Wolf's Curse by Aimee Easterling

Author:Aimee Easterling [Aimee Easterling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wetknee Books
Published: 2023-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Later, the fire inside me partially soothed by five minutes in Tru’s presence, I told Jack what I needed from him. We’d done this before—him feigning laryngitis while I followed a different hunting trail elsewhere. I’d left him to protect Lynette in similarly dicey situations then returned to find my ward not only healthy but smiling in a way she never did in my presence.

Tru, I knew, would be just as safe today with Jack standing in my place. That’s what it meant to be woelfin instead of werewolf. We shifted using a physical pelt that remained outside our bodies in human form and we had a twin who could be trusted beyond reason.

The combination of traits was strength…and weakness as well.

Because anyone could steal our pelts and prevent us from shifting. Knowing we were twins would be enough to put Jack at risk, to label him as a potential woelfin. So I protected him by denying his existence, something that felt like a lie as Tru and I grew closer day by day.

Never mind that Jack and I had made a pact years ago not to reveal our identities to anyone but a mate. If I asked him now, he would say I was arguing semantics. He’d urge me to reveal my full self to the object of my admiration.

But I didn’t ask for that permission. Why?

“I wouldn’t have kissed her,” my brother informed me, misreading my silence. I needed to get out of my own head and track down India, but my twin wasn’t ready for me to go yet. Instead, he kept harping on his previous point in that mellow voice that was the only obvious external difference between us. “Didn’t think that had to be said,” he continued. “But, you need to hear it, I need to say it.”

“Thank you,” I told him, making the words true with an effort. “You’re the only one I’d trust with her.”

Jack nodded, dropping the issue far more readily than I would have in his shoes. Sun shone out from behind eyes just as cloud-gray as mine but infinitely warmer.

Jack was fiery, but in a good way. Just as our relationship was now, once again, good.

So I shucked off my clothes and spun my pelt across my shoulders, shifting in a way I didn’t around anyone other than my twin. He’d been undressing at the same time, preparing to pull on my suit and become me but taking time first to shove his own clothes into a backpack, clasping the bag around my lupine chest and rumpling my ears as if I was a family pet.

“Take care of yourself,” he demanded.

I didn’t. I loped across snow and ice that dwindled the further I traveled from the Strays’ enclave. Later, running across unfrozen pavement until my paw pads bled, I was grateful for the pain since it beat back the fiery darkness twining through my brain.

Because the fire told me I was an idiot to leave Jack alone with the object of my affections.

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