"So what do you think I should do?"
"Do you even have to ask? Break up with her!"
"It's easy for you to say. And how can you even suggest I break up with Matilda when you and Roger are getting it on pretty well."
"Roger is not mated yet. And neither of us is asking the other to run away for a honeymoon!"
"She didn't say run away," he says.
"Yeah, right. Whatever lets you sleep at night. Listen, if you want to summon the guts to break up with her, why don't you come with me to the party at my dad's research facility this week? James will be there. If you talk to him you'll know how much he cares for Matilda and loves her. She's in good hands, and she'll be fine after you leave her."
Dalton hesitates at the prospect of meeting James. "Just come with me," I say. "If you don't want to talk to him, that's fine. But just come."
"Okay."
"You look great. Dad told me you left for a two-week training program in Norman Islands. Glad you're back because we couldn't take any more of his whining of how much he missed you," James says.
I laugh. "And he told me I should've stayed there a little longer."
"I don't think he would've lasted that long."
I glance at Dalton who is staying away from us and signals him to come over but he doesn't.
After James leaves, I go to Dalton. "Feeling guilty enough yet?" I ask.
"Coming here was a bad idea," Dalton says.
"I agree," Roger says beside him. The Alpha and his family are also invited to the party.
My dad's lab is celebrating the invention of a possible cure for CTD (Chronic Transfigurative Disorder). It's a condition one in every six female and one in every twenty male werewolves have.
Kara and I have it, too. The disorder causes an intense chronic pain when we transform between our human and wolf forms. We take regular pain suppressants to prevent the onset of the pain, but it's only a temporary measure.
As you grow older, the pain suppressants stop working, and those who suffer from CTD will have no other option but to choose to stay either in their human or wolf form without transforming between those two to avoid the pain.
The new drug my dad and his team had invented can suppress the gene that triggers the pain after a transformation, once and for all.
The final trial on the drug hasn't started yet, but so far in the lab tests the drug is successful.
"Agree to what?" Kara asks as she joins our conversation. She's Roger's date to the party. She's also one of the first test subjects for the drug trial.
"That the party is boring," Dalton says.
"I agree. So why don't we just leave early and hit a club?"
The group is in.
"So, did you come to a conclusion yet?" I ask Dalton over the loud music in the club. Roger and Kara are on the dance floor.
"Stop pressuring me."
"Okay. I won't. But what will you do if she asks again to go on that short getaway with you? You're not going to take her and give her false hope just cuz you don't want to stop screwing her, do you?"
"No! Of course not! But breaking up is not that easy. You of all people should know that!" he says.
I look over at Roger and Kara. "Yeah, you're right," I say.
#10 Jean and Roger's getaway
Magsimula sa umpisa
