Page 21 of Knot Cursed

“I’m not sure, but I’ll be damned if I just sit here and take this sentence,” she all but growled. Her fire lit something in me, something I’d been missing for a while.

“Are you the one the magistrate is searching for out there?” Rook asked, eyes lighting up. “So, it wasn’t the Mayor?”

“Unfortunately not,” I admitted. “Just walking past his house had me shifting.”

“They’re painful for him, too,” Prue tacked on with a frown. “Maybe we can look into that?”

“Will do,” Rook said, pulling a notebook out of his front pocket before jotting a note down. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have something to attend to at home. If either of you need me, I’m at this address.”

He wrote something on the paper, split it in two, and gave us each a slip. His scrawling handwriting showcased an address across town.

Not the side of town I was from.

We both tucked it away before he gave her a wink and headed out the door, leaving us alone again.

“Will they be looking for you?” she asked when the door clicked shut. “At your house, I mean.”

“Probably,” I admitted. “This isn’t my first time shifting unwillingly, or the first time I’ve been spotted.”

“Then you can come back to my place. We’re mates, so I’m going to trust you. Actually, I’ll close up early,” she offered. “I’m curious to do some research on your curse. Though, I will have to warn you that staying with me has its own warning labels. My curse can be disastrous.”

“I’ll take my chances,” I said quickly.

If my presence calmed her like hers did to me, then we’d be just fine.

My ears twitched as I walked down the road to the grocery store. I was in dire need of supplies now that the rest of the moving was handled.

Piercing stares lanced through me every step of the way. You’d think that with everyone here being cursed they’d find something better to do than stare at me.

My mood was volatile today. Maybe it was knowing my brother would be far too close to me, studying me like I was some fucked-up experiment.

I’d never forgive the witch that did this to me. Not that I knew who they were. It was a misplaced spell during a full moon. One minute, I was joining my first pack run, the next, I was locked in wolf form. It took two months to shift back, and I never lost my wolfish features. I was a human with wolf ears, glowing eyes, a bushy tail, and instincts that liked to take over.

“Ah, there you are!” Rook’s jovial voice cut through my memories and I bit back a growl.

“I’m shopping, Rook. I don’t need help.” He chuckled at my harsh words and clapped me on the shoulder.

It wasn’t fair but I resented him a little for his lack of shifter abilities. Our mom was a witch, his dad a fae, mine a shifter.

A shifter who didn’t know how to talk to me. I was a kid, he should have helped, but Rook was the only one who stuck around.

Yet, here I was shoving him away.

Again.

“You could have moved in with me,” he drew out as he grabbed his own shopping cart. Great, now he’d be here the whole time.

My wolf liked it, perking up at the sense of pack he always brought. Wolves weren’t meant to be solitary. I was a walking contradiction.

“I could have, but I wanted my own place. Mine’s by the woods and has some solid renovation work to take on. Both things I need.”

“How are the neighbors?” he mused. The way he said it was searching and smug, as if he already knew the sexy little witch next door had my wolf panting and wagging his tail like a domesticated dog.

“Only one, and she keeps to herself like a good neighbor,” I rumbled as I pushed ahead, throwing random fruits and vegetables in my cart to appease my human side. My wolf would demand meat when I got further in. Clinging to my human nature was the only real defense I had.

“Hmm,” he offered, chuckling to himself. I didn’t care enough to pry whatever he was smug about from him. “So, the town is having a big event tomorrow. A Halloween Bazaar with a bunch of vendors. Would you like to come with me and a few others?”

I gave him a look and he shrugged. “I’ll never stop offering.”