Hunger of the Wolf (6 page)

When she got to her feet Amber felt much better
,
and she was ready for a nice brisk walk in the mountain
air. She found a well-
trodden path leading into the woods
,
and when she ca
me to a fork she decided to follow
Robert Frost’
s advice and take the path less travelled. She repeated the last stanza of the po
em to herse
lf as she
strolled further into the woods,
and it put a smile on her fac
e to think that maybe
without Dominic
she was heading in a new and interesting direction
in her life
.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less trave
l
led by,
And that has made all the difference.

She had only walked a short distance down t
he path when Amber realized
she had made the wrong choice because
the path led
directly to a small log cabin
nestled among the trees
. There was smoke coming out its chimney and clothes
hanging on a line strung up on
the porch
. She was about to turn around and retrace her steps when a movement caught her eye at the side of the house. It was
Jesse
in the garden
,
and
he seemed to be digging
a hole
.

Before
she could melt back into the woods
he looked up and caught s
ight of her
. Now if she didn’t say hello
it would be incredibly rude.
He
speared the shovel into the ground and walked towards her
,
wiping the sweat from his brow
and removing his gloves
. He was wearing
a flannelette shirt with the sleeves cut off and Amber was surprised to see how muscular his arms were. Most of the butt
ons on the shirt were undone
down the front
,
and she could see rivers of sweat flowing down his tanned chest to his belly.

As he got closer she could s
mell his musky scent and she
found that suddenly she was beginning to feel a bit
hot
under the collar
. She cleared her throat nervously as
he
stopped in front of her without speaking
or smiling.

“Hi,
I didn’t mean to intrude on you. I’m just out for a walk and didn’t realize the path
led to your cabin
. It looked like it hadn’t been used much
. I
was
about to turn around when I saw you.”

“That’s okay.
That’s not the main path, there’s another one on the right.
” As he spoke he stared
at her in a way she found unnerving. He wasn’t wearing his glasses and she noticed that his eyes were a very striking shade of blue. “I’m just burying some of my chickens. Something got into the hen house last night and there was a bloodbath.
I slept through the whole thing
,
which is really strange
be
cause they normally make a lot of
noise if anything dangerous is nearby
.”

“Oh,” said Amber, looking over his shoulder at what she now recogniz
ed as a pile of mangled carcasses
on the ground next to the hole.
Her stomach churned
.
“I’m really sorry
. Do you have any idea what it was?”

“Probably a wolf.
They’ve been pretty bad around here lately.”

“I’ve
heard about them
.”
His words reminded Amber she still had not attached
the charm the
shop
keeper
had given her
to her bracelet.
“A lady in town told me one
even smashed through a window.”

“Yes, that was
over at
the
Fisher’s
house a couple of weeks ago. It’s on the other side of the lake.
They heard some wol
ves howling near
the house
,
and then the next thing they knew
,
one had come straight through the window.
”

Amber shuddered at the thought.
“Is that why you asked me if I was afraid of being alone out here?”

“
Well
,
yes, I thought maybe you already knew and weren’t concerned
about them
. Y
ou seemed
to want
to be on your own so…….
”
He let the sentence trail off.

“
I had no idea. On my first night here when I heard the wolves howling I found it comforting, but not anymore. Are there any other dangerous creatures lurking out there in the darkness that I should be worried about?”

“It depends what you mean by dangerous
.
” He was still looking at her with a deep penetrating stare that caused the blood to rush into her face.

“Is there anything else that’s going to break into my house and try to devour me in the middle of the night?”
she said
,
only half joking
.
He
smiled
,
and
if she was not mistaken
,
his eyes flicked
down to her chest and back up.
His expression
reminded
her
again
of the carving of the wolf on the way to the cabin.
             
“
I’m sure
there are many creatures out there that would
like to devour you
,
young lady
.
Especially
in that red shawl
which makes you look so fetching
.
I have a good mind to take a bite of you myself
.
”

Amb
er felt herself redden
even more
and
she pulled the shawl firmly
closed
around her neck. This co
nversation had taken an
unexpected turn
,
and she didn’t think she liked where it was heading. She had done nothing
at all to lead this man on, and
if she wasn’t mi
stake
n
,
he had just overst
epped the mark. She had thought
he was the shy, retiring type but he wasn’t acting very shyly now. In fact it
his eyes seemed to be eating
her
up
as she stood there
,
and he
had a
knowing look
on
his face
that made her skin prickle the way it had when she felt she was being watched th
rough the window a few nights earlier
. He was now staring very openly at her chest as he licked his lips lasciviously.

Amber had
little experience
with
flirting or
putting men in their place when they had gone too far, and she was
momentarily at a loss for words.
Jesse
’s grin widened when he saw how uncomfortable he’d made her
.
She was about to turn on her heel and
lea
ve
when she noticed his smile
had faded
,
and he seemed to be looking at something behind her. She quickly spun around
,
but there was nothing there.

“
What’s the matter?”
What were you looking at?”

“It’s nothing.
I
just
thought I saw my dog Shadow coming
home. He spends most of his time
wandering around in
the woods. He’s not used to
strangers
,
so it’s probably a good idea if you leave now.”

“Yes, that i
s a good idea.
I was just about to go.”

“See you around then.
If you get lonely you know where to find me.
” He gave
her a
sly
wink that was far too familia
r for her liking
. She didn’t say another word but
turned her back
on him
abruptly and
s
tomped
back down the path
. She was deeply offended by his behaviour and could think of nothing else
as she made her way home
.
If
she had known he was so sleazy
she wouldn’t have been concerned
in the least
about hurting his feelings the other day
when she turned down his invitation
.
H
er chee
ks burned with anger, but
despite
herself
s
he
couldn’t help remembering
how good he had looked with his shirt open
.

I
t was only after she’d bee
n walking for some time that Amber
realized she must have
taken the wrong turn because the lake was still nowhere
in sight. She stopped and glanced
around
,
but all she could see were
trees in every direction. She turned ar
ound to go back the way
she
had come
,
but
after a short distance
she found herself standing at another fork in the pa
th which she’d been too preoccupied to notice
minutes earlie
r
.
She had no i
d
ea which path to take back
.

“Oh dear,
I think I’m lost,” she said out loud, her anger
tow
ards
Jesse
turning into worry
. Thi
s
couldn’t be happening to her, especially now that she knew how d
angerous the wolves
were. She chose the path branching off to the left
,
and picked up her pace, hoping and
praying it would lead her home. As she was wa
lking she heard
a weird sound behind her, almost like
heavy breathing
,
but when she turned around
there was nothing there
.

“Come on
,
Amber, now you’re imaging things,” she said to calm herself
,
but her heart lurched painfully when she
glanced backwards again and
saw a
shape
flitting through the trees behind
her.

The rati
onal part of her brain told her it was
Jesse
’s dog
, but
she couldn’t deny the possibility it was a wolf. She did not intend to stick around to find out.
S
he broke into a run, but
she
did not get far before she
stumbled on a tree root and
went spr
awling in the dirt.
Picking herself up
,
she dusted the dirt from her clo
thes and tried to laugh at h
er panic
, but t
here it was again, something moving in and out of the trees
to her left. It
was
just
a blur of movement and then it
disappear
ed
. T
he
sound
of heavy breathing was growing louder
,
and
Amber could not tell which direction it was coming from. It seemed to be all around her.

The blood began
pounding in h
er temples and she
suddenly
felt
dizzy
.
When she saw
movement
again
out of the corner of her
,
eye
she
quickened her
pace
, but the path she had
chose
n
suddenly
grew very narrow and
petered off into
the woods. It was too late to turn around and take the other path
so
s
h
e had
no choice but
to keep going.
Branches tore
at her clothes
and
scratched her bare arms
as she pushed through the trees
. H
er shawl got caught up in a bush
and she had to leave it behind.