I was 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.
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.
"Brandon?" I asked again, breathless.
"I still can't believe it," he said. He stepped out of the shadows in his handsome human form, but I still wasn't sure if it was safe to approach him.
"Believe what?"
He took my hands in his. His fingers were cold, but he seemed somehow refreshed and happier than I'd ever seen him.
"I told you something last night," he said. "Do you remember?"
"Yes," I said.
"But more important you told me something."
"Yes."
"Something that comes from the heart? That only real lovers say?"
I nodded exuberantly.
"Then it's true," he said, and gave me a hug. "This time it wasn't a dream I could barely remember."
"You remember?"
"Everything!" he said.
"I remember everything from the first night I was turned," he said, ecstatic. "I remember our first official date, with the snow glistening in your hair and Champ and the wolves playing together. I remember wanting to kiss you every time I saw you and how it took all my strength not to.
"And most important, Celeste, I remember the words you told me last night and the best kiss of my life."
We hugged and laughed and kissed.
"Then why would Dr. Meadows warn me against it?" I asked.
Brandon thought for a moment. "There was something magical about that kiss. That you cared for me in werewolf form... it brought my two worlds together. I'm sure there are some werewolves who don't want to remember anything that happens in the moonlight," he said with conviction. "But I'm not one of those."
We heard a car pulling into Brandon's drive in the distance.
"I guess my grandparents are home," he said.
Then Brandon ignored the car and kissed me. "I'm so glad I can remember," he said. "Because you are too good to forget."
We kissed again, and within a few moments the sun had set behind us. I heard a rustling in the woods. I thought I saw a pair of eyes watching us. "I think a wolf is following us," I said.
Brandon perked up. "It's not a wolf. I think there's someone watching us," he said, concerned.
"Then we'll leave," I said. But it was too late. I saw an odd look in Brandon's eyes.
"I'm burning up," he said.
"No - " I cried. "Not now. What if it's your grandparents?"
I gazed back into the woods, hoping I'd see who or what was staring at us.
"It can't be them," Brandon said, frazzled. "They would have said something by now." He retreated deeper into the woods. "I'm changing."
"You can't - not if someone's out there!" I warned. I trailed Brandon farther into the brush. But Brandon was already taking off his jersey.
I heard branches cracking as if someone was following us.
I tried to hide Brandon behind a tree when I heard a branch snap a few yards away.
"Please," I begged Brandon, who was wincing in discomfort. "Not now!"
Brandon's eyes had turned red.
"No - " I cried, trying to cover his face with my hands. "What if someone is videotaping you?"
His hair grew shoulder length before me, and tiny dark hairs covered his arms and athletic chest.
"Please - don't!" I said to him. "It could be a hunter!"
I was afraid for Brandon's life and did my best to hide him with my arms.
"Oh no! You have to stop!" I said.
There was a goatee and stubble along his face where none had been. Fangs pierced out between the parting of his lips.
Brandon breathed heavily and I could see his senses were keened in on movement in the brush a few yards away.
"Please, whoever you are! Please, go away!" I shouted.
Brandon stepped in front of me. He wasn't about to let me take a silver bullet for him.
Just then a beam of light shone on Brandon. It was coming from only a few yards away. As Brandon retreated I noticed a figure holding a flashlight - and on his finger was a familiar class ring.
Several wolves howled in the distance. The light shining on Brandon quivered. Brandon howled in return, and the flashlight fell to the ground.
We heard a rustling in the woods away from us as if someone was running for their life. In the distance a car door slammed and an engine started. Squealing tires peeled off.
I stared at Brandon, who was as gorgeous as I'd ever seen him. I was scared, frightened of what was going to happen to us now. Brandon reached out and took my shaking hand in his steady and firm one. I felt an immediate surge of love and strength flow straight to my heart.
"What do we do now?" I asked him as the moon shone above us.
"We do something we couldn't do for many months," he replied in a sexy voice. "Something I'll always remember."
Brandon drew me into him and playfully nuzzled his stubbly cheek against mine and then nibbled my neck softly with his fangs. Then he kissed me with the roaring passion of a pack of werewolves and the romance of many full moons.