The Wolf's Song

Boundless Curiosity

Michael

Diana’s words kept running through my head, while also getting the thoughts of Robert, who had warned me about Damien’s proximity, making me feel a strange mix of bittersweet emotions, drifting into deep anxiety.

Of course, I had sent Robert to keep an eye on Diana--did I have any other choice? She seemed to be a magnet for trouble. Wherever she moved, she seemed to have the ability to attract the most dangerous creatures.

Surely, I myself had not been the worst thing that could happen to her, although certainly, crossing the path of Damien’s rivalry with me did not top the list of good luck; of course, she could have thought of a better place to travel to than Bamberg, but no, she had to end up in the one place where her life would be in danger because the wrong wolf had set his sights on her, although I still couldn’t determine if I was that wolf, or if it was Damien himself.

Getting to her was really easy, even though I had to move in my car, and not in my wolf form, which would have allowed me to go faster, but now at least I could locate her, while driving in a “beastly” way, as many would call it. It was funny the peculiar fixation humans had with speed, and yet how much they feared it. By the time I reached her, my heart was in my throat, but only because of anger.

She turned as she heard me coming and my heart slowed its pace, as I sighed in relief. I quickly got out of the car, turned her around to the driver’s door, and got Diana in just a second. Her skin was slightly pale from the cold, but her cheeks were too red from the alcohol. Her breath smelled of liquor and her eyes were slightly unfocused. Evidently, she had had a few too many drinks.

“What are you doing here alone?” I asked her and took off my jacket and I placed it over her shoulders. She stirred, but didn’t move away from me, and instead pulled my jacket more snugly over her body.

“I was just getting some air,” she commented, as I made her look at me, slightly nervous, but she seemed fine. Everything was in order; she might be a little dizzy, but nothing was out of place.

“Well, let’s go get some air somewhere else, shall we?” I asked her nicely, guiding her to my car and watching her get in. I was calm once I knew that she was safe. ‘As long as she is with me, nothing bad will happen', I told myself.

I went around the car and got in a hurry. Diana was talking to someone, and at the other end of the line, I recognized the voice of Maya, the librarian. I didn’t interrupt her conversation and let Diana explain that I was taking her home. She was polite and asked Maya if she would like a ride, but the other girl refused. She still had the night ahead of her, she said, and I was grateful that she didn’t actually want to come, not because I couldn’t take her home, but because at that moment, I wanted to be alone with Diana.

I glanced at her, noticing that instead, she avoided my gaze. Her eyes stood fixed on the road and her heart beat in a rush, which made me think about her confession again. She probably didn’t feel ready to say everything she had said, but liquor tended to loosen people’s tongues.

“Are you feeling all right?” I tried to ask without sounding annoyed, just worried. “Are you nauseous or dizzy?”

“I’m fine,” she whispered, and stirred in her seat, shifting her gaze to look for me. Her eyes were fixed on mine as I noticed the blush. She was nervous and I preferred not to press her, so I tried to hide it, changing the subject.

“How was your evening? It looks like you had fun.”

“Well, yes...” she started whispering something about meeting Robert and his phobias, and I smiled. They said there was no lie closer to the truth, and with Robert, the saying applied. He was so uncomfortable around people that sometimes I had to force him out a bit.

Diana was immersed in the middle of her words, telling me about the brother of one of the boys she had met, when suddenly she mentioned something, almost casually, that made me nervous, and I had to control myself so that my voice didn’t express all the emotions I was feeling.

“What did you say about meeting an albino guy...?”

“Well, he wasn’t an albino,” she started to say, slightly uncomfortable. “Rather, his hair was very light, you know? He was nice. He kept me company while I was waiting for you.”

I clicked my tongue, and immediately I felt it: Damien’s scent, wafting in the air, perfectly camouflaged by Diana’s scent. As I had covered her with my jacket, I didn’t notice it before, because my scent had covered his, but he had probably approached her only casually, but enough for part of his scent to stick to her clothes, long enough, at least, for me to perceive it.

She kept talking and asked me something, but I didn’t hear her.

“I don’t want you to go near him,” I told her, sounding more like a command, the Alpha in me growling as she made her entrance.

“To whom, the guy at the bar?” she asked me, and I nodded with my jaw clenched tightly. She laughed with sarcasm. “I don’t even know him,” she admitted, “he just stayed a moment with me before he left.”

“Well, I do know who he is, and I want you away from him. He’s dangerous.”

She looked at me, slightly stunned, and snorted under her breath.

“And you go and do it again. Why should I stay away from him? I mean, not that I plan on going out for coffee with him tomorrow, or anything like that, but you can’t come and just tell me to stay away from someone without explaining why you think it’s dangerous,” she stated, “besides, I don’t like you ordering me things,” she stressed. The alcohol was obviously loosening her tongue.

“For once, it would be wonderful if you would just listen to me without looking for all the ‘buts’ in the matter. Trust me this time: Damien is not someone who suits you, and I don’t want him near you.”

“For once, then,” she said in response, “It would be nice if you would warn me about things without ordering me to obey you. And for once, it would be nice if, for a change, you would explain to me what I want to know, without having me blindfolded on matters you consider dangerous.”

‘This would be easier if she were a member of my pack,’ I told myself, but no, and of course, she wasn’t. With Diana, it was never easy to get where I wanted to go.

“Trust me,” I repeated with my jaw clenched.

“You trust me,” she refuted me. “You always do that. You demand trust from me, but will you give it to me in return? You treat me like a child.”

“Sometimes you behave like one,” I affirmed, regretting my words as soon as they left my mouth, but too late, it was too late.

She looked at me, albeit, not with hatred, but with slow-burning anger in her perfect green orbs.

I parked the car at that moment in front of her house, waiting for her to say something. Her words got me just as she opened the door.

“You know that saying, Michael? They say curiosity killed the cat. What they don’t tell you, is that at least it died knowing,” she looked at me, and the deep silence stained our conversation with its tension.

“Is that what you want, to die?” I asked her, with a dangerous edge in my voice.

“What I want is to know,” she said, “and if to do that I must risk it, then I will. What good is it to me that you want me safe if your understanding of salvation is ignorance?”

I clucked my tongue, unable to keep myself calm at that moment.

But she didn’t wait for an answer from me, but just got out of the car, slamming the door. I watched her walk away, as her footsteps led her away from me, and she went into the house without even turning around.

I took a breath, waited a moment, then two, and finally accelerated the car and drove away. I didn’t care if she wanted to put herself in danger or not. I was not a cat, I was a wolf, and wolves don’t die of curiosity. Wolves protect their own so that no matter what, nothing can harm them.