Page 33 of Bookish Girl’s Emergency Contact Is a Lycan King

“Then go GET SOME.”

“If I leave to get pants, will you still be here when I come back? Or will you run out the front door the moment I’m out of sight?”

She opens her mouth. Closes it. Her eyes dart toward the door, calculating distance, probably, weighing her options, and then back to me.

“I’m not going anywhere until you EXPLAIN YOURSELF.”

“Then I’ll stay. And explain. Pantless.”

“That’s, you can’t just, that’s INDECENT.”

“I just turned into a lycan in front of you. I think we’re past decent.”

“LYCAN. You just said lycan. Pick a word and STICK WITH IT.”

“I’m using them interchangeably.”

“You literally corrected me three seconds ago!”

“I’m a complicated man.”

Mario chooses this moment to contribute his opinion. He turns his head, looks directly at me from his position against Fable’s chest, and produces a sound that can only be described as screaming. He isn’t meowing or yowling. He is screaming, with the full theatrical force of a cat who has been personally betrayed in ways too numerous to catalog.

“Is THAT why he hates you?” Fable’s voice is climbing toward hysteria again. “You’re a giant DOG? Mario has been living with a GIANT DOG this whole time?”

“Technically, lycans predate the domestic canine by several millennia, and the comparison is…”

“DO NOT ‘TECHNICALLY’ ME RIGHT NOW.”

I close my mouth.

Mario screams again, as if providing additional evidence for her case. He’s always had impeccable timing, that cat. And apparently impeccable judgment, given that he chose her within seconds of their meeting.

Smart animal. Smarter than me, probably.

“Okay.” Fable takes a breath. Then another. I watch her trying to find her footing, trying to process the impossible thing she just witnessed. Her hands are buried in Mario’s fur, fingers working through the orange strands like she’s grounding herself in his solidity. “Okay. Let me make sure I understand this correctly. You’re a… a lycan. A wolf person.”

“Yes.”

“Who can turn into a giant wolf whenever you want.”

“Within certain limitations, but essentially yes.”

“And you’re the king of other wolf people who live on the mountain.”

“Lycan people, but yes.”

“And you’ve been… what, pretending to be human this whole time? Pretending to be a normal person who shows up at hospitals and alphabetizes bookshelves?”

“I wasn’t pretending. I was just… omitting certain details.”

“CERTAIN DETAILS.” She laughs, and it’s not a happy sound. “Certain details like ‘by the way, I turn into a giant predator when threatened.’ That’s a DETAIL?”

“It didn’t seem relevant until tonight.”

“Didn’t seem…” She makes a strangled noise. “You took a BULLET for me.”

“Yes.”