The Craving Read Online Free

eye contact with Milika, pretending she wasn’t there. But he heard her, walking toward him, her heels click-clacking, and her perfume was so strong, it was nearly overwhelming.
     
    Then he heard, “Maybe you want to give me your number, no? We make a play date for the children.”
     
    “I’m sorry, we don’t live in the area,” Simon said.
     
    “Yes, we do,” Jeremy said.
     
    “Okay, time to get into the stroller now, kiddo.”
     
    Leaving the playground, heading toward Riverside Drive, Jeremy asked, “How come we couldn’t stay? I wanted to stay, Daddy.”
     
    “We stayed for as long as we could,” Simon said.
     
    “No, we didn’t. You always make me go home too soon.”
     
    It was true; Simon had left other playgrounds lately when random women had started hitting on him.
     
    “How about some ice cream?” Simon asked.
     
    “Yay, ice cream,” Jeremy said.
     
    Score another point for the ice cream distraction strategy. Simon felt bad for evading Jeremy’s questioning, but what choice did he have? He didn’t want to lie to his son, but the truth was out of the question. After all, how was he supposed to explain to a three-year-old boy that his daddy was a werewolf?
     

     
    I f someone had told Simon just last month that he would be hiding his werewolfness, or werewolfosity, or whatever it was called, from his family and the rest of the world, he never would have believed it. The thought of werewolves actually existing had seemed insane, and even now there were times when the reality that he had actually become one seemed impossible to comprehend. He’d wake up in the middle of the night, thinking everything was fine, that he was just a normal Manhattan husband and dad, and then he’d remind himself,
You’re a werewolf now
, and he’d shudder as he relived the horror of everything that had happened to him over the past several weeks, the way his body and perceptions had changed, how it had felt to actually transform, physically and mentally, into a half-man, half-wolf creature, and, most horrific of all, how it had felt to kill with his bare hands. Or, well, bare
claws
.
    Simon took Jeremy to the Tasti D-Lite on Broadway and Eighty-sixth. Jeremy had a cone of Nutella and Simon had a double cone of Cookies ‘n’ Cream. Though Simon could have engulfed the ice cream and cone in a couple of bites, he forced himself to eat at a normal pace. Lately it took a lot of discipline not to scarf down his food. Sometimes he slacked off, letting his mind wander, and suddenly his food was gone. Still, he finished the ice cream well before Jeremy finished his. Unfortunately, the carbs didn’t do much for Simon’s appetite. He was dying to get home and cook up some burgers or, better yet, steaks.
     
    When they got back to their apartment on Columbus and Eighty-ninth, Simon parked Jeremy in front of the electronic babysitter to watch
The Wiggles
. Although Jeremy had probably seen the episode dozens of times—even Simon knew most of it verbatim—he was as happy as only a three-year-old could be.Meanwhile, Simon satisfied his craving by cooking up four hamburgers. Though he preferred his burgers well-done, the smell of the cooking meat was so enticing that he couldn’t resist snatching one from the grill when it was rare, and he polished the others off when they were about medium rare—medium, at best.
     
    Simon was content—for the moment. Lately it had been nearly impossible to satisfy his appetite completely, and even when he was going about his normal daily routine—taking care of Jeremy, doing chores, running in the park—thoughts of his next high-protein meal always seemed prominent.
     
    “Hello.”
     
    Simon was in the kitchen, cleaning the grill, and Alison had startled him.
     
    “Hey,” Simon said, immediately recognizing his wife’s particularly pungent end-of-the-day natural scent, mingling with her perfume and deodorant. She was in a navy work suit, heels, and a nice pearl