Paranormal Fantasies: A Promotional Collection of 14 Erotic Supernatural Stories by Annabel Bastione Read Free Book Online Page B

pain. It was worse than he
thought. He heard Dave’s sharp intake of breath and looked at his
arm.
    His eyes fell upon what he thought was his arm—it had a sickly
greenish hue, and the bite marks had become extremely inflamed.
They were turning a horribly black color, which reminded Rob of
gangrene. Overcome, sickened by the smell, he fell to his
knees.
    “ Whoa, there,” Dave said suddenly. “Let me help
you.”
    Rob was hardly able to appreciate Dave’s closeness as his
strong arms encircled his waist and hoisted him up. Even in his
sickened state, he admired Dave’s strength.
    He gently deposited him in the couch and then Rob heard him
searching the bathroom for something.
    “ That fucking bitch,” Dave swore as he returned with a rag and
a bucket of water. “We have to get this stuff off you.”
    “ Stuff? What?”
    “ Doctor Umbrage. She put wolfsbane ointment all over your
wounds. It’s making you sick.”
    “ Wolfsbane?” Rob ejaculated, starting to think that all sense
had left the conversation. “What are you talking about?” The end of
the sentence was punctuated by a scream as Dave began wiping his
hand.
    “ She hates wolves. It’ll be better once we get this off,” he
said gently. “I’m so sorry you had to go through this. This should
never have happened.” An angry look came over Dave’s
face.
    “ She hates wolves? What’s that got to do with
anything?”
    Dave gave him a pitying look. “Look, you’re
transitioning.”
    “ What do you mean?”
    “ You’re a werewolf. You can deny it in your head all you want,
but the fact is tonight’s a full moon. And you’re going to
change.”
    As hot as Dave was, he was clearly insane. Rob felt his heart
sinking as if a balloon of happiness had suddenly burst inside him.
“You’re crazy.”
    He shook his head. “Look at your arm! See, it’s already
healing.”
    Rob looked and yelped as he watched his flesh slowly knitting
together. The pain was receding, the flesh was returning to its
normal pink hue. “This is impossible,” he said as he turned his arm
around. He had never believed in fairy tales. Sure, he had an
imagination (he was a writer after all) but he had never considered
that any of it would be true.
    “ We think the wolf that bit you was Peter. He has been warned
many times not to change near human settlements. We think he was
too close to the edge of the forest and was lured by an animal
trap. Feeding him was a bad idea.”
    Robert was still shaking his head, gazing at his now
completely healed hand. It didn’t seem so ludicrous to entertain
Dave’s silly tale. “Why did he bite me?”
    The man sighed and leaned into the couch. “When you transform,
you’re not really conscious. It’s kind of like a dream. You can see
everything, but you don’t really have control.” He checked his
watch. “It’s getting late. We should really get going.”
    “ Go where?”
    “ To the forest.”
    Rob shot upright, running his hands through his hair.
“Whatever, this is probably a dream. I might as well go along with
it.”
    * * *
    A half an hour later, Robert’s feet were crunching dead
leaves, both of them were in the deepest recesses of the woods.
Dave was setting up a tent by the stream. If not for the bizarre
events of the day, Rob would be excited to be alone with a
beautiful man in the wilderness. He winced as something sharp
pierced through his finger. He pulled out the splinter, watching as
a tiny drop of blood receded back into his skin. His heart
hammered. He searched the ground for a sharp rock and found one.
Breathing in sharp gasps, he tore the rock across his arm, opening
up a gash. He winced in pain and was satisfied as he watched blood
seeping out of it. Maybe he had imagined the whole thing. He wiped
away the blood and splashed some water on his arm—and did a double
take. There was no wound.
    “ What the fuck am I?” he screamed.
    “ You’re a werewolf.” Dave appeared by his shoulder and gently
tugged