The Maiden and the Wolf---- *A Fantasy Romance Story*
*Chapter 9*
Dakota and Elena were both woken the next morning by shrieks and shouts from the village.
Elena POV
I scrambled out of bed and hurried to my window, staring out and saw to my horror that two of the buildings had been set alight by the strange men who now were moving towards the next building.
I grabbed my leather armour and quickly put it on over my night dress, pulled the sword out from under my bed and strapped in around my waist and seized my bow and quiver full of arrows and flung them across my back.
My father burst into my room, fully fitted out too in leather armour and sword.
Ren was standing eyes wide with fear behind him.
"What's going on?" I asked as my father grabbed both me and Ren and yanked us towards the front door.
"Those men are Reapers," hissed my father, "sorceries wanting to destroy all un-magical things."
"Why?" I gasped.
"Because they honestly believe its right," snarled my father, pulling us out of the front door.
More buildings were inflamed now; people were screaming and running everywhere in fear and confusion.
Ren screamed; I turned to see a Reaper leaping at her.
I tried to raise my sword in time to protect her and myself but I saw to slow.
Clamping my eyes shut, pulling Ren into my arms, I waited for the Reapers sword to cut me down but it next came.
I opened my eyes and saw my father had leapt in the way; the Reaper's sword was driven right into his chest all the way out of his back.
"Father!" Ren screamed.
The Reaper pulled out his sword with a horrible sound, my father coughed, blood coming out of his mouth then he fell into his knees with a muffled thump then keeled forwards to lie still in a gathering pool of his blood.
Dakota POV
No one paid attention to me sprinting through the village so fast I was a black blur.
I saw the Reaper kill Elena's father as I gained upon them, paws pounding against the ground, shoulders rising and falling.
Elena's wave of loss and grief almost knocked me over as it hit me, it knocked the breath from my lungs and forced me to stop as my joints locked.
I howled with her scream in unison. Tears filling my eyes, my jaws ached I was clenching it so hard.
Elena POV
I heard his howl and tore my eyes from my fathers body and sure enough there he stood, stiffed legged, staring at me with horror so clear on his face that I should believe he was just a wolf.
The Reaper saw him too, saw the connection between us and raised his sword to strike me while my back was turned.
Dakota POV
I watched the Reaper raise his sword in slow motion, the bright morning sunlight glinting off the blood stained steel and a bead of blood rolling down it.
"No!" my howl almost sounded human.
I throw myself across the space between us and my jaws closed around the Reaper's wrist, slicing his veins into ribbons. Releasing the Reaper's severed arm I lunged again at his throat my teeth just catching his skin as he raised his good arm to protect himself.
He flung me back, whipping his sword at me, I dodged but the blade caught my hip. Blood spattered the ground, I fell back stunned, it had been so long since I had got badly hurt, since a human had got the better of me.
Elena POV
I saw my wolf's blood on the ground and anger reared up inside of me like a snake about to strike.
Yelling I stabbed my sword into the Reaper's leg, he hissed in pain, twisting around, tarring my blade from his leg as he did.
He parried the attack, his sword screeching down mine to the very hilt. Yanking me forwards, his face inches away from my own, he stared into my eyes searching for the fear.
Dakota POV
I leapt at the Reaper's back, digging my claws into his shoulder blades and sank my fear into the side of his neck. He released Elena and fell under my attack, the loss of blood finally getting to him. I bit hard, wanting to hear the resounded crack of bone as I snapped his neck. I longed for it. Bloodlust had taken over.
Elena POV
Lifting my sword again I put all my weight behind it and drove it into the Reaper's chest right into where I thought his heart should be. At the same time a sharp snap sounded from under the wolf's jaws.
I saw the light from the Reaper's eyes fade, a line of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as his head slumped against the ground.
The rest of the Reaper's had fled and all of the surviving villagers were crowding around us all eyes on me as I rapped my arms around the huge black wolf's neck and buried my face into his warm pleasant smelling fur and cried.
Dakota POV
Her arms were around my neck and it felt so nice so right, it hardly mattered that we had an audience. I whined and rubbed my head against her shoulder, breathing in her scent that reminded me of spring. Gently I lifted my front leg and placed it best I could around her and whimpered words that I desperately wanted her to understand.
"Its alright I'm here now, I'll never let anything hurt you, you don't know how long I've waited for you, how many years I spent alone, I had almost lost hope that I would ever find you, please don't cry, I love you Elena."
Elena POV
I heard him whimper in my ear what sounded like words and I closed my eyes and listen hard to them, desperate to understand what he was trying to say to me.
The last bit left me goosepimply; I thought it sounded like 'I love you'.
"I love you too," I whispered, "I know your human, I know your under some kind of curse maybe as a punishment for something you're gone but I don't care. I know what kind of person you really are and I want you to know what ever you did to disserve being curse it doesn't matter, it doesn't. I don't even know your name but I love you with all my heart."
Dakota POV
I wanted to cry at her words but wolves don't cry. Then it started. The feel of warmth, spreading from my toes, like pins and needles, the heat and pain rose up my legs, around my body, down my arms and up into my head. Everything hurt but it felt good. Before my very eyes my paws lengthened into hands, proper hands, with four fingers and a thumb, my claws were nails again and the only fur was thin and on my knuckles.
Elena POV
My breath caught in my throat, beneath my very arms he changed, a sort of gold light appeared around him, his fur melted off him and his body reshaped itself.
I stared down at the naked young man in my arms, his body scarred but very muscled and toned. He had a mop of black hair and as he lifted his head to look down at himself I saw his face was the most handsome I had ever seen and would ever see in my life.
Dakota POV
I slid my hands up her arms, across her shoulders and up her neck so I cupped her face between them. Leaning forwards my nose brushed hers.
"Thank you," I whispered, then kissed her.
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