CHAPTER 4
The night progressed and I dozed in the comfortable carriage. No bed I remembered had felt so luxurious. I think we may have stopped once, but I didn’t fully awaken. When I did wake as I was accustomed, dawn had broken and I lay upon the breast of Rafe. He cradled me tenderly as the carriage swayed over the road. I stayed as still as I could, for fear this tender contact would break. Why did this splendid man want a Werewolf girl? I pondered this matter through the morning.
“Mmmm,” he murmured upon waking much later. “See. I knew I could endure it longer.”
“Rafe, why do you want a Werewolf girl?” I asked. I had tried to work out the answer myself, but couldn’t imagine anything beyond conjecture. So I just asked.
“You don’t know?” he asked as his eyes searched my face.
I shook my head. Nothing I could imagine made any sense.
He raised the window shutter on a bright morning, though late for me. “Well, you’ll see very soon, maybe in an hour.” That didn’t give me any clues! “In the meantime, would you like breakfast?”
I sat up and nodded my head with enthusiasm. He rewarded me with a hearty laugh.
“Don’t laugh at me. I’m a servant and I wake up at dawn. I am unused to the hours of the nobility.”
He laughed harder and rapped on the carriage roof. “You awoke and still lay in my arms?” I nodded and blushed. “What did you think about all morning?” he prodded. The carriage came to a halt and Stephan appeared at the door with a basket.
“So?” asked Rafe as Stephan unpacked the basket. I kept quiet and looked at Rafe and then at Stephan.
“Intriguing,” Rafe said with a glare for Stephan. Efficient, Stephan arranged our breakfast and then disappeared. The carriage resumed its course again.
“Won’t you please tell me what you thought, dear Lyneth?” he asked with command in his voice. “I’m quite overcome with curiosity.”
“Forgive me, Rafe, but I am not accustomed to speak in front of strangers. Stephan is a very good man, I’m sure, but I did not want to tell you in front of him that I wondered why you wanted a Werewolf girl.”
He smiled warm as the sun. “So you didn’t think of Stephan all morning?” The hint that he might feel jealous of my casual thoughts of Stephan produced flutters in my stomach. No. That was too much to expect. I could hope for pity, but not for jealousy. I shook my head. I occupied my mouth fitting as much of the delicious food as I could inside. I strove to behave with decorum. I had endured too many slaps from Mistress to eat in any rude manner. But I excelled at eating fast and much. I never knew when I would enjoy more.
“Well, that is quite impressive,” Rafe exclaimed when he noticed my rapid consumption. I smiled and continued.
“You know you don’t have to rush, Lyneth. If we finish this, and you are still hungry, I will buy you more. You will never hunger again if I can help it.” I smiled, nodded, and continued to eat. I had hungered since dawn and he ate with hearty appetite himself. I would get as much as I needed now before he finished the last morsel and I had to wait. I think I still felt unsure of his resolve to keep his Werewolf girl and not turn me out of the carriage.
Then he stopped eating. I eyed him with uncertainty.
“All the rest is yours if you want it. I won’t let you hunger, Lyneth,” he said.
“Thank you, Rafe. I’m finished too.”
“Are you sure?” he prompted. I nodded. He packed up the scant leftovers and set the basket aside. After another hour or so, he peered out of the window again.
“This is it. We’re here! Lyneth, we’re home!” He turned to me, his face full of joy. With one look into his clear blue eyes, I couldn’t help but share his joy. He ran his hand through his chestnut hair and his eyes grew soft. “Oh, Lyneth, at last I can free you!” I felt pulled into his loving gaze. He leaned closer and closer to me, until my eyes closed, and I felt his lips touch mine. Nothing would ever separate me from this man now. He had stolen my heart.
But then, he called to his coachmen. “Stephan, George. Please help me! I must free Lyneth from this terrible collar.”
I struggled, but his loving embrace became a prison. “Please, don’t Rafe. I’m a monster without this collar. Don’t let it out, Rafe!” I begged.
“You’re wrong, Lyneth. I won’t let anyone or anything stifle you. I will help you to realize everything wonderful that you are. I promise I won’t ever leave you alone.”
And then Stephan unclasped the Silver Collar from my neck. Its painful protection disappeared and my body rushed to return to my cursed form. Rafe released me as my body transformed until I stood there on four legs in the sumptuous carriage. I cowered. Now the revulsion and hatred would come. The love I felt from him would evaporate and I would revert to an existence untouchable and alone.
But then something wonderful happened! First, upon the faces of Rafe’s men, I found joy and delight. They sighed as if they saw a rare flower bloom instead of a young woman’s transformation into a monster. I looked to Rafe in trembling confusion, and he smiled with immeasurable love. Then his smile widened. It became terrible. His teeth lengthened and his face stretched. After several moments, an enormous chestnut-colored wolf stood with me in the carriage. I whined like a frightened dog. Rafe barked at the men who parted from their position blocking the door. So I bolted.
Rafe pursued me across a field and into a dark forest. I ran in fear, but he herded me in the direction he wanted me to go. The forest and running through it soothed me, and soon I loped rather than tore through the underbrush. He came closer in gradual increments and I let him. When my wolf-legs became exhausted, which took a long time, I stopped with relief.
Rafe waited there, and his eyes remained his own eyes though his body had taken different form. The same love and joy shone from them. At last my transformed brain could grasp all of his incomprehensible behavior and cryptic words. He was like me. He searched for me because we were the same and he would never leave me because we belonged together.
I marveled and I tried to show him that I understood and acknowledged his generosity. I wagged my tail with a swish of my pale hair. I tilted my head and approached him. He wagged his tail too and stretched to sniff me. I licked his muzzle and rubbed my face on his. We were reconciled.
We spent days as wolves running through what I know now to consist of his kingdom. We caught game, drank from cool streams, and slept in leafy bowers. And we mated. When I was a girl, I would have felt much more thoughtful and afraid of such loose behavior. Father Miller had deplored the evils of loose women. But as a wolf, it was natural. Only he and I existed, no matter what, and would always remain so. It was fated. Had he felt this way about me all along?
After many days, I awoke a girl again, naked in a bower, my body entwined with Rafe the wolf. His keen senses woke him within moments, and he looked at me with gladness and unsurpassed love. Then he transformed. The sight of him was magnificent. I had lost my hatred of my other nature in the beauty of his.
“Hello,” he murmured with his strong limbs around me now, as naked as I was.
“Hello,” I replied, blushing. My human sensibilities returned with my human form. “Don’t be embarrassed. We are mated now. We will have a wedding too, though it is just a formality. This union that we have forged these last few days, that is the Heart Bond.”
I felt our skin pressed together and noticed that my skin had rejuvenated. My work calluses and scars had vanished. My transformation had erased all the physical evidence of my humble past.
I smiled and shivered as a chill wind encroached on our sheltered nook. Still, I felt calm.
Rafe saw my gooseflesh and sat up. He whistled to the trees. A whistle came in reply. Rafe whistled again and emerged from the bower partway. He wouldn’t leave me. Heavy boots tromped toward us and I tried to cover myself. But it was unnecessary.
“Your Majesty, we are overjoyed! We have prepared for your return after your Heart Bond. The kingdom is in jubilant celebration,” said a deep
voice.
“Thank you,” Rafe replied with enthusiastic sincerity. He ducked back into the bower and handed me a white velvet mantle trimmed in white fur. I wrapped it around myself against the chill. Never had I felt such softness! It distracted me from worry when Rafe, wrapped in his own cloak now, helped me out of the bower and into a circle of woodsmen.
“Welcome, Queen Lyneth!” The man who spoke must have been the leader of the group. He had answered Rafe’s call. “We cannot express our jubilation to have our queen returned to our kingdom at long last! We have waited many generations for your arrival.”
“Queen?” I squeaked. I felt more nervous and less sure I could maintain my form.
“My darling,” Rafe chuckled. “I am their king. You are my bride, so you are the queen.” His robe had a slit in the side. His hand poked out of the slit and beckoned mine. I fumbled and found the slit in mine and grasped his hand. It felt warm and right, and I calmed again. I could endure to become queen if I became his queen.
“Don’t worry. It’s a small kingdom,” Rafe reassured me with a devastating quirky grin. A woodsman knelt before me and fitted slippers on my bare feet.
“Come, my bride, my queen. Let us meet our people.”
Rafe led me through the forest, while the woodsman tromped with enthusiasm behind us. In mere minutes we emerged upon the grounds of a great stone castle.
“Hah!” The sound of surprise erupted from my throat, halfway to a bark. I felt my form grow unstable again. Rafe laughed, which anchored me back to my form. Once I could find my voice again, I asked in a trembling voice, “Rafe, yesterday I was a servant at an inn, and today I’m a queen. What happened?”
Rafe laughed, and the men laughed, though not at me. They felt so overjoyed that laughter just erupted. I laughed too.
“Beautiful Lyneth, the kingdom of Abidan surrounds our country of Unar. Our countries have always lived in a sort of symbiosis, trade, and collaboration in defense. Generations ago, war besieged our lands. In this war, the kingdom of Erland argued with Abidan, but not with us. They made a show with an attack on the plains of Abidan, but sent a great force in secret to overwhelm Unar. They had discovered the truth that the warriors of Unar have always been a mighty force, and joined with Abidan’s army, unbeatable. With all the forces of Unar joined with Abidan on the plains, our homeland lay defenseless and fell to the Erlanders. Our royal children disappeared from the land, some taken by their parents and some by the villains of Erland. Abidan and Unar discovered the deception and retook Unar, but we lost many of the royal children. Generations have searched for the missing families. The Erlanders took your family and sold them as slaves, like you and probably your parents and theirs.”
“You know the secret of the warriors of Unar, right?” he prompted.
“We are terrible beasts. Grrr!” I joked. Rafe’s laugh made my heart sing. I laughed, and so did the woodsman.
"Well another secret is that without the call of their king and queen united, the Unarians cannot become their wolf selves. For generations they have been trapped in human form without the call of their rulers. The loss of the families, the deaths, and the kidnappings left us with no suitable queen to lead the people, until you."
I was astounded. My form wavered again, and a tear slid down my cheek. Then we emerged from a garden, through a hedge, and into a crowd of Unarians. They exclaimed at our appearance and then they cheered! I exploded into wolf form, still wrapped in the cloak.
The crowd gave a collective gasp and then erupted into applause. Unarians shouted for joy, embraced one another, and wept. They danced and sang with abandon. My heart raced and my emotion prevented me from taking my human form again.
Then Rafe transformed too. And he howled. The crowd became silent in an instant and all their eyes riveted upon us. Rafe’s voice warbled strong and pure above them. My heart swelled in my furry chest. Rafe let out another howl, and I joined him.
Then they began to transform. Men and women, adults, and children roared together with triumph. Hair sprouted and bodies morphed. One by one they joined our howl. The courtyard rang with it and Unar was reborn.
The Silver Collar Page 4
