The Wolf's Song

The Moon's Whisper

Michael

We drove away from Damien’s territory in a hurry, my senses alerted, with the wolf in me roaring to go hunting, but I couldn’t let it, not yet. Behind my back, Francis and Robert felt the internal confrontation fighting inside me, as well as the taste of anger, hovering metallic in mid-air.

We were home in less than an hour, but even upon arrival, I didn’t feel calmer. I felt violent and I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t, so I left the car parked outside the house, while Francis and Robert followed me through the woods, evidently calmer for being in their environment.

“Damn that...” I started to say, and anger got the better of me. I hit the trunk of a huge pine tree and I saw how the vibration ran through it. My fist was marked on the surface while, from the heights, small fragrant spikes of Scots pine began to rain down.

Francis calmly shook them out of his hair as Robert spat, having gotten one in his mouth. Ignoring him Francis then said, “The truth is that this visit to our enemy has been most... expected, although well, to my displeasure I must say that this time, I agree with Damien, at least in something.”

I looked at him with a frown, but Francis didn’t seem upset by my expression, or, for that matter, by my violence.

“What do you mean?”

“Diana,” he explained, “her melody... There was something strange about it.”

“It felt like the Alpha’s voice,” Robert intervened, frowning and remembering, “but different. It was like a voice that crept into my head. I didn’t feel the need to obey it, but a part of me wanted to.”

“But the order wasn’t clear,” Francis affirmed and then looked at me. “The truth is that on that point, Damien is right. Diana did something, we all felt it when we heard her play.”

“But I’ve heard her play before,” I said, thinking of the many times Diana had found herself in my house and played the piano. “The sound is enveloping, yes but it doesn’t cause me anything in particular.”

“Maybe it was due to something from that moment. Maybe it happens only when she plays the violin,” Robert said and shrugged his shoulders.

“Anyway, we can no longer deny that Diana has something, Michael. Something that maybe we should pay attention to.” He was silent for a moment, and then, as if choosing his words carefully, he said to me. “I know we’ve had this conversation before, and I’ve told you to decide what gives you the most peace, but... But I’m beginning to think you should tell her what we are, Michael. What you yourself are.”

Robert nodded behind Francis and sat on the crooked root of a tree. His thoughts were far away from me.

“It’s true,” he affirmed. “Diana is a smart girl, she already smells something’s up. Eventually, she’ll figure it out, but, if she turns out to have something special, it’s better that we know about it before anyone else.”

I looked at them both, undecided that I actually liked that prospect.

“I don’t know for sure”, I sighed. “It could be so many things... The concert could be an isolated event. It could be due to a thousand other reasons beyond Diana’s control.”

“I don’t think so, Michael,” Francis answered carefully with his gaze fixed on mine. “This time, I think you’re avoiding the truth because you’re afraid to confront Diana.”

“It’s not a decision I feel like making,” I admitted.

“I think for now, you have no choice.” He patted me on the back and Robert stood up. I felt his anxiety wafting clear in his scent.

“What we can’t do is let Damien continue to do his thing on our turf.” He took off his shirt and then looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Do I have permission to do the first round?”

I nodded, and he left without saying goodbye.

“I’ll go with him,” Francis affirmed, as he passed me and patted me on the back.

“I’ll go with you,” I affirmed. “I need to think.”

The night transcended like this, with the three of us lost in the woods; our routine was defined only by the fact that we began to feel the need to protect our territory from known and unknown enemies.

I returned home only when the moon was high in the sky, just as I entered the silence of my home and looked at my cell phone. Diana had sent me a message but had decided to wait. She must think my meeting had dragged on.

Smiling, I called her and she answered almost immediately. Her voice was slightly foggy from sleep, but still, seemingly alert.

“Did I wake you up?” I asked.

“Just a little.” I heard her stifle a yawn on the other end of the line.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’ll let you get back to sleep.”

“No, please don’t. I was hoping I could talk to you before I went to bed. I fell asleep reading, that’s all. How did it go?”

“Fine, but it was boring.”

“Business meetings are supposed to be like that,” she affirmed, and I laughed softly.

Silence clouded us both. For a moment, all I heard was her breathing and the sound of the wind over the forest branches.

“Is something wrong?” she asked me curiously, noticing immediately that something was going around in my head.

“It’s been a long day,” I affirmed with a sigh.

“I’m sorry I can’t be there to keep you company.”

“That would certainly make things better,” I affirmed, and felt her smile across the line.

“Has something happened with Damien?” she then asked, and I frowned.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because you get weird when it’s about him,” she said, “slightly nostalgic.”

“I guess you’re right. Yes, it was something to do with him, but it doesn’t matter,” I answered her, trying to take the heat off the matter.

“It’s all right.” She sighed. “He makes me feel strange, you know?”

“Weird how?” I asked her. The sound of her voice faded for a moment and through the earpiece, I heard her breathing. If I closed my eyes, I could imagine what it would be like to hold her here, in my arms.

“Strange... In a different sense. It’s not unpleasant, but I don’t like it either. It feels like your skin prickles from the cold.”

“A good definition,” I argued and heard her snort on the other end of the line.

“I’m not very coherent at this hour,” she stated.

“No one is,” I conceded, and then, I was silent for a moment before I said, “Would you like me to pick you up tomorrow? We can work something out.”

“I’d love to,” she said, and I heard the smile in her voice.

“I’ll pick you up in the afternoon,” I affirmed then. “Take a rest.”

I said goodbye, as I heard the soft whisper of an “I love you” from her lips before the call was cut off.

My thoughts were lost then, thinking about her, Damien, and everything at once, as I tried to decide if this was really the decision I wanted to make. Her, being part of my secret, knowing my other identity, the wolf who, in one way or another, also desired her.

Diana could fit in with my world, I told myself, she could be part of it, but it was not something I knew I wanted to expose her to. To tell her my secret was to also tell her Francis, Robert, and Damien’s, and what would happen when she learned that the man I was trying to protect her from was not just a man, but rather, a beast?

High in the sky, the moon revealed itself, imposing and silent, and I remained lost, feeling its silent call, like a lover who with her eyes invited you to share her bed, a moon that shone also over Diana, but that, unlike me, didn’t speak to her with a voice so subtle, so subliminal and so laden with secrets that at times, it became impossible for me to resist following her.