Current work in production. Prologue. Read at your own leisure

Prologue

There was a philosopher who once said, Man has nothing to fear but Man Himself. Now, I'm not really sure who it was that said that, but boy did he have it right. As I stood outside beneath the millions of stars that dotted the sky, my heart raced in exhilaration and fear. Not the fear of the unknown, nor of the crushing darkness all around me. Even the rustle of the nearby bushes did not cause me worry of a larger beast behind it. No, my heart raced in fear that it'd not be a wolf or a bear behind that bush, but a man. A man who had no morals and took what they would from others, women they take their pride in their femininity and from men, they often take their life. Trade a life for a life, I never knew what went through their minds. Only that if a man were to step out from behind that bush, I'd be afraid. Then as the clouds moved away from the moon, I found the one thing that is beast one can fear. Werewolf. A mix of beast and man, possibly noble of heart as the wolf he represents, or the lowest scum to ever grace the air so he could prey on women. Now, to be fair, I did also consider that it might be a female werewolf watching me with gleaming yellow eyes, but for the small little thing hanging in between it's legs, and no it was not a tail.
Warily I moved to the side, judging if it meant harm or was just another passersby. no doubt if this was one of the intelligent, it would also wonder what I was doing out here. Which I must say was a damned interesting question I wish I could answer for myself. I had fallen asleep hours ago in my nice warm bed wearing purple flannel pajamas in front of the fire and now I stood outside, fully dressed staring groggily at the moon as I woke up standing. Sleepwalking it sucks, but even more so when you're vacationing in a lodge high up in the Rocky Mountains. So here I was, standing outside, staring at a wolf and wondering how I'd gotten to be so lucky, when suddenly it simply sat down. Motionless against the wind at its back, which by the way so happened to be slapping me in the face and causing my eyes to water, the beast watched me with open curiosity. I breathed a sigh of relief. This was a wholly good and simple creature then. No mauling here tonight. Crouching down, I could see nothing, but it's chest, so I stood back up and tried to appear as if I weren't staring it down.
"You're probably wondering what am I doing out here, huh?" I asked it, putting my hands in my coat pockets to keep them warm.
Yes, I thought of a jacket and no gloves, how clever of my unconscious mind. I almost rolled my eyes to the cloudy night above, but as much as I was feeling less afraid of beastie here, I wasn't taking my eyes off of him.
"Well, I really don't have an answer for that, except sleepwalking is a bitch." I said smirking.
It just stared at me, until it's eyes began to go from a pale stare to one of thoughtful intelligence.
"Well, I think I'll go home now. I don't think I could stand it if you began to talk." I said, the cold air from my breath rising in front of my face. "See you later." I said, waving as I turned to leave.
Heading in what I hoped to be the general direction of my cabin, it wasn't long before I heard leaves being crunched under something lighter than my clunky feet. Turning back around, I saw the wolf staring at me again and still just as close as if I hadn't walked away, or as if he had been following. Sighing, I looked at him.
"You're not going to pull one of those may I go home with you things on me are you?" I asked it, still half turned and still wary.
Funnily enough, it actually gave the first sign of hearing me. It shook it's head back and forth.
"Then why are you following me?" I asked, wondering why in the world I was talking to a werewolf and what in fact made me think it was one. Besides it's unnaturally enormous size. I'd seen captive wolves before and though they may be smaller than normal wild wolves, I still couldn't imagine them being nearly three times the size of the captive wolves. Then the fangs seemed thicker, bigger, and it's mane was long and flowing, almost like human hair. The thick muscles cording up it's biceps was intimidating as well as the way it's eyes kept changing. I've never met a werewolf before, but I imagined if I did, it would look like this one. So that's why I stood talking and deducing things normal people wouldn't dare, but I myself was not normal. Not as weird as the fellow in front of me, but weird enough that it was something I had to hide. The wolf eyed me warily as if afraid I'd run away or beat him, before it approached slowly. I stood my ground. I wasn't afraid of it, especially since my empathy told me he meant no harm. Although I did wonder as it opened it's jaws and wrapped it's fangs around my arm. I almost panicked and began wildly tugging at my arm, but then realized in time that it had a loose grip and was only trying to draw my hand out of my pocket. It then stuck it's entire paw into my pocket. I was stunned. The weight of the paw was almost enough to pull me over sideways and the size of the beast at my hand was almost chest high.I may be a little on the short side so chest high wouldn't be incredibly that much on me, but still it was intimidating. Finally it stopped pawing around in my pocket and began herding whatever it'd found towards the frigid outer air. Without further fuss, my cell phone dropped out of my pocket and hit the soft dirt of mother earth. The wolf sat down and looked at me as if asking permission. Still in some shock, I nodded. I mean I knew werewolves would have the intelligence of man, but you try standing next to a four foot high wolf who needs to use a cell phone and see if you don't feel the same way or god forbid, react worse. The wolf looked down at the phone in consternation a moment, before it's long mane of hair began to get shorter. It's muzzle receded back into it's skull and it's corded biceps became more pronounced and paler. In short order, I was standing next to a man. A fully dressed man, thank you very much, but still a man, who reached down one long hand and picked up my tiny cell phone. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him don't break it, but he soon made it clear he knew what he was doing. Expertly he flipped it open as if he'd done it all his life, dialed in a number and tipped it to his ear, tilting his head up to the sky. Whoever was on the other end must have picked up, because suddenly the quiet night that only sighed with the rushing of the wind was shattered.
"Where the hell have you been!?" A man hollered from the other end, loud enough that the wolf/man flinched and I took a bracing step back.
The wolf/man caught the movement and smirked at me, then he turned back serious.
"Listen, as you know it's Adam, and I need you to come get me." He said, deadly calm, wholly serious, and looking very lethal.
"Good god man, you disappear for an entire week and now you just want me to come get you?" The other man screamed into the phone.
"Yes." Said Adam very succintly in a tone I knew brooked no argument.
There was some rustling and grumbling on the other line, which made me think I really should turn the volume down on my phone, before the man came back on the line.
"Where's your location?" The man asked gruffly.
"I'm in the Rocky Mountains." Adam the wolf/man stated.
"Right, smart ass, and what address would you be at in the Rocky Mountains?" He asked.
I began to wonder the same thing, until the wolf/man named Adam turned to look at me. He raised one fine eyebrow and what he had been thinking became abundantly clear.
"You'd better keep saying somewhere in the Rocky Mountains cause I am not letting you know the address of my cabin." I said in what I thought was a very strong voice.
"Lady, you don't need to show me anything, when all I need do is follow your scent from right where you stand." He took a very deep breath, and exhaled slowly. "Your base scent is lilies I do believe." He said smiling like the wolf he was and I was sorely tempted to slap the knowing smirk off his face. Then unexpectedly his expression gentled from wolf sharp to male kindness and consideration of a female. "But I ask, as I would prefer to have your help of your own free will and not because I forced you to." He said quietly.
In spite of myself, I wanted to smile at his thoughtfulness and wondered where my sanity had gone.
"I'm staying at 3316 West Mountain Road, in Lodge number 15." I said.
"Is it a large community?" He asked, looking worried.
"Not really, they're spread pretty far apart for privacy, is just land is so big they had to number the cabins." I said, too late realizing the idiocy of saying that to a complete stranger.
I might as well put up a huge sign that says 'single, female, alone in a mountain lodge away from anyone who can hear her scream', while I was at it. He must have read my mind, cause he smirked again, before relaying the info to the receiving man.
"I'll be there in 15 minutes." The gruff man said. "But I do have one more question."
The wolf/man turned his eyes towards me and I knew it was going to be a question about me.
"Does the woman know?" He asked.
Bingo. I thought as the wolf/man closed his eyes.
"She knows." He said, almost bowing his head.
If he didn't look so tired, I'd have been mad at him, but in a weird way I understood the worry. I didn't particularly want to die for some government coverup that there were werewolves that existed, but I feared that may be the only answer present.
"How's she taking it?" The other man asked, sounding more irate than before.
"Quite well actually." He asked eyeing me considerably. "Either that or she's in shock, so it's the calm before the storm." He said shrugging as if the other man could see, or as if he didn't care one way or another.
"Well, figure out which it is by the time I get there. I don't want to be hauling a crazy lady back to headquarters." The gruff man said.
"Understood." The man named Adam said, before he hung up the phone, and I got the crazy sense that we were utterly alone again.
I suppose this just meant I couldn't scream out for help to the other man on the phone and somehow hope the police were listening to the call, before I was kidnapped. But that was crazy thinking as I knew, paranoid to be exact, and I felt that this was not as bad a situation as I thought it would be.
"Should I be worried about your acceptance of my nature?" He asked simply.
I admit I was shocked. I figured he'd do more than just simply ask me.
"If I answer, how will you know if I speak true or not?" I asked defiantly.
His eyes which just registered in my brain as having changed from bright yellow to a deep blue, darkened beneath the cool glow of the moon.
"If you have to ask that, then I guess I cannot trust you and if I can't trust you, I can't let you go back to your life." He said ominously, seeming to double in size right before my eyes.
It didn't take much for me to realize that he wasn't joking and I'd best watch my step. He was not ordinary, and he was lethal.
"You need not worry. If I'm still talking to you, which I am, and initiated conversation while you were a wolf, which I did, it pretty much means I'm not scared, delusional or hysterical." I said, making sure I covered each avenue that would warrant him to think he had to take away my life.
He stared at me a moment, before he nodded, then moved past me. I turned to watch him pass, and felt the energy practically rolling off of him and swallowed. Dangerous. Was the only word that came to mind. And when he turned back to look at me, my heart skipped a beat. He was handsome as well. I thought in shock. They always show werewolves in movies as being too ugly or bulky characters, but he was lean, muscled and turning to me with that long mane of hair cloaking him in shadows, made him anything but a stereotypical werewolf.
"Should I lead the way, or would you like the honors?" He asked in a formal manner, which I realized he'd been speaking mostly since he first made his phone contact.
Feeling rather sheepish, I cleared my throat for courage.
"Since I have no recollection of how I got out here, it means I have no clue how to get back." I said, shrugging and feigning indifference. "You said you could smell your way to my cabin, so use your nose wolf-boy." I said, smirking at him.
He raised an eyebrow, and a slow, stunning smile split across his face. His eyes twinkled at me in the darkness, and I had to wonder why I felt myself liking him, despite his rather shady attitude.
"Ah, I remember you mentioning sleepwalking as a wholly deplorable adjective." He said, nodding wisely, before moving on.
"That's one way of putting it." I mumbled under my breath and followed him.
As he walked ahead of me, I wondered how he was still silent on his feet, though he had shoes on as well as me. I also wondered how in the world he could change with clothes on. My curiosity was simply bursting at the seems, but none of it would be satisfied. A few minutes later we walked into the clearing in front of my cabin and my mouth dropped open.
"What is it?" He asked looking at me concerned.
"We were only a little ways away from it all this time!?" I asked incredulous.
The wolf/man rolled his eyes and continued walking, mumbling something like I thought you saw someone with a gun. That I found to be just as incredulous to hear as my cabin was to see. It was soo close.
"And what do you mean, you thought I saw someone with a gun?" I asked, catching up to him. "Do you think someone is out there?" I questioned pulling him to a halt.
He yanked the arm I'd grabbed ahold of out of my hand and raised his hand to my face. I began to take a step back, before the first stroke of soft fingers touched my skin.
"Be at peace, brave woman. I did not mean to cause you fear." He said, looking me directly in the eyes.
I nodded, looking up at him, feeling suddenly surrounded by who he was and wondered what he had been doing out in the woods. I'd not realized I had spoken aloud, until he answered.
"I was taken and dumped out there by a rival. They thought me dead after they beat me, and drugged me. Luckily I was able to change into a wolf after they left and most of it has healed." He explained. "However, I do believe I managed to retain a fair amount of blood in my hair I'd love to get out." He said, delicately touching his scalp.
"Why didn't you just jump into a stream to wash it out, or a river?" I asked, reaching up to touch his hair, but as my fingers brushed it, he moved away.
"Simply because I could not afford the time to stop and worry over something so small. I need to get back to civilization." He said, moving off to the porch of the cabin.
"Hold on. I never said you could go inside." I said, grabbing his hand.
Again he yanked it away and moved away from me. As he looked at me, I got a bad feeling.
"Why do you not want me to touch you?" I asked, stepping back from him, but keeping a wary eye on him.

Adam watched as the blind trust in him he'd seen in her so far began to waver. He hated to give her doubt, especially since he wanted nothing more than to hear her talk or sass him with one hand on her hip as she had been doing, but if she kept touching him, he wasn't sure how long he could keep the wolf at bay. He was hungry, tired, and thirsty. He hadn't lied when he had said, he'd run for days to get to civilization. It was imperative. Lives were at stake as well as his company his family had worked so hard to build. But here in the wilderness, where he was born, he could feel the night calling his name as well. That was what he needed to escape from, and something told him that she would provide a most helpful escape. Shaking his head, he turned back to business at hand.
"I am a werewolf, what more reason do you need?" He asked, darkly.
"I knew you were a werewolf from the beginning and I thought dogs liked to be petted?" She said, confused.
If she hadn't looked so sweet trying to figure it out, he might have snapped at her for comparing him to a dog. Instead, he guided her to sit down on the porch and sat beside her. Looking at his watch, he knew Guilan would be there shortly and his time with her would be at an end.
"My dear lady, I am hungry." He said, stretching the word out with all the longing he needed for food.
It was time for him to hunt. The woman looked at him, but said nothing.
"I may look like a man and I may be civil now, but if I don't eat, drink or in some way replenish myself soon, I will not be responsible for my actions." He said, looking at the full quarter of the moon overhead.
"So, if you don't get food, you'll eat me?" She said, sounding reasonably afraid as it was what he implied, only he'd just realized he'd meant devour her in a wholly different sense.
The smell of lilies, and forest made him think of laying her to the ground and losing himself in the paradise that was her for the rest of the night. But he reigned that crazy thought in. He could hear the helicopter now, and he knew he would miss her for whatever crazy reason.
"No," He said deciding on truth, as he stood up and brushed off his pants. "I'm afraid if you keep touching me the way you have been, I'll ravish you." He said, so casually and calmly. All of it belying the need clawing through him. For food, for water, for her.
Adam risked a glance back and saw her eyes widened in fear, regrettable, but oh so sweet was a glimmer of his same desire reflected in her eyes, which was good enough for him. The helicopter had landed.
"Well, fare thee well my good lady and may the moon keep you safe as she has been." He said turning to walk away.
"Farewell, Adam." I whispered watching him fade into the darkness.
I waited a good fifteen minutes after Adam left, before going into my cabin. The rotors were so loud I was surprised noone had come to check out the noise yet, and if they didn't leave soon, I feared they would. As I tried to calm down, the sounds of the helicopter were lifted and began to fade away into a night that was beyond bizarre. In the silence of my lodge again, I went into the living room and flopped on the sofa covering my face with my hands. Taking deep breaths, I could still here the deep cadence of his voice, and the intensity which was the man. Finally when I stopped trembling, I found myself exhausted again and figured sleep would be best as the first had been interrupted. I went upstairs and checked every room, before taking a long hot shower. Combing out my hair, I tried to figure out how I had ended up sleepwalking into the middle of the forest, when I had never sleepwalked a day in my life prior to that. Braiding my hair, my mentally exhausted brain began shutting down and I decided it was time for bed. As I curled up under my comforter and let the question drop into a void for later contemplation, I prayed that I'd not find myself sleep walking again anytime soon.