Red Roses - (FCRAs 2016 Winner)

Child Killers

Lorelie stared at him for a long, long time, silence stretching between them as they looked at each other.

"The... May Witches?" she copied.

Grey bowed his head.

"As is... Lorelie May?"

"As in Lorelie May," he confirmed.

Lorelie just stared at him. "Are you saying I'm a witch?" she asked, her voice weak.

Grey chuckled, looking away and shaking his head. "No," he said, "No you're not a witch. You've never shown any tendencies towards the skills. Neither did you mother nor your brother, the powers seem to have skipped several generations there."

"Is that why you got close to me?" Lorelie asked slowly. She only meant the question as a test but the next second the world span around her, making her squeak before she found herself flat on her back, staring up at Grey as he knelt over her, his hands holding her cheeks, his face inches from hers as he glared down at her.

"What did I say, Lorelie?" he said, a growl to his voice, "What scared me in the first place? Why did I not want you knowing anything about me?"

Lorelie just stared up and him, then she blinked and he sighed, pressing his forehead to hers, closing his eyes.

"I didn't want you to think I was using you," he muttered, "Honestly, I thought you knew more about your family history then you clearly do. It's obvious now you have no idea about the witches of your bloodline, but even though I've known for so many years... it's not why I got close to you."

"Why did you get close to me then?"

Grey opened his eyes, then sat back on his heels, keeping his weight off her waist as he knelt over her, looking down at her. "I've been close to you for a very long time, Lorelie," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Who do you think contributed to your fear of the woods in the first place?" he asked.

Lorelie looked at him for a moment, then sat up so fast Grey almost fell backwards to keep her from head-butting his chest. "Excuse me?" she said.

Grey looked away, rubbing the back of his head. "It... really wasn't my plan to hurt you," he said. "Let's just say you were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"You were that wolf? You yourself? Not just a member of your pack or Roth's?"

"I had to protect you," Grey said, quickly standing up, "You were caught in the middle an old – old – war and I had to protect you. It's part of the curse."

"What?"

He shrugged, pulling away as she stood up. "We killed a familiar, a protector to a May Witch, so we had to take over, protect the members of The May Family over the generations, you fall under that protection."

"What on earth were you protecting me from?"

Grey looked at her in surprise. "The Huntsman, of course."

Lorelie stared back at him, then closed her eyes and shook her head. "Wolves don't protect people from Huntsmen. Huntsmen protect people from wolves."

"I'm not lying," Grey snapped.

"Why in the world would huntsmen attack me then?"

Grey narrowed his eyes, then looked away again. "I told you, wrong place, wrong time."

"That doesn't explain why I would need to be protected for him."

Grey glanced at her, then looked up at the moon and in between Lorelie's blinks, he was gone, back into his wolf form.