Page 34 of The Wolf Moon

“I can lock you up in a dungeon while I go do those other things.”

My mouth dropped open with disbelief. I quickly closed it and glared at him.

“Yeah, throw me in more cages. It’s an ongoing theme on your part!”

“I’m starting to wish I had hunted you after all.”

“We can fight right now if you want.” I stood sharply.

Caleb stared me down intensely. Diana looked as though she had completely lost control of the entire situation. I only kept Caleb’s gaze intently, prepared to lunge myself entirely at this werewolf even without any ammo. If I could go against the King Alpha and the Shadow of Death and survive, I felt I had one up on this man.

“You… are definitely Alpha Roman’s mate,” Caleb finally said. “I can see it now. Come on.” He stood in front of me and bowed slightly, lifting his hand palm up in front of me. I wasn’t sure what the motion meant, so I only stared at him dumbfounded.

“I am offering you acceptance and a form of submission. I will not admit you as my superior until I have been bested, but I will admit you as an equal. Let’s try to be friends, shall we, Tala Mila?” Caleb said to me simply. I hesitated further, recalling how hands had brushed over mine before the fight with Cate. Going on instinct, I reached forward and brushed my fingertips over Caleb’s palm and he straightened up in ease.

“Fingertips are rude, especially for a tutelary title to do to a Beta, but I’ll accept it as a rookie’s mistake,” He informed me, turning to gesture to Diana. “Diana failed to hunt you as well. She’s only ever preferred the bow to the bite.”

Diana looked entirely pleased. She smiled and held her hand out to me, palms up. I took the hint much better this time and I used the entirety of my own palm to brush against hers. It felt silly, but a part of me could feel the scent of her hand on mine, like a different type of mark.

“For the wolves who submitted to you during the hunt, you won’t need their acceptance in such a form because they’ve already given it to you by force. In this way, we aren’t demanding a challenge. It’s a lot more relaxing, unless you were to deny it,” Diana explained to me, probably recognizing the confusion written on my face. “You are our guest, until Alpha Roman comes back. But please don’t abuse such a title. Any failures on Beta Caleb’s part will be punished upon his return, and it could be brutal especially when coming to a famed mate.”

I paused, considering her request in earnest. For Roman, I definitely would do everything in my power to go against him. But for someone like Diana, who had done nothing to harm me, I couldn’t find it in myself to let her down.

“Fine. A willing guest. I’ll do as you ask,” I submitted, turning to peer at Caleb determinedly. “I guess it would be better… to have friends, rather than more enemies.”

~…~

I went a few days before I began to feel that nagging sensation within me. It kept me up at night and I found myself hugging my knees to my chest, listening to that beast under my skin. Most of the time, it felt like something wild and dangerous; unnatural. But sometimes it felt different, like the softest kiss of a rabbit’s nose when it greets you. Whatever it was, it was very clear on what it wanted more than anything else.

I thought about Roman. I thought about his unsavory threats on me and my family’s life. A feeling of displeasure associated with the thought of him, but behind that was the beast within me that very much enjoyed every time he had touched me.

I absently reached for him, searching for him through the trees of the forest, bending with the river, under the light of the moon, until something in the mark that connected us allowed me to feel his flesh as mine if only for a moment. And a short moment it was. Roman immediately rejected the connection, cutting off my reach just after I had touched him.

I lied back in bed with irritation, both at Roman and myself.

After a moment longer, I thought about my family. I recalled sitting between my mother’s legs as she ran her fingers through my hair soothingly, watching my dad show my little brother how a certain work tool was used. I wondered if they had prayed over my death, wishing it to be swift and painless. I wondered if my mother had stopped crying over my absence, or if my brother had accepted the fact that I couldn’t have survived after all.

I felt guilt that I hadn’t somehow let them know I was alive if not escaped to return to them by now. When I rolled over onto my side, I looked at my hand which reflected the light of the night softly before me. I thought about how it had shifted into something half animal before my own eyes. Would the thing I’d become even be welcomed back in my village? Would it not frighten those who thought they knew me?

I closed my eyes, thinking over Cynthia’s warning. Even if I did go back to them, Roman was planning something awful. The Goddesses thought I could stop it, though I wasn’t sure why. I obviously wasn’t making a difference.

~…~

Being Beta Caleb’s “guest” was a lot less dull than being Roman’s prisoner. For the first week or so, he was quite strict on following all the rules laid out by his Alpha, but after a couple days of prodding from Diana, he began to relax more when it came to me. He allowed me to follow him around the village, to begin meeting members of the pack.

The youngest member of the pack was a girl just a few months older than I was. Her name was Deb, and she enjoyed plants; growing them and learning about all the different types and their properties. She apologized to me for trying to kill me in the hunt, though she apparently was nowhere close to being the one to catch me.

Not too far outside the village was a vast farmland and crops, which were withered under the snow. Some of the pack kept over the collected crops, keeping them healthy and distributing them with ease. Most of them seemed interested in my presence, but a look from their Beta kept them from addresses me too informally.

Besides the farming, there were groups of hunters who would gather what they could from the wildlife around them. There were collectors and traders, who moved from wolf pack to wolf pack freely. Communication was open between them. Besides some obvious differences in freedom, I found myself struck by how similar the people of this deity village were to my own.

On one random day, Caleb took me to the arena in which I had fought Roman in during our challenge. Some straggler wolves were watching from the safety of the seats and stands surrounding the place, but within the center there were at least a dozen men and women sparring with each other. Most were in human form, but some had shifted at least partially. Many also were using weapons and none were actually intent on killing each other.

“This group is my responsibility,” Caleb told me with a critical look, “They are our top performers; our strongest warriors. I believe your friend Cate is the least friendly looking one over there.” He pointed out Cate to me and I saw what he meant. She stood in front of her sparring partner without a weapon, but something in her serious expression was weapon enough as is. When her partner finally lunged at her, she moved faster than I could see and had him pinned to the ground with his arm twisted behind his back easily.

I was beginning to suspect she let me win in the match against her.

“Why do you need warriors?” I asked, trying to sound aloof but obviously failing when I saw the look Caleb shot me.

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