Isabel and the Wolf: (Part 4)

by Ariana Hawkes

  “And why are werewolves coming here from other countries?” Isabel asked. Marianna gave a heavy sigh.

  “This is something that I don’t approve of. Josie is a special case. Her family is keen to leave their history behind, to stop being werewolves. The poor thing doesn’t even speak the family’s native tongue, because nobody will teach it to her. They’ve bred with humans and tried to dilute their legacy, but in Josie, it’s still strong enough to make her life difficult for her. She needs to be around her own kind, as all werewolves do, so she put a lot of effort into finding the job for Rob here. That’s not to take away anything from him. He’s amazing at what he does.” Marianna took a sip of her tea. “But the werewolves from other countries – they come here because their own packs are dying out, due to smaller and smaller gene pools. They hear that Silver City is a sanctuary for them. But when they arrive, they sometimes don’t understand, or even respect our ways, and the effort we’ve put into keeping this were-territory a secret for so many years. That’s why the recent disturbance has weighed so heavily on the town. If the gossip doesn’t stop soon, the national media’ll get ahold of it, and before long, it’ll all be over. Our local media has a news blackout for anything to do with werewolves, but the big papers aren’t going to be so charitable.” Marianna stopped, two vertical creases appearing on her forehead.

  “These giant wolves that have been turning up lately – they’re all foreigners, right?” Isabel said.

  “Yes, I’m afraid so. They’ve been doing things like running around during the day and getting themselves seen and shot by Rob and his men. It breaks my heart when he talks about them, how they’ve evaded capture, and how one of them even broke into the conservation center. He’s so stressed, trying to work out what’s going on, and Bill, Josie and I know, and we can’t tell him.”

  “That wolf, who someone saw running around in the city,” Isabel said, haltingly. “I think that was Peter. It was the same night that I saw him transform. I only saw him because he’d blindfolded me while we were having sex, as usual, but it slipped down and I saw him. I was so scared that I screamed my head off. And he ran out of my house, leaving all his clothes and his motorbike behind.” Marianna nodded.

  “It makes sense,” she said. “And this is what I mean. Werewolves from foreign packs have a responsibility to make sure that they’re not discovered like that.”

  “Peter’s pretty wild,” Isabel said. “I guess he doesn’t have an easy time hiding his true nature. When we first met, he insisted on having sex outdoors, in the forest, all the time. I thought he was some wild man of the woods.” She grinned, recalling, against her will, some of the times they’d had together.

  “They make good sex mates, don’t they?” Marianna said.

  “The best,” Isabel conceded.

  “I dated a couple of them in my youth, and we had the most ridiculous, crazy sex. They were totally insatiable,” Marianna said, and a sparkle came to her eye. “But then I didn’t want the drama of their monthly cycles, and I settled down with a nice, normal human.”

  “And have other women in Silver City done the same, I mean, been with werewolves?” Marianna laughed.

  “I’d say, of my graduating class, pretty much all the girls had. The male weres were in demand. They were so strong and athletic, and all devastatingly good looking. In our late teens, the human guys didn’t get a look in. Things were hard for them! It continued like this until people went off to college, and the girls started to look for husbands. Werewolves, by and large, aren’t marriage material, and we all put security over an insane sex life. That’s not to say I don’t have a great time with Bill, though; just not three times a day,” she finished, grinning. She gazed at Isabel, assessing her feelings, and her expression became serious again. “You’re feeling disturbed, maybe even repulsed, at the realization that you’ve had sex with two werewolves?” Isabel nodded, staring into her teacup.

  “That’s understandable, seeing as you had no prior knowledge of them. It must be a huge shock to you.” Isabel nodded again.

  “Maybe try to see it from my perspective. It’s always been something that’s normal, and desirable to me. It hasn’t done me any damage. When they’re in their human forms, they’re just – human. Except that they’re a little more attractive than the rest of us. I have no regrets about my experiences with werewolves, and, if I had my time again, I’d do exactly the same.”

  “And does Bill know about your experiences?”

  “Sure. He was one of the poor guys who had to spend their teens reading porn mags while all of the girls were out having hot sex with weres! We knew each other growing up, but he was a couple of years older than me, so it took us a little bit of time to find each other.”

  Marianna went into the kitchen and came back with slices of cake. Isabel accepted one and ate it hungrily.

  “It always makes me laugh when I see depiction of werewolves in movies,” Marianna continued. “They’re always represented as horrific, shaggy beasts. But in real life, they’re not like that at all. They’re actually a harmonious combination of man and wolf.”

  “Bill said that all cultures have transformation myths, and wolves are the most common animals to feature in them.”

  “Absolutely. Werewolves have a long, and secret, history, that goes back as far as written records,” Marianna said, with a touch of dreaminess. Isabel realized that she loved talking about werewolves, and that she was full of nostalgia for her teenage experiences.

  Isabel finished her cake and tea.

  “Marianna, thank you so much for the conversation. It’s made me feel a lot better.” She stood up. “Now, there’s something I’ve got to do.” Marianna stood up too and enveloped her in a soft hug.

  “If that something involves going to talk to that young werewolf, I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it.”

  “I’ll let you know how it goes,” Isabel replied, smiling at her.

  “Please do, and good luck!”

  Chapter Four

  Isabel drove home, showered and had some food. The hangover had worn off now, and Marianna’s words had done a lot to mend the turmoil in her mind. She glanced in the mirror. Her eyes were clear and her skin was unblemished. No-one would guess that the last 24 hours had been so tense. She was blessed – or cursed – that emotional stress rarely showed on her face.

  As she drove along the Black Peak road, she felt calm. She had no idea what the hours ahead would bring, but she was prepared. The secrets that had been taunting her, plucking at her mind and driving her crazy for the past few weeks had been revealed. And everything – in a strange kind of way – seemed to make sense. It was just after 4pm and the sun had lost its fierce heat, instead bathing the road in a dusty haze. She had the curious sense that she was going home. Afternoons often had that feeling of lazy familiarity, golden-hued and drowsy with the assurance that nothing new was going to happen.

  Isabel turned off the main road into Black Peak City, and her heartbeat speeded up. What the hell was she going to say to The Wolf? She hadn’t even worked out in her own head what she wanted from him. How would he receive her? Perhaps he hated her for screaming at him, and that was why he hadn’t been in touch. As she got out of her car, she saw that his front door was slightly open. She walked quickly up the front steps, belying the tremors running through her body. Peter was standing in the doorway. He opened the door wider to greet her, and, now that he was in the light, she could see that he looked terrible. His face was thin and gaunt, and his skin had lost its burnished tone. His eyes were a dull shade of mustard, and his body seemed stooped, with none of the proud stance of before. It seemed like he was fading away. “Peter, what’s happened? Are you sick?”

  “I’ve been suffering, Bella,” he said, in a rough, cracked voice. “Come in.” She walked past him and went through to the living room. It was in disarray, animal skins and clothes strewn everywhere.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again,” he said, from behind her, and
she turned to face him.

  “What happened at my house absolutely freaked me out. And it took a while for me to process it. But I know everything now, Peter.” The eyes that met hers were full of distrust.

  “What do you mean by everything?”

  “Can we sit down?” she said, wanting to even out their height difference. They sat at either end of one of his leather sofas, he tensely, his hands on his knees, while she tucked her feet up underneath her. “I know that you, and Jed and Josie are werewolves.” At the sound of Josie’s name, his jaw tightened. “Yes, it was Josie who told me, after I went to her house and forced it out of her. But someone else – a Silver City local – told me all about how this is were-territory, and how werewolves come here from other countries around the world.” He nodded, and the tension in his face eased.

  “It’s all true. I’m very sorry that you saw what you saw last time we met. I would have done anything to keep my true nature from you. The fact is, before I left Romania, I’d never lived among humans, and I hadn’t imagined that it would be so difficult to hide my wolf side. But it is. It’s become easier since I’ve got to know you, Isabel, and to understand you a little, but it’s still a struggle for me.”

  “What are you doing here, Peter, so far from home?”

  “It’s my family’s sickness,” he said, and his voice broke. “I come from an old and noble Transylvanian clan, that traces its ancestry back hundreds of years.”

  “But Transylvania’s not a real place,” Isabel butted in. Peter laughed.

  “It’s real, Bella. Just because it features in Dracula doesn’t mean it’s made up! Look.” He got to his feet and pulled a book from the bookcase. “It’s right here.” She looked at the map he was showing her, and there it was, near the center of Romania, a country she still had only the haziest idea of, in the midst of a mountain range. On the facing page were photos of sweeping landscapes, and fairytale castles poised on steep mountain peaks. “The most beautiful place in the world.” He closed the book. “My family, like many of the werewolf packs around the world, is becoming infertile. Our gene pools are small, and most of us have been eager not to contaminate them with foreign blood. But this means that we’re now dying out. And what’s just as bad, is that this lack of continuity is making the whole pack sick. Without a new blood line, it’s like we’re becoming anemic. My parents begged me to go out into the world, to find a mate and bring new blood to renew the family line. I didn’t want to go; I love my homeland. But seeing them become sicker by the day, there came a point when I could no longer refuse.”

  “And it’s been hard to find a mate?”

  “It has. I’ve been all across Europe before I came to America, and not found the right mate.”

  “But why?”

  “Most of the werewolves I’ve met are infertile, and the ones that aren’t are usually not genetically compatible. I can tell by the smell which ones are a good match, and so far they have eluded me.”

  “And how do I fit into all this?”

  “You were a distraction – initially. While I was struggling to find a werewolf mate, I thought I might have some pleasure with a human in the meantime.”

  “But why the kinky dating site?”

  “I guess we had the same motives when we joined the dating site – to find someone to have fun with. I figured out from the way that human females reacted when I approached them that mainstream dating wasn’t going to work for me. Then I discovered that there were some females who loved to be dominated, and I realized that this could be an opportunity.”

  “And how does sex with human females compare to, uh, were-females?” The Wolf gave a gravelly laugh.

  “Well, I’ve only got one to judge it by, but it compares very positively.”

  “You’re saying I’m the first human you’ve been with?”

  “The first and only, Bella.” Peter’s eyes had been flickering to and fro as he was speaking, but now he fixed them on her, with their full amber intensity, and Isabel’s stomach flipped.

  “Wow, if only I’d known at the time how significant that was,” she said.

  “I feel you’re mocking me, Bella. But that’s ok. I appreciate how incredible the things that you’ve been hearing during the past day are.”

  “So I was a distraction, and then you went back to Romania, and when you came back, you were different. Please explain?”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you more about why I had to go back home. It was impossible to explain without you knowing what you know now. The truth is that my younger brother found a mate. This was incredible news for our family, the best we’d had in years. She was pregnant with his offspring. But she didn’t make it.”

  “You mean she died?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Peter nodded acknowledgement.

  “After I went back to be with my family, it was hard to leave them in their grief, but they urged me very strongly to go back to America and try again. And when I arrived here, I was very glad to be back, as I had thought about you often while I was in Romania.”

  “You had?”

  “Over the past few weeks, I have been devastated at the thought of losing you. What's been happening to my family is an agony, but this is an agony too.” His eyes were dark, the pupils flooding the iris. He reached out and took her hand. It lay motionless in his, half of her hungry for the feeling of his skin on hers, the other half recoiling.

  “Isabel, I am a man, like any other. It's just that I am also a wolf.”

  “But you become a wolf every time you have sex?”

  “No, that only happens outside of my control during the full moon.”

  “Ah, the full moon. Of course. So that’s why you don’t want to have sex sometimes?”

  “Correct. The rest of the time, I begin to shift as I reach orgasm, but it’s just the edge, and then it’s gone again. It’s not like you’re having sex with an animal.” He gave a bark of laughter. “It takes a lot for me to keep it under control though, which is why I could never let you see me. And the last time, when I left your house, it was the trauma that made me shift completely.” His eyes were beseeching.

  “Peter, what do you want from me?” Isabel said. He squeezed her hand.

  “The past few weeks have been very confusing for me, Bella. I never expected to develop feelings for a human female. All I know is that I want to be with you.”

  “And if I was to stay with you? What does this mean?” He was silent for a long time.

  “I could never ask you to be my mate.”

  “Just for the sake of argument, what if I wanted to be?”

  “You would want to come with me to Romania, to bear the children of a werewolf?”

  “You’re right, that is pretty full on. Here, in the US, people – I mean human people – usually date each other for years before they figure out whether they’re suited, and decide to make things permanent.”

  “I understand that. And I suppose, what I am asking for is the opportunity to date you like this. To continue enjoying our time with each other, and to continue to have very enjoyable sex.”

  “But, at the same time, you’re going to continue to look for a werewolf mate?” Peter hung his head.

  “I carry the whole burden of my family on my shoulders.”

  “But you have brothers, who can share that with you?”

  “I am the eldest. Do you know what that means?”

  “Tell me.”

  “It means that one day I will become the alpha of the pack – the leader. And for the alpha not to have progeny is unthinkable. In fact, there is a very real possibility that I would be forced out of the pack altogether.”

  “I can’t imagine what that would be like.”

  “Our rules must seem very harsh to humans, but they are critical to retaining the integrity of the pack, and in return, we receive security and a sense of belonging that has been absent from most of the communities I’ve visited around the world. And since I ha
ve my own rules that I must abide by, I wouldn’t expect you to date me exclusively. In fact, werewolves are not naturally monogamous, unless they’re mated.”

  “That wasn’t at all the impression I got from you when you hurtled into the dance that night and attacked Jed,” she said, unable to keep a note of amusement out of her voice.

  “I was jealous. I admit that. You were my first human female, and I was worried that I would lose you to Jed. I felt that he was intruding on my territory. I know that you have since coupled with him. But, from the fact that you’re here now, I am carrying a hope that you might still like me as well.”

  Isabel stared deep into Peter’s eyes.

  “I do still like you, Peter, but this is all very confusing for me. I need time to think.” He nodded.

  “Of course. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

  “I’m going to leave now, but can I get you anything – something from the supermarket? Or the drugstore?”

  “No. That’s very kind, but I’m fine, thank you.”

  Isabel turned and walked towards the front door. On the threshold, she paused and lifted her face towards his. He stooped to meet her, and she aimed a kiss at his cheek. He turned his head quickly and his mouth met hers instead. Against her will, she found her lips parting to him, her tongue touching against his. Once again, a bolt of electricity shot through her body. She pulled away, banging her back against the doorframe.

  “No, Peter. Not now.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. They said goodbye, and, as she drove away, she could see him in her rearview mirror, watching her until she was out of sight.

  A few minutes later, Isabel’s phone beeped with a voicemail alert. She sighed, not wanting to hear from anyone, but pulled over and listened to it nevertheless:

  “Hey, chica! I’ve got some amazing news for both of us! I’m so excited! Call me back A-sap!”

  Isabel’s spirits lifted. This was the only thing capable of taking the edge off her shock right now. She was on the point of calling Kara to find out what it was, but she carried on driving home instead, wanting to make herself comfortable so she could relax and enjoy the conversation.