Only Their Love

Midnight Run

ROWA's POV

I woke to Ebony's long raven hair in my face and the heat coming from her body was keeping me warm as the fire had gone out. There was an eeriness to my cottage that I had not experienced there before, but Ebony's presence made me feel safe. I brushed her hair from her face and admired her long lashes, her perfect sharp but proportioned nose, her pretty, perfect lips, slightly parted and there was a smattering of freckles on her forehead I had not noticed before.

The light from the moon lit up her face. Out of nowhere she growled and her face contorted. I pulled back from her and laughed out of nervousness. She sprang up off the sofa and landed on the coffee table. I sat up on the sofa when the most gut wrenching noise, of cracking and snapping filled the room. Toto howled outside the door and Ebony's body contorted in front of me. Her face elongated and black hair sprouted from her skin.

I was frozen to the spot. I screamed but no sound left my lips and I could not move a single muscle in my body. I was terrified, but my body despite it being still, did not tremble.

The cracking stopped and before me was a monstrous jet-black, snarling wolf with amber eyes. She howled and pranced on the table. She licked her lips, stepped onto the floor and trotted towards the kitchen. I managed to turn my head to watch her, and she stretched, her whole body filled the space and I was in awe of her. She was a beautiful wolf. Ebony was a wolf.

'You're dreaming Rowa. Ebony is not a wolf, This is all a dream.' I told myself, speaking in a whisper. The wolf huffed and came towards me. I reached up my hands and touched her. Given this was a dream, all that could happen, good or bad was only a dream. Her coat was smooth and her body was warm.

‘Let’s go for a run!’ I said. I pulled on a hoodie and my old runners and opened the door. Ebony ran past me and ran far down the lane before turning and coming back. Toto stared at her with his head c****d, he had never seen anything like her before and I laughed. They two of them chased and played with each other in the yard my the car.

I locked the door and took off down the forest path towards the lake. After a minute I heard the thud of Ebony’s paws in the dirt trail behind me. Every now and then she would bolt off into the trees and then come back to me. Toto chased her like a puppy, it was fun too watch.

The smell of the forest and the earth beneath my feet spurred me to run faster. I wanted to show Ebony the lake before the sun came up. We ran side by side for the last two miles and when we got there, my lungs were sore from the air but I felt good.

Toto drank from the lake, the ripples from the fish bobbing at the surface glowed in the moonlight and the breeze was wonderful on my flushed face. Ebony was stalking Toto, playfully. Before he could noticed she pounced at him and he fell into the lake. I laughed, he hated getting wet. He jumped out and shook himself, huffing as he ran back to the trail.

Ebony jumped into the water and swam around, playing with the reeds and low hanging branches of the trees that hung above the water. I sat on a rock and watched her. Despite my convincing myself in the cottage that this was a dream, something told me that it wasn’t. I looked up at the moon and a sense of calm washed over me. Ebony came out of the lake and shook her coat. She ran into the forest and returned after a few minutes having dried most of her coat with her run.

She lay down at my feet and put her face in my lap. I stroked her head and ears. ‘Anything you’d like to tell me?’ I asked. She stood up and licked my face, then stepped back a few paces. The cracking and snapping I had heard in the cottage began again. Her fur retracted and she appeared in her human form, naked and beautiful in the light of the moon. Her long raven hair covered her breasts and she looked at me cautiously.

I took off my hoodie and gave it to her. She inhaled deeply as she pulled it on and hugged herself. ‘I’m sorry Rowa. I didn’t mean to scare you. I didn’t mean to show you. My wolf, she took over. She’s not supposed to.’ I stared at her, her apology was not what I expected. My silence must have scared her, ash she ran to me and wrapped me in her arms. ‘Please don’t run away from me.’ She begged in my ear.

‘I’m not running. And I wasn’t really scared. Well no actually I was but it’s ok. I would like an explanation though.’ I reassured her and hugged her back. ‘What are you?’

She took my hand and we walked back towards the trail. ‘I’m a werewolf Rowa.’ She said quietly. ‘My wolf, she is called Aurora, she has been dying to meet you.’ Before she could finish I interrupted her. ‘Aurora is beautiful, I’m glad you let me meet her.’ Ebony beamed at me. ‘I’m so relieved. There’s so much I want to tell you Rowa.’

‘So long as you don’t tell me that dragons and unicorns are real, I’ll be ok.’ I giggled. Her face stopped me in my tracks. ‘Seriously?’ I asked. The most absurd creatures I could think of at that moment were real. Ebony nodded and we walked on a bit more.

‘So, they’re hidden? Where?’ I asked trying to understand when my whole world of what’s real and what’s not was being flipped in my head.

‘This is the Human Realm. There are many realms. The Wolf Realm, the Elf Realm, the Enchanted Realm, Siren Realm, Magic Realm, Dragon Realm, Vampire Realm. There are others too but they do not belong to the Supernatural Multiverse. They permit savagery, dark magic and chaos.’ She explained. ‘There are those who live in the Human Realm in plain sight. I spend a lot of time here but mostly I live with my family.’

We walked some more, the birds were starting to sing their morning song. My mind was racing, but I believed her. ‘Tell me about your family please.’ I asked her. I wanted to learn more about her.

‘My father is a wolf, his parents are a dragon and a wolf, my mother is an enchantress, her parents are a warlock and a vampire. My brother, he is a dragon.’ She answered. I was dumbfounded, walked off towards a section of the wood that had a patch of grass and some tree stumps and slumped down.

‘This is a lot.’ I said out loud. ‘Tell me more, please.’ She came and sat on my knee, wrapped her arms around my neck and took a deep breath. ‘My father is the King of the Supernatural Multiverse. My mother is Queen of the Supernatural Multiverse and also of the Enchanted Realm by birth but has handed that role to her younger brother to rule. My brother will be King when he has his next birthday, and I am a Princess.’ She rolled her eyes when she said it.

‘You are the least Princess like person I have ever come across!’ I gushed. She laughed and so did I. ‘Well, you did a pretty good job yesterday when we were shopping I suppose but a Princess? Wow!’ I said.

We sat for a while holding each other and I processed the information she had given me. I still couldn’t quite believe it was real, but I did believe it. Something told me it was all true.