The Wolf's Bride

Chapter 5

Light prickled into the room through wide windows, golden warmth tickling my face as I finally opened my eyes, just to check if there were any curtains I could pull to make the sun go away.

The room I was in was not my own. Then the memories came pouring back into my exhausted brain, along with a pulsing pain in my whole body, fainter than it was the night before.

In a panicked hurry, I checked my body, picking up the folds of the dress I was still wearing, to see if there was any blood, to check with my eyes, since with the pain in my entire frame I couldn't tell if my hips were hurting too. No blood, no hurt, no wounds beyond those on my feet, my vulnerable, bandaged feet.

Alekin was not in bed. I was ashamed by how relieved that made me feel. That relief wouldn't last me. I would still have to spend a life sleeping next to him, doing awful nasty things... I didn't even want to think about carrying his children. How were werewolf children born anyway? Were they called cubs? Would they be furry? Oh, that would be painful... I hoped they weren't born furry, much less in a wolf form. God... to even think I would have to ask him if I wanted to have the information before pushing out a child for him. My face scrunched in disgust and horror.

No! I would not be thinking of this so soon. I had to stay positive! If I was annoying enough I might be able to get him to kill me before having him put a child in me.

As I rose from the bed, gathering the layers of clothing to make it easier to move around, I realized that my sense of positivity was positively messed up.

My husband was nowhere to be found, not in the bathroom, or the kitchen, or on the patio visible from the window.

Delighting in the solitude I was blessed with, I searched the kitchen drawers for food and gulped down as much as I could without throwing up. It was the first time in the last week when I had such a ravenous hunger in me. The first time in much longer than a week. I couldn't remember the last time I had ate so much and with such passion. Perhaps it was the stress and the way my brain worked twice as much to make me increasingly aware that I was going to be killed one way or another by my husband or his way of life.

When there was no space to possibly eat another bite, I decided to go outside, to bask in the sun. That too was something I hadn't done it the past week. The moment I was outside with the sun blinding me, I laied down on the soft grass, the smell of freshness and life blooming around me. Flowers smiled at me in multiple colors as I just watched the invite blue of the sky.

I couldn't care less for the wretched wedding dress now being stained by both blood and green and mud. I couldn't care at all. I would probably be burning the thing anyway. That if werewolves even made fire in their caves. I hoped my husband would, since sleeping on cold rock all night might take a serious toll on my health. He might just want me healthy enough to push out children for him some day.

Only when I heard voices too close to where I was laying it dawned on me how indecently I was dressed. If anyone saw me...

"Leave, I'll meet you in an hour." Alekin. The mere sound of his voice made my skin crawl.

I winced when he finally appeared in my peripheral vision. He was wearing different clothes. Someone on his side of the family probably cared enough to procure him with spares. His pants were larger hanging solely by his hips, and his unbuttoned shirt, which in no way matched the pants, was barely even on him. Sweat was dripping down his chest, and it was an effort to lean back to see anything above his neck, like his face, or the look on his eyes, that I couldn't comprehend.

"Here I thought I was the one improperly dressed." I joked, a dumb grin on my face.

He laughed, a hand going through his sweat dampened hair "I went for a run in the morning." the answer made my smile disappeared.