Cursed Wolf

“Worse than prison?”Jasmine repeated. “It’s hard to imagine anything worse than that.”

She looked over at him as he drove through town to the restaurant.

“It’s not anything that we did, exactly. It’s more something someone did to us.”

Jasmine was seeing a lot of red flags. It disappointed her to hear about all this now that she’d met and liked his family.

She liked him. He was kind, courteous, and intelligent. He was loyal to his family, and he loved them. This revelation was a blinking beacon of warning signs.

When they sat down at the restaurant, she read the menu carefully, finally deciding on steak and lobster with the chowder as her starter.

“You’re a writer, so you must have a strong imagination.”

“I hope so,” Jasmine said.

The waiter came and took their order and filled their wine glasses with Chardonnay.

“So let me tell you a story.”

Jasmine nibbled on sourdough bread, waiting for him to speak.

“Once upon a time,” he started. She chuckled and took a sip of wine.

“Once upon a time, there were six wolf brothers. They grew up in a time long ago. They lived on the land with their parents. One day, their father was crushed to death in an avalanche. The whole family mourned him. But something terrible happened soon after. Their mother fell sick. She caught a fever and nothing they did could help her. They were snowed in during a terrible storm, and they couldn’t take her to the doctor.

“The brothers had heard the legend of a powerful witch called the Snow Queen. She lived in an ice palace in the mountains above their lands.”

Jasmine raised an eyebrow and took another sip of wine. The story was starting to get interesting.

“They had heard that the Snow Queen grew a special flower that granted her eternal youth. The brothers decided that if the flower granted the Snow Queen eternal youth, surely it would cure their mother. The brothers decided to steal the snow flower and bring it to their beloved mother.”

“You should be a writer,” Jasmine said, taking another bite of bread. The waiter brought them their first course.

“This isn’t a story I made up,” Felix said.

“Please continue.”Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Felix went on as the waiter walked away. “The brothers climbed the mountain and found the Snow Queen’s palace. In her snow garden, the snow flower bloomed. It shone like a diamond in the darkness. The brothers crept into the Snow Queen’s garden and plucked the flower from the stem. As they were escaping her fortress, she caught them.”

Jasmine’s eyes widened and her heart began to pound.

“What happened next?”

“The Snow Queen snatched back the flower. She was in an absolute rage that the brothers had invaded her property. She destroyed their homes with her ice magic, killing their mother in her bed. Then the witch turned to the brothers, cursing them for eternity.”

“Cursing them?” Jasmine asked, scooping up a piece of potato from her soup.

“They would remain as wolves every day but the day of the full moon. The only way to break the curse would be to claim their fated mates. That was seventy-five years ago.”

Jasmine stirred her spoon around in her soup, looking at the creamy dish as if it would tell her what to make of all of this.

“What does that have to do with you and your brothers?” she asked, fearing the answer.

“The brothers in the story are us,” he said. Jasmine choked on a sip of wine and coughed into her cloth napkin.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you so soon.”

“It’s fine,” she sputtered, narrowing her eyes at him. Was he serious? Did he really expect her to believe he was cursed by some witch called the Snow Queen?

“But tonight isn’t the full moon,” she said.

“Luna, who you met tonight, is a witch. She was able to make a potion that allows us to remain human. But it’s not a cure. In the beginning there were terrible side effects.”

Jasmine was an open-minded person. She believed that there were unexplainable things in the universe.

“So, the only way to break the curse is to claim your fated mate?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“And that would be me,” she said, pointing her spoon at herself.

Felix’s face turned red. “I don’t want you to think that you’re obligated to become my mate to break my curse.”

“What I do feel is confused. I’m sorry, but it is hard for me to believe all of this.”

“That’s perfectly understandable. I am a rational man. I try to approach the world logically, and I can only imagine that hearing this is bizarre to you. But I guarantee you that it’s all 100% true.”

“I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, Felix. You seem like a good man. I can’t imagine that everyone I met today is sharing in some mass psychosis—although I’ve heard that such things can happen.”

“I’m glad that you’re taking this so well,” he said, sitting back in his chair.

The waiter returned, bringing their main course, and the two of them dug into the feast. Jasmine gr0aned with delight at the flavor of the perfectly medium rare steak.

“This is divine,” she gr0aned.

“It’s something of a tradition for the Winter men to bring their mates to the Captain’s Gratto on their first dates.”

“And how many times have you all had to explain to a woman that you were cursed by a mysterious witch called the Snow Queen?” she asked with a snicker.

“Five so far,” he said, popping a bite of lobster in his mouth.

“And what were the others’ reactions?”

“Luna just wanted to help. She had just found out she was a witch herself so had more than just our story to contend with. Venus and Damian were like two lovesick teenagers.”

“I can see that,” Jasmine chuckled.

“We all helped her out of a pretty tough spot with her mother.”

“I hope everything’s all right now.”

“Everything is good now. The two of them are very happy. With Thorne and Heather, it was a different story, though. Heather is a scientist, and she had a really hard time believing that magic is real.”

Jasmine took another bite of the heavenly steak and chewed. She could imagine how difficult it would be for a scientist to believe this story.

“And what about Dalia?” she asked.

“Dalia believes in a lot of mystical things. She had to pull it out of Tate in the end, and she believed him when he finally told her.”

Jasmine nodded, dipping her lobster in melted butter.

“It helps me to know how the others took this information,” Jasmine said.

“Just know you’re not alone in your skepticism. Heather thought Thorne was crazy. He might be crazy, but it’s not because of the curse.” Felix chuckled.

Jasmine thought about Luna and her round belly and Heather and her child. She wanted children herself so badly, but she had begun to believe that it was not going to be in the cards for her.

“So, do you want a big family of your own?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I do. I want a lot of children running around the house.”

“Children are the most important thing in life. I bought a four-bedroom house in the hopes that I would find my mate soon and we would be able to start our family together.”

“Now you found me,” Jasmine said in a low voice.

“Now I found you.”

Jasmine loved that Felix wanted a family. He had a crazy origin story that she’d have to get to the bottom of. But for now, she knew she liked him. After they finished their delicious desserts, Felix picked up the tab and the two of them decided to take a walk out on the pier.

“Selkie is a magical place,” she said as Felix offered her his arm.

Jasmine wrapped hers through the crook of his elbow and they walked side-by-side along the docks. Tourists passed in the lamplight as the sound of the ocean hummed in the air. She felt warm and peaceful as the smell of Felix’s aftershave filled her senses, making her swoon.

“I love it here. I appreciate this town and everything it has to offer, but it’s mostly because this is where I met you.”

They turned to each other at the end of the dock, surrounded by boats and the sound of the ocean. Tourists laughed in the distance, but it was like they were the only two people on Earth. He wrapped her in his arms, and she felt an electric shudder go down her spine.

“I would like to k!ss you,” he said.

“I’d like to k!ss you back.”

He pulled her closer and pressed his l!ps to hers. It was soft and tentative at first, but she grabbed his lapels and pulled him closer. Jasmine gr0aned as his tongue slipped between her l!ps. A liquid flood of pleasure crashed and flowed through her.

Jasmine wrapped her arms around his neck, and Felix ran his hands up and down her spine. Their l!ps crashed into each other, and their tongues danced in an er0tic tango. She pulled back and caught her breath, barely able to think.

“Well,” she breathed. “That was quite a k!ss.”

He growled low in his throat. “We should try it again just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.”

Jasmine giggled as Felix pulled her into another k!ss. It wasn’t a fluke. A flood of pleasure surged through her, dampening her panties and filling her with need. Jasmine hadn’t been with a man in over a year, and she’d never had s*x on a first date. Felix was making her want to change that rule.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a notification from her driver. “My ride is going to be at the restaurant in five minutes.”

“I’ll walk you back.” He took her hand.

When they returned to the parking lot of the Captain’s Grotto, he k!ssed her one more time and then opened the door for her ride.

“Good night, Felix.”

“Good night, Jasmine.”

She closed her door and the driver started down the street. Jasmine watched Felix out the back window until they turned the corner. She’d had a wonderful date with him. She wanted to get to know him better, no matter how strange his story of the Snow Queen might be.