Siobhan finished eating in a daze.
After
helping clear the table and put away their food she walked upstairs to her room
Deciding she needed some alone time, without another person, or dog, to distract
her, she changed into her jogging clothes. Taking the least amount of time
possible,
she stretched, almost frantic to get into the open night.
She
slipped quickly downstairs and Aingeal, when he saw that she was leaving without
him, complained about not going, his
voice whining oddly in her head. Siobhan pursed her lips and pointed to his
pallet in front of the fire. “Go. I’ll be back soon.”
Maeve entered the room, drying her hands with a tea towel. “Why all tha ruckus?”
Siobhan opened the door and answered without pausing, “I’m going running. I’ll be back soon.” Not giving her a chance to question her further, Siobhan slipped out the door and pulled it firmly closed. The chilly, biting air caused her to catch her breath at first but she soon adapted to the frosty night, jogging at first before sprinting into the darkness. The moon, full and golden, lit her way along the leveled roadway.
Gradually the quiet exercise soothed her tattered nerves and, after covering a couple miles, she eased up and stopped, a little dizzy from the higher elevation of Destiny. Her breathing slowly returned to normal and she turned to jog back home.
She closed her eyes and listened as indistinct and jumbled words flowed in and out of her mind. Yelps of happiness at being together, snippets about a successful hunt, and their joy over the clear night and all the lovely scents drifting on the night air. These were what made up the wolves’ conversations as they sang into the dark and tears flowed down Siobhan’s cheeks while her chest ached to be one with them.
She found herself walking slowly toward the pack, the rightness and sense of belonging silencing her human common sense. Movement to her right halted her progress and drew her attention.
The figure, a man, strode out of the shadows, into the moonlight, and approached the wolves. She hesitated instinctively knowing she should remain hidden, watching, shrouded in shadows, and staying downwind.
The man bent to scratch pointed ears, and to nuzzle uplifted muzzles, greeting the wolves in soft conciliatory tones. Siobhan recognized Faelan’s voice as she hunkered down, making herself as small as possible, nearly invisible.
Faelan stood in the full, bright moonlight ─ the light flashing off his gleaming teeth, but swallowed in the depths of his quicksilver eyes. As she watched, he raised his head high into the air and rent the peaceful calm with howls barely human.
Waves of answering shudders shook her crouching form and she was forced to wrap her arms around her bent knees, holding herself together while ever fiber of her being craved nothing more than to call out in reply.
He laughed cheerfully at the answering wolf song and she watched him shrug off his coat, pulling off his boots and socks. Repeating his howl he yanked off his shirt, dropping it on top of his jacket. Calls echoing from distant hills whipped the pack into a frenzy and the wolves danced around his legs, turning in circles, whining their impatience.
His full-throated laughter trickled down her spine as he unselfconsciously undid his belt, dropping his jeans to his feet and stepping out of them. He paused, a shimmer distorting the light bouncing off his torso, his form melting into a huge black wolf. Shaking his coat as if damp from his exertions, he spun once, and yipped for the others to follow, before streaking off toward the sounds of the far wolf calls.
The rest of the pack lost no time in playfully chasing him, leaving Siobhan squatting alone in the darkness. As if in a trance, she rose and covered the short distance to his clothes. She picked up his shirt and raised it to her face, inhaling deeply, immediately recognizing his scent. She watched the disappearing shadows of the wolf pack as they ran across the distant fields then dropped the shirt back onto the pile. On autopilot, she made her way back to the house, her thoughts in turmoil.
She stood in the driveway, staring at, but not really seeing, anything around her.
No words could have prepared her for the beauty, and emotion, that watching the wolves, and Faelan, had evoked. It was all true. Everything Maeve had said and more.
We’re a bunch of goddamn werewolves.”
Shapeshifters.” Maeve corrected as she stepped out of the shadows. “Tea?”
Siobhan nodded mutely and followed her back into the house.