Once in a Full Moon(74)

“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.

We broke away and I melted into his embrace. I gazed up and saw the full moon above me. Then Brandon noticed it, too.

He hid me from the moonlight and checked my hands and face.

“What have I done?” he asked. “I’ll never forgive myself!”

“But I haven’t been bitten. Maybe nothing will happen to me. I’m more afraid for you,” I said.

He held me in his arms again. It was the most magical kiss of my life, and I was still hoping for more.

I didn’t know if there would be consequences for not heeding Dr. Meadows’s warning. But for now, there were more hazards in not kissing this guy, this werewolf, the love of my life.

I was afraid to sleep. I dreaded waking up the next day with a beard and hairy legs. On Brandon, the werewolf traits were powerful and alluring. But I couldn’t imagine them being so attractive on a girl. My fate would be I’d end up traveling with a circus.

I lay awake all night long. Replaying in my mind was the kiss on the lips of a werewolf. When would we know the effects of that kiss? Did I have to wait for a full moon to turn or just any moon? Or would it be the end of Brandon?

The next day Brandon wasn’t in school. I waited all day, hoping at any moment he’d walk through the classroom door, I’d spot him in the hallway, or he’d show up in the cafeteria. But I knew better, and my stomach was filled with anxiety. I’d once again caused unlikely events to unfold, the effects at this point unknown. I’d defied once again Dr. Meadows’s warning. This could only mean one thing—trouble.

Nash and Ivy were concerned with my being distracted.

“Why are you so miserable?” Ivy asked. “You didn’t even eat your lunch.”

I was worried sick.

“I think I should keep an eye on you,” Nash said. “You aren’t yourself.” He did his best to follow me around school, but no amount of silly jokes could break my distressed mood.

I was so afraid I’d hurt Brandon by our kiss underneath the full moon. I could think of nothing else.

The sun hovered over the treetops as I raced to Brandon’s house. I called out his name and searched his small guesthouse, but I didn’t hear or discover him. Then I headed for his hilltop. I couldn’t wait to see him again.

I stepped over trees and trudged through the snow.

“Brandon,” I called. “Brandon! Where are you?” My heart was aching. Where had Brandon gone? I feared that there were consequences to our kiss—and since nothing had happened to me, surely something had happened to him. Was he hurt, or worse? I couldn’t bear to think about it any longer.

Suddenly a figure stepped out from behind a tree.

“Brandon?” I froze.

But was this the same Brandon I’d kissed the night before? Or was I being met by a menacing werewolf? Maybe it was foolish or even unsafe of me to have come here without knowing.