05 Daughter of Fury

Unbound

I felt the floor under my paws and glanced toward the window of the shack. Seeing the sunshine dancing over the tall grass in hues of orange and pink. Beckoning me to experience them all.

I couldn’t resist. So excited that I could hardly contain myself, I charged the shack’s front door and tipped onto my back legs so I could lean up enough to turn the lever with my front paws. Once it creaked open a crack I dropped and stuck my snout in it. Urging it further.

Once out, I was rushing out into the field and feeling the wind sifting through my fur. A million scents wafted in to tease me all at once. Wandering into my nostrils and exploding into my mind. Everything was shiny and new. Every plant I passed, I learned the smell of. I was shocked by how everything had its own, distinct, aroma.

It was almost as if I could see the whole world through only my nostrils.

I could see so far out in every direction that I had no idea what the limits of my vision were. It seemed limitless.

Unbound…I’m unbound by all the things that held me back before.

That single touch had changed my fate, my life, forever.

I owed everything to the Spark. She gave me my life.

I paused in that meadow. Turning to look around me in wonder. Scanning vertically, horizontally. Pressing my new eyes to see every detail.

I could see the smallest rabbit hunkered in the grass hundreds of yards away.

A squirrel in a tree across the meadow shrank. It gave a small whining sound at the scent of me.

I can see, and hear, everything!

I leapt in the direction of the hill. Ducking my head to charge gleefully that way. I felt the eagerness of a puppy as I scurried beyond the square boulder and toward the edge of the steep bank. I whistled for the boy, calling to my only friend.

I want to show him! I couldn’t wait for him to see me.

I leapt into the air, intent on running headlong into the ravine. While I was in the air, my mother’s arms wrapped my torso and she whirled with me. Using incredible strength to run back across the meadow, packing me. She crossed quickly into the shack and slammed the door behind her.

I whined in objection. Giving her a stunned look, as she set me back down on my paws.

She crouched before me and put a finger to her lips. Shaking her head.

Only then did I hear what she already had.

The treading of paws in every direction. They were crossing the camp toward the shack, roaming closer from different angles of the meadow, crossing around the huts and slipping into the edge of the forest. They were pouring from every direction around camp.

Looking for something.

I saw the alarm on her face and realized where she’d gotten her astonishing strength. She’s terrified.

That told me that she had reason to believe they were looking for me.

“You have to change back.” She said in a quivering voice.

I blinked at her. I don’t want to.

“Now, Deva” She commanded in a hushed tone. “Change back!”

I couldn’t imagine anything worse than that. I threw my head in argument. I can’t go back to that!

The thought of being almost completely blind and deaf again was sickening. I only just found freedom! I’m not even sure I can change back.

I couldn’t tell her those things in the form I was in.

She wouldn’t have understood.

“Now, Deva! There’s too many for us!”

I lifted my snout and flared my nostrils as I caught their scents. There were numerous animals closing in on the hut. As much as I hated the idea, I knew she was right.

They’re going to hurt us!

I closed my eyes and told my wolf that I needed her to crawl back into my body and set the girl free or we would get hurt.

She whined in my mind. Objecting to being put away so quickly.

I reassured her it wouldn’t be forever.

I want you to come back out, soon just as much as you want to. I promised her.

I relaxed my body and my head snapped abruptly back. Folding at an awkward angle until it fell atop my spin. My human face pressed through the fur of my neck and emerged as chunks of fur toppled to the ground. Next was my shoulder, and finally an arm. I stretched it out, pulling the furred skin off my opposite shoulder until both were free. Then I gripped the opening of the skin and pushed it toward my hips. Crawling out of it as it receded. Drying and beginning to fall apart. Teeth and fur fell to the floor, scattering around my hands.

“Faster, Deva!” Mother urged. She ran to slide the table aside. Catching a loose board and lifting. Which revealed it was a secret handle to a concealed hatch.

Finally, I was free of my wolf form. A nude woman on all fours. MY body and hair were slicked with blood.

I obediently crawled over and peered down. It was lined inside with stones and deteriorating animal hides.

The smell was acrid enough that I had to turn my face away.

“Plug your nose.” She ordered. “You have to get down there.”

I stared down in appall.

“Deva!” She cried. “Hurry.”

I crawled over the edge and tumbled into it headfirst. Hitting the bottom knocked the air out of me.

“Get under the hides!” She whispered.

I slowly dragged the pile of hides over me. I felt groggy and my movements were heavy, as if every limb was weighed down.

She threw the hatch back over me. And dragged the table over it.

There was banging at the door.

It creaked when mother opened it.

A masculine voice rose. It was low tones, but this time it wasn’t dulled. I made out every word.  

“You can only hide her so long, Aleasha.”

“She is my baby.”

“She is also a she-wolf that has just attained mating age.”

“They’ll kill her, Alpha!”

“You can’t hide her from us forever.” The Alpha warned.

“Let me try?” She pleaded.

Madrik Gallions, the alpha, was the father of Jamie and Ajax.

“The males will not be happy when they discover I’ve allowed you to hide a female from them.”

Despite my limitations, I had carefully kept track of the members of the pack. Though I couldn’t hear or see them, mother had told me about each one so I could learn who they were.

I knew them. In a way.

They just don’t know me.

I held my breath as I waited for his verdict.

I heard him sigh.

I was startled to realize that even in this form, I could now see and smell. Even my human body has changed.

After a night of the worst pain I’d ever known, I was healed. I was distracted by that knowledge. I can run in the fields and feel the grass under my feet. I could smell each wildflower in bloom!

I could run into that ravine and listen to the sounds of that drizzling creek that the boy had stuck my hand into.  

Those hopes were abolished when I heard mother promising Madrik. “I’ll keep her indoors…”

No! I inwardly wailed. To know that I now had those abilities and not be permitted to use them seemed unbearably cruel.

There was a long silence between mother and Alpha.

I almost hoped he’d reject her offer. Anything had to be better than being locked away forever!

“You know who she is!” Mother urged.

“The only daughter of Fury.”

“You’re a smart man. You know the value of having the only surviving daughter of the original. She can provide a line of pureblood wolves…If you allow her time.”

“I intend her for one of my sons.” He warned.

“I know. But she has her own mind. I can’t promise you that.”

“We will let her choose. They are strong wolves, she’d be a fool not to choose one of them as a mate.”

“I understand.”

“I give you one full rotation of the seasons.”

She huffed a relieved breath. “Twelve moons…”

“As long as she stays in here. If she’s discovered I can’t protect her any longer.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

The deal was set and soon the door closed.

She opened the hatch and offered me a hand up. “I’ll get you some water from the creek to clean up.”

“Are you really going to keep me in the shack.”

“We have no choice, darling. We have to keep you safe.”

***

Day after day, I stared out the window and over the field, at the square boulder on the hill.

Where the boy might be waiting for me…

And I could finally see him! It broke my heart to know that gift was taken from us. Everyday became a missed opportunity to speak to my dearest friend, face-to-face.

And hear him, smell him, touch him, know him. I wanted to know everything about him. The color of his hair and eyes, the sound of his voice when it isn’t muffled.

I understood mother was trying to protect me but I couldn’t resist arguing with her at every turn. On every sunny day.

Our disagreements became increasingly often. Sometimes going for hours.

It had only been a fortnight, but I already felt like I was going crazy.

I went to the window as soon as I woke. I could see that there had been a light rain during the night. It lent a whole new array of scents to the air. The sun had already warmed much of the meadow but the trees held a gray aura that I desperately wanted to go investigate.

“Deva…” Mother pleaded. “Please don’t.”

“I didn’t even say anything!”

“I know that look.”

“Just let me go!” I shouted at her as I turned from the window.

“No, Deva. You know why!”

“I just want to go out there. There’s so much I’ve missed for far too long.”

“You can’t!” She cried. “I promised our alpha.”

“You’re keeping me prisoner. How can you not let me go and experience all that I missed. It’s heartless.”

She has to change her mind. I’m going to go crazy in here! I thought.

“Deva! Please! Stop fighting me on this.” She shouted it so loudly that I quieted. Having never seen her so vehemently before, I didn’t know what to say.

“No more. That’s final.” She cut the air with the side of her hand in a firm gesture.

Effectively silencing my pleading.

I turned from the window and went to my bed, pulling the blanket up to my shoulder as I stared at the wall.

She swept her arms before her in an indication that her answer was final.

Effectively silencing all of my pleading.

***

Mother and I were so busy arguing that neither of us noticed the shadow that had stood up next to the square boulder along the ridge. It was the silhouette of a boy, his arms crossed over his chest as he stood in line with my window.

With the wind whistling through the trees and stirring the grass over the meadow, it was impossible for him to hear the argument. But he caught the angry gestures. The direct way I looked at my mother. The rapid-fire responses I gave her before she even finished her sentences.

He saw it all.

I never knew he saw me there.

He stood still and watched how I moved and spoke, and knew with deep certainty that I was healed.

He could never have known how I argued with her almost daily in the hope of going to see him. All he understood was that I was healed, and now no longer came to our spot.

He believed he was cast aside. Thinking himself only my friend when I had a need for him. As he stood there, that boy’s view of everything began to change…

He lurched off that boulder and walked around it to drop down the steep bank. Walking slowly along the creek. Venting his frustration through the rocks he threw and the trees. He was nearly shaking with rage. Disappointment coursing through him. And in that second something he would always hide, had hardened.