Эллен Шрайбер: Once in a Full Moon

“I’m not saying I don’t care for you. You know I do,” I said.

“I know,” he said. “I’ll just give you some more time.”

Nash wasn’t used to losing. He made a point of letting me know the game wasn’t over yet.

However, in his frustration, he reached to unzip his duffel bag and threw the ring into it.

I saw something dark and hairy coming out of the bag. I screamed.

“What?” he said. He jumped back, too.

“It’s a squirrel!” I pressed my whole body against the passenger-side door.

He, too, scooted away. He quickly opened his car door and jumped out. The overhead car light illuminated the inside. Something furry was sticking out of his duffel bag.

“That—” I said. “It’s alive!”

“This?” he said, pointing to the bag. “It’s nothing.”

I peered into the bag and grabbed the dark fur. He tried to stop my hand, but it was too late. I pulled out a wild wig.

“It’s an old Halloween costume. Here—” he said, stuffing it back into his bag. “Let me walk you to the door.”

Nash had never walked me to the door before. He just didn’t want me to see the costume inside the duffel bag, but it was too late.

I got out of the car, and he met me on the sidewalk.

“It was you,” I said.

He smiled sheepishly. “Me? What?”

“All along.”

He continued to grin a boyish grin.

“Scaring Heidi. And Abby? Being on TV?”

He looked like he couldn’t tell if I was going to hug him or slug him. I didn’t do either. Instead I just shook my head.

“I did it for you,” he said.

“I don’t understand—”

“It brought you to me. We’ve been hanging out together like old times. We’ve been so happy, all of us together. And you and I… It’s just like when we first went out. I told you I’d show you that you needed me, Celeste. I just had to show you how much.”

I was furious. Nash had put the entire town on alert and caused Brandon to be locked away for weeks. But then I realized the lengths to which Nash had gone to get my attention. We were hanging out as a sixsome again. For some reason, I was the only one who saw the fear in Nash’s face and knew that there was another layer to his superjock image. I knew that is why he needed me more than he needed the other girls at school, and I had to admit that it was nice to be needed.

“Why couldn’t you have just been thoughtful, Nash?” I asked. “That’s all I ever wanted from you. I just wanted you to really be interested in me and the things I care about. You didn’t have to pretend to be a werewolf so you could be the hero.”

He took my hands in his. “But it worked, didn’t it? We’re practically back together.”

Before I could step away, he drew me into him and kissed me.

I turned and wiped my mouth off.

He smiled at the success of his ruse.

“This will remain between the two of us?” he asked.

“There’s no one I want to tell,” I said.

“This is my biggest prank yet,” he said proudly. “I might want to reveal it myself.”

Iwas so let down by Dr. Meadows’s and Nash’s antics. It was one thing if Dr. Meadows had been unable to help me or Brandon, but what kind of doctor was she when she only wanted to help herself? All this time I was searching for a cure, while she was searching for celebrity. And ultimately, she wound up finding the wrong werewolf.

Nash, who had been the biggest crush of my life and my first boyfriend, had cooked up his scheme to get me to run back into his arms. It was flattering that he had gone to so much trouble for us to be together. But his foolish trick to get me back, which caused so much stress for other people, just proved why we weren’t meant to be a couple.

The following day was the first of a full moon. Just after sunset, I hurried over to Riverside to tell the one person who needed to know the most about Nash’s prank. I hoped I could convince Brandon it was time for him to return to his normal yet unusual nightlife because he wasn’t doing anyone any harm.

I knocked on his door. “Brandon! It’s me.”

“Celeste?” he asked from the other side. “What are you doing here?”

The heavy door separated us, but I was going to put an end to that.

“I’m coming in.” I unlocked the lock and opened his guesthouse door. I found Brandon pacing inside in his werewolf form.

I was so drawn to him I rushed into his arms. I immediately felt warmed by his embrace and safe and happy in his presence.

“Nash was the one on TV, not you,” I blurted out.

“He was the werewolf everyone has been spotting?” Brandon asked.

“Yes.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, he was,” I said with a laugh.

“And this is the guy you date?”

“I used to date. I guess he meant well, though,” I defended. “He was doing it so he and I could get back together,” I confessed. “He thought he was doing the right thing.”

“It’s your nature to see the good in people, isn’t it?” He brushed my hair away from my face.

“I don’t know—”

“So, did it work?” he asked, stepping back. “Are you back together with him? Is that why you are here?”

“No—” I said, and pulled him close. “I’m here to be with you. And to tell you that it’s time for you to be who you really are.”

I took him by the hand and led him outside. The full moon glowed brightly in the night sky. Brandon inhaled a huge breath of fresh air. His sights and senses perked up. He was finally free.

We walked hand in hand up the side of the hilltop into his favorite outdoor spot.

“I know that I want us to be together under any conditions,” I said, looking up at him. Brandon and I locked gazes. His lips were only inches from mine. It was pure torture.

“I want to kiss you so badly,” I said. “But as you are… now. I was warned against it. I just don’t know what it’ll do to you.”

“Or you?” he said, concerned.

Our foreheads touched and our arms wrapped around each other’s neck.

“It’s okay, Celeste,” he said. “Either way, I love you.”

I looked up at him again and paused as if I’d just frozen in the snow. The woods were eerily quiet. “What did you say?” I asked again, wondering if I had heard Brandon correctly.

He stared down at me. His intensely alluring gray eyes burned through me like ice. His wildly savage hair rested softly on his shoulders. His goateed face was unbelievably handsome, and his lips were magnetic.

“I love you,” he said.

His words sent fiery tingles dancing down my spine. I wasn’t sure if I’d just gone to heaven.

“I love you, too,” I said. It was like a huge weight had lifted from me. He smiled a brilliant smile.

Brandon cupped my face in his maimed hand. We gazed at each other. Our connection was hypnotic. I was irresistibly drawn to him.

I had to kiss Brandon because I knew that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to breathe. I’d never loved someone or something as much as I did him, and I knew at that moment I had to let him know how much.

“I want to kiss you. Now. But I’m afraid of hurting you more—”

“You don’t have to be afraid,” he said. “I’m already a werewolf. What could be worse?” He finally took me into his arms and did what I’d been waiting for him to do since I first saw him standing by the tree in the woods. He leaned into me and kissed me with such desire and intensity it was like nothing I’d ever experienced.

His lips were full and tender. The kiss was electric, seductively shocking. My whole body was electrified as tingles ran down my flesh and inside my veins.