Werewolf Defender

by Marisa Chenery

  “Just think of yourself as backup. And it got you out of having to work in the fields.”

  “Very true. I’m not going to lie and say I’m not happy about it.”

  Austin chuckled. “I figured you wouldn’t miss that work.”

  As the gates opened, Austin left Jerrica and joined the main group of workers. She stayed where she was as Calan stepped toward her.

  Once he stood in front of her, she said, “I guess I’ll be hanging around you all day. Even though I’m sure you don’t need me to keep guard with you, thanks for letting me.”

  He lifted his large lupine head up and down in a nod. Calan moved to her side, and they fell in behind the rest of the workers. Once they passed through, the gates closed behind them.

  Calan kept pace with Jerrica. His walking beside her hadn’t gone unnoticed. Some of the girls glanced their way then whispered to one another. Becca shot hate-filled glances in Jerrica’s direction. She figured the other girl didn’t like that Jerrica had been singled out to spend time with Calan. It hadn’t been her idea, so Becca was staring daggers at the wrong person.

  Once they’d arrived at the field, she and Calan positioned themselves at the edge of it. The others picked up what tools they needed from the wagon then went to do their assigned tasks. It was going to be another hot day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

  After a half hour of nothing happening except for Jerrica sweating, she asked Calan, “In all that fur, aren’t you overheating?” She looked at him to see he’d turned his head toward her. “Sorry, I forgot you can’t talk while a wolf.”

  “Actually, I can, but only telepathically.”

  Jerrica started at the sound of Calan’s voice filling her mind. “You can? Mathias didn’t tell me when he spoke to you that you could do that.”

  “That’s because I didn’t talk to him that way. I usually don’t show anyone I have this ability.”

  “Why? It must be frustrating not being able to communicate when you’re a wolf.”

  Calan laughed only inside her mind. “Not really. I’m not much of a people person anymore.”

  “I see. So you pretend you can’t talk so people will leave you alone.”

  “Basically. We should check in on the orchard.”

  “All right. Even though Mathias said we should guard together, it might be better if I stay here, and you go. I can’t run as fast as you. If some zombies show up here while we’re at the orchard, I’d never be able to get back here in time. You could.”

  “There’s a way to fix that.”

  “How? Are you able to give me wings so I can fly?” Jerrica asked with a chuckle.

  “No,” Calan said with a laugh. “You can ride on my back. It worked yesterday.”

  “I could easily get a horse if it really is necessary.”

  “I can run faster than one of them. If you aren’t comfortable with the idea, you don’t have to.”

  “It’s not that. I just don’t want to weigh you down.” She looked away, then back at Calan. “Even though the situation had been scary and I had come close to losing my life, I have to say riding on your back was one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever done.”

  “Then say you’ll do it. I didn’t mind carrying you.”

  “Fine. I’ll ride on your back.”

  “Go tell Mathias we’ll be back soon.”

  Jerrica nodded and headed for the pump where Mathias stood while he filled a bucket with water. He must have taken over her job of helping to water the fields. He might be in his middle fifties, but he was still strong and really didn’t look his age. Her mom had said how a few of the widows from the settlement who were around his age had set their sights on him. Mathias had lost his wife to a zombie attack more than twenty years ago and had never remarried. His only child, a son, had taken a wife and had started his own family years ago.

  Once Jerrica reached him, she said, “Mathias, Calan and I are going to the orchard now, but we’ll be back in a little while.”

  Mathias stopped working the hand pump and straightened. “All right. I’ll keep an eye out until you both return, though I doubt we’ll have any trouble. The Werewolf Defender cleared out quite a few zombies yesterday.”

  “We shouldn’t be too long.”

  The orchard didn’t need much tending this time of year. The trees had already blossomed and fruit was growing. The peaches weren’t quite ripe but would be soon. The pears didn’t need to be picked until August, then they had to be stored in a cool place to ripen off the tree. The apples weren’t harvested until closer to the fall.

  Jerrica returned to Calan. “Mathias will watch over the field until we get back.”

  Calan sank to the ground. “Climb on.”

  Unlike the first time, Jerrica was able to think about what she was going to do. Before, she’d just thrown a leg over Calan’s back then had held on to the fur around his neck for dear life. Since she wasn’t fearful this time, she tried not to hold too tightly as she slowly climbed onto him.

  “Jerrica, you’re not going to hurt me. I have thick fur, and, to be honest, you hardly weigh anything at all. You can’t break me.”

  She gripped his fur tighter as Calan rose to all four paws. “Okay. I’m ready.”

  He took off at a run. Jerrica squeezed her legs around Calan to keep from falling off and leaned a little over his neck to help with her balance. It really wasn’t anything like riding a horse. His wolf strides were a lot longer, but it didn’t take her much time to get the hang of it. She couldn’t hold back her laughter as he put on another burst of speed. It was just as thrilling as it’d been the day before.

  Calan’s fur was soft to the touch. Jerrica hadn’t expected that. Yesterday she’d been too afraid for her life to have really paid too close attention. She sank her fingers deeper into it. All too soon they reached the orchard. She made to climb off Calan’s back, but he stopped her.

  “Stay there,” he said. “We’ll do a quick patrol, then head back to the fields.”

  “All right. As long as you don’t mind having me up here, I’m fine with it.”

  They started at the closest perimeter and worked their way around the entire orchard. Only a few settlers worked with the trees, watering them. Her brother and father were among them.

  “My dad and brother are working,” Jerrica said.

  “Then let’s go say hello.”

  Calan changed direction and headed for Hunter and her father. Both of them looked up once they heard Jerrica and Calan approach. She had to hold back a laugh as Hunter’s eyes widened, and a shocked expression came over his face. Her father wore almost the same one. Hunter had known Calan was large in wolf form, but he obviously hadn’t expected him to be as big as he was.

  “Hi, Hunter and Dad. Calan and I are doing a zombie check.”

  Her father met her gaze. “I see.”

  Hunter stepped closer and looked right at Calan. “Wow, he’s huge.”

  Jerrica gave him a hard stare. “Calan can understand you, you know, so stop talking about him as if he weren’t here.”

  “It’s all right,” Calan said with a laugh. “A lot of people do it.”

  “Sorry,” Hunter said sheepishly. “I didn’t mean anything by it, Calan. I’m Hunter.”

  “Since you won’t be calling me ‘Dad’, I’m Geoff,” her father added.

  Calan nodded in her dad’s and Hunter’s direction.

  “We should get moving,” Jerrica said.

  Her dad held out a hand to stop them. “Before you go, I want to invite Calan over for dinner tonight to show our appreciation for him saving you and bringing the buck to the cabin.”

  Calan nodded again.

  Jerrica smiled. “I guess that means yes.”

  “It does.”

  “He’ll see you later then. And, Dad, you’d better tell Mom so she can plan on an extra person.”

  “I will.”

  They left Hunter and her father behind as they finished the final sweep of the orc
hard before heading toward the fields. Jerrica kept an eye out for zombies as the landscape went by, but none were in sight.

  “Thanks for not letting on that I can communicate telepathically to your brother and father,” Calan said.

  “You told me you don’t usually tell people you can, so it isn’t my place to say anything about it.”

  “It can be our little secret.”

  A warm feeling washed over Jerrica at Calan’s words. She figured he really didn’t mean that much by it, but the thought of being the only one he talked to while in wolf form meant a lot to her. He’d singled her out, trusting her with the knowledge of that ability.

  Once they reached the fields, Calan lowered to the ground so she could climb off his back. He stood and walked at Jerrica’s side as she headed to the best vantage point to see over the worked land. She adjusted her bow and quiver on her shoulder.

  “I have your arrows to return to you,” Calan said. “The ones you used to take down the zombies. I recovered them before I disposed of the bodies. If you want, we can stop by my cabin before we go to yours.”

  “Oh, thanks. I figured I wouldn’t get them back. And sure, we can do that.”

  “You’re good with a bow. You took them out with only one arrow, hitting each time in a kill spot. I can see why Mathias wants you on guard duty.”

  “Thanks,” Jerrica said, feeling her face heat. “I’ve practiced a lot. My father taught me how to shoot.” The sound of a horse and wagon heading toward the fields drew her attention. “Looks as if lunch is here.”

  “Go eat. I’ll watch over everything.”

  “Don’t you want some food? I can bring you something.”

  “It’s all right. I can eat at your cabin. Skipping meals isn’t hard on me.”

  “All right. I’ll come back once I’m done.”

  Jerrica left Calan and joined the line that had formed at the back of the food wagon. Once she had her sandwich, she walked a short distance away to sit on the grass out of the way. She looked up as Austin plunked down beside her.

  “How goes guard duty?” he asked, as he unwrapped his sandwich.

  “Uneventful. No sign of zombies anywhere.”

  “Which is a good thing.”

  “Yes.”

  “I saw you riding on Calan’s back.”

  “Yeah. I suggested it. I figured we could get between the fields and orchard faster that way. He didn’t mind.”

  Jerrica told that little white lie to keep Calan’s secret. If Austin was at all observant, he’d have known Calan hadn’t shifted to his human form since coming out to the field.

  “That makes sense.” Austin took a bite of his sandwich, chewed then swallowed, before he spoke again. “I was wondering if it’d be okay if I came by your cabin this evening and spent some time with you.”

  “Ah, you can’t. While Calan and I patrolled the orchard, we saw my dad, who invited Calan over to have dinner with us. It’s to thank him for saving me and getting the buck I shot. He brought it over to our cabin.”

  “That was nice of him. All right, how about tomorrow?” Austin met her gaze. “I want to spend more time with you, Jerrica.”

  She swallowed. “I think that should be okay.”

  Jerrica had wanted Austin to notice her for months and had thought it’d be too good to be true that he’d want to spend time with her when they weren’t working in the fields. Her thoughts strayed to Calan, but she pushed them away.

  “Then tomorrow it is.” Austin put the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth. Once he’d swallowed, he said, “I’m going to get back to work. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Jerrica nodded as Austin stood then headed out into the fields. She felt as if someone watched her, and she found Calan staring right at her. As a wolf, he really wasn’t able to show much emotion, but the way he looked at her stirred something inside her. There was no future with him, not like there was with Austin. Calan would move on to a new settlement, and she’d never see him again.

  * * * *

  Calan hadn’t been able to stop himself from watching Jerrica with the other boy. He was too far away for even his sensitive werewolf hearing to pick up what they’d said. Seeing the two of them together had an emotion rearing its ugly head inside him, one he thought he’d never feel—jealousy.

  After spending all morning having Jerrica to himself, Calan had enjoyed being around her. She wasn’t like the others, who seemed to put him on a pedestal. Even in his wolf form, she treated him as she would anyone else. With her, he felt as if he could be himself, say anything to her and not have her look at him as if he were something she had to keep at arm’s length.

  She had him wishing for things he couldn’t have. He should keep his distance from her, but he didn’t think he could. Having her ride on his back, her fingers sunk into his fur… It made him realize how much he’d missed being touched. The last person to ever give him a hug had been his mother a hundred years before. Sometimes he forgot what it felt like to have someone hold him close.

  After the other boy had walked away, Jerrica turned and looked at Calan. She walked toward him. When she reached him, he asked, “Ready to go do another patrol?”

  “Sure.”

  Calan went down on his belly on the ground and waited for Jerrica to climb onto his back. After she was seated and her hands were buried in his fur, he stood. As he headed for the orchard at a run, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was exactly where she needed to be—with him and no one else.

  Chapter Four

  Jerrica walked beside Calan—now in his human form—as they headed for his cabin. The day at the fields had gone faster than it normally did. That mostly had to do with the fact that she’d spent it with the Werewolf Defender.

  They’d talked quite a bit, and Jerrica had come to get to know Calan a lot better. He acted like any boy her age would. Even though he was supposed to have been around for nearly a hundred years, it was as if he’d been frozen in time, forever a teenager.

  “The arrows are inside,” Calan said when they arrived at his cabin. “Do you want to come in?”

  “Okay.”

  Jerrica followed Calan through the door. She looked around. The cabin hadn’t been lived in for quite some time. The previous owners had been an older couple. The wife had died and six months later, the husband followed. They hadn’t had any kids to take over their land, so it had sat unused until another family had need of it.

  Calan walked to the table then collected the arrows on it. He turned to her. “I cleaned them for you too. There were only two that had broken shafts from the zombies landing on them.” He handed them to her.

  “Thanks. It’s time-consuming to make new ones, so it’s great you were able to save these for me.” She shrugged off her quiver before she put the arrows inside it with the others.

  “I wouldn’t have a clue how to make them, and I’m not very good at using a bow. I tried to learn, but considering I was teaching myself, I sucked at it. I eventually gave up.”

  “I can show you, if you want. After we eat, I can take you out back where my dad set up some targets.”

  “I’d like that.” Silence grew between them before Calan said, “I guess we’d better go. It’s getting late, and we don’t want to hold up dinner.”

  Jerrica smiled. “No, we don’t. My mom hates it when people don’t show up when the food is ready. Plus, you haven’t eaten. You must be hungry.”

  Calan shrugged. “A bit, but not the same as you’d be. I’m immortal, so I can go without food for days and not have it affect me. I’m pretty sure I could stop eating altogether and still live. I might thin out, but I can’t die from starvation.”

  As they left his cabin then walked down the road toward hers, Jerrica asked, “What’s it like?”

  “What?”

  “Being the Werewolf Defender? Being immortal and living for as long as you have?”

  Calan turned his head to stare in front of him with a faraway look in his eyes. “I
t has its good points and bad. I love being able to shift to my wolf form, especially going for a run through the trees. The immortality part can be rough. In the beginning, I stayed in one place, made friends and all that. Then I watched them all grow older, and I didn’t. I realized that if I stayed, they’d eventually die, one by one, and I’d still be the same. That’s when I decided to never remain in one settlement for very long.”

  Jerrica turned her gaze on Calan. “Sounds pretty lonely.”

  He looked at her. “It can be, but I’m used to it now.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you become the Werewolf Defender?”

  “That’s a story I don’t usually tell.”

  She felt her face grow red. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

  Calan put his hand on her shoulder, stopped her and turned her to face him. “I know. And it’s fine. I want to tell you. You’re someone I want to know where I came from, but it’s a long story, and we’re at your cabin.” He gave her a crooked grin. “I’ve been able to smell your mom’s delicious cooking since halfway here.”

  Jerrica chuckled. “I guess being what you are, you can smell better than me, because I couldn’t.”

  “Yes, and right now my stomach is growling.”

  As they walked into the yard, Jerrica couldn’t help but hold close that Calan wanted to tell her something he’d rarely told anyone, just like he’d shared his telepathic ability while in wolf form. It set her apart from everyone else, but she told herself not to read too much into it.

  Once they’d walked into the cabin, Jerrica’s mom greeted them with a smile. Her dad was already there, setting the table. The smell of venison stew was heavy in the air.

  “The two of you can take a seat,” her mom said, as she bustled around the kitchen area, dishing up food onto plates.

  Jerrica shrugged off her bow and quiver then set them in the corner near the door. “Do you need any help?” she asked her mother.

  “No, I’m fine. Go sit down.”