A Bride For a Werewolf

by Rachel E Rice

  “What’s wrong, Harper? I thought this is what you wanted.”

  “I thought so too until...”

  “Until...”

  “Not until we’re married,” he said but it wasn’t what Harper thought. He had second thoughts after seeing Emily.

  “Well, I’ll save that for our wedding night,” Elisabeth said using her finger to wipe her lips. “Go. I’ll meet you downstairs.” He zipped up his pants and he turned and she pushed him out of her room. “Go.”

  He smiled at her and walked through the door and trotted down the stairs and met Emily passing with a tray holding Champaign.

  Stopping her, he said, “Do you work here?”

  “No. I just break into strange parties, put on a maids uniform, and carry around a tray hoping you will pass and take a glass of Champaign from my tray,” Emily said to Harper with a straight face.

  His eyes brightened, his dark eyebrows arched mischievously, and he smiled. He was the most beautiful man she had seen. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Tall, dark hair accentuated with wide blue eyes. His face rugged and handsome with a square jaw and two dimples on the side which cut deep when he smiles.

  When he slanted his head, she saw his profile, dark against the lights of the large chandelier overhead. His face smooth and sensitive.

  He thought the same of her. Beautiful, he thought. What is it about her that made him want to hold her and kiss her? What was happening to him? He never had eyes for anyone but Elisabeth, until now.

  But then he thought about the ring burning a hole near his heart as if it had life. He began to sweat.

  “Is something wrong, Mr. Samsa?”

  “You know my name?”

  “Yes. You’re Elisabeth’s fiancé.”

  “Not yet. But I will be,” Harper said not too enthusiastic about it.

  They were looking so deeply into each other’s eyes that they didn’t see Elisabeth walk down the stairs and touch Harper on the shoulder and raise an eyebrow to Emily.

  “You haven’t gotten far,” Elisabeth said kissing Harper on the cheek while cutting her eyes to Emily. “I find you standing at the stairs talking to my maid.” She turned to Emily with a short closed smile. “Emily that will be all.”

  Tucking her arms under Harper’s she said, “There’s my mother and father. You can break the news to them.”

  Emily scurried away into a crowd of guest in the next room, amid the chattering of voices, and clanging of champagne glasses.

  Her job was important and she didn’t want Elisabeth to get the wrong impression. But under any other circumstances she would have done anything to catch this man’s eye. However, she thought she wasn’t qualified to have a man like him. What obviously rich young man from a good family would find her appealing?

  Emily’s background was nothing to speak of. She hadn’t come from money. Her father was a drunk. He came to San Francisco after a stint in the Army to get into the technology field, but he had such a drinking problem he couldn’t get a job. He met her mother where she became pregnant without knowing anything about him. They fell in love her father had said. After Emily had been born, Emily’s mother took off a year later for Seattle, leaving her with her father. Emily never heard from her mother again.

  She and her father moved around every six months for none payment of rent. Her days and nights were filled with trying to make it through school and now college. She thought if she could get a good paying job, or at least a job to keep her from having to move from one vermin infested motel to another she could have a life.

  This job as a maid with room and board was all that interest her now. Except for Harper Samsa, a man she could never have, so she put him out of her mind. Her job here would afford her the opportunity to graduate, and get her a position as a teacher at the local school.

  “Teaching is a respectable job,” she was told by the recruiter when she asked about the pay. “Not a job that pays a lot of money, but a job that has its rewards.”

  With the sky high rent in San Francisco, it was impossible to make it on a teacher’s salary in San Francisco. She would have to move out of California. Maybe go to Arizona or Nevada she thought. It was cheaper to live there.

  Chapter Five

  “Daddy, Harper would like to ask you a question,” Elisabeth said in a frail soft childish voice.

  “Can’t Harper speak for himself?”

  “Oh daddy of course he can.” Harper stood near Elisabeth’s father when a strange feeling came over him. He took a deep breath. His heart raced as if it was going to jump from his chest. He put his hand quick to his chest to feel the beat. Never had he had anything like this to happen to him before. Sweat broke and beaded on his brow.

  “What’s wrong with you, Harper?” Elisabeth said.

  “Is he on drugs?” Elisabeth’s father asked.

  “He’s not on drugs, Daddy.” Her father glanced at him skeptical. “I thought you were different, Harper.”

  Harper couldn’t catch his breath. He couldn’t speak and the sweat came in waves after wiping his brow several times.

  “He’s not on drugs,” Elisabeth insisted as Harper held his chest, his eyes blinking, and perspiration empting down his face. His body felt as if it had stepped into an oven.

  “I need a few minutes,” Harper said holding his chest, and panting with his mouth open. His eyes narrowed and he turned to see the terrace door. He dashed to the door but with the crowded room he took a few minutes. He needed air and he couldn’t get it so he pushed two couples standing in his way aside and rushed through the doors.

  When he glanced up, he saw the full moon. He stood underneath it and his first thought when he opened his mouth was to howl. Still in control of his body, he held back his instincts.

  “What is happening to me?” he murmured. His mouth open and gasping for breath. Then he heard voices inside the room where he left Elisabeth.

  It was Elisabeth and her father, “Did you at least get him to give you that ring?”

  “Not yet, but if you didn’t try to be condescending and let him talk, he was about to ask me to marry him. You have no one to blame but yourself. Once I marry him, I can get you out of debt and I can divorce him and marry who I want.”

  “You’re not going to marry that fool what’s his name. He doesn’t have a dime.”

  “I’ll get enough from Harper where I can marry whomever I want and you’re not going to stop me, Daddy. Now shut up, Harper’s looking at us.” They stopped talking, but it was too late. Harper, although he thought he was in love wasn’t a fool, and it was best that he found out now than later.

  But it was the way he found out. How could he hear their conversations?

  When his body calmed, he took a deep breath. Now his body was telling him that he needed to have sex. He had stopped sweating and his breathing came under control. He raised his head and opened the doors to the room full of laughter and whispering. Even the whispers were too loud for him.

  He strolled back to Elisabeth and said, “Excuse me but Elisabeth and I have unfinished business.”

  “What’s going on, Harper? You look different,” Elisabeth said.

  “I am different.” And he pulled her up the stairs to her room. “Now where were we when I said it wasn’t appropriate for you to engage in sex with me?” His voice cold and hard.

  “I was unzipping your pants like this.” And Elisabeth pull the zipper down. She reached for his penis and she said in surprise, “I didn’t know you were that large.” Harper had to look down because he didn’t believe it himself.

  “It’s a mouth full but I think I can handle it.” And she went to her knees and before she could put his penis in her mouth he pulled away.

  “I don’t think I want you anymore,” he said. His voice cool. Elisabeth glared at him.

  “What about the engagement?” He reached into his coat and pulled out the large diamond and handed it to her.

  “I thought you were what I wanted in life, but I found out
different. You thought I was a fool. I may have been, but I’m not your fool any longer. You were only using me. I’m no longer that man who met you in college and fell in love with you like so many other unsuspecting assholes.”

  She put on the ring. “You don’t know what you’re saying. I want to make love to you.” She walked close to Harper and he felt nothing. Not like before when the thought Elisabeth was all he needed.

  “For some reason, I think you’re not the woman for me,” Harper said turning away from her and walking out the room and closing the door behind him. He strolled down the stairs as if in a dream and had been given a reprieve from a death sentence. He wore a large smile.

  He felt free like an animal. Free from all that had made him a prisoner as a man.

  When he bounded down to the first floor he heard the loud noise of people enjoying each other. And then he heard, “Are you alright, Mr. Samsa?” He turned to see Emily and the feeling he witness before became uncontrollable.

  “I am now.” But he wasn’t alright. He knew something significant was happening to him and he had no control over it. “I have to go,” he said and rushed to the door to get some air. When he stepped outside, his limo driver seeing his raised hand, turned the car, and drove up under the doorway to pick him up.

  “I need some air. I’ll walk,” he said panting. The fog had settle and blanketed San Francisco.

  “But it’s two miles and up and down hills, sir,” his driver said.

  “I know. I need the exercise,” Harper insisted. He tapped the car and it took off. Harper had never seen San Francisco like this at night. He heard animals and birds and the waves from the ocean.

  He continued walking and then he stopped in his tracks. He looked up and howled to the moon. He didn’t know why he did that. Maybe it was out of frustration. Maybe it was because he thought he would never have a family or from the death of his father. Or maybe because he was free to do whatever he wanted.

  Harper had never mourned his father. He glance up at the beautiful vision of a full moon and said, “Father you will never see this brilliant moon again.” And he howled over and over from the pain of loss.

  Maybe he howled because he would never be able to marry and have children because something had happened to him which he didn’t know how to explain.

  Then with the long walk home, he had time to think and he knew it had something to do with the animal bite by the wolf who had him baying at the moon.

  As he took another step, he heard sounds of bones breaking. It was coming from his body and when he glanced at his hands they were changing and the fine hair on his body became thick.

  One minute he was looking like a man, and the next he had become a creature standing like a man, thinking like a man, and then he stood on all fours and he was then a large white wolf. He howled as if crying. Then he wondered what he would do. How could he live like this?

  Harper dashed and hid behind some large bushes, and lay curled up like a dog. He wasn’t a dog and he couldn’t stay there forever. He looked down to see his clothes shredded and on the ground next to his black bow tie and phone.

  Harper stayed there huddling until he realized that he had to call someone. He had stayed curled up feeling sorry for himself. Then he realized that he had to confide in someone. So he called Michael.

  “I need you to pick me up, and bring me some clothes.” And Harper gave him the address. Michael didn’t ask him why he didn’t call his driver, he knew Harper had to have a serious problem for him to ask him to get out of his bed with his wife at five in the morning to drive across town to get him.

  When Michael reached the location Harper had given, he saw Michael’s Jaguar stop, and he stepped from behind the garbage bins and quietly entered the car.

  “I’m not going to ask you if you are on drugs. The police would probably do that if someone saw you and reported this. If it happens again they may get their chance, but I know you. I just want you to tell me what’s going on, and should I be concerned and are you likely to do this again.” Michael took his eyes off the road for a few seconds.

  “I’ve been asking myself this all night. I had time to think. I may have mentioned to you that a wolf bit me on my drive from Colorado to San Francisco.”

  “First of all, may I say that I warned you against that drive.” He turned looking at Harper as Harper pulled up his pants. “You look different. I never knew your chest to be that wide and your shoulders, unbelievable, and your...”

  “Don’t say it. There would be no reason for you to see my cock.”

  “Even your language is coarse,” Michael said. “And I saw your cock,” he paused, “when you were a baby. It wasn’t a cock then, it was a penis and a very small one.”

  “That’s different,” Harper snapped.

  “No not really. You can tell a lot even that young, but there was nothing to give me indications that you would have as you say a cock the size of a... ”

  “I know. I know. Do you want to know what happened or do you want to discuss the size of my penis,” Harper said blowing out his breath in frustration. This was a serious matter and he didn’t have time discussing his body parts or the hair over his body.

  “It would help if you explained what is wrong and how this physical change came about in you.”

  As Harper was explaining to Michael how he was bitten by a wolf, Elisabeth was explaining why she had to dismiss Emily.

  Chapter Six

  When Emily opened her eyes, Elisabeth had been standing over her for a few minutes, watching rudely as Emily slept. Elisabeth with her hands on her hips tapped her feet impatiently.

  “My family is firing you today. I thought I’d tell you and save them the embarrassment of having to dismiss you. They seem to think you threw yourself at Harper and maybe fucked him which is why he broke our engagement.” Elisabeth turned pacing the length of the room and gazing at a surprised Emily.

  Emily had worked into the early hours helping to clean up after the guest had gone, and she was a little groggy and tried to say the least.

  Wiping the sleep from her eyes, her brain finally connected with Elisabeth’s words. She narrowed her eyes and said, “Why would your family think I would have sex with your fiancé?” Emily would never do such a thing. She never had a boyfriend and she couldn’t understand why they would come to that conclusion.

  “Because I told them you did. I saw how you were looking at him. I saw the look in his eyes when he met you. You knew I wasn’t having sex with Harper and you took that as an opportunity to fuck him.”

  “You know that’s not true. When have I had time? I need this job. Why are you doing this?”

  “I’m not here to discuss how or when you made time to fuck him. I just feel you did.” Elisabeth opened the drawer and threw Emily’s few pieces of clothing on the bed. “A lot of people need things. I need Harper back. But until he comes back, you are fired. Get out today. I want you out of here in fifteen minutes,” she yelled. Her voice shrill and loud. The staff in the kitchen heard her. She wanted them to hear her throw Emily out.

  “I don’t have any money,” Emily protested. “Can I at least stay on for another week until I find something?” Emily sat up. “Until I find some place to stay.” She didn’t want to go to her father and ask to stay in his room. She had taken her last money to pay his rent and buy him food and now she was homeless.

  “That’s not my problem. I said you have to leave today.” And Elisabeth turned and walked out of the room closing the door with a bang.

  Emily sat up straight, and put her feet down, and stepped on to the wood floor. In a daze she walked into the shower and stayed there for ten minutes. She had five minutes left. She dried herself and her hair, and stuffed her few things into a cloth satchel, and in five minutes she passed through the servants quarters hungry and confused with them looking at her and never offering her anything to eat.

  An elderly man bent over, who had been a manservant since the family came to Nob Hill, to
uched her shoulder. When she turned around he gave her one hundred dollars. She looked up at him with gratitude and he said, “I don’t need it. Get yourself breakfast and leave San Francisco as soon as you can. Elisabeth is not a nice person. I’ve known her since she was a child.”

  She took the money only because she would have hurt his feelings if she had given it back.

  Emily stood outside waiting, for what, she didn’t know. The fog had settled last night and it wouldn’t leave until mid-day. She trudged up the hill thinking about how she would finish college and have someplace to sleep. She had no plans except to make it to her evening classes. She didn’t have a job so now she didn’t have the problem of not completing her class work. She would go to the library before and after class to study.

  Still she hadn’t solved the problem of a place to live. She thought about a friend of hers from class. When she came up with this last minute idea, she had walked miles and was standing waiting for a cable car.

  Hopping on with her cloth bag in her hand and a few dollars in her pocket she paid for the ride. Looking down she reached for a paper and looked through the wanted ads. That was the easiest way to get a job.

  When she glanced up she was at her stop. She climbed out and walked down the street and looked for a three story house. When she found it she walked up the stairs and rang the bell. She range it again.

  On the third ring she heard yelling.

  “Hold your horses. Hold your fucking horses. Who the fuck is ringing my bell? You had better be a good looking bitch or you aren’t getting in here.” He pulled the curtain aside which hung on the door. When he saw Emily he said, “Oh, you.”

  Opening the door, “Come in. I knew I shouldn’t have said if you need a place to crash come here. But then I talk too much and my heart is too soft. I should have known better by looking at you that you would be fucking crashing at my place one day. Come in. You are welcome here. If I seem a little grumpy, I haven’t had my coffee.”

  Emily followed Stanley into the living room. It looked like an old parlor filled with antique furniture and Tiffany style lamps. He rented to young men and women who went to the local college.