The wolf woman

Retreat to nature

Even Though I was declared not guilty by the court, my reputation took a hit. Before I was a hard-working, average guy now I was someone who was charged with kidnapping. People were treating me the same in front of me but I could hear them gossiping about me all the time. They looked at me with disgust. The case made it to the local newspaper. It got difficult to go around the town. I was hoping that people would forget what happened after a few days. It was only a day after the incident but I couldn't believe that things turned so bad. I was called into the HR office. He asked me for details about everything. I couldn't tell him the truth that Accalia is a werewolf. I went with the story I came up with. I told him that Accalia was my girlfriend and she met with an accident after which she lost her memories. Her doctors advised me to take her out of town for some change. He asked me why I never told anyone about it. "Well, she doesn't work for the firm, I don't think it's necessary to inform the firn about my personal life", I said and added, "I didn't want any attention." He didn't ask me further about Accalia. He still had questions about Sasha who was the accuser. I explained to him that I simply asked her to help me with some shopping and the next thing I knew she accused me of kidnapping. I shared Sasha's contact details with the HR officer and went on with my work.
After an hour, I received a call from Sasha. I declined it. She called me again, I rejected it. I received a text. It said that she was contacted by our HR officer. I didn't want to reply. I ghosted her. After a while, I received another text saying that she's been asked to visit our office. I ghosted her again. "Why the hell is she telling me this? I am the one who's suffering either way." I thought. I was working when I saw Sasha entering the office. I was sitting in my cubicle. She asked the receptionist the way to the HR office and proceeded that way. After a while, I was called in as well. She explained her side of the story to HR.
He called an immediate office meeting in the conference hall and asked everyone to treat me with indifference. He relayed the message that everything was a big misunderstanding. The sad truth is even after that, everyone sympathised with her. They completely disregarded the fact that I was the victim here but gave their consolation to her. "It's okay. Misunderstandings like this happen, you shouldn't worry." Everyone said such things to her.
I came home. Accalia, in her wolf form, leapt towards me and jumped into my arms. I hugged her and carried her to the living room. Today was a bad day. I didn't have the energy to do anything. My face was reflecting the gloominess of my mood. She turned into a human and hugged me from behind. "What's wrong?", She asked. I told her everything that happened at work. She tried to comfort me.
I had to take her to the gym. She should not suffer because of me‌. At the gym, people had the same staring eyes as the office. I was getting sick of this but there was nothing I could do. My only option was to sit there and wait till Accalia is finished with her exercise. I got some take out on our way home. After dinner, I went to sleep early.
The next day, I was hoping for something good to happen. My hopes were crushed when my landlord came to my room and asked me to empty the house within a week. He didn't want someone who was suspected of being a kidnapper living in his house. I tried to explain to him that the whole thing was a misunderstanding and I am declared as not guilty by the court. He didn't care about any of that. He wanted me to leave. No matter how literate they are, some people don't even care about doing a little research. Their ignorance is a pain. Even though I wasn't charged with any punishment, everyone treated me like a criminal. I couldn't use public transport because everyone was staring at me. I couldn't book a taxi because no one wanted to ride with a kidnapper. My life turned into a living hell and on top of that, Sasha kept calling and texting me to hang out with Accalia. It was because of her, this all was happening. I hated her. I let her spend time with us for a day and the next thing I know, I am a kidnapper. God knows what will happen if I let it happen again.
I explained everything to Accalia why we needed to move. She understood. She advised me to talk to Alpha, her tribe's chief but I didn't want to. I wanted to keep that as my last option. I was going through estate pages in every newspaper every day to find a good house at an affordable price.
It was Thursday morning, I was looking in the newspaper to find a house. I read an advertisement about a villa being on sale. It was a huge villa on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by forest. It was on sale at a very low price. A villa at this low price attracted my interest but I was sceptical. The price was insanely low. I searched about it on the internet and found out that it used to be a haunted villa. Even Though the place was exorcised by a famous exorcist, Marybelle Garcia, no one wanted to live there. Its owner who witnessed the exorcism wanted to sell it as it was a traumatizing event and she wants to grow out of it. The place was like me. We both had damaged our image in society even though it wasn't our fault. Even Though our name was cleared, people looked at us with nasty eyes. I felt related to its story. The forest being in its vicinity was beneficial for Accalia as she could go hunting anytime she wanted. I decided to buy it. I was hoping that it's not in the territory of any wolf clan.
The next day, I took a day off. I showed Accalia our potentially new house. She got excited after seeing greenery all around the house. She told me that the house wasn't inside any of the clans' territory. I guess she can sense these kinds of things. That was a relief. I looked around the villa. It was beautiful. The architecture was a combination of Victorian and modern style. It was recently renovated. The security system was updated and a fence was installed on the perimeter of the house. There was an indoor swimming pool. Five bedrooms, two on the ground floor and three on the first floor, a kitchen and a guest room. Apart from these, there was a dining hall as well as a lounge area. It will be difficult for me to maintain a big house like this but I can't afford a maid. I talked with the agent. She told me that I can move in immediately. I bought the house with cash the next day. I was saving money for a house in the city. I had saved more money than the amount needed for the villa. The transaction went smoothly.
It was Saturday afternoon, after finishing the transaction, I was sitting in my old apartment waiting for the shipping crew to arrive. I had packed everything the day before. The only drawback of the villa is that now I have to drive every day to work. I used to travel by public transport to save money but that's not an option anymore. There's no bus stop near the villa on route to my workplace. I was saving money to buy a house, but since I already bought such a great villa, I might not need to save money anymore. The shipping crew arrived. The landlord was there to make sure the apartment was the way he gave it to me. I paid the due rent to him and followed the shipping crew to the villa. I decided to change one of the bedrooms on the ground floor into a gym and another one into a guest room. The first floor had a huge balcony which was accessible by all three bedrooms. The balcony opens to the thick canopy of the forest. Trees were close to the house. Their branches touched the balcony. I made the bedroom on both sides into my and Accalia's bedroom and the middle one as a common room. I kept the television there. I didn't need to buy much of the furniture as the villa came furnished in the deal. Accalia didn't want to have a room between our bedrooms but to me, that was the right thing to do. The shippers left the box in the storage room. I unboxed the things I needed and left the other ones in the storeroom. It took me the whole day to get settled in the new place. I planned to buy gym equipment with the remaining savings. It was a tiring day for me. I was surprised by how much energy Accalia still had. It was 9 p.m. Accalia wanted to go on a hunt but I didn't want her to wander around the forest this late. I had some cup ramen left in my refrigerator. I made ramen for both of us. Although it didn't taste marvellous, it was edible. After dinner, I went to sleep. Accalia stayed in the common room watching television.
The next day, I woke up early in the morning. It was 8 am, I started cooking breakfast and lunch for both of us. Accalia came to my room last night. She might have had a bad dream. She turned into a wolf and slept on the floor. I picked her up in the morning and tucked her in the bed. I tried not to wake her up. I left a note for her beside the bed before leaving the house. The note stated that there's a meal prepared for her in the refrigerator. I also gave her permission to go for a hunt with two conditions, not to catch anything too big and keep a distance from human eyes. It was Saturday. Normally, I would have taken the weekend off but I was already behind my work. I went in for overtime. At my workplace, there was only me, the manager and the receptionist. Everyone else was taking their day off. I noticed that the receptionist was hiding pepper spray under her desk. We used to be good friends, she suspects me as well. It hurt me. "No one but Accalia believes me now." I thought. I was worried about her. She must have been hunting by now. There's nothing I could do. At least she will be in the forest, surrounded by nature. The place where she belongs. I focused on my work. Time was passing slowly. I worked till five and left for home. I was thinking about Accalia. I hope she didn't kill a big animal. Unconsciously, I drove to my old apartment. I noticed I was in the wrong neighbourhood. Instead of being surrounded by trees, I was surrounded by concrete. I rerouted my journey and drove towards Villa. The sun was hanging on the horizon, ready to set down and let the darkness spread its legs over the world. When I entered the villa, my nose was attacked by the strong smell of meat and blood. I saw Accalia covered in blood. I got worried. "Accalia!", I exclaimed, "are you okay?". She nodded and pointed at a bucket containing a dead rabbit inside. "Rabbit's blood." She replied. I sighed. "That's a relief. How was the hunt?" I asked. She told me how she jumped off the balcony in her human form and climbed down the trees, slowly turning into a wolf. Then she ran around the forest for a while until she found a rabbit grazing away from its bill. She always loved the tender meat of a rabbit. She chased it. She told me that it gave her a hard time. She got back a few hours ago. I looked around the room. I could see faint bloodstains. She tried her best to clean bloodstains. I patted her head and cheered her for her hard work. I told her to clean the blood stains with bleach. She got her hands busy with that.
I have never cooked a rabbit in my entire life. I can cook some basic meals but I never learnt to cook rabbits. I searched for a tutorial on youtube. Luckily, we are living in the age of the internet. Knowledge is easily accessible as long as people use the internet correctly. I followed the tutorial step by step. De-skinned rabbit is chopped into small pieces and then cooked in a broth with spices. The villa was filled with a delicious aroma. I could see Accalia drooling at the tender meat of the rabbit. She was almost done with the cleaning. I prepared the dining table for both of us. She washed while I served meals for both of us. The dining table was a twenty-five seater model. Twenty-five people can sit together at once and have meals. I was at the host place while Accalia sat on the guest of honour seat, next to me. I served her Rabbit broth with some bread and we started our meal. The tender and soft meat of the rabbit was delicious. It was the boost I needed after a week like this. Accalia was enjoying her meal. The smile on her face was beautiful. She was gifted. She had the power to find happiness in little things. She can get happy over something so trivial as a meal while many people burden their minds with the stress of work, family and whatnot, but Accalia was different. No matter what problem she's going through, she always finds happiness in small things. She is a precious soul. After our meal, I tucked her in her bed. She held my hand while I was walking away. "What's wrong?", I asked. "Don't want to sleep alone." She replied. Although at my apartment, we shared a bedroom, that was a necessity. It was a small apartment, so we had no choice. She pleaded. "I will turn into a wolf and won't take much space.", She said and looked at me with big wet eyes. I couldn't say no to her cute face. She turned into a wolf, I hugged her and slowly drifted away into the realm of sleep.