Dandelions don't die [Ongoing]

FIFTEEN - Vidar

Wild animals and good mates

Vidar stared at Elizabeth without blinking. His wolf, who had taken over, when he had seen Lulu sniff his little human like she was going to bite her in the next moment, had backed down. He was sulking after his advances had been rejected. He wasn't interested anymore in the reasoning.

Vidar, on the other hand, was very much interested.

"You're married," he repeated Elizabeth's words slowly.

Why was fate so cruel at times?

"Yes," she said quietly. "Already for over a decade."

Vidar furrowed his eyebrows. He knew that humans married young because their lifespan was much shorter than that of a shifter, but he hadn't thought her to be old enough to be already married for a decade. She seemed young to him.

"Where is he then, your husband?" Vidar demanded to know.

Normally, human men didn't send their wives off to work somewhere else. And neither did shifter men for that matter, but it wasn't as unusual.

Elizabeth shrugged and then turned her head to the side, like she was ashamed. 

"Probably at his house or travelling for work. He is a merchant," she said this like she didn't care.

"And why are you here?"

Vidar had thought that she had come here because she didn't have anyone else to rely on. If she had a husband, shouldn't he be taking care of her?

Elizabeth's face flushed bright red and then she looked back at him with the same stubborn, pained look that she had given him this morning, when he had tried to order her to eat.

She was miserable but wasn't one to share her hurt easily. She wasn't one to let others in.

"Because I needed work," she replied with her lips pulled tightly together. "Because my husband set me out on the streets a few days before Glenna gave me a place to work here."

Vidar heard Glenna and some others make surprised sounds. It seemed that nobody knew this.

"And why would he do that?" He continued asking.

He needed to understand. Not just for his own sake but as the second in command, he also had to think of the pack and its safety. 

What if she would bring problems to their doorstep?

What if she was a thief like the servants before her?

What if she had a dark side, even though she behaved like an angel?

Elizabeth took a step back, but he didn't let her get very far and grabbed her wrists again. However, unlike before, now she was struggling against his hold.

The smell of fear was surrounding her.

Vidar hated that smell from her but he couldn't let her escape, not if she could be bad for the pack.

"Why?" He demanded.

Elizabeth glanced at him stubbornly but he could see the fear in her eyes.

Fear and sorrow.

The same kind of sorrow that had plagued her earlier.

Had his little human been hurt?

Was this why she was so miserable before?

"Tell me why," he said with force.

The need to understand was all-consuming.

"Let me go," she demanded, getting angry as well.