A Wolf's Oath (30 page)
“
Sebastian?”
At the sound of her voice calling to him, he dropped the
knife onto the table, his eyes wandering over his current piece of
work. It was meant to be a secret. He sighed with relief when he
realised that she wouldn’t be able to make out exactly what it was
he was carving just yet as it was still in the very early stages.
He smiled warmly at her. “Morning sweetheart. Did you want to come
and join me? You don’t have to if you have something else you’d
rather be doing.”
She scowled at his comment. “And what exactly could I have to
do that would be better than just spending some quality time with
you, hmm?”
“
I have no idea,” he grinned.
Moving carefully across the wood covered carpet, she made her
way to him and sat down beside him. “Sebastian, what exactly is all
of this?”
Picking up the sculpture of a small rose, he handed it to
her, his fingers lingering lovingly on her flesh before he pulled
away. There was only so much temptation he could withstand before
he snapped. “Its just something I was doing to pass the
time.”
Erica's hands wandered reverently over the intricate wooden
petals, marvelling at the detail that he had put into the small
object. “This is beautiful Sebastian.”
“
There’s no need to try and pander to my ego. That was one of
the earlier ones. It really isn’t that great.”
“
There are better ones?” she gasped shocked. The small flower
in her hand looked almost real, it was hard to believe that this
was what he considered one of the worse pieces of work.
“
Yes, I moved them into the kitchen. I didn’t think you’d mind.
I started to run out of space in here. I’ll clear them out if you
want.”
“
No Sebastian, don’t worry about that. What I really want to
know is where you learnt to do this. Who taught you?”
“
My father taught me when I was younger. I wasn’t much of a
people person when I was little so I found it hard to make friends.
Then one day I was in the woods and found this bit of wood that
looked almost like a person, it just needed a little tweaking here
and there and so I fixed it. If I’m honest, when I look back at it
now I realise that it was a really ugly piece of work, but my
father was just glad that I had found something I was interested in
so he offered to teach me how to sculpt better. I made lots of
friends from wood back then, but I grew up and became more
comfortable around people so I began to sculpt less out of
necessity and more for relaxation. It’s very relaxing you
know.”
Reaching for a piece of untouched wood that had yet to be
brought under his knife, she brought it to eye level and began
examining it before placing a hand on his knee. “Teach
me.”
“
What?”
“
I said teach me. I doubt that I’ll be as good as you, but I
want to learn.”
He ran a hand over the back of his neck, unsure about his
capacity to teach someone else this skill. “I’m not sure I’d make a
very good teacher. I’ve never taught another living soul anything
in my entire life.”
“
I’m sure you’ll be a great teacher, you have the patience for
that sort of thing. Come on Sebastian, please. If I’m really that
bad then I won’t force you to teach me, just give me a try,” she
pleaded.
Her request pulled at him and he could feel the instinct
beginning to stir within him, trying to fulfil her request. “Fine,
I’ll try and teach you, but it will take time. It’s not something
that you can pick up and learn within an hour or a day.”
She moved closer to him and his body tensed at her increased
proximity, instantly reacting to her nearness. Leaning over she
placed a chaste kiss against his cheek and his eyes slid shut,
revelling in the pleasure created by such a small contact of her
lips against his skin. “Thank you Sebastian. I didn’t think that
I’d be able to learn how to make pieces this beautiful within the
day, but it’s not as though we don’t have time. We have the rest of
our lives together remember?”
You don’t realise how much it pleases me to hear you say such
things. To have my mate finally envisioning our future… Even though
I know that this isn’t quite real, it is still very
satisfying.
The truth of their relationship
weighed heavy on him. He didn’t like being forced to deceive her
and wasn’t looking forward to the day that she regained her
memories and called him to account for all of his
actions.
“
So what do I do with this?” she questioned, waving the piece
of wood in front of him.
Placing his knife in her free hand, he gently guided her
wrist toward the wood. “First you carve the wood into the general
shape that you want me make. What is it exactly that you want to
make?”
“
I want to make that flower.” She pointed to the discarded rose
that he had given her earlier.
“
That’s probably a bit too hard for a beginner.” He laughed.
“We can start with something simple like a petal if you want to
make a flower.”
“
I can work with that,” she conceded, realising that she had
been very ambitious in what she had wanted to make for her first
attempt at sculpting.
“
You want to make the wood smooth, so you have to start by
getting rid of all the bumpy bits on its surface.” His hand covered
her own and began to guide it, showing her exactly what she should
do. She caught on quickly and was soon smoothing the wood on her
own. “Keep doing that until you think it’s smooth enough and then
show it to me and we’ll see if your definition of smooth matches
mine.”
It was harder than Sebastian had made it seem to cut the wood
to a suitably smooth texture and the longer she sat, whittling away
at her small piece of wood, the more curious she became about
exactly what sort of a child could sit still long enough to learn
this skill. “Sebastian?” He immediately turned from his
significantly larger piece of wood, giving her his full attention.
“What were you like as a kid?”
His brow furrowed in confusion at the strange question. “Why
do you want to know?”
“
I’m just curious. The doctors didn’t say that you couldn’t
tell me about your childhood so don’t give me that
look.”
“
What look?” he demanded.
“
The ‘I can’t tell you because it might affect your recovery’
look. It’s a fair question. I was just wondering how you managed to
sit still long enough to learn how to make such beautiful pieces of
work. I don’t think that I could have managed it.”
“
I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” he conceded. “As a kid, I was a
very quiet child and by quiet I mean an easy target for others to
pick on.”
She raised an eyebrow in disbelief, her eyes wandering over
the corded muscles of his body clearly finding the idea that he had
once been seen as a victim an impossible occurrence.
“
It’s true,” he laughed.
“
Well excuse me for finding that hard to believe.”
“
I wasn’t always like this,” he mumbled embarrassed.
And I never saw the point of my body’s
transformation until I met you. I have to be strong to protect
you.
“
Fine, it was your childhood so if you say you weren’t always
strong then I’ll believe you. Continue.”
“
So as I said, I was quiet as a kid. I didn’t like to
roughhouse with others. I preferred to be left alone to discover
the world through reading. There was so much that I didn’t
understand and I don’t like not knowing how things work, I never
have, so I spent a lot of time in libraries enjoying my own
company.”
“
It sounds lonely,” she sighed.
“
I’m making it sound worse than it was. I really enjoyed my
childhood. It wasn’t lonely at all. I had my brother Ryan. We’re
almost polar opposites. He could never stay calm or still long
enough to read through a book much less enjoy it like I did and he
loved interacting with people. I think about half of the brawls
he’s had in his entire life can be attributed to me in some way.
Even though we were so different we’ve always understood each
other. I can’t imagine what my childhood would have been without
him.”
“
It must have been nice to have a sibling to grow up with,” she
commented, her voice sad.
“
It was.”
Her eyes became increasingly unfocused, as she seemingly
stared through him into a time long passed. “When I was a kid I
always wished that I had a sibling to play with. Sometimes me and
Anna would play together, but she had her brothers so it wasn’t the
same as having a sibling of my own. I was so excited when my
parents told me that they were expecting.”
Sebastian held his breath, afraid to make even the slightest
sound in case a small interruption disrupted her ability to
remember her childhood. This was the most she had remembered about
herself and he began to hope that this was the breakthrough they
had been waiting for.
“
When they were born, I was still just as excited. Yes, it was
too late for me to have siblings to grow up with, but I’d been an
only child for so long that I didn’t care about that anymore. But
we’ve never had a typical sibling relationship. I’ve always been
more of a parent to them than a sister. I don’t mind that though
because I love them and they love me right back. There’s nothing I
wouldn’t do for them.” A tear ran down her cheek as she remembered
the love she had forgotten for her siblings and Sebastian was quick
to wipe it away. “I’ve had to be strong for them since our parents
died, since…” A sharp stabbing pain momentarily shocked her as she
sought to fight past the blank in her mind where the memories were
hidden. “Something happened to our parents.” As she continued
trying to overcome the blank in her memory the pain in her head
multiplied until she was clutching her skull in agony.
“
Stop this Erica,” Sebastian growled, feeling increasingly
helpless. His strength was of no use in this situation and he
didn’t like the feeling in the slightest. She continued gripping
her head as the pain built. “I said stop this now! You’re pushing
yourself too hard.” He pulled her hands away from her head, forcing
her to look at him. “That’s enough.”
“
Sebastian, I want to see them,” she croaked.
“
See who?”
“
Dylan and Wyatt, I want to see them. I know you said that you
would bring them to see me soon, but I want to see them
now.”
“
Now? As in this very moment in time?”
“
No, but as soon as possible. If you won’t bring them here then
I think I can remember how to get to where they’re staying and we
know that I remember how to drive.”
“
I’ll bring them here Erica. I’ll go tomorrow if that’s soon
enough for you, as long as you agree to stop trying to force
yourself to remember things that your mind is clearly not ready
for. The doctors said that your memories will come back by
themselves. Causing yourself pain isn’t helpful.”
“
I swear I won’t do it again if you’ll bring them
here.”
“
Of course I will sweetheart.”
“
Thank you Sebastian.”
“
I have to warn you though, if I bring them here there won’t be
much time for me to teach you sculpting.”
“
Like I said Sebastian, we have the rest of our lives for me to
learn. You said I wasn’t going to be able to learn how to do this
over night anyway. I’m in this for the duration, a few days here
and there isn’t going to make that much of a difference in the long
run anyway.”
“
You’re right, we do have the rest of our lives for you to
learn how to do this.”
You have all the
time in the world to learn things when you live forever. I was
really hoping that you might have remembered though. A few days
here and there may not make much a difference to your ability to
learn how to sculpt, but with everyday that passes the full moon
gets that little bit closer and during that time, I’m the worst
possible threat to you.
“
This had better be important,” Vincent scowled.
Sitting in his office, he stared at the man in front of him
with clear disdain. This meeting was distinctly unappreciated. He
had other, more important things to attend to and was coming to
resent the man’s mere presence as an impediment to time that could
be devoted to finding his errant captive. Despite all his best
attempts to locate her, she had seemingly disappeared from the face
of the earth. It was only by mere chance that he had managed to
find and catch her in the first place and that fact was made
glaringly obvious by his inability to track her even when he had
photographs for others to go on. He was therefore not feeling very
receptive towards guests at the moment. Though the man claimed that
his news was urgent, the real reason that he had agreed to see him
was due to the severely diminished membership. Refusing to see a
member of another branch was one of the surest ways to ensure that
they refused to contribute to increasing the membership of your own
branch.
It was for that reason alone that he was sitting across from
the man who had introduced himself as Dominic, separated only by
his desk, just barely resisting the impulse to throw the man out.
“Well…” Vincent began, his tone of voice clearly expecting an
immediate response. “Just tell me what you have to say so I can go
about with my business. I’m a busy man.”