Sapphire: A Werewolf Love Story (13 page)

I open my eyes and I’m on the floor and Abel and
Chrissy are staring at me.

“Is she awake?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think she remembers?”

The voices are blended together, belonging to no one
in particular.  Questions I can’t answer are sending me into shock.  I can’t breathe.

“Stop talking!” I shout, or it sounded like a shout
in my head, but sounded weak to my ears.  I turn my head and the wolf is on the
floor with his head resting on his front paws.  “Th that’s a wolf.”

“Yes, and it is Oakley in wolf form,” Abel says. 
“Oakley, why don’t you shift back so we can talk to Sam.”

Over the hour, I hear stories about werewolf lore
and how some people are born as one and some are bitten.  I can’t be awake,
this has to be some strange dream. I saw him turn into a wolf.  If I’m
hallucinating, wouldn’t everyone try to tell me the wolf isn’t real? 

“Sam, you have a bite mark on your side don’t you?” 
Oakley blurted out.  Abel leaned over and nudged him.

“How do you know?”  Did they do this to me?   

“Wolf smelling,  and darlin’ you have a wound on
your side.  It isn’t healing is it?”

Tears sting the back of my eyes and I answer with a
shake of my head.  His eyes are understanding and compassionate, two things I
don’t feel at the moment.

The four of us go to the kitchen, Chrissy takes the
cheesecake Estelle the cook made for dessert tonight.  Everything feels better
with cheesecake.  Instinctively, I know I like cherries on mine.

Oakley takes a sip of his Coca Cola before talking. 
“Sam, it isn’t all bad.  I know that’s easy for me to say since I’ve known this
life since I was young.  The benefits will outweigh the bad, I promise you. 
Scent, we can smell anything, especially another wolf.  As a pack, we are a
brotherhood, family, whatever you want to call us, we will be your family Sam.”

“I have noticed that I can smell things recently. 
The honeysuckle in the woods was so sweet it made my stomach growl.  Chrissy,
you don’t smell like they do, are you a wolf?”

She shakes her head no.  “I’m not, I am however
blessed with a healing ability as well as the ability to talk to animals.  Abel
and I can carry on complete conversations without ever saying a word.”  She’s
nervous about telling a new werewolf about her abilities, but Abel coaxed her
into telling me.

“Another cool thing is our sense of pleasure.  Not
to embarrass you, but we have great sex with other wolves.  We’re incredibly
strong, and some of us have an extra ability to go with our wolfy-side.  Sex
with a human has to be very gentle or they might think we’re too rough.  Just
you wait and see.”  Oakley is obviously happy with his sexual pleasure. 
“You’ll look at sex differently too.  Until you mate with your forever mate,
you’ll have sex for the sex.  No strings, just sex.  It’s different than the
drama that goes on with humans, no one has hurt feelings.  We’re more liberal I
guess…”

I sit and focus on the crumbs on my plate, avoiding
eye contact with everyone.  Suddenly, self-conscience of my surroundings, of my
stench from the gaping wound on my side, I put a protective wall around me.  No
more talks of supernatural beings, or sex, or my lack of knowing who I am.  I
want to go to bed.  “Excuse me, I need to go to bed.”  I got up with a squeal
from my chair against the tiled floor.  Everyone bid me a good-night and I went
to hide in my room.

This can’t be real, none of it can be
real.  Why can’t I remember?  What is wrong with me?

Five days post arrival to the farm.

“Sam, eventually we’re going to have to talk about
everything,” Abel says from the other side of my bedroom door. 

The last five days I’ve hidden in my room or on the
outskirt of the tree-line.  I’m no closer to figuring everything out than I was
when I arrived.  The local news hasn’t said anything about a missing persons.  Why
no one is looking for me is scary.  Maybe I’m a bad person and no one wants to
know where I am.  I wipe away the tear streaming down my face with the back of
my hand.

Everyone has brought trays of food and set them
outside of my door.  It’s better this way.  The less people I influence the
less people who are hurt by me.  Obviously, I suck as a human.

As quietly as I can, I go to the living room to grab
the daily paper.  I keep hoping someone would put an advertisement about me
missing.  Today is different, my legs feel like jell-o as I approach the room. 
Without warning, my body slumps to the floor.  A pain so horrendous I vomit as
it ravages my body, I scream in agony.  Like echos of voices, I hear them
telling me to relax.

“You bastard!  Stay away from me or I will KILL
you!” I scream through the pain.

Oakley’s voice tells me to relax and to breathe
through the pain.  “Shut-up you yoga freak!  I hate you!  I hate all of you! 
You did this to me!”  The last part I’m not sure if I said the words out loud
or in my head.

I try to lift my head, it feels so foggy and heavy. 
Where am I?  You’re fucking kidding me!  I’m in a cage?  With bars?  What
the hell?

 I’m too woozy to stand, so I reposition myself on
the giant dog bed to get comfortable.  My ass feels so weird, like an extension
of my spine or something.  What is it? 
Ohhhhh, my
hallucination
tail. 
Someone’s coming, I hear them walking closer.

“Sam?”  He says.

I don’t recognize his face, but there’s something
familiar about his scent.  Have I met him before?  I try to focus on him but my
eyelids are too heavy to keep open. 

PARKER

The little wolf’s ears twitched as I approached. 
The sedative should be wearing off soon.  Her coat is silver and white with
darker variations on her legs.  Her tail is tucked in a scared position, and
her eyes are barely open.  Something about her hopeless faraway expression in
her eyes pulls on my heartstrings.

My wolf is jumpy as he looks at her with me.  We
both agree she is a pretty wolf but has a wounded heart. 

“Hi Sam, I’m the beta of the pack.  Well, I was the
beta until our alpha was killed last year.  We can talk about that stuff
later.”  Still standing, I kneel so she can see my face.  “You don’t have to be
scared Sam, I won’t let anything happen to you.  Once you shift to human, we
will let you out of this holding area.  I know, it resembles a jail cell, but
that’s because you’re very strong.  You have no idea how strong you are, but we
do
and this cell is made to keep you safe.” 

I sit down at the desk and spread out my crackers
and methodically spread peanut butter on each one.  Sam’s nose starts twitching
as she smells the sweet peanut spread.  I walk over to the cage and hold up a
cracker for her.  The little wolf eyes look up at me, hungry and sad. 

“It’s okay, come on over Sam.  I won’t hurt you. 
You won’t hurt me either,” I coax her over to me. 

Like a baby deer standing on wobbly legs she ventures
to stand for the first time.  Her spindly legs shake under her weight.  I’ve
never seen such an unsure wolf before today.  No matter how hard she struggles
to make it over for the tasty morsel of peanut butter, she collapses on the
bed.  I slide the plate of premade crackers through to her with the stick we
have for sick wolves.  She doesn’t raise her head, just her eyes, and I want
nothing more than to protect her.

~~~~~~

SAPPHIRE/SAM

I’m either in the worst nightmare I could ever
imagine, or I’m really a werewolf, which is still a horrible nightmare.   I
think human, but I can’t turn human?  How will my husband find me if I’m a
werewolf? 

Someone is coming, I hear their footsteps, another
one of the wolves I think.   Although he looks rugged, the dark circles under
his eyes gives away he’s not sleeping well.  He’s older than Abel and Oakley,
maybe mid-twenties.  He’s agitated, and grumbles under his breath about being a
babysitter.  I don’t need a damn sitter; I need someone to switch me back. 
Give me some magic potion and I’ll be happy to relieve you of your babysitting
gig asshat.

He introduces himself as the beta of the pack. 
After a few minutes, his agitation dissolved and his body relaxed.  He talks to
me a little, but all I’m concerned about is the food he has on his desk.  He
has peanut butter and crackers!  I’ve never been so hungry in my life…at least
I don’t think I have.  I’m engulfed in the fragrance of his snack and I
honestly feel as if I could kill for one of his crackers.  Kill as in
dead…dead.  

“Would you like one?” He asks after noticing me staring
at his food.

My head is awkward, the size is huge and it feels
like my neck will break it’s so heavy.  Standing up proves to be a challenge
every time I attempt to stand.  My legs, all four of them are like standing on
sticks with giant paws.  I’m embarrassed for him to see me so compromised; I
fumble around until I’m back on my doggie bed. 

I watch him as he puts the crackers on a plate and
uses a long spatula looking stick to push it to me.  I glance up at him and for
the briefest of moments; I feel a pang of desire for this man.

I’ve no idea how long I’ve been here, time escapes
me.  I count the bars that surround me, the bars that define my prison.

Beta is back today, his gorgeous eyes are watching
me, and I can see the wheels spinning in his mind. It’s as though he’s piercing
through my wolf and reaching in for the human.

“Who are you Sam?”

I answer by lifting my eyes. 
I don’t know.

He gets up from his chair and kneels down on the
ground, able to get a good visual of his face I decide I like his rugged look. 
He’s wearing a tight-fitting black polo and a pair of trendy jeans.  His shoes
are perfect, no scuffs or signs of wear.  Interesting, for a guy that works on
a farm.

“I’ve kept an eye open for any news about you
missing, and I haven’t seen any.  What are the chances you’re not from
Oklahoma,” he says with a hint of concern in his voice. 

I learned how to stand and walk today.
 
I wanted to reply.

He shook his head and smiled. “You’re a conundrum
like no other I’ve run across.”

At least I can stand up and walk now.
I
reply.

He sat on the floor with his back to the solid wall
that made up for the back of my cage.  He turns his head and stares me in the
eyes.  No matter how much I wanted to shift my eyes, something in me forbid me
to.  I can hardly breathe as I sit here waiting for him talk to me.  He’s the
only one that comes to check on me that stays and visits me like I’m a human. 
Desperate to show him my new trick, I stand up quickly.

He grins at me, and I swear I am a sucker for
a
his
grin.  “Look who’s standing up!  Sam that’s fantastic.”

Can a wolf smile? 
I can walk too, wanna see?
 
Like a child I want to show him that I’m human and not to kill me. 
Teach me
how to shift Beta. 
I wish I knew his name
. 
I sit down on the
concrete opposite side of the bars.

“Sam, you’re able to shift.  Think about your human self
and your body will begin to phase back.  I’m trying to keep the human in you
alive, don’t lose your grip kid, or things won’t turn out well.”  His hand
moves slowly through the bars until he stops and rests it on my head.

Fear for his safety causes my chest to rumble and I
hear a growl coming from me.  He doesn’t pull away; he must know I’m not going
to hurt him. 

“I’m only petting you because as wolves we console
one another.  We’re pack, we need and crave to be around our pack-mates.”  He
strokes my head in long slow strokes; my eyes get heavy with every touch. 
“You’re a beautiful wolf.  Once you get control, you’ll love your wolf and
she’ll always be a part of you. It feels good doesn’t it?  I’ve always enjoy
having my ears scratched.  I’d never tell the guys though.  You better not
squeal on me!”  He says jovially.  

I’d never squeal on you. 

He stayed on the floor with his hand on my side
through the night.  Without any control, I know my tongue flopped out of my
mouth.  I smell someone coming and I open my eyes, and I’d drooled all over the
floor and my tongue was on the ground.

“Dude, you running this morning?”  A girl I’ve never
seen before bangs on the desk to get our attention.

“Can you keep it down, you’ll scare Sam,” he replies
as he gives me a reassuring pat and stands up.

“You’re sleeping with the lost girl now?  How
weird.”

“Watch yourself.  I’ll meet everyone in the
clearing.”   He stretched his back as he took his keys off the desk.  “Sam, you
be good in here.  Remember to think about shifting.  I’ll be back later.”

As he walks out the door, I want to yell out for him
to stay with me, instead I lower my head and go back to sleep.