After talking to Matthias, I could smell that Serge was cooking. I waited in my room with my heart in my throat and simply felt terrible guilt for his suffering. I just could not help it.

It took some force of will, but I made my way to the door and peeked out into the hall. I sighed and made myself walk down towards the kitchen.

Previously it had only been my accursed fear keeping me in my room, but now I had awkwardness and guilt for rejecting Serge asserting themselves over my anxiousness.

I sighed and pushed forward. At least when I was feeling guilty, my fear seemed slightly muted. It would be a true delight to simply feel nothing even for a few hours, I thought.

Then I entered the open part of the house and my thoughts were all on Serge.

"Um, do you need help?" I asked him tentatively.

"No thanks," he responded immediately.

I paused. Maybe after everything he did not want me near him, and it made sense.

In retrospect, I was disappointed that kissing Matthias for the first time had not broken the curse. It would have been so simple. It seemed too unrealistic, but it would have been nice if I had been wrong.

The curse raged against the thought, so I remained convinced that even though we were in the dark we were at least fumbling around in the right direction.

I reached the couch and curled up in my usual spot. Denizen came up and curled up next to me and the warmth drifted into me from his fur.

It was a shame that Denizen came and left as he pleased, because I could have used him as a heater twenty-four hours a day. Still, I should probably just be grateful that he was patient enough to stick around some of the time.

"Supper's ready," Serge commented.

I nodded and made myself get up and walk over to the table. I tried to smile, but between the awkwardness of the situation and the fear of the curse it was pitiful indeed.

I sat down. Serge had made spaghetti again. I twirled it around on my fork and began to feed myself with slow bites. I heard him get up and get himself seconds before I was even half done the food on my plate.

What little appetite I had was already sated, but I made myself keep eating. When I was finished I carried my dishes to the kitchen and set them down on the counter.

Serge clanked dishes around as I fled to the sanctuary of my room.

I went through the things I usually did to keep myself busy in the evenings, but it was not quite the same. My increasing ease with Serge seemed to have been set back.

I was startled by a knock on my door. "Y-yes?"

"You've got a visitor," Serge told me.

"Okay," I said quickly. I force myself to the door and Serge was nowhere to be seen. I slipped down the hall and found Matthias sitting at the counter. He smiled at me and I warmed up at the look he gave me.

How I had been so blind?

"Surprise."

Matthias grinned as he stepped forward until there was no space between us and his lips were on mine and his hands were on my waist. I lifted my arms around his neck and just stood there like that with him and enjoyed the heat.

When we finally broke contact, my heart was beating, but it certainly was not fear. His dark eyes swept over me and I smiled at him. "What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I came to see you," he told me.

"Don't you have to run patrol tomorrow?" I asked.

"Don't worry, that's not until the evening. I want to sleep in tomorrow anyway."

I nodded. He knew how to manage his sleep I supposed. I was not his mother, I was his...

Future wife? That was insane, but none the less true for the fact I could barely believe it.

We had moved fast, from friends to engaged nearly overnight.

Though my brain could hardly keep up with the incredible changes, my body seemed happy enough with him. I was already starting to crave him in a way I had barely felt before. I had ignored his pleasing features before to the best of my ability, but now it was all obvious, from his strong jaw to the lean muscles that composed his form.

"Want to go out for a walk?" he asked.

"A walk?" I asked. This was new. We went out for runs in our wolf forms, not gentle strolls. The unusual nature of the request made the curse uneasy, so I ignored it and nodded.

"Yeah, let's go."

I went to my room to get my jacket.  I contemplated telling Serge where I was going, but that might just be rubbing my future with Matthias in his face. I pulled it on and met Matthias at the door.

He was wearing a black jacket and had a bag slung over his shoulder. As I walked forward he smiled at me in a way that I felt deep inside. I had never seen that expression on his face before. Maybe I had not been entirely oblivious, rather he had simply become excellent at hiding his feelings.

I slipped on my shoes and he held out his hand to me. I took it and we walked out the door.

I had heard that the forest at night could be frightening place of the unknown to normal humans, but it was not so to werewolves, even in our human forms. It had not been to me, not before the magic of the curse had afflicted me.

Now I was nervous, but it was not bad when I had Matthias with me. He truly was my protector, I supposed. I let him lead me by the light of a flashlight through the black trees and the deep darkness to a clearing near the trail that Serge and I had packed down with our laps.

He pulled a blanket out of the bag he was carrying and spread it on the ground. I smiled at his flourish.

"A midnight picnic?" I inquired.

"Sorry, I didn't bring food, although I do have some water in the bag if you're thirsty," he told me as he set up a small lantern I recognized from past camping trips beside the blanket I had seen a million times before. Then my protector pulled out a can of insect repellant clearly meant to prevent the blackflies from stripping us to the bone. "Come sit down, Elise." He sat down, pulling on my hand.

I went to sit beside him, but he pulled me to sit between his legs. "You'll be warmer here," he pointed out.

I nodded. He was probably right. I let myself relax back against his hard form. He was an interesting mixture of familiar and new, the same and different.

He was still Matthias, but in the past I did not kiss Matthias, nor did I let myself be engulfed by him and want more.

But now I did. This was good, this felt right. I liked it, and I liked him.

Perhaps I had been deluding myself that I had kept this entirely platonic, because letting myself care about him was like coming home, like I was walking further down a path upon which I had always been meant to walk.

The trees were illuminated by the flickering of the light of the lantern, and the stars in the sky where the pointed tops of the pine separated. I could not hear anything but the sound of Matthias breathing in my ear and the sounds of the insects somewhere in the darkness. I could feel Matthias's heat against my back and my sides and I could barely feel the curse at all in that moment.

A smile formed on my lips. This was something I would have wanted if I had let myself, even if it were not going to be easy. Should I turn around and kiss him? Before I could decide to act, he interrupted my thoughts.

"I have something for you," he told me. He brought a ring box in front of me and popped it open before setting it in my hands.

By the light of the lanter I could see it well enough to recognize it.

"Matt," I said.  Tears welled up in the corners of my eyes.

"I asked your dad for it," he told me. "And he agreed it was a good idea. I hope that's okay, that you like it."

"It was mom's. How could I not?" I asked him as I turned around and wrapped my arms around him.

"I thought you would," he said as he wrapped his arms around me in return.

I kissed him then and that was, for the moment, the end to our conversation.