The Wolf's Song

Safe and Sound

Diana

I wake up in the middle of the night without knowing why, but, unlike other times, the bed is not empty, and to my surprise under my body is Michael’s, resting in the middle of the stillness.

His eyes are closed, his long eyelashes spread over his cheeks, while his lips are parted just a little. He has one hand resting on the bare skin of my hip, while the other is tangled in my hair; his own dense black hair falls over his face, creating shades that fragment his face, and while his bare chest rises and falls in a slow, almost musical rhythm.

With a light touch, however, he wakes up, and with a sigh, Michael opens his eyes. His winter gaze meets mine, and he smiles languidly as he pulls me against his chest.

“What are you doing awake?” he whispers to me while caressing my face.

“I couldn’t sleep, but it was worth it. You always get up before me, so I’ve never seen you sleep before,” I affirm, smiling.

He imitates my gesture and kisses the corner of my lips. “Why couldn’t you sleep?” he asks me.

“I don’t know. I guess I have too much on my mind these days,” I affirm.

“What’s happened is a lot to process,” he acknowledges. “But I hope it’s not too much to overwhelm you.”

I notice the worry in his frown and deny it as I try to wipe it away. My body sticks a little closer to his as I tilt my face to get a better look at him.

In my inner self I wonder if perhaps my questions are justified, and I think about telling him what worries me. I know he will listen to me, that he will calm my thoughts, but at the same time, I don’t want to burden him with more problems.

“You know you can talk to me...,” he starts to say then, noticing that there is something I am keeping quiet, and finally I give in, accepting that anyway, it is impossible for me to keep something hidden from him.

“It’s just... I just... I was wondering if maybe I’m human.”

He frowns slightly and looks at me carefully. “Is it because of what Clarissa said?”

“Everything, actually.”

I pull away from him and sit on the bed, the sheets running over my body, but I’ve found that nudity doesn’t bother me if he’s the one I’m showing myself to.

Michael follows my movements, sits up too, and his body lightly draws mine, somehow comforting me by making me lay my face on his shoulder.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I spoke to Martha regarding my father, but now, many facets of my life seem to make sense,” I affirm. “And a part of me keeps wondering... if I really am human; and if I am, where am I on the line? Closer to yours than I think? But I have never felt anything similar or close to change. I do not possess strength, or senses like yours, and in that respect, I am as fragile as any human.”

“Almost as frail as they are,” he states, a slight, vague smile upon his lips. “I don’t know anyone with your temperament. That, no doubt, you have inherited from your wolf blood.”

I smile, but the smile doesn’t last long.

“I keep wondering about us, Michael,” I confess at last, and he falls silent, suddenly a little tense.

I turn then, look at him, and I know he can read through my eyes the line of my thoughts.

“I never understood how my mother spent her life crying over a man she knew for only three months, but that was until I met you,” I state, and feel a lump in my throat as I realize that I may never be able to get over him. I couldn’t leave him, even if I wanted to. “There hasn’t been another one for her all this time, and I always thought she was clinging to the past. Now I understand, however, that there are bonds beyond reason that once they get us, they don’t leave us.”

He looks at me and one of his hands is placed on my cheek. His gaze is so steely, so sure, that I almost sense the wolf hidden behind those eyes.

“Diana, I will never leave you,” he affirms.”I could never love anyone, not even half as much as I love you.”

“I know you won’t leave me.” My hand is placed over his. “Nor will I ever leave you. So, then, where are we headed, Michael?”

My question makes him click his jaw, and I know I’ve hit the nail right on the head.

“Time will pass for me.” I continue in fear, finally letting my fears out. “I know you are eternal, but if I am human, my life will only last a breath. And then what?”

He strokes my cheek silently as my statements catch up with him, though something inside me is certain that this has been going around in his head for a long time.

“What will happen if I grow old, Michael, if my life is over before it should be?”

“Nothing will happen to you. I will take care of you,” he affirms.

“You can’t take care of me in sickness, or when I get old,” I say. “We will part at some point... and that’s only one of the prospects. Because if not, the other option is for you to convert me, and I don’t know if I feel ready for that.” I confess with fear, thinking of my mother, of her life, of her smile.

I could never see her again and going back to New York would be impossibility.What would happen to her then, if I, like my father, left her? Would that pain end her life too?

“Francis put this scenario to me some time ago,” confesses Michael. “The prospect of introducing you to my world would bring this crossroads for both of us. But still, it’s something that was bound to happen. One way or another, you belong in this world. To my world,” he affirms.

“Does that mean you want to make me one of yours?” I ask him cautiously.

“No,” he says immediately, and then sighs, denying with his face. “I’m not sure,” he admits.”Sometimes I think it would be for the best, but it’s a selfish thought on my part. Becoming what I am will deprive you of many things, things that you might want in the future--like your mother, like the human life you were destined to have before you met me...”

“My destiny, one way or another, was to meet you,” I affirm, almost fiercely. “For I am unwilling to believe that there is any other perspective for me than to be by your side.

I then sink my face into his chest, my palm resting on his heart, and he cradles me as he strokes my hair.

“There are many perspectives that I have taken into consideration since the moment I met you, Diana. Many… and for long moments they have paralyzed me. Sometimes I don’t have a clear path in front of me, and sometimes I don’t quite know what decisions we should make to move forward,” he confesses to me, making the lump in my throat tighten a little more. “But if I know one thing, it’s that by your side I have found something I never thought existed--the peace of knowing that everything makes sense. The longing, and especially, the certainty that I have something, someone I want to fight for,” he affirms.

I close my eyes, snuggle a little more against him and let his voice find me.Through his words, I get some kind of comfort.

“And though many outlooks keep me on edge right now, all I know is that by your side I can find a certain peace I never had. And I know that as long as you are by my side, we can make it through these dark nights. I know everything will be alright. That together, we’ll stay safe and sound.”

A sigh escapes my lips, and without my anticipating it, he begins to hum a soft melody for me. His sweet, dense, slightly husky voice reaches me across the distance, and slowly I begin to give in to sleep, as his words get me, beyond the gloom of unconsciousness.

‘Come to me, moonlight. Together, we will stay healthy and safe.’