Rune's Understanding (Book 1) The Lost Ones

Chapter 8

This chapter is dedicated to my beloved son, Daniel. May the sun and moon always guide your path to happiness
💘 Mom...
xxxx xXxX xXxX xXxX xxxx

Rune had initially froze, thinking it an illusion or hallucination at first sight. Because for shit's sake, big wolves didn't just walk out of people's backrooms, now did they? It must have been the grand knock to his head, or something strange in the tea he had drunken. But as it sauntered past his leg all nonchalantly, he felt it's solid frame against him and knew that once again his standard boundaries of believability were being sorely tested. The large reddish wolf was as real as he!

It appeared to care not in the least bit about his presence. He, on the other hand, felt an extreme amount of concern about about it's presence! It appeared big enough to swallow him, then use his bones as toothpicks! And it had free reign to just cruise around Scarlett's cabin as if it were the most common sight in the world!

He assumed his best course of action would be to avoid all movement and any direct eye contact. Yet that old adage of "never assume anything, for it only makes an ass out of you and me." ran on rampant replay through his mind.

"Don't worry," Scarlett blew off the strange animal with a wave of her hand. "That there is Red. Guess our names are pretty self explanatory, huh? My Granny was called Garnet, my mama is Ruby. I have an Auntie called Flame and her daugters are named Crimson and Scorcha. Scorcha was my great- granny's name, too. The names gotta be recycled, for there ain't enough to go around!" Scarlett laughed at that.

" What about the guys," Rune asked quietly, one eye on the wolf.

"Thing about that is there ain't many males born into our family. One or two a generation. We are a kinship of females. Always have been, male babies are mostly unheard of."

"Also, ever since the incident with my ancestor and the witch hunter, all of us have red hair. Don't matter the Daddy. No matter how dark him or his hair, any baby born into the Dean family'll have red hair! 'Tis said that Gracie, the ancestor that began all this, had dark, almost black hair, but in whatever happened that eve, she made the flame work for her. And afterwards her eyes had changed to the palest blue, her hair a flaming red. Weird, huh?"

"Yeah, it sure is. But I can't say I don't believe it."

There was plenty Rune was opening up to the thought of. The world was infinitely more than he'd believed. Things were definitely of a different nature
out here. The unreal, unusual and unnatural were deemed completely plausible in this place. Like the big wolf nudging Scarlett's hand for a scratch behind the ears.

Suddenly Red's ears perked up and he bounded towards the door. At first he just seemed excited, but soon began acting agitated. Rune could just start making out the sound of motorcycles rumbling in the distance.

"Sounds like Dan and his pack of fellas."

Scarlett walked over to the wolf, who was turning in tight circles around the front door, eliciting little whines and growls as he paced restlessly.

"Something ain't right." Her brows furrowed in concern. I can sense it, and so can Red. Something wrong is afoot. There's a bad moon a arising this night!

The roar of the Harley Davidson bikes as they pulled up to the cabin was practically deafening to Rune's ears. He found himself at the door by Scarlett and Red, curious as to what was going on.

"It's definitely Dan", Scarlett flung the door open wide and Red shot out of the door like a bullet. Scarlett was at the wolf's heels, flinging her arms around the guy who had lead the group, Dan he presumed, as she kissed him long and deep, it was plain to see Dan was her boyfriend.