Before a Once Upon A Time

Wolf Of Man - A Good Book

Story 3 - Wolf Of Man

Part 8 - A Good Book

            Lupe still couldn't completely wrap his mind around what was happening. She was…here…to kill him. But she didn't know it was him she was talking to. Could he leave? Abandon his carefully found home and search for a new one? Make her believe that the beast had escaped into the night after hearing their words and that she should leave the castle to him? Perhaps, actually. That last one almost sounded plausible. And he carefully cocked his head and caught the tiniest shifting sound outside and knew that it had begun to rain. Perfect. He would stage a fake run away scene and she would go chasing after the phantom beast in the rain, unable to find him because he didn't exist. She would keep searching for ‘him’ to fulfill her promise to the village and make sure the beast didn't simply return in a few days and cause a return on her payment. She would go away and neither would be hurt. It was perfect.

            He began to plot and when she eventually looked up with a troubled expression, he said "I was thinking. It would be easier to kill him if he were asleep,” Seeing the expression on her face that screamed she wanted a hunt not a duck shoot, he quickly amended his statement. “Or…or at least sleepy right?”  

            He waited as she hesitated, hesitated, considering, before she nodded just the smallest amount. "Well, he takes his tea around now. I could lace it with something that would make him sleepy and give it to him and that would make it easier for you, right?" She looked at him with infinite eyes and he almost rescinded his offer when she smiled the littlest bit and said" That would be helpful. Thank you." He knew she had accepted only because she had worked out that if he were up here in solitude serving the beast, he must be very loyal and wouldn't actually help her kill him. Or maybe she figured he would go warn the beast and she wanted the hunt so badly that she was willing to lose a few minutes.

            He walked until out of her hearing and then ran to the front doors and threw them open. He caught water in his hands and pooled it on the floor in the way he had seen many times before-it was how the water pooled when the doors were open and a gust of wind blew water in on the foyer. He liked to have the doors open whenever there was a storm because it was so raw and primal and invigorating and it put even the beast to shame.

            He looked at his handiwork for a minute and nodded. It wasn't the best but it would have to do. He took several deeps breaths and then began to pant heavily, almost bringing out the wolf on accident but repressing it. He began to feel the muscle fatigue that came with not enough oxygen before he sprinted to the room she was in and threw open the doors. "He's gone!" He shouted, gasping for air. He wasn't actually tired by the run. That kind of stuff was easy after he had gained his wolf, but he had to seem like a normal human, frantic from a search around the castle. Which was why he had taken the panicking breaths before he had left the foyer. She stood and looked at him with a thin smile.

            "He's gone? Ah. He must have figured out what I was and ran. Okay. I can do with a good chase." She bent over to stretch and for a second, he was mesmerized with her strong, lithe muscles stretching and releasing before he snapped himself out of it, wondering how he hadn't noticed those defined muscles before. Then, he reconsidered and guessed it was because he couldn't stop looking at her face.

            She stretched above her head, rolled her shoulders and grabbed a belt full of who knows what- all sorts of nasty things if the look of glee on her face was any indication. She strapped it around her shoulder and across her body and attached another one at hip level, clipping both into hidden pins in the clothing she was now wearing- a skintight black suit that covered her arms and legs. He looked around and found the dress she had come in balled up in the corner- the perfect disguise for the body suit beneath, considering it covered her legs, arms and even partially hid her neck. Her shoes were the same as before but he hadn't paid attention to them- black and thick at the bottom, like continuations of the suit but not attached even though they were of the same material.  He watched with fascination as she tugged at an almost seamless fold in the material and pulled it down to hook around her middle finger, shielding the back of her hand while giving it normal grip and slipperiness and then repeating the same process with the other hand. Another almost seamless fold  resulted in a mask covering her mouth and nose, making her look much like the ninjas of old he had heard about and see caricatures of when he was younger. She looked at him with a now unreadable expression and asked "Where?" in a muffled voice that didn't seem otherwise hindered by the reflective, stretchy fabric.(Its actually almost a rubber substance but he hasn't seen that ever, so he doesn't know to call it that so I won't either.)