She Who Bears The Wolf's Mark

Decisions, Decisions

Decisions, Decisions

What?" I gasped.

Another silence descended. Not even the wind dared make a sound. The only sound I heard was the roaring of rushing blood in my ears. The tension in the air thickened, static and charged. No one moved. I never even realized I was holding my breath until my lungs started protesting. I inhaled deeply, attempting to somehow clear my mind and decipher piece by piece what I just heard.

They wanted... me?

What did that mean? Why? Slowly, I turned to Xander who had been the one to reply and cautiously asked with a shaking voice no longer fueled by the determination to figure out this complicated jigsaw, "What do you mean? Why the hell do they... do you want me?"

My father was the one to answer me. "That cannot answer you. All we know is that they demanded you be handed to them on your eighteenth birthday as compensation for rescuing you."

Handed to them? On my eighteenth birthday? Payment for saving me? How could this be?

My eyes landed on Xander once again. "Is this true?" I already knew it was. My parents would never lie to me about such matters.

Xander's wolf head nodded. His eyes were filled with so much emotion and intelligence that no ordinary wolf could ever feel or portray, but I couldn't decipher a single one.

Words failed to describe how I felt.

Xander's form started shaking, then the familiar gruesome echoes of bone cracking, breaking, reforming and reshaping echoed once more. He shifted back to his 'human form', the fur that once coated his entire body disappearing, the claws retracting and the whiskers vanishing. There really was no denying what this being before me was now. Xander now stood on his feet instead of on all fours, only he was as naked as the day he was born in.

I didn't think I had ever seen someone so gloriously wonderful in their birthday suit before. He possessed the physique of an athlete or a Greek god, impressive broad shoulders on top of a muscular front sporting a stunning eight-pack. A thin line of sandy hair crawled down his torso, the V of his body then creating a...

A shiver raked my body when I realized what I was staring at and I instantly looked away, the most wicked and embarrassing of all blushes spreading across my face and neck, setting my entire form on fire, my heart stuttering and stammering and choking, my back tingling -more like burning- like crazy

I saw the corner of his mouth lift up in a smirk that basically screamed: I know you have the hots for me.

It infuriated me beyond description, even if it were true.

This all seemed like it had been ripped out of a ludicrous fantasy movie! How could this pack of werewolves demand me as 'payment', even if they did save me, like I were some sort of mindless animal? From what I could see, Xander and his werewolf friends were the animals, though apparently very devious and cunning to have cornered my parents into submission and agreeing to giving away their own daughter! Of course I was also angry at my parents for having agreed to such a preposterous thing, but I also understood their choices were very limited at the time and they probably didn't have much time to decide either. I knew my father and mother well; they were not the sort of people who'd just decide on something so drastic and life-changing without thinking things through a millions times and then a million times again.

Yet... I found it extremely hard not to stare at them reproachfully and accusingly, or feel betrayed for that matter.

"What if I don't want to go with them?" I challenged bravely, taking a step back. This time, I would not think twice about charging toward the car, and I did not care who –or what- chased after me.