Moonspell (1) Werewolf Romance

07. Slave to an innocent master - E.

Control is a seductive image, but an illusion altogether. It's wishful thinking. We can never control our whole narrative. There are too many characters involved, too much uncertainty. Still we strive for it till hell and beyond just to acknowledge in the end, that to some extent, we are eternal slaves, of fate, nature, circumstances, or of our own desires and fears.

And as a werewolf, there is the moon, as an additional influencer in our nature.

Erik looked again at the sky. The crescent moon always made him uneasy. It was inherited from his ancestors, that were afraid their mistress would disappear forever from the skies. Despite that ancestral feeling, he would have been glad if that happened, if she disappeared, and with her all her nefarious influence on his life. Still, his wolf felt differently.

Many wolves searched for closure and solace on nights of the crescent moon. There were times when he did that too, decades ago, when he used to lie beside Katharina and hug her tightly as a reassurance that they were both alive and not alone.

After she died, he used to kill on those nights, or later, lay with one of the unmated females of the pack. Most of them were more than willing to mate with the Alpha. It helped to some extent, but the emptiness in his soul only became deeper with these hollow gestures,  so in the end he stopped doing it all together and spent the nights on his own.

The girl's face was pale and her lips chapped from the fever. It had been two days. Even if the wounds got tended to, and they gave her antibiotics, the fever was not sinking.

He didn't even know her, but thinking she suffered or even might die was making him crazy.

God damn mate bond.

"Erik, you know what you have to do if you want this to stop," said Michael leaning against the door frame.

"That is not an option!" he said from behind clenched teeth. "You bloody shouldn't mention it again unless you want another bruised eye." Michael's pragmatism was one of the features he admired most about him. It made him an invaluable ally and an excellent companion and Beta. But in that particular moment, when it was directed toward him, in a way that made him uncomfortable, shoving in his face things he didn't want to hear,  it felt incredibly irritating. 

"You know I am right. Do what's good for you and for the pack. Mark her, then claim her, and let us move on with our lives. Some company would really do you good; you have a horrendous temper lately."

Michael was the only one that could say such things to him and still survive. But not without a price. Erik pressed him furiously against the wall making the concrete splinter a bit.

"I will not destroy her life by marking her and I certainly am not going to rape a child."

"She is not a child, she is twenty-something," said Michael.

"And I am about a hundred years her senior," said Erik rolling his eyes annoyed. "The fever will sink. It will just take a while. Humans just heal slower," he continued after calming down a bit.

"Tell that to yourself not me. You are the one walking a hole in the floor and barely sleeping for three days."

Erik only growled at him and clenched his fist suppressing the urge to take his beast form and fight Michael.

"Fine... Keep torturing yourself..." said Michael walking away and rolling his eyes.

Erik could not help it, Michael's words lingered in his mind. 

I could technically mark her. If I give her my blood, I can heal her too. Maybe she would feel the mating bond then. Maybe we could spend time together, maybe she would like me... bit by bit, and she would sleep with me of her own will.