(Un)bidden

by Melissa Haag

  “We heard about the changes here. My Mate wants to stay until the cub is born, if that’s all right.”

  I didn’t give Thomas a chance to answer.

  “Of course,” I said dropping the handle and moving toward the couple. “My name is Charlene, and this is Mary.”

  The man glanced at Thomas once more before his gaze settled on me.

  “This is Ann, and I am Leif.”

  “Mary, would you be willing to show Ann and Leif to one of the fixed rooms, and maybe Ann would like to pick a few things out from the stuff you brought back.”

  Mary nodded and happily chatted with Ann as the three left the room. I turned toward Thomas. He watched me with an odd expression, not angry...more like confused.

  “How long will it take to hook up that stove?” I asked. “Ann will probably want a hot bath and that stove will make the job a lot easier.”

  “We need some kind of pipe to vent the smoke,” Thomas said, stating what I’d already guessed.

  “Gregory, did you see any pipe at the junk yard?” I asked.

  “We brought some back,” Grey said. “It should be around here somewhere.”

  “See if you can find it and get the stove working. I’ll keep fixing lunch.”

  I didn’t wait for them to answer but turned toward the rabbits. We needed to make the food stretch. It wasn’t something I was used to doing. I lugged the heavy pot to the fire and set it on the hook there. Then, I went back to the table and started cutting every bit of meat off the rabbits. After covering the meat with a cloth, I tied the carcasses into another piece of cloth. I tossed that bundle into the water.

  “What are you doing?” Thomas asked from across the room.

  “Making a broth for a stew base. My mom never used a shirt before, but it should work the same and keep the little bones out of the stew while adding flavor.”

  He didn’t ask anything else so I turned back to our supplies. We had pasta, dried beans, rice, and canned vegetables. The beans would need to be soaked. And, even if I used the canned vegetables, I needed the carcasses to boil for a while before adding the meat.

  “This won’t be ready until closer to dinner,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t know what to feed everyone for lunch.”

  “Charlene,” Thomas said, turning me away from the table. I hadn’t realized he’d crossed the room. “We’ve fed ourselves our whole lives. You only need to worry about feeding yourself.”

  He was back to studying me, again.

  “You need to stop thinking like that,” I said. “Each individual only thinking about themselves...it’s not helping. Winifred and Mary said your race is dying. Stop looking at your little groups as isolated families and start seeing the big picture. You all need to work together to find a way to survive. If you want to survive.”

  His expression never changed while I spoke. I wanted to shake him to see if he was still alive, and maybe, because he frustrated me a bit.

  “Don’t you see?” I said with exasperation. “It’s not you who will suffer the most, but the generations after you, if you don’t change your ways.” He still gave no indication he understood me. I turned back to the table. “I need to get something ready for Ann to eat.”

  “Whether you know it or not, you were meant to come here,” Thomas said. “We won’t change on our own. But maybe you will change us.”

  He walked away before I could glanced back at him.

  Nine

  I wiped sweat from my face and gave the rice on the fire another stir. One of the men had brought in a pheasant that now roasted beside the pot for a late lunch. Behind me, I listened to the water boil on the new stove. Thomas and Gregory had finished installing the stovepipe well before Ann and Leif had returned to the kitchen with Mary. The couple had taken one of the first floor rooms, unconcerned about the broken window.

  Ann had also gratefully accepted a change of clean clothes and now waited at the table while her husband—no, Mate—worked to fill the tub for her. With the new stove, it wouldn’t take as long to fill the tub. But, man, the room heated quickly.

  Needing to escape the heat, and because I had little left to do inside, I went out to check on the progress of the men.

  Four long rows of split wood were stacked shoulder high. Not my shoulder, but the height of the men doing the stacking. The two clothing tables were empty, and on the ground lay the heap of rejected items.

  I grabbed an armful of clothing to carry back inside. Though none of it was good for wearing, it could be useful for other things. I placed my armful just inside the door, and when I turned, I almost screamed. Three men were right behind me, carrying the rest.

  “Thank you,” I said as they dropped their bundles.

  They nodded and left, and I found the absence of their previous aggression and intensity pleasantly surprising. I went back outside and walked around, studying the rest of the progress. Several of the wooden chairs, now repaired and painted, caught my eye.

  “Can we carry the two empty tables and these chairs into the main room? Maybe we should set them off to the side a bit for when you want to come in and eat or just sit for a while.” Two of the men nodded and went to the tables.

  I wandered over to the table that had the scrap pieces of metal. I still had no idea what we would do with it.

  “Winifred said there are places by her that will pay for metal,” Mary said coming up behind me. “When she leaves again, she’ll take this with her and use the money to buy more supplies.”

  “There’s nothing like that around here?”

  “There are a few places, but she said we’d look suspicious carrying all this heavy stuff there since we don’t have a truck. Too, this way, she can spread out where she goes so no one wonders where she gets the metal from. We plan to go back often,” Mary said.

  “Then we should have a designated area for metal. Let’s stack all metal for recycling by the driveway and away from the house. If anyone goes out and finds anything to add to it, they can just toss it there.”

  Men immediately started moving the pieces, and it occurred to me that Winifred was right. As wolves, they were surviving in the wild. But as people, they were lacking any purpose. These small tasks gave them purpose; and based on their expressions, they liked it.

  “Does anyone think we can build our own ladder? Something tall enough to reach the high windows so we can start boarding them up?”

  No one answered; however, several men walked into the trees. I wondered what kind of ladder they’d make.

  I turned toward Mary.

  “We need more dishes. Bowls and spoons first. If we work together, we should eat together.”

  “We should.” She grinned at me then looked out at the men. “The rabbit stew will be done in a few hours. Bring a bowl and spoon if you want to eat. And no stealing.”

  Several nodded. Those who were already busy kept working. Those still idling around the yard disappeared.

  From the trees, a thunderous crash echoed into the clearing, and I jumped a little.

  “Just the ladder,” Thomas said from beside me.

  I jumped again.

  “Where did you come from?”

  “Inside. What’s next?” He grinned down at me.

  Hearing him say the very question I asked when I felt lost changed the way I saw him. He was still annoying in my eyes, but he was also just as misplaced as the rest of them, as I was. I tilted my head and studied him the way I often caught him studying me. He grinned wider.

  “When it’s just your pack, what do you do every day? What’s your routine?”

  “We tend to sleep most of the day. At night, when it’s safer to move around, we scout the area and hunt.”

  I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. My heart broke. What kind of existence was that?

  “So coming here changed your sleep patterns?”

  He shrugged and eyed the men still in the yard.

  “Some will leave for brief periods during the day to nap in the
woods. We still prefer to hunt at night.”

  “All right. Then, what we do next is plan.” I turned and looked at the building behind me. “This is going to be a lot of work, but once your kind hear what’s happening here, I think we’ll see more couples like Ann and Leif. We have eight rooms slightly weatherproofed. It would be ideal to replace the glass in the upper windows first to make more rooms inhabitable. For the rooms that are finished, we should try to have them equipped for whoever might appear. Blankets are a must. We should also try to put in some type of heavy curtain or drapery to keep out the cold.”

  “You seem very worried about the cold that is still months away,” Thomas said.

  Months away? He was thinking of deep winter. That’s probably when he felt the cold as a wolf. I knew I’d feel it a lot sooner. Within a month, maybe a bit more, the trees would be bare. That would be the start of the cold for me.

  “Time moves quickly,” I said, “and I would prefer not to be caught unprepared. If there are spare furnishings, we can put them in the rooms, too. But, my biggest concern is food.” And how they would occupy themselves, but I didn’t say that. “We’ll need a lot to keep everyone fed...if everyone is staying.”

  “I think that will depend on whether or not you’re Claimed by then.

  I ignored his comment.

  “Collecting metal to add to our recycling heap will help a bit with money, but we should think bigger. There are a lot of repairs this place is going to need. Any brave souls among you should try to find summer work with builders and carpenters.”

  The movement in the yard slowed until even the birds fell silent. I glanced at the men who stared at me. Disbelief painted many of their expressions.

  “We need to think of more than just today or tomorrow. Who knows how to make the windows airtight? Who knows how to replace the shingles when the roof starts to leak? Who knows how to create a wooden bed frame? Who knows how to add decorative carvings to furniture? None of you, I’m guessing. And why should you? Where’s the value in that knowledge for people who sleep during the day and hunt at night? There is no value for those people. But, there is value for those who want to spend their winter building things to sell in spring. For people who want more than a life in the woods. For people who want to do more than just exist.”

  Several men turned and walked away into the woods. From the stiff set of their shoulders and their angry expressions, I knew I’d upset them. It disheartened me. How could they not see how lost they were?

  “You push too far,” Thomas said quietly.

  “I’m not pushing at all. I’m questioning your purpose and giving you ideas for possibilities. Only you decide your purpose. Not me.”

  I walked inside, hoping the pheasant was ready to eat.

  * * * *

  Twelve men came inside for dinner; seven brought bowls and spoons with them. Mary and I had the hot water and soap ready for the dishes. I could only imagine where they’d gotten them. Once we had everything clean, I set the bowls and our few plates on the small table next to the stove and started serving. The portions were lean, but the pot stretched to feed us all.

  When the men finished, they left their bowls by the sink and drifted outside. Mary, Ann, and I started to clean up. It was the first moment since I’d arrived that reminded me not just of home but of my mom, and I felt a pang of homesickness.

  I wondered what my mom and dad thought of me. Did Mom still worry? Did she hope for a call? I wanted so badly to call them, just to hear their voices.

  “Are you all right, Charlene?” Ann asked quietly.

  “Yes. Fine.” Thoughts of the past should stay in the past. “I’m going to step outside for a bit.”

  I left them to finish drying the dishes.

  The tall trees muted the glow of the setting sun, casting the clearing into an early dusk. Only a few men lingered in the yard. Thomas spoke quietly to two of them. Grey, Henry, and Paul were absent, and Gregory was just walking into the building with the tools.

  I moved away from the door and slowly walked toward the pile of metal. I breathed deeply in an effort to let go of my concerns for my parents. I was here, now. I needed to worry about these people and our future.

  A heavy mass hit me, knocking me to the side. Instinctively, I stuck out my hands to brace myself against the fall as the weight brought me down. Time slowed as I watched the dried grass rush toward me. My right hand touched the ground first, and my wrist twanged painfully. I wasn’t fully able to extend my left arm in time, so it buckled as soon as my fingers touched the grass. My elbow smacked the hard surface. I scrunched my eyes and turned my head a second before my face hit. The stitches in my neck pulled at the same time the rough turf abraded my right cheek.

  Before I could wonder why I was on the ground or draw a breath, a hand fisted in my hair and pulled back. My face lifted from the ground. Snarls, yips, and growls surrounded me. Legs and paws flashed by my dazed gaze.

  The backward movement of my head suddenly changed, yanking hard to the right. I involuntarily cried out in pain as the move stretched my healing neck too far. The power of the wrench forced me to roll to my side, and I finally saw why I was on the ground.

  Wolves and men battled in the yard and more poured from the trees. Thomas grappled with the man right beside me. The man’s hand still had strands of blonde hair between his fingers. My hair. Thomas’ teeth were no longer human, but long and lethal. He strove to bite the other man who was also shifting forms.

  A yip nearby distracted me. I turned in time to see one wolf with its teeth sunk into the throat of another. Blood poured to the ground. Though I couldn’t tell from which, I could guess. The bitten wolf yipped again as it continued its weak thrashing. How could they do this to each other?

  “Charlene!” Mary cried. I turned and saw her in the doorway. Ann stood just behind her. The fear in her eyes and the hold around her large stomach was too much.

  Angry, I pulled myself to my feet. In the span of just a few days, I’d been re-bitten, hospitalized, bullied, bitten again—twice, and now knocked to the ground. Anger didn’t touch what I felt.

  “Enough.” My voice boomed in the clearing, as unnatural as what happened next.

  They stilled. Every one of them. I blinked, confused before I sensed why. Like Winifred had done, I’d managed to split my will. Each branch reached out to every man, woman, and wolf. It didn’t touch their heads, though. It struck their hearts.

  Then, I saw their eyes. The fear there. The suspicion. I took a deep breath. “Forget this moment, and the need to fight as soon as I release you,” I thought at them. Then, I let go.

  A sudden wave of nausea knocked me to my knees. I threw up on the ground and gagged again when the smell of bile and stew hit me. I raised my head and looked at the bleeding wolf. Its shallow pant barely lifted its chest.

  “Are you okay?” Mary said. She helped me to my feet, and I wiped my mouth with the back of my shaking hand.

  I looked around at everyone. They all watched me but no longer fought. I found Thomas next to the man who’d attacked me.

  “Why?” I asked the man.

  “You have no right to come here and force us to live like humans,” he said with obvious disgust.

  “You’re correct. I have no right to force you to do anything. You’re free to choose to live as you wish. However, I will continue to change things in these buildings that no one has used for years. And if there are any who wish to change how they live, they are welcome to join me.

  The man glared at me.

  “You have no right to this land.”

  “Do you own it?” I asked, feeling a hint of worry.

  “No.”

  “Do you know who owns it?” I asked him. When he didn’t answer, I looked at Thomas.

  “Technically, Winifred owns it. It’s why she left and has a job. She pays the...mortgage.”

  The way Thomas spoke slowly told me that he was communicating with Winifred. My heart plummeted and panic set in. I h
adn’t thought of that when I’d manipulated their wills. Had one of them said something to Winifred in the seconds before they forgot?

  “And does Winifred mind if I make changes?” I asked.

  “She doesn’t think you’re making changes; you’re making improvements.” He tilted his head and studied me. “Why are you worried?”

  “It’s nothing to think about now,” I said. I addressed the man again. “So what did you hope to accomplish by attacking me?”

  “A dead woman can’t change a thing.”

  The way he said it gave me chills. Thomas’ eyes narrowed on the man, and I could see the man had just given Thomas a reason to continue the fight. I stepped forward, raised my hand to set on Thomas’ arm, and cringed at the soreness in my wrist.

  He wrapped my hand in his and brought my fingers to his lips. The gesture surprised me, and my pulse leapt. His lips lifted in a hint of a knowing smile.

  “Winifred suggests you go inside with Ann and Mary,” he said, still holding my hand.

  “I’d prefer to stay out here so no one else gets hurt,” I said looking at the wolf still on the ground.

  “He’s not one of ours,” Thomas said.

  “Really? He’s not a werewolf but a regular wolf? The fur in your ears is making you deaf.” He grunted in surprise, but I didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Stop thinking so narrowly. You can’t just protect your small pack. Think bigger.”

  He kissed my hand once more, then let me go with a nudge toward the door. “Your neck is bleeding again. Let Mary take a look at it. I’ll look at our fallen.”

  “Fine. The door stays open, though.”

  He grinned at me and crossed his arms, the gesture conveying his patience rather than any stubbornness. I gave him a last, long look then walked toward the wolf that was on the ground. It growled at me as I knelt near it.

  I tapped it with my will to silence it at the same time I spoke. “I was bitten in the neck, too. It hurts. If you can stand and come inside, Mary and I will clean you up and get you something to eat. It’s up to you, though.” I gently patted its side then stood and walked in.