Blood for Wolves

chapter 3

“Good evening chaps,” Wolf announced, holding onto the lapels of his coat as if he visited giants every day.

The giants all sat around the fire, eating something that was cooking on a spit. Much too big to be Marianne. They stopped talking at once and turned on the newcomer.

“Today seems to be a very fruitful day,” one of them said, a smile forming on his face.

“A fine day indeed,” Wolf said, looking around as if considering where best to make himself at home. “Have you, by chance, come upon a young and very tasty morsel lately?” He smacked his lips. “I seemed to have let her escape by accident.”

“Did you?” said another. “We caught two trying to traipse through our fields here. Snapped them up mighty quick. But you say you just lost the one?”

Wolf smoothed his mane of sable hair. “Well, the larger one is what interfered with my, ah, meal the first time around. Do what you like with that one. Gangly and gamey I’m sure she’ll be. I’m simply interested in the little lambkin.”

“Mm,” said the one with the club. “Sure enough we caught that one.” Then he paused. “Meal you say?”

“Oh yes.” And then there was a long silence. They were looking at Wolf intently, but I could only see his back. Whatever he did, it convinced them that he spoke the truth.

“Get yourself in trouble with that lot,” the giant across from the fire said. “Don’t let the parents find out, or they’ll have your hide on their wall.”

The giants roared with laughter, and I winced. Even Wolf flinched at the sound.

“Yes, well, if I could just have my snack, I’ll be on my way, if you please,” he said once they finished.

“Aye, we’d like to help out a hungry creature such as yourself.” The giant swung his club around casually. “But we’d already done sold her off to a lot of slave drivers looking for some fresh blood.”

My breath caught in my throat. I hoped to God he didn’t mean that literally. Wolf deflated a little.

“Is that so? Pity, pity.”

“We got six cows for the little thing. Would you like a nibble?”

Suddenly I realized what was on the spit—a whole cow.

Wolf glanced to the side where the other cows were being kept. I thought I saw his eyes change color for a second.

“No, no. As much as I would love to take a taste, I have big things to return to. And cow has never been on my preferred table.”

“Mind you don’t eat too many young ‘uns—farmers with pitchforks will be after ya.”

The giants rocked with laughter again, and Wolf shuffled out of the cave.

“Pass up a lovely meal like that, the things I do just to please,” he mumbled as he emerged.

“Slave drivers?” I hissed. “What the hell kind of place is this?”

“What sort of question is that? You’re here, now let’s go.” He grabbed at my arm.

“I am not going anywhere with you.” I jerked out of his grasp. “You are crazy. This isn’t normal. Any of it.”

“Look, I am the only one that can find that girl and if you want to find her too, then you’ll have to stick with me, do you understand that?”

“Oy! Who are you talking to out there?”

We froze. A few of the giants climbed to their feet while the others leaned over to look outside the cave.

“No one,” Wolf called. “Just, ah, my mate. We were both looking for the morsel, but we’re going now.”

“I think not. She sounds an awful lot like that scrap we caught earlier. Let’s see her.”

I stared at Wolf, petrified.

“No, no,” he yelled back, his hands on my shoulders. “She’s got this silly fear of giants, says they’re too big for her taste.”

“We insist.”

The command was low, dangerous. Wolf gave me a tiny nod and gently pulled me forward so the giants could see me. The one with the club grunted.

“Thought so. Why didn’t you tell us you was a she-wolf?”

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. Wolf pinched me in my side.

“Ah,” I half-shouted. “I, um, was too scared.” I laughed weakly. “Concerned about my…food. At the time. Sorry.”

Their stony faces remained unconvinced.

“Show us your side then,” said one of the standing giants.

I gaped again. My side? What did that mean? My wolf side?

“You can’t,” Wolf said, his voice barely audible. “Run.”

They’ll just follow us. I racked my brain for an idea. I had no idea what they were looking for, but so far it didn’t sound much like humans were fond of wolves. Maybe…

“Well,” I spoke haltingly, “would a human woman do this?”

I looked up at Wolf and braced myself. Oh Caroline, you’ve gone off the deep end.

I grabbed his face and brought his mouth down on mine. He was surprised, but quickly recovered and put his arms around me, kissing me back and milking it for all it was worth.

This is so nuts. I’m kissing a possible serial killer. God, where did I go wrong? This is so beyond screwed up…he tastes like berries and mint…

Finally I pulled away, collecting my bearings again. The rational part of me wanted to move farther away, much farther away, but Wolf held me where I was, his forehead resting against mine looking for all the world like he’d just had the best day of his life.

“Now then,” a giant said, “that’s certainly something.”

I tried not to look at Wolf’s eyes. That kiss had been…quite…. I wished my heart would quit pounding and hoped that he couldn’t feel it. My head started throbbing again.

“Still, in the days of old humans did that all the time,” said another. “And besides, you said she was the one who made you lose your meal in the first place. A dirty lie, I warrant. I say we sup on the both of them.”

The other four cheered in approval and they charged for the cave opening.

Wolf pushed me to the side. “Run!”

I sprinted down a little path around the side of the mountain face, praying I wouldn’t slip and fall, and that the giants wouldn’t be able to catch me over here. I looked over my shoulder in time to see Wolf pull the rope he’d tied around the boulders earlier. It went taut and the first giant’s foot caught on it, sending him banging head over heels through the boulder field. The two other giants had too much momentum to stop themselves and did the same, each one crashing over the other. The club went flying and hit one of them in the head. Then Wolf let go of the rope—I couldn’t fathom how he’d managed to hold onto it in the first place—and waved me on as he ran after me.

Together we half ran, half slid down the mountainside, occasional patches of scree sliding down with us. Far above the giants cursed at one another and the mountains shook and reverberated with their movements and yells.

“Keep going, into the trees,” Wolf shouted behind me. “They won’t follow us in there!”

I didn’t argue and kept running until we were well within the forest again. The light had faded significantly. The sun barely showed through the trees, now just a ball of burning orange sitting on the horizon. I stopped, breathing hard, and leaned against a tree, setting my hands on my hips.

“My, my,” Wolf said, stopping in front of me. He was barely breathing hard at all. “You most certainly can run. Almost like…”

“Like what?” I huffed.

“A doe under the hunt.”

Wonderful. My head pounded. I shut my eyes for a moment. I wanted to lie down and take a nap, but no way was I going to do that with him around. Why had he saved me anyway? He said he didn’t want to kill me, but that’s what a lot of killers said, wasn’t it? Sorry I don’t want to kill you, but I’m going to anyway?

“You’re hurt,” Wolf said. “You should rest.”

“No, I’m fine. We need to find Marianne.”

“Why are you so intent on finding the girl?”

“Why are you?”

He narrowed his eyes and sniffed. Then he shook his right foot for a moment.

“Look,” I said, “you heard those giants. They sold her into slavery. I can’t believe you have that around here. And for a bunch of cows. She deserves to go home. She’s just lost, that’s all. I can’t know all that and not try to help her. That’s awful.” I paused. “Not that I expect you to care. You’re…crazy. Or something.”

I also had no idea how to get back home. I suspected I had to go back through the pond, but that had to be several miles south now and my head was killing me. I couldn’t abandon her. I couldn’t leave her alone. Poor lonely little girl.

“I am not crazy,” Wolf said, his voice more even than I’d heard since meeting him. If one could call a near-death experience a meeting. “I just get a bit…rambunctious, that’s all. You really ought to sit down and rest, my heart.”

Why did he keep calling me that? I shut my eyes again. I needed an ice pack. Concussions weren’t something to be ignored. I needed medical attention, X-rays, CAT scans. Leaves crunched near me.

“Come here, little fawn.”

His hand touched my arm. No way was I going down without a fight. I swung my fist out, hoping to catch him in the jaw, but he ducked out of the way and caught me as I fell. The ground tilted crazily and before I knew it, I was on my back, staring up at him.

I’m going to die here, in the arms of this killer, somewhere that isn’t home.

“Rest here, Caroline,” he said, his voice soft. “I’ll take care of you.”

Just before the world went dark again, I wondered, How does he know my name?

When I woke, it was practically dark. My head still hurt, but it felt a great deal better than before. A small fire was burning in a little clearing surrounded by stones. Wolf sat across from it, poking at one of the logs with a stick. I reached up to touch my head. It was covered with something cool. I hoped for a bandage, yet what I touched felt an awful lot like a leaf. Wolf’s gazed snapped up and in an instant he’d jumped over to me.

“Don’t touch it now. It needs time to work.”

“What is it?”

“Lavawort covered with gum leaf.”

Hi, I’m Caroline, and I’ve just moved into Fairy Land where everything is cured with lavawort and gumleaf and magic apples, how are you?

“Oh.”

The air around us was cooling down for the night, but the fire was nice and cozy. I gazed at Wolf. He was rather well put together with his brown overcoat, white dress shirt and crimson vest, though his pants were oddly baggy. He had a belt keeping them in place. He still needed a shave though, his jaw line covered in dark stubble. It made him look just that much rougher, but still, somehow, approachable. His eyes were indeed hazel, with no trace of the red-gold I’d seen earlier. His nostrils flared as he breathed in, a pleased smirk on his face. I almost couldn’t believe he was the same person who had come at me and Marianne with a knife earlier in the day. He was…handsome.

“How did you know how to make a fire?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Just because I’m a wolf doesn’t mean I don’t know how to start fires. By the way, do you know magic? Because those little sticks are amazing.”

I frowned in confusion. “Sticks?”

“You know, the ones you just scrape on something and boom! Fire comes out.”

“You mean matches? Wait.” I blinked a few times. “How did you get my matches?”

He pointed to a lump beside the fire. “You left it in the cottage when you ran out like a wild woman.”

My daypack. He’d scared me so much standing over Marianne I’d just dropped it then and there. “You went back and got it?”

“I bought it with me when I followed you. You had some tasty things in there.” His eyes glittered in the firelight—or did they do that on their own?

“You ate everything?”

“Of course not, my heart. I saved some for you.”

I hoped so. The last thing I needed was for this guy to be running on power bars and Snickers.

“How do you know my name, anyway?”

“I found a thing in your pack with your name on it. You look delicious in the picture, but not as delicious as you are in the flesh. Your hair was much shorter then.”

My driver’s license. Then I remembered. I had bear mace in that pack. Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier?

“Could I have my pack please?”

“Yes, of course, my sweet Caroline.”

I half waited for him to start singing the song, but he’d called me sweet Caroline in earnest, not some stupid joke like so many other guys did. He crawled over and dragged the pack to me. Good boy, I thought involuntarily. I opened it up to rifle through it.

“So,” I said, hoping to distract him, “why exactly were you attacking Marianne? You’ve never given me a straight answer.”

He huffed and made quiet growling noises, looking into the fire and scratching at his neck. “I wasn’t attacking her. I was…” His mouth twitched. “Someone made a request for me regarding that girl. But I wasn’t going to eat her. That knife was all for show. Scared kids do what they’re told right? Although she did look every bit the succulent meal like a fresh lamb playing in the fields, those delicate curls of hers bouncing in the sunshine and her dainty dress like bluebells swaying in the meadow.”

He’d gone somewhere off the deep end I suspected, gazing into the distance with a dreamy grin on his face, all his teeth showing—including those abnormally sharp canines. Then he seemed to catch himself and regroup.

“Not that I eat young girls—or any girls for that matter. I only attacked you because you attacked me. I don’t eat people at all, no matter what all the stories say. It only invites trouble and makes a wolf more worse off than he already is.”

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to convince me. Hopefully he had more luck on himself, because I certainly wasn’t going to buy it. And where the hell was my bear spray?

“So who wanted Marianne and what for? If you resorted to using a knife, it doesn’t sound like anything good.” I managed to keep my voice level. Where was that damn mace? Sure, he’d helped me, but I couldn’t stick around with someone this neurotic. Who knew when he might snap again?

He scratched at his neck again and blew air out through his nose like an aggravated dog. “I don’t know the reason. As for who, I can’t say.”

“Why not?”

“I’m force-bound not to.”

“Uh huh.” I savagely pushed at my daypack. “God! Wolf? Did you see a small can in here at any point in time?”

“I most certainly did. Awful smelling stuff. I got rid of it immediately. Why did you have such a thing in your pack?”

I let out an exasperated sigh. Might as well tell him. “For protection. It’s especially good against bears.” And crazy people.

“Bears hmm? They’re no worry. Too busy eating honey porridge and going on outings.”

Oh joy. “Wolf, where am I?”

He smiled, and this time it wasn’t scary. It was soft and happy. “You’re right here, with me.”

“No, I mean, this place. This forest. What’s this place called?”

“Oh. You’re in the Kingdom of Red. It’s a very big place. Home to all the wolves in all the lands.”

“How many ‘lands’ are there?”

“Three. Would you like to see a map?”

“I would, very much so.”

He sat up enough to pull a worn piece of leather out of a pocket. Then he flopped back on his stomach by me and held it out.

“This is the land of Arglesia, though we all know it by the name of King Thrushbeard’s Land, even though he and his queen have been dead for generations. Above it is King Lute’s realm. And this is the Kingdom of Red. See? We can’t leave here because the mountains border it, and they’re much too high for any of us to scale and half-wolves aren’t allowed through the human passageways.”

I carefully examined the details of the map. The continent was like nothing I’d ever seen before, at least, not where I came from. Lute’s kingdom sat in the upper corner in the northeast, and if the map keys were anything to go by, looked like farmland as well as forest. Thrushbeard’s Land was below in the southeast, mostly forest, and appeared to have two little castles scrawled on the map. The Kingdom of Red was the largest, at least twice the size of the other two lands, and practically all forest. A line of mountains separated the Kingdom of Red from the other lands, stretching from ocean to ocean across the continent. The continents and writing were scrawled in black and faded with time. The leather was flimsy and careworn from years of use. I didn’t see how it could be fake.

The pond. Marianne. Wolf. Giants. Now this map. I finally gave in and fully accepted where I was. Far from home. In some fairy tale land. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh, cry, or just freak out, but considering everything I’d gone through already I was too tired to do any of those things. It was like I’d just gone through the five stages of grieving. Except I’d skipped the bargaining part. I wondered if I should start.

I handed the map back to Wolf, watching him as he carefully folded it up and tucked it away in his jacket pocket. Then he settled down near me, happy. He looked like a regular guy relaxing fireside. Like we weren’t in some fairy tale land and he and I had gone camping for the weekend. Then he noticed me looking at him and winked.

“Are you really a half-wolf?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” he said softly.

I stared at him for a bit before speaking again. “You seem to have issues.”

He sniffed, the content look fading from his face. “It’s hard, being half-wolf. No pack to speak of. Feared by humans. Farmers especially. They hate wolves, half and whole alike, those farmers. Doesn’t matter which. They catch a wolf, they build a fire and burn it or stab it with pitchforks and anything else until they reach its heart. No one loves wolves in the Kingdom of Red.”

He got very quiet as he said the last part. He plucked at a thread on his coat cuff, sullen.

“I study wolves, you know,” I finally said.

His gaze fixed on me again. “Study them?”

“I’m a wolf biologist. I watch them, follow them. I understand their habits and personalities. I protect them where I come from. I’m not afraid of wolves.”

“No? Is that why you weren’t afraid to kiss me?” His eyes glittered again.

I laughed lightly. “I was afraid to kiss you, trust me. But that was because I thought you were a serial killer. I didn’t believe you were a wolf in any shape or form. I’m still not sure I trust you.”

“Because I’m a wolf?”

“No, because I’m still worried you might be a serial killer.”

He grunted and rolled his eyes.

“I fear humans more than I fear wolves,” I said. “Where I’m from it’s rare for wolves to attack people. Humans, on the other hand, don’t always need provocation to hurt someone. Frankly I think humans are crazier.”

His jovial grin returned. “No wonder you’re my mate.”

I put a hand over my eyes. “I am not your mate.”

“What if I make a pledge?”

“A pledge?”

“A pledge to help you. I’m tired of seeking the girl for her.” I wondered who he was talking about. “I just want to be free. I just want to be near my mate.”

I sighed in exasperation. “I am not your—”

“Please,” he said, and his serious expression stopped me. “I know you may not believe me but…I would be very grateful if you gave me a chance. No one ever gives me a chance.” He touched my arm and my heart did that weird flip-flop thing again.

I finally relented. “All right. But that’s quite a sudden turnaround, babe. How do I know you won’t do the same to me when the time comes?”

“As the moon is my master, I promise to be by your side no matter what. I will do everything you ask. And a wolf who promises on the moon does not go back on his vow.”

“What about the girl?”

He held up his hands in surrender. “I won’t even go near her without your leave.”

I supposed it would have to do. We fell silent, watching the stars come out while the rest of the world went from blue to black. The moon hung low in the sky, a little over half of it showing. I caught Wolf staring at it intently.

“You’re not gonna howl at that, are you?”

“I might.”

“Wolves don’t howl at the moon where I’m from. That’s an old wives’ tale. They howl to reinforce pack bonds and to let other wolves know where their boundaries are.”

“We do that too, but the moon is our master, especially for us half-wolves because we have no pack and no one to howl to. The pull is stronger when the moon is full.”

I inched away from him. “You’re not a werewolf, are you?”

He sat up in disgust. “No. Of course not. Werewolves are disgusting, vicious creatures. Wolves in human skins that have indulged in their darker sides and killed too many people. They revel in their bloodlust. All the werewolves of this country were banished a long time ago.” Then he settled down again. “Werewolf,” he scoffed.

“But…you could be. As a half-wolf, right?”

He growled. “I’d eat poisoned meat before becoming a werewolf.”

Good to know. I shifted my spot in the leaves, closing my eyes.

“You’re going to help me find Marianne tomorrow, right?” I asked.

“Yes. A wolf never goes back on his word, half or whole.”

“Good.”

I woke up in the middle of the night, a little chilled, and stiff from lying on the hard ground. My head didn’t hurt at all. I shifted again, turned on my side with my head on my arm. I opened my eyes a crack and thought I saw Wolf, standing about twenty feet away amidst the trees. A pack of wolves, full ones on all four paws, surrounded him. He gestured with his hands from time to time. He paused for a moment and shook his foot, something gold jangling around his ankle. A weird tingle pulled at me. He went back to gesturing as though talking. Then several of the wolves turned to look at me, the fire making their eyes glow in the dark. Wolf did the same, and his eyes glimmered in the exact same way.