Free Isabel and the Wolf: (Part 4) by Ariana Hawkes Page B

ago. I’m friends with Marianna and Bill. I don’t know if you know them?”
    “Oh yes, of course. I know them very well. They’re good friends of mine.” With that, the woman nodded to each of them and carried on her way.
    “She’s a werewolf!” Isabel hissed to Kara.
    “What’s it to you if I am, child?” the woman called from further down the street. Isabel and Kara gasped and their heads snapped around to look at the woman, but she kept walking away from them. They stared at each other.
    “How the hell did she hear that?”
    “ Because she’s a werewolf,” Isabel whispered, right in Kara’s ear.
    “But how could you tell?”
    “From her eyes. From the way she was walking. Kara, I can see them now!” Isabel looked around at the people on the street. “Their strong bodies, their light, powerful gait. They kind of prowl, instead of walking. They’re, like, popping out at me!”
    “Where?”
    “Everywhere! That guy in front, just to the right, with the yellow sweater on. That girl opposite, in the pink dress.”
    “How come you can only just see them now?”
    “I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t looking.” Kara shivered.
    “This is so creepy. But in a kind of cool way. I want to see them too. That guy standing by the window is one, right? He looks pretty buff.”
    “Nope. He’s just buff. He doesn’t have that weird light in his eyes.
    “Maybe you weren’t capable of seeing it until you’d done the business with Peter and Jed?”
    “Yeah, perhaps. I mean I saw something different about Peter straightaway.”
    “Uh, it’d be pretty hard not to. But you said there was something about Jed too?”
    “True. But I could only see it when he, you know, obviously desired me. It’s like sex really brings it out of them. I guess that’s why Josie’s such a sex beast. She came over to my place once and she was really out of control, and Rob said she gets like that every month.”
    “Was there a full moon at that point, by any chance?”
    “Yes, actually.” Isabel stopped dead in the street. “There was. Something weird happened to me after Josie and Rob left. I woke in the middle of the night and had this uncontrollable urge to go outside and stare at the moon. It was huge and round, and I remember feeling like it was calling to me. I know that sounds really bizarre. It’s also the second time that’s happened since I met Peter.”
    “Wow,” Kara breathed. “It’s like you’re being drawn into this werewolf energy. What if you turned into a werewolf too?”
    “Stop it!” Isabel said, and her stomach knotted in panic. “But what if that’s possible? I’m calling Marianna.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed. After a couple of rings, Marianna’s soothing voice said hello.
    “No, of course it’s not possible,” she said, chuckling. “If it was, we’d all be werewolves too! Stop worrying, honey, please. Having our first sexual experiences with werewolves didn’t do me and my friends any damage at all – apart from setting our standards pretty high!”
    “Maybe I should get myself one of those,” Kara said, after Isabel had finished with the call.
    “What?”
    “I’ve always said, try anything once. Apart from incest and morris dancing!”
    “Well, I’ve always suspected that a mere man could never match up to your expectations!” Isabel said, and laughed for the first time in a while.
    The sky had turned from white to pink to violet, and it seemed to Isabel that there were more werewolves on the street than ever, and that people pressed closer, turning to examine the girls’ faces, muttering to each other. Some were werewolves, others were just humans. Isabel felt uneasy, and, from Kara’s expression, she had the same feeling.
    “I vote we get out of here,” Isabel said.
    “Agreed,” Kara replied, and they turned back for home.
    *
    For days, Peter and Jed were mercifully silent. Isabel missed them both, at different times, depending on her mood. But