Page 44 of Recipe for a Curse

Chapter 18

Iawoke feeling deliciously warm and well rested. The light through the window indicated either my alarm hadn’t turned on, or I had somehow slept through it. And oddly enough, as my body and senses began to slowly awaken, I realized I was wrapped in someone’s arms. He was wrapped around me from behind, spooning me, his arms hugging my middle, hair falling half over my neck where his face nestled. My heart did a little rolling turn from sheer joy. Rio had come back.

I let out a long, contented sigh and ran a hand down his arm in a caress, the fuzz of his hair calming. He was as warm as usual, didn’t look any thinner from the little I could see nestled up to him, and I hoped he was okay. I could have stayed there for hours. Then I remembered the wolf and wondered if I would have to let it out to go to the bathroom? I hoped it hadn’t peed in the apartment. I didn’t smell anything, but the thought made me sit up and look around the room.

Rio grumbled, rolling back a little to let me go and rubbing his eyes.

The wolf was nowhere to be seen. Had Rio let him out already? I hope he wasn’t lost out in the snow again. How did one care for a wild wolf anyway? Even if it was half tamed?

“Where did your friend go?” I asked Rio, then grabbed my phone from the bedside table. The alarm was off. There were a handful of texts from Zach I must have missed this morning. First seeming a bit frantic, wondering if I was okay, then telling me to get some rest. Weird.

I sent Zach back a message that I was just now getting up and asking if he’d seen the wolf. Zach must have let Rio in, since I hadn’t shared my key, but I wasn’t sure Zach had the key either as I’d gotten it from Mr. Yamamoto who was still on break.

“Friend?” Rio asked sleepily.

“The wolf?” I prodded, staring down at him. He looked a bit scruffy and sinfully delicious. I wondered if I could keep him in bed today.

Rio stared up at me in silence for a minute. Those beautiful eyes of his wide and confused. Had the wolf not been his pet?

“Tamest wolf I’ve ever met if he isn’t yours,” I added, thinking maybe he was hiding having a wild friend.

“Only around you,” Rio muttered. He pushed himself up. He was completely naked beneath the blankets. I sighed sweetly as I looked over him. And only then did I realize his bags, and the other things that contained his clothes were absent. And I couldn’t see anything lying on the floor or the bathroom that indicated he’d stripped before getting in bed with me. Had he been running around out there in his birthday suit?

I stared at him. Mind slowly awakening and nothing adding up. Or at least not adding up to anything that made sense. “Rio?”

“Do you want me to go?” He asked.

“Why would you ask that?”

He picked at the comforter, gathering up a wad of hair which had obviously been from the wolf. He picked at it, and my brain went back to Zach’s words last night, that Rio was the wolf. That wasn’t possible. Yet things were adding up.

“Um…” I stared at him, confusion probably a big question mark on my face. “No wolf friend?” It had been real, the hair proved that…

“I am the wolf,” Rio said quietly.

Those words flittered around me, an echo of thought and pulling out memories of our time together. Werewolves weren’t real. It couldn’t be… “Werewolves aren’t real,” I whispered, like I could make it true just by saying it.

“I don’t exactly call myself a werewolf. It’s a curse, not a romance novel trope.”

I blinked at him, trying to make sense of a million things that didn’t fit together, yet did.

Rio climbed out of bed. “I should go.”

“You’re naked,” I pointed out dumbly.

“Yeah, that happens when I shift back.” He glanced at the window.

“Shift… How? Why? Can you help me understand?” I was so lost for a minute, thinking maybe this was some fairytale dream, and yet staring at him and finding so many things falling into place. “Rio?”

“I have to shift on the full moon. Most of the time I spend the entire three or four days of the moon cycle as the wolf. It’s easier on my brain to let it take over… eat…”

I could feel my eyes widen. Did that mean he ate people? That’s what they did in the movies.

“Animals,” Rio added. “Deer most of the time. And three days of feeding on raw deer is pretty gross to deal with as a human…”

“I have a dozen great venison recipes,” I said without really thinking. “Not raw of course…” I floundered, not really sure what was happening. “You turn into a wolf? Because someone cursed you?” I clarified.

“Yes,” Rio agreed. “Happened while I served. It was why I was released early. They’d have kept me, tried to create another unit ofspecialsoldiers, only they couldn’t keep us fed enough.” He flinched as though the memory hurt.