Trifecta: Wind [Complete]

Chapter 8: Gnawed

Matthias and I spent the afternoon together outside Serge's pack offices. It might not have been the most romantic date location, but it felt great to be able to feel reasonably relaxed for the afternoon.

We talked and we kissed and eventually Matthias fell asleep on the blanket in the sunshine. In spite of his stubborn insistence to the contrary, I had known he was tired.

I used the opportunity to properly look at him. It was not as if I did not know already know his features like the back of my hand, but there was something different there in spite of the familiarity of the past.

Something in the changed rules, the changed perception.

It was not as if I had never recognized that he was handsome. He had a straight nose and sharp features, although he looked more relaxed in sleep with his deep dark eyes hidden from me and his worries far from his mind.

I wished he could feel this peaceful normally when he was awake.

We had had fairly normal childhoods, barring the additional difficulties that came with living in a place so disconnected from the rest of civilization, so far north that relatively few people wanted to live here.

There had always been a vague awareness of the threat of the eastern wolves, but the attacks had been so few and far between that they had not really bothered me or the other children. Being herded to the shelters by our mothers had seemed almost an adventure, so disconnected were we from the danger that was moving towards us.

I only vaguely recalled the ripple of unease that went through the adults in the territory when the Rocky Mountain Packs had gone black, but I had quickly forgotten to worry about even that in the easy days of my childhood. A terrible thing, but not something that touched me directly.

I remembered when the attacks had suddenly increased in severity. Serge's pack had lost their leader and he had lost his parents. Matthias and a lot of the boys and a few of the other girls had begun to take a larger interest in training to defend our people.

Maybe I had been wrong not to be more active, but the idea of fighting, maybe killing someone seemed too difficult to me. I did not blame our fighters for their actions in our defense, but I imagined that they had some strength that I did not have.

Matthias could be a bit rough, mainly with the other male werewolves from time to time, but he did not revel in killing while he felt pride in his ability to lend his strength to protect our people.

Matthias was far from perfect, but I already knew his faults as well as I knew his many virtues.

Yet, under the chains of the curse was an increasing quiet certainty about my decision. My renewed shudders that even the heat of the beaming sun could not prevent were completely at odds with reality.

If the curse broke, I would have a future of security and happiness ahead of me. If my idea failed to work and it did not, I would have a future I could manage, and as Matthias had said, we would continue to try to break the magic other ways.

Surely there were other ways. Nothing in life was permanent and I could only hope the curse was the same.

Despite the cold rushing down my spine, the warmth of the sun was beginning to make me feel drowsy, so I slipped closer to Matthias and put my head down on his shoulder. A few minutes later I followed him into sleep.

* * *  *  *  *  * * *

I woke up when Matthias moved. I opened my eyes to find him looking at me. I smiled at him.

"You're beautiful," he told me.

"Thanks, you're beautiful too," I told him.

"I'm beautiful?" he repeated, not sounding particularly flattered by my response.