Karen stayed around for the rest of the morning.  She did not speak of my agitated state further, but I could tell she was watching me more closely than normal.  I wondered what she was imagining, but I did not ask because I was afraid her eyes had already seen too much.

Karen made lunch before she excused herself, but not before making me promise to call her if I needed her in any way.

When Karen left, I breathed a sigh of relief.

My mind could now wander like a lost sheep through the wilderness.

The curse could punish me without me having to endure Karen's gentle concern.  I normally appreciated her thoughtfulness, but today it had been somehow intrusive and abrasive.  If the curse wanted to throw me to the floor and send me into fits of tremors I would prefer not to have a witness.

Still, it was not so bad as it might have been.  The curse was ever present, but I was experiencing enough turbulence in my own right that it seemed happy to sit back and relax while I tortured myself.

I spent some time in my room, but I began to feel closed in.  When I left my room I felt exposed.

I finally settled on sitting out in one of the deck chairs on the back porch, wrapped in a blanket and gaining what warmth I could from the sunlight.

Approaching footsteps surprised me.  My first thought was it might be Serge and I wanted to run, but I was not sure in what direction.  My eyes flew towards the intruder on my solitude as I realized it was not Serge, because the cursed bite did not react.

Matthias' deep brown eyes met my own as I peeked out of my blanket cocoon like some weird moth.

After all my worrying the previous week over what I would say to Matthias, Serge's proposal last night had pushed it completely out of my mind, but it all came flooding back in a rush.  How would I breach such a topic with my best friend?  Should I even try, after what Serge had asked?

I smiled a bit to demonstrate my pleasure at seeing him.  I ignored the ripples of unease that were probably entirely my own.

"Elise," he said.

I looked at his tall frame.  He had always been my friend and having him at my back always made me feel safe.  Even now, with awkwardness crowding me, Matthias was familiar security.

His hair was loose and the wind pushed it slightly, catching my eye.

"Matt.  Did you run here today?" I asked him.

"Yes," he agreed.  He seemed oddly hesitant.

I waited to see if he would say more.

"I heard your new theory," he commented.

"Yeah?"

"Are you considering it?" he asked.

I shrugged.  "Honestly, I would do nearly anything to get myself out of this i-icy h-hell.  If I thought love could happen..."

"Have you got anyone in mind?"

I paused, torn between telling Matthias what Serge had asked, or confronting him with my suspicions.

"Yeah," I said instead.

"Really?"

I felt really hesitant, but he would be hurt if I let him find out another way.

Whatever else could be, he was still my best friend.  I tried to form my words the way I would have before my suspicions, the way I would have told him before without a second thought.  "Ser-Ser...  He proposed to me."

I had believed Matthias' rage had subsided a bit in the weeks since I had become a thrall, but I realized my mistake the moment the operative word had left my mouth.  Matthias' anger had merely been banked to smoldering embers and I had just poured gasoline into the fire.

Every muscle of Matthias' face and body was suddenly tense and furious.  His hair whipped to the side in a gust of wind.  Although I knew it was mere coincidence, it seemed very much like his rush of violent emotion had harnessed even the air around him.

Before my frozen mind could process the correct words, before my shivering body could move, before my unsteady tongue could begin to form the necessary words, he was already in motion.  He stalked around the side of the house before I could even untangle myself from the blanket wrapped around me.

I feared that he was going to try to kill Serge.

"Matt!" I yelled, but I was sure that even if he was not too far away, he still would not hear me through his fury.

I scrambled after him, around the house.  I listened for aggressive banging on the front door as I rushed around the corner, but instead he was still standing in the driveway.

Denizen was blocking Matthias' way.  The true wolf's lips were pulled back from his gums, baring his teeth aggressively at my best friend, who looked like he was ready to snarl right back.

I ran towards them, but slowed before I got too close.  Either of them could inadvertently hurt me in my human form.

"M-Matt," I said, trying to sound calm with little success.  "Don't be so angry."

I did not try to call to Denizen, he was well beyond listening to me in the state he was in, nor was the wolf interested in tolerating Matthias' intrusion in his territory.  He barked loudly and growled.

Matthias stared at the wolf as if considering what he wanted to do.

The front door opened and Serge appeared.  I froze and then I turned my gaze towards him.

Serge was taking in the scene before him with a clenched jaw.

Then he spoke authoritatively.  "No, Denizen.  Back off.  I'll deal with him."  His words sent the curse's shivers over my skin, reminding me of the terror of Serge's real orders.

The animal did not move for a long second, until finally he resentfully backed away from Matthias.  Denizen's orange gold gaze remained fixed on my friend.

"What is it, Matthias?" Serge asked, as he walked down the steps.  He did not seem to be pleased to see Matthias.

The curse ravaged me as the tension grew as Serge closed in on Matthias.  I swallowed.  Though Serge had the outward expression of relaxed indifference, something in his movements showed his calm for the lie it was.

"She told me what you asked her," he snapped.

"Oh?" Serge asked.  His voice was deliberately composed.  I cringed.

"What of it?" he asked as he stopped directly in front of Matthias.  My eyes darted helplessly between the two of them, hoping they would not lose their heads to their wilder natures.

Though Serge was an intimidating sight, Matthias did not appear concerned in the slightest.

And I realized why he was not.  Toe to toe, the odds were pretty even.

My best friend was intimidating in his own right, although I was immune to such things, because he would never hurt me.

Matthias growled, as if he were in his wolf form.  "How dare you, after everything you've already put her through?"

Serge narrowed his eyes.  "If that may remedy what I broke, why would you protest?  Do you want her to be under sway of the curse for the rest of her life?"

"Of course not," Matthias said.  "But you sure as hell don't deserve her."

"And you do?" Serge asked lightly.

"It's not about that," Matthias snarled.

"No?"

Was Serge goading Matthias intentionally?

"Well, that's for Elise to decide, don't you think?"

Matthias narrowed his eyes at Serge.  "How can she decide when you've got her cornered?  Your curse on one side, you on the other.  She's trapped in the middle.  There's no freedom there.  You're taking advantage of the vulnerable position you put her in!"

Before Serge could respond, I somehow managed to force my frozen body forward.  I glanced at Matthias and said, "H-he's n-not.  I c-can ch-choose for myself!"

He scowled and looked at me.  I could see the concern that was fueling his anger in his eyes.  "You can barely get out the words," he said.  "Can you even disagree with him?"

I nodded.  "I have to f-fight the c-curse, but I can d-disagree," I told him.

He kept his eyes locked on mine.  "You don't have to marry him."

"I know," I agreed.

I could feel both their gazes on me.

Matthias was unnaturally still and quiet and neither did Serge move.  My muscles copied them, as though they were a reflection of the two men standing before me.

Matthias met my eyes.  "Marry me, instead."

* *  *   *   *   *   *  * *

I looked at Matthias.

"What?" I managed to ask.

"Marry me, Elise.  You don't have to marry him after everything he did to you.  Come home with me."

"I don't think i-it works that way."  I shook my head slowly, "I can't ask that of you."

My head spun with the expression on his face when his sisters teased him about me and warred with my own vague suspicions.

He stepped closer to me as if he and Serge had not just been arguing in a stalemate.  "I'm the one asking.  I don't know how you never noticed since you know everything else about me, but I love you."

"Love?" I repeated.  I loved him, too.  He was my friend, but that's not what he had meant.

And how had I not known the truth of the situations sooner?  Perhaps I had been blinded by my own fears.  It was so clear in retrospect.

"I don't know exactly when it happened and I should have told you a long time ago, Elise.  I would do anything to get you free of him and I would have wanted this someday anyway."

I stared at my best friend.

I felt shock at the confirmation, but at the same time it made perfect sense.

Could I love him that way?

The answer was pretty obvious.  He was loyal, fun, and affectionate.  Although I had done my best to ignore it, he was undeniably attractive.  He was handsome and all the training and fighting had given him muscles with which few could find complaint.

Best of all, he knew me like no one else could.  He could not be disappointed at who I was if the curse was removed.  No one would look at him as the villain and me as the pathetic thrall.  I already loved him, how easy would it be to let myself truly fall in love with him if I stopped trying to avoid it.

I glanced at Serge's face.  He was watching impassively as if he did not care what I did, but I thought back to his words and knew that it was a facade.

He was trying not to influence me and even the chills could not help the surge of appreciation and affection I felt for him at the gesture.  His iron restraint had won my respect and my affection.

I glanced back at Matthias and I realized I had no idea what I was going to do.

My heart was pounding as if it were escaping prey and I could not even tell if it was my own feelings run amok or the curse punishing me for the situation, or more likely, both.

"I n-need t-time to think," I said loudly.

Without another look at either man, I ran into the house, not even stopping to close the door behind me.