A Wolf's Oath

by Alli, Jennifer T.

  During his night long conversation with his brother, he had rekindled his love affair with wood and sculpting. He hadn’t had much time in recent years to dedicate to his favourite pastime, but after the previous day’s debacle, his hands had been itching to treat the wood how it should be treated. He had completely destroyed the beautiful piece of wood from yesterday and he felt saddened by the loss of what had the potential to be a beautiful piece of work. So when Erica had gone to sleep he had walked into the nearby woods and began gathering. With Erica out of sight, he didn’t have to restrain his strength and speed and so it hadn’t taken long for him to acquire several armfuls of decent sized wood and bring them back to the house. While speaking to Ryan, he had taken his knife to the wood and begun to sculpt once again. The first few pieces were horrid, years out of practice, he hadn’t been able to use his fingers to properly sculpt what his mind saw. However, as the night had progressed and his talk with his brother continued, his work began to steadily improve, each piece becoming more beautiful that the last.

  Now the morning after his nightlong sculpting session, the living room was filled with small pieces of sculpted wood. Sebastian had made a second run into the woods for more material when he had realised just how long he and Ryan would be speaking for and he had used almost every single piece. So as Erica walked into the living room, she was understandably shocked when she saw that practically every surface was littered with small wooden sculptures. Having decided to forgo sleep that night, Sebastian sat in the middle of the living room with a distinctly larger piece of wood in his hands, chipping away at the firm material. All the pieces prior to this one had simply been practice ones, to reacquaint himself with his skill and now that he felt confident in his ability to produce a good quality piece of work, he had set himself to making a larger piece of work. While the others could easily be carried on your person, this one was meant for display, a gift for Erica.

  “Sebastian?”

  At the sound of her voice calling to him, he dropped the knife onto the table, his eyes wandering over his current piece of work. It was meant to be a secret. He sighed with relief when he realised that she wouldn’t be able to make out exactly what it was he was carving just yet as it was still in the very early stages. He smiled warmly at her. “Morning sweetheart. Did you want to come and join me? You don’t have to if you have something else you’d rather be doing.”

  She scowled at his comment. “And what exactly could I have to do that would be better than just spending some quality time with you, hmm?”

  “I have no idea,” he grinned.

  Moving carefully across the wood covered carpet, she made her way to him and sat down beside him. “Sebastian, what exactly is all of this?”

  Picking up the sculpture of a small rose, he handed it to her, his fingers lingering lovingly on her flesh before he pulled away. There was only so much temptation he could withstand before he snapped. “Its just something I was doing to pass the time.”

  Erica's hands wandered reverently over the intricate wooden petals, marvelling at the detail that he had put into the small object. “This is beautiful Sebastian.”

  “There’s no need to try and pander to my ego. That was one of the earlier ones. It really isn’t that great.”

  “There are better ones?” she gasped shocked. The small flower in her hand looked almost real, it was hard to believe that this was what he considered one of the worse pieces of work.

  “Yes, I moved them into the kitchen. I didn’t think you’d mind. I started to run out of space in here. I’ll clear them out if you want.”

  “No Sebastian, don’t worry about that. What I really want to know is where you learnt to do this. Who taught you?”

  “My father taught me when I was younger. I wasn’t much of a people person when I was little so I found it hard to make friends. Then one day I was in the woods and found this bit of wood that looked almost like a person, it just needed a little tweaking here and there and so I fixed it. If I’m honest, when I look back at it now I realise that it was a really ugly piece of work, but my father was just glad that I had found something I was interested in so he offered to teach me how to sculpt better. I made lots of friends from wood back then, but I grew up and became more comfortable around people so I began to sculpt less out of necessity and more for relaxation. It’s very relaxing you know.”

  Reaching for a piece of untouched wood that had yet to be brought under his knife, she brought it to eye level and began examining it before placing a hand on his knee. “Teach me.”

  “What?”

  “I said teach me. I doubt that I’ll be as good as you, but I want to learn.”

  He ran a hand over the back of his neck, unsure about his capacity to teach someone else this skill. “I’m not sure I’d make a very good teacher. I’ve never taught another living soul anything in my entire life.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be a great teacher, you have the patience for that sort of thing. Come on Sebastian, please. If I’m really that bad then I won’t force you to teach me, just give me a try,” she pleaded.

  Her request pulled at him and he could feel the instinct beginning to stir within him, trying to fulfil her request. “Fine, I’ll try and teach you, but it will take time. It’s not something that you can pick up and learn within an hour or a day.”

  She moved closer to him and his body tensed at her increased proximity, instantly reacting to her nearness. Leaning over she placed a chaste kiss against his cheek and his eyes slid shut, revelling in the pleasure created by such a small contact of her lips against his skin. “Thank you Sebastian. I didn’t think that I’d be able to learn how to make pieces this beautiful within the day, but it’s not as though we don’t have time. We have the rest of our lives together remember?”

  You don’t realise how much it pleases me to hear you say such things. To have my mate finally envisioning our future… Even though I know that this isn’t quite real, it is still very satisfying. The truth of their relationship weighed heavy on him. He didn’t like being forced to deceive her and wasn’t looking forward to the day that she regained her memories and called him to account for all of his actions.

  “So what do I do with this?” she questioned, waving the piece of wood in front of him.

  Placing his knife in her free hand, he gently guided her wrist toward the wood. “First you carve the wood into the general shape that you want me make. What is it exactly that you want to make?”

  “I want to make that flower.” She pointed to the discarded rose that he had given her earlier.

  “That’s probably a bit too hard for a beginner.” He laughed. “We can start with something simple like a petal if you want to make a flower.”

  “I can work with that,” she conceded, realising that she had been very ambitious in what she had wanted to make for her first attempt at sculpting.

  “You want to make the wood smooth, so you have to start by getting rid of all the bumpy bits on its surface.” His hand covered her own and began to guide it, showing her exactly what she should do. She caught on quickly and was soon smoothing the wood on her own. “Keep doing that until you think it’s smooth enough and then show it to me and we’ll see if your definition of smooth matches mine.”

  It was harder than Sebastian had made it seem to cut the wood to a suitably smooth texture and the longer she sat, whittling away at her small piece of wood, the more curious she became about exactly what sort of a child could sit still long enough to learn this skill. “Sebastian?” He immediately turned from his significantly larger piece of wood, giving her his full attention. “What were you like as a kid?”

  His brow furrowed in confusion at the strange question. “Why do you want to know?”

  “I’m just curious. The doctors didn’t say that you couldn’t tell me about your childhood so don’t give me that look.”

  “What look?” he demanded.

  “The ‘I can’t tell you because it might affect your recovery’
look. It’s a fair question. I was just wondering how you managed to sit still long enough to learn how to make such beautiful pieces of work. I don’t think that I could have managed it.”

  “I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” he conceded. “As a kid, I was a very quiet child and by quiet I mean an easy target for others to pick on.”

  She raised an eyebrow in disbelief, her eyes wandering over the corded muscles of his body clearly finding the idea that he had once been seen as a victim an impossible occurrence.

  “It’s true,” he laughed.

  “Well excuse me for finding that hard to believe.”

  “I wasn’t always like this,” he mumbled embarrassed. And I never saw the point of my body’s transformation until I met you. I have to be strong to protect you.

  “Fine, it was your childhood so if you say you weren’t always strong then I’ll believe you. Continue.”

  “So as I said, I was quiet as a kid. I didn’t like to roughhouse with others. I preferred to be left alone to discover the world through reading. There was so much that I didn’t understand and I don’t like not knowing how things work, I never have, so I spent a lot of time in libraries enjoying my own company.”

  “It sounds lonely,” she sighed.

  “I’m making it sound worse than it was. I really enjoyed my childhood. It wasn’t lonely at all. I had my brother Ryan. We’re almost polar opposites. He could never stay calm or still long enough to read through a book much less enjoy it like I did and he loved interacting with people. I think about half of the brawls he’s had in his entire life can be attributed to me in some way. Even though we were so different we’ve always understood each other. I can’t imagine what my childhood would have been without him.”

  “It must have been nice to have a sibling to grow up with,” she commented, her voice sad.

  “It was.”

  Her eyes became increasingly unfocused, as she seemingly stared through him into a time long passed. “When I was a kid I always wished that I had a sibling to play with. Sometimes me and Anna would play together, but she had her brothers so it wasn’t the same as having a sibling of my own. I was so excited when my parents told me that they were expecting.”

  Sebastian held his breath, afraid to make even the slightest sound in case a small interruption disrupted her ability to remember her childhood. This was the most she had remembered about herself and he began to hope that this was the breakthrough they had been waiting for.

  “When they were born, I was still just as excited. Yes, it was too late for me to have siblings to grow up with, but I’d been an only child for so long that I didn’t care about that anymore. But we’ve never had a typical sibling relationship. I’ve always been more of a parent to them than a sister. I don’t mind that though because I love them and they love me right back. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them.” A tear ran down her cheek as she remembered the love she had forgotten for her siblings and Sebastian was quick to wipe it away. “I’ve had to be strong for them since our parents died, since…” A sharp stabbing pain momentarily shocked her as she sought to fight past the blank in her mind where the memories were hidden. “Something happened to our parents.” As she continued trying to overcome the blank in her memory the pain in her head multiplied until she was clutching her skull in agony.

  “Stop this Erica,” Sebastian growled, feeling increasingly helpless. His strength was of no use in this situation and he didn’t like the feeling in the slightest. She continued gripping her head as the pain built. “I said stop this now! You’re pushing yourself too hard.” He pulled her hands away from her head, forcing her to look at him. “That’s enough.”

  “Sebastian, I want to see them,” she croaked.

  “See who?”

  “Dylan and Wyatt, I want to see them. I know you said that you would bring them to see me soon, but I want to see them now.”

  “Now? As in this very moment in time?”

  “No, but as soon as possible. If you won’t bring them here then I think I can remember how to get to where they’re staying and we know that I remember how to drive.”

  “I’ll bring them here Erica. I’ll go tomorrow if that’s soon enough for you, as long as you agree to stop trying to force yourself to remember things that your mind is clearly not ready for. The doctors said that your memories will come back by themselves. Causing yourself pain isn’t helpful.”

  “I swear I won’t do it again if you’ll bring them here.”

  “Of course I will sweetheart.”

  “Thank you Sebastian.”

  “I have to warn you though, if I bring them here there won’t be much time for me to teach you sculpting.”

  “Like I said Sebastian, we have the rest of our lives for me to learn. You said I wasn’t going to be able to learn how to do this over night anyway. I’m in this for the duration, a few days here and there isn’t going to make that much of a difference in the long run anyway.”

  “You’re right, we do have the rest of our lives for you to learn how to do this.” You have all the time in the world to learn things when you live forever. I was really hoping that you might have remembered though. A few days here and there may not make much a difference to your ability to learn how to sculpt, but with everyday that passes the full moon gets that little bit closer and during that time, I’m the worst possible threat to you.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “This had better be important,” Vincent scowled.

  Sitting in his office, he stared at the man in front of him with clear disdain. This meeting was distinctly unappreciated. He had other, more important things to attend to and was coming to resent the man’s mere presence as an impediment to time that could be devoted to finding his errant captive. Despite all his best attempts to locate her, she had seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. It was only by mere chance that he had managed to find and catch her in the first place and that fact was made glaringly obvious by his inability to track her even when he had photographs for others to go on. He was therefore not feeling very receptive towards guests at the moment. Though the man claimed that his news was urgent, the real reason that he had agreed to see him was due to the severely diminished membership. Refusing to see a member of another branch was one of the surest ways to ensure that they refused to contribute to increasing the membership of your own branch.

  It was for that reason alone that he was sitting across from the man who had introduced himself as Dominic, separated only by his desk, just barely resisting the impulse to throw the man out. “Well…” Vincent began, his tone of voice clearly expecting an immediate response. “Just tell me what you have to say so I can go about with my business. I’m a busy man.”

  “Is it true that this branch had actual contact with a genuine werewolf?”

  Vincent’s eyes narrowed at the question. “I’m the one asking questions here, not you. If that’s all you came here to say then I think you should leave.”

  “I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, I do. But before I tell you I want to know if the rumours are true. It can’t hurt to tell a fellow member if your branch managed to do what we’ve all wanted to do. If I were you then I’d make sure that everyone knew. It’s an amazing thing to have captured one and alive no less.”

  “You aren’t me so you’ll never have to make that sort of decision,” he hissed. “It’s true. We did catch a werewolf and it was with us for four days before it escaped.”

  Dominic’s eyes widened, before a large grin crept over his face. “Sir, I would like to request a transfer. I want to move from my branch and serve under you.”

  “Why exactly would you want to do that? Aren’t you satisfied with how things are run in your branch?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with my branch.”

  “Then explain to me why exactly you want to transfer here.”

  “I have a feeling that things are going to get very i
nteresting around here very soon.”

  “A feeling?” Vincent sneered in disgust. “And just what exactly are you basing this ‘feeling’ on?”

  “I’ve seen the picture of the woman that you’re looking for.”

  “That’s inconsequential, I made sure that as many people as possible saw that picture. I want her recaptured.”

  “It might not be important to have simply seen the picture, but what about seeing the woman alive and in person?”

  That simple statement had the desired effect and Vincent sat forward in his chair, eager to hear more. “You’ve seen her?”

  “Yes sir, I have.”

  “Where is she? Is she with other wolves or is she alone? Have you found a clan?” The questions flowed quickly from Vincent, eager as he was to follow up on the first actual lead he had. “Answer me damn it! Is she alone?”

  “No, sir, there’s a man with her.” Dominic answered quickly, the harsh the tone of his superior’s voice demanding an immediate response.

  Vincent was well known within their organisation for his violent temperament and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. Vincent’s rise through the ranks of their organisation was almost legendary, there had never been a branch leader as young as he, however it was rumoured that the methods he had used were less than savoury. Dominic had no wish to find out the truth to the rumours. He did however, want to join this branch, he didn’t doubt that within the next few weeks, perhaps even days things would get very interesting and he wanted to be at the centre of things. There was almost nothing he wouldn’t do to be a part of what was going to be happening and the surest way of doing that was to answer the questions Vincent asked.