by A. W. Cross
This was so not good.
“Well, that’s all right.” I tried for my best smile. It just seemed better to smile than to start a fight with something so unstable. And really, if his wolves were the same ones I had chased with my gun, and that was how he found me, then we hadn’t started on the right foot at all. I could own my part if it would help. “I know I must have scared you and your wolves last night—”
“You didn’t scare us,” he said, still grinning. “Just the Omega. He’s scared of everything. The rest of the pack wasn’t scared because you fell off your horse.”
“Yes,” I said, trying my best to reach my original point despite his cheerfully unhelpful additions. “I’m just saying that I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I shouldn’t have chased your wolf, and normally, I wouldn’t have. Most hunters . . . we just want to be left alone too.”
I might still want revenge against the proper beast, but chasing shadows had only led to more trouble. My father certainly wouldn’t have approved of that, and I wouldn’t do it again.
“So maybe we could make a deal? Like if you let me go back to the village, I could tell all the rest of the hunters to stay away.” There might not be any reason for the hunters to bother him anyway. Though enormously awkward, Howl hadn’t done anything to hurt me.
He had just bandaged me up after I hurt myself.
“But you can’t leave. You can’t even walk.” It seemed more like he was stating a fact with no threat behind the words. I couldn’t walk. I had fallen under the table after two steps.
“You could carry me.” I didn’t know if I was entirely comfortable with that arrangement, but it was an option and needed to be said. “I don’t know where I am. You could even blindfold me, and I wouldn’t be able to find my way back here—with or without the hunters.”
Howl looked at me with an eyebrow raised. “You want me to walk into the village with you tied up in my arms, and you don’t think that would make the hunters upset with me?”
I frowned. Okay. So maybe that wouldn’t be the best idea. I just hadn’t expected him to be able to poke reasonable holes in my logic. He looked half-savage!
“But you can trust me,” I said. “I wouldn’t tell anyone about this place, even if I wasn’t blindfolded.”
He had no reason to trust me but mercifully didn’t fight that point. “I want you to be my mate, so of course, I should trust you. But I don’t trust hunters, and I don’t trust your village. I never go there anymore.”
“Why not?”
He just raised his eyebrow again like the answer should be obvious.
“But you have been to the village before?”
“Yes.”
“Was it . . . bad?”
He jerked backward like I had struck him, just as expressive with his fear as his excitement and anything else. He hid his face, crouching in a shadowed corner. “I don’t go to the village! Please don’t make me.”
“All right.” I gave up with a sigh. “But eventually, I’ll be able to walk back to the village myself. Would you let me go then? If I promise not to tell anyone about you?”
He peeked back at me through the long strands of his two-toned hair. “So, we’ll have . . . three weeks? Maybe four? Is that enough time for you to decide if you want to be my mate?”
Better than the few seconds he had given me before. “Sure.”
“Deal.” He sprung up again, suddenly so happy that I was left to wonder if he was a thespian or if he actually could change emotions that fast. “Are you going to eat this?” He pulled the pheasant off the table and tore into it on the floor. Dislodged feathers and dust filled the air. Blood smeared the wooden floorboards and his fangs.
I scooted back in the bed and decided I wasn’t hungry anymore.
9
Beauty
Howl left me alone all night and well into the next morning. I glared when he finally came to the door again with his sack. “Where were you?”
I didn’t mean to be so crabby about it. Especially since I still hated him for keeping me here, and I shouldn’t want his company. But once he left, my mind went dark with harsh memories of death. I refused to heed them. Recklessly giving in to my emotions had landed me here in the first place. I needed to distract myself, but there weren’t nearly enough distractions in that room.
I had already counted all the cobwebs on the ceiling and given names to all the spiders.
Howl glanced behind his shoulder. “Outside. Patrolling. I have to do it every day or the scent gets weak, and other wolves try to come in.”
For some reason, that struck me as funny. “So, you don’t get along with all the wolves?”
“Do you get along with all people?”
“Certainly not.” I laughed. It was already working; Howl was nothing if not distracting.
A curious puzzle to figure out.
He started rummaging around in his sack. “I found the willow bark, but I still don’t think you should eat it.”
“It isn’t for eating. I mean, I will be chewing on it, but it’s for pain. My father used to drink it in his tea.” Though I really didn’t know if simply chewing on the bark would have the same effect as the brewed, powdered version my father drank. I just didn’t know what else to try.
My leg was the only thing hurting anymore, but that was enough to keep me grounded.
Howl shrugged and gave the soft bark to me.
“Thanks. And would you mind . . .” I pointed to the pot I had asked him to put by my bed before leaving last night. “Throwing that outside for me? Just bring back the pot?”
My face burned, but it was far easier talking about intimate things with Howl than it ever should have been. He just never seemed embarrassed.
He took the pot to the window and did what I said without question.
“Is there anything else you need? I brought you food.” He had more berries and a wild onion for me and another raw pheasant for him.
I blanched. “Let’s not eat just yet.”
“Really? What do you want to do instead?”
I had no idea, but if he ate that thing in front of me, I would lose whatever was left in my stomach. I had to think of something. Anything. “Can I meet your wolves? Are they friendly?”
“They are friendly to who I tell them to be.”
“Can you tell them to be friendly to me?”
He laughed. “I already did. If I didn’t, you would have never made it through the front door. I just didn’t want them to come in and scare you.”
“I appreciate that, but I think I would be all right with meeting some of them now.” They were just big dogs, right? I had been out of my head the night I chased the gray wolf, but I knew most wolves weren’t maneaters. They couldn’t be if Howl was so comfortable with them.
And if there was a maneater among them, I might as well know that now.
“All right.” He bent down and scooped me into his arms as quickly and effortlessly as he had the chamber pot.
“Howl!” I jerked, and pain ran up my leg. The willow bark wasn’t working nearly fast enough.
“What? You wanted to go meet them, right?”
“Yes, but maybe ask before picking me up?”
“You have a lot of rules.” He sighed and put me back down on the bed. “Is it okay if I take you to go see the wolves that you already said you wanted to see?”
He was supposed to be the ignorant one, but he still had a way of making me seem rather silly. Perhaps he would soon regret ever wanting to bring me here.
I meekly held out my arms. “Yes. Thank you.”
Howl carried me down two flights of stairs to what must have been a large receiving hall. Maybe even a ballroom. My eyes went up to the broken skylight, the glass reflecting an array of color on the tile floor.
“Do you like it?” Howl asked.
That was so hard to answer. The place must have been beautiful once. Now I could see the scorch marks of a fire long put out. Ash. Cobwebs. Dirt and leaves blown through
the open double doors. The sharp shadows cast by a jumble of broken furniture—a candelabra on the floor and a handsome clock stuck in the same position.
It mostly looked sad. How did a whole castle get so forgotten and neglected like this?
I didn’t know what to do but to change the subject. “Where are the wolves?”
“Still patrolling. I’ll call them.” He threw back his shoulders and howled.
Something immediately answered. My heart raced with equal excitement and fear at the haunting sound. Paws scratched against the tile, and dust billowed out in a small cloud as they all piled in through the wide double doors to greet us. A pack of gray wolves charged right at me.
My fingers dug into Howl’s bicep, and my breath caught.
Howl snarled, showing his fangs and pulling me closer into his chest. “Not so fast. She doesn’t like it. She said she wants to meet you, but you still have to ask permission.”
The wolves stopped in a huddle a few paces back. They didn’t wag their tails or sit like trained dogs, but it was pretty close.
Howl glanced at me, as if looking for approval. Or at least some acknowledgment that he had successfully learned one of “my rules,” but it still took me another moment to resume normal breathing. “Are you okay?” Howl asked. “They were just excited.”
“I know.” I gulped in another swallow of air. “I’m fine.”
“Can I put you down? They would respect you more.”
I nodded, and he leaned me against the one chair that had all of its legs. I stood, using my hands to steady myself, and tried to look tall and confident. They were just dogs. Really, really big dogs. “You control the wolves?”
“They’re my pack.”
“So, they do what you say?”
“Usually.” He nudged a large black one by his side. “Or at least the general idea. They don’t all talk like we do, so I don’t make that many rules. You’ve got to keep things simple.”
They certainly needed a few more rules. One was already lifting its leg in the corner, but maybe I would address that later. One thing at a time.
“They don’t all talk? You mean some of them do?”
“They talk to me. Perhaps you too in time.”
Okay then. Talking wolves. They seemed to be his only companions, so I could look past the flight of fancy. “What are their names?”
Howl smiled. “I knew you were going to ask that, so I thought of some really good ones last night.”
“They didn’t have names before?”
“They’re wolves.” He shrugged. “So, now, that’s Ghost, Rooster, Glimmer, Frost, Fern, and . . .” He stopped when I reached my hand toward the last one on the end of the row. The smallest one had seemed to be the safest to start with. “Spin is Omega. He goes last.”
“He does? Why?”
“He’s Omega,” Howl said again, like he thought I just hadn’t heard him. He pulled my hand toward the front of the pack. “Ghost goes first.”
If I was going to make Howl follow “my rules,” I could follow some of his. But why did he have to start me with the largest one?
The silent black wolf looked terrifying.
“Hi, Ghost,” I tried. “It’s nice to meet you. You’re very . . .” Big. Scary. Probably vicious, but he stayed perfectly still while I searched for something kind to say. “Handsome,” I decided. I patted his head and let Howl direct me toward Rooster. I supposed the one advantage of starting with Ghost was that all the other gray wolves seemed easier after him. They all let me pet them, but most sniffed and then walked away. Only Spin rolled over for me like a dog might. He probably would still become my favorite. Omega or no. “Is this your whole pack?”
“Most of them.” Howl glanced behind him toward another set of double doors. “Mother is with the pups. She still doesn’t want to meet you.”
Well, I wasn’t looking for Howl’s mother or the pups. I was looking for a full-grown wolfdog. And I was both relieved and disappointed not to see him here.
Maybe there weren’t any maneaters in the bunch.
At least, that was what I thought until Rooster pawed at the ground, howling again. Spin chased his tail. My heart raced with the noise, but Howl just smiled. “They’re hungry,” he said. “We’ll need to go out again soon. More mouths to feed with you and the cubs.”
My heart plummeted at the thought. “And I would have to go back in the room?”
Howl cocked his head at me, frowning. “You don’t like the room?”
“I don’t like feeling trapped.”
“But you aren’t! We made a deal. You won’t get the hunters to hurt us, and we won’t hurt you. I will carry you anywhere you want to go in the castle, and you can go to the village on your own when your leg is better. Unless you decide you want to be my mate and stay.”
Having that all spelled out again did make me feel a little better. It wasn’t Howl’s fault that I hurt myself chasing after his wolves and falling off Bullet. Who knew if I would have made it back to the village on my own? And I just couldn’t picture Howl lying.
He was far too blunt about everything else.
If that was how he understood our deal, then that was how it was, and I could accept it. “I just get bored sitting. I don’t mean to get angry at you.”
“Sitting is boring,” Howl agreed. “But I see humans do it a lot.”
“Well, we’re usually not just sitting. We’re working on something or talking or reading or . . . Do you have any books?” In such a large castle, it had to be a possibility.
“Maybe.” He flared his nostrils and looked around. “What does a book smell like?”
“A book? It doesn’t smell like anything.”
He laughed at me. “Everything smells like something.”
“Paper? I suppose that could smell a little like a tree or some other plant. And the ink . . . like dirt? And the glue might smell like . . . something.” Why did I never think to smell a book?
“Well, if we can find a book, you can have it.”
10
Beauty
Whether I was technically a prisoner or not, my bed was boring. I lasted about an hour before my thoughts turned dark and restless again. “Howl?”
No answer. He was probably still out with his pack. Feeling defeated, I slumped back onto the bed and tried for a mournful wolf howl.
There was a scraping on the door and a wolf pushed his way in. The small one.
“Oh. It’s you.” I perked up at once. “Can you help me?”
Spin crawled in on his belly and stayed on the floor. Was he afraid of me? Why would a wolf be afraid of me?
I had shot at him, I realized in a flash. Spin was the black and gray wolf I chased from my snare before Howl and the others found me.
“It’s all right. No more guns. I learned my lesson.” It might be silly to explain this to a wolf, but I needed to talk to someone, and, strangely, it seemed to help.
He stood up the rest of the way and walked toward me with a bit of a whine.
“I just want to get out of my bed for a bit. Howl said it was okay.” I coaxed Spin over and put a hand on his back so I could limp forward. This could work. I was going to explore everything.
I went two steps. That hurt, even with my wolf crutch and sucking on willow bark.
Okay, so I wasn’t going to explore everything, but I got to the table on the far wall.
This one had a pitcher in a shallow bowl. Even a hair brush in one of the drawers, like a serving girl’s vanity. But there was so much dust. I took off my coat to prepare myself for the sweaty work, making a neater pile near the bed with my boots and stockings. Then I looked back at the brush in my hand and decided it was too far gone to ever be used for someone’s hair again, but it could help to sweep away the dust.
Even Spin seemed to get the right idea, fanning away some filth with his wagging tail.
I might not be able to do anything else, but I was going to make this room more livable.
When Howl
came in, he took my hand off Spin’s back and growled at the wolf.
Spin immediately retreated at the show of teeth.
I frowned. “Why did you do that? He was helping me. You said it was okay if I looked around the castle.” I hadn’t even left the room, though I was aching to.
“It is.” Howl moved the hand I’d had on Spin to his own shoulder. “He can help you when I’m not here.”
I laughed. Now that wasn’t subtle at all. “Are you jealous?”
“He is Omega. He knows he can’t have my mate.”
I put both hands back firmly on the vanity. “I’m not your mate.”
“Potential mate then.” Howl shrugged. “Spin does what I tell him, so I’m not jealous.”
Howl had gone deadpan, taking a more dominate stance. He looked so unfriendly for a moment, I had to ask, “And what does he get out of it?”
“Food. Protection. Occasional belly rubs.”
“Wolves like that too?”
“That one does. Trust me, if he really didn’t like it, he would leave.” Howl crouched down. “Do you want to leave, Spin? Belle seems to think I have you all trapped in here.”
Spin cocked his head at me and immediately rubbed up against Howl, confirming where his full loyalty belonged. But I really hadn’t meant it like that. The growling and teeth put me off a bit, but maybe it was so common to wolves, it wasn’t as aggressive or angry as it seemed.
Howl would certainly know better.
“Good. I’d miss you if you left.” Howl rubbed Spin’s shoulders, then pushed him more firmly away. “Now go and get your dinner before Mother feeds it all to the cubs.”
Spin ran off at once. Maybe these wolves really did understand some human speech.
“You know, I didn’t mean what you said before. I didn’t think you trapped Spin or anyone. They’re your pack. I’m just . . . getting used to wolves.” I spent so long as a shepherdess trying to ward them off that I had never taken the time to understand them. Maybe that was wrong.
