The Promised Heir

Chapter one

Nonna’s voice pulled me from the riverbank “Oriana! Come down for dinner before the light goes out! she called, the words drowned by the water pouring down from the waterfall I had myself buried in

I stayed a breath longer, dreading leaving the water. The spot in the forest is my favorite part to come to. It’s where I unwind, when everything becomes unbearable. It’s my secret spot. Evening always came as both promise and warning here, not that I particularly care about the period of the day. It makes no difference. Our cottage smelled like rosemary and smoke, the same way it had every night of my life. I wiped my hands on my skirt and climbed the narrow path.

It had always been just Nonna and me. Two bowls on the table everyday in a house too large for the two of us but right at the spot where no one could ever find us, in the forest where no one ever comes to. It’s safer that way. Nonna never fails to remind me. My parents had been taken from me when I was six months old. All I had of them was a charcoal portrait my father had made of a woman with braided blonde hair and eyes that looked like storms, my mother. Nonna gave it to me when I was six and I’ve grown to cherish the picture like it was a part of me. Sometimes at night, I pressed my palm to the crease and tried to imagine what it meant to be wanted by people I’d never known.

We are all wolves here, some of us being able to shift only at the full moon and there are the rogue wolves the exceptions, They shifted when they wished, at dawn, at dusk, under market lights, and that freedom had made kings and councils uneasy. It was the Rogues’ appetite for power and their ability to move between shapes that had started the war, it was the same fear that drew the line across our land and resulted in the war that killed my Parents and I’ll never forget that and there’s me, the girl who has never changed, I have never turned and that makes me a target to the other wolves which is why Nonna and I stay secluded from everyone.

We ate our dinner in silence with nonna telling me stories of my parents like she always had. But it doesn’t excite me like it used to. I’ve grown tired of it. It gets lonely in the cottage and I crave for excitement. I turn eighteen in two moon nights and I just want to feel what other wolves feel. “I’m gonna go to bed now” i said to nonna who gave me a knowing look and went on with her dinner. I slid into my room, staring at my walls covered with books, every book I’ve read trying to look for a solution to “my curse” and sat on my cot. I don’t know how long I sat when a shout cut across the air, sharp, urgent, and too near. It came from the outside. Nobody ever comes this far into the forest. No one crosses here.

The voices got louder and clearer. “Do not let them get away.” A shiver ran up my spine and I rushed to my nonna’s room, she wasn’t there. Dread began to uncoil inside me. I took a lantern and I dashed out of the cottage into the unknown.

With nothing but the lantern in my hands, I run across the forest, trees and small stems cutting my skin as I ran. My feet carried me as fast as they could but somehow they were moving in the direction of the noise.The shout came again, closer now, threaded with the sound of pounding feet and animal cries. When I broke through the last stand of trethe sight stole my breath.

Four huge wolves,wild and black as storm-cloud undersides.They moved like something born to shift, all fluent motion and terrible grace, their shoulders rolling with muscle that suggested long, practiced violence being chased by men in the king’s colors with torches in hand and swords in the other. These were Rogues, moving at will and blazing a different kind of danger facing off against the king’s guard.

I willed my feet to leave but I stood there petrified, amazed and scared. Something deeper in me wanted to stay, wanted to look, the wildness of it all until one of the wolves turned and fixed me with a look that cracked open the world. I felt it then, nausea looking at it, a pressure at the ribs so great I felt like collapsing, The wolf kept staring at me, I managed to get out of my trance and just as the wolf was about to jump right unto me, a voice cut the chaos, sharp, steady, practiced. Scatter

A man stepped into the space between the clearing and the line. He wore the king’s color but his were brighter of some sort and moved with the stillness of someone used to command. He raised his voice and the Rogues, after a moment’s indecision, melted into the woods like smoke.

When the torches dimmed he turned toward me.

Close, the lantern picked out his features, stubble at his jaw, hair the color of stormed wheat, eyes dark as river stones. He was the first man I’d seen who looked like the world had chiselled him, tall, easy in his armor, and startling in the way he filled the night.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” My voice felt thin. “I’ve never seen wolves as big as those.” “Rogues” I whispered like I couldn’t bring myself to believe it

He studied my face the way someone might study a map without knowing the landmarks. “What are you doing here, so far away from the village?” he asked.

“I,I.. came to g..get some herbs.” I kept the lantern between us like a shield unable to hide my stanmer

He stepped forward, his face hardened, he doesn’t believe me but doesn’t question me. He raised his arm in the practised calm of a protector. “Come. I’ll see you home. It’s not safe to wander the forests at night.”

“No. I’ll go myself.” I spoke a little too soon, hoping he didn’t catch the fear in my voice

He blinked, caught by the refusal. “Foolish.” There was warmth in the scold, as if he cared whether I lived or not.“What are you called?”

“Oriana,” I said.

“Oriana.” He repeated the name “Be careful.”

When he turned to command the other men, I slipped away through the tree. The wood swallowed my steps. Thete was a pull in my chest and I forgot who I was looking for until I reached the cottage, Nonna waited on the doorstep, lantern clutched in her hands, her face etched with worry. “where have you been,why are you breathless?. I watched her in wild disbelief. “You weren’t in bed, when I came looking for you” i yelled. She eyed me doen and brought out her baskets from behind her filled with food items, cheese, ham and some other things I too darl for me to see. “ I went to get food, dear child, are you okay? She asked looking at me like I just sprouted a horn. I breathe in relief. “I thought something happened to you, I was scared”. She smiled and pulled me close and whispered in my ear, her hand rubbing my head “I’m always safe Ana,now what got you so rattled?” She asked. For some reason I didn’t want to tell her what happened tonight, so I lied through my teeth. “I was hot so I decided to go take a swim but I couldn’t find you in your room so I panicked” She pulled my head with both hands to look her in the eyes, kissed my head and led me into the house.

I did not sleep that night, I couldn’t sleep . The Rogues I couldn’t get out of my head and the guard, I never got his name. His voice, gentle, commanding, kept echoing in my head, heat bloomed up my face and I put my hand to my face in mortification. “What is wrong with me?” I whispered to myself into the late night.