A few months later, just after her fourteenth birthday, Namid found herself sitting with the alphess in a small sitting room, tea and biscuits between them, the alphess' kind caramel-eyed gaze upon her as she spoke, "Namid, you do realize you will be attending Wyvern's Court in but four years?"
"Yes ma'm." Namid's parents had told her just recently this news, and she hadn't been surprised.
"Well, I have spoken to the Diente and Tuuli Thea, they have arranged with us, a betrothal."
"A betrothal?" Namid looked up from the floor, pale face emotionless.
"Since you are my heir, an alliance between the wolves and Wyvern's Court is needed."
Namid found her voice to be small when she managed to speak, "To whom am I betrothed?"
"To Salem Cobriana, cousin of Oliza Shardae Cobriana who is the Arami and heir to the avian and serpiente thrones."
The younger wolf suddenly felt her shoulders grow heavy with this news and as she walked from the room after thanking the alphess. She walked from the room, head held loftily with all the dignity she could muster.
A girl's sarcastic voice broke that self-grandeur, "Look, it's the dancer! The one who everyone now bows to!" Laughs where heard from her few followers as they threw clumps of mud at her, laughing as she stood there, doing nothing.
"She can't even fight back!" the girl cried, a grin spreading over her face. "Who want an heir who can't fight her battle?"
"You don't belong here!" someone shouted.
"Get out!" another called out.
"Try and dance yourself out of this one, Namid!"
Namid walked past them, head bowed, into the sanctuary of her forest, hearing their insults behind her. Tears, no matter how much she tried to hold them back, fell down her cheeks. She had never cried when they hurt her before, always keeping it bottled up and ignoring them but she was glad when she fell to her knees and just cried.
"Why?" she whispered between sobs, "Why was I chosen to be heir, why did all this happen?"
A soft voice made her look up. "Why do you sob so, little one?"
Namid's heart raced as she wrapped her arms around herself, bending down and trying to hide her shame, her black hair hung loosely around her face.
"Who are you?" she murmured.
"I am a traveler, nothing more." The voice, distinctively male, replied.
The bushes around her rustled and she listened, the normal activity of the forest gone and the air around her tense. She waited a few minutes, saying nothing as the sound of ragged breathing met her ears.
Body uptight, her mind screaming for her to shift, she listened as the voice whispered, so close to her, warm breath tickling her ear.
"The red rose whispers of passion," He kissed her cheek, the barest stroke of lips to skin.
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon…"
She tensed at the shriek that followed, the falcon's cry that all wolves feared.
"And the white rose is a dove.
But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest…"
The man paused.
"Has a kiss of desire on the lips."
The man's body was of shadow and his face of rotting flesh. Where there should have been eyes, blue fire flared. Namid gasped and fell back, eyes wide. The shadow being backed off, "Scared of me are you, star-dancer?" And with a deep chuckle he disappeared.
YOU ARE READING
Wolf-Shifter
FantasyThis story is of a Wolf-Shifter (also called Lycan), or also known as Daire Clement. And yes he can transform into a wolf at will. He is often mistaken for a werewolf, lycans are advanced wolf shapeshifters who have much greater control over their...
