✨ GUEST POST ✨
Hello, everyone. Thank you, Addison, for allowing me to steal a spot on your blog on this very important day 😉
I’m Holly Day, and I write MM Romance stories to celebrate different holidays. Today, we’re celebrating one of those holidays. Did you know that it’s National Chocolate Brownie Day today? No? Well, it is, and the question you should ask yourself is: How many doctored brownies are too many doctored brownies when dealing with werewolves?
Ponder that for a bit while I tell you about JMS Books’ Advent Calendar. You haven’t missed it, I hope! Every day from December 1st to the 24th, there is one LGBT+ book for free. BUT the door is only open from 12:00 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST, so you have to grab it during those hours, or you miss out on the freebie.
Today is my day! Amazing right? National Chocolate Brownie Day AND a free story in the advent calendar. The story is called The Wolf Cure, and it just so happens that it’s about National Chocolate Brownie Day.
Galen is a flawed healer. Real healers take over the injury from those they’re healing and dispel it. Galen takes over the injury and heals it, but hangs on to the pain.
No one can know though, which is why he ushers people out the door as soon as he’s done his job and does his best to keep everyone away. The only one he spends time with is his brother, Ari.
The problem is that Ari is best friends with the world’s clumsiest werewolf. Every other month, Averett injures himself in one way or another, and Ari brings him to Galen. Normally it’s fine. Small cuts and scrapes Galen can heal in a few seconds and then pretend not to feel any pain from.
Today though… Galen is already baking doctored brownies because a woman in the village slipped on the ice and broke her ankle, so he’s hobbling around with the pain of a fracture. When Ari arrives, dragging an injured Averett with him, Galen wishes he could run and hide.
There is no way Galen can heal Averett without him knowing something is wrong, and it doesn’t get any easier when Averett refuses to leave afterward.
If you’re in the mood for a brother’s best friend, healer, werewolf, fated mates, and space brownies kind of story, then this is for you! It takes place in Foolshope, the same as The Snaccident, but the stories aren’t related in any other way, so you don’t need to have read one to read the other.
The Wolf Cure
by Holly Day
🛒 Grab it here:
FREE only on December 8th at JMS Books, thereafter it’ll be discounted 25% at JMS for its first week, then it’ll be regular retail price at distributors everywhere.
Blurb
How many doctored brownies are too many doctored brownies when dealing with werewolves?
Galen Ceowald is a flawed healer and a loner. Normal healers take over the injury from the one they help and get rid of it. Galen takes over the pain of the injury. Period. He’s become an expert at concealing his suffering to keep his defect hidden, but it’s easier to avoid people altogether.
When Averett Garou, Galen’s brother’s best friend, falls off a roof, it’s nearly impossible not to let his weakness show. Especially since Averett is a stubborn werewolf who refuses to leave Galen’s home. But maybe there are worse things than eating cakes and cuddling with a werewolf. Or has Galen consumed too many brownies to be of sane mind?
Excerpt
A second later, Ari more or less fell through the front door while clutching Averett Garou to his chest, which was quite a feat considering Averett was massive.
He must be the clumsiest werewolf who’d ever walked on this earth. Though usually, Ari dragged him here for cuts and scrapes. This looked way more serious, and Galen wanted to tell them to turn around and not come back for at least a couple of weeks.
Wolf eyes met his, and he shivered. There was something about Averett that always made him want to hide. He didn’t fear him, but it was as if he could reach inside Galen and pull out his heart.
He’d never let him.
He didn’t let anyone get near him. He didn’t touch people unless he had to. Too often touch was painful, and it was easier to keep himself away from everything and everyone.
“Galen.”
Ari’s voice found its way into his floaty mind. He’d had another small piece of brownie before the first one had fully kicked in. He most likely hadn’t needed it, but he deserved it after the day he’d had.
“Yeah?”
“A little help here, please.”
Galen didn’t move. “What’s wrong?”
“Idiot fell off a roof. I told him not to get up there in this weather. The tiles are slippery.”
Galen squeezed his eyelids shut. Fallen off the roof. He opened his eyes and found Averett still staring at him with amber eyes. Normally, his eyes were chocolate brown. Like space brownies. Like pain relief, relaxation, and pleasure all in one. Now they reminded him of whiskey.
“Galen! For fuck’s sake. How many squares did you have?”
Galen looked at Ari. “What?”
“The entire hut smells of your special brownies. Can you focus?”
“Of course.”
The corner of Ari’s mouth quirked into half a smile. “Can you please help me get this oaf to the bed?”
“To my bed?” Heat flushed through him.
“It’s the only bed here, isn’t it?”
Yeah, there wasn’t room for anything else. The hut was one open area apart from the kitchen and bathroom. He had his bed in one corner, and the two-seat couch and coffee table took up most of the available space. They’d squeezed in a tiny wall-mounted table in the kitchen, and he had three chairs, though he most often only kept two by the table. The third was pushed into the corner in the hallway where he didn’t have to stumble over it.
“Why didn’t you take him to your home?” He couldn’t have Averett in his bed.
“Galen.” Ari’s voice was sharp.
“Yes?”
“Please, help me. I can’t hold him much longer, and his legs aren’t steady. I think they’re fractured.”
Fuck. More fractures. Galen would be bed bound. “Why did you bring him here?”
Ari met his gaze and held it, the skin around his eyes tensed the way it did when Ari knew Galen would suffer. They’d often argued. Ari hadn’t wanted him to heal the damage done to him, since Galen would inherit the pain. “I didn’t think you’d want to walk home once you were done.”
Galen took a deep breath, and Ari looked more pained than ever. “I don’t care when he wants to come here for stupid scrapes. I try to talk him out of it most of the time, but he doesn’t know…” Ari pressed his lips together. Galen had made him swear on everything holy never to tell a soul he was a flawed healer who couldn’t dispel the pain.
It was all in his mind. He didn’t have a broken ankle right this minute, he’d never had all the fractures his parents had caused Ari when they’d been kids, but his mind made him believe he had. The pain was real even if the injury wasn’t.
“This time, though, Galen. I think his legs are broken, and maybe a few ribs too. It pains him to breathe.”
Averett was watching them while they talked, but there was little to no recognition in his gaze. Or there was recognition, his eyes never left Galen, but it didn’t look as if he heard their words.
Galen breathed in deeply. “Better turn off the stove. The chili is done.”
Ari flinched. “I’m sorry, Galen.” He looked away.
“Nah. It’s what I do.”
Ari nodded, and for a few seconds, there were tears in his eyes, but he blinked them away.
“I’ll… eh… have another brownie. Take him to bed.”
“Help me get him there, and I’ll fetch you a brownie after. Do you have ingredients for more?”
Galen shook his head. “I believed one brownie tin would last me for a while.” He should’ve known better. People never had the sense to stay indoors when the ground was icy.
When he couldn’t stall anymore, he stepped up to Averett and grabbed his arm. “Okay, let’s move forward.”
It was lucky the hut was tiny because Averett was damn heavy. Werewolves were never small, but Averett was massive.
When they reached the edge of the bed, they turned him so he could sit ass-first on the mattress. When Ari carefully lifted Averett’s legs, he snarled. Galen almost fell in his haste to get away. There was nothing human about the snarl.
“Be polite.” Ari flicked his finger on Averett’s nose. “You’re in Galen’s house, and I will not have you insult my brother.”
Averett’s whiskey eyes found Galen’s, and a low whine escaped. Ari straightened. “I’ll get you a brownie.” He clapped Galen’s shoulder on his way to the kitchen. Fuck, he didn’t want to do this.
About the Author
According to Holly Day, no day should go by uncelebrated and all of them deserve a story. If she’ll have the time to write them remains to be seen. She lives in rural Sweden with a husband, four children, more pets than most, and wouldn’t last a day without coffee.
Holly gets up at the crack of dawn most days of the week to write gay romance stories. She believes in equality in fiction and in real life. Diversity matters. Representation matters. Visibility matters. We can change the world one story at the time.