Dakota Cassidy - The Accidental Werewolf 2 - Something About Harry

“What would make you ask me that? Me. Quiet, geeky lab rat?”

“Because you’re a quiet, geeky lab rat.”

Mara did her best imitation of a scoff. “That you would even consider such a thing.”

“Makes me?”

“Mean and scary?”

“And in-fucking-tuitive?”

She slapped her hands on her thighs in exasperation. “Oh, my God, Nina! What is it with you lately? It’s like you’re everywhere these days. Quit rooting around in my conscience or whatever you do. Just knock it off. It’s spooky.”

“It’s called fine-tuning my vampire superpowers. It helps. Like now, when I can tell some shit’s gone down that involves you and your wicken-schtick. I just don’t know how the two add up—yet.”

“My wicken-schtick ? That’s not even a word, Nina.”

Nina twisted a loose strand of Mara’s hair around her forefinger and tugged her head downward, forcing Mara’s eyes upward to meet hers. “It’s your lady-garden, and you’re stalling.”

Mara was astounded at just how fine-tuned Nina’s emotion readings had become. She lifted her chin, tightening the hold Nina had on her hair, making her eyes wide and her expression vulnerable. She was hoping for the “Thumper” look. “You can read my wicken-schtick? I feel violated.”

“You wanna feel beat the fuck up?”

“No. But thank you.”

She released her hold on Mara, setting her upright. “I can sense that your lady parts are involved in this, in that Harry makes your libido turn to mush. Your blood was pumping a mile o’ fucking minute, and your heart might’a pushed its way outta your chest given another couple of seconds. And that scream? That whiny shit wasn’t from a chick who’s detached and hardly knows the guy. It was one of those, ‘please don’t mess up his pretty hair or pop his perfect nose off his face.’”

“You think his nose is perfect?” Mara rather thought it was just a little hooked to the right, which only made her want him more.

“I think something really bad’s gonna happen to you.”

“I don’t like bad things.”

Nina leered at her, flashing her fangs. “I do.”

“What a relief. Somebody has to like them. We couldn’t have the bad things left unloved. It would leave an imbalance of far too much good.”

Nina planted her hands on Mara’s shoulders, clamping them with warning fingers. “Quit dickin’ around.”

Oh, there was going to be hell to pay now. No one in her pack was ever going to let her forget this once word got around. In fact, she could be prosecuted by the council. If only her excitement hadn’t overruled filling her supply bin.

Mara put her cheek to Nina’s cool hand and closed her eyes. “We’re friends, right? We have nothing in common, that’s true, but I’d like to think that because I’m related to your best friend, you’d take a hit for me—back me up, so to speak.” Caressing Nina’s cool skin with her very hot cheek, she smiled up at her while she toyed with the strings to Nina’s hoodie, tying them in a neat bow, giving the strings a pat.

“Why are you throwin’ shade, Mara? Just say it, for the love of.”

How do you just say ‘I made a werewolf baby potion because no one else seems to want to have babies with me but myself’? How?

“One last chance. I’ll ask again. This happened how, Mara?” Nina prodded, picking Mara’s cheek off her hand to jam her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie.

Wanda and Marty’s heads popped up in simultaneous acts of curiosity.

Marty sent a question to Nina and Mara with nothing but her eyes. They all knew each other that well after five years of friendship.

Mara pulled out the pencil holding her hair up and brought it directly to her mouth to have something to nervous-chew. “You’ll never believe it.”

“Mara Flaherty, did you just use those words in front of us? Us ?” Wanda squealed. She tucked the lab coat under Harry’s square jaw and gave his shoulder a pat before climbing over the debris left from the debacle of his first werewolf shift.

Marty followed, her silver bracelets clinking together in jarring fashion, her boots clacking against the toppled steel lab chairs. She gazed at Nina expectantly. “Up to speed, please.”

Nina tilted her head in Mara’s direction. “Talk to werewolf junior here.”

Three beautiful women, on a sliding scale of ghetto/military chic to Audrey Hepburn classic, waited.

She took a shuddering breath before she began. “So before any of you say anything, before you judge, before I rationalize, let me just give you the basics. I wanted to have a baby. No one seems to want to mate with me. That hurts. It hurts when a single pack member isn’t interested in you—even after you’ve watched your sister-in-law turn on the charm and woo everyone from here to Albany just because she smiled, then try to do the same thing, and experience epic failure. And yes, Marty, I’m looking at you.”

Marty’s brow furrowed, but her eyes held a flash of hurt. “So what happened to Harry is my fault?”

Her stomach churned. No. She loved Marty—even if she wanted to be a little more like her, and the way she’d gone about that was to spew her envy in an unfavorable fashion. “No. I love you. I’m just telling you what led me to this place. It isn’t just you, it’s everyone like you. Women who flirt with ease.”

Marty pursed her lips. “I’m a married woman. I absolutely no longer flirt.”

Mara shook her finger. “You always respect your boundaries, and I know you love Keegan. What I mean is you have a charisma, a way of sucking people into your vortex without even trying. You do it all the time. With everyone. Not just men, but women, children. You could run a cult. Women like you should bottle that kind of charm for women like me.”

“I’m not sure if I feel complimented or insulted, Mara.”

Mara sighed. Saying this out loud for the first time just didn’t sound like it had in her head. “It’s a compliment. A huge one. Here’s what I mean. I’m dreadful at playing the vixen. I couldn’t seduce a fifth-grader out of some Chiclets. I’m just not sexy enough. I don’t have that ‘it’ factor. I don’t have any factors. I’m also not getting any younger.”

“What does this have to do with what happened to Harry?” Wanda asked, her face riddled with her confusion.

Mara’s voice grew husky, her eyes straying back to the floor. “Just listen. Anyway, after discovering I was probably always going to be single, I watched a lot of TV about single women, lesbian couples, and so on. People just like me who wanted children, but didn’t necessarily have a partner or a vagina to achieve it. Documentary style, of course. And I decided I didn’t need a baby daddy, but it’s not like they have paranormal sperm banks just waiting to offer up good DNA. I knew it would be hard enough to have a baby alone, because the pack frowns on that without mates, and you all know they encourage us to keep the lines of the breed strong.”

Wanda cocked her head at Mara. “They do have your average, everyday sperm banks, Mara. Did you skip that documentary on Netflix?”

Mara nodded, holding up a hand. “I know that, too. But who really knows how well the sperm donor is screened, Wanda? Did anyone know Charlie Manson was Charlie Manson until he was Charlie Manson? Also, how do we know a human’s sperm and my eggs would gel? I know we have Marty as an example, but she was already turned when she and Keegan conceived. Plus, you hear all sorts of stories about men looking for their babies because they regretted donating sperm and want to see their creation. How would that work if the guy showed up at my door? Do I just say, ‘Surprise! The sperm you donated made a nice little bundle of werewolf joy. Thanks for the swimmers, dude!’”