Chapter 27 Leticia
LETICIA
WEREWOLVES OR WOLF SHIFTERS?
At the front of the house, Royal presses a button in the car for the garage door and pulls into a spacious garage.
The door slides closed behind us, and when I get out of the car, I note that the space is heated. The air is a little chilled from the garage door opening, but still rather warm and comfortable.
Inside, the house is exactly as I remember it, with the exception of how quiet it is. I can tell no one is here. The home feels stark and cold. Despite the cozy elements, it feels barren of life.
“I think it’s best if I just show you what we’re dealing with rather than try to dance around the subject. And then when you know what’s going on, we can talk about the specifics,” Royal says from where he’s walked ahead of me toward the back of the house.
“Oh, okay.” I follow him through the kitchen to the gorgeous sunny living room.
He opens one of the French doors to the backyard and starts pulling off his coat.
“Royal, it’s freezing. What are you doing?” I zip my heavy peacoat up in demonstration against the cold, then close the door to the house behind me.
“I’m sure it feels really cold to you, but honestly, it’s not that bad. Especially not compared to a couple of days ago. This is nice.” He laughs, and it’s not his usual laugh; this is almost a wounded sound, one that doesn’t actually feel like humor.
He tosses his coat onto some patio furniture and then pulls his sweater off over the top of his head.
“Royal, you’re acting really weird.” I use that voice Antonella uses when she cautions younger cousins against doing something dumb.
I must get it wrong, though, because Royal moves on to unbuttoning his dress shirt. This is why Berto kept telling Dad I should know how to use a gun. But I don’t really believe that thought holds merit because I don’t think Royal intends to hurt me.
“I promise you it’s going to get a whole lot weirder.” He shrugs his shirt off his shoulders.
“Well, you could make it less weird,” I say with the hope that maybe whatever this is doesn’t have to happen.
“I can’t do that.” He runs a hand across the back of his neck.
I get a look at his body, and Royal is definitely more of a gym bro than he let on. The single picture I have of him did nothing to show how built he is.
Not the time, Leticia. I mentally face-palm myself.
“Leticia, focus,” Royal says. “You can check me out later, but I have something that I need to tell you, and it needs to happen soon.”
“What do you have to tell me that involves taking —” I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Royal unbuttons his pants. “Taking your clothes off.”
“I just need you to promise that you’ll stay as calm as possible and let this process, before you do anything. Remember everything we’ve talked about and that we’ve been friends, and it feels like we’ve been friends for a lot longer than a week.”
He isn’t wrong. The long talks and nights on the phone do make it feel like I’ve known Royal a lot longer. It makes it feel like I’m not really meeting him for the first time today.
Royal’s jeans slipping from around his waist, however, has me raising a hand to shield my eyes from view. We’re friends, but are we those sort of friends? I mean, did him walking me through my orgasm make me that sort of friend? Do I want to be that sort of friend?
I try to focus and draw slower breaths than the words rushing in my head, but all the questions feel valid.
“I’m turning around, for your sensitivities.” Royal laughs, and he makes it sound like I’m some Victorian damsel he needs to be chaste around. Though, maybe I am.
I close my eyes and draw two more short breaths.
“Okay. Royal, this is moving past weird into uncharted territory,” I tell him, but when I open my eyes and look between my fingers, Royal isn’t there.
I slowly lower my hand because maybe he’s crouching, taking off his socks, or — OH my god.
“That’s a wolf.” I step backward away from the massive animal. “Oh, my god. ROYAL!” I shout, trying to find him in my peripheral vision, but he isn’t there.
Did he get eaten by the wolf? Am I getting eaten by the wolf?
“Great job screaming, Leticia. Gonna fuckin’ scare it into attacking you.” I talk to myself this time, trying to keep my voice low. “Maybe I can reassure the wolf not to attack me. Nice, wolfie. Good, wolfie.”
I step backward again, trying to put distance between the really big wolf and me, all the while coaching myself to not freak out. “Think of it like a dog. I like dogs.”
The snow crunches under my feet, and with my next step, my heel hooks on ice.
I try to stabilize myself, but I go sliding down to the ground.
The wolf springs forward.
“Ahhh!” I try to curl up into a ball.
Is the ball the right thing? What do you do for wolf attacks in the wild? Why does the world prepare you for bear attacks and not wolves?
I wait for pain and for paws and teeth to try to tear into my jacket.
Instead, a snuffly, cold nose presses against my ear. I move my arm to better protect my head, but that leaves my middle more open, and the wolf shoves its snout into the opening near my stomach.
“Don’t eat me!” I try to push it away, but the animal is massive, and my fingers slip into thick, rough fur.
But after a few seconds of not being mauled, I stop and slowly uncurl my body to look at the animal closer.
It’s big and fluffy with light gray and white fur. A strip of white fur goes up from its nose between its eyes. The ears are cupped, sticking up through the fluffy coat.
“Okay.” It’s like my brain is fuzzy with what I’m seeing and what I didn’t see.
“First there was Royal, and now there’s a wolf.” I keep the animal in my line of sight but turn my head. “Royal?”
The wolf barks.
I startle, scooting back on the snow.
“The wolf is Royal?” I nod.
The wolf nods back.
“The wolf is nodding back. The wolf is Royal.” I shake my head.
The wolf dips its head.
“That is not — No.” I push up off the cold ground, straightening my coat. I’m starting to feel more chilled, and I imagine my nose and cheeks must be turning red. “This can’t be. No. Humans don’t become wolves.”
The wolf walks forward and bends its neck up to look at me, pretty much standing as tall as it can. Its chest is pushed against my front, and its nose is practically against my chin.
“Royal?” I question again a little louder, like maybe he hasn’t heard me, maybe the wolf isn’t Royal, and this is a misunderstanding.
Then the wolf’s warm, kind of dry tongue licks my chin.
“Ew. Dog breath.” I step backward.
A shiver rakes through my body.
“Okay, Royal, if you’re the wolf, then you need to stop being the wolf. This is weird, and we need to talk.” I square my shoulders at the beautiful gray wolf.
The wolf steps back and lets out a massive sneeze before walking over to Royal’s clothes.
I keep my eyes trained on the wolf.
It’s hard to comprehend seeing it. The wolf’s body shifts and changes. It’s fast and slow, and time seems to move differently as it happens.
But then Royal is back, his bare ass facing me.
“Okay, Royal is a wolf. I sound insane. God, I’m going to end up a nun.” I close my eyes. Maybe this is just a bad dream, and I’ll wake up.
“I am a wolf. My whole family are wolf shifters.” Royal’s voice is a little hoarse. He clears his throat. “You’re not going insane. And you’re not going to be a nun.” When he turns toward me while buttoning his pants, he’s wearing a devilish smirk. “You wouldn’t have any fun being a nun.”
“You can’t be serious.” I shake my head and gesture to him. “A wolf.”
I quickly look down at the ground. Distinct paw prints litter the snow-covered earth, big like a giant dog. I pull my phone out of my pocket and take a picture. It happened. I have proof it happened.
“You can’t tell anyone, Leticia.” Royal’s voice is low, almost threatening. “If you’re going to tell someone, I have a duty to stop you.”
“No one would believe me.” I scoff and put my phone away.
“I can barely get anyone to believe me about anything else. You being a wolf would get me locked up in one of those ‘rejuvenation centers’ or something meant to keep me calm but not actually called an asylum.” I shove my hands in my coat pockets.
“So why are you telling me this?” I shiver, and my teeth start chattering.
“Come on, let’s go inside. You’re freezing.” He steps toward me like he’s going to touch me.
I step back and dodge him, heading toward the house on my own.
Once we’re inside, my coat hung up and boots off, Royal fusses over me, having me sit in front of a fireplace, which he clicks on with a remote, and looks at me with a deadly serious expression. “Antonella is now also a wolf shifter.”
I freeze. “No. No, she’s not. Excuse me, what?
” I stare at him, mouth gaping, trying to wrap my head around the impossibilities that are apparently possible.
It’s one unbelievable thing for Royal to be a wolf shifter, but Antonella?
For some reason, that’s where my brain decides to draw the line at suspending disbelief.
I try to remember the words he used back in the car.
“This has to do with the coup? The incident where you were shot?”
Royal nods. “There was a defector among the ranks. My uncle, Neil, went a little bit power hungry. He tried to have me killed and frame Antonella and your family for breaking the truce.”
“No.” Stunned speechless, I roll my wrist, hoping to encourage him to keep talking.
“I’m fine, my parents are fine, Kerrianne is fine.” Royal assures me.
“But Toni is a werewolf now.” I reiterate his words.
“Wolf shifter.” His jaw flexes as he grits his teeth for a minute, and tension further tightens his features when he furrows his brows.
“Valor was led to believe that Antonella was going to hurt Kerrianne. He . . .” Royal scrubs his hand back through his hair.
“He was an idiot and put her in a position where she could get hurt.”