Page 60 of Patrick’s Seduction

Her eyes widened, and her chin dropped, while her heart beat into her throat. “And you didn’t tell me? You could have warned me.”

He reached for her hand. “It was too late by then. He’d already attacked you at the hospital, and what would you have said if I’d told you then that he’s a werewolf?”

“I would—” She stopped herself. She would have thought he was crazy.

He sighed. “Exactly. You wouldn’t have believed me. You had no reason to.” He took a visible breath. “I’m sorry, Fallon, it’s my fault that I didn’t figure this out earlier. And had I known that he’d bitten or scratched you in order to turn you into a werewolf, I would have…” Again, he hesitated.

She shook her head. “You wouldn’t have been able to do anything, would you?” She shifted her gaze to the other people in the room. “This is irreversible, isn’t it? I’ll be a werewolf from now on, won’t I?”

She didn’t know from where she took the strength to even utter those words. She sounded so calm in her own ears, when everything inside her was whirling around like her insides were in a blender, and somebody had flicked the switch.

When only silent stares came as answers, she shook her head again as if she could shake the truth off like a nightmare.

“I can’t do this. I can’t be this.” She slapped her hands against her chest. “This… this animal inside me… I don’t want to be this.”

She felt fresh tears rise, but pushed them down, not wanting to cry in front of these strangers. She wanted to retain as much dignity as she could. If she had any left. After all, the three men had seen her naked in bed with Patrick. It couldn’t get any more embarrassing than that. Oh, yes, it could: they had seen her shift into her wolf form, and she was certain that sight was anything but pretty. A mass of flesh, bones, skin, and hair all being jumbled up and rearranged couldn’t be something anybody would want to watch. She felt disgusted at the thought. It had been the moment where she’d felt the most out of control. As if somebody else was controlling her body. Because somebody was: the wolf.

“We don’t know yet whether there’s anything that can be done,” Patrick said, his voice soothing. “Wes?”

The male witch sat up a little straighter. “I’m not sure. But Charles and I can definitely do some research. See if there’s a spell or something.”

She watched him, but they all knew it: Wesley didn’t have much hope of finding anything to turn her back into a human.

She let out a cry. “Why? Why did he do that to me? Why did Cameron do this?”

She felt Patrick’s hand on hers again. “Because he wanted you as his mate. And deep down he knew that you wouldn’t accept him. But as a new werewolf, you need the protection of his pack and the guidance that only another werewolf can provide you with. By turning you, he wanted to make sure you needed him.”

She swallowed hard. “That’s what he said. You’ll need me. He said it that night, and he said it again later. It was always his plan, wasn’t it?”

“I believe so. At least after you broke up with him. It made him desperate.”

“He would have done it anyway,” Amaury added, drawing her attention to him.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“From the little I know about werewolves, I know how they mate. The male bites the female during sex. So, if they mate with a human, it would turn the human into one of them—if she survives it.”

The words hung there in the silence that followed. Her gaze ping-ponged back from Amaury to the others. “But you must know more. I mean, none of you is human. You must know more.”

“Vampires and werewolves have never been on a great footing,” Amaury said. “We’re natural enemies, and—”

“Amaury!” Patrick interrupted.

“Well, it’s the truth,” he said defensively, before casting an apologetic glance back at her. “I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is. Of course, we won’t hurt you, because… well, because we can see you don’t want to harm Patrick. But not every vampire out there is gonna feel the same.”

She nodded. She understood what he was trying to tell her. “So, because you’re natural enemies, you don’t know anything else about werewolves?”

“Other than a silver bullet to the head kills ‘em for sure?” Zane interjected, his voice as cold as ice.

A cold shiver ran down her spine, chilling her to the core.

“Shut up, Zane!” Patrick snapped. “There’s no need for that.”

The bald vampire shrugged as if the reprimand hadn’t even touched him. “Just saying.”

“We need to find out more about werewolves, do some research,” Patrick suggested.

“I’ll contact Samson,” Amaury said.