A Cursed Moon: A Weird Girls Novella (A Penguin Special from Signet Eclipse) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I said you did it like monkeys.”
    That earned me the ultimate glare. Beneath the rising moon, Celia’s green eyes morphed into that of her beast and fired with anger. Her fangs had also begun to protrude, a neat trick and not something
weres
could do unless they were trying to
turn
someone into a werebeast. Her body’s reaction told me two things: One, her inner golden tigress was itchin’ to unleash and beat my ass. And two, shut the hell up, jackass.
    “Whatever, Bren,” she hissed. “Trying to win a fight at my expense is dirty and unfair. I would never do that to you!”
    “Celia, everyone there knew I did it just to bust his balls. Besides, that asshole deserves a few jabs to his ego for dumping you.”
    I should’ve stuck to the “shut the hell up, jackass” game plan. Celia stilled, her eyes resuming their round human shape and her fangs dissolving back to into average incisors. She stared hard at her worn shearling boots.
Shit. Way to go, idiot.
    “What happened between Aric and me is no one else’s business—do you understand me? Save your lewd comments for your drinking buddies and watch your mouth when it comes to me and him.” She veered around slowly and headed toward her deck, her hips swinging in that catwalk of hers . . . though I didn’t miss how her shoulders slumped slightly. Misery had that effect.
    “Where you goin’, Ceel?”
    Celia didn’t bother looking back. “To Misha’s. The vamps aren’t perfect, but at least when they insult me, they do it to my face. I may or may not be back to free you tonight. Enjoy the view of the backyard.”
    “Aric referred to you as his mate,” I said quickly before she could bounce up the steps.
    My comment froze her in her tracks. When she glanced over her shoulder, I thought for sure she’d let loose the waterworks. Had I been free, I would have kicked my own ass.
    Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Don’t you dare play with my feelings like that.”
    I swore a few times in my head. “Ceel, I may be an asshole. But you know I’d never intentionally hurt you. Look, get me out and I’ll prove it to you.”
    She crossed her arms over her perky bosom. “Bren, I swear, if this a trick—”
    “It’s not. Come on, get me out. It’s cold down here.”
    Celia yanked me by my moppy hair and
shifted
me free from my earth-packed prison. She waited with clenched fists ready to pound. Before I got knocked out for the second time that day, I fumbled for the note in my back pocket. She frowned when I grabbed her hand and placed the wrinkled and torn pieces in her palm.
    I grinned. “Think of it as a puzzle you have to put together.”
    She clasped her hand over the ripped bits of paper when the wind picked up, and walked up the wooden steps leading to her deck. I followed, watching as she used a few pebbles gathered in an old mason jar to weigh down the rumpled pieces while she arranged them on her patio table. It didn’t take her long to put the note back together. Debbie, or whatever the hell her name was, hadn’t taken the time to shred the evidence. After all, she had an unsuspecting fiancée to deal with and the rage of a jilted werebitch to unleash.
    Celia crossed her arms again and read Aric’s words in silence, paying close attention to where her wolf openly proclaimed their matehood. Damn shame he never told her himself.
    “Do you mind if I keep it?” she asked after a while.
    I shrugged with one shoulder. “Go ahead. I think I’ve worn out its uses.” I paused, wrestling with whether I should open my yap again. Aric had majorly f’d up when it came to my girl, and shattered what little confidence their relationship had brought her. It was his fault. All of it. But she needed validation that what they had had been real—and not some game he’d played to get in her pants.
    She angled her chin in my direction. “What is it?”
    I plucked another pebble from the mason jar and tossed it in my hand a few times, struggling with whether