This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

had said about the balm.

When he was taken out of the courtroom and his eyes set on Audry, his composure fell as a wave of grief went over him. He said to her, “I didn’t mean to.”

Audry pulled back, watching. And the guards led him away.

She headed back to the lobby of the courthouse. But in it, Audry saw Charlene who looked stunned. She grabbed Audry’s arm when she passed by. “What happened? Why is Hogan here?”

Matthew pushed between them, making Charlene let go. “Excuse me, but are you here for something?”

Charlene looked past to Audry. “What did you do to him?”

Casting back a dirty look, Audry said, “It’s what he did to me.”

And they walked out.

Vincent picked up her up at the courthouse. Together, they left New York City.

*

“She’s gone?” Rick asked, not looking up from his desk in his new apartment near Brown Univeristy. He was no longer living on campus but in a gated building with security guards, in a studio apartment on the fourth floor.

“Are you asking about Daisy or Audry?” Matthew asked.

Closing his eyes, Rick chuckled painfully. “I suppose both. I’m sure Daisy is running from Silvia, but I’m hoping that Audry never comes back—for her safety.”

Matthew sighed. He sat against the edge of Rick’s desk, watching him. “I’m sorry. I guess we all thought she would be the cure. Of course that boyfriend changed things.”

Rick glanced over. “You made clear to him that if he ever got near Audry again that we’d publicly reveal the rest of his past, including the case of statutory rape that Semour confirmed with Rachel Plummer?”

Nodding, Matthew sighed again. “Yes. Hogan understands that we let him off lightly.”

Exhaling, Rick nodded. “Ok.”

Tom popped straight through the ceiling and landed on Rick’s desk. “Holy crap, Rick! I go to California for a few weeks and what do you do? You screw everything up! How could you let Audry go?”

“She was engaged to be married,” Rick said dryly.

Moaning, Tom wrapped his hands around Rick’s neck as if to strangle him. “To a louse! You should have gone to her and proved to her that you were the better wolf!”

Pushing back, knocking off Tom’s hands, Rick stood up. “Just stop. Audry would never have considered me because I can’t be a vegan. It is a simple as that.”

Rolling his eyes, hopping off the desk, Tom grabbed him in a tackle, nearly wrestling Rick to the floor. He tried to put Rick into a head lock. “That’s only because you have failed to show her that being vegan is stupid in the first place.”

“Get off!” Rick shoved at him.

“No!” Tom wrestled him down.

Rick wriggled then twisted into a complete wolf, snarling and backing away when he got out of Tom’s grip, leaving his shirt in Tom’s tight fists. “It is better that she get away from us! I could have hurt her the other day at the beach.”

Standing up, straightening out his shirt, Tom huffed. “If you’d just show her you are the wolf, this whole argument would be over!”

Rising to his human form again and shaking off his hair, Rick shook his head. “No. She would have freaked out. She could hardly handle that Matt and you can read minds—and she still didn’t accept that Bobo was cursed, even though she had seen and felt Silvia’s magic work. Audry wants to live in a rational world—and I don’t want to destroy her happiness.”

Tom stared at him. “But what about your happiness?”

Closing his eyes and shaking his head with a painful chuckle, Rick said, “I’ll be happy if she is safe.”

“Fine. But what if Daisy comes back?” Matthew asked. “What if she finds a way around Silvia’s curse?”

“Did Silvia remove that curse off me?” Rick asked with a side glance to him.

Matthew nodded, chuckling, “Yeah. Can’t you feel it?”

Rick shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel less stressed out.”

“What curse?” Tom asked, side-glancing them. “I heard from Randon about that she-wolf coming around. I sent imps after her, but I don’t know how much it worked. No feedback from them, you know.”

Nodding, Matthew whispered into Tom’s ear the nature of the curse. Tom chuckled, peeking to Rick. Then he straightened up and said, “So, can I assume this apartment is the first change to prevent her from getting at him? But what about public places? Randon told me they had a rendezvous in an alleyway.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rick said. His cheeks colored a little.

“No,” Matthew said, frowning. “Tom’s got a point. The security guards can stop anyone intruding on these premises and Daisy won’t be able to get up here on the fourth floor easily, even with her claws. But she first got to you at a party.”

“I’ll be skipping those from now on,” Rick replied, snatching his shirt back from Tom. “Eve says I should quit drinking anyway, as alcohol just makes people stupid. If I hadn’t been drunk I would have had enough sense to run away and call you guys for help.”

His friends exchanged looks. They knew that advice came mostly from Hanz, who was a Mormon and didn’t drink at all. Eve and Hanz were nearly engaged. They were just waiting for invitations to the wedding.

“But what about dark alleys?” Tom said, smirking at him.

Rolling his eyes, Rick finally said, “Look, Daisy doesn’t smell good to me anymore. She can’t tempt me anymore.”

They stared. Matthew was surprised as Rick was telling the complete truth. Tom also stared, hearing Rick’s imps grumble about that. They were no longer going to have fun with Rick’s addiction. It had been, for lack of a better word, cured.

“No way,” Tom murmured. “How?”

Coloring more, Rick averted his eyes. “Uh… you know how Kurt suggested that all I needed was a replacement for, uh, my attraction to Daisy?”

They nodded.

“Well, I got it.”

They rolled their hands urging on more.

Sighing, shaking his head, Rick said, “That morning on the beach—when I was overwhelmed by Audry’s scent…”

“Oh my…” Matthew laughed, hearing the rest from Rick’s head. “She is the cure.”

Tom snorted, folding his arms as he smugly grinned.

“Daisy’s scent smells all wet and, I don’t know, almost sickening to me now….” Rick shook his head. “Compared to Audry, who is like…” He had to regain his composure with deep breaths, shaking his head more.

Both of his friends stared at him. They also heard his other thoughts. Rick was glad Audry was gone, safe from him and what might have happened if she had stayed close by. Tom heard Rick’s temptation to chase after her, realizing that such a thing would cause trouble for her and probably for him too. And there were other things he was thinking—voices of despair that he had found the one person he needed and he could not have her, voices of blame and defeat with no desire to hurt that one person, aching in his soul as well as celebration for the same reasons. He was, as always, conflicted.

And Rick straightened up and smiled at them. “I beat my addiction finally, thanks to Artemis. So now I can start living again.”

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Publication Date: 10-13-2018

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