Treaty Bound

Chapter 4: Beauty and the Beast

   The next morning I woke knowing several things before I even opened my eyes. The first was that I was not in my bed or any bed for that matter. I was laying instead on a very soft patch of grass or possibly moss, I couldn't tell which exactly. This lead me to the second thing I knew, last night had not been a dream, though I was having a hard time remembering exactly what had happened.

   Unfortunately, those were not the worst things I knew as I lay on the cool ground pretending to still be asleep. With a cool breeze blowing across my skin it told me I no longer had the thick and warm fur coat of the wolf. This would have made me feel better if it didn't mean I was also completely naked and lost somewhere in the middle of the forest.

   The wolf still sleeping now stirred awake irritated by the anxiety and panic twisting my insides into knots. I could feel he was there in the back of my mind like that voice that's always inside your head but this voice was different. Hell, it had no real voice at all only its own will that seemed to be overlapping with my own. His wants, needs and emotions seemed to blend into mine and soon I could not tell which were my own. This only helped to further aggravate the situation as everything became a confusing mess that I was unable to sort out.

   I inhaled a deep breath hoping to calm myself and I was surprised to find that my sense of smell was almost as good as it had been when I was a wolf. The scent of violets, grass, fallen leaves, and the morning dew were almost as vibrant to my nose as the colors of the sunset were to my eyes. The strongest sent and the one the wolf focused on was of mint, soap, and silk. The white wolf from last night was close, very close. Knowing this did wonders to calm the wolf inside me but only increased my anxiety as memories of the night before slowly started coming back to me.

   I had chased her into forest thinking she was playing some kind of game and would soon let me catch her but she wasn't. As I fought for control he chased her through the forest leaping over fallen logs and dodging around trees with ease. As we ran, I somehow just knew that he was only playing with her and that if he had wanted to he could catch her.

   In almost the same way I was dimly aware of the other wolves following us. Knowledge passed on by the wolf somehow because I could not see or hear them. Still, it seemed to have no fear of them at all. It was focused on catching the white wolf and confused as to why she was running from him. I could feel more than hear the wolf growl as it started to grow annoyed with the chase. He put on a burst of speed closing the gap quickly and was just about to tackle her when a huge brown bear crashed into our side.

   My eyes shot open as the memory of the impact and the pain of my shoulder shattering came back to me. Heart racing I was breathing now so it was useless to pretend to be sleeping any longer anyway. Now outside of the memories, my shoulder didn't hurt in the least. In fact, I may have felt better than I had ever felt before.

   I had never thought of myself as weak but now my muscles seemed to hum with energy and a desire to run. One hand resting on my stomach felt nothing but smooth skin pulled tight over hard muscles where I am sure I use to have a bit of a belly. Having two dinners a few nights a week will do that to a guy. The change must have burned it all away or maybe it just got rid of anything not needed.

   As I lay on the mossy ground wondering what else may have changed my eyes adjusted to the sunlight shining off something bright just in front of me. It was a head of pale golden hair not more than a foot in front of me. Unlike Krysta's thick dark red hair this girl's hair was thin and so pale it almost looked white in the sunlight. Strands of fine hair blew about in the light breeze reflecting the sun in odd ways making her hair almost seem to twinkle.

   Though I knew deep down that I shouldn't I could not stop my eyes from moving lower. Like me she was naked and her skin was pale and delicate as if she had hardly ever spent any time out in the sun, unlike the girls I knew from the village. I had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her with my fingertips to see if it felt just as soft as it looked.

   My eyes, on the other hand, I could not stop from moving lower down her back to the curve of her very slim waist. It was hard to believe that this tiny delicate thing turned into the huge white wolf I saw last night. I suppose though as far as large wolves go she was slim and agile in that form as well.

   I sniffed the air again to make sure it was her and she did indeed smell of the same mint, soap, and silk as she had the night before. My eyes drifted lower towards her hips and as..."You should treat women with more respect." My eyes shot back up to her golden hair as the memory of the high pitched voice of my mother yelling at me only a week ago came back to me.

   "She would not mind you looking but I suggest you keep your hands to yourself unless you want another row with Bear, " a gruff voice said from just out of sight. I tilted my head up to see the dark-skinned man who had been walking with the pack yesterday. He was now leaning casually against the thick trunk of an oak looking down at me. The wolf became agitated and I had to fight the urge to stand.

   I had heard of men like him from stories told by travelers as I listened in unseen from an alley or dark corner of a tavern. Till yesterday I had thought them nothing more than tall tales told by travelers to earn a free drink or two from anyone gullible enough to pay for a story. No one could possibly have skin naturally darker than the darkest tan. Yet here he was, a tall, thin but muscular man with a bald head and skin so dark it could only have been a few shades off from being solid black.

   He was wearing the same worn leather pants that looked like they used to be a reddish-brown color but were now largely faded to a light tan. Thick thread sewed the seams and several long cuts together. Unlike the softer leather of his pants, his chest was covered in hardened leather armor that looked if possible more worn and damaged then his pants.

   "I, on the other hand, do mind if you stare at me," he said but his body language and scent said something else entirely. He leaned against the tree casually but his body was too tense and he stood on the balls of his feet as if ready to run... no, he was ready to fight if needed. His expression was far too intense to be relaxed though over time I learned that he always looked that way.

   Compelled to do so by the wolf I sniffed the air as if it had been my own idea to do so. His sent was the same as the black wolf's had been last night tanned leather, campfire smoke, and fish but there was something else mixed in now. Whatever that smell was it was far to complex for me to understand it or even attempt to explain it. Still, the wolf knew and understood it so in a way I knew and understood it was the smell of stress and fear coming off the man that would have looked relaxed and uncaring to any human who saw him.

   My human mind was finding my new understanding of things both fascinating and also a little terrifying. My chest started to tighten as that very familiar and overwhelming urge to run away from these people and hide took hold again as it so often did when I was around too many people or just someone I didn't know.

   The wolf is why I didn't run and hide this time. It was not scared of the alphas intimidating stare or the fact that he was looking down on us as we lay naked on the forest floor in front of him. It was completely at ease, content even to just lay there next to the equally naked woman. It's calm quieted that urge to run and hide just enough so that I was able to ignore it for once.

   "Where are my clothes?" a hundred or more questions on my mind and that was the only one I could manage to give voice too.

   "Behind you on the ground. We doubled back last night to get them but you passed out after your change," he says.

   I twisted around to look and sure enough, there were my pants and shirt in a heap on the ground. I gathered them up quickly in one hand and twisted back around intending to get up and put them on. Instead, I found my arm going around the woman who had rolled over while I had been looking away. Her small naked body now pressed to mine was very warm in the cool morning air. My whole body reacted, immediately going stiff, I could not move or even speak as I looked down into her eyes. At first, I had thought they were the same beautiful pale blue as the aquamarine gemstones I sometimes set into the hilts of swords or daggers of wealthy men. This close I could see that her eyes were not completely blue though, streaks of gold wove between the patterns of lighter and darker blue and circled the blacks of her eyes. She was the most breathtakingly beautiful woman I had ever seen and all I wanted to do at that moment was run.

   "Morning," she said with a smile. Her voice was as soft and delicate as she looked. She started to giggle when I found myself unable to return her greeting. My face grew hot as I blush spread from my cheeks to chest. "You were not this shy last night."

   A deep low growl brought me back to my senses and in a way saved me from further embarrassing myself further. I found myself away from the girl and crouching on the balls of my feet ready to fight or flee before my human mind could process what my body was even doing. I had never moved anywhere that quick or agile in my life. I was a big man and strong sure but that also meant I had always been slowed by my bulk. This threw me off balance both mentally and physically and I almost fell on my ass as the world started spinning before me. I closed my eyes to steady myself and managed to stay on my feet.

   The wolf was not at all off balance and I found myself inhaling a deep breath through my nose even as I was trying to steady myself. The scents of the girl and the alpha were quickly pushed aside along with the smells of the forest. The red and black wolf was somewhere close by but her scent was also pushed aside. Then the wolf found what he was looking for hot spices, sweat, and that same smell of something tangy possibly a fruit of some kind. Under that was a strong complex smell that like before I couldn't understand but still knew because the wolf did that it was anger.

   I opened my eyes to see I was indeed in the same small clearing I had chosen to make my stand the night before. The sun was already peeking over the tops of the trees scattering beams of sunlight across the clearing as it passed through the topmost branches. Standing in the shadows on the far side of the clearing among the densely packed oak trees was the same massive brown bear. Its white teeth seemed to shine in the darkness as its lips curled back in a snarl.