Midsummer Moon

By Megan Derr

Homeless, lonely, and desperate for a cure to his lycanthropy, Lowell chases a rumor of a cure to the small town of Midsummer's Night. What he doesn't expect to find is a town that accepts his kind, the mischievous vampire who immediately befriends him, or the beautiful, sad-eyed doctor he can't stop thinking about...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Megan Derr
• Release date: Aug 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781005196943

Megan Derr

Megan is a long-time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.meganderr.compatreon.com/meganderrmeganderr.blogspot.comfacebook.com/[e-mail]@meganaderr

Book preview

Homeless, lonely, and desperate for a cure to his lycanthropy, Lowell chases a rumor of a cure to the small town of Midsummer's Night. What he doesn't expect to find is a town that accepts his kind, the mischievous vampire who immediately befriends him, or the beautiful, sad-eyed doctor he can't stop thinking about…

Midsummer Moon

Midsummer's Night 1

By Megan Derr

Published by Megan Derr

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

Edited by Samantha M. Derr

Cover designed by Angela Haddon

angelahaddon.com

This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

Third Edition September 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Megan Derr

Printed in the United States of America

MIDSUMMER MOON

MEGAN DERR

WAXING MOON

Lowell sighed as yet another flew past him, and made a note to hate the driver and passengers the rest of his life. 'Body Found By Highway: No One Would Give Poor Werewolf A Ride in the Rain.'

The cold rain that was probably going to give him hypothermia or the flu or whatever. Maybe that was for the best, really. 'Werewolf Finally Dies: World Sleeps Better.'

Shaking his head, Lowell waited until the car was well out of sight and truly had no intention of maybe turning around to help the poor bastard drowning slowly to death after all, then resumed walking.

Damn it, he just wanted not to be wet anymore. He'd been needing a shower for days, but this was so not what he'd had in mind. Now if the rain was near-boiling and had come with soap…

At least it was a light, if steady, downpour. Unfortunately, the sun had decided to continue obeying the laws of nature. Or space. Physics? Whatever. It had decided to set, rather than help him by not setting, and his chances of hitching a ride were diminishing by the minute. When it was well and truly dark, he could kiss any hope of assistance goodbye. Dark automatically made him evil and scary, even if he was nothing more than a sad, soggy puppy.

Werewolf. Drowning Puppy. Haha. 'Werewolf Kills Self To Spare World Bad Humor.'

He probably should have tried to sneak in a nap at the last gas station, but the clerk had creeped him out in no small way. Being a werewolf wasn't good for much, but it helped loads with the self-preservation thing.

At least the last sign had said Midsummer's Night was only twenty miles away.

Twenty miles and he could, at the very least, spend an hour or few in a waiting room. Like as not Dr. Kuhl would want nothing to do with him, and have security or something escort him out—that'd happened enough times in his life for him to know when it was coming—but at least he'd be warm and dry for a little while. Maybe there'd be time to read a few magazines, have a nap…

He really had come far in life, Lowell thought miserably, when the highlight of his day was killing time in some doctor's waiting room. Pathetic. He slid a hand into his pocket and touched the ziplock stowed there, filched from a shelter kitchen to protect his precious slip of paper from the elements.

Nothing but a name, an address, and the directions he'd gotten off a library computer. Not much at all, but it was a goal, a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, he'd finally get to be normal. Get rid of the damned curse which had made it impossible to have an ordinary life. To be human, rather than some horrid monster no one could stand.

Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to get his hopes too high. It did seem kinda farfetched that anyone could actually make a cure for werewolf-ness. He'd seen a fancier term for it once, but could never remember it. Ly-something.

Though at the rate he was going, it might not matter. He sneezed hard, shuddering in the rain, his clothes totally not meant for the inclement weather. He'd had a raincoat once, an ugly red thing with an even uglier plaid lining, but it had been warm and dry. That's what he got for falling asleep at a bus station. He should have worked harder at staying awake. Served him right.

Drat it. Not so much as a single car. Even for an old highway this was a bit ridiculous.

Not that it really mattered. Given the hour and the rain, he should stop looking for a ride and look for a place he could sleep without getting run over or picked up by cops or mugged.

For better or worse, he was still two weeks from changing. Just as well, in the end, because he might have been tempted to travel as a wolf and he always did his best to resist that temptation. The last time he'd given in… Lowell shuddered and turned his thoughts elsewhere.

No, wolf form meant finding a place to hide until it was finally over.

Instead of bad memories, he turned to his most-hated, favorite game of What If.

What if this Dr. Kuhl really had found a cure for ly…ly…werewolf-ness? What if he actually agreed to give it to Lowell? Would he expect payment? How much did that kind of cure cost? Thoughts of money soured Lowell's stomach. What little money he did have he'd refused to spend on the fragile hope whatever he had would be enough for the cure. But he had the sinking feeling that two hundred dollars wasn't going to cut it.

Maybe Dr. Kuhl would let him work to cover the rest of it. Lowell could certainly think of worse arrangements. Working for a small town doctor couldn't be worse than all the bottom-rung jobs he'd worked as he traveled around the country.

Then… then he'd finally have the cure, and would be normal and people wouldn't freak out and shun him or try to turn him over to animal control or the cops. They wouldn't try to shoot him or toss silver at him… and…

And it was all stupid daydreaming, because even assuming for one minute there was a cure and the doctor would give it to a nobody werewolf like him, he still would have a long way to go before he was anything but a homeless, worthless nobody.

Still, life would be a lot easier when he wasn't part wolf. There was no way it could be worse.

Determination renewed, he trudged on through the rain, glaring at the now nearly-set sun. It wasn't like it was the first time he'd had to trudge about everywhere in the dark. He'd live. Probably.

He sneezed again, steps faltering, sneaker catching on some stray bit of rubble and sending him tumbling to land hard on the pavement. Damn it. 'Werewolf Killed By Own Clumsiness.'

Rolling his eyes, Lowell started to get up again, but then just flopped back down, abruptly too tired to move. His motivation of only seconds before had gone out like a light. What was he thinking, seriously? He was wearing jeans that had more holes than he could count, socks that were only clean because he'd collected enough change to do some laundry. The expense had made him cringe, but he definitely wasn't going to get a cure if he smelled like a garbage pit.