Ravenwood(87)

“Thank you, Mrs. Davenport. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but just in case, if you should hear me scream or shout… send someone with a gun. Or that large axe.”

The housekeeper nodded. She took a watchful stance by the back door as Elinore made her way across the grounds. It occurred to her only as she felt the chill seep into her toes that she was still barefoot, having not taken the time to don boots before coming down when she heard the scream. It couldn’t be helped now. She could feel that something, perhaps someone, was watching from the forest, waiting. She should be more frightened than she was, Elinore supposed. She was wary, and on alert - and afraid, but she wasn’t about to turn around and run away screaming.

She felt colder as her distance from Ravenwood Manor grew. Logically, she knew it must only be so in her mind. Surely there was no temperature gradient between the manor and the forest. The morning air was crisp and sharp, but it wasn’t bitingly cold. She clutched her robe tighter around herself. What was she thinking, coming out here like this? Her toes were numb with the wet dew and chilly morning. Elinore glanced over her shoulder and saw Mrs. Davenport in the distance, still standing like a sentinel at the back door.

Finally at the edge of the trees, Elinore paused. She looked up to the sky. The ravens still circled and one of them squawked. As if sensing her, a pair of birds swooped toward her - one came to rest near her feet, the other remained flitting and flying near her head for a moment before finally settling on her shoulder. Its weight felt like a cloak of armor, covering her with confidence and courage.

“I didn’t kill the horse.”

The soft voice seemed to come from the forest itself and Elinore’s heart beat madly in response. She didn’t think the person, the man, was all that close to her, but he was near enough that Elinore could make his words out. She turned her head slightly to the trees.

“Who are you?” Elinore asked. She kept her own voice equally low. If she could hear the person in the woods, they could certainly hear her.

Ignoring her question, the voice continued, “I wasn’t sure if anyone would speak to me or if you would kill me on sight.”

Elinore glanced down at the bat in her hands, squeezing her hand around it. “If you threaten me, perhaps I will.” She was quite proud of how firm and even her voice sounded. “Are you the omega wolf?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve been killing animals.”

“No. I told you I didn’t kill that horse nor any of the other animals.”

Elinore narrowed her eyes, peering into the woods. “And you expect me to believe you?”

“No.”

“Then it seems we are at an impasse.”

There was a pause from the forest, for so long that Elinore thought perhaps he’d left or was readying to pounce on her. She was listening so carefully for footsteps coming closer that when he did speak, though his voice was still low and soft, she flinched.

“Your Alpha, the older man. Where is he now?”

“He’s not my Alpha,” Elinore replied quickly. Why she should feel the need to make that clear to a strange voice in the woods, Elinore wasn’t sure.

“He bit you. He’s your Alpha.”

“No,” Elinore said, a sinking sensation in her stomach. “You bit me. I was bitten by a feral wolf. A feral omega.”

“You may have been bitten by a feral wolf, but it was not me.”

“You’re lying,” she replied quickly, but realization was spreading in her like a dark and horrible sickness. Hayter. Hayter’s lingering closeness, Hayter’s overfamiliarity. Hayter had been the one to insist she travel on the night of the full moon. Hayter, Hayter, Hayter. Of course.

There was a rustle in the woods followed by strange and horrible sounds. Clicking and popping. Then something that sounded like taffy being stretched - wet and thick. Elinore stumbled backwards, clutching the bat tightly. The horrid sounds stopped and were followed by footsteps. Footsteps coming toward her. No, not footsteps. Animal steps.

A wolf moved behind the foliage, where Elinore would be able to see it. From where it stood, it would still be hidden from Mrs. Davenport. Before her stood the same wolf that Elinore had seen once before, watching her from the woods. When she’d mentioned it to Caleb, he’d indicated it had been Hayter, and she’d taken Caleb at his word. Now, however, hearing the voice of the omega and seeing the wolf before her, she knew this wasn’t the wolf that bit her. And if this wolf before her now, was the omega, then it must have been Hayter who’d sunk his sharp teeth so deeply in her arm. Hayter had been the wolf that stalked her in the dark forest. This wolf, the one before her now had been the one that chased Hayter off. Indeed, she owed this wolf a debt. She took a step forward and the wolf moved away, back into the dense trees. Again, Elinore heard the awful wet clicking and popping. Her mind whirred. What were those sounds?

Her breath caught. They were the sounds of him shifting. Of his body transforming from a human to a wolf and then back again. It sounded excruciating to her ears, but he made no sound. No cries nor whimpers.

“Do you believe me now?” came the soft voice again.

“Why are you here?” she countered, unable to voice her answer to his question.

“Miss Reed? Are you all right?”

Elinore spun around to see Mrs. Davenport taking a few steps away from the manor, hesitant, but holding strong to the axe to come to Elinore’s aid if necessary. Elinore held up a hand and gave what she hoped was an assuring wave and the older woman stopped her advance, moving back toward the manor. Elinore turned back to the forest in time to see the unkindness of ravens above the canopy of trees fly up to the sky, a flurry of wings and black shapes. They moved as one, flying further into the forest. The two ravens remaining next to Elinore, the one on her shoulder and the one by her feet, stayed a moment longer before flapping their wings madly and joining their brethren. The forest was silent. The omega was gone.