Logan shoved Dustin out of his face. “I’d rather be human than a beast!”
“And I presume you’re going to start blaming me for that now?”
Logan laughed. “Of course! If you have just kept it in your pants, I’d have lived a normal life instead of this nightmare!”
“If you didn’t change, you’d still be living with that dead-beat father instead of us!”
Katey leaned against the counter, feeling their negative and hateful words parade through her head like screaming ghouls. The pack bond they shared intensified her empathetic nature and it made her body tense and edgy.
“I would prefer living a normal miserable life rather than one that is just as miserable and never ends.”
“How do you think Katey’s going to feel in a couple hundred years?”
Darren covered his eyes in frustration. “Are we forgetting that Katey can hear every word you two bone heads are saying?”
Logan sighed and sat back down on the couch, rubbing his forehead, the rage refusing to subside. “I don’t think she’ll hate it,” he mumbled after a few beats of silence.
“Why?” Dustin asked. “I didn’t think you’d hate it so much, but I was wrong. Now you don’t stop moping about it!” He resumed his pacing around the sitting room.
“Katey’s the only person in the world that makes me feel normal and happy,” Logan admitted.
“And you could have killed her very easily. Is that what you would have wanted?”
Logan roared with fury and rushed past them. “I said I was sorry!” he cried as he sped through the living room and out the sliding glass door.
The four of them left in the house cringed as they heard him slam the door shut with a resounding crack. Katey found her strength and flew past Ben and down the stairs. Darren and Dustin entered the living room, both looking exasperated.
The glass in the sliding door panes had spider-webbed from the force when Logan stormed out.
“That’s got to be the twentieth time he’s broken that door,” Darren mused with a shake of his head.
“I told you that you should have made it bullet proof,” Dustin remarked as he sat himself down heavily on the couch and rubbed at his eyes with her fingers.
“Logan went outside?” Katey asked.
The teachers looked up to her.
“No, he just flew through the kitchen,” Dustin wisecracked. “Of course he went outside. Follow the path of destruction and you’ll find him.”
Katey hurried across the room towards the doors, but Darren moved himself to block her way, holding her back by her shoulders. “You had better give him some time before talking to him.”
His stern gaze would have normally convinced her, but she was too stubborn now. “I can’t just let him go on thinking that this is all his fault.”
“It is his fault,” Dustin grumbled from behind them.
Darren glanced to Dustin with a commanding look. “You simmer down too, Dustin.”
He looked back to Katey and saw the imploring light in her eyes. He heaved a heavy sigh, and then stepped out of her way. She gave him a grateful smile and dashed out the sliding glass door, being careful not to make the cracks deepen.
Ben stepped down from the stairs and leaned against the framed opening. “You think this is going to end well?” he asked, slightly amused that the alpha really let her go like that.
Darren shook his head and lowered himself into his chair. “Not really.”
Dustin leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and held his face in his hands. “I hope that girl is worth it to Logan to do all of this.”
The alpha cracked in a smile, the first he had given to anyone since that afternoon. “You forget what it’s like to be in love?”
Dustin uncovered his face and rested his chin in palm. “I remember. But I don’t remember ever having sense to know what to do about it.”
Ben’s lips curled into a painful smile. “I do.”
“I’m not saying that Logan did right, but I’ll give him credit for doing what none of us could have ever done.”
The three exchanged knowing glances and nodded. Never had they been able to change a human female into a loup-garou. They had never gotten nearly this far.
Katey walked along the path to the gazebo, bracing herself against the cold, biting wind. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for her eyes to adjust in the pitch-black darkness of the night. The air was chilled, thick with the muggy scent of the rain that had passed through the area hours before.
Sounds and scents assaulted her from every side, but she couldn’t be bothered with them now.
She stepped cautiously towards Logan, who was sitting on the bench inside the gazebo, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. She sensed a whirlwind of emotion in him that she couldn’t begin to fathom. Anger, guilt, sorrow, it all warred for dominance within him, but Katey could tell he was battling it. He didn’t want to be under their sway and neither did she.
She took the submissive position with her knees bent and her head lowered as she approached Logan. This time, it wasn’t forced, but came naturally as if some force within her required it.
“Logan?” she whispered. He didn’t look up, but she knew he could hear her.
Katey lowered herself to the ground and crouched before him, looking up with a hopeful gaze. He didn’t move. She placed a gentle hand upon his arm but he jerked away from her touch. She withdrew her hand and heard a high-pitched whining noise rise in her throat and it sounded shrill and breathless, like a puppy being scolded for wetting on the carpet.
“Logan, please be ok?” she whimpered.
“I’m not.”
Logan stirred a little, and then took his hands away from his face. She could see his beautiful blue eyes glow in the darkness, but she could also see the battle in them.
“Why?” she asked, impulsively.
“Because I just ruined your life,” he answered, looking down at her with a scowl.
“No, you didn’t,” she beseeched, reaching for his hands.
“Don’t say that!” he roared. Katey was thrown onto her back as he stood up and loomed over her, growling at her intensely.
Katey’s whining grew louder and more shrill, more terrified. Logan balled his fists at his side and she could see silent tears stream down his cheeks. Her nails scratched at the wooden boards beneath her, trying to grip onto anything to help her crawl away, but Logan’s feet straddled on either side of her and she was trapped.
“Don’t you see? It’s my fault. I should have never forced you to consent. I was selfish and inconsiderate.” His voice was drowned in a harsh whisper as her body quivered.
“No you weren’t. I really did want this.” Katey didn’t know how else to make him see that she really was fine. She was alive and they could be together now. There was nothing to hold them back from journeying through the centuries together.
“The only reason I even brought up the idea of changing you was for my own selfish desires… I wanted to be with you… Not as friends, but as something more… I never even consider the fact that you may not have wanted this same thing for us,” Logan spoke, slowly and diligently with sorrow dripping from every word. Katey tilted her head and gazed earnestly at him. “I ruined your life and there is no cure for this.”
“But, it’s ok, Logan,” she managed to say softly.
“No it’s not!” Logan screamed and stormed back towards the mansion.
Katey sat hopelessly for a moment, watching him leave, feeling her chest constrict around her lungs and heart. Such complete and utter rejection was more than she could bear. If unreciprocated love was hard, knowing the one you loved hated the sight of you was even harder.
Afterword
Dear Reader,
I hope you have enjoyed the first part of a this series I have begun. Don’t worry, there will be many more novels to come about Katey and Logan’s journey together. I encourage you to read on into “Becoming the Enigma” and s
tay tuned into my social media sites for updates on upcoming novels within the Loup-Garou Series.
“The Enigma” began when I was a freshman in high school. At the time, I had this weird obsession with everything supernatural. Werewolves, vampires, demons, you name it. I had more monster books than the public library.
Inspiration from this story stemmed from a lot of things that were going on in my life at the time. No, I wasn’t dating a werewolf (although that would have been so cool), but I was struggling with depression, thoughts of suicide, self-doubt, and above all I wanted to know what my purpose in life was.
Writing opened up an avenue to vent my frustrations and not only have fun making up stories about people I wish existed, but discovering more about myself. You can thank this book for sparking the fire of creativity in me, because without it, the books that I have already published would not have been in existence today.
Again, I invite you to check out my social media sites for more updates and sneak peeks into my progress. You can find me at my blog, www.moonstruckwriting.wordpress.com.
Happy Reading!
Sheritta Bitikofer
About the Author
Sheritta Bitikofer is an author of eclectic tastes. Her mornings are spent dancing to Frank Sinatra and singing to hard rock bands while sipping on a good Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks. At work, she’s often found without shoes on or running to get her coworkers’ drinks from Sonic during happy hour. And when the day has been hard, she unwinds with a good book and chili cheese fries before snuggling on the couch with her husband. And on some weekends, she can be found at non-profit medieval historical society events either painting or shooting a bow. Her idea of a great time is dining out, chillin’ at the library (or a bookstore) and bouncing novel ideas back and forth with her loving and supportive husband.
Follow her for upcoming novel releases
@moonstruckwrite
sheritta.bitikofer.author
www.moonstruckwriting.wordpress.com
Also by Sheritta Bitikofer
The Princess and Her Rogue
Escape
The Neustrian Chronicles
Clouds
The Loup-Garou Series
The Enigma
Becoming the Enigma
Beast Within (Coming 2017!)
The Decimus Trilogy
The Beast of Verona
Amber Ashes
Saving the Beast
The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1) Page 36