Page 63 of Howl Will I Know

“I thought I was imagining it.” She leans back in her chair. “And what about the other night?”

I know exactly which night she means—the night I almost shifted in my sleep. That doesn’t happen. I never shift unconsciously or by accident, not since I learned how to control it. The wolf doesn’t just take over. I let him out. I choose the change, choose when it starts, choose when I come back.

That night was different.

I woke halfway through the change, claws digging into the mattress, bones already moving. My heart hammering hard enough to hurt because Nora was beside me and I had no idea why the change had started without me.

Nora was already awake, sitting upright with one hand on my shoulder, saying my name softly. I was too panicked at the time to question how she woke before I did.

She woke before the shift started, the wolf whispers.

“Yes.” Nora nods. “I sensed you changing before I was fully awake.”

My eyes fly to hers because I didn’t say that out loud.

Nora’s hand covers her mouth as she realizes what’s just happened. “Oh, shit.”

We stare at each other.

Nora slowly lowers her hand. “Great. Emotional bleed-through, and apparently, I’m now psychic.”

I don’t answer. Every instinct in me is suddenly alert.

Nora’s expression loses some of its humor. “Hewit? This isn’t normal wolf stuff, is it?”

“No.”

“Mate stuff? Magic stuff?”

“Probably.”

“That narrows it down.”

Despite everything, I huff a laugh.

Nora sobers. “What now?”

I look at her bandaged hand, then back at her. “We need to see Karloff.”

Chapter 16

Nora

Dr. Karloff’s cottage sits at the edge of the woods, looking as though it hasn’t changed in a hundred years and has no intention of starting now.

The front door opens before Hewit has a chance to knock twice.

“Ah, yes, yes. Come in, come in.”

Dr. Emmett Karloff is shorter than I expected, with white hair sticking up in several directions as though he’s recently lost an argument with electricity. His eyebrows are almost as unruly, and his clothes suggest he dressed while thinking about something else entirely.

His gaze jumps from Hewit to me, drops immediately to our joined hands, then moves to the bandage around mine. “Oh. Interesting.”

Hewit’s fingers tighten around mine. “Morning to you too.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Morning.” Karloff steps aside. “Inside. Quickly, quickly. No sense discussing peculiar magical phenomena on the doorstep.”

I glance at Hewit. He looks exactly as reassured as I feel.