I do have a proposal for you."

Desiree crossed her arms, but she couldn't help being curious. "What kind of proposal?"