Chapter Sixteen #2
Please… let me calm down…
A sharp tingle ran through my body, like a cold chill on an icy winter night, and I snapped back into my human form. Which was important, because I needed my hands to pry the werewolf’s jaws off Rowena’s arm.
I nicked my finger in the process, blood beading up on the tip like liquid ruby. But at least the wolf’s saliva entering my bloodstream wasn’t an issue. The man couldn’t infect someone that was already a werewolf.
But I was terrified for Rowena. She collapsed to the ground, struggling to catch her weight on her knees as she clutched her oozing forearm.
She’d been bitten. By a werewolf.
She was one of us now.
But I didn’t have time to process the harrowing consequences of the bite.
I leered at the stunned male werewolf, who was now standing wide-eyed and open-jawed with their paws splayed out, struggling to stay upright.
Blood glinted from its fangs, mixing with saliva as it dropped from its mouth and onto the ground.
The discharge looked like oil stains amidst the dark soil of Rowena’s garden.
I stood my ground, ears and tail still out, ready to shift back at a moment’s notice. But the werewolf no longer looked angry. It looked stunned. Horrified.
Its eyes flicked over to Rowena, and a high-pitched noise screeched from its throat.
It was whining. Like a dog.
The man clearly regretted biting Rowena.
The shock was enough for the wolf to back away, its distressed cries growing in volume as it turned on its haunches and scampered away.
It leapt over Rowena’s garden fence like it was nothing, the wolf’s dark silhouette quickly melding into the surrounding forest.
But just before he disappeared, I noticed the werewolf stop at the edge of the forest. His silhouette was little more than a tiny, dark speck against the moonlit sky, but I was certain I saw a second figure move out from behind the trees.
Another werewolf. Considerably larger than the first.
My stomach plummeted even further. Big Red. It had to be. From what I’d been told, they were the only werewolf able to break through the wards.
And let other werewolves through.
Thankfully, we were so far away, Big Red didn’t seem to notice us. As soon as the male werewolf caught up with Big Red, the two of them cantered away and disappeared, their silhouettes swallowed up by the forest.
Once I was certain the wolves were gone, that they weren’t going to turn back and ambush me once I let my guard down, I bolted to Rowena’s side.
She was still on her knees, hunched over with her injured arm tucked against her chest. I placed my hand on her wrist, and she yelped and pulled away. But after a few seconds of pleading glances, she reluctantly allowed me to survey her injuries.
The fang marks were deep. They punched through her skin like darts through paper, leaving a trail of holes in her flesh.
Blood poured down her forearm in slick red streams, staining her maroon nightgown and dotting the tips of her fingers.
Even when I touched the skin around the wound, she let out a strangled sob, hissing through her teeth as she fought through the pain.
“We need to get you inside,” I stated firmly.
Rowena nodded, but didn’t say anything as I lifted her up and draped her uninjured arm across my shoulder.
Her left arm was the only injured part of her body, but her legs were weak and gelatinous, and she struggled to place one in front of the other.
As a werewolf who had endured wounds while out hunting, I knew her inability to walk was because of the pain.
Once I brought her inside and set her into a chair, her head lolled to one side, as if the muscles in her neck had stopped working. I steadied her as best I could, terrified she’d pass out.
”We need to get you help,” I declared once I’d had a few moments to collect myself.
Even in the darkness of Rowena’s cottage, I could see how much blood had been smeared all over her body.
There was even a line of it across her cheek, like a scar.
“There must be an apothecary in town, a healer, maybe someone has an antidote for the bite. Maybe–”
“Nettie.”
I stopped talking. Rowena lifted her head, and the streak of blood across her face glistened ruby red in the moonlight.
“I’ll be fine. I have the materials to make a poultice that will hold me over until morning.”
“Um… okay,” I replied in an uneasy tone. “Where can I get the ingredients?”
“I’ll get them.”
Rowena went to stand, and in a panic I shoved her back down.
In the process, we locked eyes, our faces less than a foot away from each other.
We were both panting – me from shock, and Rowena from pain.
I couldn’t help but notice that Rowena was remarkably calm.
I could tell she was struggling with the pain from her injuries, but she didn’t seem fazed by the fact she’d just been bitten by a werewolf.
Any other witch would’ve been hysterical, knowing they’d just been turned into one of the creatures they feared most.
Rowena lifted her uninjured arm, which was smeared with almost as much blood as her injured one, and gently touched the red fur around the rum of my ears.
My ears .
Panic surged through my body like electricity. I hadn’t realized my ears and tail were still out.
But it didn’t matter. Rowena already knew. She’d just watched me shift into my wolf form to fight off her attacker.
It was worth it. But the gaze in Rowena’s eyes still made my stomach twist itself in knots.
“I’m sorry,” I spat out, more panic bubbling in my blood. “I know I’ve been lying to you. The truth is, as you just saw… I’m no human. I’m a werewolf.”
Rowena didn’t reply. She remained still, silent, with those big brown eyes still locked on mine.
“Gods, I don’t know what I was thinking,” I blubbered, a knot of emotion catching in my throat. “I put you and everyone else in danger by pretending to be a witch. I shouldn’t have come here. I should have–”
“Nettie...”
I snapped my mouth shut. I realized the entire time I’d been fumbling out my apology, she was still rubbing my wolf ears. Her fingers trailed down them, weaving through strands of my red hair, until they came to a stop at the curve of my cheek.
“Nettie,” Rowena continued. “I always knew you were a werewolf.”
“You… wait, what?! ”
I was shocked. Dumbfounded.
It was absurd. But in a twisted way, it also made sense.
It was why she didn’t question me being from a remote island, or my lack of knowledge about the human world.
It was why she didn’t comment whenever my ears and tail popped out, even though their outlines were easily visible through the fabric of my cloak.
I’d been terrified, swallowing down my secret like a pill, trying my best to fit in.
But she knew.
She always knew.
“But… how ?” I asked.
Rowena shifted, wincing from the pain as she cradled her injured arm. “I could smell your scent. When I first approached you in the café. Right after I caught you here eating scones.”
She could… smell… my scent?
That made no sense. Unlike shifters, witches didn’t have a highly developed sense of smell. They couldn’t sniff each other out like we werewolves could.
Which meant Rowena was…
My stomach dropped.
No…
“Who was that man!?” I exclaimed, the words tumbling out of my mouth.
Rowena’s muscles tensed, her shoulders hunching together as she fought through another wave of pain. I squeezed my arms around her, helping her endure it, until her muscles finally relaxed.
I needed to get her help. Soon.
But I have so many burning questions. So many things I need to know…
Rowena swallowed, running the back of her hand across her face. The blood streak smeared, making it look more like a lightning bolt.
She let out a long, slow breath. “He’s my father.”
He’s your… what!?
Oh gods. It made sense. Everything made sense. My initial theory of Rowena being a werewolf hunter crumbled into dust.
I was so wrong. So utterly, horribly wrong…
“Nettie, it’s okay,” Rowena whispered in a soothing tone. “I’ll be fine. I’m not going to turn into a werewolf. Because, I’m already…”
I was an idiot. I couldn’t believe I’d almost left Rowena behind. I would’ve never found out the truth, and Rowena would’ve been left heartbroken, forever wondering what she’d done to upset me.
“Nettie… I’m so sorry. I’ve lied to you, too. It’s such a hard thing to talk about… a part of me I’m always hiding away… but I shouldn’t have to hide this from you. Because we’re the same, you and me. We’re both…”
She paused, slowly removing her injured arm from her lap and resting it against the chair.
“Here… let me just show you.”
She sat up straight, and her face went blank. I knew that look all too well. She was concentrating.
Then she disappeared.
And in her place, on the floor, I saw jet-black fur, a pair of pointed ears, and a bloody, injured front leg.
Those eyes stared up at me, the same deep chocolate brown they always were, and I knew it was really her.
Rowena was a werewolf.