instincts. I could easily get carried away and mate with you
before I even knew what I was doing. You’re not a werewolf. You don’t have the
strength to stop me if I tried to bite you.”
“Bite
me?”
“Biting
with our teeth transformed during sex. That’s how we mate.”
Bonded
with one man until death do they part? Sounded a lot like marriage to her, but
then again what did she know? She was human and had never been married before.
Or even in a real long-term relationship.
“I
think this is the first time I actually believe the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’
line.” She was trying to find the humor in their situation. She was still
frustrated that she could never have him and just because she couldn’t have him
didn’t mean she would stop wanting him.
It
figured that the first man she wanted in a long time would one, be a werewolf,
and two, be killed if they started dating. Saying that it sucked didn’t quite
cover it.
“It is
what it is.” He put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the chair,
surveying her.
“Bullshit
is what it is.”
The
corner of his mouth lifted. “The Netherworld likes its rules.”
“I can
see that. I just can’t believe that no one has ever broken the rules before.
For a bunch of bad ass werewolves, you guys are such pussies.”
Gabriel’s
entire body shook with laughter. She very much doubted that anyone had ever
called him a pussy before.
When he
finally regained control of himself he said, “You don’t think someone can be bad
ass when they’re following rules?”
“No, I’m
not saying that. I’m a nurse. I follow rules every day and the lives of my
patients depend on that. For example, I can’t just give someone medication
because they want it without a doctor’s order, it’s against the rules. If I
broke that rule, I could kill someone. So, no, that’s not what I’m saying at
all. What I’m saying is that I find it hard to believe that you guys let people
tell you how to live your life.”
“We do
live our lives without interference.”
“But
you don’t, not really. What if some poor werewolf fell in love with a human?
What then? Would he just have to walk away because he wasn’t allowed to love
her? Wasn’t allowed to share a life with her?”
His
arms dropped to his sides and he shrugged. “I’ve never heard of it happening,
but that doesn’t mean that it never has or never could. I imagine he would walk
away from her. The consequences are too great.”
“That’s
what I’m talking about. Our poor werewolf friend is going to be miserable for
the rest of his life because of some stuffy council and ridiculous Netherworld
rule. That’s the problem I have with it and I think that if our werewolf friend
were to walk away from someone he loves because someone else said so, then yes,
he’s a fucking pussy.”
“I don’t
think I’ve ever heard it put like that before.”
“Of
course not because you’ve been brainwashed. You’ve be taught, I’m assuming,
from an early age that humans aren’t to be trusted, because hell, if you could
trust them, you guys wouldn’t be tiptoeing around with a secret society of
sorts going on. My guess is that someone a long time ago got burned—literally,
figuratively or both—but we’re not in the dark ages anymore.”
“It was
literally.”
Ignoring
his comment, she continued, “My point is that humans have changed and maybe in
some ways, have evolved. Vampires and werewolves are the new thing now. You can’t
go into a store without seeing books and movies without a vampire or werewolf
main character. They’re not the villains anymore, they’re the stars. The love
interests. The brooding bad boy that every teenage girl wants to fix.”
“You’re
not a teenage girl.”
“And I
don’t want to fix you, just enlighten you and perhaps change some of your
thinking about some things.”
He was
quiet for a moment, thinking about what she said. “Perhaps you’re right in
J. K. Accinni
Mari Carr
Chris Kennedy
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Robert T. Jeschonek
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J.R. WRIGHT