All Chapters of Therianthrope: A New Kind of Curse: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Lily returned to the bed and though the house was relatively quiet, she was being slammed with a variety of sounds. She could hear mummers of people talking throughout the house though she didn’t know what they were saying. Lily heard their heartbeats, like rhythmic beating drums that never stopped. She heard water dripping in the bathroom and running through the pipes. Lily heard a radio in the kitchen and a television in the living room.Then there were the smells that flooded her nose and brain. She smelled the paint on her walls. The pain was the same as when she moved in, but the smell stank as if the paint were new. Lily smelled the laundry soap and fabric softener that Sandy used to wash her sheets. She could smell Lacy’s fading scent. Lily could smell the dusty smell of her aged old books and the posters that clung to the wall. She could smell everything!

“Let me look at you,” Andrew asked and gently pushed her chin up so he could look at her directly in the eye. He pushed up her lip and the sharp intake of breath confirmed what she already feared. “My God, what has he done?” Andrew said, and it took all she had to keep from breaking down right then and there. She didn’t want to cry in front of Tony and James.“What’s wrong, Dad?” Tony asked as Andrew pulled her into a tight hug.“I’m so sorry Lily, you have no idea how sorry I am,” Andrew told her, ignoring Tony’s question for the moment. “You can go back to your room if you like,” he told her. She nodded, wiping a tear away from her cheek. She closed the office door.“Dad, what’s wrong?” Lily could hear Tony ask as

James froze, unsure of what to do. He’d been around upset women before, but never in his life had they seen him as a source of comfort. He wrapped his arms around her in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. Honestly, he’d never felt more uncomfortable and so awkward in his life. As she continued to soak his shirt with her tears, he’d give anything for her to yell at him again. James knew how to handle that.“No one is going to kill you, Lily,” he told her, and she shook her head side to side but said nothing. “I’m sure you’ll be able to control it, and faster than I did. When I changed, I was a hormone-crazed teen. So I not only had to the beast to deal with but all the problems that being the typical teenage boy has as well,” he told her, trying to snap her out of this sobbing mess she’d become.Lily continued to cry and his words didn’t have the effect he

What the hell was he going to do now? The alpha would demand an explanation. When he thought of one idea, he discarded it; the alpha would never buy it. He thought of another, then discarded it too. After several minutes of repeating or discarding ideas, he decided to just go with his first idea, to blame his disappearance on the beast. James lost control when he shifted into his monstrous beast so it was plausible and his best shot.With a sigh of a condemned man, he walked into the house. As expected, Andrew stood there, looking pissed. “James, where have you been?” Andrew demanded when James entered the living room.“Sorry Alpha,” he stated, trying to not look as nervous as he felt. “Last night I couldn’t pick out Lily’s scent very well since it’s different now,” he lied, and the alpha nodded. “So I shifted, but the beast decided he rather do his thing,” James finished.Andrew’s stern face turned softer. “The beast, huh?” he asked with a smile, and James nodded. “Seriously, that wa

Lily closed the door, locking it with a heavy sigh, feeling a strange mix of relief and frustration. Did he not get that last night was just a onetime deal and nothing more? She hoped he didn’t think they were really mates because there was no way in hell she’d be his mate. She’d rather have a hole in the head to be honest.Lily walked over to the small bookcase near her window and grabbed her pathology book, feeling as if she had fifty-pound weights on each shoulder. As if she didn’t have already enough to deal with, now she had to deal with a possessive love sick lycanthrope. If it could’ve been anyone other than James, she thought with a pout.Lily had read her textbook all the morning and well into the afternoon when someone knocked on her door. “Come in,” she called, not lifting her eyes from the page. When the doo