“Harper, you made the wrong decision when you broke your engagement to Elisabeth. Now it’s all in the papers and the gossip mongers are having a field day. It was in the morning papers you refused to marry her. Her family mentioned drugs. You know she has grounds to sue you for alienation of affection.” Michael threw the morning papers to him.
“If the news got out this soon, it’s because she made the announcement and not me, and she wanted this,” Harper said sitting back in his leather chair. He dropped the paper on the table in front of his chair.
“Her father has a wide reach in this town, and you don’t want to get on his bad side.”
“He’s the one in debt and he was using Elisabeth to get to my money. She didn’t love me. Is that what I have to deal with? Women who only want my money and can’t see the person inside me?” Harper placed his hand under his chin and his eyes fell to the floor. He appeared to be heavy in thought.
“How do you know she only wants your money?” Michael said leaning over to pour Harper a drink. He waved his hand over it signaling he had enough.
“I was standing on that terrace. You know the one that wraps around that house, and I heard her tell her father she wanted to marry someone else. Not me. She took me for a fool and I guess I have been. I wouldn’t have sex because I thought she was saving herself for our wedding night. Now that was a joke. A joke on me.”
“You said the terrace,” Michael said not hearing half of what Harper had said to him. “If I remember that terrace you’re talking about, it’s so far from that room it would be impossible to hear anything especially if it’s filled with people.” Harper turned and looked at Michael.
“That’s what I needed to talked to you about. You didn’t ask me how I happen to be naked in the middle of San Francisco.”
“I thought if you wanted me to know you would have said something,” Michael said with his hands steeple in front of his mouth.
“I’m going to tell you now,” Harper said. There was short silence. “I’m a werewolf.” This time a long loud silence.
“Get the fuck out of here, Harper,” Michael said in disbelief. His voice raising higher than usual. “You’ve had too much to smoke or drink or you’re on drugs.”
“I don’t take drugs and I rarely drink. Really. I’m a werewolf.” Harper’s voice deepened with intensity.
“And how did you come to that brilliant conclusion? Harper, I know losing your father has been difficult, and being raised without a mother has its problems, but this is just plain crazy. I think you should see a psychiatrist.”
Michael reached for a pen and note pad from his coat pocket and scribbled a name of a doctor and his phone number, and then he handed it to Harper.
Harper just looked at it and then at him and said, “I couldn’t be more serious.” A knock came to the door. The door opened.
“Sir. You have a young woman here. She answered the ad I put in the paper. I’ve interviewed several women so far and it’s time to make a decision. Remember the maid who had been with your father retired, and with this large house, we need one more maid and someone younger to walk up those damn stairs.”
“I’m busy. You hire her.” Harper raised his hand to dismiss him. “You make that decision,” Harper said turning back to Michael. “I have something very important to discuss with Michael, please don’t disturb me again.”
“Very well.” And he backed out and closed the door behind him.
“Where was I?” Harper looked to Michael.
“You were saying something about being a werewolf,” Michael said with a casual tone scratching his forehead. And he turned his head, put his hand over his mouth to laugh.”
“I didn’t tell you this so you could snicker at me. I’ve had a hard night. Do you know how difficult it is to discover that you’re some kind of animal and then have to tell a friend and he doesn’t believe you?”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, I just don’t think it is possible.”
Harper stood. He dropped his neck to the right and you could hear bones crack, and in a matter of seconds he had shifted to a large white wolf standing on all fours, and then he turned back. Michael’s eyes grew large and he jolted from his chair. He didn’t know at that moment whether to pray or run.
“Do you believe me now?”
“Holy shit. You can’t tell anyone about this,” Michael said turning his head looking around as if he thought someone was in the room.
“I wasn’t planning on telling anyone, only you. I just needed someone to believe me.”
“Does Elisabeth know about you?”
“Of course not.”
“Then maybe she’ll take you back.”
“I don’t want her. I don’t want anyone. I can’t expect any woman to want me and care for me after this.”
“Don’t tell her. Just go about your life and when you’ve been with her long enough she’ll accept you if she loves you.”
“That’s your answer? She doesn’t love me. Have you been listening? She wants money not me. No woman will want what I’ve become.”
“Then you find another woman and pay her off, give her enough money, and have her sign a nondisclosure. I’ll write it up for you.”
“I can’t lie to a woman about something like this.”
“And you can’t tell the truth either. You will be alone all your life and you’re just twenty four” Harper stood and paced around the room. Michael glanced at him.
“You’re making me nervous.”
“If I make you nervous can you imagine what I will do to some unsuspecting woman who I happen to dupe into marrying me?”
“You’re handsome, young, and rich. It won’t take long to find the right woman.”
“I’m no good at choosing women.”
“Well then let me make the choice. Go see that property in Nevada and then tell me what you think. When you come back, I’ll have several women lined up and ready to marry you.”
“You’ll have to tell the one you choose about me being a werewolf.”
“Yeah. Right. That’ll go over well. I tell you what, I’ll just say that this will be a marriage of convenience. How does that sound?”
“I want a family and I don’t care how I get it and with whom?” Harper said. “I’ll take that drink now.” Michael poured him a glass. Harper wasn’t a drinker and that appeared to have changed as well. As he sat back, a knock came to the door. “Come in.”
“You don’t have to knock.”
“It’s my duty. Please Mr. Samsa, let me carry out my duties around here. I’ve been with you taking care of you since you were a child.”
“I’m a man now,” Harper said. His voice strong but patient.
“I came to inform you that I decided to hire the younger woman. We need some young blood in here besides you. She starts this evening.” And the elderly man turned and left the room.
“Good. I can start by interviewing your new maid. Do you want to see what she looks like?”
“I don’t care about looks anymore. All I want is someone who will accept me and when she discovers that I’m a werewolf she won’t go screaming into the night.”
“I think I can guarantee that,” Michael said. He probably could guarantee she wouldn’t go screaming into the night because there was no way he would reveal to her that Harper was a werewolf. It was an insane notion. And no one would believe it even if he said so. He can hardly believe it himself.
“That’s great. Do what you need to do. I may move to Nevada. There’s plenty of forest and land there. I’ll probably build a home. He glanced at Michael. “Did I tell you I eat my meat raw now? I hunt it and kill it,” Harper said glancing out the window. His mind far from San Francisco.
“I need you to take care of my holdings, Michael. Once you have found the woman who will agree to become my bride and have my children, then if she wants to get out of the marriage she can. The only stipulation is I want my children if she decides she can’t accept me.”
This was the first time Michael heard about children. Getting the woman to marry him is easy, but the part about children, now that was a horse of another color. One thing at a time, Michael thought.
“You talk as if you’re a hideous creature.”
“There are three phases to me. The one you see now, has this insatiable appetite for sex especially during the full moon. And the one you saw where I’m a large wolf, then there is the second phase, where I stand like a man, but I have this large muzzle, and these deadly teeth.”
“All you have to do is control that part when you are with your mate. See I’m getting with this werewolf thing,” Michael said smiling and proud of himself.
“It isn’t as simple as you make it out to be. I have to learn how control all phases of my wolf. Especially the urge to have sex every minute of the day.
“Not with all women I hope?”
“No. I’m searching for a mate. If I smell her, then I’ll know. But so far there’s been only one woman I’ve had that sensation that sensation with.”
“So why didn’t you contact her?”
“I don’t know where she is, and I don’t have time now to find her yet. Remember I have to go to Nevada. If you haven’t come up with a suitable woman, then I’ll be forced to look for her.”
When Harper flew out to Nevada, Michael requested for Emily to come to his office for an interview.