Who Could Learn to Love a Beast? (ONC2025)

**For the Open Novella Contest 2025!**

"If he could learn to love another and earn their love in return, the spell would be broken...for who could ever learn to love a beast?"

When she receives a cryptic but urgent text message from her father, Isla Lamborne returns to her childhood home in Long Island to find her family in crisis: the family business is failing, her mother is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's, and her father's normally lighthearted approach to life is threatening to crack under the strain.

Several years ago, Ned Dunfee was rendered paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident that he barely survived. Given up on the prospect of ever having a normal life again, all while hiding his past under a lie, the last thing he expects is the bookish, smart-mouthed girl that comes crashing into it, quite literally.

After a literal run-in at the family bookstore, at first Isla and Ned can't stand the sight of each other. She thinks he's grumpy and rude; he thinks she's clumsy and irritating. But one rainy afternoon, when she finds Ned caught in a sudden downpour, the sparks undeniably start flying. And they both realize that a second chance at life-together-is within their grasps. Finally.

(Using ONC prompts 120, 134, and 135, with 120 being the main plot arc.)