A Werewolf's Lullaby

Chapter 5

Rowan

We’re making our way into town so we can stay on the roads and I look at the local shops. Arabella has made it a goal to not look or speak to me, so instead she’s looking out the window at the local scenery as well. We pass a few people quickly walking from one store to another. A few men come into view and they look up at us curiously then I see a look of astonishment cross their faces as we pass them by. Arabella in response sits back against her seat keeping herself from sight with a stern look overcoming her otherwise delicate features.

“Friends of yours?”

She grunts at this and I chuckle at her unladylike behavior. “Hardly.”

“They aren’t used to seeing you this way are they?” I can tell they were devouring her with their eyes, looking at her dress, of what they could see. It cuts low on her chest, but I’m trying to not make a habit of looking. It’s very distracting. And not for the reason other men would think, but because it’s so different from what she was wearing when I first saw her last night. I keep eyeing her to make sure she’s the same girl I met in the woods.

“Yes, let alone seeing me at all. I don’t make a lot of public appearances.”

I give her one of my sarcastic tones with a smile, “I wonder why that is.”

She glares at me and turns to look out the window causing me to laugh again. This was going to be interesting.

~*~

It isn’t until were a few miles away from the town when she asks me, “Where are your other men?”

I shrug in response not making a great deal of concern over it. “Around.”

“Only two are on the carriage with us, but the rest appear to have vanished. Unless you have some invisible steeds I don’t know about, I’d say they have dispersed.”

“What makes you think that?”

She takes a moment to contemplate this and says, “The fact that there weren’t any other horses in the barn, or around for that matter.”

How would she know that? She wasn’t even near the barn today.

“Hmm.”

She’s a lot smarter than I gave her credit for. The pretty ones are usually dimwitted.

“They are meeting us at an inn. I had them go ahead of us to make reservations and make sure there were rooms available.”

She turns her head at my words and goes back to studying the landscape out the window.
She is definitely different from any other women I’ve met. It makes me even more curious about her.

“Have you ever traveled before?”

“Define travel.”

I smile at her attitude. It’s very…refreshing.

“Travel, as in, to another town, another place or another time.”

Sitting diagonally from Arabella I see a slight smile crinkle at the corner of her mouth, which by the way, is a very pleasant red color that makes me crave them to know what they taste like.

Luckily she interrupts my thoughts from going any further by answering hesitantly even with the humor. “I…have never traveled for joy if that’s what you’re asking. I’ve only ever traveled from my past home-that is, the home I lived in before the one where you had visited. It was near the ocean.”
Her eyes are hard as stone, yet look as if they could shed a tear at any moment.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you…You must miss it. You’re home, I mean.”

She blinks a few times and looks me straight in the eyes. “Not at all. To put it quite frankly, if I ever see it again, it would be too soon.”

“Arabella. I feel as if there’s something else you’re not telling me. Did something happen there?”

She shakes her head, but I don’t know if that’s her answer or if she’s responding to something only in her own mind. Something I can’t see or hear, so I sit quietly while wondering what it is she could possibly be thinking about that could be so painful.

~*~

Arabella

Rowan hasn’t said a word since the subject of my old home, but I welcome the silence. I’d rather have that than the constant reminder. He probably thinks I am some emotional nut case girl, but who cares? Both of us don’t have a say in this and he’ll probably leave me alone as soon as we make it to his home. Total rubbish if you ask me. Why do we have to live at his house? Why can’t we live at mine? Then I get to thinking and realize maybe that it’s a good thing. I can’t imagine the way mother would be down my neck every second of the day about what I’ve done wrong with my marriage and the awkward moments when Father would be around us judging whether Rowan would be a good enough husband for me. Actually maybe that wouldn’t be so bad after all. Father could eventually give into me getting out of the marriage.

Of all people why did they choose me to marry their son? There are so many other women out there that would be so much prettier than me. He’d swoon for them in a heartbeat compared to the social inelegance, as well as physically speaking, and the ordinariness of me. Not that they’d know that before I was born…

Without my parents I’m going to be so lonely. Considering I had no real friends before I left, but still. I won’t even have the familiarity of my parents around. I’m really on my own.

I rest my eyes hoping I’ll fall sleep which comes easily to me after a few minutes once I’ve grown accustomed to the jostling of the carriage.

~*~

Rowan

The rain has stopped and the clouds keep the sun from leaking through towards evening time when I start to notice something is wrong as we ride through the forest. It is unnaturally quiet, so quiet I can only hear the rocking of the carriage rolling across the uneven dirt road. Then an unfamiliar scent hits my nose and I’m knocking the wall behind me to alert Henry to stop the carriage. We slowly roll to a stop and I look at Arabella who is still fast asleep which is more than alright with me. The less she sees and hears the better.

I’m out of the carriage within a moment and listening for any movements around us. There are some scurrying bushes nearby that produce the remainder of my men panting in human forms toward me, but I see nothing else.

“Rogues, your majesty. They are about a mile away from us,” spoken carefully from my first in command Samuel.

I nod in agreement. “I thought as much. I could smell their scent. They have been getting closer North than I had originally expected.” They usually stay hidden within places of smaller populations to keep us off their tracks. “Something tells me they knew we were coming.” They wouldn’t have been near us otherwise.

Samuel speaks in a rush, “I think they are here to attack, what are your orders?”

“Run them off our trail, we can’t have them coming across her. They’ll know it’s something important the moment they sniff her out.”

Samuel nods and they are all off running in the direction of the rogues, fur sprouting all over them changing back to wolf form.

I get back into the carriage and my heart pounds in my chest when I see her eyes are now open. Thankfully the curtains have been drawn from prying eyes, including hers.

“What happened?”

“My men found bandits nearby. They are leading them away from us.”

She leaves my explanation at that, no questions asked. I assume she hadn’t heard our conversation. Thank the gods.

Her eyes are wide. Not in fear as anyone else would have expected, but excitement.

I pretend I don’t notice. “There’s nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep. I don’t want you to miss out on your beauty rest.”

“Are you insinuating that I am ugly?”

My lips smile on their own accord and I tell her, “Why, not at all. I’d say you are quite the opposite.

She raises her eyebrow and I can’t help but keep smiling. Her reactions never fail to surprise me. Any other woman would have been giggling to that compliment.

“I’ve had enough sleep thank you very much,” she says matter of factly.

I shrug, “Suit yourself, it’s going to be an even more uneventful ride here on out. I’ll be surprised if you don’t fall back to sleep.”

She rolls her eyes at this and looks away earnestly, deliberately getting her attention off of me and I laugh.

“You are way too serious all the time.”

“You don’t know me. Don’t pretend that you do.”

The attitude is back, but this time it wipes the smile off of my face. “My apologies, I thought we were getting to know each other.”

I knock again to Henry to speed ourselves out of the area and we’re continuing on our way.

We’re nearly to the Inn, but that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. Hopefully they don’t catch our scent. Hopefully they follow my men away somewhere. I’m not quite sure what I’d do if they showed up there. I’ll have to start thinking of a plan, just in case.

“Are we almost there yet?” Arabella is bored and irritated. She grumbles under her breath.

“What was that you just said?” I try to keep a straight face so she doesn’t see that I’m amused. It will only make her madder. Or maybe I want that…

“If you must know, I said I wish I had remembered to bring a book with me to read.”

“We are almost to the Inn. When we get settled we can go to a bookstore. I think I seen one there the other day.”

“Thank the heavens! I am not being stooped up in here with only you to keep my company. It is exhausting.”

And my smile is back. “It is exhausting to converse with me? Really? We’ve barely said a few words.”

“Precisely.”

I think I am starting to like this girl. She has spirit I’ve been so unaccustomed to.

All of a sudden howls emit from the trees around us and my heart turns to ice. They’ve found us.

Arabella’s eyes widen in concern and I put my hand on her knee to comfort her which she again surprises me in not evading it. She swallows and peaks out through the velvet curtain trying to catch sight of them.

I give her my most serious tone. “Arabella.” She looks straight at me like prey ready to be attacked at any moment. “I need you to keep quiet and stay calm. Please.” I try to portray the importance in that one word.

She nods and I feel the carriage pick up speed, but it’s only a matter of time until they fully catch up to us. I can almost hear their panting breaths next to us.

“Oh no! Frey!” Arabella tries to open the door frantically, but I grab her hand before she can do so.

“He will be fine. Trust me.”

“Don’t touch me!” Her eyes are practically blazing red.

I do the opposite. I quickly move myself onto her side of the carriage sitting next to her. I hastily wrap my arms around her to keep her from making another move out the door. She frantically keeps bucking like an untamed horse trying to get out of my arms, but I will not allow it.

“You get off of me or so help me I will-”

I don’t let her finish her sentence. I put my hand over her mouth to keep her quiet, but this only infuriates her more. Before I can prepare myself she is head-butting me into the wall of the carriage. I don’t lose my grip though and she eventually after a few moments stops trying to escape. By this point she’s breathing deeply through her nose so I wait for her to calm down although I feel that that time will not come. I again feel myself becoming more flustered with how near to each other we are, but I try to keep a clear head. Her safety is my top priority.

I whisper desperately to her, “Just breathe. Like I said, he’ll be fine. We will be fine. You need to stay quiet though in order for that to happen. If I take my hand away from your mouth do you promise you are going to keep it that way?”

I feel her nod and I gradually take my hand away hoping she doesn’t break that promise.

“Why do I need to keep quiet? They can already hear the horses and the carriage moving you idiot!”
She whispers fiercely.

“I need you to stay silent because it is imperative that they don’t know of your being here.” I can feel the heat of her anger rolling off of her and it soaking into my skin. My wolf is trying to keep her calm at bay, but at the same time he’s excited at her nearness. I take a few deep breaths trying to calm him as well.

I can sense her thinking and she responds, “Why does it matter if I’m here? They are wolves for crying out loud! I thought you said they were bandits!”

I contemplate whether I should tell her the whole truth or not, but I’m not ready to fully explain that. Partially truth it is.

“They will drag you off into the night to their den. Probably kill you to feed their pack. I was trying not to worry you.”

“TRYING NOT TO WORRY ME!? I’M HELL OF A LOT MORE WORRIED NOW! THANKS FOR THAT!”

I slap my hand over her mouth again so she remembers to stay quiet and carefully I take my hand away. She seems to have a bad memory. Ugh. What’s the use? They’ve probably sensed her a long time ago with how loud she is.

“Shhh!”

By now we can both hear them running next to us, then the growls come next and the snarling as I hear wolves attacking each other. My men must have made it back to us. Within a few minutes we’ve made it past them and all is silent again in the woods.

“Ahem.”

I look down in front of me and see my arms are still wrapped around her. “Oh. Sorry.” I untangle myself from her.

“Yes. I’m sure you are.” With that she slides as far away from me as the carriage allows and I find that I’m missing the comfort of her body against mine. My arms are raised still as if they don’t know what to do next so I place them on my knees to keep them occupied as a precaution to keep them from grasping her again and I take a deep breath. She has a look on her face that demands an explanation this time, but I have none to give her. According to me we’ve just encountered two local packs having a territorial spat. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.