The Luna Cure

FORTY-SEVEN

"Florence. Hey," Dante's tone was soft as he called for me, and I stirred, a tired sound escaping my throat. I blinked, and then turned to him.

"We're back." I glanced around, finding that we were indeed back at the house, and the car's headlights were shining up against the  white garage doors.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep." A yawn escaped me, and I gave an apologetic expression to Dante. "Sorry."

"I was wondering when you'd finally succumb. You were nodding off the whole way back." He gave a slight grin at that, before he pressed the button that shut off the car. The humming of the engine stopped, leaving us in silence.

Being this close to Dante allowed his pine scent to invade my senses, clouding my thoughts. Of course he'd smell like the forest. A really, really sexy forest.

Alright. Time to get as far away from Dante as possible.

I turned to open the door, ready to run inside and escape the wonderful man to my left, and immediately jumped in my seat. My heart rate shot up, almost exploding at the sudden sight of three enormous wolves waiting outside my door. Clutching my chest with my hand, I tried to calm myself. "Goddess." I breathed out.

I had completely forgotten about this part of Christmas, I finally realized. After dinner, the boys always shifted, and eventually my dad got involved. It was a whole family hunt. My mom joined a few times, too. Her wolf was such a beautiful red color.

"Do they usually shift and sneak up on cars?" Dante asked.

I shook my head. "It's..." Memories of my family hunting on Christmas flooded my mind, all from the perspective of a much shorter, wide-eyed child, filled with excitement at the sight of such powerful creatures. She was so excited to grow old and shift and find her mate. She was a werewolf. "It's a little Christmas thing. The boys hunt."  But it wasn't just the boys, it was those of us that could shift. My mother stayed with Hayden, Harrison, and I for a little bit, until she finally joined in.

"They all hunt." I corrected myself. If this tradition had gone on every year in my absence, then I was sure it was true, now that Hayden and Harrison could shift. Isaac had just barely gotten his first shift by the last Christmas I was here, and then I shifted soon after, and then I was gone.

An ache lodged itself in my heart, loss and depression taking over. I had shifted after my last Christmas here. I didn't have a wolf anymore. This was a family tradition I'd never be apart of.

Doing my best to fight the pain, I finally opened the door, being careful in case any of them decided to try and jump on me. I was far too fragile now to be near such enormous creatures, anyway.

Stepping out, the largest of the three wolves, a dark brown wolf with dark brown eyes that mirrored mine, came over and sniffed me, sending a glare behind me. No doubt, Max smelled Dante all over me from that stupid slip-up on deck. I needed to shower. And scrub everything.

Could I scrub my brain?

I shook my head at the thought, offering a slight smile to Max.

"Sorry we had to miss all of the festivities, Max." I whispered, sneaking past him to make my way to the door. He followed at my side, his thick coat rubbing against my arm. Dante must've been behind us, because Max kept shooting looks back.

"Stop doing that." I insisted as I stepped onto the front stoop, ready to go inside. Dante still followed behind me silently. After whatever it was we had done and my subsequent freak out, I had done my best to act like everything was fine, while making sure to keep him from touching me. He seemed to get the point, because eventually I had nothing to fight off.